Villian

Villain

Chapter Two: Revelations

The car Barbara Gordon was driving turned a sharp corner as she looked at her surroundings.

She saw a flash across the moon and smiled.

I guess everyone's out tonight. But which one was that?

Batman landed on the roof of the Gotham Radisson. It had one of the best views of the city, and Terry frequently used it as a vantage point when nothing much was going on. Tonight was not one of those nights, however. Not only was there this new Vengeance person hanging around, there was that Nightwing guy. Whoever he was. Whichever side he was on.

Oh well, Terry thought. Until I know who he's fighting for, he's the enemy, all the same.

The figure appeared on the roof of what was now the Gotham City Police Department.

A lot's changed since I've been back, he thought as he first saw the new building. But a lot's stayed the same.

When Dick landed on top of the new roof, he saw a very familiar sight. The Bat-signal. That sentimental old girl… as much as she hates Batman, this proves that she knows that she needs him.

A lot of Dick's history could be traced using that old hunk of metal. Oh, the stories it could tell. He reminisced as he waited for the right time to intrude on Vengeance's makeshift center of operations. Dick smiled to think of some of the good times.

And then he remembered the last time he had seen the giant lamp.

"I don't even want to look at you right now."

Those words echoed in his mind as if they had been said 20 minutes ago, not 20 years.

It was his fault… he realized that. But she never should have expected him to really give it up. The cape and cowl were his lifeblood… she knew that.

She knows I'm here by now. It's been all over the damn news. And she's not an idiot. I wonder how long it will take her to track me down, he thought with a slight smile.

But his smile faded as another thought occurred to him.

What if she doesn't want to track me down?

Barbara had spent half the day on the phone. First she had been on a crusade to contact someone in the Bludhaven Police Department, but they were all too busy to talk to her. Then, she called every hotel in the Gotham area, looking for a Dick Grayson or a Richard Grayson… but that was a dead end too.

Who are you kidding, Barbara? She asked herself numerous times that day. You know its Dick… you saw the costume. Who else would it be?

Barbara shook her head. "Come on, Babs… shake it off. This is just another case… just another day."

She was turning the corner onto Elm Avenue as she heard a report through her police radio.

"… reports of shooting and breaking glass… masked persons suspected… Fifth and Newton…"

A masked person… that was what she was looking for. Barbara turned the car around with a screech and headed toward the noise.

Batman picked up the report and was there in a flash, expecting to be the first one there. As he arrived, however, he realized that although he was there before the police had arrived, he hadn't managed to beat that Nightwing guy.

"I'm giving you one chance, Sullivan. Go home."

He bargaining with the criminal? Batman thought. Now I know this guy's no good.

"NO!" Vengeance roared. "There is no Sullivan… only Vengeance! My business must be finished."

"Then your business is my business, buddy," Nightwing growled as he charged Vengeance. The large man deftly fought Nightwing's blows and came back attacking full force. Nightwing was getting a good beating as Batman threw down some tear gas, hoping to distract Vengeance.

Nightwing began coughing and backed away as Vengeance simply lowered his mask and exited the building under the cover that Batman had just given him. Batman flew down, trying to find Vengeance as Nightwing grabbed him from behind and threw him down.

"Stupid kid," Nightwing spat out at him, as he turned away.

Batman growled softly. Who in the hell does this guy think he is? "Cocky son of a…" he started as he sprang up and lunged for the elder man. As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Nightwing kicked a leg back, knocking Batman off of his feet. While Batman fell to the floor, Nightwing stood over him.

"I'm not going to tell you this again kid… Don't get in my way."

"This is my town. I'm going to be in your way." Batman narrowed his eyes at the stranger.

Nightwing laughed. "You're not fooling anyone, kid, except maybe these new punks you deal with. If you ever went up against the real psychos… against the people the real Batman put away, you'd be worm food in five seconds flat." Nightwing heard sirens coming. Shit… that's probably Barbara. I can't let her see me here. He stepped away from the kid. "Go back and tell your boss to have you sit this one out. Because if you get in my way one more time, and someone gets hurt from it, so help me God, I will take you out of the scene permanently."

And with that, Nightwing used his grappling hook again and exited through the ceiling just as Commissioner Barbara Gordon entered alone, weapon brandished. Batman started to make his way out, trying to go undetected, but Gordon spotted him.

"Hold it right there, Batman."

He stopped, holding his jaw tight as she walked over to him. "Vengeance was here, wasn't he?"

Batman nodded.

"And so was the other one?"

Batman nodded again.

"He say his name this time?"

Batman didn't move.

"Talk to me, McGinnis. It's Nightwing, isn't it?"

Batman frowned. "You know who that is?"

"Damnit!" she cursed as she walked away. "I knew it. That son-of-a-bitch."

"Who is he, Commissioner? What's he doing here?"

"Nothing, McGinnis," she said sadly, shaking her head. "The best thing for you to do now is leave it alone. This is my problem to deal with. Just stay out of it," she said as she walked away.

Batman sighed. I feel like I'm five again and all the adults are discussing "adult" things that Terry can't know about. Geez.

Barbara returned to the apartment she shared with Sam Young late that night. She hoped that he would be asleep by then, but when she walked into their bedroom, there he was, sitting up in the bed, holding an envelope.

"Someone came by and left this for you," he said, indicating the envelope.

She frowned and took it from him, heading out to the dining room table to read it. Sam stood from the bed and followed her. She opened the envelope and inside it found a file folder from the Bludhaven police department and a separate letter with her name on it. The file folder didn't give much interesting information, however, and she didn't want to open the letter in front of Sam. She turned to him after reading the information. "Who left this? Did he tell you who he was?"

Sam shook his head. "No… he dropped it off at the door."

She frowned and looked at the unopened letter. Sam sat down next to her and put his hand on hers. "What's going on Barbara? And don't say that it's just a hard case, because it's more than that. Do you want to talk to me, Barb? Do you want to tell me what this is about?"

Barbara looked into the eyes of her husband. Yes, Sam… You know Batgirl? Well, I used to be her. Bruce… yeah, he was Batman and Dick… you know, the guy I'll never talk about was Robin. I was in love with Dick and he broke my heart… twice. And now he's back in town, I'm sure just to try and torment me. Oh, and you know those rumors that I had a fling with Bruce? Yeah, they're true too. Can I crush your illusions anymore? How could she tell him that? She just shook her head sadly.

"Nothing, Sam… it's nothing."

"Got a mission for ya, Max."

Maxine Gibson looked up from her computer to see her friend Terry McGinnis pulling a chair over and sitting next to her. "Is this a mission of the winged variety?" she asked, excited. She loved doing this kind of stuff.

"Yeah," she said, glancing around to make sure they were alone in the computer room. "Okay… you've seen the new lately, right?"

"Yeah… those two new guys who apparently keep kicking your ass?" She said with a smile.

Terry frowned. "Yeah. The one calls himself Vengeance and the other is Nightwing. All I could get out of the boss was that they were from Bludhaven."

Maxine was already typing in this information. "Yeah… Bludhaven. Nice place, but dirty, even though it's newer than Gotham. It's kind of like Gotham's Sister City," she commented as she typed. The typing stopped as something came up. "And apparently this Nightwing person is your long lost sister."

Terry's brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

She summarized what she read on the screen. "Well, for about the past, oh thirty years, Nightwing's been the main enforcement vehicle for Bludhaven. He's picked up the trash that the PD dropped… kind of like Batman always did for Gotham. No one knows who he is."

"So this Nightwing is a good guy?" Terry asked skeptically. "He seemed like a real jack off."

"And I'm sure you didn't to him…" Max pointed out.

Terry took that subtle sarcasm and ignored it. "The funny thing is… if I didn't know better, I would swear that this guy was Bruce. He fought just like Bruce taught me to. He acted like Bruce. Hell, he even talked like Bruce. And they seemed to know each other."

Max looked over at him. "How did they know each other?"

"Well… when I told Bruce that the guy's name was Nightwing, he kind of brushed away from the subject and avoided it. And that Nightwing guy would always say 'Well, you're not the Bat, kid.' And saying stuff about the 'real Batman.' Cocky guy, if you ask me."

Max sat back from the computer. "Well… like I said, Nightwing's been down in Bludhaven for thirty years. He probably modeled himself after the old Batman. And he would know that you're too young to be the old guy." She turned back to the computer and started typing. "Or maybe, Wayne's keeping secrets from you."

"What do you mean?" he asked, confused.

"Think about it Terry… have you really never heard the gossip about Wayne? From back in his playboy days? I mean, some people even say the he dated the Commissioner way back when. Like when her dad was Commissioner. How else would she know that since you were working for him that you were Batman? And what about Robin? Did he ever tell you anything about Robin? Who he was or anything?"

Terry did think about it. "No… he doesn't talk really, he just kinda gives orders."

"Whoa… Check this out," Max commented looking at the screen. "Wayne's got no family, right?"

"Yeah, right," Terry said, nodding.

"Wrong," Max said as she started reading off the screen. "Bruce Wayne adopted a child, Dick Grayson, when Grayson was ten. His parents were circus performers, as was he, and they were killed by a… Tony Zucco… and get this… Zucco was taken down seven years later by Batman and Robin."

Terry shrugged. "So, it's a coincidence."

Max arched an eyebrow. "And I guess it's also a coincidence that this Dick Grayson currently is employed by the Bludhaven Police Department and has been for the past… here's a nice number… twenty six years."

Terry hung his head, thinking. Wow… I can't believe that he never told me this… well… actually… yeah I can, but still… Then a thought occurred to him. "But there was a Robin in Gotham after that. There was a Robin until like twenty years ago."

Max nodded. "Well, we've got a foster child… Jason Todd, and a kid named Tim Drake, son of Jack Drake. Apparently Mr. Wayne was Tim's legal guardian after his father had a accident of some kind."

"That would explain the three different Robin suits in the 'cave," Terry muttered. How stupid am I for never putting it together? Terry grabbed his bag and patted Max on the shoulder. "I'll see you later. Got to go have a talk with someone."

Max spun around. "What do you mean? It's only 5th class…"

"Tell Dana I was sick… Thanks, Max."

"So… tell me about your son," Terry asked as he entered the Batcave about an hour later.

Bruce looked up from the computer screen for a moment, and then looked back down. "I have no son, you know that Terry…"

Terry sat down next to him. "Dick Grayson?"

Bruce's face dropped. "Who told you about him?"

Terry dropped the stack of newspaper clippings the he had found about Grayson. "I did a little detective work without you. He was Robin, wasn't he?"

Bruce nodded. He knew that he had hid the truth from Terry for long enough and that he could not lie to him now. "For a time – among others."

"Like Jason Todd? And Tim Drake?" Terry guessed.

Bruce nodded again. "You did good research, Terry."

Terry took a breath. He couldn't believe that he just got a compliment from Bruce. It was amazing. "So what does Grayson have to do with this Vengeance guy?"

Bruce was about to open his mouth to answer, as a voice from the stairs cut him off. "Vengeance is a local psycho to Bludhaven, hence, when he decided to pay a visit to Gotham, naturally, Grayson had to follow him."

Terry stood there, waiting for a body to emerge with the voice. "How'd you get in? Shouldn't Ace have…?"

"Ace?" the voice replied as the dog came into view shortly before the person. "Who so you think trained this puppy here, huh? You wouldn't touch me, would you, Acey boy?" Grayson said as he petted the dog's neck.

Terry watched as Grayson walked down the stairs into the Batcave. He was about the same age as Commissioner Gordon, he guessed, with an impressive build for his age and only a hint of gray in his otherwise jet black hair. So this is the Robin… Terry thought. Wow.

"Go back before she finds out you're here," Bruce commanded from behind.

Grayson halted, and then smiled, looking at Terry. "I'm back for 2 days and already he's ordering me around again. Geez." Dick turned back to Bruce and sat down across from him. "Besides, she already knows. She's not stupid, Bruce. I'm sure she knew after the first night I showed my face. And I doubt she's very happy about it."

Bruce shook his head. "Then why did you come here? We could have handled this."

Dick scoffed. "I couldn't even handle this alone… you expect this cocky kid here to?"

Terry spoke up from behind. "This 'kid' can handle a lot more than you think."

The elder man stood up and looked Terry in the face. "Oh yeah, you really handled him last night and the night before. Listen, kid… I'm giving you this one chance. Stay out of this." He started walking away as he threw over his shoulder. "It's not your fight."

Terry watched Grayson walked up the stairs, and a moment later, saw Bruce follow him, walking faster than Terry thought he could.

Bruce Wayne stepped out of the clock that served as the entrance to the Batcave and bellowed after his adopted son, who was almost across the long foyer to the front door of Wayne Manor.

"Who did he hurt, Dick?"

At the door, Dick stopped, but he neither turned around nor said anything. Bruce continued to walk towards him. "This is personal, isn't it? Who is he?" He had reached Dick now, and put a hesitant hand on the young (well, now not-so-young) man's shoulder. "Who did he hurt?" Bruce asked softly.

Dick softly brushed Bruce's hand away, but still faced the door. "Just keep your kid out of this. If he gets in my way again, I'm going to put him down."

With that, Dick opened the door and left.

Bruce returned down the steps and went straight to his computer, brushing past Terry. "What are you looking for?" Terry asked.

Bruce, concentrating on the keyboard, answered. "Who Vengeance really is. Dick could never drop something personal. This person must have done something to him or someone around him."

Terry sat in silence, knowing that his question had been answered and that Bruce probably wasn't going to answer anymore. Not even one of the hundred that currently floated through his mind.

Who is 'she'?

Why is Dick coming back to town such a big deal?

What did that comment about giving orders mean?

Why did he leave in the first place?

What is this Bruce Wayne really like?

And he knew that these questions needed to be answered, and only be one person.

Dick Grayson.