AN: Hey loyal readers! This is an extra long chapter, mostly filler, explaining how Batman reacts when he realizes that Dick is missing. Also, I will be in Toronto for a while playing hockey, so I won't be cranking out chapters like I have been. Thanks so much for the support and enjoy! ON WITH THE CHAPTER!

Disclaimer: I do not own DC or any of it's characters (but don't we all wish we did?)
07/24/2016: So I went back and looked at this story, and I realized that I had posted the same chapter twice. I don't know what the heck happened, but the website decided to post the chapter again. SO SO sorry!

Wayne Manor
7:30 A.M.
The Next Day

Bruce blearily blinked his eyes open. It took a little more than a moment to figure out where he was; he then realized that he was back in his bedroom. As he sat up, he groaned as his ribs complained. Placing a hand on his chest, he felt the bandages wrapped around his torso. Looking around, he noticed the light streaming into the room, casting a soft glow on the floor.

Looking over to his left, Bruce saw the alarm clock sitting on his bedside table. Its face read 7:30 A.M. Sniffing in slight annoyance, he flung the covers off of his body, and planted both feet on the floor. Groaning again as he rose, he walked into his bathroom, splashing water on his face. He snagged his robe off of its hook, and slipped it on as he headed out of his room.

As he tied the sash around his waist, his thoughts traveled back to the events of last night. The Talons had almost overwhelmed the Cave, along with Bruce and Alfred; however, they had drove back the deadly invaders, destroying many of the Talons in the process. Hopefully, that would convince the Court to rethink their animosity towards Batman.

When Bruce finally reached the kitchen, he could see Alfred at the stove, with Damian sitting at the counter. Alfred glanced over his shoulder, his eyebrows rising at the sight of Bruce. "Master Bruce, I am surprised to see you up and about so late in the day." Bruce smirked as he picked up on Alfred's subtle sarcasm.

"I apparently needed the rest. Don't worry, it won't happen again anytime soon," he replied, picking an apple from the bowl on the countertop. He held it in his hands, and watched the light reflect off of the bright red skin.

Damian gave an amused snort. "Father seems to have trouble grasping what it is 'early,' and what is 'late.'"

"It all comes down to perspective, Damian," Bruce stated, sitting down next to his son. The men grew quiet, the sound of cooking eggs the only noise in the room. After a few minutes, it was Alfred who broke the silence. "Master Bruce, did you hear from anyone after the events of last night?"

Bruce didn't reply, instead pulling out his smart phone from his pocket. Damian watched his father as Bruce unlocked the device, and scrolled through the many voicemails that awaited him. His eyes scanned the list, until he found the numbers he was looking for. Tapping the screen, he simultaneously pulled up the voicemail and putting it on speaker. "Bruce. Glad to hear that you're still alive. Sorry I couldn't be there, but I had other things going on*. Let me know if you need help with anything."

"Good to hear that Master Drake did not get caught up in this fiasco," Alfred said, placing a plate of eggs in front of Bruce. Bruce nodded and grunted, ignoring the eggs in front of him.

"Tt. I wouldn't exactly call it 'good,'" Damian said, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Damian," Bruce scolded. The grudge between Damian and Tim was a sensitive topic between the sons of Batman. For some reason, Damian loved to get under Tim's skin, and irritate him to no end. When he first met Tim, he had tried, and almost succeeded in killing Tim. However, as Damian slowly began to assimilate into society and learn about his feelings, his relationship with Tim had gotten somewhat better. They still would find themselves at each other's throats, but at least they weren't going to kill each other.

"What?" Damian asked, irritated.

"Leave Tim alone."

"But he's not even here," Damian whined.

"I don't care. Knock it off," Bruce growled, shutting Damian up.

Once again, Bruce selected one of the messages from the list. "Bruce. It's Barbara. Good to hear that you're still alive. Dad's okay, though he's thoroughly pissed off. It was one hell of a night, that's for sure. Oh, I saw Jason. He says 'you're welcome' for bringing in Freeze. I don't know what you want me to do, but I'm currently keeping an eye on him. I still don't trust him. Let me know if anything happens." The phone clicked, signaling the end of the call.

"Todd was in Gotham? That's news to me," Damian scoffed, chewing thoughtfully on his eggs.

"It was news to me too. I knew that he was off with his own group, but I didn't know that he came back," Bruce pondered aloud.

"Maybe that is a good sign, Master Bruce," Alfred offered, sounding slightly hopeful.

"Maybe," Bruce mumbled. As he continued to scan his phone, his brow furrowed. Damian noticed the change in Bruce's demeanor, and glanced at his father, slightly confused. "What is it, Father?"

"There's no message from Dick," Bruce answered, his finger moving up and down on the phone's screen.

"Well, maybe he's still sleeping. We all know that Grayson loves to laze about," Damian offered, his face a mask of disinterest.

"Possibly. But he would have checked in last night, especially after how we left things," Bruce stated, guilt sending small twinges of pain in his chest. He regretted punching Dick, but at the time, it seemed like the only way to knock some sense into his adopted son. Now, as he thought about it, he realized that it wasn't the right decision.

"Whatever the reason for not messaging us, I'm sure Master Dick has a perfectly reasonable one," Alfred reassured.

However, Bruce did not feel calmed by Alfred's words. A growing sense of unease was filling his body, his gut telling him something was off. Without a word, he shot up from his seat, leaving the plate of eggs untouched. "Master Bruce, where are you going?" Alfred called after him.

He did not reply, his bare feet silent on the carpet. Behind him, he could hear his son's footsteps, along with Alfred's, following him. Reaching the clock in his study, he activated the mechanism that opened the passage to the cave. Striding down the steps, he dismissed the small jolts of pain in his chest. Once he had reached the Batcomputer, he pulled the seat out, and sat down. "Computer, track Nightwing, authorization code 6489."

Running trace, a disembodied voice said, echoing around the cave. As the computer pinpointed Dick's location, Bruce noticed that Damian and Alfred were next to him, watching the screen. After what seemed like an eternity, the computer chimed. Current location unknown. Last known location of Nightwing was on Third and Fifth Avenue, near the Subway station.

"That can't be right," Bruce mumbled, furiously typing.

"Maybe he shut his tracker off by accident," Alfred stated. However, his voice held a tone of doubt. Everyone in the Bat family always had their tracker on, no matter what happened. For Nightwing to have deactivated his tracker, something must have happened.

Bruce pulled up a map of Gotham, and found where the signal had disappeared. Standing up, he strode over to the container that held his suit. "Damian, get dressed," he ordered. He heard his son run over to where his suit was stored. As he pulled his cowl over his face, Damian ran up next to him, looking at his father.

Batman and Robin raced over to the Batmobile, the top hatch already open. "Master Bruce, where are you going?" Alfred called.

"To find Nightwing," Bruce called back, switching on the vehicle. With the smell of rubber on pavement, and the roaring of the engine, the Batmobile shot out of the cave, leaving Alfred standing alone, looking worriedly at the screen.

15 minutes later...

As the Batmobile stopped on Third and Fifth, Batman jumped out of the car, hearing the snow crunch under his boots. A similar sound reached his ears as Damian followed him. It was still early in the morning, so the street was eerily quiet. Since the events of last night had been seen across the city, many residents decided to stay in, and not risk being caught in the crossfire.

Scanning the ground, Batman immediately noticed the small amount of red that stained the ground. It had almost disappeared underneath a layer of freshly fallen snow. Fortunately, it had stopped snowing sometime earlier in the morning, so not all of the evidence was gone. Stooping down, Batman reached into his belt and removed a swab. He took a sample of the bloody snow, and pocketed the evidence.

"Batman," Damian called. Batman turned, and walked over towards his son. He saw a discarded rope, lying in the snow. Damian bent down and picked it up. "This is one of our ropes," he said, turning the rope over in his hands.

"It's most likely Nightwing's," Batman said, taking it from Damian. Activating the scanner in his cowl, he could see the weave of the fibers, and the color of the rope. After a few seconds, he successfully concluded that it was Nightwing's. He silently gave the rope back to Damian, turning his attention back to the crime scene. With his scanner still activated, he could see a series of footprints appear, hidden to the naked eye. He followed the steps, seeing the familiar tread of Nightwing's boots among the many prints. "Nightwing was here," Batman said. "It looks like he was in a scuffle with another person, someone around his size, maybe a bit larger."

Tracing the prints, he continued to speak. "The fight continued, more blood was shed," he said, pointing to the ground. "Then, Nightwing's prints lead towards the stairs, but stop on the first step." Looking down towards the bottom of the stairs, Batman could see a pool of blood. "He must have passed out from blood loss," he concluded aloud.

"Father. You need to see this," Damian called.

"There's a new set of prints here," Batman mumbled, seeing a deep set of prints on his scanner. They were deep in the snow, suggesting that the person was large, and possibly heavy. Batman touched the side of his cowl, and took a close-up photo of the print. Once he returned to the cave, he would run it through the computer to see if it would get any hits.

"Father!" Damian called again, breaking Batman's concentration.

"What is it, Robin?" he responded, rising while turning off his scanner.

"I've found a Talon," Damian replied. Rushing over to his son, Batman could see the body of a man lying in the snow. It was apparent that he had dragged himself across the ground, but hadn't gotten very far. That was probably due to the knife sticking out of his temple.

"What the hell?" Batman said aloud.

"I don't know either. Apparently, he managed to regenerate a little before his body 'died' again," Damian responded.

Bending over, Batman inspected the handle of the knife. As he studied it, something clicked inside his mind. A cold chill ran through his blood, his heart skipping. "I've seen this knife before," Batman whispered.

"Whose is it?" Damian asked.

"Slade Wilson's. He's more commonly known as Deathstroke," Batman replied. "If he was here, nothing good could have happened." Pivoting on his heel, he turned his scanner on again and walked over to the deep prints. Following the footprints, he saw that Deathstroke had moved forward quickly. Glancing back at Cobb, he assumed that Wilson had attacked Cobb, effectively 'killing' the assassin. Continuing to follow the trail, he saw that Wilson had traveled down the stairs, where his prints temporarily disappeared.

Walking down the stairs, Bruce could see something partially buried by snow. Upon closer examination, he realized that it was a pair of discarded gauntlets and boots. The icy feeling in Bruce's bloodstream suddenly exploded, making his body completely cold. Numbly, he looked down at the ground, and noticed pieces of smashed plastic on the ground. With sickening dread, he realized that it was Nightwing's earpiece, which also doubled as one of his trackers. His boots, along with his gauntlets also contained trackers.

"Damn you, Slade!" Batman cursed, gripping Nightwing's gear between his fingers. He stalked up the stairs, hoping that there would be some sort of clue as to where Slade went; unfortunately, he was only met with fading footprints.

"So, did you find anything?" Damian asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Batman wordlessly held up Dick's gear, Damian's face morphing with surprise and confusion.

"Deathstroke has him," Batman said, answering Damian's unvoiced question. Walking over to the Batmobile, he placed the gear into the back, where there was a clean compartment. He hoped that he could gain a small clue from the gear that would lead to Wilson's location.

"What does that man want with Grayson?" Damian asked, incredulous.

"I don't know, Robin," Batman replied truthfully. Walking back over to where Cobb lay, he decided that he had gleaned everything he could from the crime scene. Bending over, he picked up the Talon, slinging his body over his shoulder. Heading back to the Batmobile, he called over his shoulder. "Come on, Robin. We have work to do."

Damian trotted over to the car, where he saw Batman place Cobb in the back of the vehicle, strapped in tightly. As he jumped into the vehicle, he glanced over at his father. "What is going to happen to Grayson?" he asked as the car vibrated as it turned on.

"Nothing good, Damian. Nothing good," Batman replied, each word sinking like a stone in his throat. As they drove back to the cave, Batman opened a channel with Red Robin and Batgirl.

"Attention Red Robin and Batgirl: Nightwing has been kidnapped by Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke. Requesting immediate assistance. Report to Cave as soon as possible. Nightwing does not have much time. We need to find him immediately."

'We might be too late,' Bruce thought to himself as they headed back to the cave. 'I won't let you down, Dick. Never again.'

AN: Dun, dun, dun! All questions will be answered, I promise! In this story, the relationship between Jason and Bruce hasn't exactly healed over yet, so I'm working on the dynamic between them. Also, *Tim did not encounter any Talons, since he was busy with the Titans (I doubled checked to make sure that I wasn't wrong).*
Please leave a review and feel free to ask questions! Until next time!