Dick dropped his backpack, which he modified to hold his sticks and a few other things he had fashioned from household items and maybe a few things like a water bottle and some snacks. He couldn’t help that he was hungry so he pulled out an apple. He bounced it between hands, testing his skills and reflexes when the apple was snatched out of the sky by his companion. Dick’s eyes turned to Bruce and he gave him an innocent look and a shoulder shrug, "what? I’m hungry."
"You're always hungry. Stop playing with your food and eat the damn apple." The voice was gruff and deep. Serious, yet a cynical dry humor bounced behind his words.
"I was just about to, thanks for the permission, Batman." A smirk pulled on Dick's lips as he threw a quick kick with his foot to Bruce's hand to force him to drop the apple, which Dick caught and took a bite.
"We need to talk about Barbara. You haven't asked her any other questions have you? Done anything you're not supposed to?" The question brought pause to Dick"s happy chewing. His eyes dropped to the rocks on the roof as he shook his head.
"It might not even be her anyway, but no. I've been keeping my distance… Just hanging around." He chuckled a little at his own choice in words. It was the truth. He hadn't interacted with her since the other night when she called him drunk. He had been avoiding her like the plague, a tactic he decided was for the best so he didn't deal with any temptation. Of course, he had spent every night outside of her apartment, watching her, but he hadn't really spoken to her. Even now, Dick had figured out the patrol route so that Barbara Gaffery's apartment was part of it. The roof they stood across from was hers. He didn't tell Bruce that.
"Good. It's better that way. I know it's hard, I know how much she means to you, but it's for the best."
Dick gave a nod that he knew he was right, but that didn't make it easier.
"We should keep moving." Bruce motioned a direction that Dick was happy to follow. He had checked the apartment building and saw Babs' light on. She was home and safe. Just as he took another bite from his apple, it happened. The noise of a grappling gun came from all around them and sunk into the roof of the apartment building they stood on. Somehow men in blue had climbed up the apartment buildings around them without being noticed and were now quickly surrounding the pair.
"Get ready."
"Always ready, Batman." Dick tossed his half eaten apple at the heads of one of the men, a direct hit. "You made me throw my apple at you. I'm really angry when I’m hungry."
His arms had been tied, but the fall he took had knocked loose the arm of the chair which he pulled on until it broke. He thought he was making a lot of progress. He thought he'd get out in no time, disable the guards, go get Batman, get out of there. At least that was what he thought. He was in the process of untying his hands and legs when the door to his… cell? He assumed, opened. A gray rock looking figured stepped through the door. He stared at Dick Grayson like he was little boy that was throwing a temper tantrum. Dick didn't have the energy or the strength to fight him, but he climbed to his feet anyway, staggering, but on his feet and ready. Whether he could fight or not didn't matter anyway because that look was wasn't the kind of look that meant stop. It was the kind of look that meant he wasn't going to win.
Within moments Dick could feel it. It was like someone was in his head. It was flipping through recent memories, old memories, memories he didn't even know he had. "Stop," Dick mumbled as he brought a hand to his temple. What he said didn't matter. The tingling feeling in his brain exploded and his vision blurred and then blacked out.
He was young, a child. A child who had just recently watched his parents fall to their death. He cried every night over his loss, but only after spending much of his time out on the streets hunting down the man who killed them. Tony Zucco seemed untraceable. The people that young Dick Grayson found were never willing to or able to tell him much about where the criminal had gone or was hiding. He had been eluding him for so long.
Darkseid fast forwarded through Dick's pain and anguish, made him relive every moment of rage and his lust for revenge.
Dick ran through the hallway as if he knew exactly where he was going and slid into a room. He assessed quickly the surroundings. A man at a table in the middle of a kitchen alone. "You thought you’d get away with it! That I wouldn't find you. You took my parents from me and I'm going to take away everything from you." He yelled at the man in the chair at the table. That man was Zucco. "You killed my parents. Fucking admit it." He screamed at him and then attacked. He threw punch after punch in a fury of arms and legs. He attacked hard, the rage inside of him too much for him to handle. Zucco fought back though which made Dick fight even harder. Every punch or kick to the face or body he took, he bounced back and came at him. Something inside his head said "kill him. Make him pay for what he's done."
Its only when neither man is able to stand to fight that it ends for Dick Grayson. He gasped for air, clutched his side, dripping blood from cuts under his eye and mouth that he collapsed in a corner.
The tingle inside his head subsides and Dick's vision returned to normal. Blurry and dim, but he's able to see that the man he was fighting moments ago wasn't Tony Zucco but his friend and partner, Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne was also beaten heavily, coming back to consciousness too.
"Take him back to his room. We'll start again." Darkseid spoke to his lackey. Dick's face contorted in confusion.
"What… what did you do?!" He shouted as Darkseid as he was dragged out.
The man who sat on the floor in a dim room was in pieces. The young Dick Grayson had been forced to relive the death of his parents over and over again. Forced to watch the people he loved and care about most in his world die from his family to Barbara, to Bruce, to Jason. Half the time he was made to feel like it was his own fault that this happened or that he had been the one to do it. Darkseid reached deep into his mind on a regular basis since he had taken Dick on Thursday. Hours turned into days and so much of it felt lost to the broken man in the corner of this room. His shirt was stained with eyes and blood. His face swollen and bruised, the same for his body and Dick didn't dare lift up his shirt to even look at the damage or assess it. He told himself that if he didn't know what it looked like then it wouldn't hurt as bad.
Desperate to prevent another ravaging of his mind, Dick wiped the back of his hand along his nose and tried to figure out a way to escape. He had been in there long enough to know how the guards changed and which ones he thought he could over power. As he had been dragged back to his room on multiple occasions he had figured out some of the layout of the building and just had to assume the rest. He knew there had to be an exit.
Dick checked his watch, it was 3 am and the guards were getting ready to go switch again. This was his chance and he had to take it. He had to get out, he had to go get help and come back for Bruce. He knew Bruce could take a lot of abuse, but Dick wasn't sure what kind of mind games Darkseid had been playing with him and he was positive that Dick wasn't as important or valuable to Darkseid as Batman was. Dick took a deep breath, winced, and pushed himself against the wall of the door. When the guard came to check on him it would look like he had gotten out.
"Heyo Natwings, I got your dinner… What the fuck…" The guard opened the door, and just that brief pause allowed Nightwing to grab him in a chokehold until he was conscious. He didn't have a lot of time so he knew he couldn't waste any of it. He had to move quickly, smart, efficiently. He grabbed the guard's keys and walkie talkie.
"Call me natwings again, bitch."
The man looked around the corners of the door and when he saw no one he made a move towards the room they were keeping Batman in. He could attempt the rescue now, but as he got closer he could hear Darkseid in with him already. More goons outside his door than anywhere else in the building. It was smart, but stupid.
"I'll come back Bruce, I swear I'll come back." He whispered out into the air and with as much strength as he could, forced himself to take a running jump against the wall and up onto the pipes that ran through the building. Following them with the help of the walkie talkie until he was able to take out another guard and exit.
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