AN) Hello. It feels very strange to be back. A good strange, but strange. I'm so sorry that I haven't been writing. I've been dealing with a lot of things in my life. I've been seeking help for my anxiety, and I've been doing my very best to cope in healthier ways. I've been involved with Cross Country, my season was interrupted by a bad case of tendinitis/arthritis, so that was a bit of a bummer. I've been heavily involved in the drama club. We just finished our fall play, "Once Upon a High School'. It's a wonderful show, it focuses on how everyone is important in some way, no matter how small. It's a message I wholeheartedly support. I had a very fun part, a rather cringy principal who was just trying to be cool. I'm doing very well in my classes, the three college classes I'm taking are going well. I completely aced my Western Civilizations Midterm, I've kept a solid A in my General Psychology class, and in U.S. History I've had a lot of fun with my classmates. I'd like to thank you all for your patience, I hope I'll be able to update more regularly. I've been dealing with more depression symptoms than I have before, so I'm trying to find my motivation again. Well, let's go!

Raven sunk lower into the seat, her hands wrapped around a pipping hot cup of tea. She was exhausted, her limbs seemed to ache every so slightly every time she moved them. Taking all of that pain off of Richard had taken a toll on her body and mind, but it had been the right thing to do. He had been in so much pain, screaming and struggling to move. They told her it had been an issue of withdraws, that Richard had been given a powerful drug, that he had grown dependent on the chemicals to function. They told her they would solve it, that they wouldn't make him suffer through that again. She trusted them. She knew that they would do all they could to help Richard, but she didn't know if it would work.

Raven had only been with Richard for a few minutes, but she had learned a great deal about him. He didn't trust people, but he wanted to. He didn't even trust himself, but he wanted to. Richard believed that he was the only person he could count on to take care of himself, Raven did too. Richard had grown up in a physically and verbally abusive situation, but he didn't remember that. What Richard could remember was growing up in an emotionally withdrawn and still a physically abusive situation, which wasn't something that helped his habits to express and deal with emotions. The way he was expressing and dealing with them hasn't helping. Raven had felt great shame, Richard was ashamed of himself. He was ashamed of his emotions and the thinks that he did or didn't do. No one, especially a teenager, should carry such intense hatred for themselves. No one should! No human being should hate themselves! It was a concept that had taken Raven a very, very long time to understand, but she had grasped it. She wanted everyone else to grasp it too. She had to help Richard understand that too.

There was a soft tapping on the wall, Raven tightened her grip around her mug. Red was poking his head in the room, waving slightly.

"Hey, Rae can we talk?"

"Sure, what can I do for you?"

Red plopped next to her, he was still a little anxious. Red had known Richard for a very long time, he had known him before he had been brainwashed. Red had a connection to the boy already, stronger connection that she did, so he was already wanting to see Richard grow and be safe a whole lot more than she did. But, she wanted to see Richard get better, of course! But, Red's emotions were already fully invested into this situation.

"Was...there anything that you noticed with Richard? Anything super weird, weirder than normal in this type of situation?"

"Well, this situation isn't normal at all." Raven decided to explain to red all the things she had been thinking about. Red listened, nodding every few seconds as she explained some of the emotions she had picked up during her short time with Richard, and what she thought she could do to help him.

"That really does sound like it fits."

"What do you mean by that?" Raven knew that Red wanted her insight, but she wanted his insight as well.

"When we had Richard first, he was still cautious. Slade is a horrible human being, and Richard was still dealing with the same things, but they were presented in a much more...aggressive manner. Richard didn't really seem to be able to make decisions for himself, he kinda just did whatever we told him to do. We picked out songs to listen to, games to play, shows to watch, clothes to wear, when and what to eat...and he was happy." Red shrugged. "He likes it when things make sense, and what we were trying to get him to do was safe and good for him. I never thought it was a big deal that he wasn't that great with decisions, I mean, he was like eight. I've never meet an eight year old with good decision making skills anyway. But, he hasn't gotten better at it?"

"Exactly!" Raven quickly lowered her voice, but red was getting to one of her biggest concerns. "He's probably better at mundane stuff, like clothes and stuff-"

"Doubt it." Red huffed, crossing his arms. "Slade doesn't exactly believe in free will being a thing, if he doesn't like something it's a solid no—no matter what it is."

"Interesting. But still, he hasn't gotten used to making decisions for himself, so he doesn't know what to do. Before, he just wanted instruction, and the League was being nice to him and taking care of him, but now he hates them."

"So he's not going to listen them anymore. Or me." He sounded so sad. "I tried to get close to him, but Wally and Roy were better about it."

She gently squeezed his shoulder, Red smiling back to her. "We can work on that, hopefully when the drugs he'd been put on lose their hold he'll remember things."

"That's what Bats thinks too, it'll just be a little harder to help him through things to then."

Raven nodded solemnly, "that's what I'm concerned with. Before, we had Richard's trust, but we don't now. How can we get him to take a pill, something that could be trying to brainwash him against Slade."

"He won't take it." Red slammed his forehead against his hands. Raven quickly pulled her hand off of his shoulder, surprised by his sudden movement. "He won't take anything we give him, he'll go through those...things...everyday. We'd have to secretly drug him, and that won't build trust very well."

"It'll be up to me." Red looked eyes with her, Raven shrugging nonchalantly. "I'll either convince him to take them, or I'll just make sure he doesn't feel anything when he goes into a withdraw."

"Rae, that won't be good. You can't do that, it'll hurt you." Red grabbed her hands tightly, the mug pressed between their hands. "I know how much you want to help him, and I can never thank you enough for that, but your body can't take that kind of stress every day. And don't even get me started on him...do you know how guilty he'll feel if he knows he's causing you pain? You saw Dickie with Bart, he cares about innocent people."

"Thank you for your concern, but I know what to do." Raven felt an unusual smile tugging at her lips. Red really was a great friend and leader, but he still wasn't okay with letting any of his teammates sacrifice their own mental or physical safety in the slightest. "I don't want to have to help him through withdraws every day, but I can if need be."

"We'll convince him. We'll make sure he gets help, but not in any way that would hurt you. Okay?"

"Okay." She nodded, bringing her mug up to her lips for another sip, Red's hands falling softly against his legs. "He really seems like a good kid."

"Oh, he's the best."

"Tell me about him."

Red paused for a second, drawing in a steadying breath as he thought. "When he was little, he loved Harry Potter, like a lot."

"As any sane person would."

"Precisely. He was so excited! This whole world where magic existed, and he wasn't eleven, so it was totally possible that he was a wizard." Red laughed slightly, Rave n nodding—children weren't exactly her forte, but that sounded cute. "So we made this big countdown to a month before his Hogwarts letter to arrive. He was so certain that he would be in Gryffindor, just like Neville."

"He liked Neville?"

"Oh he loved Neville. I mean, he loved everyone—except Snape and the Death Eaters."

"Not a Snape fan?"

"Did you really think a kid who dealt with abuse would like an abusive teacher? Wait—this is getting sad, I don't want to be sad. Let me tell you about his first bike ride into an ocean."

"What?" Raven laughed, that wasn't something she figured would be normal for anyone—even a superhero's kid.

"He tried to jump off a ramp onto the beach, went straight into the ocean. Kaldur took care of it, but good Lord did we laugh."

Red then went into great detail, telling her all about Wally's screaming laughter, Megan's panicking and Connor's absolute confusion. This was a good conversation, Red didn't seem to be sad or nervous, just happy to be telling her about his little brother. She liked it when he was happy, Red being happy made her happy.

Red hadn't been happy since X had passed.

Breakline

Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please—fly faster! Fly faster, please, please, please, please! Hal's leg was bouncing nonstop, fingers tapping against the control panel. This wasn't going fast enough! Hal's thought process was alternating between coherent thought and screaming—just screaming. His son! His son! They found his son! His son was safe, that monster couldn't hurt him anymore! Bruce had him, Barry was taking care of him, Diana was going to watch over him, J'onn was going to help his nightmares, and Hal was going to give him a normal life. Hal was going to take Dick home and make sure he had food, he would make sure that Dick got a normal education with a normal family. Hal just wanted to make sure he was safe, he deserved to be safe. Every human being deserved to be safe, but Dick hadn't been safe for the longest time. Hal's mind was racing with horror stories. He had seen what that monster was willing to do to a human being, and it disgusted Hal beyond belief. He knew that his son had been beaten, with whips, staffs, and fists. His son had been exposed to horrible language, his son had been demoted from human to animal. His son had been forced to play horrible psychological games to survive.

"Move faster, come on you stupid-" He slammed his foot against the floor, he was traveling at insane speeds, but it still wasn't fast enough for Hal.

After receiving that message, Hal sprinted away from his home. He did feel a little guilty about leaving, but he wasn't going on a wild goose-chase this time. Richard was safe. He was safe. Carol would understand, he would be back soon. He would be back to his beautiful wife and amazing daughter, and he would be bringing back his wonderful son. His son, his now safe, amazing son.

Hal screeched to a halt, pulling into the hanger area. The ship fell apart around him, Hal crouching down, his knees grinding uncomfortably. He started sprinting, bouncing off of any people or objects in his way.

"Hey! Hey!" He shouted, a few heads swiveling to face him. "Barry! Bruce, Bruce where are you?" Hal needed to see his son right now...right now, right now right now, please right now...

"Hal. Hal!" Bruce was speed walking toward him, his usual determined look was crossed with his usual 'I'm going to punch you in the face' attitude.

"Where is he, Bruce? Where's my son?"

"Hal, you need to come with me. We need to talk."

"No, no I need to see him. I haven't seen him in years."

Bruce had a firm grip on his shoulder, using his super-bat strength to drag Hal into a meeting room. Hal wanted to see his little boy—well...he wasn't so little anymore was he? How much of his childhood had he missed out on? How much of a childhood had Richard missed out on? Things were going to be normal, as normal as their lives could be, but that monster just couldn't let things die. That monster just couldn't just leave his son alone…

"Hal, you're going to see him very soon. I promise, but you need to hear somethings first."

"I want to see-"

"I promise you." Bruce wasn't using his Batman voice, he was using the dad voice that he pulled when he was trying to get the boys to listen. So...Hal was at the same maturity level has Bruce's kids...great. "You will see him, but there's changes. Things are different, and you need to know what we've found."

Things were different, of course they were different. Dick was older, Hal had a daughter, and now Dick was safe. Honestly, he'd been a fool to think he had stayed the same.

AN) Well, I hope you all enjoyed! If you have an advice or critiques please leave a review! I'm excited to take this story down some interesting paths, and I want to give you all a great experience with this story too! I'd like to thank you all for your continued support and love. I know that everyone truly cares, and that means the whole world to me. I hope you all feel loved, supported and valid. Just know that you matter, that you will be found. I will be praying for all of you, as I hope you play for me. I want you all to have an amazing day! Breathe, stay in the moment, and live your best life! See you later my friends, I love you all.