Ghost King Meets Batman

You're Not My Uncle

[Edited April 17, 2023]

Nico had spent a week at the Wayne manor now. The prank score was up to:

Nico- 5
Dick- 5
Damian- 4
Jason- 3
Tim- 3

After the gala, Nico was too tired to use the centaur figurine and he had still yet to find the perfect moment. He just hoped that he would get the chance before the prank war ended and it was too late. Nico had grown rather close to his new family, and they accepted him. This begged the question of whether or not he would ever be able to tell them his secret without violating his oath. He had seen what had happened to some of the people who had violated their oaths and it wasn't pretty. He had no desire to meet the same fate. Because of this, he had spoken once more with Diana and they discussed their world and if he should tell Bruce.

Diana seemed adamant that he should. She assured him that Bruce would still accept him, but Nico wasn't so sure. Nico couldn't tell him outright, that was an invitation to be smote down where he stood. No, he would have to help Bruce guess it for himself. It was a good place to start. If he changed his mind about telling him, there would be no harm- no foul.

Things were not completely great, however. He and Damian had gotten into an argument about how unproductive Nico seemed to be. Nico had argued that there wasn't really anything that he needed to be accomplishing right now, but Damian wasn't hearing it. The only biological Wayne child seemed to think that self-improvement was always on the to-do list and that any minute that you weren't working towards bettering yourself in some way was a minute wasted. 

While Nico could see the appeal of that sort of thinking, it didn't seem realistic. He typically picked up skills and hobbies when the mood struck him or it became necessary for survival. For instance, he had picked up a butterfly knife twirling in a week because the thought it looked cool but hadn't touched one in almost a month. He hadn't touched a sword before he'd gotten to camp but now he practiced almost religiously, sneaking in drills when he would wake up from nightmares in the middle of the night.

 To end the argument, Damian said something about how he was wasting his life and Nico stormed off. Granted it was said in a moment of passion and Nico wasn't sure if Damian meant it or not, but it still hurt and made Nico wonder if Damian had always thought that. Did they all think he was wasting his life? Sure, Damian didn't know that he had turned the tide of the war that could have ended the world. If he knew that, things might be different. Even as he tried to convince himself that Damian was wrong, he found himself believing it.

After the fight, Nico hadn't said a word, he just turned his back on the boy and walked out onto the street. He needed to blow off some steam, so he was going to go monster hunting. The demigod figured he'd been in the area long enough that the monsters had to be closing in on his location. He might as well kill them off now instead of letting them track him back to the manor and causes problems for him there. His logic had seemed reasonable at the time.

Every time he thought about what Damian had said, Nico found himself becoming angry all over again. He hadn't even thought he was going to live long enough for self-reflection or improvement to mean anything. What did it matter how many other skills he had picked up during his life if he wasn't going to make it past his teens? He'd always been living life in survival mode without time for participating in anything that wasn't geared toward his continued existence.

Nico was so absorbed in his anger that he didn't realize that he was being followed until someone grabbed him. The person was 3 times bigger than Nico and had the advantage of surprise. He didn't stand a chance in such close quarters and without the ability to reach his weapons. Nico tried to fight back but a damp cloth was held over his nose. Eventually, he had to breathe and he passed out quickly after that. He really shouldn't have gone out alone. What was he thinking? This was Gotham, not New York. This city came with its own breed of monsters.