This is the beginning of the end, people. I totally intended for this chapter to be the entire rescue, but then it got long so it's just the beginning. Hope you guys can wait a bit longer.

I am now going to indulge in a plea for help. I want to have some awesome fight between Slade and Batman, but I suck at action scenes. I'm not a violent person, so I have trouble writing violence. So... help?

Enjoy the chapter!

"Everybody know what they're doing?" Batman barked. They had been going over the plan for almost an hour now, but he wanted to know that everyone had everything down pat. No one objected, either. Everyone knew how important this was. Everyone knew what was riding on this mission- and no one wanted to fail.

They were going to bring Nightwing home.

Bruce sent Clark to Metropolis immediately when Barbara called him. He then proceeded to bang his head against the Batcomputer. How could he have overlooked Metropolis? He hadn't been certain that Selina's idea would be correct, but now that it had been proven he couldn't believe that he hadn't realized that no one had covered the city since Superman had been with him the whole time coordinating. It was a grievous oversight, one that had cost him months with his son.

Once he was done berating himself, Bruce hacked into the security cameras in the park. He quickly scanned them for any sign of Dick. Two redheads caught his eye and he slowly scanned the area around them, searching for his son. He caught his breath when he saw him. Dick looked well, he was healthy and obviously hadn't been mistreated. Bruce relaxed a little. Dick was leaning against a park bench, his lips pursed together in a way that meant that he was whistling. He was tossing what looking like a spalding ball from hand to hand, occasionally glancing at Wally and Barbara or a group of two men conversing at a nearby park bench. Bruce zoomed in on the two and growled; one was obviously Slade.

Bruce heard footsteps coming down the staircase into the Batcave and quickly zoomed in on Dick instead of Slade. He heard Alfred and Tim chatting as they came down, and smirked at the stunned silence that fell over the cave once they noticed what he was looking at. Tim was instantly at his side.

"Is that Dick?" He asked excitedly. "Where is he? When was that?"

"Metropolis." Bruce answered, not able to hide the happiness and excitement in his voice. "And it's live."

Tim gasped. "So we found him." He said in disbelief. "Actually found him. No more tricks."

"No more tricks." Bruce confirmed. "Clark will be following them discretely as soon as they leave and Barbara will have a tracker on their car. It's almost over."

Tim grinned brightly. "Can I come when you go to rescue him?"

Bruce glanced at him slowly. He didn't really want to let him, but… "sure." Bruce finally said. He couldn't deny the boy a chance to help his brother. Plus, everyone would probably want to be a part of the rescue. He couldn't stop Tim from going if everyone else was.

He reluctantly closed the camera view. "C'mon, Tim. We should start planning."

Batman watched grimly as everyone assembled themselves into the teams he'd decided on and moved out. Most of them would be look outs, both to make sure that Slade and Dick were actually in the base and to prevent either of them from getting away. Only a fairly small team would actually be entering the hideout. This wasn't going to be a long, drawn out, dramatic rescue- they would be going in and getting Dick out, hopefully punching Slade a few times in the process. Dick, however, was the priority.

Batman didn't react as a hand touched his shoulder. "Are you all right?" Superman asked quietly. "I can only imagine the toll this is taking on you." There was still a possibility of this failing, after all, and he knew that Batman would be running through every scenario in his head, trying and failing not to get his hopes up.

"I…I'm fine." Batman said tersely. "I'll be better when we get Dick back." When. Not if. They were going to get Dick back, no matter what Batman had to do.

Superman managed a small smile. "C'mon Bruce." He took a few steps forward. "Lets go rescue Dick."

Batman nodded and moved forward confidently. It was time to rescue his son.

IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO

Batman, Superman, the Titans, and the Team were the only ones to actually enter the base. The two young teams weren't to come in contact with Slade; they were mainly there to take care of any Sladebots or other help there may be. Batman and Superman would be taking care of Slade. Hopefully, on of the two groups would find Dick before Slade spirited him away again.

Batman took a deep breath and nodded towards Aqualad and Raven, the respective leaders of the two younger teams. They nodded back and cautiously moved into the building. They would split into pairs and patrol the halls, using Megan's mind-link to keep in contact. Superman and Batman were linked in too, but

they were mostly blocking out the teens' chatter. They would only reintegrate themselves into the link if they found someone or something.

At the moment, they were sneaking around the hallways, looking for the main rooms or a person. So far, the base seemed deserted. Raven, however, assured them that Dick was, in fact, in the base. Superman couldn't confirm, of course, since Slade was not an idiot and had his base lined with lead.

"Hey, I recognize this!" Beast Boy crowed over the link. "Remember, Titans? This is the same way the training rooms were organized in that other base of Slade's."

"Do you think they're based off each other?" Wally asked. Maybe they could use that to help them maneuver.

"Maybe." Raven allowed. "Lets not bother Batman yet. Whenever anyone notices a bunch of rooms together, tell the rest of us."

Sure enough, a few hallways and rooms later, they had seen enough to conclude that the base was, in fact, identical to the other one they'd explored. Finally, Raven got Batman's attention over the link and informed him of their conclusion. She then gave him instructions as to where the kitchen and bedrooms should be based on his position. With that information, they quickly found their way to the main area of the base- and soon heard voices.

Batman and Superman exchanged looks.

"We found them." Superman said through the link. Immediately, he was overwhelmed by a cacophony of voices and exclamations.

"Quiet!" Batman barked. "We can't afford to make any more mistakes. Keep watch- make sure he doesn't get away again."

"Dick or Slade?" Artemis muttered. Everyone ignored her- they all knew he meant both.

Batman and Superman immediately tuned them out again. Batman indicated that Superman should stay put and moved forward to see what was going on in the room where he heard voices. He made sure to stay out of sight, obviously.

The room he was looking into was obviously a training room. It was in use, by a mask less Slade and a sunglassed Dick. Batman froze, barely breathing as he stared at his son.

He and Slade were sparring in the middle of the room, both physically and verbally. They were exchanging barbed comments and sharp retorts, exchanging blows at the same time. Batman could see that they were comfortable with each other, enough so that they could fight each other without much thought, and so could concentrate on the conversation portion of the fight. It reminded Batman of when he and Dick used to spar like that.

As he watched, the two finished their spar, Slade declaring it a draw. Dick laughed.

"Please." He teased. "A few more minutes and I would have had you."

Slade raised a skeptic eyebrow. "I'm sure." He drawled. "You are excellent, yes, but not yet good enough to beat me."

Dick raised an eyebrow right back. "Someone has an overinflated ego." He rolled his eyes and grabbed a water bottle off a nearby bench. "Got any meetings today?"

"No, thank goodness." Slade sighed. "Mindless idiots, the lot of them. Why don't you add that to your list of reasons- you can actually provide some intelligent conversation at times."

Dick rolled his eyes again. "Glad that I'm keeping you amused. I'm going to go grab a snack. You want anything?"

"No. If you run into Wintergreen on your way, ask him to go to the supermarket soon. We're running out of food."

"Sure." Dick agreed, heading towards the doorway where Batman was lurking. As he reached the door, he paused for a moment, feeling his mentor's presence. His eyes searched the hall until he found Batman in the shadows. Dick met his eyes for a moment before turning and heading down the hallway to the kitchen. His message couldn't be clearer- he wasn't going to interfere, but nor was he going to help.

Batman waited a moment before stepping into the room.

"Hello, Slade."

Bats is pissed :)

So, please help me figure out this fight scene thing for next chapter. I don't want to have to gloss over it, but I might have to. Thanks!

Review!