Disclaimer – Still own nothing.
To Asilla – Thanks for your review! I'm glad that you agree that the Court would do that. I don't know when I will get to that story, but hopefully soon! I hope you like this chapter!
To Seraphim 0 – Thanks for your review! I'm glad you are still liking this story despite not having Dick turn into a real Talon and fighting against the Team. I hope you like this chapter!
AN – Hey, so this chapter is pretty short, but if I added it to chapter 18 or chapter 20, then those chapters would be too long and this chapter is needed to explain what happens next. I hope you guys all like it!
Enjoy!
Dick was woken up by the sound of loud snoring. Not the most pleasant way to wake up, especially with a bad headache, but it was better than cold water being dumped on him. He tried to ignore it at first, but it was so annoying that he opened his eyes to see who it was. He found himself in an infirmary room in the Watchtower. And beside him, snoring up a storm, was Wally.
"Wally?" Dick whispered, reaching out to shake his shoulder. Wally jerked and his head snapped up, but when he saw that Dick was awake, he smiled.
"Hey Dick. How are you feeling?" Wally asked as he grabbed a cup of water with a straw and held it in front of his friend's face.
"I'm alright." Dick answered after taking a long sip. He then saw two other people from the corner of his eye and turned his head. When he saw them, he smiled and said, "Hey Roy. Hey Barbara."
"Hey Dick." Roy said, putting a hand on Dick's shoulder with a smirk.
As he spoke, Barbara moved to sit down on the edge of the bed. With a smile, she said, "Hi. It's good to see you awake."
"What happened?" Dick immediately asked, having a hard time remembering what all happened and how he ended up here.
"What do you remember?" Barbara asked, wondering what he could all recall. There was no point in telling him something that he already knew.
"I was with the Court, I was in a cell. You two were there." Dick looked at Wally and Roy, then was quiet for a few seconds, trying to remember more but couldn't, "Then nothing."
"Yeah, you were pretty out of it, and you passed out once we got you to the bio-ship. You woke up once, when Batman was here, but other than that, you've been sleeping." Wally filled him in.
Before Dick could respond to that, Barbara said, "But Dr. Mid-Nite said you're going to be just fine. You just need some rest."
Dick nodded and let himself relax on the mattress. Even though he had just woken up, he was so tired. He was about to fall back asleep when he thought of something. He opened his eyes again and asked, "How long was I there?"
"About five days." Wally answered.
The younger hero nodded again and again was thinking about going back to sleep when his brain, which was working a lot slower than it normally should realization something. Wally said that Bruce had been with him, and he had a dim memory of waking up and seeing him, but he when he glanced around, Bruce wasn't there. Looking back at the others, he asked, "Where's Batman?"
The three redheads looked at each other. They hadn't at all thought of what to tell Dick if he asked where Bruce was. They couldn't tell him the truth. If they did, he'd try to get up to go help them fight the Court even though he was still healing. He'd also feel extremely guilty and blame himself for all of this even though it wasn't his fault. And they couldn't just say nothing. He'd start panicking and he needed his rest.
"He uh," Wally started then stopped, unable to come up with an excuse. Luckily Barbara did.
"Something pretty big came up, and he left with some of the League to go deal with it. But he'll be back as soon as he can." She said with her best reassuring smile.
"What was it?" Dick asked, having a growing suspicion that something else was going on, something that they weren't telling him.
"Nothing you need to worry about. Just rest, okay?" Roy told him, trying to sound comforting instead of sounding like he was giving him an order. Batman's first protégé however was quick to see that something was going on and called them out on it.
"You guys are hiding something." The three again exchanged looks at Dick's accusation before Barbara turned to him and asked, "Dick, do you trust us?"
"Yes." Dick answered after a minute of hesitation. They didn't really blame him though. They deserved that for reacting so badly to the truth about the invasion and for going seven months without contacting him in any way.
"Then trust us when we tell you that everything's fine and under control, okay?" Barbara told him.
Dick stared at her, then turned his gaze to Roy and Wally. He wanted to trust them, he really did, but he couldn't help but feel that whatever they were hiding from him was important. That there was something major going on. It was making him realize how the others must have been feeling, or felt, when he was keeping his plan to deal with the invasion. Despite wanting to demand answers, he couldn't be a hypocrite, so he nodded and decided to drop the issue. However, at that moment, Bart came speeding into the room with some news.
"You guys need to turn the TV on and see what's going on in Gotham right now. Those Talons are totally crash and," Bart suddenly stopped, only now seeing that Dick was awake, "oh. Hi Dick."
Turning his head to face the others, Dick said with an angry and confused voice, "The Talons?"
"Thanks a lot Bart." Roy told the youngest speedster sarcastically, giving him his best death glare.
"Sorry." Bart whispered, getting a bit terrified that they were now going to start yelling at him for accidentally revealing to Dick what was going on. Not wanting to hang around to see what was going to happen, he turned and ran out of the room.
When Roy turned his attention back on his injured friend, he found him sitting up and about to get out of bed. He immediately put his hands on Dick's shoulders, pushed him back down on the bed and said, "Dick stop. What do you think you're doing?"
"Going to go help." He answered, trying to push Roy's hands off of him. Wally and Barbara however, were quick to try and stop him.
"Dick, you are in no condition to fight. You need to stay here and rest." Wally told him.
"I'm fine." Dick insisted, still trying to get up despite the three people trying to stop him, "I need to go to Gotham."
"No you don't. Batman is there, so is Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow and Black Canary. They've got it under control." Barbara informed him, gripping his arm tighter.
"They shouldn't be. It's my problem." Dick responded, trying to sound confident and serious, but he couldn't hide the guilt his was feeling from Barbara, or Roy, or Wally. They were some of the very few people who knew him the best.
"No, it's not. It's all of our problem." Roy told him with a forceful tone and a forceful grip, successfully getting Dick to sit back and stop fighting.
"It has nothing to do with you guys." Dick countered. After all, the Court of Owls was after him, not the Team or the League. They had no reason to get involved.
"If it has something to do with you, then it has something to do with us." Roy explained, his words shocking Dick into silence.
At first, he didn't think they'd come and rescue him at all, wanting nothing to do with him or caring about him at all. After all that time with no contact, it was the only conclusion he could come to. And when they did, he figured that maybe they did somewhat care, enough that they didn't want to leave him prisoner to his and Batman's enemies, but this he didn't expect at all. For seven months, he thought they all hated him, including his best friends. Yet here they were, telling him that just because it had something to do with him, they were automatically involved.
"We know that we have been terrible friends Dick, and we are so sorry for that. But we do care about you. Your problems are our problems." Wally apologized, something he knew he should've done the minute he saw the acrobat, something he should've done months ago actually.
"I'm not going to let Batman and the others with him get hurt because of me. Especially if I'm not even involved in the fight." Dick said, the guilt he was feeling seeping into his voice.
"Dick," Roy started to protest again but Dick quickly cut him off.
"I'm going, to go help."
"You know that the other members of the Team are here, and will help us keep you here and in bed if we tell them to." Barbara pointed out.
Turning his head to look right into her eyes with a slightly smug look on his face and said, "And you know that I know how to sneak out of here and either get away from all of you or beat you in a fight."
Nobody could really deny that. Dick was more skilled than all of them, had sparred against them all, and was trained by almost all of the Justice League members. And his injuries were almost completely healed so they wouldn't slow him down by much. While he probably couldn't take them all at once, he would still be able to escape fairly easily. All he would have to do is get to the zeta-tubes, and they're not that far from the infirmary. It wouldn't be hard for him to get there.
"So, are you guys going to try and stop me?" Dick asked when they stayed silent. When he saw the unhappy expressions on their faces, he pleaded, "Guys, I need to do this."
"Batman is so going to kill us." Wally muttered, already knowing from Barbara and Roy's expressions what they've all decided.
"You mean," Dick started, a hopeful look coming onto his face.
"You're not going alone." Roy told him. Though he still didn't want his friends getting in the middle of his fight, Dick knew that it was either this, or nothing.
"Okay." Dick agreed with a smile. He then got up off the bed, without anyone stopping him, but then realized something, "Oh crap."
"What?" Barbara asked, hoping that he just thought of something that they hadn't which would keep him from actually going to Gotham.
"I don't have a suit." He told them. He hadn't even thought of it until he saw the new pair of sweats he was wearing. Roy and Barbara would about to let out a breath of relief when Wally ruined it.
"I think you have an old one here actually." Wally said, remembering seeing an old Nightwing suit around the Watchtower somewhere though he couldn't fully remember where it was.
While Roy and Barbara glared at Wally, Dick ripped the IV out of his arm, stood up and said, "Okay. Let's go."
AN – Sorry this chapter is so short. But the next one should be longer. See you all next time!