A/N

BEFORE YOU READ, please go back and reread Bunnies of Disappointment (the last chapter). It has been edited to fit with the plot line by popular request, and it's longer.

Did you miss me? :)

Chapter 13

They weren't scared. It wasn't working. In fact, none of his glares had worked as long as he'd been here.

He missed Dick. The older boy had left ages ago while Damian was delirious, left him alone with the bluemen. Logically, he knew that Dick hadn't exactly left willingly. Logically, Dick had no more freedom than he did. Logically, Dick should have gotten sick, too. Then, he would still be here, smiling at Damian, instead of the bluemen, who were acting kind of suspicious.

Of course, there was also the possibility Dick did not exist and was actually a hallucination induced by the bluemen to trick Damian into a false sense of security so that he did not break free and try to contact help. That was a possibility, too.

When Damian woke up that morning, there were four new children in the room—all extremely skinny and hooked up to beeping machines. Damian had been shifted to another bed in the center of the room in his sleep, somehow without waking. He thought it might have been that girl's bed. She left yesterday.

The bluemen were back now, walking among the new children and writing things down on clipboards. Damian shied away from them, and rubbed his forearm where the tall man had poked him repeatedly with a needle a couple days ago until the bruises formed a black number. After finishing with the new children, two of the bluemen turned towards Damian. He scooted backwards a little bit as they came forwards.

THUMP. "Yip."

Well, this was highly embarrassing. Damian thrashed against his bedsheets, but only succeeded in getting more tangled. He froze when he heard a light chuckle from one of the bluemen above him. He looked up from his new position on the ground and attempted to school his expression into a blank face. It didn't work, just like his glares. The blueman reached down, grabbed Damian and his evil blankets, and placed the bundle on the bed, before starting to examine him.

"Temperature normal, reflexes okay, no runny nose or cough, healthy weight. He fits the requirements for transport, Doctor."

Damian looked around frantically, but saw no sign of the white coat. He furrowed his eyebrow. The blueman must be talking to himself.

"Yes, sir. Will do." The blueman held Damian still and carefully untangled the blankets as he listened to the invisible doctor. He nodded to one of his fellow bluemen who brought forth a thick strip of fabric and would it around Damian's head, covering his eyes. Damian instantly started struggling as his sight was interrupted.

"Hold still," the second blueman said, placing a hand on part of his head in an effort to keep it still so he could tie the blindfold tightly.

"Let me go. Go away," Damian cried in Arabic, panicking at the lack of light.

"Calm him down." There was a prick on his right arm, and a forced feeling of calm entered Damian's body. Words floated down through a hazy cloud.

"—flipped when we put the blindfold on, injected a mild sedative to calm him down… Understood, sir. Boss says to take him to his new room, but to tie him down until his roommates return from classes."

Through the fog and numbness, Damian was faintly aware of being lifted and carried away. It felt nice, but wrong, like he was not supposed to be drifting and the person carrying him was wrong, bad. He needed to wake up. Fight, yet sleep seemed nice, too. Maybe he'd just take a little nap.

Great. Another day in this Hellhole. Wake up. Don't bother to change clothes because they all look the same. Eat breakfast with Charlie, his roommate. Get taken to class where he learned boring stuff from manipulative bastards. Lunch with a bunch of scared, whiny kids ranging in age. Back to class. Then back to his room for dinner and the night with annoying, whimpers-and-snores-in-his-sleep Charlie. Maybe with some experimentation on his missing arm in the meantime.

Yeah. General, stupid, average day waiting for stupid Ollie to get his stupid act together and come find him. Honestly, it wasn't like he hadn't been doing his part in the partnership. He'd dropped clues when he could, after all. Sure, he'd been on ice for a while, but it couldn't have been too long. Maybe a couple months, max. Still way too long for Ollie to be delayed especially since he'd been here for almost six months, more or less. This place wasn't that hard to find. Right?

The nurse pushed him into a seat near the front. Used to the wonderful process of having his ankle cuffed to the desk-chair by the overly paranoid nurses, Roy pushed his ankle back into the loop. It was easier to submit to the cuff than to be punished and forced into it anyways. He wasn't going anywhere until Ollie got there anyways. He'd never get all these kids out on his own without some help. They really needed Batman or maybe someone younger who could blend in, like Batman's protégé or something. What was the kid's name again? Magpie? Raven? They needed a genius strategist who could concoct a plan to get everyone out without anyone getting killed or recaptured. He wasn't kidding himself. Ollie had some problems with planning instead of running in blind.

Some of the other kids filed in and settled down at their desks, also pushing their ankle into position for the rest of the class. He sometimes wondered why those kids weren't as secured, not being escorted everywhere by nurses, and traveling in droves. It would work to their advantage in any escape plan. There were obviously more kids than nurses. A couple other so-called "Special Interest" kids were delivered to the room.

A blue clad nurse pushed one kid down into the desk next to him. First row center. The kid must be so pleased. Oh great, the kid was looking at him and… wait a second. Did he know this kid from somewhere? It kind of looked like someone he'd seen at a party or something. Ok. Kid was staring at him. Ask. Easy peasy. Just ask and get an answer, Roy.

"What are you looking at?" Oops.

The kid winced at his tone, quickly averting his eyes, before slowly looking back to study him again. Roy sighed.

"Look, do I know you from somewhere or something? Why are you looking at me weird?"

He hesitated. "Roy? Roy Harper?" Ok, so the kid did know him, but that didn't mean he knew the kid. Maybe he was in a magazine or on a milk carton, a 'Have you seen this kid?' type thing, if Ollie went for that kind of stuff.

"Yeah. That's me. Do I know you?"

"Sort of. Maybe. I'm not sure." The kid paused. Roy waited patiently. "I'm Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne's ward. I think I met you at one of Bruce's or Oliver's parties, maybe?" Okay. So he was a socialite. Roy studied the kid, scrawny, pale, with enormous blue eyes and a noticeable twitch like he was used to moving a lot more than he was currently. With a rich dad like Bruce Wayne, the kid was definitely Special Interest. Probably wouldn't last too long here.

"Right." Maybe he knew if Ollie was searching for Roy? "Is Ollie still searching for me? He's looking, right?

There was that hesitation again. "Yeah. Oliver's searching. They're all searching."

"They?" Who else would be searching for him? "They who?"

"Roy, how much do you remember? How long have you been here?"

"Six months, give or take? Maybe a couple months before that in transport, but not much longer." The kid winced.

"Roy," Grayson paused, hesitating again, and then continued with his thought. "You've been missing for three years."

"Bruce?"

"Yes, Jason?" Bruce looked up from his coffee. Jason paused, shifting from foot to foot. "What is it?"

He took a deep breath, and then held out a familiar envelope. "I found this on your desk, buried under some papers. I know I wasn't supposed to be in there. Please don't be mad. It's postmarked from the day of Dick's kidnapping and unopened, but marked priority mail, so I thought there might be a clue that we might have, might have missed in the initial sweep." He took another deep breath, meeting his father's gaze. "Bruce, it's from the court. Why do you have a letter from court that you haven't opened?"

Bruce got up and knelt to his son's level. "I haven't opened it because I'm afraid to see the answer."

"The answer? Answer to what?" Bruce glanced at the envelope, realizing that the small hope he'd been harboring did not only apply to his missing son, but the present one as well.

"How about we open it in the living room, Master Bruce?" Alfred spoke up, obviously recognizing the envelope for what it was. Bruce gave a curt nod, took the envelope from Jason, and moved to the living room. Once he was seated with Jason, who was watching him curious yet nervous, pulled into his lap, he opened the envelope with shaking hands.

Three pieces of paper slipped out. Bruce skimmed them quickly. He was simultaneously overjoyed and incredibly saddened by the results, a small rare smile coming to his lips. There was a small gasp as Jason read the pages, touching them to be sure they were real. He looked up at his father as a huge grin spread.

"Bruce. These are adoption papers. APPROVED adoption papers. You adopted us?"

"Yes. Yes, I did. Son."

"But why would they suddenly change my classroom? It doesn't make sense. And then that one nurse was watching us through all of lunch, after the lunch lady wouldn't give me the dessert, which is the one actually decent thing they give us for lunch. Couldn't even get some of yours."

"It wasn't that good anyways. You weren't missing out."

"Doesn't mean I can't be upset that they wouldn't let me have it."

"Shut up, you two." The two boys looked up at the two nurses guarding them as they returned to their room. Dick thought that if push came to shove, he could take the two out, but doing that now would work more against him than towards him. They drew to a stop, as one of the nurses unlocked the door and the boys were shoved none too kindly inside.

"I heard a rumor that a bunch of new kids came in yesterday. That's probably why you were moved. Dick?" Dick had stopped near the entrance of the room. "Dick? What is it?"

"Who."

"Huh?"

"Who is it, not what is it. It's Damian."

"Oh, the kid you mentioned?" Alex took in a small lump resting on the third bed. "He's so tiny."

"Why's he tied down?"

"Beats me, mate. I wasn't tied down when they brought me here, and if you were tied down, you got untied pretty quickly."

"I'm going to untie him." Dick said, approaching the bed.

"You'll get in trouble."

"Don't care." Dick leaned forward and undid the belts. After a second, Damian curled into a ball. Dick covered him with the blanket and stepped back, watching the kid. Alex settled into a desk chair, fiddling with some art supplies he'd pilfered from his class. After a second, Dick sat in the second one. He hesitated to begin a new conversation, glancing at the little kid in their room.

"In my new class…" He paused. Alex looked up, and motioned for him to go on. "In my new class, there's a kid I know, or used to know really. He disappeared three years ago, but he thinks he disappeared only maybe eight months ago." He took a deep, shaky breath. "He… he still looks about the age he disappeared at, too. Alex, what are they planning to do to us?"

"I don't know, but maybe he's the exception? I mean, he's still alive, so that has to count for something." There was silence for a few minutes. Dick watched Damian to see if he showed any sign of waking.

"We need to get out of here."

"Not arguing there, but how?"

Dick opened his mouth to reply, but realized he didn't have an answer.

"Yeah. That's what I thought."

The Mountain was silent as Jason wandered through the halls, pretending to be studying his surroundings as he walked, in case anyone wondered what he was doing. He had not had much time to observe the cave yet as Batman's protective streak persevered. Honestly, he was capable of taking care of himself, going out as Robin proved that. Of course, as the original Robin and first sidekick, Dick was even more capable and he was kidnapped, but he was in civvies at the time! No way had Golden Boy put full effort into escaping. He'd totally be here right now.

"Hello, Junior." Jason barely managed to hide his jump. He spun around to find Golden Boy's girlfriend or crush, whatever she was, in the secluded part of the Mountain he'd sauntered into.

"Hi Zatanna." Jason leaned away from the demonic look on Zatanna's face with a scowl. "What do you want?"

"Nurt Nibor S'roinuj Seohs Otni Eternoc."

"Hey! What?" In a flash, pun intended, Zatanna had grabbed Jason's wrists and pinned them to the wall as high above his head as she could reach. "What are you doing?" He asked as he struggled to free himself from her surprisingly strong grip. He felt her hands tighten. "Let me go!"

"Not until I get answers! Where's Robin?"

"Umm. Here?"

"Not you. Your brother. Where's the real Robin?" Jason studied the fierce heroine before him and pushed down a slight stab of petrifying fear. She reminded him a bit of the crazy people he avoided on the streets. "Tell me!" She screamed.

"HELP! SOMEONE HELP! SHE'S CRAZY!"

"Oh, stop screaming. They're all in town. It's just you and me here. Now, where is he?"

"Why?" The word popped out before he could stop it. "Why do you want to know so bad? No one else has cornered me about it."

"I'm sure Wally already knows; maybe Artemis, too. Rewsna Lla Snoitseuq Yltsenoh. Where's the first Robin?"

"Somewhere in the Eastern Hemisphere. Probably Europe." Jason stopped and adopted a look of horror. "What did you do to me?"

"Is he really on a mission?"

"No." He moaned, squirming in her grip. She paused for a second. She had guessed the mission had been a lie, but the confirmation still wasn't comforting.

"Then, what really happened to him?"

"He was kidnapped." Jason's look of horror was turning into one of fear.

"What?"

"Kidnapped. Taken against his will."

"Why aren't we looking for him?" Tears were pricking at the corners of Jason's eyes, but Zatanna couldn't see that behind his sunglasses. "Answer me!" He flinched.

"Because you're pinning me here, the team is in town, and we have no leads."

"Not at this instant. Why hasn't Batman sent us after him and his kidnappers? Doesn't he care?"

"He has, and of course he cares."

"What?! What do you mean 'he has'?"

Jason bit the corner of his lip trying to resist the spell or at least stop the whimper rising in the back of his throat. "He, he has sent us after him. He-" Nope. Not talking; he bit his cheek.

"When?" She narrowed her eyes. Resistance was futile. "When did he send us after him?"

Jason's mind flew to the discovery that Dick had been in Savannah and the disastrous mission to France that had unfortunately yielded only the clue that the men who took him tied up loose ends, but had left the town long before Dick had been kidnapped with no sign of where they'd gone, only being in town to kidnap children. They had probably accidentally tipped the kidnappers off that they were onto them. There were also all the resurfaced ships they had visited looking for evidence Golden Boy had been aboard.

"About two months ago, and several times since."

"Two months ago?" He ground out an affirmative, ignoring the small tear that slid down his cheek. "But we were busy working on that rich kid's case two months ago. When…"

"Zatanna," she jumped as Batman came up behind her.

"Batman!" Jason cried in relief.

"Release my son, Zatanna." She hesitated for a second, and then released Jason's wrists. "His feet, too."

"Trever Nibor S'roinuj Seohs Ot Lamron." Jason fell as the feeling returned to his feet, but Batman caught him.

"What is going on here?" Batman frowned deeply.

"She cast some spell on me so that I have to answer all her questions, and I couldn't stop myself from answering and she was asking about Robin, and it's her fault! I wouldn't have said anything if she hadn't made me."

"Zatanna, is that true?" Zatanna looked at the ground, before raising her eyes to glare at him.

"Yes, but you've been lying to us! Robin's not on a mission! He never was! He was kidnapped and you've been too busy distracting us with some stupid rich kid's case. How could you abandon your own son? You replaced him! You're a monster! We deserved to know the truth. We're his team!"

"Finished?"

"Not even close and I'm sure the rest of the team will feel the same!" Batman met her gaze.

"Robin. Go get changed for patrol." Jason looked between the two and then scrambled off to change. The staring contest continued for a couple minutes, before Batman abruptly turned and grabbed a mop, pushing it into the girl's hands. "Zatanna, what you did was wrong. To start, clean the entire mountain, no help and no powers. Think before you come to a conclusion. We will speak about this later, with the entire team."

Before Zatanna could argue, Robin, Jr ran back out fully dressed in his costume, gave Zatanna a wide berth and skidded to a stop next to Batman. Batman turned and led his partner away towards the Zeta Tubes, feeling the girl's glare digging into his back as they parted.

A/N

Four different points of view for four times the expected wait. What can I say? School and directing a play took up a lot of my time the past couple months. I'm graduating next Friday. :)

Arsenal! Good add? Bad add? Let me know please. :)

Also, cute scene with Bruce and Jason. I came up with the idea too late to put it earlier in the story, so they're opening the envelope late. The true reason Bruce has been procrastinating on opening the letter is that he wanted both his sons to be there to hear the results if they were successful. The court probably would have hesitated to approve the adoption if they had waited a day and news of Dick's latest kidnapping had gotten out.

This chapter is the first official story part that had nothing prewritten, excluding the last one, which was an April Fool's Day prank (Sorry, not sorry) that I decided to incorporate into the plotline. Go back and reread it if you haven't already, please.

On another note, I want to do a shout out to LunarBlade Valentine for their awesome one-shot "Pretend You Don't Exist". It's a Robin whumpage fic, and their attention to detail is addicting. I've lost track of the number of times I've reread the story. Please go check it out. It's excellent.

REVIEW, Favorite, and Follow, please. :)