Chapter Thirty Six

"Kate? Come one Kate, wake up." Dick held her body close, partially shielding her from the surrounding heat. The structural beams around the two of them were still coated in lingering flames. The whole building felt like an oven, and with every step Nightwing took, the floor beneath him was all the more ready to give way. Finally, Batwoman's body began to stir, eyes blinking open, and she pushed him away from her. Batwoman caught herself on all fours, coughing. Her mask had several tears, and parts of her face were just starting to swell shades of purple.

"Where- where are the others," she managed to spit out, attempting to regain her footing herself.

"Fighting Bane on their own, just like you were. What the hell happened Kate?" She shook her head, leaning against a small portion of the pillar that wasn't aflame.

"Thought I could end it. Thought he wanted me." She turned her head and looked straight into Dick's eyes. It was a grim look, partially of regret, but more than that it was of desperation. "He was trying to attract the Batman Copycat. He knows, Dick. He knows Bruce is gone."

Nightwing pressed hard into his communicator, but was immediately met with static yet again. There was no way for him to know how the fight was going upstairs. He needed to get Kate out of here, but he also needed to stop Bane from killing either of them. A hand fell over his shoulder as he'd lost himself in thought.

"Go."

"Kate,-"

"Just promise me you'll stop him tonight."

"I- I promise."

"Good." Dick watched as Kate walked right up to the edge, a vacant perch that once housed a pane glass window. Spreading her scarlet cape wide, she threw her body backwards of the edge. The glider looked slightly torn, but she would be able to fly, even in this weather. Batwoman's silhouette faded into out of eyesight, but Nightwing had already started his ascension by then.

Every step on these lower floors was a risk, something making the building more and more unstable. That left only one choice, he'd just have to scale the thing from the outside. Without a shadow of a doubt, Nightwing hurled his body back into the rain, spiraling mid free fall like the acrobat he was. It took him only a moment to find a perch above, and fire his grapple gun towards it. The tension of his line was steadily being worn tonight, but kicking the device into overdrive, the cord spun through the gears of his device. Instead of the mountain climber approach that his brothers had taken, Nightwing 's device was carrying him straight up to his destination. The problem with using this setting, was that the portion of cable that were traversed, were sent out the back end of the device, effectively being unusable until he took the time to fix it. Bit by bit, Nightwings grapplewire fell away beneath him, a worthy sacrifice to get him to Bane that much sooner.

Dick pulled himself up one floor short of the rooftop, tossing his now useless grapple gun to the floor. He'd have to re wrap the damn thing by hand if he ever wanted it to work again.

Nightwing had just started a dead sprint for the stairs, when the ceiling beneath him exploded down onto him. The floor beneath him began to fall away as the force from above crushed all in its path. Dick rolled his body with the momentum, and managed to land flat on his stomach at the edge of metallic pit that went down several floors. There, five stories below, flat on his back, was Damian Wayne, struggling to move beneath several chunks of plaster and heated metal.

The whole building was shaking, as Damian struggled to move out from where he was pinned. More dust and ash fell through the pit, as Nightwing saw the outer beams of the building starting to buckle. Gunshots rang out above, sharp bursts just barely louder than the crackling fires and storm outside.

"Damian!"

"I'm fine, just get Bane!"

"Not without you! Line launch up here!"

"I'll get out on my own! Finish the goddamn mission!" Another beam near Grayson creaked and moaned, shifting the building's stability along with it. More gunshots, fires growling all around him. Sweat seeped all around his mask, as he came up with a plan.

"Wedge your sword into the beams! Just get your arm free and grapple up!"

"The buildings coming down-!"

"Just aim up, I'll catch the line if it gives! I'll catch you, I promise!" There was a brief moment of silence where Nightwing's eyes fluttered closed, where he thought the fires had simply consumed him. He'd been fighting all night, perhaps a moment's rest would do him good as Damian was starting to… To…

There was nothing, but darkness. It was a silent darkness, a sort of quiet one only sees on an unperturbed snowy evening, the kind where everything seems to settle where it belongs. It's frightening at first, but after the initial fear it's actually soothing, relaxing even.

"Son." He felt his eyes lift. The shadows parted for him, just like they always did. He wasn't in a suit, or the cowl, he was just a man. Kneeling down to Nightwing's level, he looked him over.

"Dad?" There it was, that stern, but soft smile. Confused, Grayson's mind raced. "Where- where am I?"

"That depends. Where do you want to be?"

"I...I'm not done yet. Damian needs me, Jason needs me." His voice quivered, but knew he meant what he had to say. "I need to go." tears streamed down his face as he said it.

"I know," he nodded. The two men stood, the father helping his son to his feet. "Just do one thing for me, would you?"

"PULL!" Damian's voice ripped Nightwing from whatever he had seen. He was back in the very moment he'd left, if he'd even left at all for that matter. Grayson tugged on the cable already in his grasp. Damian's body hung aloof in air,the end of his line attached to his belt as the elder struggled through every hand hold of the line. Just as the boy wonder slipped over the edge next to Nightwing, a large chunk of the floor above fell away again, only adding to the destruction below.

"You need to get out of here!" Nightwing could see Damian's blood seeping through the uniform, even if the teenager refused to admit his fault. Still holding the end of Damian's line as the boy bickered with him, Dick moved to retrieve something he'd lost.

"What now!?" attaching the hook of Damian's line to his discarded launcher, Dick aimed for a nearby building outside the window. "Oh, don't even-"

PFFTING! The cord launched, and just as Nightwing swiveled out of the way, the Son of Batman was launched to safety. It only took the kid a second or two to expand his gliding cape to reach a safe landing. Two down, now just one to go.

Wayne Tower lurched yet again, metal and fires hissing into the stormy night. The stairs had become blocked by debris, so Nightwing leapt upwards through the gaping hole in the ceiling, full well knowing that if he missed he'd fall five stories. Flying Graysons didn't miss. His fingers caught on the edge of the floor above, the buildings infrastructure deteriorating all the while.

Pulling his body over the lip, Nightwing saw as Bane ducked beath one of Jason's lunges, countering with an elbow to the gut. The Red Hood was knocked off his feet, Bane giving him not an instant of rest as he swept him up by the throat.

"Like I said," Bane gloated, standing tall. "Children." A trio of shurikens stabbed into the side of Bane's arm, with a fourth slicing just into the tube connecting to the back of Bane's mask.

"BANE!" Nightwing was crouched low, like a wounded animal waiting to retaliate. His adversary turned, visibly amused.

"I see. It would seem it is easier to pull you from Bludhaven than it is to bait this Batman impersonator." He dropped Jason's limp body to the floor, his helmet cracked and dented in certain spots.

"Is that what this is all about?!" There was an instant of blinding light, which subsided quickly. Almost impossible to hear over the fires and metallic creaking was the whirring of helicopter blades. That mixed with the flood light now on the three of them could only mean one thing: the press. Bane shrugged, never dropping eye contact.

"They want a show, mi amigo. Let's show them one!" Bane pressed hard on a button attached to his wrist, causing neon green liquid to start coursing through the tubes attached all around his body. This same liquid started leaking down the backside of his neck, but the overall effect still maintained itself.

Nightwing pulled out his billy clubs and awaited Bane's move, though all he did was start to side step around the pit to him. Dick countered, the two of them remaining on opposing ends of this makeshift coliseum.

Bane jerked his body left, then back right as he made a mad leap towards Jason's body. Nightwing lunged to get in between the two, only just arriving in time to shoulder bash Bane off course. His heavy builds momentum sent him just to the edge of the still roaring fire ring.

"Of course, you must know I am not a fool, " he continued lathering his hands in the Venom still leaking from his spine. Nightwing's legs nearly gave out beneath him, but he pressed on nonetheless. Feeling for a pulse on Jason, Dick knew his friend was still alive.

"Focus, little bird." Bane plunged his radiant hands into the flames beside him. Pulling them back, the chemicals had held fire with it. "You wouldn't want to end up like the other three." Nightwing stood, breathing intently.

"I will give you one more chance. Surrender to the police." Bane seemed to falter.

"I know you. That s not your voice, but they are your words. That same… Conviction. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were him. No, his copycat perhaps, but you are no Batman." For the first time in a long time, Dick Grayson knew exactly what to do next.

"I know." Without hesitation, he hurled one of his clubs through the pit at an angle. It ricocheted off it marks and Nightwing saw as it dislodged a foundational piece of rubble. The floor beneath Bane gave way slightly , shaking just enough for the big man to need to regain his balance.

Grayson leapt with a new found strength directly at Bane, landing a downward knee against the goliath's chin. Bane took a wild swing, which was easily dodged and countered as Dick ripped out two of his shurikens from Bane's arm.

The acrobat went low, sliding under Bane's legs as he severed the tubes connecting to his thighs. Bane got a hold of him before he could stand though, throwing him off the floor towards the pit once more. Dick caught the metal, but even as he crawled up more and more pieces were giving way. Every gust of wind was causing the building to sway.

Bane was on him the second he'd gotten to his feet, swinging a much more disciplined series of punches. On the ropes, Nightwing had to work defensively, blocking and dodging what he could with little chance to make a counter attack. He took a solid jab to the side of the cheek, managed to block an attempt to cup his ears, evade another right hook, and even push back as Bane threw a knee right at his stomach. What he didn't managed to catch was the clean uppercut that shook him to his core. His guard was working on bare instinct now, ducking and parrying what he could as spat out teeth and blood.

"What a shame," Bane swung low, then pulled up fast taking Nightwing's throat up with him. He hold him there, feet dangling for the floor as the air escaped his lungs. "It seems that Batman truly has left Gotham!" Bane turned his attention up to the camera chopper above, Venom still leaking all over his body. "Is this all Gotham has to offer! Is this what the world should expect from its heroes!?"

Nightwing saw a figure move behind Bane, and he could have sworn he saw a glint of something metal.

"No." Bane swung to the side, taking notice of this new voice."This is," a demasked Jason Todd proclaimed. He put a handgun right up to Bane's temple and pulled. The last thing Nightwing felt before passing out was a spray of warm liquid across his face.