A/N: Oh my god, guys, I'm so sorry I haven't been updating at all. Its been...rough IRL for me, its quite bad. Not going to go into too much detail but I guess one can say I relapsed. Its been stressful, with a lot of drama and examinations, so I've been dealing with that. Nevertheless, here's a new chapter. I'm writing the next one soon, so I hope it'll be up. Again, I'm so sorry I kept you lovely people waiting D:
Hope you enjoy this chapter.
~FANFICTION~
The darkness clouding her cerulean gaze disappeared abruptly.
A soft gasp escaped her parted lips as her eyes flew open, her vision blurry and stars dancing across her peripheral vision. The gravel lining the roads of the docks dug into her exposed skin, leaving red weals as she had thrashed in the hallucination. Breathing hard, Barbara slowly sat up, her hands gripping her head painfully as she did so. The past days of self-torture had weakened her body further, resulting in less resistance from the 'serum' given.
"Welcome back, dear." A deep, gravelly voice penetrated her auditory nerves as she narrowed her eyes, fingers rubbing her temples in agony.
"W-wh...what did you do to me?" she mumbled, but her voice lacked its usual bite, head pounding. Slade's perfidious chuckles did nothing but intensify the migraine.
"A little...hmm...shall we say, touch." he said, crossing his arms. "Of what awaits if you disobey me." Pause. "Of course, if you -do- disobey me…" His eyes flicker, but she's too scared to say anything. "Dickie-bird here will be reunited with his mama and papa, won't he?"
Barbara bit her tongue, rage brewing inside her fleeting figure. Her bright blue eyes lacked its usual intelligent sparkle, but shone with pure hate and anger, but fear was present too. No. She couldn't lose him now.
"What...what do you want from me, Slade?" she spat out the name, but the words lacked bite, finishing with the dejected sigh that one would associate with defeat. He smirked at her defeat, eyeing the broken figure that sat crumpled upon the gravel not unlike the way one would eye a slab of meat at the butcher's, or a child pining over a long-coveted shiny new toy. He had her exactly where he wanted her.
"Well you see, Batgirl...or should I say...Babs?" he murmured, clearly enjoying the white hot flash of distress oscillating through her eyes. "I want a few things from you in exchange for your...friend."
"A...anything."
"Good girl." Pause. "I simply want one thing though, since I'm...nice. Aren't I?"
"Yes. Very nice." The words are taut, forced.
"I simply want you to come with me, Babs." he practically purred, pleased. "It won't take very long." He offers her a hand, which she does not take. Forcing herself to stand upright rather shakily, she gently pushes her long hair behind her ears, eyes narrowing.
"Fine. Where are we go-" She is cut off by a sudden stabbing pain in her neck, her expression going slack as terror flashes upon her eyes, frozen. Her figure falls limp, slack, folding at the knees only to crumple upon the hard floor once more. Upon inspection, her eyes would still move, but her body limp, pliable.
Things began fading in and out after that. She felt strange hands upon her, gripping the body that was clad in spandex so tightly that it would bruise. Barbara could feel her legs then torso maneuvered into a rough bag, folded at an uncomfortable angle, not that she could do anything about it anyway. She could hear the sounds of the street as her figure was jostled, the constant rhythm of steps a measure of distance. Had only she be able to move or cry out, she would have, but to no avail. Paralysis. A fear come alive, until a sudden agony in her head made everything go black...
~FANFICTION~
"Silly girl." Slade chuckled lightly, pulling open the body bag at a slight angle as he pushed some of her long ginger hair aside, taking care to grip unnecessarily powerfully upon the lithe girl's visage. "Here." He moved back, allowing another man, clad in in white to place a device at her temple, before pushing a button, releasing something with the hiss of pressurised air.
"Throw 'er in." He cocked his head before turning away, footsteps echoing in the silence.
~FANFICTION~
Dick had lost all sense of time, lying there in the room. His cuts and bruises were slowly healing, but every so often, someone would enter, change the IV that he was newly connected to, to keep him 'doped up', he supposed. They observed him, and sometimes broke the cuts, allowing fresh scarlet blood to run down his battered body like an eldritch waterfall. Pain had become his new normal, accustomed.
He didn't know how long he had been there, in the room with the lights that never turned off, bright white. He felt like he was slowly going mad, a specimen in someone's laboratory. Dick was...scared. But he was alive. In pain but alive, but losing his sanity like sand falling in an hourglass, fragments that broke away never to return. Even if someone were to save him, he would never be the same again.
The maddening silence of the drugs dripping into his body was shattered by the door opening, a slight hiss as the pressurised door opened. Not one, but two men stood, the glint of a blade in their hands visible in the bright light. Squinting, he sighed to himself silently, resigned to whatever torture they'd succumb him to next. It couldn't exactly get worse; he'd already faced his worst fears, time and time again. They came closer, so close that he could make out the threads of fabric that made up their clothing. Lumpy, he wasn't even sure whether they were male or female, just a pair of eyes gazing over a mask, alabaster fabric covering up everything else.
Dick's breath hitched in his throat as they came closer, observing, murmuring under their breaths to each other in a way that he had never been subjected to previously.
"...she made the deal…"
"...yes…"
"...do as the boss says...no...just do it…."
The words were practically unintelligible, muffled by the paper mask and the shuffling, but his mind was racing. Her? She made the deal? She? Who was she?
Steph.
Cass.
Babs.
Babs…
No...not Babs, he thought wildly. Please don't let it be Babs, please...no...not her….not Babs…
Dick's chest tightened as the thought sprinted through his mind, glancing white hot pains spreading from each word. He remembered the girl and her vivacity, the unerring resilience and skill that made her who she was, her unconditional love for the adopted family, her seeming perfection, well at least in his eyes anyway. She was...something else, and the mere thought of having her touched by these depraved scum was...unbearable.
"...yeah, we got her…"
"...dump the body like he said...it don't matter…"
The body. Dump the body. Babs. His breath caught in his throat with a sharp hiss, betraying his consciousness to the two, who immediately stopped speaking. Dick's bruised figure was still taut as they mumbled to each other further, before one lifted a mask from a hook beside the hard metal gurney, the other tightening the straps that held him there, taking special care to run an icy cold hand over the raw red flesh that remained from his struggles.
"N-no…" he rambled, twisting his head away as an odd calmness filled his figure as he breathed in the wafts of nitrous oxide from the mask. Straining at the newly tightened ligatures with a soft moan, he could only go limp as the gloved hands slid the mask over his face. Silence...just silence…
