Brothers To The Bitter End

2

"No." Dick murmured around a mouth full of blood. He spat and repeated louder, "No. It's not possible."

Ra's al Ghul laughed at him. The boy was beaten, broken, mentally and physically. He was surprised it had taken this long. The 16 year old boy was surprisingly resilient. Good. "I assure you, Robin, that I am telling you the truth."

"But Batman can't have a son," Dick looked up at Ra's, his face a broken, bloody mess, one eye swollen shut. "He's already got . . . Enough."

Ra's smiled in an almost fatherly way. "People say that seeing is believing. Would you like to see the child?"

"Yes." Dick spat again, but Ra's took no insult. The boy had been badly beaten before he had even known Robin was on the premises. His guards had taken delight in beating the bird after they had captured him. Now the boy would require weeks, of not months, of healing before he could begin training.

"Send in Damian." Ra's told one of the guards in the room. The guard nodded and left. "Leave us." Ra's instructed the other guard, who obeyed immediately. Ra's pulled up a chair in front of Robin and watched him carefully, noting that the boy's wrists were also bloodied from his attempts to rip them from the bindings during his torture. Had the chair he was strapped to not been metal, the young hero would have undoubtedly smashed the chair to rid himself of his bindings.

"Why are you here, Dick?" Ra's asked, using the teen's first name now that the guards were gone.

Dick sighed and lifted his head, his eyes wandering aimlessly around the room, taking in the details of the room he'd been stuck in for the past 36 hours. "I'd heard . . . Rumors. About the boy. I wanted to know if they were true."

"And?"

"I'll wait until after I see the boy."

At that moment the guard knocked and walked in along with a young boy. Dick watched the boy as they walked in, noting anything that might look even remotely like Bruce. And there was a lot to note. The boy had black hair and face that looked like it was born to give orders, though he couldn't be more than 3 years old. There was a swagger to his walk that was surprising for one so young. But the thing Dick noticed the most were the eyes. Big and green, the color might not have been Bruce's, but Dick doubted there could be a more perfect match to his mentors eyes anywhere. Though the boy was young, his eyes already took in everything and seemed to know more than what he let on.

"You're a sorry sight." The boy spoke in a surprisingly high voice, though Dick didn't know why he expected anything else. The eyes had been so much like Bruce's that he supposed he'd expected the boy to have a Batman voice.

"You should see the other guys." Dick muttered, almost choking as more blood drained into his mouth.

"Thank you, Damian. That will be all." Ra's dismissed Damian without so much as a glance in his direction. Damian merely nodded and left with the guard in tow.

"Well?" Ra's asked once Damian had left.

"There's no question. Talia is his mother?"

"Yes."

"I thought the eye color was familiar." Dick mused.

"And now we come to the real reason you're still alive."

"Which is?"

Ra's leaned forward in his chair. "I want you to join us."

Dick laughed. "I'm your dreams."

Ra's held up a hand. "I want you to join us, but not for the reason you think. I want you to join for Damian's sake."

"Damian? What does he have to do with anything?"

"Damian is going to be the next heir to the League of Assassins. As a result, he is going to have to be trained harshly, dealt with harshly, and punished harshly. He needs to be a strong leader and will have to understand the consequences and role of a leader. However, I do not wish him to become hardened like his mother did. Talia believes that she should show no affection to the boy or it will make him weak. I am unable to show affection to him because I simply don't have the time. What I need is someone who's express purpose in being here is to teach Damian how to be human, to keep him in line, and to protect him, from both others and himself. There is no such person in my ranks, but who better than the person who, for all intents and purposes, is his brother?"

Dick just sat there in stunned silence. One part of him wanted to laugh in Ra's face and make a snarky comment. But the other part . . . The other part understood what Ra's was saying; even in the short time Dick had seen Damian, Ra's had dismissed him without a thought, like he was some kind of toy to be played with. And that made Dick want to protect the boy and show him what real humans did.

"There's no way out is there? I say yes, I'm stuck for life. I say no, I'm dead."

"I'm not asking you for life, Dick. I'm asking for, I don't know, a ten year stint? Just until the boy turns thirteen. By then he will have enough of a base to work from to become his own person. I know that sounds like a long time, but it's really not. Trust me, you won't regret it."
*******
Jason Todd was woken from a deep sleep by his cell phone ringing. He checked the clock. 3:24. Ugh. Didn't people understand that some people slept? And better still that he was grieving for his brother that would never return?

"Hello?" Jason asked groggily.

"Hey, Jaybird? Listen, I gotta be quick, cause it won't be long before they catch me. Look, it's all fake. I'm still alive Jay, and you won't believe where I am. I'm with the League of Assassins! Yeah! It's crazy I know, but I've got a good reason. Bruce has a kid. A biological son that I'm looking out for. But there's more. I think there's a way to take these guys out from the inside . . ." Dick paused for a moment and shouting could be heard in the background. "I gotta go, but remember I'm still on your side. But even more important remember this: I'm no longer Robin. Remember the name Renegade." And the line went dead.

Jason paused as he hung up on his end. He was suddenly glad that Dick had installed an instant recording device on his phone that recorded all his conversations. He smiled as he lay back down in bed. Tomorrow he would re-listen to the tape, but for now it was enough to know that his brother was alive. Dick was alive.