When Worlds Collide

115) My Dudes Are Not Okay

 -Bruce POV-

Bruce sat by the bed of the unconscious child of the underworld, his brain painfully silent. He wanted to plan their next steps, but it felt like there was nothing left.

They had failed. He had failed.

They went into the raid foolishly confident. They believed they could save all 10 of the missing New Olympians... but they failed.

The heart monitor's steady beeps began to speed up.

"For the love of the gods, make it stop."

Bruce chuckled lightly. "You're just like your brother," he said as he clicked a button to mute the machine.

Hazel slowly opened her eyes, looking around hazily until her eyes locked onto her brother's dad.

"Hey Bruce," she said slowly, face showing confusion. Damian's team had gotten her out of the light container while she was unconscious, so she had no idea she had even been rescued.

Bruce smiled slightly at the girl, though he knew it didn't reach his eyes. "Hi Hazel. How are you feeling?"

The girl shook her head slightly, looking back up at the ceiling. "Stiff and tired, but I'll be okay."

Bruce nodded. "What do you remember?"

"We were knocked out during the fight, and then the next thing I knew I was in a box made of light. Nico was next to me in his own box, but... they moved me. I... I wouldn't stop fighting my restraints so they kept me drugged."

"Your blood work showed that you had more meds in your systems than the others," Bruce said, running a hand through his hair. "It took Nico about a week to start fully getting his demigod instincts back when he stopped taking meds after the Black Mask incident. You'll be okay."

"How are the others?"

Bruce was quiet for a long moment. "They'll be okay."

Hazel looked over to him, fear in her eyes. "What aren't you telling me?"

Bruce stared at the ground, the exhaustion from the past week and a half weighing on him like a ton of bricks. "We raided all the bases and got 9 of you out... but..." Bruce's voice died in his throat.

Hazel forced herself to sit up, turning to fully look at the man. "But what? What happened?"

"Nico wasn't there," Bruce finally said, the words feeling like a stake to the heart. "He wasn't... we don't know where he is."

Hazel stared at him with wide eyes, slowly shaking her head. "No. No, we need to go get him. He has to be there. I was— he was with  me. We talked. He's there, you just didn't look hard enough-"

Bruce shook his head. "We searched every base top to bottom. He's gone. They took him somewhere— or maybe it was you they moved— but either way, he... he wasn't in any of the bases."

Hazel, despite Bruce trying to keep her in bed, pushed past and and ran out of the room. She was in one of the medbay rooms in the cave, so it wasn't hard for her to find the others. Bruce followed after her.

The girl's eyes scanned the room, immediately landing on the children of Apollo. "You need to heal me. Get this stuff out of my system."

Will didn't say anything, just stared at the floor, Kayla keeping an arm wrapped around him.

"Hazel, you know that we can't-" Austin began to say, but Hazel wasn't having it.

"No, find a way!" She said, her breathing picking up. "My brother could be dead for all I know and I can't even tell. I can't feel him— and can't even feel the people in this room. I need to know. He's... He's all I have left. I can't— I need  to know." 

Bruce set a hand gently on her shoulder, the girl turning and wrapping him in a tight hug, her body shaking with sobs as she clutched onto him. The man immediately hugged her back, understanding the helpless feeling she was experiencing more than she could know.

"We'll get him back," Bruce said quietly to her, feeling his chest tighten. "We'll find him and get him back."

Frank approached them slowly, setting a hand on the girl's shoulder. Hazel looked up and him, releasing Bruce and going to her boyfriend who wrapped her in a tight hug, leading her off to the side.

Bruce looked at the group they had assembled and he knew the look in their eyes.

They felt helpless.

It took a lot to make an assortment of super heroes, demigods, and vigilantes feel truly helpless, and yet, there they were. They had been so confident that they were gonna get everyone back in that raid, but now, it felt like they had no where to go.

It had taken them 10 days to get the leads that lead them to those bases, so who knew how long it would take to find wherever Nico was being held.

Bruce looked a breath in, letting it out slowly before looking to the group. "Everyone, go to sleep."

"What?" Damian said, looking angry. "No, we need to keep looking-"

"Everyone here is exhausted and we won't find Nico if we work ourselves into deliriousness," Bruce said, leaving no room for arguments. "No one enters the cave until 10am tomorrow morning."

He could tell the group wanted to fight him on it, but they kept their mouths shut. As they slowly made their way out of the cave, he noticed Dick hadn't moved— his eldest was just staring at Jason's old Robin costume from across the room.

"It's happened again," he whispered, his voice hollow and hopeless.

Bruce didn't respond for a long moment because he didn't know what there was to say. He could tell Dick that it wasn't true— that Nico was fine and that everything would go back to how it was— but he didn't want to lie and he couldn't know for sure. Nico could be dead for all they knew, and there was nothing they could about it.

"Nico once told me it would take a lot more than death for us to lose him," Bruce said quietly, a small smile pulling at his lips at the memory. "He said he would haunt us."

Dick chuckled lightly, though it was laced in a quiet sadness. "Sounds like him."

Bruce nodded, stepping up to stand next to his son. "He's alive. He has  to be alive. Nico is stronger than we can ever understand and he wouldn't go down without a fight."

Dick nodded, finally looking away from the ruined suit and to his father. "Plus, we haven't had any paranormal activity around the house. I think Nico would drop a chandelier if he were haunting us— he's not one to be subtle about that stuff."

Bruce laughed, clasping Dick on the shoulder. "Exactly. So, until a chandler drops on our heads, we know he's alive. We trust that he's strong and just waiting for us to track him down." 

A/N: hehehehehehehehehe

Vote. Comment. Tell me if you missed the constant semi-cliff hangers that I did the entire end of the last book (spoiler alert, I'm going it again).