Notes: Chapter titles are song titles. It also been a while since I've written a fic or been involved with the BatFam fandom.
Chapter One
"Riddle me this..." The Riddler leaned down into Tim's face as he spoke, smirking at the annoyed expression there. "What is so delicate that saying it's name breaks it?"
He had been rather roughed up prior to being bound to his own office chair, (he almost felt bad for his crumpled, wrinkled grey suit) and he had to let it happen since this whole affair occurred during a board meeting. And it really did not help that he was still recovering from his fight with Ra's a few weeks ago. "The blissful silence we could have if you would stop talking."
Edward Nygma bared his teeth in a angry smile. "That's down right rude but correct. Another point for the Wayne-Only-In-Name brat. Augh!" Nygma jerked back from his captive, put a green gloved hand to his nose, and yelled again at the pain he encountered. He touched his tender nose again, more gently this time, to check if it was broken. It wasn't broken. Just bloody. This freaking rich kid just headbutted him!
The Riddler shifted his gaze from his bloodied glove to the teen who was looking a little too smug over his accompliment. But Tim he couldn't help it. The taunt reminded him of Damian and being reminded of Damian is unpleasant. Especially when he knew Damian would make fun of him mercilessly for allowing himself to be captured by a C-lister villain who just squeaked by in the Rogue category.
Nygma growled and backhanded his captive. Then he snatched Tim's face in his hand, making sure to dig his thumb and fingers into his cheeks. Tim groaned a muffled protest but otherwise held Nygma's furious brown eyes with his defiant blue eyes. His office walls were glass and everything happening to him was being witnessed by all the board room members and any stray employees that had been gathered in the vestibule, guarded by Riddler's three gun totting goons. Tim wondered how Nygma afforded a down payment for the muscle.
"Try that again and I'll-"
The exterior window glass shattered as a black and grey blur shot through, rolling once to break their fall then took a defensive stance. "Release the detective to me."
Nygma rolled his eyes, released Tim's face, then slapped him again before stepping back. He, turned, twirling his signature cane once before using it to lean on casually, indicating he didn't feel threatened. Then he cocked his head to the side in confusion as he eyed the young Wayne Enterprises CEO's supposed rescuer. Not what he had expected.
"Who the hell are you?" He squinted at the newcomer, trying to decide if this... person... belonged to the ever increasing bat themed population of heroes that plagued Gotham of late. Though... come to think of it, there weren't any ninja looking ones that he was aware of. And why were they referring to the Wayne-Only-In-Name brat boy as a detective? Something wasn't right here. There was much more to this. Ridder scratched his chin as he contemplated.
Tim looked over the ninja, eyes wide with shock, and struggled to release himself from the duct tape binding his wrists to the chair arms. If it weren't to protect his secret identity, he would have broken loose after the second stupid riddle of the many he had to endure. Oh, this was just not good. This was bad. Really bad. He knew exactly who that ninja was sent by and he could take a pretty good guess as to why.
The ninja did not deign to answer the Riddler's question and unsheathed their katana.
"What the f-"
"No!!" Tim yelled. The assassin changed their attack at the last second. Instead of disembowling Edward Nygma, the ninja used the pommel of the sword to bash him in the forehead, effectively knocking him out. He wouldn't be dead. Nobody else had to die, even Nygma, because Ra's al Ghul wanted to prove a point.
After the Riddler's body dropped to the floor of his office, Tim had slipped out of his suit jacket and was standing but stopped moving when the sharp end of the katana appeared in front of his nose. He fought the urge to go cross eyed and look at it, but instead looked at the assassin who held it. The ninja was a man was of medium height and thick build, though there was nothing else to gleen about his appearance.
"The Demon's Head requires your presence, detective."
Tim tilted his head to side in question. "What for? I haven't done anything to The League lately."
"Do you intend to come willing?" The ninja sheathed his katana. "Or shall we blow up this building?"
Tim glared at the assassin then looked at the innocent people in the vestibule. "I'll go." He tensed when the ninja approached, brandishing a syringe of clear liquid. He closed his eyes as the ninja injected the contents in his neck. So they really weren't going to give him a choice then. Tim went limp almost immediately.
Well, fuck.
After the detective was confirmed to be unconscious , he picked up his burden bridal style. He moved to the broken window as a black, nondescript helicopter ascended and the sliding door was opened. He took a running head start and leaped into the helicopter, careful of his burden.
As the chopper whirled away, seemingly straight into the afternoon sun, the Riddler sat up, groaning, with a hand on his forehead. "What..?" He looked around the office and noticed that not only was Wayne Enterprises security and GCPD SWAT swarming the floor but his hostage was taken?! Nygma just sat there, stumped, as he was arrested. "But I didn't even demand my ransom yet!"
"Mr. Wayne!" Vicki Vale called out amongst the crowded sidewalk. "Mr. Wayne!!"
She elbowed her way toward her target, determined and unapologizing, as he exited the exclusive and expensive new restaurant La Pomme. It was one of those restaurants with a silly forgein name where you paid a hefty sum for the experience to cook your own meal and dessert. Perfect place for a playboy millionaire. Her target was dressed in an almost immaculate three piece suit, save for the flour on his dark blue dress shirt. He apparently wasn't good at cooking. Noted.
"Mr. Wayne!!" Vicki reached out and grabbed Bruce Wayne's unoccupied arm. "I know you hear me, Wayne."
The woman hanging off Bruce's other arm was unknown to Vicki, but she was very pretty. She wore a too tight black dress with alternating thick and thin white stripes, the look completed with red stilettos. She looked pissed to have their outing interrupted. Well Vicki sure did not care. She had the juiciest story and she needed to find out what Bruce Wayne knew.
Bruce looked a little exasperated but put on a sauve smile for the press. "What can I do for you, Ms. Vale?"
"Oh, I was just wondering about something.
"About what?" That famous Wayne charm. Vicki could swear his teeth just sparkled, like in cartoons
"About how you can have lunch with your lady friend when your adoptive son has just been terrorized by the Riddler then abducted by an unknown party?"
Vicki had pulled her recorder out long before she got Bruces' attention and was now holding it in his face, waiting for his reaction. Her other hand on her hip, pushing her white cardigan away from her body with her elbow. It was almost eighty degrees in Gotham and muggy as hell.
Bruce's sauve smile faltered for a fraction of a second and her blinked at her. "Excuse me?"
"You didn't know?" Vicki raised an eyebrow. "The Riddler was at Wayne Enterprises to get a ransom off Timothy Drake-Wayne and you didn't know? Now he's just vanished and your employees are claiming they witnessed a 'ninja' abduct him with a helicopter. Do you have any comment on that, Mr. Wayne?"
The fake smile slid off Bruce's face to be replaced with dark concern. He detached himself from his lady friend's arms and pulled out his cell phone. "Excuse me, Miranda. I have to deal with this..."
The young woman crossed her arms under her ample chest and looked more than a little disgruntled. "It's Maddison."
Bruce did not hear her. He was already stepping into his classic black 1987 Porsche 959. He slammed the door shut and the engine growled to life. Then he sped off into traffic without using a turn signal. Also noted.
"Maddison, is it?" Vicki looked the young woman up and down again. She looked like an angry red carpet zebra. "He's too old for you anyway."
Vicki turned on her heel and elbowed her way back through the crowd. She didnt have all the facts yet but she had at least the first part of an interesting story to start typing up. Maddison was left standing alone on the sidewalk, mouth agape.
"You were supposed to be watching Tim-"
"Hey, it's not all my fault. Ra's had to know I would be there, or at least one of us anyway." Jason leaned on a filing cabinet in the cave near enough to clearly see the computer but far enough to not get burnt on Bruce's temper. He had an ice pack on his left eye and blood spattered on his white shirt and black pants. Most of it was not his blood. "Fucking ninjas ambushed me too!"
"You should have called for backup." Bruce was at the computer reviewing the security camera footage. His eyes narrowed as he watched the Riddler hit Timothy Drake-Wayne for the second time. He knew why Tim had not fought back but he almost wishes he had. "I shouldn't have to find out from Vicki Vale that Ra's abducted Tim."
Bruce forwards the security footage to the ninja using what he guessed to be an anesthetic on Tim. Dick was running the analysis of the discarded syringe contents and that should be finished any minute now. They were hoping it was an anesthetic and not drug or poison. Tim did try to fight back here but he waited too long and it was too little too late.
Jason scuffed his foot on the cave floor. He did not need to watch the footage a second time. Obviously this was all his fault. Obviously Tim had had been waiting for rescue but nobody came... "I thought I had a handle it."
Dick looked over his shoulder at Jason from his post at the analysis machine. "Come on, Jay. We all agreed we would keep an eye on Tim until-"
"Yeah, I know! I fucked up! Is that what you want to hear?! Jason the fuck up fucked up again!" Jason chucked his ice pack at Dick's head.
Dick dodged it easily and it landed on the floor beyond the counter. He crossed his arms then uncrossed them, feeling antsy. They hadn't gotten much out of the Riddler when the Batman questioned him. The employees didn't have the best view of the people who took Tim, no positive ID's on the chopper, and some weren't sure what had even happened when Nightwing had interviewed them. He crossed and uncrossed his arms again. "You're not a fuck up. You just made a bad decision."
There was a high toned ding from the chemical analysis machine. Dick removed the syringes' content sample and put it on the counter. The he moved closer to the computer, standing beside the heavy chair Bruce was using, to read the monitor. "You were right. Just a local anesthetic."
Bruce turned around. He was dressed as Batman still, though the cowl was off. He elbows were on his knees and his fingers steepled. "Did you find anything out about the helicopter?"
Jason scowled. "It was black. Non military. The identifying markers aren't registered anywhere. There isn't much to go on."
"It's like Ra's just made him disappear off the face of the earth! Gone!" Dick snapped his fingers. "Just like that."
Jason scoffed. "It's literally been like four hours, Dick." He flips through images taken of the helicopter by one of the employees on the 32nd floor of WE. She had thought to snap some images with her phone when the buildings alarm system went off. Even she thought a helicopter that close to the WE building was suspicious. Unfortunately she had a flip phone from 2008 that took the world's shittiest pictures. They could barely make out what model the helicopter was but none of the identifying markings. Damian confirmed his grandfather would have used a military grade helicopter like that.
Speaking of Damian... He did and did not seem exactly worried about Tim. He expressed at least three times since Tim was taken that he had expected his grandfather to do this and not to be surprised if they find Tim's body dumped on the front porch. So much for brotherly love. Like Jason could talk. He'd entertained and acted out on thoughts to kill Tim. But he didn't actually do it. No matter how annoying Tim was.
Dick started pacing between the computer and the analysis machine. "We knew that Ra's was going to retaliate. That was only a matter of time."
"Yea, we know. We get the fucking point. Ra's doesn't like to be upstaged, Tim upstaged him. Big time. He's too smart for his own good." Jason squinted at a picture of helicopter, trying to enhance pixelated identifiers with will power. "He fucking sucks at everything else." Did no one else really think to take any pictures? Was Wayne Enterprises full of complete morons or what?
"Too smart for his own good."
Dick stopped pacing and just watched Bruce for a moment. Jason looks up from the pictures. "Yeah. That's what I said."
"In Tim's report, he mentioned that Ra's had called him 'detective' before-"
"-before 'This is Sparta' kicking him out of a skyscraper." Jason made sure to clarify with a slight smile. That had amused him.
"Mmm... yeah. That." Bruce raised raised an eyebrow at Jason. Dick gave Jason a look that said 'This us serious'.
"Damian said Ra's only ever referred to you as 'detective' until then." Dick said, walking back to the computer as he talked. He pulled up Tim's report from the duration of his search for Bruce and skims over it, looking for the part where Tim had mentioned this.
Jason sighs and moves toward the computer too. "Now I lost your point. You're just repeating facts." He had read this report too. Everyone read it after Tim submitted it. Everyone had read it again after Ra's abducted him. It was a detailed play by play of events. His case reports were always thorough.
"The point," Dick highlighted a section from the report. "is that Ra's doesn't want to kill Tim. He wants to recruit him."
Bruce nods. "Exactly."
"Shit..."