Brothers Until Time Shatters

1

Dick turned, his eyes flashing dangerously. "Hello, Talia."

Talia al-Ghul walked from the shadows and smirked. "Hello, Dick. So nice to see you."

Dick, once again bloody and beaten at the hands of the League, smirked. "Is this about the picture I sent you of Damian wearing that Hawaiian shirt with a green smoothie? Because if so, I should warn you that that was mostly the Titans fault."

Talia rolled her eyes. "Why I ever entrusted you with my son, I'll never know."

Dick grinned at her even more. "Because I'm a better parent than you, Bruce, and Ra's combined. And because I'm the only one willing to deal with Damian's mood swings."

Talia frowned. "What mood swings?"

With a sigh, Dick said, "Talia, you do realize that Damian isn't the ten-year old boy you left with me, right? It's been five years. Damian's is a teen in the throes of puberty. Although, something about his genetics must be good because he definitely looks like he could be teen model. Pretty sure he's never had a bout of acne ever. Lucky."

Talia blinked. "I mean, of course I knew that he would grow up, I just . . . Anyway, that's not the point. Aren't you curious why you're here?"

Dick shook his head. "Your bouncers over there seemed to make it very clear."

In a bout of rage at Dick's cavalierness, Talia grabbed his jaw and yanked him towards her. "Let me rephrase. What. Are. You. Looking. For."

"I believe the proper grammar would be 'for what are you looking.' Dangling prepositions and all that."

Talia slammed him backwards. "Forget it. I'll get it out of you. One way or another."

Whatever Talia had expected him to say or do, it certainly wasn't suddenly breaking out into One Direction's "One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks)."

She slapped him. "Never mind. Just wipe him. And make it permanent."

A stab of fear shot through Dick. "Talia, if you do that Damian will have no one. Absolutely no one."

Talia snorted derisively. "You act like I care. Damian failed. I have no time to deal with a failure."

"Failed? Failed at what? Being your puppet?"

"He's no longer useful. I thought you would get tired and he would be dumped on his father within a few weeks. There he would've learned how to actually be useful to me. But with you, what did you teach him? The fact that he can adopt a cow, fix the name 'Bat' to the front of it, and use it to fight crime? You've turned him into a disgrace and a dishonor to his lineage."

Dick looked affronted. "I'll have you know that Bat-Cow is a great crime fighter! And he is not a dishonor, not to his father's side."

"His father's side? His father barely acknowledges his existence. However, I'll cut you a deal. You've always been smart. Figure out a way to put a fail safe in your mind before ny men wipe you in . . . 5 seconds, and I'll allow you to keep it."

Dick spit in her face. "You're really awful, you know that?"

Talia smirked. "Yes, yes I do."

As the men set up the machines, Dick raced through his memories, finally settling on one he knew he could hold onto during the process. "Dami, Jay, I hope you can figure this out." Then the world went black.
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Hey guys! This is more of a prologue to the rest of the story, so my other chapters will be longer! Happy reading!