As a hero, Dick was familiar with waking up after a trying battle. So when all he could feel when he came to was pain, he had a faint idea of what was going on. Any second now, Bruce would suddenly appear at his bedside, scold him for not being careful, and then begin to fret over him like the mother hen he knew he was. And then other people would show up, all expressing their concerns and wishing him a speedy recovery. That's how it worked when another hero was injured. Everyone expresses how much they're glad that they're okay, because honestly, anything is better than being dead.

So when no one immediately began to hound him to open his eyes, Dick was apprehensive. And that's why he cut his dreaming short and forced himself to sit up. Or at least, he tried to. But the straps holding him down to the medbay bed prevented him from doing so. Uh, that was awkward... Why did the Justice League strap him down?

And that's when he remembered: he was in an alternate universe.

"Great," he muttered, and groggily moved his eyes around the area. Okay, no one else was in the room, but he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Evil Justice Leaguers weren't exactly what he wanted to deal with at the moment, but on the other hand, laying in a random bed all day was sure to get boring. And with Dick's hatred of sitting still for more than a minute at a time, he was already becoming agitated with the situation he was in. Heh, Damian was going to be-

Wait. Damian.

The heart monitor next to him announced his sudden quickening of pulse. The fight with Renegade and Richard was rapidly coming back to him, but the main thing on his mind was when Damian was stabbed by a poisoned dagger. His last memory of what had happened to Damian was not a good one; the kid was basically dying in front of his eyes while he himself was defeated by Talon. Was Damian even alive now?

The door leading into his room slid open, and Batman, Flash, and Wonder Woman filed inside. "I see you're awake," the Dark Knight said monotonously. "Good. Now you can answer my questions."

"The kid literally just woke up," Flash mumbled, grimacing. "Shouldn't we give him some space-"

Batman sent him a glare. "Nightwing was working with the Resistance, and the information he might have is too valuable to ignore."

Dick sent him the fiercest glare he had. "Fuck you, Bruce. The only thing I'm capable of caring about right now is your son. So you better tell me where he is, or you'll be the first in this universe's JLA to learn to not piss me off."

The bat-glare was redirected towards him, but Dick did not back down. He was beyond furious already, and this universe's version of his guardian was not helping by being present. His Bruce always had a way of making him angry just by being within five feet of him, but this one was ten times more full of himself. And he did not have the patience for his bullshit.

"...He's bat-glaring," Flash whispered to Wonder Woman. "The kid knows how to bat-glare?"

"Would you stop calling me a kid?" Dick snapped, scowling. "I haven't been a child since I put on a mask for the first time, and I'm definitely not one now. I'm only a couple of years over twenty, I've been a side mentor to three Robins, I've led a Team of teenage superheroes, I've been forced to become evil three times, and now I'm living in a hell hole with no idea where my partner is. So instead of talking down to me like you're so high and mighty, why don't you actually say something useful and tell me where the hell Robin is?!"

Flash and Wonder Woman looked flabbergasted by his sudden outburst, but Batman remained stoic. The three Leaguers turned to each other, seemingly having a silent conversation. But Nightwing was a Bat, and being a Bat meant that he was a master at interpreting what was being silently exchanged. And judging by the small grimace Flash wore, the crease in Wonder Woman's forehead, and the slight clench in Batman's jaw, he knew there was something wrong.

"...Where's Damian?" He asked again, his voice strained. Wonder Woman gave him a look of pity, and he felt his throat tighten. "Where. Is. Damian?!" He shouted in a desperate tone, pulling on his restraints. The heart monitor was going crazy next to him, his panic making it impossible to keep himself together.

Batman turned his back on him. "The boy you call Robin was dead by the time we showed up." He must've heard the sharp breath Dick took in, but he ignored it. "We left the body where we found it. The Talon you were fighting must have set off a self destruct sequence in the warehouse, because the building was collapsing and we didn't have enough time to grab Robin."

"..."

"We are sorry for your loss," Wonder Woman said mournfully. "We might not be allies, but we know the pain of losing a comrade in battle."

"..." Dick could only stare at them, unable to process what was just told to him. Damian couldn't be dead, that was impossible. The kid had too strong of a will to simply... die. Dick couldn't wrap his head around any of this, couldn't imagine his little brother being anything but alive. Because Damian was the one person he never felt he needed to worry about, he was pretty much the only constant Dick had in his life. No matter what was going on, where they were, or who they were fighting, Damian was the one person Dick could count on to remain exactly the same. But now...He was gone? Never to make a sarcastic comment ever again?

He couldn't accept that. No, he promised Damian that they would both go home, and now these wannabe Leaguers are telling him that he failed his little brother? Fuck that. "You're lying," he hissed, blue eyes burning with hatred. "Damian wouldn't leave me here. He's alive, you're just trying to trick me."

"I don't care if you believe us or not, we told you what happened. It's your choice whether you accept it or not." Batman gestured for the other Leaguers to follow him, and after giving Dick one last look, the three of them left the room. And suddenly, Dick was struck by not grief exactly, but loneliness. A part of him still didn't believe that Damian was dead, so he didn't allow himself to mourn, but he was aware of the fact that if Damian was gone, then that meant that Dick was unmistakably alone.

Nightwing and Robin were able handle being in this universe this far because they had each other. They were able to ignore how awful their situation was because they had someone who understood what they were going through, and it was easy to be blind to how helpless they were with someone at their side. But now, Damian wasn't there. Dick was all alone in a messed up world, with no one to share his grief with. Bruce was gone, Wally was gone, Barbara was gone...

Damian was gone.

It finally hit him. He wasn't just abandoned by his little brother, but Damian had died. Unlike the people he left behind in his own universe, Dick had no hopes of ever seeing Damian ever again. He was permanently gone...

And for the first time in years, Dick felt tears the sting of tears in his eyes. "No..." the restraints around his wrists seemed suffocating now, as they were the only things preventing him from being able to flee. He was forced to lay there and torture himself with his regrets. He wasn't able to seek a distraction from any of this, he had to sit still and let his griefs cloud his mind. "Damian..."

xXx (Still in this universe) xXx

Bruce had found himself going through Nightwing's utility belt, hoping to find some sort of clue that would help him find a way to send him back to wherever he came from. He might have been cold hearted, but even he felt uncomfortable telling Grayson that his partner died in battle. If anyone could understand his pain, it would be him. He too lost a partner, and it destroyed him. And he could see that it was going the same to Nightwing, and he was now determined to send him back to where he belonged. Not only did Bruce not know how to help a stranger grieve, but having a person from a different universe was creating some problems in the fabric of space.

"It's correcting itself," Barry had told him earlier. "There are a lot of imbalances. It's only a matter of time before the other Earth's Grayson is wiped clean from our universe. There aren't supposed to be two of the same people here, after all. And since Damian never existed at all in this universe, he might have been able to live here without worry." He sighed. "But he's dead. And if the other Batman is as protective as you were with Barbara, I'm sure he'll be... Well, like what you were."

Bruce had promptly ignored that statement and went to work with trying to figure out how to send him back. If they managed to track down and kill Talon, then Grayson might have been able to continue living here, but Talons were very elusive, especially that one in particular. The only solution was to get Grayson the hell out of here and hope that he didn't do too much damage to the fabric of space.

Just then, he came across something in one of the most secure pockets in the belt; an engagement ring. "I didn't know he was mature enough to handle a relationship," he muttered to himself, but set the ring down on his work bench. He then reached inside the pocket to take the other thing that was stored inside, which happened to be a picture. "What..." he turned the photo over and stopped in his tracks. In the picture, Grayson was holding a familiar redhead in his arms, both of them smiling lovingly at each other and didn't seem to notice the person taking the picture. Bruce blinked rapidly and turned the photo back over, squinting at the small letters he had noticed before.

'Always remember what you're leaving behind before you do something stupid. I love you, Pixie Boots. -Barb'

Bruce's eyes widened, and the picture fluttered out of his hands and landed near the engagement ring. The other universe's Barbara was romantically involved with Nightwing? She was engaged to him?

That changed everything. While Bruce had been determined to send Grayson back, he was now never going to rest until he was back where he came from. Because even though Bruce's partner was dead and gone, another universe had one just like her, and she was probably awaiting her fiance's return. And Bruce wasn't going to let her lose someone so important to her. The girl he thought of as a daughter would not have her heart broken because he couldn't send her boyfriend back.

"Release Nightwing," he said into his comm, frowning down at the picture. "I think we'll need his help in getting crucial technology from the Court of Owls."

"Look Bats, I don't think he'll be in the mood for breaking into another warehouse, especially not with us. He hated us, remember?" It was Green Arrow on the other side. "Besides, I don't think he'll be very motivated at the moment, what with the other kid being dead and all."

"Well I have a perfect way to motivate him to return to everyone else he has left behind," Bruce said, and flipped his cowl over his eyes. "It's time we take action. The Resistance may have brainwashed him into hating us before, but we can change his mind by sending him back to his Earth."

"What do you mean they brainwashed him?" It was Flash this time.

"...I think you're nephew might have gotten into his head. He started to get into Kaldur's too. By the time he came back to us, his thoughts were so disoriented that he already started to believe that we're a group of murderers."

"...Damn it, Wallace."