Still don't own Nightwing or anything else DC does. Not suing would be appreciated.

Anyway, thanks for the reviews. p.s. I changed the rating due to some language, better safe than sorry.

/\-n-/\

Dick lost hours and days to the consistent doses of Goss. He struggled to keep hold of who he really was, to be stronger than the drug, but he always lost that fight. Every six hours or so, just about when Dick had come down enough to regain control of this thoughts, another dose of Goss was faithfully given to him by Adrian. The man enjoyed watching Dick weakly struggle and the succumb to the drug. Dick was also regularly beaten, but he usually was too high to feel much of it.

He woke on the damp, cool floor of the room. His hands were tied behind his back and he was no longer tied to the chair. He slowly sat up and leaned against the wall. Blood was dried on the side of his face and his lip was split. He shivered from being in the cool room for so long and from coming down from his last hit. Sweat soaked his brow and his shirt. He felt sick to his stomach and pain would radiate through his arms and legs.

As uncomfortable as sobering up was becoming, his thoughts were clearer. He struggled to reach the com device and winced as the handcuffs rubbed his raw and bloody wrists. The tip of his finger touched it, but it was secured too tightly for him to get it out in his current bound state. He tried again, desperation taking hold. His thoughts were split between getting him and Alex out of there and getting his next hit. The preoccupation with the drug was starting to overpower the will to escape.

The door to the room was unlocked and opened. Dick looked up as Adrian walked into the room and stood a few feet away.

A smile spread across Adrian's face. "How are you feeling today?"

"What day is it?" Dick's voice was gravelly from lack of use.

"Tuesday."

Four days, I've been here four days. He swallowed and took a slow breath. I wonder if anyone knows I'm missing yet. God, please let him have some Goss for me.

Adrian turned to one of his lackeys. The heavily muscled man drug a severely battered and broken Alex into the room. Alex looked up at Dick from his position on the floor.

Adrian paced the room. "He's not talking, Dick. Can't get a thing from him."

Dick watched the man carefully, he looked for any weaknesses to exploit or take advantage of. He couldn't focus enough, couldn't separate himself from the desire of the drug long enough to figure out Adrian's weakness. That is exactly what Adrian wanted.

Adrian stopped and pulled Alex up by his shirt. "So, what do I do with him?" He pulled a gun from a holster under his jacket.

Dick tensed as Adrian held the gun to Alex's temple. "Answers, Dick, or you get to watch your friend die."

Bruce was down in the batcave. Ever since the news of Dick's abduction, he had been scouring the streets of Gotham and Bludhaven for any information. As a detective, the lack of information was nearly killing him.

He stood at his computers and monitors and scanned anything he had found. He knew as well as anyone that the longer Dick remained missing, the more likely it was that he was already dead.

Bruce hit a button. "Gordon, anything?"

"I'm sorry, Bruce." Chief Gordon had been keeping all his police contacts open. "I'll keep looking and listening. Addid is looking as hard as we have been."

"I know." He glanced at the screens again. "Call me if you find anything."

"Where are you going?"

"Back to Bludhaven." He turned and walked away from the computers.

Bruce stalked the streets of Bludhaven. He shook down any dealer, buyer, supplier who had a hand in Gossamer. Nobody had seen anything. He was getting desperate. Four days is a long time to be missing, and those that are missing from Bludhaven or Gotham, for that matter, have a tendency of ending up in the river or the bay with a bullet between their eyes.

The mission for that night was to find Kamkazie. Without leads to follow, Bruce went back through anyone who had something against Dick. Adrian Boanes was near the top of the list, especially after that bullet he put into Dick's abdomen not so long ago. Kamkazie's lack of presence on the streets strengthened the idea that he had something to do with Dick's absence.

Dick met Alex's eyes and saw the terror barely contained there. "What do you want to know?"

Adrian smiled, cocked the gun. "The names of every dealer you have a file on, and the location of those files."

"I don't know them all off hand." Dick winced as his addiction grew stronger. "I can get them to you if you let me."

Adrian quickly fired the gun into Alex's leg. Alex yelled in surprise and pain. Blood soaked and ran from his jeans onto the floor. Dick's heart rate quickened.

"That's the answer he gave." Adrian met Dick's desperate gaze. "Give me Bruce Wayne."

Dick's blood ran cold, his mouth went dry. "Why?"

"Billionaires interest me and you're the son of one of the most well known." He fired again and hit Alex in the abdomen. Alex was pale from pain and blood loss.

"What's Gossamer got to do with him?"

Adrian smiled and pulled a syringe of the mentioned drug from his coat. He knew what it would do to Dick and he smiled as Dick's eyes locked onto it.

"I don't think that's any of your concern." He paused. "I'll give you a choice. Give me the information and you will get either your friend's life or the dose of Goss. Choose."

Alex coughed. "Don't tell him anything." He gasped. "I'm not worth him knowing. We didn't get this far to-"

He was cut off as Adrian's thick boot landed in Alex's stomach. He was carried a few feet through the air and landed in a heap on the floor.

"Choose." The smile was gone from Adrian's face and his eyes were cold with insanity and power.

Dick met Alex's eyes again. Alex shook his head slightly.

"Fine." Adrian aimed and fired.

The bullet hit its mark at Alex's temple. Blood pooled under him and slowly traced a river to the drain in the center of the room. Dick struggled to keep himself from vomiting. He swallowed.

Adrian stood a few feet from Dick and held up the syringe. "You get neither." He smiled and left the room.

Alone again with Alex's lifeless body and cold, hard withdrawal the only things occupying Dick's mind. I'm going to die here. I wasn't strong enough to save him or me, wasn't good enough. I deserve to die here.

He slid down the wall and curled onto the floor in an attempt to ease the aches of the muscle cramps. He knew as strongly as he knew his own name that his last moments of life would be filled with pain and suffering.

One last shot. The thought flew into Dick's mind. He struggled, felt the handcuffs cut deeper into his wrists and managed to grab the com link. The room spun sickeningly, he nearly blacked out. He needed a hit, it wasn't just an addiction, he no longer could function without Gossamer running through his veins. Please, help me. He pressed the button on the com link and passed out.