Red War

Part Six

-Dick's POV-

I slid Athena inside the vents with me. Her body came forward, landing between my legs, her back against my chest. I heard the pounding of feet underneath us. We both stilled. I wrapped my arms tightly around Athena and pressed her to my chest. My wound screamed in protest, but I instinctively held on. We both held our breaths.

Eventually, we heard the feet stomp down the hallway. My arm seized and I was forced to let Athena out of my embrace. "We got to keep moving," she whispered, "but first, let me see your arm." I heard her click on her night vision. I followed. It was pitch black inside the vents and very cold.

Athena crept closer. She was suddenly armed with medical supplies. With her dagger, she ripped apart my Nomex. "Hey, that's expensive," I joked. Her face stayed focused unfortunately. Athena's thin fingers trickled down my arm like little raindrops. She removed her gloves and her cold fingers tickled my skin.

She first began by cleaning my wound. Then she made quick work of patching my arm up. I stared into her face the entire time. Athena pulled the stitches tightly. "Stop staring at me, Grayson," she growled, refusing to take her gaze off of my arm.

"I'm saved! Thank you doctor, I owe you my life," I said, patting my wound.

She put her finger to my lips. "Keep it down. You'll get us killed. Now let's get moving." I allowed Athena to take the lead. She crawled ahead of me, her back rubbing against the top of the vent. It was a really tight squeeze. My face was constantly facing Athena's ass, not that I was complaining exactly. We were moving on our hands and feet, our knees slipping on the metal. Surprisingly, we didn't make that much noise.

We inched our way forward for a while. I wasn't sure whether it was just the thickness of the metal vents, the echoing sound of our knees sliding, or maybe we were finally at peace, but it was silent for once. I wasn't sure if Athena had noticed it or not. She just pressed on, refusing to stop.

A blade popped through suddenly, nearly slicing through Athena's eye. I reached forward and grabbed her ankle, pulling her body into me again. Her eyes widened. Pounding sounded from below us.

In front of our bodies was a deep drop off. It was the end of the vents in the ceiling. The drop was at least ten feet. I looked over the edge as the pounding continued.

"Come on out, traitor," a deep, threatening voice called out from below, "you have no where to go." The voice was distorted, making it sound even more devilish. I held Athena even tighter.

She tensed in my arms. I could hear footsteps come closer and closer. More voices joined the main one, getting garbled up and sounding like satanic whispers. There must've been at least a hundred assassins underneath us now. Both of our heartbeats quickened. I glanced over my shoulder at the way we had came. Athena nodded at me and I slowly scooted us back.

"Nice try!" The voice screeched, sending their sword through again, nearly piercing my left butt cheek. I scooted myself around, pressing my back to the side of the vent and allowed Athena to face me on the other side. "Get down here, traitor, we don't want to kill you. Perhaps if you make this easy, we won't kill Nightwing."

We both looked at each other. The fact that the assassin used my cover name was a good sign. Although Ra's knew my identity, it seemed he didn't tell anyone else.

Athena ran her fingers through her hair, undoing her braid. A crease formed at the corner of her mouth. A sigh escaped her lips as she pressed her face into her hands. I wanted to lean forward and snatch her cold hands in mine. My fingers stayed frozen to my thighs.

She raised her head, her eyes locking on mine. I held her gaze. It was sad and fearful. Seeing such a look ripped me in half and tore at my insides. Whatever Ra's had done to her in that awful period of time...it had changed her. Destroyed her. Athena used to be so confident, so fearless. The world was hers and hers alone. But now...now she was so frightened. Her confidence had drained and now she seemed to be a slave to the world. A part of me had thanked Jason for what he did; Jason had, if only momentarily, brought back Athena Thomas. With him gone, I was scared that I couldn't do the same.