Y'all should go read my other stories I just updated them.
Clara's POV
"What do you mean, you were one of them," asked Aqualad. The whole world screeched to a halt. I really didn't want to do this, but we needed to get Dick back.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. "I used to be an assassin."
The whole Team gaped at me. "I thought we could trust you," said Wally. Artemis put a hand on his shoulder, reminding him that she used to have secrets too.
"How many people did you kill?" asked M'gann quietly. "It wasn't my choice-" I began, but she cut me off. "How many?" she asked more urgently.
I shakily drew in a breath. "I don't know," I said, looking at the ground. I blinked a few times to get rid of the tears that were welling up in my eyes. That was the scariest part of myself. I didn't know how many lives I had ruined, how many families I had hurt.
I looked up, trying to catch the eyes of somebody, anybody, but none of them could even look at me. Batman cleared his throat. "It does not matter who we used to be, only who we are now," he began, ever the valiant leader. "Right now, we need to find Night Wing. And with Clara on our team, she is likely our best shot at knowing our enemies' weaknesses."
He looked back at the holographic panels. "I tried to locate him through his tracker, but there was something that was hindering the signal."
"They're underground," I said quietly. Everyone dragged their eyes back to me. "There are only four underground facilities in nearby cities."
"Four?!" asked Superboy. "It will take us days to find him!"
"And how do we know that they stayed nearby?" asked Zatanna in an insinuating tone. I locked eyes with her. "Trust me, they did." I waited for her to avert her gaze before addressing Batman.
"One is underneath an old concrete building in the warehouse district of Metropolis, there's another one under a cute looking house in a nice neighbourhood in Ivy Town, and the other two are underneath office buildings in Gotham."
"Which buildings do you think he's most likely to be in?" asked Wally. He pushed away his hatred for me so that he could find Dick.
I pulled a hand through my hair. "The ones in Gotham."
"How do you know?"
"Because that's where I was trained. They are going to rip up every last one of my memories from those places."
Silence fell over the Team like a blanket. "Get some rest, everyone," said Batman. "I want you all to be fully recharged tomorrow so that we can find Night Wing."
Everyone nodded thankfully. I could see the dark circles under their eyes that not even coffee could fix. I lumbered back to my room, feeling as if I was walking through sludge. When I got there I pulled on some pyjamas and took one look at my bed before I realized that I wasn't going to be sleeping here tonight.
I padded over to Dick's room and gently pushed the door. It slid open silently on perfectly greased hinges. I stood in the doorway for a moment before walking in and sliding under the covers of his bed. I could smell him on the sheets, and that tricked my mind into thinking that he was here.
I fell asleep within minutes.
Night Wing's POV
I woke back up in a black room. My wrists and ankles were tied to a chair, and something was covering my mouth. I was completely disoriented.
Out of the darkness, a fist slammed into my eye, knocking the chair over. Someone stood the chair back up again. A different fist slammed into my other eye. I could feel them swelling shut. It wouldn't matter; I couldn't see anything anyways.
A knife sliced through my cheek, and a startled scream escaped my lips. I couldn't even hear myself. The same knife was plunged into my thigh, and I roared in pain. Tears leaked from my purple eyes.
"Dick?" Clara called out. Her voice was a beacon in the darkness. "Dick, are you okay?" I cried with relief that someone was finally here to save me. She removed whatever was covering my mouth and kissed my face.
But the lips weren't hers. The Cheshire Cat was just playing games with me. As soon as I tried to pull away from her, the knife was ripped out of my thigh and sliced across my mouth. I screamed, then started choking on my own blood.
I felt a zap in my torso. Someone had Tasered me. I felt another one, and another one. Then, they zapped me and didn't stop. I felt my teeth chatter and my body convulsed. My eyes rolled into the back of my head. When they finally stopped, I was barely conscious.
Then, someone brought a dagger down through the muscle of my chest, and I fell unconscious as I bled out in the dark room.
No one had come to save me, and no one ever would.
Clara's POV
After I had woken up, Batman immediately called everyone to the mission briefing area to discuss the plan for finding Dick.
"Let's start with a recon mission," he began. "Clara you will scout out the office on the northern edge of the city, and M'gann will take the one in downtown Gotham. The rest of you will stay behind and check the other buildings, just in case Clara was incorrect."
It was just my luck that I was at the one that Dick was at. I knew this because that building was where I had slept. That building was the one with the more advanced torture chambers. That building was the one that I had nearly died in training in.
We all nodded curtly. Batman started to speak again, but a random panel opened up behind him. It was a live video of Ra's al Ghul holding the head of a barely conscious Dick.
I stiffened at the sight of him in such a state. He had too many injuries to count, and I knew it went much deeper than that. How had they caused so much damage overnight?
"Hello, Justice League," he said.
"Trace the call," Batman ordered. When no one seemed to do it right away he yelled, "NOW!" and that sent people running.
"I can't," said Wally, clearly stressed. "They blocked it somehow." A muscle feathered in Batman's jaw. "Try harder."
"We have your precious Night Wing," said al Ghul. "Or should I say, Dick Grayson." A picture of Dick as a thirteen-year-old flashed across the screen.
He punched Dick across the face. "My, he does have such beautiful screams." He pummeled him over and over until I wanted to scream at the broadcast.
He took Dick's face and plunged it into a pail of steaming water. I could hear bubbles rising to the surface as they drowned him in burning water to almost unconsciousness.
Right as he was about to pass out, they pulled his face out of the water. It was covered in angry red burns. "His skin is very soft as well," said al Ghul.
I was going to kill him. I was going to find him and kill him, and it wouldn't be pretty. I let this thought stop me from throwing a couch at the holographic panel.
He plunged Dick's face back into the water, then pulled him out and punched him in the teeth. He repeated this, over and over until I thought I was going to go insane.
"Give us Clara," he ordered. "If you ever want to see your protégé again." The broadcast clicked off.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. I walked up to the concrete wall and punched it, feeling my knuckles split and bruise. I rested my head against it as the Cave erupted in noise.
"I think it's a fair trade."
"How could you ever hurt someone to that extent?"
"Who even wants her here, anyway?"
I calmly walked toward the private training rooms to let off some steam and train for tonight. Because tonight, I wasn't just gathering info and leaving. Tonight, I was going to break Dick out of there and turn myself in.
