And this is how they figure it all out! This is one huge scene too so prepare for a lot of reading. I think you'll get an idea who my second favorite family is in DC land. I know I haven't had them much in this world, but there hasn't been many opportunities until now. Enjoy!

Dick-16/17 Jason-13 Cass-11/12 Tim-9 Damian-3

Sacrifice

17 – Jigsaw Puzzle

"What are you doing out of school?" Barry Allen was just dropping by his house to pick up a new suit. Captain Boomerang nearly shredded his last one. Then he had a lot of work to do.

Wally West was lounging over the island in his kitchen, sluggish and unceremoniously waiting for food to magically appear. Or his aunt and uncle, whichever happened first. Ditching school and staying with his folks was definitely out, so he stayed with the cool ones who wouldn't get on his case for being sluggish after the night he had. "Got our butts whooped last night, by that kid again. Big time."

His uncle nodded a little cringing. "That sucks. So… you're talking about this guy Renegade right? The 'I'm Sorry Thief'?"

"Yep." The speedsters talked all the time about different cases, in both the League and the Titans along with their own in Central. The only ones Barry didn't talk about involved 'B' and his kids. Some kind of deal the two made or something. Since Iris West-Allen was the only other person who lived there and knew the truth for some time, this place was safer than most for them to talk. And the best place to unload all his frustrations. "The guy's a criminal, beats near all of us to a pulp, which is really weird because he doesn't have any powers and took us all down flat, and then expects us to believe he's sorry? What's with that?"

"Maybe he has his reasons." Barry brought out a couple of his patent-pending food substitute bars, handing one to his nephew before starting one for himself. It'd hold them over until he could bring out some sandwiches.

"Pft. Yeah right. The only reason I can think of is that he works for Slade!" Wally shook his head, starting to eat his snack. "I mean, that guy's twisted. Seriously twisted. He's got this thing for us and isn't telling us why. You'd think a guy who worked that hard getting a kid to beat us up would monologue for a few minutes on why he hates us."

"Some people don't need a reason." The man finished digging every possible sandwich item from the fridge and cupboards, shrugging at the teen's wonderings. "Take that guy in Gotham, Two-Face, for instance. He—"

"Oh not another Gotham crazy again." Honestly, the young speedster wished the League and his uncle didn't have anything to do with that loony-bin. The whole place was crazy. Been there only a handful of times, each with his uncle, and he was convinced the place wasn't worth saving. Why did 'B' like that place so much?

"He's just an example." Barry gave his nephew a chiding look. "You know how he got those scars on his face?"

"Cut himself shaving?"

"Acid was thrown on him during a court session." Wally cringed in sympathy, but the guy was still nuts. "Harvey Dent was already having some problems with his life, but it threw him over the edge. According to what I've read, ever since that day he's blamed Batman for what happened to him."

"Batman? He's real?" Even he heard about the urban legend. He hadn't been heard from or seen in over eight years, but stories of him were enough to scare criminals for good. Even some civilians.

"Very. But that's beyond the point. Dent has no reason to hate him or blame him, but he does. Crazy people have twisted logic." His uncle shrugged helplessly as he finished putting together a sandwich for himself. "For all you know, he's blaming you for something he caused or an accident, and you happened to be there."

The teenager thought about it for a moment, stacking himself a large sandwich as he thought it over. It was starting to give him a headache. Sighing and shrugging, he started on his second lunch. "Still think he's crazy. Why else send a teenager to beat us all up?"

"How did Renegade manage that anyway?" Barry was debating telling the rest of the League about this kid who was giving the Titans so much trouble. This guy had to be really good to take down eight experienced and superpowered teens, half trained by the Justice League. If one kid who supposedly had no powers could take them down at the same time, possibly kill them, it didn't bode well for the rest of the crime fighting community. The master had to be better than the student, and with two team killers…

"Aahh…" Wally hesitated, embarrassed as much as ashamed. He really didn't want to remember it. "Well, mostly he tricked me into falling off the building and Garth had to save my tail, then he kept throwing people into me. Guy's good at throws. There was this strange glowy hurty trick he did in the middle of it that made it easier I think but—"

"Wait, what?" His mentor held up a hand to stop him, blinking in surprise. "Rewind. What kind of trick?"

"Glowy hurty? That's what Gar called it." He cast him an inquiring eye, letting his sandwich remains droop in his hands. "Ever heard of a meta making someone feel like their insides were on fire without touching them? Maybe brought out from stress?"

"What color?" The man's heartbeat started to accelerate.

His nephew blinked, confused. "What?"

"What color did your skin glow?"

"Orange…"

"Fever? Weakness after? Trouble breathing? Lasted just over two minutes?" It couldn't be…

"Uh… yeah, something like that. You know what happened?"

Wally just looked at his uncle, slightly weirded out by how many details he had spot on. And all the man could do was gape at him in shock. Course that was his 'everything's beginning to fit' look, so this really boggled his nephew's mind. He took a momentary breath before asking, "When… exactly was this?"

"Uh, very early his morning? Uncle B, what's—"

Barry grabbed the boy's wrist, heading to the door, determination growing on his face. Something had clicked. "C'mon. We've gotta run."

"For what?!" He struggled against his uncle's grip, seriously confused. "What's going on?"

"I'll explain when we get there."

"Get where?!" What was going on? Why was his uncle freaking out like that? He never saw him act this way before, ever.

"Call it the League's second base of operations." The teenager blinked at him in surprise. Seriously? No longer struggling, Wally didn't realize until he was over halfway to the coast that they were running. Before he knew it, he was in a cave, and not a nice cave like the one in Mount Justice. This one had stalactites, stalagmites, bats, and… His jaw dropped when they stopped, his uncle looking at a large chair facing a computer while he looked elsewhere. "B! Problem! We've seriously got to compare notes!"

"Tha… That's a… dinosaur." The teenager's eyes were locked onto the T-rex adorning one corner of the cave. He entirely missed the chair swiveling around or the frozen images on the giant computer. This place took over his mind.

"My thoughts exactly. I was actually calling you right now," the man looked over to Wally (who was still gaping at everything in the cave), "to bring him. Searched his body for a rash yet?"

"Rash?"

"Whoa!" A flock of bats swooped over Wally's head, narrowly missing him as he ducked in surprise. His eyes followed them for a while, until he saw a black armored suit in a lit display case. A large black cape and cowl reminiscent of a bat shadowed most of it. The bat within a yellow circle on the chest cinched what it was. "Uuuhhh…"

Slowly the teen turned to the two men talking, eyes widening to the size of saucers as they continued to talk. "The others have unexplainable round rashes about the size of a penny on their bodies. Arm, leg, neck, posterior. Jason said the pain started in his arm, where his rash was. Tim's disappeared months ago then reappeared this morning. It was in Leslie's report. Didn't you read it?"

"Boomerang got in the way," Barry looked back to his nephew, looking him over briefly as if searching for something. "Barely managed to get the file home and I had to stop a couple robberies on the way back. That's when I ran into Wally. Hey, it itch anywhere?"

"Aaauuhhh…" Wally just stared and started to point at the man in the chair. "That's… Ba…"

"I thought he had a 3.8 GPA." Bruce gave his ally a frustrated glare while the other bit back his embarrassment.

"Yeah…. Wait." Barry jerked his head back to the billionaire. "How do you know his GPA?"

The detective's glare intensified. He wasn't in the mood for this. Thankfully Wally found his mouth. "You're Batman…"

"Among other names."

"Wally West, Bruce Wayne. Or the mysterious B. Bruce, my nephew, AKA Kid Flash, which no doubt you already know." Barry did a quick set of introductions before looking back to the imposing man in slight confusion. "I just put two and two together about him having the same attack your kids did ten minutes ago. How did you—"

"Find that rash and I'll show you." The man turned back to his computer without a second's thought. Exasperated, the speedster came to his nephew's side and started physically searching his body short of stripping him. The teen was stock still, just gaping at the cave owner's chair.

"That's Batman."

"Yeah, he is."

"He's real."

"Very."

"He's B?"

"Yep."

"And Bruce Wayne?"

"Yep."

"The Bruce Wayne?! The billionaire?!"

"One and only."

"Unbelievable…"

"No, his temper is unbelievable. Wally focus." Barry snapped his fingers in front of the boy's face. They were talking superfast and could only be understood by each other, so they weren't about to get into trouble with the big scary bat. "We need to find that rash. Without it we can't prove you and the kids have the same symptoms. Is there any place that's been itching today or ever in the past… B?! When did their rashes first appear?"

"Late November, early December. Hurry it up." Bruce was not a patient man. Thankfully he was still working his way through several weeks' worth of articles and footage to focus solely on the speedsters.

"Auh…" Wally struggled to remember if there was any for a moment before remembering something. "There's been this off and on itch I think. From where Slade's weird beam hit us around then."

"Slade?"

"Where?" While the Bat looked back to him in surprise, the teen pointed to a spot between his shoulders for his uncle to inspect. Barry pulled up his shirt to get a good look at it, answering his ally's question. "Slade's this villain the Titans fought off and on last year who has some kind of vendetta against them. He's got this apprentice now they've been having trouble with going by Renegade."

"The 'I'm Sorry Thief'?" It was more of a clarification than a question.

"Yeah, that's him." Wally pointed to the screen showing the thief's appearance at one of his many heists. "Slade said his name was Renegade. The guy doesn't talk much."

"How did you know about this?" Barry put his nephew's shirt down, glaring slightly. There as a rash, just like Bruce said there would be, and it had an orange tinge to it. The fight from that early morning played on one corner of the screen as Wally smiled nervously.

"We, er, kinda destroyed his sign during the fight." Guilt flooded the boy, wanting to take a step back. "Actually Renegade did it. And just the big glowing letters really."

"What does Slade look like?" The man's lack of reaction to property destruction encouraged the teen to talk.

"We aren't really sure, but we've pieced together a few things. He's probably in his late thirties, early forties. Really well trained and… I'm sidetracking. Ah…" He looked to the side remembering for a moment. "Somewhere between Uncle Barry and your heights I think. His mask is half black, half orange and splits right down the center of his face. Oh, and he only has one eye."

"Do you have any pictures of him?" Bruce looked straight at the teen, a slightly pleading demand in his face. An idea had come to his mind, but he wanted it confirmed first.

Nodding he took out his Titan com which doubled as a link to their computer files. "Yeah, in here. Gimme a sec."

"Think this Slade's responsible for what happened?" Barry came to the computer, looking over all the stills on the screen, confused. The thief didn't look like much, but he was familiar in a way. What was his link? And why did the detective have magnified images of his hands?

"I'd bet my life on it." Hearing his words, the speedster looked over him, worried. There was definitely more to this than the man let on. "Found him yet?"

"Just a sec… Got it." Wally hesitantly came to the computers where the adults were and showed them the image of their worst rogue. "This is Slade."

Both the men's eyes widened dangerously in surprise before one turned on the other who went straight to typing. "What the hell?! I thought Interpol had him!"

"Apparently not."

"What's he doing fighting the TEEN Titans?! I thought he had a code of honor! And kids their age!"

"I can't read minds Allen! I don't know why he's out or in San Francisco or fighting them!" The man was trying to dial a number on his computer, taking out a headset to make it private.

"Then how did he find out about you?!" Barry threw his arms around emphatically. "I can see him going after the Titans because of the rest of us taking him down last time, but you weren't even there! And you're so paranoid, you put security traps in every tunnel coming in here!"

"I don't think he figured me out," the man admitted, trying to calm his voice down for the call he was trying to make.

"Wait, you know this guy?" Wally tried to interrupt but was largely ignored.

"Then explain why his apprentice is fighting the Titans on your building at the same time your children are attacked!"

"THAT'S DICK!" Bruce pointed at Renegade on the screen, glaring frustration and pain at his friend. Barry's mouth stopped, he and his nephew gaping at him. What? "Slade Wilson kidnapped him to make him this 'Renegade' and has used not only his siblings' lives, but also the Titans' lives as blackmail to force him to do his dirty work!"

"What?" The speedsters just stared at him slack jawed. They were about to ask him again when the other end of his call picked up.

"Selina, where are you?"

"Uncle Barry? What's going on?" Wally looked over to his mentor, bewildered and shocked at the same time. And with everything being thrown at him at once, who would blame him.

Barry sighed a bit, trying to figure out where to start. "Your 'Slade' is actually Slade Wilson, AKA Deathstroke the Terminator. He's one of the best assassins in the world, more importantly a mercenary for hire who said he'll do anything but treason once. Former US military and subject to some government super soldier project that failed. Some people call him the world's greatest tactician. We took him on a couple years back and barely managed to get him into custody. We barely managed to take him in, and only because B was in our ears and watching our backs. Interpol is the only organization who can keep him under wraps politically due to who he's worked for.

"And apparently," he winced, looking at the teen on the screen, "he's the one behind Dick Grayson's kidnapping."

"Who?"

"Selina, you have to get out of there." The man was very intent in his phone conversation. "Get out and disappear. Make sure no one can link you to the investigation."

The older speedster continued to explain what he knew, at flash-speak rates. "His son. Well, first adopted son that is. He was the guy you heard over the com when we took down Joker with Speedy, remember? I showed you a video of him on youtube from Halloween. Dick's an amazing acrobat. Vanished leaving everything behind just before Christmas in a crazy warehouse. The League's been looking for him ever since."

"Why the League?" Things weren't quite clicking in the teen's head.

"Originally? Because of a deal we made with Bruce here. We take care of Gotham and save his family whenever they're in danger, usually kidnappings, and he takes care of us financially, keeps our IDs under wraps, and takes care of investigations we're having trouble with. Brought about the end of quite a few criminals. I've told you about B before and how good a detective he is. He's been invaluable to the League, and he's a friend. We've all grown attached to him and his kids, particularly Dick. When the FBI put the kid on backburner, we've kept our eyes out and do whatever we can with each new piece of evidence. And looks like we just got our answer."

"No, it's not that." Bruce was still on his line, missing all of the explanations. "Ever heard of Deathstroke?"

"Wow…" Wally blinked at his uncle in surprise. "So they're kinda like the League's first family? And Slade took the heir apparent?"

"Kinda looks that way doesn't it?"

"Whoa…" He looked back to the bat who seemed even more worried now than before. Or he thought it was worry. Angry getting worse meant worried right? "Okay… who's he calling?"

"No idea." Barry looked over to the definitely worried scared man hiding everything with a scowl. "He's still a mystery, especially when it comes to sources and women."

"He took Dick." The frustration in the man's voice was reaching its peak. "I have confirmation. Get out of there. Disappear for a few months. Wait until he's home and the press dies down to come back. I'll wire everything to your accounts."

"Girlfriend?"

"Probably. Or a really valuable source."

There was a twitch of a smirk on the bat's lips before he went back to scowling. "Paris, Bahamas, they're all good this time of year. Just make certain the next time I hear about you, you're not dead or incarcerated."

Bruce took off the head piece and breathed just a little easier. His hands went flying across the keyboard, bringing several hand images to the forefront. "Jason, get down from there and take a look at this."

"Jason?" The speedsters looked around and nearly jolted when they heard a small curse above them. Soon a thirteen year old with a white lock in his black hair landed on top of the monitors, then flipped over them all to get to the ground.

"Ah, for the record—"

"You came in while Barry was checking under his nephew's shirt." The man didn't even blink as his son came down to the ground, focusing mostly on the screens. His guests on the other hand were starting to freak. They were beginning to panic-talk in superspeed.

Jason pouted a bit. "I came in because Damian's crying for you and Alfred's peeved you missed that meeting."

That made him cringe. "This is more important than a meeting. I'll get to Damian in a minute."

The teen nodded then came closer to the screen, looking once at Wally. "Hey there. Take it you're now the League/Titan liaison, right?"

"You cu… How did… What the…"

"Do you encourage your kids to crazy dangerous stunts?!" Barry turned on the actual father there, glaring slightly.

It was returned with annoyance. "You put yours in tights and the line of fire."

"Oh hey!"

"Tongue tied huh? Whatev. You found Dick." Jason stepped up to the computer, now ignoring the speedsters and staring at the screens openly. Naked hope clearly shown from his face. "And he's connected to what happened this morning?"

"Yes."

"Then why are we looking at hands?" He pointed out exactly what their guests were thinking, if they weren't reeling from Bruce's commentary. He had a good point about risks both their charges were taking.

"Because Dick left us a message," the detective stated evenly. "Has been from the beginning of these heists."

"What?" Wally stepped forward, surprised there was anything in the feed other than thefts and the Titans getting their heads handed to them.

"Dick learned sign language when he was six from the cannon men at the circus," Bruce explained. "He used to sneak messages to me during parties. Signing 'I'm sorry' at each incident gives him an opportunity to sneak in one or two letters before disappearing again, without looking suspicious."

"What's not suspicious about a kid breaking into some place and signing an apology at the camera?" Barry pointed out.

"It's not security or the police who'd be interested."

"Slade!" Wally put it together pretty quickly. "He was trying to hide a message from him!"

"He wasn't out of that man's sight in a populated area without supervision. What the message is," he grunted in frustration, "I haven't gotten to yet. Just finished searching still images of his hands in each robbery. They're in order but not much else."

"Um…" The redhead cocked his head, looking over the pictures. "I don't know sign, but even if I did, it looks like gibberish."

"P, L, M, A, E, R, P, M, E, A, L, R, P, E, L, M, A, R, P, A, M." Jason's translation made his eyes narrow slightly. "There's almost a pattern here."

"Seriously?" Wally looked at the kid in surprise. Where'd he pick that up?

"He's right." Barry typed on the computer for a moment, bringing the images up on a side screen. "The same six letters over and over again. 21 total, so I'm thinking the pattern's been interrupted. Four P's, A's and M's, three L's, E's, and R's."

"Palmer." Everyone looked over at the man, each with a different level of confusion. "He was signing Palmer."

"And that's helpful how?" Wally cocked his head confused. Palmer?

"I thought Slade took Dick," Barry interjected, ignoring his nephew. "Why would he bring up Ray? He's one of us."

"How'd you get Palmer?" Jason's question rang over them all, getting Bruce to answer first.

"In the six letter sequence, the first and sixth letter was a P and a R. Everything in the middle was scrambled. Most people don't read whole words but just look at the letters. If the first and last letter is right and all the others needed are there, you can still understand what the word was. It's the way the brain works. Dick and I had a conversation about it last year. Some online meme he ran across…" The man's eyes worked rapidly, thinking as he explained further. Things were clicking in his head. "If you could only give out one message and knew your enemy was watching you while you gave it, what would you give your intended audience? The name of your kidnapper who has something over you, or the solution to it!"

"You lost me after 'meme'." The older speedster gave his ally a confused look. "Are you saying that instead of giving his captors name, he gave us Ray's… because he could fix this?"

"Ray Palmer's a leading expert in nanotechnology," he explained, typing rapidly. Evidence he had gathered, reports from multiple sources, were displaying themselves on the screen. "The person who took the phones in Star went to Ivy Town next. His experimental nanoprobe generator was taken early November, along with the plans for injection devices and their operating programs."

"Where is this going?" Barry asked before he could be side tracked further.

"In theory nanotechnology can either assist in healing a body," the detective clarified, eyes narrowing darkly, "or destroy it from the inside out. Sensations would include fever, cardiac arrest, lung inflammation, and possible nerve damage."

They gaped at him, realization coming to each of their faces. Wally pointed to himself slowly, dread coming to his face. "I have those things inside me?"

"Likely. Dick wouldn't point us in Palmer's direction if he wasn't involved."

"EEWWWWW!" Both boys cringed back in disgust and horror. Inside them were…

"Would it leave any evidence?" Barry was already thinking back to the first day of all of this.

"Very little if any. It would appear as if someone just died of natural causes unless their tissues were put under a high powered microscope." Bruce glared at the technology he had at the cave, frustrated. "Most internal causes for death can be detected in a mass spectrometer or autopsy, so I never bothered to get one. Ray Palmer should be able to confirm this, and rectify it."

The Bat looked down in thought for a moment before coming to a decision. This had to be taken care of, now. "Jason, grab a jacket and a backpack. You're going to Ivy Town."

The teen blinked at his father for a moment before breaking into a broad grin and running off. The speedsters looked at him in confusion as Bruce left the computer for a specimen fridge off to the side. "You two better suit up for your visit with Palmer. Jason will carry the samples from Shereen Macamyre, the first victim."

"Wait… we can't take a kid with us." Wally was just barely getting past the creepy feeling of having little robots in his body. Why would they take some kid with them?!

"Yes we are." Flash had already changed at superspeed, focused and driven. "Before ourselves and before taking on the bad guys, the civilians are our top priority. He has probes in him and so do the rest of his siblings. Dick knew it and he is risking everything in order to save his family, along with you and the Titans. If one of the cheeriest and justice minded kids I've ever known can become a criminal to save you all from Deathstroke, then you can let his kid brother take a ride on my back cross-country."

"You'll have to inform your friends anyway," Bruce reminded him, sliding a box out of the fridge and into a second container to keep it cool and safe. "Jason and the others are the least of your worries. Once the probes are out of your bodies, you're going after Wilson. Slade. And you're going to get my son out of there."

"What?! Take on Slade?" Wally interjected, still having a hard time taking everything in. Too much all at once. Just too much! "We can't even beat your son! Why not the League? Isn't that deal—"

"We're going to have to play this one out carefully." He glared intently at them both, driving the point home. "To protect identities and to ensure Dick doesn't do anything rash, we have to think ten steps ahead and cover all our bases. We're fighting a world class tactician with thirteen lives in the balance directly, and many more theoretically if you fail. If he sees the League first, we can't guarantee success. He activated probes from the other side of the country. I'm not taking any chances, and neither are you."

The Titan looked down, letting the weight of what was said sink through. This really was riding on him wasn't it? Him and the Titans. If they could get past Slade's insider trick. Flash locked eyes with his ally. "If this works, you're bringing over the others right? How are you going to—"

"I'll work out the details with identities and finances with Palmer later. And I have some legal matters to take care of." Bruce glared to the side, not happy about any of this. "Along with a few other… matters to make the search above board. Lots of tracks to cover."

"Think you can handle it?" From the corner of their eyes, they could see Jason returning. A red baseball cap, hoodie and backpack, plus some sunglasses, now adorned his excited form.

"When haven't I?"

A/N: X3 so, that explain what's going on so far? I just love speedsters who are also forensics experts/detectives of a smaller degree. Wally was brilliant here, especially with the dinosaur (which I believe is the first thing most people see in the cave and boys would oggle for a moment) and putting everything together with his uncle. Now that he's an active character in the know, in the future he and Dick will start having fun. *evil laugh*

Now all the secrets are out. Due to secret identities and making sure they succeed, I'm sorry, but BATMAN AND THE LEAGUE WILL NOT BE APPEARING. gotta keep this close to cannon and they weren't in TT. and the rest of the world doesn't know the direct connection between the League and Bruce. Majority of the kidnappings have been suppressed from the news so Dick getting rescued by them in Jump when they have their own superpowered team would be suspicious. To keep the Wayne secrets safe, this is how it has to roll.

In our next episode, Slade gets beaten to a pulp. Enjoy!