Secrets hurt

Ch 1

Dick stiffened, taking a step back from his father figure. He'd heard this before unfortunately... his father berating him for something he deemed unacceptable.

This time however, things seemed a bit different. It wasn't what Dick had or hadn't done this time... it was him. He was the one who was unacceptable in Bruce's eyes.

"Get out," Bruce finally growled, his voice a steely calm.

"O-of the cave?" Dick asked timidly, any fight he had in him draining away, being replaced by stone cold fear. He was being abandoned again...

"Get out of my life," Bruce replied, completely oblivious to the way Dick's hands were trembling. "Gotham doesn't need Robin, and this family doesn't need you."

Dick stumbled back as if he'd been slapped, tears stinging his eyes. "Bruce," he tried to reason.

"GET OUT!" Bruce shouted, his jaw clenched, hands balled into fists.

Dick turned and ran to the zeta tubes, stumbling as he chanced a look back at the man who'd practically raised him.

The light of the zeta tube flashed and Dick stumbled out into the alley, pulling his light jacket tighter around himself to fend off the chill in the Gotham air... he should've thought to grab something warmer before he'd left. Surely Bruce would've at least allowed him to grab some of his things from his room.

Dick rested his back against the rough brick wall of the alley, sliding down to the ground and hugging his knees tightly to his chest.

His thoughts were running wild. Where was he supposed to go? He could ask Barry or Clark to give him a place to stay... but they had their own families. Besides, he wouldn't want to bring Bruce's wrath down upon them.

He really was too young to be out on his own. Not to mention he hadn't even thought to bring any sort of weapon before sending himself to downtown Gotham.

'Not a smart move Grayson,' he thought to himself.

A quiet sob slipped past his lips, hot tears running down his cheeks.

Bruce was supposed to always be there. He'd promised...

The sound of shuffling footsteps entering the alley made Dick's head snap up.

He shot to his feet when he saw the man standing in front of him.

"Dick dodged the first swipe aimed for his face, ducking under his attacker's arm and running for the slightly busier street. He heard a whooshing and felt pain flash in his ear as it was nicked by a blade before he weaved himself into the crowd.

—

Dick's eyes drooped, his shoulders hunched from fatigue. He stumbled unwittingly into another alley, bringing a hand up to feel his bleeding ear. The blade must've been coated in something he suddenly realized.

The feeling of cold metal cutting into his back brought him back from his lazy spiral of thought.

"Your time has come," a voice hissed from behind him.

Dick didn't dare to move, his mind and body not working together well enough to formulate an escape plan.

"There's no use trying to escape us... It is your fate after all," the man whispered in Dick's ear.

Dick felt the blade that had been digging into his back shift, the pressure lessening before the blade was gone altogether.

As soon as the blade was gone Dick was moving, running despite the fog in his mind.

"Oh how I love the thrill of the chase," the emotionless voice of the man echoed, following Dick as he ran and chilling him to the bone.

—

The zeta tube was just one street away. Dick fixed his eyes on the entrance to the alley he'd first seen the man in. If he could get to the zeta tube and have it take him to the Batcave... or anywhere. He'd be safe...

Dick wrenched the door to the old phone booth open, activating the scanner and typing in the code that would take him back home... home to an angry Bruce... but that was better than whatever the maniac chasing him had planned.

The sharp pinch of a syringe plunging into his neck was accompanied by a cackling laugh. "Your time has come."

Blackness consumed Dick's vision and he fell limp at his captor's feet, the words "Robin B01 access denied," going unheard.

His time had come.