Dick's POV
The city's a complete mess and it doesn't seem to be getting any better at all, not in the very least, no matter how much I try to keep peace into the city or how many bad guys I would stop and capture. Nothing seems to stop the crime rates rising or preventing the number of people dying because of the villains I've faced would use them as bait or just felt like killing so they can get me and try to kill me.
It never gotten any easier throughout most of my life and with the police from both Gotham and Blüdhaven becoming completely useless on keeping the bad guys in jail or in the Asylum for so long, it just seems so pointless to continue on with this crime-fighting gig. It seems that the more we fight to save lives or to take down criminals, the more villains will keep on popping out of nowhere and a whole lot more worse both cities would be in.
I still want to keep fighting and I don't plan on giving up, but at times I feel like I should just quit and simply hide within the shadows forever, to only become a simple memory to the people who've trusted me to protect them and to those who I fought along side with...
I became more tired now and my body would at times feel like it's trying to shut itself down whenever I would return home with new wounds to be imprinted forever onto my skin, so that I would fall into a sleep that I may no longer be able to awake and fight another day in order to heal... I don't think I can truly heal anymore, because I've been collecting more scars than usual and I've already been near the Path of Death much more often.
I didn't call and told Barbara about it, nor did I told the Team from Mount Justice, the Justice League at the Watchtower or bother to inform Alfred and the others back at the Manor about my problem. It wasn't my place to bring one of my problems up and have them waste their time feeling sorry or trying to help me. Besides, they all have their problems to worry about, already.
Wally still needs to get used to living with his aunt and uncle in Central City, without having to be afraid or to even flinch away from a hand being raised to simply pat him on either the back, shoulder or head, or hold him in comfort.
Barry and Iris had recently found out that his father, Rudy West, has been abusing Wally for nearly three years ever since the death of Mary West, Rudy's wife, when Wally was nine. Barry and Iris immediately gained full custody of Wally when he was almost twelve years old and Rudy had been taken to prison for Child Abuse and Illegal Drug-Use, with no chance whatsoever on ever getting Wally back but a possible chance on parole if he gets over his drug and anger-problems.
Even when already at the age of nineteen and is part of the Justice League, Wally still has problem with physical-contact by adults, though he's always fine with being hugged by his friends or other young people and with the help of Artemis, he's making a great effort.
Roy, at the age of twenty-one, had to take care of his two year-old daughter, Lian Gwen Harper, and find a safe place to keep her safe, along with finishing with his quitting on drugs. So far, from what I heard, he and Lian are staying with Ollie and Dinah in Star City.
According to what Artemis had told me, when she came to visit me in Blüdhaven, Roy has been doing very well. In fact, he was finally rid of his addiction, thanks to Dinah's therapy session and counseling, and had decided to move back to Ollie's again.
Cheshire, once again, left him to do some undercover work for the League, but had claimed she would be checking in on Roy and Lian from time to time until her work is over. Despite her having a criminal record, she's really making an effort on changing and working for good instead of evil like her father wants her and Artemis to do.
Kaldur and Raquel, who're both over the age of eighteen and Raquel had just turned nineteen, are part of the Justice League. They're also happily married and are already raising a child together, with a second on the way.
Since Raquel isn't an Atlantean like Kaldur, she and their son had to live at Mount Justice to stay near the ocean and the land in order for them to still make contacts to their family from the land and sea, along with staying together. Because they're living at Mount Justice, they both had to take care of their son and train the team, along with having to go to different jobs in Atlantis or Happy Harbor and doing League Missions, which meant less sleep and family time for them all and having another child on the way was making it even more difficult.
M'gann and Conner, who also lived at Mount Justice, were also married and have a child together and are planning on having another, just like Kaldur and Raquel. Though they were given invitations on becoming League Members and are starting their twenties, they both chose to remain as Young Justice Members until Artemis graduates from high school and becomes a Justice League member, herself. Only then, will they join the Justice League.
The good part on staying and living at Mount Justice, there are always other team mates to stay and keep them company. The down part, however, are the noises and how the food would be more than half gone. And with too much noises, along with Super-Hearing in the mixture, Conner had been trying to control his anger from the multiple headaches and M'gann had been training their son into controlling his Martian Powers, which has the three of them to leave the cave to get away from the distractions until Conner's headache is gone or when they had to go back for a mission.
Wolf and Sphere, who still stays with the Team, had both changed a lot. Wolf has grown so much and is so big, that he looks like he could carry two or three of us on his back with no problem, whatsoever. Anyway, he's been leaving the cave for most of the day, probably looking for a mate to have his own pups with since he would at times watch over both of the boys and treat them as his own.
While Sphere simply stays put in the garage, as she usually does, and tries to morph into different battle modes for missions. Icon and Atom would come by to the mountain to upgrades her systems and improve her fighting tactics, which seems to be getting better and better the more Sphere morphs.
Artemis and her mother, Paula, were thinking about moving to Star City once Artemis graduates from Gotham Academy at Gotham. Turns out Gotham's becoming a major problem for Paula and even with Batman and the Bat-Family keeping the city safe, while Artemis would use the Zeta-Beam to head for Star City to help both Green and Red Arrow, it seems to be the only place that Paula could feel secure in and for Artemis to continue on as Green Arrow's partner. Artemis didn't seem thrilled about the decision, but she wasn't planning on leaving her mother or quit being Ollie's partner... Not yet, to be exact.
Since she's already at the age of eighteen and is known to be an adult, though a lot of people said that young people needs to be twenty years old to become true full grown-ups, she and Wally were thinking about moving into Mount Justice with the rest of their friends once they become Justice League Members. Until then, Artemis chose to remain with her mother to help take care of her.
Zatanna, whose going to turn eighteen within another year and will soon join the League, had moved out of the cave. A few years back, when she was fifteen, she was able to get through to Doctor Fate about her father and after having a discussion with Zatara, they all came up with an agreement that seems to be satisfying to the three of them: Fate will come out for League Missions or when danger were to come, while allowing Zatara to be with his daughter until the Magician could find another host, and only then would Nabu permanently release Zatara from his hold and his fate on being Doctor Fate's host. Until that time were to come, Zatanna and Zatara had to deal with their little agreement.
Because she has her father back into her life, Zatanna moved out of Mount Justice to live with her father again, though she promised to come by and visit, along with staying the night or two with the Team at the cave. However, she doesn't hang out much or stay for very long, since she would leave to find a great sorcerer to take her father's place to be Doctor Fate.
She grew so obsessed on wanting to have her father all the time and not switch or leave into Doctor Fate, she barely gave any thought on asking her Hero-Family for help or to think that her absence was causing a few Team and League Members to missing her company very badly.
The Team don't need to have my problems to add on to their 'List of Problems' and the League don't need any more screwed-up heroes to be added to their list... Especially Batman, since he had to work as Bruce Wayne in the day and the Dark Knight at night. He already has other Birds and Bats to train, who're all my adoptive older-siblings, and having to hear problems in Blüdhaven will just make things worse for him.
He most likely hadn't forgiven me from leaving home at the age of fourteen, but he and everybody of the Team and League had been smothering me so much and with having new older-siblings to come and join the hero business too, which also made them overprotective of me like the rest of the Team, I couldn't stand being there to only be pushed aside by the older teens or to have my ear talked off by a bunch of list of complaints for the wrong-things that had happened during fights or on Missions from Bruce. I haven't heard from him lately, even though I cut myself off from the rest of the world outside of Blüdhaven. The only ones who know where I am at the moment are Artemis and Wally.
Despite the numbers of problem this city has, Blüdhaven is basically the only city that I can stay in and stay hidden from Bruce and the rest of my Hero-Family. I simply come and go whenever there is major danger in Gotham or at the cave, but I made sure to not leave any traces behind that would lead them to where I'm at, knowing that Bruce and my siblings will try and find me if they found even one single clue to where I'm living.
I have four brothers and two sisters, with Barbara and Kate also being my older sisters but not adopted by Bruce, all older than me and most of them already in their twenties and all of them over the age of eighteen, which makes them Justice League Members, too.
I only knew Tim and Jason, the two youngest older-brothers of the group, before I ran away at the age of fourteen. I then met Damian, Stephanie, Cassandra and Terry when coming to the rescue to stop Klarion from having and controlling Etrigan to kill Jason Blood, whose a friend of Bruce, when I was fifteen.
Since then, I would be going back and forth to help out or to check up on my family until I recently found out one of my siblings, or possibly Bruce, had implanted a tracer on my back and tried to follow me in order to talk me into coming back home or slow me down and drag me back to Gotham. Ever since that incident, I quit coming over to help out or to check up on the Bat-Family and remained in my own city.
During my two years in Blüdhaven as Nightwing at the age of fourteen, I quit coming to the rescue for the Team or the League, but only for my Bat-Family until they betrayed my trust, and had remained within the Sister City of Gotham for those two years. I can no longer remember the good times I had in the Past and even forgot on why I wanted to keep fighting.
My home that I'm living in is just an abandon apartment and my own base is just a hidden lair within the sewers underneath my house: no endless supplies of weapons in case I run out, only a couple of souvenirs I got from the villains or burglars; I don't even have my own ride to cruise around the city in if I were to loose or break all of my grapple guns, which I took with me before I left Gotham City. There's an old broken-furniture, dusty-wooden floor, stained-covered walls with some holes, disgusting scents of moss and pollution, and cracked windows. I'm just surprised that the electricity and water still works in this dump and that nobody bothers to come by to see who's staying in this beat-down pile of trash.
I mostly go hungry and could only get my meals out of trashcans with the rest of the homeless people, since I don't have money to spend on or bother on getting a job to help me out. Since I ran away at fourteen, I dropped out of Gotham Academy and a lot of jobs don't want drop-outs to be working for them, especially to a homeless sixteen year-old teen who hadn't bathe in a good while. My bed is just a ripped up couch with a broken-back right-leg, while my blanket is either the remaining clothes I still wore for nearly three years, found on the street, or dried-up newspaper I would find in the trash or on the ground.
My only companies are the rats and insects that lives in this abandon house and the birds who rules the skies of Blüdhaven, who simply just leave me be when they see me not a threat and a Street-Rat like themselves. Everyone in Blüdhaven simply sees me as a Low Life, a pathetic living animal beneath their level. They clearly don't recognize me as Bruce's 'Ward', and that's how I wanted it to be: Everyone to see just a simple common stranger, a Nobody, who isn't even worth to have the dirt wiped off of their shoes onto me.
As Nightwing, however, they see me as their champion, their savior... Their Wings of the Night. The villains and criminals, though, saw me as a threat that needed to be disposed of. They also saw me as a joke, since I don't look to be a day over between twelve to fourteen in their eyes, but they could also see that underneath the mask, I'm the Dark Knight's Protégé. Well, was his partner.
Either way, they don't take me very lightly and I have the many scars to prove it, along with a couple of infections here and a few sprains there. I'm telling you, it gets harder for me to keep this up when I have no medications to take care of my wounds and had to use rags to stop the bleeding. If I go to the hospital and if they took me to get a good wash and food, they'll most likely recognize me as Dick Grayson and would call Commissioner Gordon or even Bruce in a heartbeat.
I don't want to go back to a city where my life as a performed Trapeze/Acrobat has ended and became a Multi Billionaire's Charity Case had begun. Not like that: A fake, a pretender, and a joke. I can keep going down the list of names I've been called or had been known as from Gotham Academy and the voices of Gotham. If I were to head back to Gotham and if Bruce sees me like this, he'll be very disappointed in me... Even if I no longer live with him or have to worry about him anymore, his praises still make me feel appreciated and his love gave me the Will to keep living and fighting... But now, I don't know if I want to keep doing this any longer.
I've been having many thoughts about committing suicide, to just end it and forever be done with crime-fighting, but I just couldn't do it. I don't know why, but something in my heart is telling me to not do it, even when it seems that death is the only way out of it.
I know that if I kill myself, I'll be sent to Hell for taking my own life away and would never be reunited with my deceased family, but I've been rethinking about the past and realized that I had many near-death experiences, with a few of them are even long before I came to live with Bruce in Gotham and had became a hero:
Mom told me that I was supposed to die when I was just born for being born two months premature, but I didn't.
I was supposed to be on the trapeze with my family on that dreadful night, but I wasn't.
Zucco was supposed to drown me in order to get rid of me for being a material witness of my family's death, but he didn't.
Two-Face tried to beat me to death, but I survived.
Cadmus was going to clone me and my friends and then get rid of us, but they didn't.
Red Torpedo meant to have me drowned, but I pulled through.
Red Tornado was supposed to suck in all the air and have my Team and I die from suffocation, but we lived.
Kid Flash and I died in an explosion on the Mother Ship, but it wasn't real.
The Parasite absorbed my ability and energy before we performed at the Haly's Circus and I was falling towards my death, but Conner caught me and launched me back into the air towards M'gann.
Vandal Savage commanded the Justice League to kill us, but we fought back and won our mentors back from his control.
I came to realize that I wasn't supposed to be alive at all. I mean, I know that I survived and made it through those near-death experiences, but they keep on coming and are getting harder for me to endure any longer. Despite those thoughts in mind, I'm not going to take my life away. Besides, I think I deserve to go through the punishment by being a low-class Street Rat of Blüdhaven.
As for giving up crime-fighting, it would be like giving up a part of who I am and what I want to be, even if it would end up getting me killed.
Back when I was eight, a few people who knows about my second life as a crime-fighter had constantly told me and Bruce that they wanted me to live a normal life and had never became a hero... I wish that I could live a normal life, but I'm afraid that's no longer possible.
The only way for me to live a normal life again would be me for me to live back at the Haly's Circus and have my family brought back from the dead, but I'm afraid not even Doctor Fate can reverse the Hand of Time to the day they fell or had controlled the Past to prevent their fall from ever happening.
As I have many thoughts going through my head, leaning against the wall with skinny-tights and no shirt on to cover the bandages from my previous fights with another gang and a couple of gun-runners, my eyes were directed to the window to show me the many buildings of Blüdhaven and the heavy rain pouring down from the sky. I'm positive that Gotham is having rain tonight as well, since Blüdhaven is the Sister City of Gotham and are only two hours apart from each other.
In my right-hand, that also lays on my right-knee which it and my left-knee are pulled up towards me, is an empty can of Sprite, which I need to refill with water soon. I'll put it outside of the window before I head to bed; I'm either too tired or simply don't care much to do it already and get fresh water from the rain, which I desperate need since the water from the old faucets aren't fresh and smell completely odd. I think the true reason to my sudden tiredness is because I'm ill, mixture of the water I had to drink from the faucets and with some of my wounds getting infected.
With no money, I can't buy any medication to help me with my wounds or fever. If I steal, it'll damage my reputation as a hero since I'll be stealing from innocent people and may end up like villains or burglars, themselves. Besides, I can't draw any attention that will have the Team or the League to come and find me, especially Bruce and my family.
I know that they'll find me, eventually. But, for now, all I need to do and focus on is to survive and to keep fighting. And as I wait for that day to come, I'll continue to live my life as a Street-Rat until it finally comes or if some punk gets lucky and takes away my life... However, I don't think either of those options will come, because I think my infections are making me sick and if I don't treat them soon, they'll eventually have me go through a slow and painful death. Who knows? Maybe my death will come to me once I go out on patrol after a few hours of sleep.
Bruce's POV
It's been so long since I last seen my son, which has been two years ago since he ran away from home. It felt like centuries, forever even, instead of two short but long years since he left Gotham. During those two years, however, I found other children who are a lot like Dick and I, though each have a different story, and have brought onto my dark world before and after I written the papers to let me keep them as my own.
I honestly thought Dick was going to be my eldest son, since he is my first to have came into my home and life, but it seems that I was proven wrong when I found others who're either in the same condition as me and Dick or have their reasons to be coming here. Terry and Damian, however, their reasons are both the same: They're both a part of me and share my blood, which makes them my biological sons.
I actually forgotten the time when I used to be young and was in love with Talia, back when I was still starting out as Batman and when I didn't know that her father was villain who wants to destroy more than half of the Earth's population, until I recalled when she has chosen her father's loyalty over me and that was the day before we spend our first night together as a couple and when I had asked her to marry me.
I never knew she would end up pregnant and had kept my child a secret, but she had happened to come by to Gotham one night, while I was out on patrol and back when I had three of my adoptive children, and had presented Damian to me and my protégés.
She admitted that she felt bad on betraying me and keeping our child a secret from me, but she told me that she was going to change and wanted me to have our son to become a hero, not the assassin and heir Ra's Al Ghul wanted to help make his dream into a reality. Right before she left, Talia told me that she would help me look for Richard and that she'll stay in touch to keep an eye on my children and I.
As for Terry, it seems that Clark isn't the only one who had Cadmus clone a younger-version of himself: Even though he doesn't look a lot like me or Damian, Terry has my entire trait in his blood and has evidence that he is my son. Though they had kept him hidden to keep him safe in case something were to happen to me, Guardian and Dubbilex suggested that he lives with us and have his own freedom, just like Conner.
It amazes me on how I was able to have two teens and four young adults in less than a year, especially when I had kept Dick for five years when he was eight and never thought about having another child in the Manor, back when I thought he would stay with me and Alfred forever. However, even if I were to adopt or take in anymore children and with Barbara and Kate part of the Bat-Family, my family will never be whole or completed without my first and actual 'Little Bird' of the family. My family isn't the only one missing the company of our actual and very first Boy Wonder:
The Team at Mount Justice, though full of some of their own children and with new members had been added to the group, the original Team to have formed the Young Justice are missing their youngest member and 'little brother' to cheer them up and be accompanied by or to have him mess and tease during training. Even though they never met Dick, the newest Team had watched some videos of him from the Past and are already grieving over his absence, even though they never met him in person.
As for the Justice League, They were in the same condition: Ever since I've brought Dick to the hero business and presented him to the League when he was nine, he already captured their hearts and had the League wrapped around his fingers, just as he did to me and Alfred. Because of that, the League came to think of the boy as their own nephew and even as their own son, even though he already taken that title by being my son.
They all loved him very much, especially the girls, who all became his aunts and Diana becoming one of his mother-figures.
I should've been surprised that Talia would offer to search for Dick, but then again, whenever Dick and I would be facing her and her father, she would do whatever it takes to avoid severely injuring him and when out in our civilians, appears to have a soft-spot for him and would try to spoil him.
Selina was the same like Talia, having to go easy on him and would spend as much time as she could with the boy. And whenever he would go over to her home, Isis, Selina's feline friend and little partner in crime, would walk up to the boy and cuddle up to him, having to take in a great likeness into him the moment her icy-blue eyes laid eyes on my boy...
God, it felt like a lifetime since I last seen my son and with Winter making its appearance, I want nothing more than to have my child back home and safe within the hold of my arms before Christmas arrives.
I had hoped that I would be able to find him and bring him home a year ago, along with apologizing on not trusting him more than I should had and how much I'm proud to have him as my son. However, I'm afraid that my tracer I had Damian put on Dick's back made him feel betrayed and no matter how many times the Team or League would search for him, we could never be able to find him in any parts of the city that live close by our hometown... Well, except for one city that I should've bother to check: Blüdhaven, the Sister City of Gotham.
I know that I was supposed to be the World's Greatest Detective and should've searched for him there, but I thought and hoped that Dick would listen to my words and never go anywhere near or set foot in that awful city that's related to Gotham. That place is one of the very few places many criminals favor to strike fear into the hearts of citizens and steal with no problems escaping from the cops. Gotham seemed to be a terrible place to live in, but Blüdhaven is a lot worse than Gotham and because there's no hero to protect the innocents, many people prefer to live in a city protected by a hero instead of having the police to let them down and to be hunted down by cold-hearted bastards.
Maybe that's one of the reasons to how and why Dick could be staying at Blüdhaven: There's no hero protecting the city and with the Sister City being one of the cities the Dark Knight wouldn't bother to set foot in, it became a logical explanation that he's been living there and that none of us haven't been able to find him for two years because of my stubbornness and demand that no one is to go there.
Well, it seems that I'll be heading there, despite my uneasiness about that city. If my hunches are correct and Dick is living at that crime-rate city, then I'll have to find him as quickly as I can and get him back to Gotham. He'll most likely try to fight back to stay in Blüdhaven and will most likely not speak to me at all if I were to tie him to his old-bed at the Manor if I were to succeed, but I would rather have a Dick Grayson-Wayne whose pissed at me and refuse to speak to me instead of a dead Dick Grayson-Wayne who would be gone from my life and would never get the chance to know how much I love him.
And so, after telling my elder children about me leaving for Blüdhaven and giving them the order to not follow and to take care of Gotham until I get back, I was in my bat-suit and slammed my foot onto the gas of the Batmobile. It's raining cats and dogs today and both the streets and city are covered in snow, but I paid no mind about the chances of me crashing from how fast the Batmobile is going right now.
The only thing, or better yet, the only one on my mind right now is my son in Blüdhaven, who could most likely be cold and freezing from the rain and snow from Gotham's Sister City. I'm positively certain that he doesn't have a roof over his head to keep him warm and safe, but if he manage to somehow find a building to at least shield him from the snow and rain, then it would sort of make my search easier than to keep my eyes on every street or corner of Blüdhaven, especially the many alleys she has. However, the only problems are finding the right building he's living in, getting him out of there before he freezes and finding out what his appearance will be, since I'm positive he changed it to keep his identity covered. If he had kept his appearance the same, especially with the hair-style he would put it in and the color of his eyes, the police of Blüdhaven would've recognized him as my son and then would either call me or Commissioner Gordon about his whereabouts.
I knew that my teaching methods would help him be protected and hidden from our opponents and enemies, but I never thought that he would use my teachings and turn it against me... I guess I never really thought he would use his training method against me, because I never thought he would leave me for any reason and would forever stay by my side for a lifetime. Alfred had warned me about smothering him, either as Dick Grayson or Robin, but I ignored his warning. Clark and the League had told me about Dick's bonding with the Team and suggest that I allow him to stay a few days every week at the mountain with his team mates, but I refused their idea and simply did what I thought was right in order to keep Dick forever and protect him from the many dangers of Gotham.
I truly regretted my actions and now that I have paid the price for my actions, I know that now I have to fix it and I have to do it on my own; no one is to help me get Dick back into my life and home. I don't care how he'll react or do once I find him. Hell, I don't even care if he fights me to stay in that rotten Sister City of my "Fair Lady" City. He has to come back home and soon, before he does anything stupid that may cost him his life.
I know, I know. I need to stop with making Dick younger than his siblings, but I just can't help it.
He's basically the main reason to why Bruce became the man who acts like a father for being the oldest of the Bat-Family, along with him having the full responsibility on keeping his siblings and the family alive. With him being the youngest, however, it makes him much more important and to have the whole sibling to work together to keep themselves together and keeping the main person who made them act like a true family. So, even if Dick were to actually be the youngest and Bruce to already become a father, they would all be a better and happier family because of him and why they're not strangling each other.
Anyway a few quick notes: Roy isn't a clone in this one, Kaldur never betrayed the team (Tula isn't dead in this one) and started dating Raquel around half a month after the Light attacked the League, Wally and Artemis are still in the hero business, M'gann and Conner never split, and Zatanna is still part of the Team but won't be around much until she finds a new host for Doctor Fate.
R&R
