"S-something's not right," Dick mumbled. "This... this should be the way out..."
The two stood in the dark room for a moment, taking in everything around them.
"I think there's something over there," Bruce said, pointing across the room.
He started in the direction of what appeared to be a door, half dragging the acrobat along with him.
Dick stumbled, clutching at his chest as he curled in on himself.
A buzzing pulse filled the room, and he fell to his knees.
Black electrum beaded on his skin as it was pulled from his body by what seemed like a magnetic pulse of some kind.
Dick cried out, drops of electrum flying from his skin. He grabbed his head, smearing the black liquid across his face in his futile attempt at making the pain stop.
The buzzing increased in volume, Dick's screams ringing out as he collapsed to the floor. He curled in on himself, body shuddering as the black metal continued to roll off of his skin in rivulets.
Bruce was at his side in a moment, not quite knowing what to do.
Dick's pain filled eyes turned toward his father figure, swirling a mix of gold and blue, black tears streaming down his face.
"It was a trap," Bruce mumbled.
Dick whimpered, lurching to the side and coughing up more of the black liquid.
Bruce panicked, at a complete loss for what to do.
Dick reached out a hand, black oozing from his fingertips. He grasped feebly for his father figure, taking in shuddering breaths.
Bruce sunk to the floor, pulling his son into his lap. He carded his fingers through Dick's damp black hair, involuntarily starting to count the acrobat's ragged breaths when he fell to lean more heavily against him.
Dick's whole world was lit up with pain. He barely recognized that Bruce was next to him, could barely hear the words the man was speaking to him.
He watched numbly as the electrum dripped from his skin, unable to do anything as the color of it shifted from black to red. He knew he'd already lost too much blood...
Everything was fuzzy. He could vaguely hear the screeching and clicking sounds of the talons, and he thought he could hear Bruce fighting them as well... strange... he hadn't realized the man had left his side.
Dick tried to call out for his mentor, but what came out instead was a mouthful of blood and electrum.
His vision was tunneling rapidly.
Where was Bruce?
—
The Batmobile pulled into the cave, the autopilot feature bringing it to a stop and shutting it off.
For a moment nothing happened. Tim, Jason, Damian, and Alfred all stared at the car, waiting for Bruce or Dick to hop out... but they didn't.
Alfred, the sensible one, rushed to the driver's door, taking a deep breath before opening it.
Bruce's suit was shredded, dried blood caking on his skin in places, fresh blood pooling in others.
"Master Jason, I need a gurney," he called, looking over his shoulder for a moment.
Alfred turned his gaze back to the car, heart skipping a beat when he saw Dick slumped in the passenger seat.
"Make that two gurneys."
—
Jason and Tim were working on stitching and cleaning Bruce's wounds when he stirred.
"No," he mumbled, trying to push their hands away. "H-help Nightwing."
"He has Pennyworth with him," Damian tutted, slapping Bruce's hands away from the wounds his brothers were currently working on.
Bruce mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, his eyes falling shut once again.
Damian's gaze shifted over to where Alfred was bent over Dick's unmoving body, already midway through a blood transfusion and who knows what else.
'He'll be fine,' Damian reassured himself. 'He has to be.'
—
Bruce awoke to the sound of stifled sobs. He managed to pry his eyes open, the rest of his body not seeming to want to work with him at the moment.
Dick was sat hunched over Bruce's bed, his arms wrapped tightly around himself, tears dripping down his face.
Bruce tried to gather up the energy to say something... Dick looked like he might just keel over and die at any moment after all...
"All my fault," Dick mumbled, his fingernails digging into the skin of his arms.
Bruce managed to twitch one of his hands, lifting it and resting it on his son's shoulder.
Dick flinched away from the touch, sucking in a startled breath.
"You should go lie down," Bruce said, his voice scratchy.
"I'll be fine," Dick mumbled.
"Dick..." Bruce trailed off, not quite knowing what to say.
"I don't want to talk about them," Dick said quietly, sensing the topic Bruce was wanting to bring up. "I... I just want to forget that it ever happened."
"You know that's not going to help," Bruce reasoned.
"I don't care," Dick mumbled, shocking Bruce by how defeated he sounded. "I want it to go away," he whimpered.
Bruce wished he knew what to say... how to help his son. He could see the sweat gathered on Dick's forehead, the pallor of his skin, and the pained clench of his jaw... but that wasn't the real problem... no, the real problem was so much more complicated than something an ibuprofen and a nap could solve...
A moment of silence passed between the two.
"I-I just wanted to tell you goodbye," Dick mumbled, looking away.
"What?" Bruce asked, trying to sit up, but eventually giving up when his body lit up in pain. "Y-you can't."
Dick gave Bruce a sad smile. "I don't think you'll be able to stop me," he said. "The court isn't going to stop until I'm dead... so... so I can't stay here... knowing they'll do anything, hurt anyone to get to me."
"Please," Bruce pleaded.
Dick stood, giving Bruce another sad smile before he turned and walked away.
YOU ARE READING
Secrets hurt
FanfictionAfter Dick Grayson finds himself on his own, stripped of his title as Robin and his position in his family he drops off the grid for years. When he returns things are far from what they used to be.
