Hello my lovelies! Its been a while since I have updated for Ripple in the Current so I have made the chapter longer than usual. If you like the new length or not, plz comment and let me know, it may take me longer to update because of it. As always, Plz comment and like. If you have ideas for future chapters or scenes plz comment them. I love hearing from you guys!

For future reference the / or ~~~ means that there is either a character POV change or a time change.


Dick shot up from his spot on the couch, gasping for air that seemed to evade him as his eyes frantically searched the room for any danger. Slumping in relief, he ran a hand through his sweat soaked hair and down his face finding it wet. He quickly wiped away the tear stains as he tried to forget about his dream.

The nightmares were getting more frequent the closer that dreadful day became. Each day the nightmares became more vivid, sometimes he'd dream that he had fallen with them, in others, his family would still be alive when he'd reached them at the bottom. With their last breaths, they would spill out horrible insults, blaming him for their deaths, asking why he hadn't told them. He tried, he had tried to tell them about the strange man, who he later found out was the mob boss named Tony Zucco, but they wouldn't listen.

His parents screams echoed in his mind. The sound of their bones breaking as they hit the ground caused his stomach to drop. The frightened screams of the audience as they rushed to get out, grew in volume until they were suddenly silenced. Wait. Dick paused. That had never happened in his dreams before. Usually the audience was already gone and it was just him and his ma and tati.

A scream split through the silence in the apartment.

His head snapped towards the sound. That scream hadn't been a part of his dream, it was coming from one of the bedrooms. Dick threw the blanket off onto the couch, ignoring the chilling sensation that passed through him, rushing down the hall. He slowed to a stop, glancing between the two closed doors. He turned the doorknob, opening the door to find Damian asleep in his bed. Dick quickly surveyed the room finding it empty. Any other time, Dick would have smiled at the adorable sight of Damian curled up in a ball, but instead, he frowned quietly shutting the door behind him.

Dick turned towards Red Hoods room, reaching a hesitant hand out. Red Hood didn't really seem to like him that much and going inside there wouldn't help. Before Dick could debate with himself on the topic, another scream came from the other side of the door. His hand turned, opening the door before Dick realized what he was doing.

Red Hood tossed and turned in the bed, mumbling to himself. Sweat rolled down his forehead, drenching the pillow. His blankets thrown off the bed in the haste.

Racing over towards the bed, almost tripping on the comforter littered on the floor, he placed his hands on Red Hood's shoulders, shaking them as Dick tried to wake him up. The instant Dick's cold hands touched Red Hood's burning skin on his arms, the man flinched away from the contact, trying to stop Dick or whoever he thought Dick was from touching him.

"Hey, wake up Red. There is nothing to worry about. It's just a dream." Dick repeated something similar, keeping his voice level and calm. He'd always been told that your tone gave away more secrets than your mouth ever could. So, if he pretended to be calm instead of letting the worry he felt inside to appear then it would reassure Red Hood, instead of making everything worse.

Red hood groaned, scrunching his face in pain. Red Hood threw his head aside as if he had been smacked. Dick did not want to know what Red Hood was dreaming about, it clearly wasn't anything good, but waking him up was harder than it seemed and the nightmare was getting worse.

Red Hood screamed again, reaching towards his head and to Dick's horror, began to claw at his face with his fingernails. Dick struggled to pull the man's arms back away and keep them pinned to the bed as Red Hood thrashed in the bed against Dick.

"Red Hood! Wake Up!" Dick said practically yelling and yet, not because he didn't want to wake Damian up, how the kid was still asleep at this point amazed him. He carefully avoiding the arms flailing in the air from the unconscious man while trying to calm Red Hood down. Apparently, Dick hadn't been as careful as he thought.

A fist flew threw the air, smashing against Dick's face. He could feel his lip busting as pain radiated from his check as another hit landed. Dick grunted, falling backwards from the attack. Dick brushed off the pain, moving to stand up.

"What.. what the hell are you doing in here?" a voice said from above Dick. Dick paused glancing up to see Red Hood sitting up, staring down at him from his spot on the bed. Dick quickly stood up

"You were having a nightmare." Dick told him, simply and truthfully. After years of being with his master, he'd learned to keep his talking to a minimum by keeping everything simple. Deathstroke wasn't a fan of how much Dick talked in the beginning, many of his first punishments came from when Dick couldn't stop himself from making a comment or backtalking. Once he was able to go on missions, one of the main rules Deathstroke had given him was to never speak. Dick figured it was the same for others since Red Hood and Damian seemed annoyed when he would talk. If talking annoyed them then he would only talk when spoken to or if it was important.

Red Hood looked away from Dick, choosing to stare ahead not acting like he had heard Dick. His eyes held a far off look in them, his shoulder's tensed up, still shaking from the nightmare.

"Are you okay?" Dick asked frowning, reaching out to place his hand on Red Hood's shoulder. When he didn't respond, Dick tried again to get his attention. Maybe his mind just hadn't caught up with his brain yet, but he did seem to be aware of Dick being in the room with him.

"Red, I-" Dick was interrupted by Red Hood moving. Red Hood smacked Dick's hand away from him, glaring at the guy. It was so sudden that Dick didn't have time to hide his shock.

"Get out." Red Hood turned away from Dick, his hands fisted by his sides. Dick didn't move, angering Red Hood even more.

"I said Get the F*ck out!" Red Hood screamed at him with his back turned.

Dick froze for a millisecond before lowering his eyes to the ground and nodding. He quickly left the room, quietly shutting the door behind him.

Red Hood sighed, dropping back onto the bed. He was almost asleep when he heard the front close. He paused, listening for any clue to if Dick had left and found silence as his answer. He grumbled, pulling the comforter off the ground, on him, and overtop of his head, deciding to deal with it in the morning, laying in bed until unconsciousness took him.

/

"What do you think of Renegade?" Red Hood asked randomly. It was late morning and there had been no sign of Renegade. Not since the incident that morning. Damian had come into the living room a little after sunrise, saying nothing as he noticed the disappearance of one assassin. It was quiet as Damian placed his empty plate in the sink, walking into his room, he walked towards the dresser, quickly finding the false bottom and pulling it off. He grabbed the notebook, he'd borrowed it from Dick when they had went to the grocery store and stashed it there for safe keeping, out the hidden compartment that were installed in every safehouse. Walking back into the living room, Damian settled onto the couch, opening the notebook to a new page.

"His name is Richard. He prefers to be called Dick," Damian said absentmindedly, scribbling on the page.

"Oh. When did he tell you that?"

"Yesterday." Red Hood hummed, nodding.

"So..." Damian stopped drawing in the notebook for a moment, formulating his answer.

"There is something strange about him. He is too cheery for someone of his line of work, but also can be quite dull," Damian said, making his assessment. Red Hood looked at the kid confused.

"What do you mean?"

"When we first arrived, he used his body language to communicate rather than speaking, which he only did if absolutely necessary. Now, he is very happy, even offered to play a game with me." Red Hood raised an eyebrow at that. Damian ignored him, frowning at the page, erasing a bit before he was satisfied.

"He holds himself as if he is going to be attacked. Like he has something to hide. Something he doesn't want us to find out."

"I wouldn't be surprised considering who the guy works for. But, the guy is very guarded." Red Hood said, shrugging. There was something going on between Renegade and Deathstroke and he couldn't figure out what. There had to be something he is missing. The two fell back into silence, each lost in their own world. Red Hood mentally ran through everything he knew about Renegade which wasn't much. All of his targets were killed with a single clean cut, bleeding out before help could arrive. There was never any evidence left behind, police were only able to tell that Renegade had killed them was because of his signature. The men were all connected by crime in some way and all killed because they did something they shouldn't have most likely. Without a trace, Renegade would disappear for weeks, sometimes months, at a time.

Red Hood though about the man he and Damian had been living with for the past month. He still couldn't believe that this odd, kind man was the merciless Renegade that showed no mercy for anyone. He didn't seem like the type to kill, then again, back on the island the guy seemed to know what he was doing. Renegade didn't have a problem taking out those goons. But the kid had a point. Back on the island Renegade was acting different than he was know. It was like a switch had been turned on, making the guy do a complete 180.

Red Hood was definitely missing something. He just couldn't figure out what it was so he let his mind wander.

Beside him, Damian scribbled furiously at the page becoming more frustrated by the second. He grumbled under his breath as he killed his eraser. He growled at the notebook ripping out the page, crumbling it into the ball to throw away later. Turning to a new page, he began again. The apartment became silent except for the sound of rustling paper and the city outside.

It was late that afternoon before the front door opened. Dick opened the door, closing it behind him.

"Mind telling me where you were off too in the middle of the night?" A voice said, behind him.

A fake smile covered the distress Dick felt as he turned to face Red Hood, forcing his body to relax from its tensed up position. "I couldn't sleep so I went out for a walk." At least it wasn't a total lie. It was true that he couldn't sleep, but that wasn't the only reason.

Red Hood seemed to have bought the lie. Red Hood knew he didn't have any business asking since he was the one who screamed at the guy to get out. He hadn't expected for Dick to leave the apartment. He was kind of curious to what the assassin was doing during those hours he was gone. Dick caught his attention when he rubbed his arm in a nervous manner. The action startled him. What kind of assassin is so nervous around other people?

"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have barged in and... and.." The words seemed to escape him. He'd known that it was a breach of privacy and that Red Hood would probably hate him more than he does now, but Dick had just wanted to help and this was what he got for helping. Red Hood's heart clenched at the kicked puppy look on his face.

"Jason." Dick froze in confusion.

"What?" Dick asked, glancing at Red Hood. The guy rolled his eyes at Dick. He was going to regret doing this, but if it got rid of that ridiculous look then he could deal with the consequences and the humiliation.

"My name is Jason." Dick nodded, even more confused now than before. Red H-Jason sighed.

"When Ra's found me, I didn't have any memory of, well, anything. For months there was nothing but a blank space where my memories should've been. That night when... you know... that was the first time anything seemed to be familiar to me. At first it was all blurry, after a while I could make out words and then there was this pain that spread all over. It burned everywhere," Jason explained. A part of the nightmare rung in his head.

"Little Wing." Jason whispered to himself, his eyebrows scrunched together. Dick looked up at him startled. Jason looked at him sighing.

"Lately, I've been having really weird dreams. In one of them, there is a guy, who looks a lot like a younger version of you actually, and he would bring me food, old clothes in the fall, anything I would need to survive."

"That is great. You're getting your memories back. Can you remember anything else?" Dick asked, sincerely. He sincerity shocked Jason. There was definitely something off about this guy.

"Yea. He told me a story of a robin who was left alone after its parents had died. The bird's parents were flying when someone clipped their wings causing them to pummel to the ground. The kid robin loved to fly and that didn't stop it from trying, but the robin got trapped in a cage. He said that the robin fought and fought, losing each time because he wasn't strong enough." Jason got a far off look on his face as he tried to remember the rest of the dream. "I remember asking him why the robin wasn't strong enough and he said the robin was alone. No one would help him."

"Why do you think he would tell you a story like that?" Dick said slowly, watching Jason shrug.

"I'm not sure, but the way he said it, it was like he was trying to tell me something. Not to get trapped, or… maybe that was his way of saying that he would be there for me, and he was from what I can remember."

"Is that what your nightmare was about?" Dick asked after a moment as if afraid of being yelled at again. Jason wouldn't be surprised if he was. Jason didn't see Dick's reaction that morning, since he had his back turned to the guy, but he suspected it was something similar to the one he'd gotten a little while ago.

"Sort of."

"Where is Damian?" Dick asked noticing his absence, searching the apartment for the kid. Jason shrugged.

"Probably in his room." Dick nodded in reply. Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Damian walked into the room as if he'd heard his name, he probably had. Damian stood of to the side, waiting on Jason to move.

"Me and demon brat here were about to head out to get diner, you hungry?" Jason asked. Dick shook his head 'no'.

"I'm good." Jason raised an eyebrow.

"Suit yourself." He said as he exited the apartment with Damian in tow. Damian paused in the doorway. Dick glanced at him confused, but before he could ask the kid a question, Damian turned away shutting the door behind him, leaving Dick alone in the apartment.

Dick shook it off, he had more important things to do than to wonder about that was about. He moved around the apartment, going about his usual routine of keeping the apartment semi neat. He wasn't a clean freak by a mine, but he didn't like living in filth.

He went through the place cleaning a little here and there where it needed it, picking up trash along the way. Dick picked up a pop can and a ball of discarded paper. Walking into the kitchen, Dick dropped the items into the trashcan. Wait. He glanced back at the trash at the piece of paper. There was something written on it. He pulled it out, and carefully unwrapped the wrinkly sheet. He stared at the parchment. He was wrong, there wasn't words on the paper.

Dick smiled at the drawing that the kid drew. Every line and piece of shading was made with precision and care. He could tell Damian had put a lot of effort into it. Dick gently placed the picture on the counter, planning to find a way to flatten it out later. The moment was ruined by his phone ringing in his pocket.

Dick paled, staring at the caller ID that read 'unknown'. His hand shook as he answered the call, holding the phone up to his ear. The voice on the other end made him stiffen, tense with fear.

"New contract. Deadline 2 a.m. Don't be late." The call disconnected. A text message came through a second later.

Dick pulled up the text, reading through the lines. Targets name is Samuel McGuire. Age 46. Location: Gotham City. Most visited spot, Granny's Diner. Objective: Kill on sight. What the man had done, he didn't know. He never did.

Now all he had to do was wait.

If Jason and Damian noticed the change in Dick, neither showed it. They left him alone for the most of the night much to Dick's dismay. He wanted the distraction that living with the two boys has given him, but it was time to get back to reality, his reality. He probably wouldn't have been able to concentrate on conversation anyway. Dick could feel himself closing off like he did every time a contract came. It wasn't long before the duo left to go to bed and at the stroke of midnight, Renegade escaped through the window in his suit.

It took about an hour for him to locate his target who was trying and failing to flirt with the waitress. An hour that he spent hiding, watching, waiting for his target to leave. After being rejected, Samuel McGuire left the diner, heading down the street with Renegade following silently. The man looked both ways before ducking into an alley as a shortcut.

Renegade dropped down silently behind him, drawing out his katana. He let the weapon make a sound as he removed it, gaining McGuire's attention as he froze in fear. The man turned around shaking violently, his eyes widening as his mouth opened to scream for help. Renegade's blade sliced through his throat in a single swift cut before McGuire could udder a sound.

Blood pooled out of the man's mouth. The man crumbled onto the floor, his hand twitching over his neck, trying to stop the bleeding to no avail. His masked cries were drowned out until they stopped all together. Spilling onto the ground creating a pool around the man's body, crimson covered the alley. A scene he was all too familiar with.

Renegade sheathed his blade, disappearing into the shadows. The news of the mans death would be all over the news by morning so there was no need to contact his master. Renegade hoped from rooftop to rooftop until he was back at the apartment, silently slipping through the window he'd left open into the living room. The light switched on the moment he stepped into the room.

"You know I don't normally care what other people do, but two nights in a row is a more than just a coincidence," Jason said from his spot on the couch, only to be ignored.

"Hey, I'm talking to you," Jason said irritated, following Renegade into the bathroom where a fresh pair of clothes laid folded on the counter. Jason opened his mouth to complain, only to shut it at the dead look in Renegade's eyes. Their usual brightness was dulled considerably. There was no emotion on his face as Renegade pulled off his masks, dropping them onto the counter. Soon after, off came his shirt and pants.

Jason looked away, giving Dick some privacy. At least the guy could do is have some decency when someone is talking to him. He heard clothes rustling before he turned back.

His breath hitched as he stared at the long gashes across Dick's back. The bruises that littered his skin had faded, leaving faint discoloration. The sheer size and the fact that a month later the bruises still have healed told Jason that they must've been pretty severe. Other scars and marks covered his skin. One particular mark had his stomach curling.

It was in a distinct shape of an 'S'. Jason looked a closer to see the same shape overlapping in spots as if someone had gone over it to ensure that the mark didn't fade. That wasn't what churned Jason's stomach. The mark wasn't made with a blade.

The skin on Dick's lower back was branded with the mark of Deathstroke.

A cloth dropped over the mark, knocking Jason out of the horrors that his imagination were creating to understand how Dick had gotten those scars. Dick turned around, jumping almost like he hadn't noticed that Jason was behind him.

"Um, did you need something?" Dick asked, uncomfortable. The unwavering stare was beginning to creep him out. Jason blinked, but remained quiet. He wanted to say something, but glancing at the bloody clothes on the ground and the tired expression on his face. He shook his head. "Oookay." Dick left, heading to the living room and to his bed.

"Dick." Dick froze hearing Jason say his name for the first time. "Goodnight."

Dick smiled at him. A small one, but one at that. Dick replied 'Goodnight' before curling up on the couch and was out like a light. Jason followed suit, heading to his room only to find himself unable to sleep as the image burned itself into his mind. A few hours later unconsciousness took him.


I know I haven't updated in a while. I've been really busy lately and haven't had time to write, getting writers block didn't help either, but hopefully sometime soon I will get back to updating every week or two. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, I hope everyone likes it as much as I do! A little dark, but not everything is sunshine and rainbows in my book and Jason is beginning to realize that.

Since only one person has guessed who the mystery couple is, everyone will just have to wait and see the answer as it is revealed in future chapters.

Spectacular Webhead 11- You are close, but not quite on the money. I'll give you a hint: its not anyone in the Batfamily unfortunately, but after reading this chapter, I hope it gives you a clue as to who the couple really is.

Thank you everyone who has commented for your words of encouragement. I'm really glad you all like it.