Four months.

Four long agonizing months and they have found nothing. Bruce pulled down his cowl and rubbed his temples, another long night searching for any evidence that Dick was even alive, once again came up blank. Bruce spent the night searching alone in Gotham for his eldest son, while the other three were up in Canada following a different lead. Bruce smiled to himself, the boys where not just working together they were getting along. Putting aside any past conflicts to join forces to look for their missing brother. Sure, they still bickered and had the occasional fight but overall they were acting like a family, Dick would be proud.

They first heard Dick was missing three days after his birthday, they got a call from the local police saying they found Richard Grayson's car trashed on the side of the highway. The car was completely crushed into the side of the tree, there was evidence another vehicle hit Dick's car but only Dick's car was on site along with dried blood covering the driver's seat.

The missing person was Richard Grayson, not Nightwing, so the league and fellow friends of Nightwing couldn't get involved with the investigation, but that didn't stop them from keeping an eye and ear out for their missing friend.

However the Bat-Clan put in all their efforts to find their missing member, but every time they thought they were close to finding him it was a dead end. And it was taking a toll on the entire family. Damian tired to hide his suffering, but it was obvious he was upset in Dick disappearance, along with Batman, Robin was becoming more violent with Gotham's criminals, assuming Damian could become more violent.

Tim became more attached to those around him, seeking comfort from his family. It was rare to find Tim alone, it was as if he was afraid by leaving them alone that they too would disappear.

Four weeks after Dick went missing Jason, not The Red Hood, but Jason Todd showed up at the manor offering his assistance in finding Dick. Bruce later found out that Jason previously exhausted his leads on Dick, and came to Bruce to help with any other clues Batman might have found. Jason and Bruce made an agreement for working together; Jason was still allowed to use guns but not allowed to kill anyone. Jason was willing to give up killing if it meant he could look for his older brother. Jason still had his own apartment in Gotham but he spent most of his days and nights at the manor, almost like the good old days.

Among all these changes with Jason he also volunteered to pose as Nightwing on occasion to prevent people from connecting the disappearance of Nightwing and Dick Grayson at the same time. Jason's bad habits were slowly disappearing, aside from smoking that actually increased since Dick's disappearance; I should really talk to him about quitting.

No one was willing to say it out loud, but they were losing hope. In four months there was no ransom, no threats, no clue as to what happened to Dick. Bruce's eye drooped; he had not properly rested within the past four months. Putting all his extra time into looking for Dick, but one can only fail so many times before feeling doubt.

At this moment Bruce heard running steps coming toward him, he turned and saw a panting Alfred. Concern rose within Bruce, Alfred never runs.

"Bruce, Commissioner Gordon called they found him. They found Dick!"

"WHERE IS MY SON?" Bruce pounded his firsts on to Gordon's desk. After racing to the police station Bruce barged in looking for his son, but he was no where to be seen. Before he was able to turn the station upside down to find his son Bruce was lead to Gordon's office, the commissioner insisted that Bruce listen to the full situation before seeing Dick.

"Please Bruce calm down, have a seat. What I'm about to tell you isn't pleasant."

Bruce's heart jumped up into this throat, he never said whether he found Dick alive.

"Oh God! Please don't tell me that-"

"He's alive Bruce, he's just …. Let me start from the begging." Gordon shifted in his chair leaning forward and resting his arms the desk.

"For the past year our team has been investigating the disappearances of multiple Arkham patients, these patients all had one thing in common, they had no living family. It was not one of our top cases since is involved the insane criminals of Gotham."

"What does this have to do with Dick?" Bruce was growing impatient; he wanted to see his son.

"I'm getting there. About a week ago the New York police thought they found a location of a meth lab on the top floor of a mental hospital. Once they got there it was not what they expected, the lower levels were functioning as a normal mental care facility, but the top floor was a different story. There were using the top floor to run secret experiments in attempt to cure the insane mind." Gordon bent down and pulled out several folders from his desk and placed them on the tabletop.

"They recorded all their tests on each patient, we identified the subjects as the missing men from Arkham, along with Dick," Gordon held out a thin folder towards Bruce.

"What? Dick's not insane! Why was he there?" Bruce ripped the folder from Gordon and started to flip through it.

"The first section says that he is prime material due to his life experiences and emotional state through out the years. As you read on it gives detailed information about Dicks life, he had a serious stalker. However the file is unclear in some sections, as you can see it keeps saying, "Refer to block B587" we have yet to find the missing information. …Bruce.."

Bruce looked up from the file in his hands, "Bruce they took in Dick as a subject to see if they could… induce insanity. I'm so sorry."

Bruce's eyes grew wide, looking back down to the file he flipped to the back page. Bruce's heart sank when he saw the large read stamp across the paper that read "SUCCESS" no, please don't let it be true.

"That's why it took us so long to contact you, when we first collected and treated all the patients we didn't even recognize him as Dick Grayson, he didn't even try to tell us who he was. It wasn't until we were going through them individually to find them a new hospital is when we discovered that he was never in the system, we looked further into it and discovered it was Dick."

Bruce placed the folder back on the desk, not wanting to touch it anymore. "Who did this to my son?"

"We caught three lackeys, Miss. Darrow a nurse who had her license revoked a few years back for malpractice, she was in it for the money. Owen and Clive Zucco nephews of Tony Zucco, they said they did it for the money and to revenge on Dick for putting their uncle in jail."

"I doubt they are the master minds." Just tell me who did this to my son so Batman can pay them a visit.

"Dr. Grove was the main Doctor that interacted with the patients, acting as their psychiatrist. He previously worked at Arkham until he was fired for his suggestions on using… inhumane methods on the patients. However the main man behind this operation is Doctor Hugo Strange. "

Bruce clenched his fists, this is worse than I thought. Strange was a deranged psychiatrist who was obsessed with Batman's mind, with Bruce Wayne's mind. On several occasions he was captured by Hugo, the mad man shared his plans to peel back the layer of his mind, ranting that his findings would be ground breaking. One night Hugo Strange was able to capture both Batman and Robin. Upon meeting Robin the man was even more fascinated with dynamic duo more dangerous. It came to the point were Hugo Strange put in all his efforts and resources to find their secret identities, and he succeeded. Hugo said that he wouldn't share his discovery of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson's "side job", stating that it would be too much of a waste. Over the years Hugo Strange would appear and attempt to study the Bat-Clan, but he would always fail. A few years ago he escaped from Arkham he disappeared into the night to never be seen again, Bruce always had his suspicions the man was planning something big, and sadly Bruce was right.

"Bruce they convinced Dick that this world wasn't real. That you never took him in under your wing, he never had his brothers, that none of it was real. He was told that he killed Zucco and eight of his men, causing him to go insane and being emitted into the hospital… they were successful he doesn't think this life is real."

"Are you ready for this Bruce?" Gordon and Bruce stood outside of Dick hospital room, while Alfred was down the hall starting to fill out the forms needed to take Dick home. The drive to the hospital had been tense only filled with Bruce phone call to Leslie to make arrangements to have a check up with Dick. Other than that not a word was said.

"I've been ready for four months." Bruce pushed past Gordon and walked into the room. As soon as Bruce entered the room he froze. He wasn't sure what he was expecting but he definitely wasn't expecting this.

Sitting up in the hospital bed was his son, what was left of him. Dick's normally olive skin was washed out and faded. His paleness accentuated the deep dark bags under the young mans eyes. His was incredibly thin, his hospital hung off of his normally toned body, Dicks hallowed out cheeks didn't help either. Dick's hair was cut incredibly short; his trademark hair was completely gone. It looked like his body had gone through a war zone, bruises littered his body, his wrists were heavily bandaged along with his chest, his right arm was being supported by a sling, two matching dark marks were lined up on his temples, and as Bruce walked closer he saw that a section of Dicks right ear was gone. What did they do to you?

Bruce walked closer to his is hardly recognizable son, but Dick showed no indication that he was aware that Bruce had entered the room.

"Dick?" Dick still took no notice he only continued to stare out the window.

"Dick, it's me, Bruce." Bruce laid a gentle hand on top of Dick's. As soon was his hand made contact Dick violently flinched way from it, but still didn't look at Bruce.

"Dick can you hear me?" Bruce walked directly into Dick field of vision, yet he still got no reaction from his son. The room was deathly quite, too quite and too still for a room with Dick Grayson in it.

Bruce went to hug his son, but decided against it based on Dick's reaction to the little contact they shared before.

Dick opened his mouth and started to mumble something very quietly to him self.

"Dick?" Hope rose in Bruce. "Dick what are you saying?" Bruce leaned in closer to Dick to hear what he was saying. After a moment Bruce's heart felt when he heard his son's words, we were too late.

Dick continued to mumble his words as if to reassure him self. "My name is Richard Grayson I killed 9 men, and I went insane. I created a family in my head, Bruce Wayne isn't my adoptive father, Jason isn't real, Timothy isn't real, Damian isn't real, none of it is real. My name is Richard Grayson…"

Hope you liked the 3 Chapter post.
Now that Dick is back home, it's time to heal.
Till then, stay classy.