Chapter 18

Roy hid his unease as he approached the classroom with the blueman guide. Today was the day, the day he was going to present his plan to his friends and hopefully get some feedback. He ran over the plan in his head again. He wasn't sure how well it would work. However, Dick was from Gotham and Batman was also from Gotham, so logically Dick would be able to point out any fallacies in the plan and make it work, as well as taking over the technical aspect.

Dick was already there when he entered, resting with his head in his arms. At first glance, he appeared to be fine, sleeping, but fine. That was not the case once Roy got closer. He resisted the urge to curse the bluemen out when he saw his friend's condition. The way the boy was leaning, the needle pricks on his arms were fairly obvious, although those were nothing new. The bandages wrapped loosely around the boy's wrists were new, but that wasn't what really caught Roy's attention. No, what really caught Roy's attention was the thin streak of white that was mostly hidden in Dick's dark hair.

He'd seen the white before. A couple kids had acquired the streaks in one of the experiments; he wasn't sure which one. What scared him was that most of those kids had just gotten more and more tired until one day, they disappeared altogether. Roy did not want that to happen to his friend. This plan had to work, and they had to enact it soon.

Class passed slowly. Roy kept an eye on his friend. The teacher made Dick pick his head up early in the class, but it was perfectly clear that only the fear of being punished, which would lead to further weakness was all that was keeping the boy's head up. Circles were prominent under the boy's eyes. If it weren't for the white, Roy would be able to convince himself that Dick only had a rough time sleeping the night before. Dick didn't answer questions, and barely did the work, having to put a lot of effort into focusing. By the time the buzzer buzzed for lunch, Dick had fallen back asleep sitting up five times, but only been caught by the teacher twice. Maybe a rough night was the prominent factor…

Roy wrapped an arm around Dick's shoulders to help him to the cafeteria after they were released from the chairs.

"Why are you so tired?" Roy asked, casually. Weary blue eyes glanced up and met his. Roy strained to hear the response.

"Didn't sleep well. 'ightmears."

"Nightmares?" A nod. Okay, that was a probably a common side effect, or perfectly normal. Normal people had nightmares. "Oh well, that sucks. Anyways, there's something I want to talk to you guys about. Mind if Charlie sits with us?" Dick shrugged. They ran into Charlie at the door and got in line for food.

Once they were all seated and eating, Roy looked around to make sure there were no bluemen nearby to eavesdrop. Satisfied they weren't close or paying attention to the group, Roy said, "I have a plan."

"A plan?" Alex asked. "A plan for what?"

"To escape, of course!" He stated. Alex, Dick, and Damian exchanged glances. "Don't tell me you guys don't want to escape?" He hissed. "They're murderers here! If we don't leave, we'll all die!" Some sooner than others.

"It's not that." Dick stated hesitantly. "It's that it's still winter. We can see some snow in the courtyard. Leaving now, well, we don't know where we are or if we're near a major population center. We're not prepared for winter. Not to mention getting everyone out will be extremely difficult because we might have more in number, but none of us are very strong. They don't actually care if we die, and none of us are super soldiers. We're a means to an end. What's to stop them from shooting us on the way out?"

"Finer points." Roy waved it away. Dick opened his mouth to protest, but Roy cut him off. "I have the outline of a plan. The finer points are where you guys come in. I can't get everyone out myself."

"They'll kill us if we get caught conspiring." Charlie brought up. "Five is nothing to however many they have here."

"We'll die if we stay and do nothing." Roy argued.

"The Justice League—"

"The Justice League hasn't found us yet and who knows when they will, Dick! We can't afford to wait for them! More and more kids are dying and being tortured each day. We have to get whoever we can out!"

Dick winced. "Alright. What's your plan? I'll help you fine tune it."

Batman sighed as he finally entered his room in the watchtower. He locked the door and took the cowl off, running a hand through his hair. The chat with the CS Coyote's Captain Frank Warland had yielded far more than he expected. Warland sung like a bird when given the proper motivation. Well, not one of Batman's birds, his birds were too loyal to crack that quickly. Not that they were birds, even though they called themselves Robin. They were bats. Plus, Jason only called himself Robin because Batman wanted time to disconnect Dick's disappearance with Robin's. Whoever had Dick would probably kill him instant if they found out he was Robin, and that couldn't happen. Anyways, the saying still worked.

Batman had gained plenty of information to keep the search going, but the information itself was troubling. The Captain didn't know where the children went once they left the ship, but he always dropped them off in the same port in the South of France. He also was well aware that they did not come to his ship by legal means. A mercenary seaman, Warland had kept the information quiet because he was paid well, but he was loyal to no one.

The most disturbing news was that not all the children had been allowed to roam around the ship or been given even the most basic of amenities. No, some of the children were hidden away in shipping crates, crammed in with a bunch of food. The Captain had discovered this on the last journey across the ocean and protested, but his bosses, whose names Warland didn't know, offered him a higher price to keep silent. He knew there was one crate on the last journey, with a boy in it.

The Captain had been told not to open the box under any circumstances, but to make sure the air holes weren't covered. The boy apparently had all he needed to survive the journey inside the box with him. The situation made Warland uneasy, especially when the journey lasted longer than expected. Yet, the infuriating man still ordered the man to stay out of the cargo bay for at least the first week, and then away from that section of crates. He at least put the box near a heater, but that was not nearly enough.

It was a good thing Batman hadn't promised Warland any form of leniency because Bruce Wayne was roaring to give him the worst sentence possible for his crime. The punch to the face was not nearly satisfying enough to sate his anger. While there was no concrete proof it had been Dick in that box, and they would definitely search the rest of the ships just in case, Batman knew that anyone, and his son especially, would go at least partially insane. It was pure torture.

Dick thrived on light and friendship, as well as generally being around people. He loved open spaces and feeling the wind on his face. Cutting the boy away from all of that and throwing him into a small, dark, cold space he couldn't even stand in with probably barely enough sustenance to last him the journey, and no more, was beyond cruel. Three weeks of complete, enforced isolation in such a small area with no promises of good to come when he got out most likely completely destroyed the boy's spirit, his light.

It was wrong to even think about, and made Batman internally shudder. If Dick came through still clinging to his sanity, even by a thread, Batman would be completely impressed and thankful… and probably send him to therapy with Black Canary to recover. Hopefully, the therapy would have some effect. It had seemed to work after the failed simulation. By this point, Batman just wanted his kid back. He didn't care if it was the same personality returning, and he would be incredibly worried if that were the case. Dick would be Dick and even a damaged version of his boy was much better than a dead version.

Batman sighed again, and forced his thoughts away from the condition his son was probably in. They'd get through it, but first they had to find him. He turned to his plans. They would need to send two or three people to France to pick up the trail and follow it. He couldn't go because he was needed at home. He could probably check in from time to time, though. It would be best to send one of the team. Not Jason, because no way in Apokolips was he letting his kid go to another continent for an extended length of time, especially looking for his other missing son. Artemis had been with Dick when he was kidnapped, and that hadn't been enough so Jason would be going nowhere without at least three other bodyguards… he meant people.

Most of the team had school. The one exception was Aqualad. It might be good for Wally to take some time off and join him, though. Wally's grades were dropping rapidly lately. Batman was sure he wouldn't mind retaking the semester later, so long as he was doing something to help the cause. Should he send a League member with them? Kid Flash and Aqualad were well known worldwide, although most people didn't seem to be able to remember Kid Flash's name. No, he'd send the two, and if they needed further authorization, they could call him or one of their mentors, and they'd be there as soon as they could.

With that in mind, he sent a message telling the two to meet him at the Mountain in twenty minutes. He'd propose the idea, give them two days maximum to discuss it with their parents and mentors, and then send them off. He sat down at the computer to start drafting a proposition to present to the Wests so that Wally would be able to get away with leaving this semester and retaking it another time and so that they'd see it as a good idea.

Hopefully, they'd find his boy before the end of the year and Wally could take summer classes to make it up.

Damian didn't normally make it back to the room before his brothers… well, brother and other roommate who was kind of like a brother. Anyways, the few times he had gotten back before them, as opposed to at the same time or later, he had only had a few minutes to himself before the two had arrived. Knowing he probably wouldn't be waiting long, he climbed up onto his bed and kicked his feet back and forth.

Time ticked by slowly. The hallway outside seemed to have quieted down for a bit, with only a few people passing every now and then. There was still no sign of Dick or Alex. After what felt like hours of waiting, the inevitable occurred.

The four year old got bored.

There wasn't a ton to do in the room besides talk to and climb the others. Alex had somehow managed to get paints from the bluemen, and Dick might have figured out how to get some stuff too, but Damian didn't know how to earn stuff. With the lack of things to do, Damian entertained himself for a bit by jumping on the bed. It was a fun sensation like floating that Mother disapproved of, but Mother wasn't here right now. Dick said Mother was wrong about a lot of things, so obviously she must be wrong about jumping on the beds being out of his leagues. Yep, definitely wrong. Damian allowed a few giggles to escape.

Before too long, he got tired and laid down for a bit. He didn't like sleeping without Dick there to protect him, so he fought off his instincts to sleep. The ceiling needed more color. Alex could probably help with that. Maybe he could paint the bat signal that Dick mentioned a couple of times in his bedtime stories, which were actually true stories with some edits that seemed to make his brother happier. Dick was always happy when Damian requested a bedtime a story, and seemed to sit a bit taller following the story.

Wait! Alex's paints were in here, right? He wouldn't mind if Damian borrowed some, right? Of course not! Those would definitely keep him awake until the two older boys returned. With that thought in mind, Damian sat up and scrambled over onto Dick's bed, stepping carefully onto the desk next to the bed and started searching for stuff to do. As he rummaged through the drawers, he felt a sharp prick on his left index finger.

"Ow!" Damian jerked his hand back reflexively. Inspecting his hand for a minute, he located and pulled out a sharp, silvery thing with string hanging off it out. He carefully placed the silvery thing in a place he knew he wouldn't touch again, and stuck his fingers in his mouth to make the hurt go away. He placed his right hand back in the drawer, searching more carefully, and was surprised when his hand landed on something large and soft. He grasped the lump and gently tugged it out.

Damian's mind blanked upon observing the object. It was scruffy and obviously sewn with care, but he could not recall ever seeing it before. It had two ears that reminded him of a kitty, a tail, two mismatched button eyes, and some cool decorations. The stuffed cat had a cowl, like Batman in the painting, and a yellow utility belt with pockets that opened, although nothing would fit in them. There was no cape, but the animal was incredible soft.

After a moment of debate, Damian spoke up to his new toy, "I think I'll call you Batkitty. You're mine, now." He nodded in satisfaction, carefully climbed back onto Dick's bed, scampered onto his own, and curled up with Batkitty under the covers. Within seconds, he had slipped into dreamland.

TWENTY THREE MINUTES LATER

"I really wanted to give it to him though…"

"Don't complain. He obviously likes it."

"Should I tell him?"

"When he wakes up. Maybe he'll even let you add the cape. We should probably let him sleep for now."

Dick looked back and forth between the yellow cloth that he had finally gotten ahold of for the cape and his peacefully sleeping baby brother. "Fine." He tucked the blankets in more securely around the boy and his toy, and then turned away. "Do you want to build a fort?"

A/N

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or Batkitty; they belong to DC and Glimare respectively.

There was a ~2 page long conversation between me and Inky. This is the summary. Read if curious. It's pretty long.

Inky: BATKITTY! AWWWWWW!

ASV: Your thoughts have been noted. Am I adding too much fluff to this story? :P

Inky: Nah, you've been torturing Dick and the readers, and I know what you've got planned for other characters. You literally have several chapters (and many plot points) revolving around whump. No amount of fluff is too much.

ASV: LOL. You sure?

Inky: Yeah, besides, you might as well lull your readers into a false sense of tranquility

you: Shh. We don't want them to know about the [REDACTED SPOILERS].

Inky: But it's such a terrible [MORE REDACTED SPOILERS]

ASV: Adds ideas to plot bunnies.

mutual cackling

ASV: Review, Favorite, Follow, Review, Smile

After A/N

ASV: Are you sure you don't want me to add in the robot Bio lab?

Inky: Pretty sure, yeah.

ASV: Need a chapter name. [several poor ideas] Ideas?

Inky: [other denied chapter name] Vitiligo?

ASV: What does Vitiligo mean?

Inky: It's a medical condition that causes the loss of melanin in an affected area. If that area's on the skin, it becomes a white patch. If that area's on the scalp, it's visible as a white streak of hair (like the one that Jason has). It can have a genetic cause or manifest after stress.

ASV: Okay. More detail on Wikipedia?

Inky: Yep.

ASV: Dick's is from stress. I didn't realize it had a name. Should I add this part to the Author's Note?

Inky: If you want to. shrug Have you decided on a chapter name yet?

... Oh wait.

ASV: :)