A Twist of Fate

Chapter 34

Dick felt weightless. He couldn't see anything or think of anything. It was like peace had washed over him for the first time in his life. He let himself drift. Not a care in the world for him to stress about. All at once his peace was shattered. Dick reached for it like it was a physical thing.

In reality he shot up with a gasp, pulling in breath after breath. His hands landed on something cold shocking him further to reality. Something licked his hand and he saw his new wolf pup laying in his lap. Dick picked up the pup petting him absently.

"What happened?"

Dick looked up to see that the rest of the team was in the same state as him. They looked confused and defensive.

"Try to remember." Batman told them helping the elder Martian, "It was a training exercise."

Dick thought back and remembered with a grimace.

The others glanced at him as they remembered too. He had sent them to their deaths. He had taken over as leader. And they had followed him without question. How each of them died for something that was pointless in the end. Dick slid off the slab of metal onto shaky feet.

The pup jumped down after him pawing at his leg. The action didn't register in Dick's mind. All he could feel was long repressed emotions. His fun laughs, charming smile, and even his unending energy was to make him forget all of the other things that lived inside. And right now, everything that he hated was coming to the surface.

"Renegade?"

Dick shot his head up to come face to face with Wally.

"You ok dude?"

Dick didn't dare say anything. He was either going to start crying or punch Wally. He wanted to do neither. He leaned back on the slab not looking Wally in the eyes.

"Dude?" Wally reached out to do, who knows.

Dick flinched back barking out, "Don't touch me!"

Wally froze worry spreading across his face, "Dude, hey. Buddy, you didn't do anything wrong."

"Just don't touch me." Dick said a bit more calmly.

Wally nodded, "You good?"

Dick looked away. He wasn't going to lie but he just couldn't tell Wally what he was feeling. Batman tugged Wally out of Dick's line of sight before crouching in front of him. Batman held out a pill to the boy with a questioning look. It had been a week since their conversation about what the pills were. They were for his anxiety and slight fits of depression. Slade had helped make them with other medical people. It had only been released to the public a few months ago.

Dick took the pill and swallowed it whole with a grimace. Of all things in the world, one thing would always remain true; any sort of medicine tastes horrible. The other members of the team looked at him with worry. It only took a few moments before the pill took effect and his emotions were back under control and the building panic faded.

"Better?" Batman asked.

Dick nodded.

Batman looked to the rest of the team, "Team wait in the living room. Canary will be here shortly to talk with you all." The team nodded, heading dazed to the living area. Batman looked back to Dick, "Will you talk with Canary? She'll be able to help more than I can."

Dick bit his lip as he reached up and took off his sunglasses, "I don't know. I... I wanted to talk to someone else first."

"Wally?" Batman questioned, "You wanted to tell Wally everything first."