A/N: Thanks for the reviews Batman Dude and Psyche Castle! :)

Chapter 10:

Jason walked through the front door of the cabin and saw his older brother huddled by the entrance to the room where the Dynamic Duo was being held captive. He was trembling and his eyes were squeezed together tightly.

"Jack, what's wrong?!" he asked in alarm as he ran to his brother's side.

Jack let out a shout of fear when he felt Jason's hand on his shoulder.

"What's going on?" Jason shouted back and was startled when his obviously terrified older brother opened his eyes and punched him in the arm.

Jason's jaw fell open and his eyes widened in disbelief: his brother had just hit him! Jack was more surprised than his younger brother and, dropping his arm, apologized and explained the situation. He was worried that Jason would be angry; Jack had, after all, jeopardized their payday by releasing the hero that was at full-strength and could easily take them all out.

Jason frowned at his taller brother but also trusted him completely. If Jack felt they should switch sides then that's what they would do. Jack was worried about Batman's fury so Jason carefully peered around the corner and saw the hero on the floor, unconscious and without the IV. He glanced to the other side of the room and saw the sidekick still stuck on the wall and, to Jason's surprise, his now-former boss lying limply on the ground with a dark bruise around his throat. How had that happened? It couldn't have been the boy – it had been four days since they had captured him and Jason knew that the man hadn't given anything to the kid except a poster, a fractured leg, a bruised jaw and an ice shower.

Kirik felt a few drops of water and slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the pale face of the sidekick and he wondered why he was on the ground looking up at the boy. He felt a sharp pain when he tried to swallow and carefully put his hand on his tender throat. The memory of what had just happened came rushing back and rage filled his body: the boy had taken him down! He started to sit up but was met with a boot to the head and dropped back onto the floor, unconscious again.

Jack was standing in the doorway, staring at the scene before him. How were they going to get the kid down? He hadn't seen any other little bombs in that belt and neither his brother nor Batman would be able to tear the nuts out of the cement on the other side of the wall. He stiffened when he saw movement underneath Robin's body; their ex-boss was waking up! Jason was already taking care of the problem, though. He strode over to where Kirik was and, as the man was attempting to sit up, smashed his foot into the side of the villain's head. Jack knew that Kirik wouldn't be waking up from that anytime soon and he nodded a 'thank you' to his brother then cautiously approached Batman's body.

Batman heard noises but everything was blending together and he had no idea what the sounds meant. He remembered an explosion and blood and falling forward but he couldn't recall where he was or what he had been doing. Was Robin with him? He opened his eyes and saw two colorful blobs headed in his direction. The blobs stopped so Batman reached out and snatched one of them, pulling it towards him and causing a large third blob to join the smaller two.

Jack paused when he saw Batman slowly blinking his eyes. Suddenly, he was on the floor - Batman had grabbed his left ankle and pulled, causing Jack to lose his balance. Jason ran over but Jack waved his brother away. He knew Batman slightly trusted him and he didn't want to do anything to lose that.

"Hey, uh, Batman, it's me. The, um, tall guy with the red hair that tried ta feed your sidekick and got out that bomb thing that helped ya blow yourself off the wall?"

Batman was confused but he kept a tight hold on the skinny blob in his hand. The large blob was talking – he could pick out some words now – and he heard "red…sidekick…bomb…." He didn't like the sound of the last two put together so he growled and slightly lifted his head. It felt very heavy and he wanted to just close his eyes but if Robin was in danger of being blown up he needed to get out of here and help him. He let his head fall back onto the ground and let go of what he could now tell was a leg. Planting his hands flat on the ground – and feeling a painful scratching on his wrists – Batman pushed himself up to his hands and knees and shook his head. His vision cleared, then wavered and he almost collapsed. There were suddenly four hands around his arms and torso and they were helping him stand up. He heard the 'clang' of metal hitting metal and looked down: there were two bloody, metal u-bolts on the ground in front of him and his wrists and hands felt lighter. He realized that there was a man on either side of him and he looked to his left. A tall, skinny red-haired man was talking about Robin and bombs again and he narrowed his eyes.

"Where is Robin…" Batman had to pause, "…and who is trying to…to blow him up?"

"No, no, that's not what I mean!" Jack was trying to explain everything to Batman but could tell that the hero had a concussion and probably didn't remember much. He took a deep breath and started over, for the fourth time.

"Your sidekick needs help and ya blew yourself off a wall with some kind of little bomb from the kid's belt," Jack hoped something would make it into Batman's brain to jog his memory.

Batman stared at the man and remembered a mini Bat-blaster in his partner's utility belt on the left hip. That led him to a picture of Robin's eyes, filled with shame and pain. Something had happened to his partner; the man said Robin needed help and Batman felt an urgency to get to him.

"Where is he?" Batman asked, not entirely trusting the two men who were keeping him from falling to the ground. He looked around the entire room but only saw a body on the floor; one that was too big to belong to his partner.

Both Jack and Jason stared at Batman in shock – he had looked straight at his sidekick, twice!

"Uh," Jack put his right hand under Batman's chin and turned his head so he was looking directly at Robin, "he's right there. In front of ya. On the wall."

Batman shook his head again to clear his slightly blurry vision and was stunned. There was Robin – one bloody leg hanging down, the other covered by a metal bolt, both arms attached to the wall with more metal bolts and his small body completely limp.

"Robin!" Batman shouted and tried to move towards him. He stumbled and the two men almost dropped him. After regaining their balance, the three men walked over to Robin; two of them practically dragging the third.

"Robin, no," Batman whispered sadly. He was startled by a voice next to his left ear.

"Ya don't think he's, um, dead, do ya?" Jack asked uncertainly.

"Look at him!" Batman shouted, fury in his voice. "Of course he's dead! Who did this? Where is the villain…responsible…" Batman's sentence trailed off as he fell into darkness.

Jason looked at his brother and rolled his eyes. "Now what?" he asked. "Should we just leave them and get outta here?"

Jack shook his head, "No, I told him I would help them get outta here and I'm a man of my word. But, I don't know how ta get the kid off the wall and now we have this," he lifted Batman's limp left arm, "ta deal with. What if Kirik wakes up?"

"Well, we're definitely not getting paid now, are we?" Jason grumbled.