Always Alternate (YJ Depths AU)

2. A Father's Grief

(If the helmet is on, he's referred to as Talon. If the helmet is off, Dick's referred to as Renegade)

Third Person POV

".....innocent!" 

When Batman heard that his world stopped shaking and spinning and he let out a shaky, low breath that nobody but Superman heard. He was free. He could go back to Earth and see all of his sons, make sure they were okay, and help them with the Invasion that threatened the teens.

As Green Lantern flew them back that night, there was a nagging, heavy feeling in Batman's gut that told him when he got home something would be horribly wrong.  His eyes narrowed as he straightened again. It would be fine, whatever it was would be okay.

Of course, nothing stopped him from the scheming that ran through his mind. What if the aliens had succeeded? What if the teens were prisoners? What if he'd left a task too large in their hands? But he shook it off, don't worry about it. Whatever comes will come.

Yet nothing could prevent him from immediately noticing the team's incredibly sad looks, and when M'gann came through first wearing a black dress his heart stopped. They each filed in. "W-what's the verdict?" Batman looked over his third son. Tim looked as though he hadn't slept in days and Barbara put a comforting arm around the younger boy, tears in her own eyes. "Innocent," Superman said, and they expected cheers but there were watery smiles and nothing else.

Artemis and Wally stood at the back of the group with M'gann and Connor, looking even sadder. But what caught Batman really off guard was that Jason stood on the other side of Tim, hugging his brother into his side. That's when Wonder Woman spoke, "Where's Nightwing?" Batman's attention was immediately diverted. Where was his eldest? Even with everything going on, Dick was the type to show up anyways and hug him. 

Nobody said anything. "Where is he?" Batman growled, panic creeping into his voice. Tim let out a strangled cry in the back of his throat as M'gann cried into Connor. Wally put an arm around Artemis and his voice was raspy. "He-Dick's..." his voice cracked and he swallowed. "Dick's dead," Bruce froze. "What?" he asked, sure he'd heard him wrong. There was a pleading tone in his voice that made the Leaguers look at him with pity.

"Dick's dead," Jason said with no contempt or mocking in his voice. Batman stood motionless before walking out of the room and rushing to the grotto in time to see the hologram of Robin shift into Nightwing. "No..." he muttered, walking towards the hologram but seeing nothing to convince him it was a prank. The words engraved into the base made Batman rip off his cowl and sink to his knees. He wasn't Batman, the Dark Knight, the dark paragon of justice.

This was Bruce Wayne, a father who'd lost another person he loved.

Nightwing

Dick Grayson.

May he soar forever high in the clouds.

"Dick..." he whispered.

----

"Father," Kaldur greeted as they entered the room, facing Black Manta. Talon walked with an air of power, straight-backed and head raised high, yet when he entered the room he lowered his head in an act of mutual respect before resuming his stance, locking his hands behind his back in the typical authoritative position.

"Kaldur, welcome back," Manta said. He glanced at Talon with a slight air of fear. "Talon, pleased to be of service to you." Talon nodded, and his voice was foreign, thanks to Dick's ability to mimic foreign accents with scary accuracy. It seemed Russian, border lining on another one, maybe French, although it was actually mixed with Dick's actual accent, the Romani one, to make his voice a bit deeper and his vowels were not always pronounced the way Russians, French or Romani did, he mixed them. The mask also disfigured his voice, although his words were still legible.