2500 words?! Am I nuts?! I'm bad at writing fight scenes :/ So most of it is talking.
Oh! And RHN's suit is the one I published in my artbook on Wattpad! + a domino mask. The one in the show looks cool, but I want him to show emotions! And the most important: SHOW ME MY MISTAKES! I'M STILL LEARNING! And that's the best way to do so. And yes. I'm quoting the quote from Aquaman there. Just because I can.
He didn't know how it happened that they ended up fighting in a cave entrance. Neither he noticed when they got deeper, or a few rocks falling from the ceiling. When he did, it was already too late. The ground was shaking. The cave collapsed.
He swinged his blade at the vigilante but he swiftly jumped into the air and avoided even being touched by the sword. Then he dodged an attack from the hero who swing his legs to cut down ninja's legs. But red hooded one took a step back and threw a shuriken. Somehow, he found himself deep in the cave. How didn't he notice? Well. Too late for that now. Something fell down. Rocks. Oh no. Then nothing.
Nightwing looked around, black dots covering his vision slowly fading. It was dark and there was a lot of dust so he covered his mouth and nose with his forearm. He took out a blue glow stick with his other hand. It was bright enough that he could take a look at his surroundings.
And he was looking for his opponent. This Ninja saved Dick's life before, he wanted to know why, it was time good as any.
"Ni- ...ing! C- ...me in. Nig- ...ng!"
"Aremis? Tigress. Come in, Tigress."
Static.
"Damn it."
Nightwing sat down on a cold, hard ground. Great. Now he has to wait until his team finds him. 'Aaaand there's a ninja somewhere in there.' He heard something shuffle behind him.
"The connection's lost."
Nightwing stood up and took out his escrimas. Red Hooded Ninja hadn't moved. They had been glaring at each other for a minute before the Ninja spoke.
"I don't want to be here either."
Still, no one moved. Then he sheathed his sword on his back. Gold writing on the blade flashed for a moment in a dim blue light. Dick relaxed a little and hid his weapons in his holder.
"So now what? We're gonna fight hand to hand or what? Cause I'd like to know."
He looked at the other one with a smirk, waiting for the answer.
"I'm not gonna fight you."
"What?" But Ninja sat down and started meditating. Hero sat opposite to him. It was completely quiet and you could have cut the tension in the air with a knife. "So what do you want me to call you? Because I'm sure as hell not going to call you 'Red Hooded Ninja' every time I want to get your attention." Ignored. "Oh, c'mon! Seriously!" Dick waved his palm in front of assassin's face. His eyes were closed but Dick either didn't pay attention or simply didn't care. Finally he gave up and let out a loud sigh.
"You know. If you wanted to get my attention you should have just wait for an answer, not annoy the shit out of me."
Dick dramatically fell on his back and backed out a little. "It can speak!"
"Shut up."
Silence.
Nightwing returned to his old position, waiting, with a curious look on his face and his head in front of the other's face.
"Ugh... I guess you can call me 'Red Hood'."
"Nightwing. Nightwing? Come in damnit!"
Dick's arm shot to his comm.
"Tigress! Do you hear me?"
"Yeah. You okay? We tried to get you out but the cave's too unstable."
"Oh..."
Red Hood walked to him.
"Ask them if they're doing something."
"Shh... shut up."
"Excuse me? You wanna walk out of there or not?"
"Not to you!"
"Wait. This Ninja is with you? Did he do something?"
"No, actually... we're kind of... bonding."
He could hear Artemis dumbstruck and somehow glaring at the comm in her ear. Just because she would be able to.
"You... what?"
"Don't worry Blondie. We've achieved a truce."
Nightwing looked at his right and saw ninja smirking with his finger on his comm.
"Stop hijacking our frequency!"
Masked man just laughed.
"How long is getting us out going to take?"
"That depends. A few men who stayed with Ra's are searching for the most stable-"
"Oh, so you CAN fraternize with our enemy but I CAN'T?"
"That's different."
"HOW EXACTLY is that different?!"
"Just is."
"We're working on it. You should be free about..." there were whispers in the background "seven hours."
"This long?!"
Nightwing looked at his companion.
"Patience, my young padawan." He said.
"Don't Star Wars me."
Dick grinned.
"Have fun!"
"Tigress?! Damn you."
"Heard that!" This time she really closed the link.
Dick laid flat on the ground. "Fuck."
The two sat in silence for seemed like hours.
"Okey, 'Red Hood'. We're gonna stay here for a while so as well as doing nothing, we can talk. Let's be serious. Aaand I want you to be, fully, completely, and a few other adjectives, honest right now."
Red Hood sighed.
"What?"
"Why would you save me? Back then, at the docks." Seeing the other's face, Nightwing quickly raised his hands as if he was surrendering. "Not like I'm not thankful! Just... curious."
The other one crossed his legs and looked down at his palms.
"I... I don't know. It was... An impulse."
"Huh. Well, that didn't answer my question."
"It'll have to do for now. Trust me, I'll tell you if I find out."
"Awesome. I'm locked down in a collapsed cave and have to trust the guy who tried to kill me. Asterous."
"I didn't."
Dick looked at him, startled.
"You didn't what?"
"Try to kill you. Damage? Maybe. But not kill."
Nightwing leaned forward and rested his chin on his palm.
"Now, that's an unexpected turn of events."
"Listen, I'm only starting to remember things, don't push it."
Dick didn't ask why he forgot in the first place.
"Ookey!"
"I'm serious!"
"So am I."
"Just shut up, Grayson."
Momentary, Nightwing sat straight.
"What did you just say?"
Red Hood furrowed eyebrows.
"That's your name, isn't it?"
"How do you..."
Ninja stopped for a moment. 'He's thinking up an excuse?'
"I- Ra's told me."
Dick slightly furrowed brows at him, suspicious.
"If you say so..."
Dick sat in the parlor watching TV and eating ice cream. His date with Barbara didn't work out too good and the two ended up fighting over some bagatelle. One would say that it was kind of girly behavior, but he didn't care. He and Babs have been playing this cat and mouse, or maybe rather bat and robin, for so long that it was ridiculous. Current Robin, Jason, walked into the dim room, the only light coming from TV. He sat next to his brother and stole some of his ice cream.
"Mango?" he asked.
"Yeah" answered Dick with mouth full of frozen... milk, I think. I have no idea what are mango ice cream made of. Probably mangos. "They're the best for everything."
Then Jason actually turned his attention as to what was his brother watching. "Soap opera? I guess you and Barbie didn't end up taking some time alone from sights huh?"
"Jay!" Dick could help but chuckle. After almost choking on ice cream. "Nah, we were fighting about some mere trifle, I don't even remember what it was. Give it more time and I'll start to think that we just aren't meant for each other."
Jason just smiled and put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "'Put two ships in the open sea, without wind or tide, and, at last, they will come together. Throw two planets into space, and they will fall one on the other. Place two enemies in the midst of a crowd, and they will inevitably meet; it is a fatality, a question of time; that is all.'" He stood up and rested his hands on his hips. "Jules Verne."
"You know" Dick got up from the couch, put on a smile and ruffled younger boy's hair while side-hugging him "you're not wasting your time with those books."
Jason faked his offended look. With his hand on his chest, where the heart would be he dramatically said "How could one even think that!" He laughed, lightly punched his brother in his arm and shouted "Tag!" Then shot forward, running from the other boy. Dick came running after him, already at his heels.
"You spaced out."
Nightwing sat straight.
"Huh? Oh, yea. You're right."
A few minutes passed.
"How is it possible that we keep bumping into each other. Quite literally, one could say."
Red Hood looked interested.
"What do you mean?"
"That first on Infinity Island, that I can understand. Then at the docks. Once is a chance. Twice is a coincidence. But then again, we're here, trapped together. Third time is a pattern."
"Pattern to what exactly?"
Dick shot his arms into the air.
"I don't know!"
"As one said: 'Place two enemies in the midst of a crowd, and they will inevitably meet; it is a fatality, a question of time; that is all'"
"Jules Verne."
Nightwing saw the surprise on assassin's face, even despite his red domino mask. He was also curious what happened that he wasn't using the one he saw him in on Infinity Island. But that's beyond the main subject.
"You read?"
"Ra's al Ghul has a big collection of books."
Dick squished his eyes on ninja, as if trying to confirm he's telling the truth. Something was off, but then again. Ra's DID have a really big library.
"You know, you kind of remind me of someone..."
"Really? Who?"
'Well, that was a really fast reaction.' Dick thought.
"Ja- Robin. The... the second one."
Red Hood stiffened and his muscles tensed.
"Why?"
"He liked to read too." Hero looked down. Red Hood asked with unexpectedly soft voice.
"What happened to him?"
Nightwing didn't really expect him to dwell on the subject. He clenched his fist so hard that if they weren't protected by the glows he would have cut his skin.
"Joker happen." He growled. "That sick, painted, fucking son of a bitch!" He punched the ground. Small parts of the fabric covering his knuckles was scratched off and small, red dots appeared on the floor.
"But not only him. I killed him. I killed my little brother because I wasn't there. I let him die because there was this stupid, useless, meaningless mission! I let him down... I failed." Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see masked face of the Red Hood.
"There's a difference between killing and letting die. Trust me. But you didn't do either of it."
"How can you know that?"
"I... I just know. It was Clown's fault. And only his."
They still had a few hours until they would be able to go. Nightwing took out from his belt a thin blanket. He laid down as if he was going to sleep and covered himself with black fabric. Red Hood watched it silently.
"What the heck are you doing?"
"I'm gonna sleep. What else?"
Then he saw the emblem on the blanket.
"You're fucking kidding me."
"Whaaaaat?"
"Bats must have quite an ego to put their symbols everywhere."
"Hey! I love my logo. Thank you very much."
"You're really going to fall into slumber in the cold, wet and... cave-ing cave? I get it, Bats, caves. Really. But you're nuts. Wanna get sick?"
"I. Don't. Care." He said to his arm so words were a little muffled.
"Whatever."
...
"Aren't you worried that I'll kill you in your sleep?"
Dick yawned.
"Oh, man. I was almost asleep! And it's like you said. You weren't trying to earlier. I don't see a reason why you would do now."
And with that, he turned on his side, closing his eyes.
"Ugh!" Jason threw a pen through the open window. He looked after it for a moment before slamming his head against the desk. Dick stopped in his tracks and leaned against the doorframe.
"What has this poor thing ever done to you?"
Jason looked at him with defeated look on his face.
"I don't get it, Dick! I understand maths and biology. I'm good at english. And my teacher says I'm a freaking genius when it comes to the chemistry. But physics? Especially with our 'something stuck in my ass and died' strict level teacher? No. It's a big no-no."
Dick walked closer, leaned forward and rested his forearms on the mahogany desk.
"If it'll make you feel better, you're the only one who is on Babs level in literature. And she works in the library."
"There's still Alfred. And actually, it's not that hard to be better than you." He smirked. "Dicktionary."
"And there I thought we've already established that Alfie's an immortal god undercover." Dick smiled. "But now for real. I'm good at physics. What do you have problem with?"
"You're breaking the laws of physics, big bro."
"I know. If I can make new ones, why bother with the old?"
...
They were sitting together on younger boy's bed eating Alfred's cookies and drinking hot cocoa. Jason was leaning against his brother's arm and listening to his weird attempts to explain Jason physics for younger's exam. He knew who to buy a box of cereal when he got an 'A' the next day.
Red Hood smiled under his breath. Yeah, he definitely remembers now. Not all, but some of it. He looked down from his standing position at the sleeping form of his brother. He'll never know how he manages to trust complete strangers. 'Because he definitely isn't this naive.'
Jason kneeled down beside his brother and kissed his forehead.
"Thank you. Thank you for never letting me down, big bro."
He stood up and saw the tunnel Ra's mentioned a little bit earlier. He wanted him out first before the heroes will get through. 'Two exists. Conveniently.'
When he was almost completely absorbed by darkness, he looked back for a moment, thinking.
Jason really wanted to go back. But first he has another brother to take with him.
When Dick woke up, Red Hood was gone. And maybe his heart knew it was his brother, but his mind was yet to find out.
He heard voices before he saw anyone. Artemis in her Tigress costume and Superboy stood beside him, Artemis had a smug smile on her face. Conner just cocked his head.
He heard Artemis say "Really?" and smiled back at her.
The end! Did you enjoy? I really hope so! And as I said earlier: I want to know where I made my mistakes and killed grammar meanwhile ;) There's going to be a third part, so don't worry!
G'night
×xXxNightsilverxXx