A.N.

Hello, people of the internet, I bet you thought you'd heard the last of me, but alas here I am with another update. Though of course, I've been writing this story since 2013 so I can't blame you if you no longer care. But inspiration strikes at the weirdest times.

A little update, I graduated college in May where I got my B.A. in Theatre Performance. I moved to Chicago in August, got a full-time job, did a show, and now am going stir crazy because no one has auditions in December. Bad for my mental health, but great for my fanfiction.

Hope you guys enjoy the newest installment of this story!

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There was something inherently disturbing about watching your son thrash about wildly against restraints tying him to a hospital bed. Something disturbing about the twisted and violent look plastered on Dick's face. And that something shook Bruce. Because while a part of his brain was wholly concerned for him, another part was weary. For his son had never looked like such a threat, not even at his angriest had Dick radiated such pure unadulterated physical power. Bruce knew that Dick was skilled, there was no question about that, but never had he feared him.

The rest of the leaguers stood silently next to him, watching the boy they had grown to love through the glass window mounted onto the wall. Staring as Manhunter attempted to shift through his mind to see what had caused Dick to act like this. They had taken his blood sample while he was still unconscious, but John had insisted that it would be easier to measure Dick's mental state if he were awake. Perhaps it was, but standing there watching his son altered, unable to do anything to help, that was the hardest thing Bruce had ever had to encounter.

After a moment, John's eyes opened and standing up he gave Dick an appraising stare. Perhaps wondering if he should knock him out again, but evidently decided against it, as he simply turned away from the screaming boy wonder and phased out of the room. Once gone Dick fell silent and stared out the glass window, and despite knowing that he couldn't see them, Bruce had the weirdest feeling that his son was sizing them all up. His thought process was cut off when John appeared before them, and with a nod of his head he beckoned them out.

"I believe that we should discuss this outside of Robins presence, I fear that he would only split our attention." With a general sound of agreement the leaguers walked out of the room one by one, and with one last glance to his son, who was still looking through the window, Bruce followed suit. Passing out of the room he came face to face with his other sons; Tim and Damian, who he had left in the hall, knowing that they didn't need to see their brother in this state.

"Is he okay?"

"Is he awake?"

"Why did he fight us?"

"What did DeathStroke do to him?"

"Will he try to get him again?" Holding his hand up, his two sons immediately stopped their stream of questions, and looked up expectantly.

"He's awake now, we believe that DeathStroke did something to alter his mind, but we're not sure what yet. He's safe in the watchtower." Moving away he began to head to the main room were the other leaguers were meeting, but turned back to the two boys, who looked unimpressed by the answers he had provided. "Both of you are to stay out of Dick's room, we don't know exactly what has happened to him yet, and it could be unsafe to go in their alone." Damian scoffed, as if to say there was no way that Dick would ever be a threat to them. "I mean it, do not underestimate your brother or Deathstroke, you don't know what either of them is capable of." And with that, he turned around and walked out the room. Hoping that for once they would listen to him. Fearing that they wouldn't it. Those thoughts were pushed from his mind however when he came face to face with his own teammates, all waiting for him impatiently. Ignoring them he turned to face John, who's usually calm demeanor, seemed worried. "What's wrong with my son?"

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Dick was torn, literally. A part of his brain was shouting at him to stop fighting, to talk to John who had just walked into his room, and to help figure out what was wrong with him. The other, more dominant, part however was not having it, and as soon as he saw the green man he threw himself against he restraints and thought of nothing but attacking him. Of burning him, because he had taken him away from his Master and Catalina, and that was unacceptable. John to his credit did not seem fazed by the act of aggression, and instead moved to the chair that was pushed in front of his bed. Sitting down he stared at Dick intently, and after a moment Dick felt the familiar probe of another person in his mind, this caused him to fight against his restraints harder, but mentally he screamed.

Manhunter can you hear me, please say you can hear me, and actual me, not angry me. I'm in here ok, I'm in here!

Richard calm down, and concentrate. We're going to figure out a way to fix this, but we need to know exactly what happened to you.

I don't know fully, the past few weeks are a complete blur. I think Catalina - at her name her face appeared in his mind and his train of thought cut off. Suddenly he remembered he was trapped, that he had promised to return - Let me out of here, I swear to God I will kill each and everyone of you if you touched her. He snarled at the alien who, at least mentally, seemed taken aback by the swift change.

Richard focus, your thoughts our not your own, they did something to you, and we want to fix it. But to do that you most show me what you know. Fighting for sanity, Dick sought to take back control of his mind, even if his body was theirs.

They injected me with something, I don't know what, but they've been doing it for awhile, and DeathStroke, - he wants me to be his apprentice, and I want to be his apprentice. I need to train under him, and do as my Master says, and you have to let me go. I'll find a way out and back to them, you know I will but if you let me go know I won't hurt any of you. That was not part of my order.

You know we can't do that, we will get you back to normal I promise, we took a blood sample and once we know what they gave you we can reverse it. Just try to fight this urge. John opened his eyes, and Dick wanted to scream when he was left alone once more with his thoughts. The man started to go, and Dick felt himself slipping back under DeathStroke's and Catalina's control, but before it could happen he mentally screamed out as loudly as he could. Causing John to turn back to him.

Don't let me hurt them, please, don't let me hurt my family. Seeming pleased, the Martian sent a reassuring wave over Dicks mind.

I will do everything in my power to not let that happen. And with that John fazed out of the room leaving Dick alone. Staring out the window, that he knew his Father was standing behind watching him, he felt himself stop fighting. There was no one to fight, and while he was staring at the glass to see if it was too dense to break. He was also hoping that his Father could see through him. See that he was sorry, for fighting them, and that he was sorry for letting himself get caught. And for a moment, it felt like he could see Bruce, for a moment it felt like things would be ok. But then it was gone.

Looking around, and without the distraction of the league, Dick's thoughts focused on how to escape and get back to his Master. He knew that the restraints were too strong to break through, having been designed to keep Superman retrained. But he might be able to get them unlocked. Though metal, there was a small, nearly invisible divide where the metal clasped, locking a person in. If he could finagle something in between there he may be able to get them to release. Then it would just be a matter of sneaking out of the Watchtower which he had done hundreds of times before.

Unfortunately, he knew Bruce would have thought of that, and after a quick survey discovered that all of his usual hiding places for pins and blades, had been cleared. It didn't help that he was still in his school uniform and so didn't have many of his usual tools to begin with. So if he couldn't break out of his ties, then perhaps he would be able to talk out of them. True the league knew he was under his Master's control, but if he got them to believe he was on their side once more, then they would release him, and he could make his escape.

Just as the thought entered his head the door opened, and the two small forms of his brothers peeked around the edge. For a moment Dick felt nothing but pure panic, wishing that they would leave and not come closer. But that thought was swiftly pushed out of his head, he had defied his Master too much today, having broken down to John. And this could give him the opportunity he needed to escape. Putting on the weakest voice he could manage he called out to them.

"Timmy, Dami, it's okay you can come in." The door opened wider fully revealing the two of them. Though both were trained by Bruce, both were still young, and couldn't fully hide their worry or weariness from him. "Are you guys ok? I'm so sorry for fighting you, I would never have done it if I was in my right mind. I feel awful." Those words at least seemed to do the trick with Tim who inched closer to the bed.

"Are you ok, you seemed pretty out of it for a minute." Dick was just about to assuage his fears when Damian spoke up from the door. His eyes showing his suspicion.

"Father said you are dangerous." Mentally swearing at Bruce, Dick put on his best sorrowful face, and nodded pathetically. "And I was for a moment, I didn't have full control of my body so I wasn't holding anything back. But I'm better now, Manhunter was in here and cleared things up." Damian seemed to soften but still held back.

"So you're saying you're cured?" Dick knew if he said yes Damian wouldn't believe him, but maybe if he denied it he could play them.

"Not completely, DeathStroke messed me up a lot, away from them I'm fine, but if he were to be in front of me I could go under his control again." That at least seemed to appease Damian who moved closer to the bed. Richard Grayson was nothing if not overly cautious about hurting others, it made sense he would still be worried. Tim drew his attention once more as he pulled at his restraints. Dick repressed a grin.

"Why are you still restrained then?" Smiley softly at the boy he attempted a nonchalant shrug as though it didn't matter to him.

"I asked them to keep it on, I was worried that I might revert under again." Damian scoffed out that.

"That's incredibly stupid of you Grayson, you just said that would only occur if Wilson was here, and there is no way he would be able to break into the Watchtower."

"Better safe than sorry Dami, I don't want to hurt you guys." Tim seemed concerned and pulled a small tablet from his pocket.

"This can't be comfortable to have on your wrist though Dick, I mean you're already bleeding a little bit." His brothers were a lot more naive than he remembered them being "I can release them for a little bit just to give you some relief, and then we can put them back on before the leaguers come back." Dick put on his best worried face, and shook his head quickly.

"I don't know if that's the best idea Timmy, I'll be fine I promise, it only hurts a little bit." Tim, as expected, ignored his older brother and kept typing, while Damian tusked at him from the side.

"Sick it up Grayson, there's no point in you suffering just because you're being overly cautious. We're releasing you." Dick sighed as though he had accepted defeat within the argument, but discreetly starred as Tim typed out the codes. Despite their training, he knew he could take out his brothers quickly, and as long as the league wasn't nearby he would be able to escape via the zeta-tubes before they found them unconscious. With a soft click, the metal unclasped and he gently eased himself up, and gingerly wrapped at his wrist.

"I still think this is a bad idea guy's." Damian rolled his eyes and moved closer to him.

"It's too late Grayson, we already did it, and look you haven't attacked us yet. And Father hilariously thought you were a threat." Giving a good-natured smile Dick ruffled his brother's hair, and despite his huff of annoyance, Damian didn't shake him off.

"You're right, I haven't attacked you, yet." Before Damian could react Dick shifted his hand to the bottom of his neck and pinched hard on a pressure point there, causing his brother to collapse to the floor. Tim backed away in horror and knowing he wouldn't be able to fight Dick ran to the door. Flipping over the bed however he shoved it closed just has Tim had opened it and flipped the boy around. "You know Timmy I'm disappointed, I thought Bruce and I had taught you better than that." Looking frightened but determined Tim looked up and met his eyes.

"You did." Immediately a loud blaring rang through the room and looking down Dick saw Tim's hand on the tablet, having activated the emergency alarm. With a growl he took it out of his hand and smashed it onto the floor, Tim, however, looked pleased. "Always have a failsafe." Backhanding him across the face, Dick distantly felt regret as he watched his brother fall to the floor, but ignored it and ran out into the hall. He could hear the voices and feet of the leaguers bounding towards him, and immediately set off the other way. Knowing that if they found him he would not be able to escape again. Running through the halls, he turned into the room with the zeta-tubes. Looking around he saw an old weapons shelf standing next to the doorway and quickly pulled an energy blaster down. Setting it next to him, he took a panel off of the teleporters and began typing into the computer mounted to the side. He wouldn't be able to deactivate them after he used it, but he could make sure they didn't know where he teleported to. Typing in his location, he could faintly hear the sound of wind rushing towards him, as the tubes warmed up. Without thinking he picked up the gun and shot it through the doorway, sending the Flash, who had just rounded the corner, flying across the wall. Knowing the others would be there soon, he turned back to the zeta-tubes and threw the gun to the side.

"Dick!" Bruce's voice halted him, and turning around he caught his Father's eyes. The sight made him waiver. What was he doing? He was hurting the ones he loved all because he was too weak to break free. Bruce seemed to have noticed his hesitance and softly began speaking, pleading. "Don't do it Dick, you can fight this, don't give into DeathStroke." Just as he was about to move towards him, the sound of his Master's name acted as a switch, and he remembered his orders. Without breaking eye contact he took a step backward and watched as his old mentor disappeared, and he was carried away.

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"What's wrong with my son?" John sighed and rubbing his head he sat down at the table, the others taking his lead.

"We were right to assume that they injected him with some sort of controlling agent. Richard is at war with himself, part of him knows he is not in control, but the drug proves to be powerful. It seems that his allegiance to DeathStroke and this...Catalina is winning over." A ripple of murmurs erupted around the table, but Bruce ignored them, keeping his sole focus on the Martin. "He referred to Wilson as his Master, and himself as his apprentice, and whatever they gave them is compelling him to follow his order. Which is to return back to him." With a growl Bruce punched the table in anger, leaving a small dent, despite his protection, despite the fact that he was no longer lost in time, DeathStroke still got to his son. And this time seemed worse because Dick wasn't fighting it. Either sensing or hearing his thoughts John continued to speak. "He is fighting Batman, very heard. So hard that he was able to tell me what Wilson wanted, what they did to him." The Martian seemed to hesitate for a moment before adding softly, "He asked me to make sure he doesn't hurt his family." He felt Diana place a small comforting hand on his shoulder but shook it off and turned away from his teammates.

His son was hurting because he failed to protect them, Dick was worried about hurting them because he couldn't keep DeathStroke away. And now Dick was fighting for control over his mind, all because he was so consumed with finding Wilson, that he hadn't noticed that his son had been acting differently for weeks.

"We're going to fix this Bats," Barry said comfortingly from the table, Bruce ignored him, he didn't need comfort, he needed his son. He turned around and fixed his gaze on John once more.

"You said DeathStroke ordered him to return back to him?" John nodded "Then he had to give Richard a way to do so, that means that either Richard knows where Wilson went or -"

"Or he gave him a tracker that will show him once he escapes." Bruce nodded and began walking out of the room.

"Batman, where are you going?"

"I'm going to speak to my son." Just as he said the words a loud alarm began to sound off throughout the tower. Without hesitating Bruce began running towards the room he had just left, knowing that it had to do with Dick. DIstantly he could hear the sound of the other leaguers following him. The first thing he noticed when he got there, was Damian crumpled unconscious, on the floor next to the now empty bed. Then he noticed Tim sprawled across the ground holding his jaw, which was slowly becoming red.

"What-" He began, but Tim quickly cut him off.

"He's escaped, he started running towards the zeta-tubes." Knowing that now was not the time for questions he turned towards the exit, hoping that he wouldn't be too late. Hoping that he wouldn't lose his son to DeathStroke not again. He could hear the sound of the teleporters starting up, and saw the familiar blur of the flash move past him, as he ran faster. He rounded the corner and saw the entrance to the docking bay, and hearing a loud blast saw the Flash fly out and forcefully hit the wall. Running into the room, he saw Dick throw what looked like an old energy gun to the side, and step towards the tubes.

"Dick!" Turning around, he made eye contact with his son, who for a moment seemed to fight the impulse to leave. "Don't do it Dick, you can fight this, don't give into DeathStroke." It seemed like hearing the name, however, was all he needed to fall back under his control. And without a word, he took a step backward into the zeta-tube, and after a flash, he was gone.