A Twist of Fate

Chapter 21

Warning: Slight mentions and implied torcher and abuse. Anything of this triggering or anything else, you can go to the unitalics and read on.

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Dick couldn't see anything but empty darkness. He couldn't feel any of his body parts. His mouth was drier than a bone. His legs couldn't hold him any longer, leaving him dangling by the chains with only his arms. But he could hear each crack. Each mocking tone. Each slap. Each and every punishment his Uncle deemed worthy.

His chin was lifted to meet those haunting yellow eyes, "Now Gray Son, will you behave?"

Dick didn't have the strength to speak, to say he'd rather die then do what they say. All he did was gather the blood in his mouth and spit it the few inches on to the man's face. There wasn't a reason at first but then the demon's eyes flashed brighter in anger. The man's gloved hand came up and faster then anything he'd seen clocked him in the face.

Dick's eyes flash open, breaths coming in short pants. His frame was trembling and phantom pain shot all over his body. Groaning when he realized that there was real pain in his head. A hand grabbed his shoulder. Instantly he jerked back slamming his already pounding head on the wall behind him.

Dick groaned holding his head. A few seconds later something cold laid over the spot his hand was. Looking up Dick saw those same damn green eyes he couldn't stop thinking about. Wally held a plate of food, a water glass, and what looked to be a large bag of chips. Wally sat down the plate on the bed in front of him, the glass of water on the side table, before finally taking the bag of chips out of his mouth.

"I also have migraine meds if you still have a migraine." Wally declares softly, "You've been out for nearly twenty four hours. Haley told us to take you to Nuna after you passed out. She said the sickness was like extreme exhaustion. That you needed food and sleep to get back to your old self."

Dick just stared at Wally opening his mouth to speak but winced. His brain wouldn't translate changing languages. He gave Wally a look.

"Can't speak English right now?" Wally asked.

Dick nodded.

Wally grinned, "Then I'll talk. We got ourselves blown up kind of." Wally saw Dick's look and smiled, "No it wasn't our fault... entirely. We confronted the thief and he breathed fire! The enter warehouse had ammo and grenades in it. As you can guess it went all up in one big explosion. We lost the thief."

Dick hummed along smirking.

"Stop giving me that look!" Wally growled, "It wasn't my fault this time!"

Dick rolled his eyes in an exaggerated way and gave him a 'really' look.

"Not entirely!"

Dick herumfed in disbelief.

"Just eat your food." Wally grouched.

It wasn't until the next day that the train started to move again to it's last stop. Dick had also convinced, slowly with a heavy accent, that he was fine and wanted to walk around. Wally couldn't say no for long. He marveled at Renegade's thick accent he couldn't seem to hide anymore. It made his voice deeper but harder to understand as he slurred words together if he talked too fast.

Wally took him back to Roy and Kelder's shared room. To Wally's surprise everyone was there talking. They all stopped the moment the door opened. They all looked weary until they noticed it was only Wally and Renegade.

"Re-Dan!" Magan caught herself, "How are you feeling?"

Dick smiled at the martian and said slowly, "I've been better. Can't really speak english well to begin with and right now it's worse than bad."

Artemis smirked, "So Russian isn't your first language."

They had all notice that the Russian accent was now blended with another accent.

Dick sighed, "I don't know my first language." He admitted, "I grew up with Romani, Romanian, and Russian. I don't know which I learn first. All I know is that I knew those three since the beginning of time. I pull Russian more because it's more common of a language and harder to find a Russian thief, when it isn't a Russian thief."

Dick sat down, leaning back, closing his eyes. He was tired but he couldn't have lasted another minute in that small room. To think that he was now seeking at least some social interaction with people in only a week and a half had Dick smiling to himself.

"We are glad to see you are on your feet." Kelder told him, "Do you have any ideas who could be the thief?"

Dick hummed thinking. The person he was thinking of hit all the marks. Pulling out his phone he started tapping. It didn't take long for him to bring up the video and turn it around for the others to watch. The video started off simple enough until Superman arrived.

"What did he just do to Superman?" Artemis asked.

"Took Superman's powers. Like absorbed but since his power comes from him it wasn't taken away forever. Parasite, the thief, does not have it for long. Maybe twenty four hours at most. He just needs to touch you." Dick explained, "It would also cause people extreme exhaustion and the loss of any talents they've had for a time. Hence, getting sick. It all fits. And my loss of being able to comprehend languages that I've handled nearly all my life. Even with a headache I would have been able too."

Wally looked at the thief with interest, "Wouldn't we have seen him? He's not really easy for him to hide." Wally had a point. Parasite was large, purple, and looked like a rock.

"Mask. Charm. Or something else. Either way, Parasite is here in the crew and we need to find out who." Dick stated.

"We?" Roy asked.

Dick glared, "The bastard took my aerobic skills to steal and who knows what else. I want vengeance at least some. Maybe lay him up in a bed for a few days."

"Um, dude, that was dark." Wally told him.

Dick raised a brow, "Have you even read or seen the videos of what Batman does to his villains? Some end up in Critical Care for months at a time. I just want to ring his bell like he did mine."

They all looked a bit confused as they comprehended his words.

"That seems... fair." Artemis hummed.

Kelder nodded, "Now where do we start."