Disclaimer – Still own nothing.
To Sunshine-Midnight123 – Thanks so much for your review! I'm glad that you thought the fight scene was clever, I was a bit worried about it. The feather will be addressed later in the story. I hope you like this chapter!
To Asilla – Thanks for your review! You will find out what happened with the tracker later on in the story, I promise! When I first heard about the Ric storyline, I was so shocked and upset that they would do that, that I wanted nothing to do with it until they fixed it, but I have to admit, I am a little (very) intrigued about the Court being brought back into it. I will have to go to that website and check it out! And I do have ad blocker, I had to get it because of the site I use to watch episodes of TV shows. Hope you like this chapter!
AN – Hey everyone. Nothing really major to say with this chapter, I just wanted to say to all of you lovely readers Merry Christmas! Or Happy Hanukah! Or whatever you all celebrate! I hope you all have wonderful holidays! And I hope you all like this chapter too! Chapter title is from the song Demons by Imagine Dragons.
Enjoy!
Dick was forced awake by someone dumping a bunch of freezing cold water on him. Gasping and spurting out the water that got in his mouth and nose, he found a Talon standing in front of him holding a large metal bucket.
After he caught his breath, Dick looked around. He was in a room he hadn't been in before, was in an upright position, his arms raised above his head and chained to a metal pipe above him. There were also chains around his ankles, keeping his feet restrained to the ground. He'd have to examine them better to see if he could escape him from them. But for now, he turned his attention to the Talon that dumped the water on him and found a table nearby, and Cobb and March stood behind him, watching. And behind them, were two other Talons guarding the door.
"While I am not surprised that you would try to escape, I can't deny that I am disappointed." March said, walking over to stand in front of the hero.
"Glad to be of service." Dick replied with a smile. March nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face, then punched him in the face.
Groaning in pain, Dick let his chin fall to his chest. His ears were ringing due to the latest blow, making it difficult to hear what was going on around him. He was able to make out someone, March, talking to him again.
"I see we will have to do this the hard way. Cobb, he's all yours. Try to make him see sense."
Dick opened his eyes in time to see March walk out of the room with the three Talons, leaving him alone with his great-grandfather. Cobb looked at him for a minute, then turned his back to Nightwing to face the table. Mouth full of blood, he spat it out, but other then that, he stayed still and quiet. March hadn't said what exactly he wanted Cobb to do in order to get him to side with the Court but Dick knew what was about to happen. He had been in spots like this before, more often then he liked. He knew what to do. He pushed down the fear and dread that had started flooding his body and prepared himself for what was about to happen.
"You know, torturing me isn't really the way to make me like you guys." Dick told Cobb.
"I don't care about you 'liking' us. I care about loyalty." Cobb replied, turning around to face him, holding up a small dagger. Coming over to him, he added, "And you'd be surprised the things people will do in order to get the pain to stop."
Before Dick could even think of a response to that, Cobb stabbed the dagger into Dick's right shoulder. He was able to keep from screaming in pain, barely, but couldn't stop a loud gasp from escaping his lips. It took a few seconds for Dick to get a handle on the pain and the control his breathing, and when he did, he saw that Cobb had already grabbed another knife. He wondered how long it would take before he blacked out, if Cobb was going to keep stabbing. Probably longer than he wanted. The Court, the Talons, were good at making people suffer without killing them.
As Cobb approached him again, Dick said, "Are you saying that even though you a loyal to the Court… you don't like them?"
Cobb froze, clearly not expecting a question like that and needing a minute to figure out how his words gave Dick that idea. His face then turned colder than it already was and said, "This isn't about me, it's about you. You will be the Court's next Talon. It's your destiny."
Dick grunted and lowered his head as his distant relative pushed the second dagger into his side, just above his hip. With his head down, he was able to see blood start flowing from his new wound, disappearing as the small and slow stream ran down his leg due to his black suit. He had chosen the colour black for his suit to help him blend into the shadows but it also, at times, hid how serious his injuries were. With the dagger still embedded in his skin, the edge of the hilt starting to turn red though, there was no hiding his injury. The level of pain didn't help either.
"So you're… gonna… keep stabbing me… until… I say yes?" Dick was barely able to get out, struggling to lift his head to meet Cobb's eyes.
"Until you learn that resistance against the Court is futile." Cobb answered, holding up another dagger that he had grabbed, letting Dick get a clear look at it. Knowing that there wasn't anything he could do to stop what was happening since there was no way he was going to join the Court, Dick let his head hang low so that his chin was against his chest and did his best to keep from screaming as his great-grandfather stabbed the third dagger into his left shoulder.
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Dick wished he could pass out, or at least, pass out quicker. He had lost count of how many knives Cobb had stabbed him with, but it was over 20, and he left every single one of them in Dick's body. The 19-year-old knew that every stab, though extremely painful, wasn't lethal and because Cobb didn't take the knives out, there wasn't as much bleeding as there would be otherwise. He wished he did though so he could pass out from blood loss.
Eventually, his body started to go numb and he felt light-headed. His ears were starting to ringing and instead of freaking out about it like he normally did as those were not good signs, Dick was glad. It meant he was about to pass out, finally. He was ready for it, was ready to fall unconscious. Ready for anything that might take him away from what was going on right now.
"Cobb, that's enough." Dick dimly heard March's voice. He didn't really care that he was now in the room though. Didn't really care much about anything. He just wanted to sleep, so he did.
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Pain yanked Dick out of his dark refuge. He tried to move, tried to get away from whatever or whoever was causing it but couldn't. His limbs, his entire body actually, felt like it was made out of bricks. The only thing that he could move was his eyelids. Deciding to at least find out what was going on, he opened his eyes.
There was a yellowish light overheard, but not shining directly in his eyes which was nice. The light outlined the figures of two people standing on either side of him, figures wearing weird paper hats and masks over their faces, the kind doctors wore when in surgery. Adrenaline immediately flooded his body and he again tried to move but this time, what stopped him wasn't lack of strength but something around his wrists keeping him down. Turning his head from side to side, he saw that his arms were outstretched, like a bird with its wings outstretched, and they were tied down with leather restraints. Then, he noticed an IV filled with a strangely coloured liquid sticking out of his arm.
"Wha…" Was all Dick was able to get out before the person on his left pressed an oxygen mask on his face. It only took seconds for him to realize that there was more than just oxygen being given to him and he turned his head to try and get away from it, but the person kept it on despite the movement and Dick once again, fell unconscious.
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Barbara Gordon and Tim Drake made their way to the TV room in the Watchtower. After they had gotten back from checking out the abandoned factory where they found Nightwing's mask, weapons, gloves, trackers and the owl feather, they went back to Gotham with Batman while the others headed back to the warehouse where the Team was staying. The following day, they had to go back to school/college and Bruce had to go to work. When the billionaire returned home, he went straight to work on trying to find Dick. Tim and Barbara joined him, but after two hours of just watching him work, having nothing to do, they decided to go see the other members of the Team.
As they entered the room, they saw Gar, Jaime, and Bart sitting on the floor in front of the TV with controllers in their hands, focused on the game they were playing. Cassie was lying on the sofa reading a book, Artemis and Wally were on the couch while Kaldur and Roy stood off to the side talking.
"Tim, Barbara, I thought you were both helping Batman." Kaldur said when he saw the two, drawing the attention of everyone there.
"I think we were mostly just in his way." Tim answered as he sat down beside Cassie, who moved over to make room for him while Barbara took a seat on the nearest chair.
"Has he found anything?" Artemis asked, leaning forward so she could get a clear line of sight on Robin and Batgirl.
"If he has, he hasn't shared it with us or acted on it." Barbara answered, sounding annoyed and frustrated with didn't surprise the others. Though Barbara, Tim and Dick were the only ones who worked closely with Batman, they all knew that the Dark Knight was not known for playing well with others or sharing details about what he was working on.
"I can't believe this is all happening." Wally mumbled.
"It's not the first Dick's been kidnapped Wally." Roy quickly reminded him.
"I know that." The speedster snapped, causing the archer to raise an eyebrow. Taking a breath to calm himself, Wally then explained, "I mean, this whole business with the Court, one of the Talons being his grandfather."
"Great-grandfather." Barbara corrected though she kept her eyes on the floor.
"Whatever." Wally was barely able keep from snapping again, "This whole thing is crazy. I'm still having trouble believing that all of this happened without any of us knowing anything about this."
Ever since Bruce explained why none of them were made aware of the Court and its ties to Dick, Wally tried to recall everything that happened during that time. He remembered arguing with Dick about leaving the Team, leaving the hero life. He didn't understand why his best friend had such a hard time with it. He tried to tell him that they would still be friends, that no matter what happened he would always be there, but Dick not being supportive over his decision about what he wanted hurt. There was one time they went over a month without talking which was so strange because before they'd hardly go a day without at least sending a text. Before, he thought that it was because Dick was still upset about him leaving, but now he wondered if that was when he learned about the Court and just didn't want to talk to him about it.
"That's what happens when someone decides to keep secrets and we decide to ignore someone for seven months." Cassie chimed in with a gentle voice.
"But, how did no one hear about people attacking Nightwing in Bludhaven? And how did no one heard about the Court even attacking Batman or others in Gotham?" Wally questioned, getting off the couch to start pacing in front of the others. He knew that Bruce was very territorial when it came to Gotham, but the League looked out for each other. Maybe they had heard something about that but kept it to themselves.
"The Court is all about being secret, about hiding in the shadows. It's literally said in their creepy poem. 'Speak not a whispered word about them, or they'll send a Talon for your head'." Tim replied, tensing a little as he thought about the group. After Batman had told them the truth about the Court, he did some digging into Bruce's records about them as well as anything else he could find. What he did find gave him nightmares that night.
"Plus, you know Bruce hates other heroes being in his city and getting into his business. He hardly tells anyone what's going on." Barbara reminded him.
"But you'd think we'd hear about it on the news or something." Wally nearly yelled, turned around to face them. He shrunk back a little when he saw the worried expressions they were wearing.
"Wally?" Artemis said with a worried voice, standing up to go over to him.
"I gotta go, run or something." Wally responded quietly then walked out of the room. The others let him go, knowing he just needed some time alone.