Ra's chuckled darkly. "I had wondered what had caused my lost heir to flee from my kingdom... and now... I know."

Tim struggled on the table he was on. Straps kept him from moving. His arms had been strapped down so he couldn't move; his tail was flinging around, but no one had bothered to tie it down. Ra's walked around the medical table, smirking down at him. Something in his eyes made Tim worried, a foreboding feeling telling him to bolt even though he couldn't move.

The door opened, allowing in men dressed all in black. They came to hold his tail down. Tim screeched as they brought out more straps. One of them had a black cloth that he handed to Ra's, who looked it over, admiring the color of it before his hands pulled Tim's waist up up so he could slip it under him and move it until it was tied around his waist.

"There," Ra's said, before placing his hand on Tim's lower stomach, spreading his fingers. "We cannot have you indecent once this is done, can we?"

Frowning, Tim looked at him, confused, when suddenly the hand on him erupted into fire. Throwing back his head, Tim screamed as white fire spread all over his body from where the man's hand was to the tip of his fingers and the tip of his tail.

White pain filled his vision as he thrashed about. Tim could hear himself screaming, yet it sounded far off, like it was someone else. Just when Tim though he could take no more and that the pain was about to kill him, it faded until he was only shaking from the aftershocks.

Panting. Tim blinked away the tears that had flowed down face. His throat was dry, itching, and felt like he had swallowed the dry sand that was on the island where his family rested.

Ra's came into view, making Tim jerk away, but the man's hand gripped his chin tightly before pressing a cup of water to his lips. Tim gulped it down hoping for it to sooth his aching throat. When it was pulled away, Tim continued to take in shuddering breaths.

"Now then," Ra's said, as he walked around the foot of the bed. "What do you think of my little gift?"

Tim gasped as he looked down to see his legs instead of his tail. Eyes wide, Tim looked up at the man, eyes full of terror. It couldn't be. No, no, no, not this! This wasn't how mermaids got their legs, this was dark magic!

A dark chuckle from Ra's made him shiver as the man stepped closer. "Do you not like them?"

Not saying anything, Tim let his head fall back to the table. Maybe he could fool the man. If he tried, maybe the man would think he'd made the mistake of getting the wrong one. Wiggling the legs, Tim screeched out.

"Uncomfortable?" Ra's chuckled again, circling him. "Yes, I suppose that legs would be uncomfortable, since you never had any before."

He didn't know!

Good.

Tim cried out again.

"Oh I cannot wait until your father comes back looking for you," the demon said. "I have waited years, spent so much time, effort, money into tracking him down, and what do I find? His little offspring parading around as some seaside joke. I heard your brothers came first, but you... oh, you were found on a rock. How suiting, since your father cannot come close to this Ocean Waters."

Tim stilled when Ra's was suddenly in his face.

"He picked you for something," Ra's said bitterly. "He marked you differently than the other two... he thinks you're special. He's saving you for something. I can tell by the spell that he set on you."

That confused Tim.

Bruce hadn't put a spell on him.

"What it is, I will find out." Ra's moved back, placing his hand over the boy's stomach again. "For now, I'll let you roam here until I have what I want." Ra's laughed darkly once again, before looking at Tim's face. "Now, I believe Mr. Wilson wants some pearls."

Tim's eyes widened when five men stepped forward.

"Sir?" one asked.

Ra's stood back to watch. "Don't worry about breaking the leg bones. The tail will be replaced after we have the pearls."

Both Dick and Jason listened as Jericho praised them for their work.

It had been a long day. As they listened to Jericho talk, a group of humans came over to talk to Jericho. They had a sea turtle with them.

"Jason, look!" Dick cooed, swimming over to the side of the pool to follow them. "It's a turtle! It's a turtle! We haven't had one in forever!"

"Hello, dinner!" Jason agreed.

"Why are they talking?!" Dick huffed, before getting close to bat at the turtle. "Come on, give it to us, give it to us!"

Once the humans set it down, Dick swam up to it, patting the shell. It was a pretty healthy turtle and there was no echoing sound in the shell, which meant a lot of it was meat! Dick's mouth watered as he purred loudly.

Jason came up to him. "Okay, what do you want?"

"The legs!"

"Right." Jason snapped the neck and the two of them worked together to pull it apart. "Yum."

Dick took a leg that had a shoulder attached to it before resting his chin on Jericho, chewing it as he purred. Turtles were so good! It had been months since he'd had one. Normally Bruce and Jason would hunt down the large sea turtles and they would eat it for a day or two.

As he continued to eat, he listened to the fight between Jericho and his friends before Wally came out, yelling something.

Jericho vanished with the group of friends.

Dick licked his lips and teeth, watching as Wally paced around. Swimming up to him, Dick cooed loudly, getting his attention.

"Hey, Wing," Wally said, before plopping down. "Aw, man, what am I gonna do?"

Dick got closer, trying to gain attention by posing or mimicking things that the two of them used to do together with no success. Instead, Wally seemed to be deep in thought. Snorting, Dick splashed him with his tail in anger.

"Hey!"

Without waiting anymore, Dick jumped out of the water, pinning Wally down and glaring at him.

"What the hell!"

"Wally!"

Everything froze.

Wally stared in shock. "... Dick...?"

Dick cooed loudly.

Wally fainted.

"Nice going, Dick, you killed him." Jason sighed.

SO... TIRED... MUST SLEEP...