Hey! So this story is actually years old, and I've decided to revisit it! My writing has improved a lot and I want to show that, so thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!

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"Speech"

Thought

Author Note

If you asked Richard Grayson about his relationship with his father, he'd give pause. He'd ask himself which one you meant. He'd remember John Grayson carrying him when he broke his leg. He'd remember Bruce Wayne bandaging it. He'd remember John Grayson's stern voice, demanding his obedience. He'd remember Bruce Wayne's dulcet tones demanding his loyalty. He'd remember Slade…

But regardless, one strand would connect them both. Haunting memories of blood, bone, revenge, and wrath.

He'd remind himself that he was the prodigal son. A boy destined to rage against the hand of his father, somehow.

Then he'd smile, and say it was fine.

If you asked Dick Grayson about his father, he would lie.

As his father's taught him.

Nightwing raised his nose to the air and sniffed, the domino mask across his face obscuring the dark look his eyes held as he opened them slowly. He could smell the rain coming.

"Wing? You okay?" Robin's voice called, cutting through the fog of Nightwing's mind.

Nightwing smiled.

"All's quiet on the western front, Timmy." He joked.

At least for now…

The two brothers awaited Batman's signal in a patient anxiousness. A paradox that had been ingrained in them by years of training.

"Anticipate, but don't be afraid."

Bruce's words. Old ones.

Good ones.

The family rarely teamed up on this scale. Oracle, Batgirl, Robin, Bruce, and himself were all working together for this mission. A massive sting operation on the Joker. He'd gone into hiding after a failed assassination attempt by the Riddler and his gang. The two had been at odds again, and it did not bode well that their war repeat itself. Batman had tracked the Joker to a warehouse in the Gotham Shipyard.

"How typical." Bruce had commented.

Typical.

"Do you think he's really here?" Tim asked. Nightwing shifted his weight as he crouched on the edge of a building adjacent to where the two stood, Robin standing on the roof beside him. Nightwing looked down at the slick stone beneath his fingers, worn by the stormy Gotham weather that the night's dark clouds only hinted at in the moment.

"God I hope so."

The building a few yards ahead of them exploded suddenly, shards of glass raining down upon the asphalt below as flames licked the spaces where they ones sat peacefully.

The communication bud in Nightwing's ear buzzed harshly.

"All bats move in, converge on the second story, repeat, converge on the second story!" Bruce commanded, his harsh voice slicing through the fog in Nightwing's mind and bringing him to focus.

"Come on Robin. Let's move."

He stood and leapt from the building, his form cutting through the cool night air on a shroud of darkness that caressed his body in a blanket of shadow as he moved silently across the shipyard, toward the building.

Nightwing flew.

Sun-like brightness from raging flames stripped away the caress of darkness that he found such comfort in as he approached the burning structure, crashing through the window and rolling to his feet, his escrima sticks burning with electricity, ready to strike as he analyzed the situation. Robin landed beside him, his staff ready.

"NIGHTWING MOVE!"

Nightwing rolled to his left, dodging a heavy steel beam as it slammed into the ground beside him, cracking the marble floors. Around him, Batgirl, Batman, and now Robin, were all locked in vicious combat against Joker's thugs, with Bruce and the Clown Prince Of Crime himself.

Typical

A thug charged through the smoke at Nightwing at full speed. Nightwing sidestepped the attack, the man's axe glinting in the firelight as it passed by. The escrima sticks spun in his hands, buzzing violently as they danced across the thug's skin. Nightwing finished his flurry of savage blows with a kick to the head that could shatter stone, sending the thug to the ground. A huge muscle bound man almost twice the size of the hero lunged through the flames to grasp him. Nightwing jumped back, dodging an onslaught of enraged fists swinging in his face as flames raged around him.

Two quick steps up the wall and a backflip behind his opponent saved him from a punch that bent the steal beams behind his head where they enemy's fist was now embedded.

"Robin!"

Robin turned from the enemy he'd just knocked out.

"I'm coming!"

Robin flew across the burning floor, vaulting off of the waiting hands of Nightwing and soaring over the man.

That distraction was all Nightwing needed.

The moment the man turned his head Nightwing attacked, leaping and spinning into a double kick that slammed him toward Robin's waiting fist.

"Go help Br-Batman!"

Nightwing nodded and moved to reach his mentor's position.

"Took you long enough!" Bruce grunted as and Joker fought.

"The original dynamic duo!?" Joker screeched in sadistic glee. "I've been meaning to carve this particular bird…" he hissed, kicking off of Bruce's chest, spinning as he moved to kick at Nightwing. Nightwing rolled beneath the attack, his powerful legs pushing him upwards toward his father.

Batman caught his protege by the legs, spinning and sending him flying back at the Joker faster than most men could see. Nightwing grunted in satisfaction as his foot connected with the Joker's rib cage and sent him flying.

Joker crashed into the burning wall and slammed into the floor with a painful grunt.

"Alright, you've been unusually silent this entire fight, Joker. What the hell is going on?" Bruce demanded, grabbing Joker by the throat and slamming him into the wall.

The group stood outside the now smoldering building, huddled around Batman and the Joker as the two pressed against an ashen wall of brick and dust.

Police sirens blared in the distance. Any bystanders who had seen the fight had fled by now.

"C-c'mon now, Bat-AGH" Joker screamed in pain as Batman slammed in into the wall harder.

"SPEAK!" Bruce demanded. Nightwing's stomach turned. He hated this part. He looked Joker up and down, studying his thin, spindly, spiderlike form. His usual purple suit was torn and ripped in multiple places, dried blood on his skin around his lips and neck from being punched in the face by an enraged Bruce.

Nightwing's eyes narrowed.

Wait…

"Bats."

"What?" Bruce hissed at his son.

"Look."

Nightwing grabbed a flap of torn skin on Joker's neck and pulled up.

The scarecrow-like figure beneath the mask smiled and waved, his elbows contorting disgustingly as his twisted body waved at the group with its bent joints.

"Ragdoll."

"Mr. Batman. Always a pleasure." Ragdoll's dead plastic-like eyes drifted lazily toward Nightwing with a look of disdain. "The acrobat."

"Still upset that you can't keep up with me?" Nightwing asked with a mischievous grin.

Batman screamed in rage and slammed his fist into Rag Doll's face.

"WHERE THE HELL IS HE!?"

Rag Doll smiled. And pointed to his left.

Cold dread and an empty hopelessness filled Nightwing's very soul to the core, the very essence of his being.

"Oh God…" Batgirl whispered.

They watched as brilliant white and red flames gifted the night sky with daylight as building after building fell, blown to their very foundations.

"What have you done…"

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