Prepare for angst with a strong meringue of fluff.

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice.

Chapter 17

Dick breathed heavily, as he scanned the room again for any doctors. As long as he could sense one or more in the room, he would continue to fight his body's instincts. The rough voice from the dock, Logarithm he had decided to call him, had said that they would get started as soon as he had calmed down. While he knew that staying in an agitated state was horrible for him, whatever they were planning to do could only be worse. So, he would not calm down. Think negative thoughts! He told himself. Now is not the time to be optimistic.

What if they killed him? They wouldn't… right? He couldn't die. Bruce, Alfred, Jason and a small boy with blue-green eyes were waiting for him to return, but the Bluemen wouldn't care about that. Alex said several of the other kids had died and several had gone missing, presumably dead, in the time since Dick came to this place. That didn't even taken in the fact that there were numbers up to 240, but there was nowhere near that many kids in the place. There were odd and even numbers, so they weren't skipping around.

Well, if he had to die, he'd fight it with everything he had. Also, if he did die, Bruce would come and tear the Bluemen and Logarithm from limb to limb. He'd probably already gotten to the Dingbats. The Dingbats… Dick vaguely remembered the men who had first captured him and set up the ransom video. Most of the details had been lost during his torturous overseas voyage. Dick had nearly gone crazy from the isolation.

Maybe Dick had gone crazy. He could not be making this whole situation up. There were too many people involved with this whole operation. The pain was definitely real, but he swore he could hear a faint ticking at the moment, like on a clock. It was almost hypnotizing to listen to. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. The sound continued for a while, lulling him to a less agitated state without his permission.

As he listened, there was faint murmuring not far from him. Dick furrowed his eyes behind the blindfold. Something was wrong. He was forgetting something important as he began to droop and doze off. Maybe it could wait? The sound was much different from the lull of the ocean that had been a constant for such a long time, and he clung to it.

Dick felt the collar carefully removed from his neck. Why didn't he want that to happen again? Oh yeah! He wasn't supposed to calm down! But the tick tock of the clock was so soothing, and it sounded a bit louder than before. Something was being tightened around his wrists and upper body. One of the bluemen removed the blindfold as well, but Dick kept his eyes closed, focused entirely on the gentle clock noises, ignoring the part of his brain telling him to keep his senses open.

"Project P.U.M. Test Subject 169 from the subject pool at Andoxly. Commencing Phase Two Trial One." What? "Begin."

With that one word warning, spike-like nodes sprung out of the metal pieces holding Dick in place and dug into his skin, startling him out of the trance. A low hum rose in volume, quickly overcoming the fainter sound of the clock. As the hum rose in volume, Dick felt first discomfort and then a strong itch across his entire body resonating from the points of contact.

"Activate Level One."

Dick withered in agony as the hum reached a fever pitch and what felt almost like an electric shock spread through his veins. He could not hear anything and his eyes were screwed shut. He might have screamed. He wasn't sure. After what felt like an eternity, the hum died down and the pain dimmed down slightly, but not completely.

There was a buzzing in his ears still. The nodes retreated and he slumped. The Bluemen released Dick from the contraption and moved him to a bed he hadn't noticed before. His eyes darted all over, refusing to focus on the blurry world as murmurs sounded in his ears. He could make out something about a successful test and connection?

Later, he would vaguely remember submitting to tests and lying there strapped onto the bed until the world came into focus and the buzzing died down. Dick thought another kid may have come in at some point, been forced into place, and gone through the same experiment, but he wasn't entirely sure of his recollections. Not too long after, Dick was stumbling back to his room, blindfold in place, soft bandages around his wrists, and a hand on his shoulder guiding him.

"Dick!" Dick toppled backward as he was hit by thirty- odd pounds of excited Dami. He automatically put his arms around the kid, and pushed himself up from the ground. He attempted to reach through the fog around his mind, and used Damian as a focal point. Dick forced a smile onto his face.

"Woah, Dami. What's up?"

"Dick! Alex says we're brothers!"

"Well, yeah. I told you that earlier, remember."

"Yes, but Alex said we were a different kind of brothers."

"Really?" The smile slid away in his confusion. He looked up from Damian's excited, nodding face to eye his other, surprisingly pale roommate. "Different how?"

"He said my dad was your dad, and we were the kind of brothers that people can't easily separate and that we were brothers under the law, and you could explain it better."

Dick quirked an eyebrow at Alex. Alex took a deep breath, sorted his face into an intense glare, and spoke in a soft tone, "Dami, why don't you tell your brother what you told me earlier?"

"Huh?"

"You know, about your parents and your full name."

"Oh!"

"Wait, full name? Dami, what's your full name?"

"Damian al Ghul Wayne!" Dick fell back against the door as his arm slipped.

"Wait, really?"

"Yes, really. Why do you not believe me?" Damian crossed his arms and scowled, although it looked more like a pout.

"Oh. No. I believe you. That actually makes a lot of sense. You… you look a lot like Tati. Is… is your mother Talia, by any chance?"

"Yes."

"Wait," Alex said. "You know Talia al Ghul…"

"Umm…" Dick said. "Sort of. She sort of…" He looked down at Damian. "Umm. Yeah." He shifted awkwardly. Alex's eyes widened as he realized what Dick was trying to say.

"So, did you know about Damian then?"

"Uh, no. Not until I met him here and then I didn't think…" I have a baby brother. "Because there's so much crap going on, you know…" Like another one. I have another baby brother. "Umm." He's actually Bruce's son, and legally my baby brother. This is… This... "Thanks for telling me, Dami. I'm sure Tati will be happy to meet you, when he finds us."

"Right…" Alex said. "Well, you should probably know what else he said, while we're at it."

"Hmm," Dick said. He honestly just wanted to go to sleep, but had a feeling that wasn't happening soon. "What else did you tell Alex, Dami?"

"Nothing. I just told him who Father was. He was painting a picture of Father on the wall by your bed."

"He was? That's nice of you, Alex. Thanks. You must have a really good memory to paint Tati."

Alex sighed, rolled his eyes to the ceiling, and pointed at the painting. Dick looked up in the direction he was pointing.

"…" Oh… Crap! His eyes widened. "Umm. That's Batman."

"Yes. I'm aware that's Batman. According to Damian, your little brother, as you just confirmed, it's also your father."

"… Oh. Damian said, Damian, you said that?"

"Well, yeah. Father is Batman. Mother told me." Dick sucked in a breath and met Alex's eyes.

"You can't tell ANYONE," he furiously whispered.

"Of course, Robin."

Dick opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and looked Damian in the eyes with the most serious expression he could muster. Time to instill some of the Bat rules. "Damian, I need you to promise me right now that you will not tell anyone else about Tati being Batman or me being Robin. If this gets out, it would put all of us in considerably more danger than we are already in. Do you understand?"

"But…"

"No but's. Please promise, Damian. There are hundreds of people out there who would love to get their hands on the information. If they did, they wouldn't hesitate to kill us and torture and kill everyone even loosely connected to us. Do you understand?"

"Yes. I understand."

"Okay, now promise you won't tell anyone else."

"I promise."

"You too, Alex. This can't get out."

"I promise, but."

"NO BUTS! Swear you won't tell."

Sigh. "I swear on the graves of my parents. Is that good enough for you?" Dick hesitated, thinking it over, and then nodded. "I want answers."

"Fair enough." He took a deep breath and pulled Damian into a hug, and kissed him on the top of the head. "You're a good baby brother."

"I'm not a baby!" Damian pouted.

"Alex, you're joining our Romani lessons. I don't think any of the bluemen speak Romani, so it will be safe-ish to speak it even if they put a mic in."

"Works for me."

"Great, let me sit down, somewhere other than the floor, I mean, and then I'll answer your questions." Dick got up, picking Damian up as he went, and moved over to one of the desk chairs, sitting with Dami situated on his lap. He dodged a cuff from his brother for the treatment and said, "Alright. Ask away."

Alex eyed his roommates as he mentally skimmed the long list of questions he'd thought of when he was younger that he would ask if he ever met a superhero. The thing was… Dick didn't look like a superhero right now. He looked like a nervous, young teenager. Younger than a teenager even, he looked like a child who'd been hurt badly and wasn't sure how to respond, but was trying to remain strong. Dick looked discombobulated, appearing to have trouble focusing his eyes. He was also fiddling with the bandages wrapped around his wrists. Alex was reminded of the torture from which the boy had just returned, and the fact that Dick was probably trying not to collapse on them.

The toddler of the room would look almost like a doll on Dick's lap, if the kid hadn't been fidgeting so much, poking his big brother for attention. Damian was so tiny and the kid frightened easily and often, although he tried to hide it. He was clingy at times, yet not overtly so. He was just clingy enough that the people who knew him well noticed it. Then, there was the fact that he was outright the youngest kid in the building, as far as Alex knew.

At first glance, no one would guess these two were Batman's kids. Even after living with them both for a couple months, Alex didn't think he would have put two and two together if Damian hadn't blurted it out. It just didn't compare with the image he got from the news, rumors, and stories.

Dick as an extreme fan boy almost to the point of stalker-ish-ness seemed a good explanation for his bedtime stories and slight obsession with the superheroes. Those people being his family… That made a lot of sense now that Alex thought about it.

"Well?" Dick asked, derailing Alex's train of thought. Alex picked a starting point, and went with it.

"How did you become Batman's sidekick? Bruce seems so protective of you from the news. It doesn't really mesh that he would be under protective and allow you out on the streets to fight criminals and put you in even more danger."

"Well, you could say that his protectiveness doesn't actually go away on patrol."

"Really?" Damian asked eyes wide.

"Yeah. If anything, it gets worse. He only lets me out because he knows I would go out without him if he didn't." Dick admitted to himself as well as the others in the room. "It's happened before." Huh. He never really thought about it from Bruce's side before. "In fact, most of the times I was kidnapped as Robin or hurt on patrol were because I didn't listen to him or wasn't supposed to be out. I was really stupid at times…"

"But, he's letting your brother, Jared, out now? The news didn't report your disappearance."

"Jason, and probably so that people don't connect the disappearances. We had a contingency plan for my disappearance. Contingency Plan Jaybird. We've never used it before, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't. When it's been long enough, he'll probably try to stop Jason from going out, but it won't work. Jason is even more hot headed than I was. He won't go quietly."

"Wow. That."

"Yeah. Stubbornness runs in the family."

"You're adopted." Alex deadpanned.

"It's a learned trait." Dick ran a hand through Damian's hair to try to calm the bouncing.

"How many more of you are there?"

"That's classified."

"Seriously? You're pulling that card?"

"I can't talk about certain things."

"Fine. That girl. The one you were with when you were kidnapped. Was she a hero too?"

Dick hesitated. His secrets were one thing; Artemis's were another. "I can't tell you that kind of stuff. They're not my secrets to tell. Ask something else. Something I can tell you."

"Have you been kidnapped more as Robin or Dick?"

"Umm. I don't know. Bruce would know. I've honestly lost track, especially after the beginning of this one."

"Is everyone around you guys involved?"

"Pfft. Of course not."

"Does Father really drink the blood of his enemies?" There was a long pause, and then Dick burst into laughter, shortly followed by Alex. Dick almost tipped over, bringing the confused, four year old with him. He tried to answer a few times, but all that came out was more laughter. Damian blushed. "Stop laughing!"

"Sor-sorry, Damian. You're actually not the only one to think that, but-" He gave another laugh and gasped for breath, "it's definitely not true. It's just always funny to hear." He steadied himself and gently dropped his chin on the squirming child's head. Damian stopped, and glared at the two. Alex got control over himself.

"In all seriousness, though, how many of those rumors are true?"

"Not many. Tati likes to start some of them, and I do from time to time as well. It makes our job easier, and thus safer, according to Bruce, anyways. I think I might have actually started the vampire one. Sorry, Dami. I'm not sure if I could pinpoint which ones are true, but I can try."

"Does he sleep upside down? Is he actually a bat at night and a man during the day? Does he melt in the sunlight? Is it true he doesn't show up in mirrors? Is he allergic to garlic? Is he repelled by crosses? Does he sleep in a coffin? Do you sleep in a coffin, too? Does he have underlings? Are you his underling?" Damian stopped to take a breath.

"Okay… No to all of those. He's not a vampire. Except the underling one is a yes. That's Alfred. Don't tell him I said that."

"Dick, tell us which rumors are true."

"Well, Daddy Bats, as Wally calls it, definitely exists. You don't want to get on the wrong side of him, but you don't want to hide information either."

"So, if I escaped, but you didn't, I should probably tell him what I knew."

"Yeah. Even if I died. He would be furious, so you might want to back away, but if you say it right, he won't hurt you. Just say you're a friend of mine before you give any information."

"So what? I would say 'Hey, Batman? I'm a friend of your son, Robin. Umm. He's in this building in this location, but I don't know if he's still alive. He was this amount of time ago?'"

"Yeah. Say that. He'd listen to you for that whole spiel."

"Huh. I'll remember that."

"Anything else?" Dick pushed tentatively.

"Uh. Yes. Did you know the other sidekicks?"

"Yes."

"Really? Which ones?"

"Umm. Most of them."

"Close with any of them."

"Yeah."

"Which ones?"

"Most of them."

"Cheap way out."

"Next topic!"

"Do you have any cool scars?"

"… I have scars, but I wouldn't consider them cool. My upper body is riddled with them, and then I have a really bad one on my left forearm."

"The tattoo?"

"Yeah."

Alex hesitated for a second, before plowing forward with his question. "What happened to your wrists? What did they do? You took longer to come back than usual."

A flash of fear crossed Dick's face. It seemed to take a bit for Dick to pull up the courage. Dick opened his mouth to answer, "They…. Um… They… Phase Two" Dick forced out and then burst into tears. Alex was shocked, and he could see he wasn't the only one as Damian just froze completely. Crying was so opposite Dick's normal, strong personality and it appeared to come on so suddenly that it took Alex a moment to snap out of it and go to comfort his friend. He pulled Dick into a hug sandwiching between them.

"Shh. It's okay. You're safe now. They're done for the moment. They can't hurt you." Whoops. That backfired as the boy just started crying harder. "Err. Just let it out." Oh great, now Damian was scared and starting to cry as well. "Actually, snap out of it! You're scaring Damian!" No avail. "What do I do now? Please stop crying. I know it hurts. It's kind of obvious and I'm actually kind of surprised this is the first break down but umm we're here, so yeah. Pull yourself together. Err. I'm sure your dad will be here soon. We'll get out of this. Please stop. I'm no good at this comfort thing." Alex started humming, rocking back and forth trying to calm them down.

Alex sighed, "Well, this sucks."

A/N

Hello. Long author's note warning.

Well, here's phase two. Not as detailed as I would have liked but it kind of is the longest phase, so you'll see more of it. The reason the clock worked so well to put Dick in a trance is because he was just about to his breaking point anyways. (Straw to camel, anyone?)

To be honest, Dick probably should have broken down a while ago because three weeks of complete and total isolation in a box on ship would break just about anyone. He broke down some while feverish after arriving at Andoxly, so that combined with pure willpower is probably what caused the extra delay for a full break down. He's also been using Alex and Damian as points of stability to rely on.

Yes, the place now has a name, which I picked at random with random letterings so any resemblance to anything is purely coincidence.

If you didn't get what Dick and Alex were implying about Talia, google Damian's origin in the comics. Or go to youtube and type in "Batman meets Damian." The first video should be the explanation of sorts from the movie Son of Batman. Warning: It's not school appropriate. :P

On another note, Inky and I are still ironing out a schedule for editing and updating and such because we're kind of across the country from each other and both fairly busy with college, so updates will probably stay sporadic. As such, I posted two new stories. TMB: If Only is deleted scenes and what if's from this story, and will be updated when I have writer's block or other reasons, so I don't make you guys wait months for another part of the story. Pretend He Doesn't Exist is a different point of view of Pretend You Don't Exist by LunarBlade Valentine. Please go check them out.

As always, smile, follow, favorite, review, eat some s'mores.