Everybody in the mountain froze. Had they heard right?
Babs and Wally seemed to be staring at the zeta-beams with hope, fear, surprise, horror, amazement and confusion all knitted together.
A figure with a ripped black T-shirt and torn denim trousers fell onto the cold floor of the room. He had jet-black hair, which matched with his shirt. But it wasn't the fact that he fell to the ground with a hard thud, or the fact that his clothes were torn that drew attention to him.
It was the fact that computer recognised him as Nightwing.
Nightwing was dead.
Yet the computer recognised this boy as the first Robin.
Wally was by the young man in an instant. He looked at his clothes and saw the scars thru the rips.
The scars, the blood, the bruises, the cuts, the black eye, all drew Wally to near gagging.
His lip was split which covered his chin with blood. His mouth was quivering with a small frown wearing his lips.
"D-Dick?" Babs asked, walking over to Wally.
Wally crouched next to the man and reached for his face. He used his first finger and thumb to pry open his left eye. He was hit with the sight of an immaculate blue.
The speedster turned to Barbara and nodded lightly, wearing a half-hearted smile.
Tim jumped up from the sofa and somersaulted to Wally. The current Robin looked to Barbara then to Dick.
M'gann hugged Gar and Conner and walked over to the zeta-beams, Bart following behind. Wolf came into the room and sat beside Conner, wagging his tail in excitement.
Wally jabbed the man with his first finger.
The blue eyes flew open.
"STAY AWAY!" The young man screamed, getting into a standing position and putting his arms up in a defensive way.
"Dude, calm! It's us... Young Justice!" Wally stated cheerily. The younger man lowered hands in shock.
"W-Wally? TIM!" The man questioned, then turned to his younger brother.
"DICK!" Tim cheered, hugging his brother.
"I've missed you Tim..." Dick stated. He pulled away from the boy and placed his hands on his shoulders.
"How's Jay and Dami?" Dick asked, his blue eyes glistening at the younger. Tim looked to Barbara with sadness in his eyes.
"Babs? ... Something happened didn't it?" Dick asked, sighing. Barbara put hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah... The night you disappeared, Cass, Jason and Kate were murdered. Jason came back, with help from Ra's, but Joker murdered him again..." Barbara started, not daring to look into Dick's eyes.
"Speaking of the night you disappeared! Where the fuck did you go? We were worried sick! We thought you were dead!" Wally shouted, staring at his best friend.
"WALLY!" M'gann screamed, placing her hands over Garfield's ears.
"Sorry..."
"Yes. Even though it is great to see Nightwing again. Please refrain from cussing." Kaldur said, glaring at Wally. Dick coughed to get attention to come to him.
"What happened to Dami?" He asked.
"Look. We'll get to it later! Now just tell us where you went!" Wally shouted. It caught Dick off guard and he looked genuinely frightened. It reminded the other five first members of the Team, and Roy, of when Dick was thirteen. So young and happy, so cheerful and preppy... But now look at him. He was beaten and torn.
He sighed, loosing the frightened expression.
"That night... Jester, Harley and Joker took me to a ware-house. He made ransom videos, warning Batman, but he never came to help me."
"Who's Jester?" Wally enquired.
"SHUT UP!" Artemis and Roy shouted at the speedster.
"What!? It's a valid question!"
"Jester is the kid that knocked me out. ANYWAY... Batman never helped me, never replied to a video. After a month I couldn't take the torture anymore, it took a while, but I broke out. I was on the run for about a month. Talia found me and helped me, but Joker and his psychotic clown family found us and murdered her.
I couldn't take it. My real mother was murdered on a trapeze. My second mother was murdered by a clown. And I couldn't see my other two."
"Who's your other two?" Barbara asked, running her fingers through Dick's hair.
"Selina and Diana. I couldn't see Selina because she's too close to Bruce. I couldn't see Diana because the Justice League has Bruce." Dick responded, saying Bruce's name with venom.
"What's wrong with being close to Bruce?" Roy asked, looking questioningly at his younger brother.
"HE DIDN'T SAVE ME! FOR WHOLE MONTH I WAS IN HELL! HE GOT THE VIDEOS! HE GOT THE MESSAGES! But he didn't help." He yelled, letting tears flow down his cheeks. Now he really looked like his thirteen-year-old-self.
Recognized, Batman 0-2. Recognized, Batwoman D-0-1.
Not much of a cliffie I know, but I tried! And if you think "God, that's the most stupid coincidence ever!" Then you're wrong! It ain't a coincidence, but that's all I'm saying! :D
And Starwarsfan15 made a point about Jason being kind of forgotten, so he may return somewhere in this, not sure yet though! Leave a review telling me what you think on that, or just PM me! :D