A/N: The rape of minors is still occurring in this chapter. To the guest reviewer who is struggling with this stuff: it won't be happening for much longer, but the the rest of the story that I have planned out so far will be dealing with the fallout, plus one more direct incident a bit further down the line, so it's up to you whether you keep reading or stop for your own health. I don't mind if you choose to stop.

Also, watch out for a suicide attempt by one of the characters in this chapter, in case anybody struggles with that sort of material.

Chapter 21: Hills and Valleys

The journey to the new base was full of road bumps that went straight to Dick's stomach. He was crammed in the back of a truck with all the other kids. There was a lot of vomiting going on around him, and it was pushing him to his own limit. The sounds of retching and splashing, the stench of acid.

Amber passed him a bucket just in time.

By the time they finally reached their destination, even kids who weren't sick had thrown up a bit. There was absolutely no ventilation in there, so when the doors were opened everybody sucked in a huge gulp of fresh air.

Dick's legs were jelly when he stepped out of the truck, but he tried to take in his surroundings all the same. The building was a huge grey block, because apparently these bastards really liked depressing colours, set inside a large clearing surrounding by forest. They had officially left Gotham, but judging from the relatively short journey—even though it had felt like an eternity—they hadn't gone especially far.

Another truck pulled up, carrying a second load of children, presumably from another location. These people had far too many resources.

Armed guards forced everyone inside, and Dick lost track of Amber in the crowd. He got stuck with Luke instead, along with a nearly uncontrollable urge to punch him.

"How are you feeling?" Luke asked him.

"Don't talk to me," Dick snapped. "I know what you did and I am through with giving you the benefit of the doubt."

"I was just trying to protect everybody."

"No. You weren't." Dick stepped closer to Luke, forcing him to back into a wall. "And even if it were true, how do you justify outright lying about me?"

"I couldn't afford to have them running through the place trying to find you," Luke justified. "They would've been caught and we would've been punished."

Dick jabbed a finger into Luke's chest. "Bullshit. Everything you have said and everything you have done benefits our captors in some way or another. Maybe you've got the others convinced you're looking out for their best interests, but you can't fool me. So don't even try." Dick stepped back as he saw one of the guards move towards them. The guard shoved him along.

To Dick's chagrin, there were two dormitories on opposite sides of the building. And he got stuck with the one Luke was in, while Amber ended up in the other one. He shouldn't have been surprised. Things hadn't exactly been going well for him lately.

On the upside, he got a bed to himself. But that was likely because he was sick. Or maybe Luke was trying to isolate him. Who knew?

Sleeping was difficult, owing to the sounds of kids vomiting and groaning, on top of Dick's own nausea. He was still tired and incredibly grouchy by the time morning showed up. He half-wanted to punch somebody and half-wanted to vomit his guts out. Preferably not at the same time. That'd be gross.

Dick dragged his sorry ass out of bed and followed everyone out to breakfast. He fell onto the bench—this cafeteria looked nearly identical to the one he'd left behind, except it was bigger—and Amber snagged the seat beside him.

"You look like hell," she said, half-filling his bowl with revolting porridge. Dick hadn't thought he could be any more turned-off by that shit, but here he was, proving himself wrong. He groaned quietly, picking up his spoon. His stomach rolled inside him. This must have been how Bethany felt before she-

He quickly put a lid on that thought and scooped up a spoonful of porridge. It reminded him of thick, food-laden vomit. He stuck the spoon in his mouth, swallowed and immediately shuddered as his throat protested. Eating wasn't going to happen today. He either had to hope the guards didn't notice, or try not to puke during the punishment except there was no way he wouldn't puke today if somebody stuck a sex organ down his throat. No way around it. He could either eat and puke, or get orally raped and puke anyway.

He tried a few more mouthfuls of porridge, but had to stop before it all came back up right into the bowl. And, of course, Brian was guarding them today. Because the universe had decided Dick didn't have enough shit to deal with yet.

"I knew you'd slip up sooner or later," Brian said, a heavy hand falling on Dick's shoulder.

"You know he's going to puke all over you," Amber said. "I hope you don't like your shoes."

"He better not." Brian leaned right into Dick's ear, the pitch of his voice dropping to a stomach-churning rumble. "Or I might just have to find another punishment. Isn't that right, Richard?"

Dick glared across the room, where Luke was very deliberately not seeing him. He hadn't really expected any help after what he'd said yesterday, to be honest. And Amber knew better than to put herself in the middle of things, especially after what happened to Brandon.

He shut that thought down, too.

Brian dragged him from the bench and dropped him onto the floor. Dick's knees landed first, and bloomed with pain. Brian grabbed him by the hair and pushed into his mouth. Dick started gagging immediately, but Brian ignored him and started to shove down his throat.

Somebody was shouting, but Dick couldn't make out the words. He choked and gagged until he finally managed to pull away and vomit onto the floor beside him.

"You know," said Amber, "if you don't want this shit to happen, you should probably treat the kids who get sick rather than try to shove your dick down their throats whenever they can't eat."

"What's going on here?" Skinner, of all people, had decided to show up. Dick picked himself up off the floor.

"Our good friend Brian decided to ignore my warnings about shoving things down sick people's throats," Amber added. Dick wished she'd shut up before they turned on her.

"I've got the same thing that's already killed a few kids," he said. "I'm assuming you don't want that to happen to me, since you went to so much effort to kidnap me from my own home. I thought you would've started treating kids sooner, even if it was just to protect your investment and stop your clients from getting infected, but apparently logic is in short supply here."

Skinner's fist crashed into Dick's cheekbone, sending him back to the floor. "Shut up. Brian, get somebody to clean up that mess. Luke, round up the sick kids."

If Dick had been in a better mood, he might have gloated. As it was, though, he was spending most of his strength trying not to puke again.

Most of the sick kids were very young and incredibly dehydrated. A few died that night. The rest survived long enough for the medical staff to hydrate them using intravenous drips. Dick was actually better off than most of them, maybe because he was in the earlier stages.

Being stuck in bed for days on end, however, gave him way too much time to think. The team's rescue had failed. Luke had shown his true colours. They had been moved to a new, more remote location and their captors were definitely more on guard than they had been before. Bethany and Brandon were dead. And Dick had been separated from Amber, the one person he was able to trust in this hellhole.

Oh, and he and the other kids were being raped on a near-daily basis and couldn't even go to the fucking bathroom without somebody watching them. Dick kind of wanted to scratch out his own eyes because at least then he wouldn't be able to see the looks his captors gave him. Like he was a piece of meat. Or a sex toy to be dug out and fucked when convenient and then cast violently aside until the next time they felt like sticking their genitals in something.

The nurses had him taking pain pills for his stomach, since the sicker kids were using up the IV meds, but Dick had a high tolerance for pain so he just hid them instead. He wasn't completely set on a course of action, but something was definitely forming in the back of his mind.

He was trapped here. He couldn't save himself. He couldn't save anyone else. What had happened to Brandon and Bethany made that abundantly clear.

But there was a way out. If he could get enough pills during his stay in this hospital bed. He was an expert at hiding things in beds and pyjamas at this point. The IDs he'd stolen were still safely hidden. Amber would know where they were, even if anything happened to him. She would take care of them if he couldn't. Somehow.

It wasn't like he was helping anybody by sticking around. And it wasn't like he'd hurt anybody if he was gone. Except Amber. But she'd been fine before he showed up. She was fine after what happened to Brandon and Bethany. She'd be fine if something happened to him. She had the strength that he lacked.

Help wasn't coming. Somewhere, deep inside, Dick knew that Bruce and Wally and Jason and the team would keep looking for him, but with each passing day it got harder to hold out. It had been two weeks. Dick hadn't realised how much time had passed until Amber had told him during the truck ride, before Dick had become violently ill. He had lost more time to the fear gas than he'd thought.

Dick spent the next week in that hospital bed, slowly collecting the pills. The young nurses didn't notice he wasn't taking them. Either he was too good an actor, or they were too out of it. Or both. He also managed to swipe some some different pills that probably had different drugs in them. The other kids weren't being given oral medication; he wasn't taking anything from them, and it was rare that any kid was given pain medication due to injuries unless Luke decided they should have some. And that didn't happen often. Dick hadn't received anything from him since initiation. It was more likely that he was taking medication away from the staff, and he couldn't give less of a shit about any pain they might go through.

By the time he was released back into the rest of the compound, he had several mouthfuls of pills. Instead of going back to the dormitory, he was sent to one of the client rooms.

As always, the client wasn't there yet. There was a plastic cup of water on the bedside table, ostensibly for the client, but that didn't matter. He didn't know how much time he had and he sure as hell wasn't going to let anybody get in the way of his only escape so he started popping as many pills as he could at once, then drinking them down, then popping more, until he'd taken them all.

Then he sat on the bed to wait. The client didn't come. Usually they were here by now.

Dick felt nausea coming on. He held it back. How long was this going to take? Maybe he should have thought of an alternative. A noose out of bedsheets? But there was nowhere to hang it in here. The ceiling was smooth. Whatever. He didn't really care anymore.

He lay down on the bed after a while and closed his eyes. He felt sleepy. This wouldn't be so bad. Sleep was nice. He couldn't remember the last night he'd had a good night's sleep.

He let it wash over him. Easy.

Dick woke back in the hospital. Groggy, but alive. Damn it.

Brian stood over him. "Thought you could escape that easy, huh?"

Dick groaned and shut his eyes again. Fuck off.

"The bossman's pretty mad about that. He even shot one of the nurses."

Dick nearly jerked right out of bed. What?

"Oh, yeah." Brian, the bastard, smirked at his reaction. "We can't have nurses who let their charges get enough drugs to take out a rhino. Shame we don't have anybody ready to replace him yet. Maybe that Amber girl? Nah, she's still too stubborn for my taste. I'd need more time to break her first." Brian flexed his hand, forming it into a fist. "Maybe I'll get to her once I'm through with you. The boss cleared me to do whatever I wanted to you." He paused. "What, no smartass remark? We should drug you up more often. Now be a good boy and hold still."

There was no point struggling. One of the nurses watched the scene for a moment before she turned away. Dick bit into the pillow. It tasted like antiseptic.

It didn't hurt as much as he'd expected. Some of the drugs were probably still in his system. They couldn't make it easier to breathe while Brian squeezed his throat, though. He kind of wished the man would squeeze harder and put him out of his misery, since he clearly couldn't manage it by himself.

He gasped when a rib cracked. His captors were usually careful to avoid causing injuries like that, but clearly they cared more about punishing him than keeping him as a viable source of income at this point.

Brian left him after a while. Dick breathed against the new injury, wincing at the stab of pain. He didn't want to think about how worse it would've been at any other time.

The nurse came by to tape up the rib. Neither of them made eye contact. Dick got the distinct feeling that, if he had, he would looking directly into his own future, once the novelty of his presence had worn off. Well, provided they didn't just kill him outright for being an annoying piece of shit.

In any case, being a walking zombie or being dead would be preferable to his current situation. He'd had enough of this.

Even with backup from the team and the police, Batman had yet to find where Dick was being held. The team was trying to remain optimistic. Progress had been made. They had found other bases belonging to Skinner and rescued the children there. Even if Dick was still missing, the children they'd saved deserved to be acknowledged.

Batman stood by the wall with Aqualad while Commissioner Gordon spoke to one of the older captives in his office. The boy was wire-thin and shaky, and couldn't keep eye contact for long.

"Do you know about any other locations these people use?" Jim asked him.

"They talked about moving us," the boy replied. "I don't know where exactly, but they've got a big place outside the city that nobody's found yet. They're putting everyone together there because Gotham's getting too risky to do business in."

"Sounds like we've got them on the run," Jim said to Batman and Aqualad.

"Maybe so, but we cannot allow them to continue running," Aqualad replied.

"Agreed," said Batman.

"Thank you for talking to us," Jim said to the boy. "A social worker should be outside to look after you."

"That's how I got nabbed in the first place," the boy said quietly. "A social worker took me away from my parents but they weren't really a social worker."

"I promise this person is who say they are. The GCPD has used her before. I'll have an officer check in with you tomorrow." Jim took the boy out of his office.

"Gather the team," Batman told Aqualad, who then sent a message through his communicator. They took a zeta tube to Mount Justice, where the team was already waiting.

"We have a lead," said Aqualad.

"One of the captives told us Skinner's organisation is moving their operation outside Gotham," Batman elaborated.

"How far outside Gotham?" Kid Flash asked.

"Unknown, but the boy's choice of words implied a short distance. I'll speak to my contacts and see what we can do." Batman headed back to the zeta tube. "Good work tonight." He stepped inside the tube and dematerialised.

Wally sighed and pushed the cowl off his head. He was paler than usual, and the dark circles under his eyes betrayed the strain he was under.

"How are you holding up?" Kaldur asked him, though it seemed like a pointless question with all the evidence in front of him.

"How do you think?" Wally murmured. "It's been three weeks. Three. Weeks. And we still haven't found him."

M'gann put her arm around him. "We'll find him."

"We've got an idea of where he'll be now," Artemis added.

"A very vague idea." Wally ran a hand over his face. He hadn't had a good night's sleep in God knows how long.

"We're not gonna stop until we find him," said Raquel.

Zatanna rested her chin on Wally's shoulder. "He has to know we're looking for him."

"That doesn't mean he thinks we'll find him," Wally countered. "It wouldn't be the first time somebody's failed to rescue him in time."

"That's not going to happen," Conner growled.

"They wouldn't have gone to so much effort to get him if they weren't going to bother keeping him alive," Jason said. "It would've been easier to just kill him in his room and leave him there."

"I don't think that come out quite as comforting as you intended," said Wally.

"He does have a point, though," Artemis said. "Skinner obviously wanted to take him alive. You don't kidnap somebody if you're just going to kill them."

"Tell that to the Joker."

"The Joker's ridiculous," Zatanna replied. "And, to be fair, he did have to draw Dick out to get at him in the first place."

"And then tortured him for a while," Jason added. "So even then he didn't try to kill him right away."

Wally gritted his teeth. "Not. Helping."

"Enough," said Kaldur. "We need to rest so we are ready to leave at a moment's notice. We may not have achieved the result we wanted tonight, but we still saved lives and we are closer to locating Dick than we were yesterday. That will have to be enough for now."

The team dispersed. Wally headed to his room on-site. He didn't feel like talking to his aunt and uncle today. They had been nothing but supportive, but he needed a break. He needed to wallow without Barry trying to feed him and Iris hovering over him like a sympathetic moth.

Three weeks was a long time to be a missing person. Even if, by some miracle, they found Dick alive, he wasn't going to be the same person he was before Skinner abducted him. How could he be? They knew exactly what went down in these child brothels by now. Some of the kids in those places had been there for months, if not years. The thought of Dick going through that, especially after what he'd already been through, made Wally physically ill.

Wally wanted to believe everything would turn out okay in the end, but after three weeks of searching, his optimism had dried up. But he'd keep searching. He had to. He owed Dick that much.

Dick was left in the hospital while the drugs were flushed out of his system and his cracked rib healed a little. Not fully, though, because apparently there were only so many fucks the nurses could give. Dick barely had time for a quick, freezing shower before he was shuffled off to the initiation room. Because that had ended well for him last time.

Most of the staff, including Skinner, were settled into the chairs around the bed. Luke stood at its foot. That set alarm bells off in Dick's head. Luke may have more pull with their captors due to his being with them the longest, but he was still technically one of them.

"Long time no see, Richard," said Luke. "You nearly missed an important event."

"Did you turn away another rescue effort?" Dick doubted it, but he didn't have to believe what he was saying to be a smartass. "You know they're going to stop believing your bullshit at some point."

"Funny. No, actually, today is my eighteenth birthday."

"You're not mad because I forgot to get you a gift, are you?"

"You are the gift."

Dick came pretty close to choking on his own spit. "I'm sorry, did you suddenly grow a sense of humour?"

"No. Bring him here, please."

The nearest adult shoved him towards the bed. Dick fell on top of it, and Luke immediately pinned him to the mattress.

"You see, George told me I could become a full member of his organisation once I turned eighteen." Luke tugged at Dick's shirt, but Dick didn't feel like cooperating. "One condition, of course, was that I proved I could control my charges. They've all been impressed with my work keeping you all in line, but there was one thing I hadn't done yet."

"So you're planning to rape me to get your rapist wings in an organisation that's held you captive and raped you for a decade," Dick surmised. "I can't even begin to tell you how fucked-up that is."

"George gave me a home." Luke finally got the shirt over Dick's head. "He fed me, clothed me, taught me Math and English and History and everything I needed to know. All he asked in return were a few little chores here and there."

"Still sounds fucked-up to me." For the love of God, he was referring to letting grown-ass men fuck him as a chore, like it was on par with washing the dishes or cleaning one's room. "Skinner's been manipulating you from day one. You just accept it because you don't know any other life."

"I don't need to know any other life." Luke tore Dick's pants off him, and Dick grabbed his wrists and jammed his thumbs into the pressure points. Luke tore away, and accepted the handcuffs Skinner passed him. Two men grabbed Dick's arms and held him in place while Luke cuffed him to the bed.

"I hope you die," Dick growled at him as Luke undressed him completely. "I hope you die a slow, painful death. I hope it hurts. And I hope I get to be there when it happens."

"Charming." Luke pressed a finger against Dick's healing rib, and the pain shut him up. "Give it time, and maybe you'll start to see things my way. The older ones always have more trouble accepting it."

"Because we're old enough to know better," Dick shot back. His heart hammered against his ribcage. As angry as he was with Luke, he hadn't expected him to stoop as low as raping a fellow captive in exchange for Skinner's table scrap promises.

"You're old enough to have developed an attitude." Luke pulled his own shirt off over his head, one knee pressed against Dick's chest to stop him from moving. As if he'd be able to get far with his wrists cuffed to the head of the bed.

He switched tactics. "You really think they'll let you be one of them that easy? One rape and you get to join the big leagues? You've been their sex slave for years."

Skinner threw a ball gag onto the mattress. "Feel free to shut him up any time, Luke."

Luke picked up the gag and shoved it into Dick's mouth. It stretched his jaw painfully, and there was nothing he could do to alleviate the strain.

"You always did talk too much." Luke fastened the gag and sat back for a moment to rake his eyes over Dick's naked body. "George told me you were already interested in men before he brought you here. So relax, and I'll be nice and gentle. Maybe you'll come to enjoy this."

It hadn't happened yet. But all Dick could do in response to this new level of bullshit was glare. And glare and glare and glare and hope he suddenly developed heat vision and burned this bastard to a crisp.

Luke's hand brushed down Dick's abdomen, making the muscles there tense up. "Now, onto business..."

Dick didn't sleep a wink when he returned to the dormitory that night. Luke hadn't come back with him, thank God, but that wasn't enough to uncoil the knot living in his stomach. He wasn't particularly close to anybody in this dorm, and nobody asked him what had happened. Honestly, though, Dick preferred it that way. He didn't know where to begin yet.

Amber dragged everything out of him the following morning. What happened while he was ill, the suicide attempt, Luke taking a place among the people responsible for his being here in the first place. They had to speak quietly, even as Dick wanted to scream. Luke was just far enough away to be out of earshot. Dick avoided eye contact.

Amber kept a tight grip on his hand until they were separated after breakfast, and Dick was sent immediately to one of the client rooms. He sat waiting on the bed. His limbs were lead and his eyes itched and the knot in his stomach from last night had turned into a weight. Luke may have been less violent than everybody else who had dared to touch him in this place, but the emotional impact was far more pointed. Even after so much time had passed since Luke first showed who he really was, the betrayal still burned his insides.

The door opened after what felt like an eternity, and a bald man in an expensive suit stepped inside.

"Luthor," Dick murmured, and what little dignity he had left fell out of him in heavy breaths, catching in his throat, bursting out as sobs.

"Be quiet." Luthor hissed, pressing a hand over Dick's mouth. Dick tried to jerk away, and Luthor grabbed the back of his neck with his free hand. "I am not here to harm you."

Dick's breaths quivered against the hand on his lips. He gripped the man's wrist, but didn't squeeze. Luthor let him do it.

"I... apologise for frightening you." Luthor looked more annoyed than apologetic. "If I let go, will you stay quiet?"

Dick nodded. Luthor stepped away. Dick took a few deep breaths and wiped his face dry.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Dick hissed.

"Criminals tend to assume my reputation means I am interested in various petty ventures." Luthor stepped over to the wall, where a piece of wallpaper was peeling. "A number of organisations appear to assume I am sexually attracted to children, which is rather irritating. I usually discard their invitations, but I recently received one that mentioned you by name."

"That's bold of them."

"Indeed." Luthor swiped a finger over the wallpaper peel, putting it back into place for all of a second. "I suppose the people in charge of this... establishment assumed my rivalry with your guardian extended far enough that I would be interested in using you to harm him. Had this been a ransom kidnapping, perhaps I would have let it run its course. Of course, when a usually stubborn child makes an attempt on his own life, it does tend to raise concerns about his treatment."

Everything clicked. "You were the client they sent me to see."

"Yes. And I saved your life, so a little gratitude would be appreciated."

Dick avoided rolling his eyes; Luthor was an asshole, but he did have a point. "Thank you. I had no idea anybody was coming to help me. If that's what you plan to do."

"I can have people infiltrate this building tonight and extract you."

"Just me?"

"Yes. Is that a problem?"

Dick stood up. "Of course it is. If you're willing to free me, you have to free all of us. If you don't want to be responsible for that, contact Bruce and the police and tell them where to find us. They'll take care of the rest."

"Your faith in the Gotham police is surprising. And naïve."

"I'm not interested in a lecture. Are you going to help me or not?"

"I will." Luthor offered him a smirk. "The men who drove me here took steps to ensure I would be unaware of our destination, but I am not in the habit of letting people keep me in the dark. I will pass the address to the police and Bruce Wayne, along with as much information I can gather about the situation. Is that sufficient?"

"Yes. Thank you." Dick had no illusions about Luthor's motivations here. Being responsible for the rescue of Bruce Wayne's kid, plus a number of other children, would benefit the man's public image and he would probably use the situation to try and persuade Bruce to work with him again. Their last partnership had terminated years ago when Bruce had learned Luthor was using medical technology they developed to create weapons. Dick couldn't imagine Bruce agreeing to a partnership with him again, but he could see Bruce turning a blind eye to any legitimate operations in Gotham for a while.

Luthor left shortly afterwards. It took some effort for Dick to affect the defeated attitude he'd had before, but it was important that nobody realised anything had changed. To anyone else's knowledge, Dick had absolutely no reason to be hopeful after the last few weeks he'd had.

Still, pretending to be defeated was a rather pleasant alternative to the real thing. He could work with that.