Nightwing: The Darkness
Chapter 5
DISCLAIMER: The characters and situations contained in this story are ©2004 by DC Comics Inc. and are used without permission for fan-related entertainment purposes only. This original work of fiction is ©2004 by Christopher W. Blaine and may not be reproduced without permission.
"It's been two weeks, Nightwing," Black Canary said, her face betraying the red-hot emotions she was barely keeping in check. "Two weeks since I buried the man whom I considered my son and your Justice League hasn't gotten one step closer to capturing Obsidian."
Nightwing rubbed the stubble on his chin and kept the other hand holding the small glass of scotch he had out of camera view. The lighting in the Batcave should have hidden it, but he did not want to take any chances. There was an unwritten rule that Gotham heroes did not drink while in costume and Black Canary's mother had been one of the original costumed adventurers back in the 1940's. Her daughter's word still carried a lot of weight with not just the other heroes of the city, Huntress and the like, but also with the entire community.
It was bad enough hiding his thoughts from Wonder Woman but now he was hiding his habits from someone that had been Barbara's best friend. The scant thought triggered a hundred memories, pleasant and unpleasant of the scarlet-haired woman that had been such an important part of his life. "I wasn't aware that I had to check in with the Justice Society on one of our cases," he replied.
She looked mad enough to step through the monitor and choke him and he did not blame her. When word had gotten out about what had happened to the Outsiders, the gravity of the entire situation with Obsidian had really hit home. Arsenal had been a long time member of the long underwear sect. Many, especially Nightwing, had loved him.
But most especially Black Canary.
Many years ago, when she was barely out of her teens, she had taken up with Oliver Queen, the womanizing Green Arrow. Roy Harper had been his partner and his adopted son long before he knew about his real children. A special bond had formed between Harper and Queen's only true love, the Black Canary. "Don't start that crap with me, Dick! Obsidian was the original Green Lantern's son and that makes him a Justice Society problem…"
"Except he was a member of the Justice League at one time, back in the good old days when he was just screwed up and not evil," Nightwing was quick to point out. He realized he was starting to shout and he had to admit that it felt good. He had kept his emotions tight ever since he had watched his friend die. He had buried them deep, but there was only so much room left in his soul for the torment he felt. He wanted Obsidian as bad as anyone, but there was no way to track him.
"I don't want to fight with you on this, Dick," Black Canary said, her voice suddenly a quiet calm. "The JSA wants to help…"
"And the best way you can is by keeping an eye on all of the other groups while the League concentrates on finding him."
He could tell she was not satisfied with the answer. "We have experienced members."
"So do we."
"Damn it!" she swore, her voice cracking. He could see that her eyes were puffy and red from days of crying. He was lucky that he wore a mask. With the mask, he could hide his eyes, hide the windows into his soul. He sometimes wondered if heroes like him that wore masks if they always had something terrible to hide. Superman didn't wear a mask.
Batman did.
He leaned forward, nearly knocking his drink down. "Dinah, if for one second I thought that the League could not handle this situation, I would personally show up on the doorsteps of the JSA headquarters and would beg you for help. Yes, the League is undermanned with Cissie and Copy Cat off of the team…"
"Have you seen her? Bart is calling me constantly," Black Canary asked.
Nightwing paused for a moment. He would have thought lying would have become easier with time. How many of his friends had he lied to over the years? Was his life based on lies? What was the truth now? "No, I haven't seen her since Roy's funeral and I didn't think that was the time to discuss her marital situation."
Dinah nodded. "Lucky I suppose Bart drew monitor duty that day."
Nightwing nodded. "Superman has agreed to stay on to help out and Helena is on stand-by; we aren't helpless. Our biggest problem is trying to figure out where Todd will strike again and stopping him."
The blonde heroine rubbed her forehead. "Am I insane or did the League not report that Todd was killed eight years ago? I distinctly remember reading a report from Batman that said Todd had killed himself."
"I read the same report," Nightwing replied, glancing over at a folder that was lying next to a sandwich he never ate. "Batman believed that Todd had killed himself after he was confronted by his father's ghost thanks to the Spectre. Alan forced Todd to acknowledge that his anger was misdirected, that there had never been any reason to blame the super-hero community for his problems, whatever the were."
"I never really understood him," Black Canary confessed. "His sister, Jade, inherited the green energy powers of the Green Lantern, while Todd inherited some sort of darkness."
"Some darkness is hereditary; some is made," Nightwing said. "I'm not sure anyone knew the extent of Todd's emotional problems."
"Have you talked with his sister?"
He shook his head. "Communications with Oa, headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps is sporadic at best. I tried to get a hold of Kory Anders, she was a Lantern for awhile, but she…"
"She's not talking to you? What do you expect, Dick? It's like every woman you get involved with ends up with a broken heart…" Her face suddenly flushed red as she remembered the ups and downs of his relationship with Barbara. They had been so in love, yet so afraid of loving each other. "I'm sorry."
He didn't bother to answer, but instead shit off the communications link and then locked it out to prevent even a priority signal from getting through. He turned in the chair and looked across the cave at the glass cases that held the costumes of the fallen members of the family.
Jason. Barbara. Bruce.
He supposed it would only be appropriate to have a case made for the latest Robin to have fallen in the line of duty, but he just wasn't sure when he would get around to it.
Slowly he stood up and walked away from the massive computer that took up one whole wall of the Batcave and made his way to the stone stairs that led up to Wayne Manor. Cissie had been staying with him, trying her hardest to get him to agree to some sort of commitment, but he had so far resisted her efforts. When he had told her of Roy's death, it had been his cold shoulders that she had cried on instead of being in the arms of someone who actually loved her. She was merely a distraction for him.
And now she was going to have his baby.
He reached the top of the stairs and looked down the fifty feet to the floor below. Nobody would have thought twice if his body were found broken at the bottom, the result of a misstep that sent him crashing to his death. The dark voices were around him, telling him it was only fitting that he take that plunge, that it was all in the name of revenge.
He laughed with the chuckle of a madman as a memory tickled his brain. It had been here in the cave, many years before, back when Bruce had first offered him the chance to become Robin. Clad in his Batman costume, Bruce had put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm offering you the chance to see justice done for your parents' murder," he had said in that voice that sounded two steps from the grave.
Tears in his eyes, young Dick Grayson had shaken his head. "I don't want justice, I want revenge."
"Revenge serves no purpose, it offers no closure," Batman had warned him. "Justice allows a society to breathe easy again, to know that there is order out of chaos."
Nightwing mouthed the words as he remembered them. "Your parents were killed for what they had, Bruce, that's why you want justice. Mine were killed because of what someone else had; they were completely innocent. There is no justice for that."
He nodded his head, agreeing with the statement even after so much time. It had defined his philosophy over time, had caused the rift between him and his mentor years later. It was a darkness that few could understand. Bruce had wanted to bring justice for every crime, whereas Nightwing had gone for revenge and each time he had struck a blow against the face of some criminal, in his heart he had wanted to hit harder.
Certainly he pretended, he had fooled himself, thinking that he was only using the appropriate force to stop a crime. He had even joined a police department in his younger days; Officer Richard Grayson, Bludhaven Police Department. Even then he couldn't put the philosophy away, couldn't do it Bruce's way. Over the years it had just built up, the need to not just capture criminals, but to punish them as well.
And some, if they knew his thoughts, would say his point was proven, that in the game of heroes and villains, it was the people like him that made the true headway against crimes. He was rich and had a woman half his age begging to be his bride. He was the leader of the Justice League!
He peered into the darkness of the cave, just making out the glimmer of the glass cases. He wondered, when he was gone, who would make a display for him.
Then he wondered, did he even deserve one?
He heard voices coming from the library, two female ones. Cissie had company and he causally walked in, expecting…well, not really expecting anyone. Though his secret identity was now well known, it had not garnered him any friends. He was mostly alone, except for Bat-Mite, who was asleep in the corner with a half chewed dog biscuit.
Cissie was in a chair, dressed in shorts and a halter-top and Nightwing wondered if she understood how obvious that such attire appeared? His lover was showing more skin than some lingerie models.
Then he saw who she was talking to and realized that their secret was safe.
Kory Anders, the English equivalent of her native name, was most definitely not human. She had copper colored skin and a mane of hair that looked like a red sunburst. Her pupiless green eye, together with her six-foot frame and shapely figure, made her one of the most beautiful women in the world.
She stood up as he entered and he inwardly marveled at how beautiful she still was. Once she had even been a super model, which was not surprising in a world where aliens were commonplace. She was a princess of her world as well, Tamara; at least she had been before it had been destroyed. Decades of war had nearly decimated her peoples and she had taken refuge on Earth where she became the second Starfire.
Years later, she had accepted a position with Hal Jordan's reformed Green Lantern Corps, not long after Jordan had returned from the dead. "Dick," she said with a smile. Her face brightened the room and he could hear the demons in his mind retching and coughing at the sight.
"Kory," he said, accepting a hug and a kiss. He caught a wary eye from Cissie and he scowled at her. They pulled away and she looked him over. He caught the glimmer of worry in her expression. They had spent too many long nights together for him not to be able to see it. He faked a smile. "I wasn't expecting you." He chuckled and then shook his head. "I was just talking about you with Black Canary."
Kory turned and regarded Cissie. "Yes, well I think it is very nice that you are allowing a friend to stay here while she works out her problems." When she turned back, Nightwing knew that she was fully aware that it was a lie, but Kory was a good enough friend not to say anything about it.
"Yeah, well, Cissie is a good friend and considering everything that has happened…"
Kory nodded and moved to adjust one of the straps of her costume. It was barely covering her, but it was more than what Cissie was wearing. Any other time, he thought to himself, he would have imagined he had stepped onto the set of an adult film. "I'm sorry I couldn't be here for Roy's funeral. I heard about it from your Green Lantern, but I was too busy on Oa."
"I thought you were done with the Corps," Nightwing said.
Kory hesitated and then looked at Cissie. "I hate to be rude, darling, but I really need to talk to Dick alone."
Cissie smiled and Nightwing felt a sharp pain in his back as he imagined the vile thoughts running through his mistress' mind. "Of course, how rude of me," she replied, filling the room with a chill. With as much dignity as she could muster, Cissie got up and left the room.
"A married younger woman, Dick? Really?"
Nightwing dropped his fake smile and moved over to the bar. "Drink?"
Kory shook her head. "Human liquors are too weak for enjoyment." Nightwing snorted, explaining there was a time she wouldn't have anything except a glass of milk and happy thoughts. "That was a long time ago; we were both different people then."
"Couldn't tell by looking at you," he commented.
"Still trying to get me into bed, even after all of these years?" she joked. He moved away from the bar, removing his mask and sipping at his drink. She noted the glass. "You never used to drink."
"I used to have other things to do," he replied as he sat down. "I'm sorry…I shouldn't be so snippy."
Kory moved over to a chair opposite him and sat down. He was amazed at how much she had not aged, but then her race was longer lived than a human's. He would be a rotted hunk of meat before she showed her first wrinkle. "I'm leaving," she said.
"Was it something I said?"
She grinned. "No, I mean that I'm leaving Earth. One of the reasons I agreed to join the Green Lantern Corps was to try and find a world that would be suitable for refugees from my world. One of the long range probes sent out by the Corps has found such a place, far beyond the known galaxy."
Nightwing moved forward. "I know that had been a dream of your s for a long time, Kory," he said.
She nodded and turned to look out the window. "The trip takes ten years. My people will be in cryogenic freeze."
"Oh," Nightwing said, sitting back and realizing the extent of her revelation.
"So you see, by the time I get there, establish a colony for my people, a return trip would be…impractical," she admitted. He counted the years in his head and determined that he would most likely be dead by the time she wanted to visit Earth. She was no longer a Green Lantern, no longer had the ability to use a power ring to bend space and time to make a trip across several million light-years in a few hours.
She was going to be, effectively, dead to him.
"I don't know what to say," he said and it was one of the first true statements he had made in a long time. Immediately his mind wandered to the cruelty of survival as he called it. How many friends and loved ones had he lost over the years because he had been able to beat the Grim Reaper at his game? His parents. Alfred. Jason. Barbara. Donna. Roy.
He heard the laughter, the demonic joy that the demons of his mind experienced whenever the weight of his existence weighed down upon him. He was here, drinking scotch and talking with an old lover while his comrades and loved ones rotted in coffins under six feet of dirt. Suddenly his tongue felt numb and he started sweating.
"I just wanted to make sure that, before I left, everything between you and I was…finished," she said, her eyes suddenly taking a doe-like appearance. In that moment he felt the urge to sweep her up and kiss her; kiss her in the way he used to when he was denying his feelings for Barbara, when he had transferred them to her. Back to the days of his youth when everything could wait until tomorrow, when the moment counted for something.
Age brought wisdom and regret. "I do not regret anything about our friendship, Kory," he said, against his will. He could not keep her here; he didn't love her either. He never had, despite the fact he had wanted to so very much.
"I see," was all she said.
He sipped his drink. "A favor, though," he asked and she nodded. "One day you will marry and you will have children. When you talk about us, I hope you will remember the good times more than the bad."
A tear fell down her cheek. "I loved you so much," she said, letting her heart pour out. "But I could never compare to her," she said, referring to Barbara. "I wish I knew what it was about her that so enthralled you. Was it her beauty, her intelligence, her bravery?"
He looked away, his eyes looking into memory, capturing a picture of her face. He remembered the first time he had laid eyes upon her in her Batgirl costume and how at that moment he had felt that she was the person he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with. He recalled their failed attempts at being lovers, at being friends and at being comrades in arms. The world demanded too much of them, never giving them the time they needed to just love one another.
He had sought solace in Kory's arms. In Donna's. In Helena's. Now in Cissie's. Would all of them hate him if he confessed that each time he made love to them, he thought of her? "You were just too good for me, Kory," he said, hoping to ease her mind.
"She's in love with you now," Kory told him, referring to Cissie. "Does she realize how much you hate yourself?"
He was surprised; Kory had never been so forward. "I have my reasons."
"Why, Dick; is it because of what Bruce did? You couldn't have known!"
He laughed and finished the rest of his drink in a single swallow. "Bruce! It always comes back to Bruce. My life is defined by Bruce Wayne, the great Batman!"
"He made a mistake…"
"Yeah, by taking me in," Nightwing told her. His voice suddenly grew cold. "Better he had left me to be raised in an orphanage."
She shook her head and he could see the pity on her face, but he wondered if she pitied herself instead of him. The man she had loved was long gone. He was now an alcoholic, womanizing and suicidal mess. She was lucky she got to leave Earth. "This is no way to say good-bye," he said, standing up.
She did the same and they embraced. He could smell her; her race had a distinctive scent that was not unpleasant. The odor trigger memories within his brain. "Forget Earth and concentrate on your new life."
"I will miss you greatly, Dick Grayson," she said, crying.
He felt the need to cry as well, but the tears would not come.
Wonder Woman took in a deep breath; her chest heaving and Nightwing could tell she was not happy with him. Copy Cat had been booted from the League, based upon Superman's recommendation. The Amazon had accepted the decision, but was not pleased with it. Already she had gone through the list of reservists and was trying to find suitable replacements for the members they had lost.
She looked at the image of Nightwing and her eyes narrowed. She had known him most of his life. Her twin sister, Donna Troy, had actually been in love with him at one time and more than once Wonder Woman had found herself throwing a lustful eye at him. But beyond the physical, there was a darkness that surrounded the scion of Batman. Now he was leader of the League, elected to a position that Wonder Woman had not wanted at the time. She now regretted that decision.
She had contacted all of the original members of the League from Aquaman to the Flash and none of them wished to rejoin. The Flash, especially, had been confident in the abilities of Nightwing to lead the League to victory over Obsidian, but Wonder Woman had her doubts. The League was becoming useless. Green Lantern was, no pun intended, green. Impulse was an emotional wreck. And Superman, in her opinion, was too preoccupied with seeing Nightwing as the Batman that never was.
"You have no choice; Batman led the League task force that last defeated Obsidian," she told him.
Anger was apparent on his face. "I don't want to talk to him," he said.
She shrugged. "You're the leader of the League; you have to talk to him. He'll talk to you anyway."
"You slept with him," he pointed out. It was not a well-known fact, but Wonder Woman and Batman had been a couple for about six months, just prior to his arrest. His fall from grace had hardened her edge as well. "I'm sure he would like to see you more."
"I'll excuse your piggish comments based upon your grief," she warned. He knew he was pushing her as well and he wondered if he was doing it on purpose. Amazons were known for killing their enemies. "You are his son, his successor. He will talk to you."
Nightwing cursed. "Fine, I'll go see him, for all the good it will do."
Wonder Woman leaned towards the monitor. "Make no mistake, Richard, you are the leader of the League, but don't think for a second that I won't use my authority as a charter member to remove you if you don't straighten up. I cannot fathom the pain you have experienced and you have my sympathy, but Obsidian is a true threat to us and I will brook no slacking in our duty."
"No wonder he liked you," Nightwing said as he ended the transmission. "Damn control freak."
The older man walked through the doorway with an air of superiority, which was proper given who he was. He was a man used to being in control and even though others were in charge of him on paper, in reality he was the king over the domain.
Nightwing noted that his hair had grayed a bit, but otherwise he looked good considering his age and circumstances. The man came in, saw him and gave the hero an arrogant smile. "Hello, Dick," the man said as he plopped into a chair.
"Hello…Dad."