Heads up. Italics are Romani speech. I don't own Young Justice. Enjoy.
Chapter 21
When the car stopped, they were in front of an old, seemingly abandoned building in the middle of nowhere. The men pulled the blindfold off before letting them out. Dick had been given shoes, but Damian had not due to his cast. Alex had decorated the cast once he got over the fact they had broken Damian's ankle. It was incredibly colorful and he'd included the Bat symbol, and on Dick's insistence, the Robin symbol. Dick wasted no time scooping up the smaller boy, once he was out of the car. The men surrounded them, one leading and two behind, as they were shoved towards the building.
The two boys were led into a small, fairly dirty room. The man in front of Dick stopped suddenly causing him to bump into him, lightly. Dick tightened his grip on Damian, who was watching the men with a perplexed expression, analyzing their goal most likely. While it was nice to get out of the prison they had been kept in, it was an odd and completely unexpected move. They weren't planning on killing them now, were they?
There were already a couple men in the room, wearing masks. There was a scaffolding of sorts set up: two poles with ropes hanging down. A chill ran down Dick's back as he also took in a video camera, and a few blank tapes. The scaffolding was about the right height for him, too. What were they planning? He wasn't sure he wanted to know. He heard a click, and looked back to see that one of the men had locked and bolted the door behind them.
Damian bopped Dick in the head, and looked in his eyes. Dick forced his heart rate and breathing to slow, and gave his baby brother a reassuring smile, one that passed on as much as he could manage that it would be alright. Contradicting that action slightly, he took his goggles off and placed them on Damian's head. On the one hand, it was a measure to make Damian feel slightly safer. On the other hand, it made Dick feel slightly less safe. Stupid conditioning.
One of the men turned to Dick and tried to take Damian. While Damian protested, Dick instantly backed away to get away. In doing so, Dick backed right into another man, who instantly wrapped his arms around Dick's waist, and lifted him so that he couldn't get purchase on the floor. Dick had a sharp intake of breath, and his grip around Damian loosened slightly. In his moment of distraction the first man reached forward again and ripped the smaller boy from his brother's arms, prompting two cries. Damian held firm, but the strength of a weakened five year old is nothing against a full grown man, and his struggles led to Batkitty dropping to the ground where they could not reach it. Both boys fought their captors.
"STOP," a familiar, rough voice called out. The men instantly froze, although not loosening their grip on the boys. Dick stopped too. He recognized Logarithm's voice. Damian continued biting and kicking, although his efforts seemed to have no effect on his captor. A tall, muscled man walked into view.
"Stop," he glared at Damian. Seeing the glare, Dick said in Romani.
"Damian, stop. You need to be still now. We don't know what they're planning." Damian stopped, and turned his eyes to his brother, searching for a promise of safety. Dick smiled gently at him.
Logarithm nodded, then gestured the men into motion. They brought Damian behind the camera and carried Dick—his feet were still dangling above the ground; God, he hated being short—towards the scaffolding. Dick kept his eyes locked on Damian's, ignoring what was happening to him. "Listen brats. You're going to help us send a little message to the Justice League." Dick perked up. He could work with that.
"I know what you're thinking. The Justice League? They can solve anything! They'll be here real soon so long as I give them some hints! Well, scrap that thought from your brain. If we see anything that could act as a signal on the tape, we'll film it again. And again. Until it is perfect." While he was saying this, the men forced Dick's shirt off, and were tying Dick's wrists to the scaffolding so that he could just barely touch the ground with his toes. They also took his shoes. He chose to mostly ignore them, in favor of keeping a calming gaze on Damian.
Logarithm strode forward and grabbed Dick's chin, forcing Dick to break eye contact and look at the tall man. "You can make as much noise as you like, but not a single word or sign. I'll look over the tapes, and if I see anything suspicious, the little tyke over there will be harmed and we will film it again, and we really don't want that, do we?" Dick gave a sort of nod, and the man released him. Dick watched him for a second in trepidation before turning his attention back to his little brother.
"Cover his mouth." The tall man said to his compatriots holding Damian. They immediately did so, causing both boys to protest. Dick was more vocal, telling them to make sure he could breathe—that statement caused the man to double check his grip. Ignoring Dick for the moment, Logarithm leaned in towards the younger boy. Damian shut up, gazed fixed on the threat. "You, little tyke, will not make a peep. Absolute silence. Don't even move. Understood?" Damian looked at Logarithm, glanced back at Dick who nodded slightly, not liking where this was going, and then Damian gave the tall man a small nod. Logarithm smirked, and swept away to center stage.
"Are we ready?" The cameraman nodded, aiming a camera at Logarithm, including Dick in the picture, and began a countdown on his fingers. He pointed and the devil began.
"Hello there, we interrupt your normal broadcast to bring a special message to the Justice League."
Dick tuned out what Logarithm was saying, choosing instead to spend the time keeping Damian calm. Whatever was going to happen to him would happen, but he refused to let Damian get in trouble. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man walking behind him with a coil of something. It looked like rope, but he was already tied up.
Damian saw it too, and indicated to it with his eyes, but Dick continued to ignore it. At least, he ignored it until he heard a loud crack behind him. Keeping his eyes locked on Damian, now a little more out of fear than keeping the smaller boy silent, Dick turned his attention back to Logarithm.
"-your choice, of course." The man was saying. "But to prove we're serious," The whip came down hard on Dick's bare back. He gasped and bit his lip at the sudden flaming pain in his back, but kept his focus on his little brother. He was able to keep his eyes open and his gaze calm, even as the pain leaked in, for the first four strikes. After that, his vision started to tunnel, and it was all he could do to keep Damian in his sights. He heard someone screaming. He hoped it wasn't him.
At some point, there were no more additions to his pain. Someone covered his mouth and he heard a gunshot. He jerked his eyes open, but Damian was fine, although scared. There was a pause, and then he was let down from the scaffolding. Someone said something to him and slapped him on the back; there was another strangled scream and chuckles. People were talking, but all Dick cared to pay attention to was that his brother was now directly in front of him. He wrapped his arms around the tiny boy and passed out.
The first thing she saw was whiteness, whiteness stretching in all directions. It was blank, scary, wrong. She got to her feet and started moving in search of color. She felt a tug in a seemingly random direction and decided to follow it. She was for a bit before spotting a small dot. A dark splotch speckled with streaks of white lay on the very edge of her vision. After another couple minutes of walking, she noticed the splotch was moving, stumbling really, towards her as well. One more minute and she was able to make out features and stopped shot.
"Richard," Artemis breathed, and then sprinted towards him, sinking to her knees, and dragging him into her arms. "Richard," she repeated, louder in relief.
"Art-Artemis?" He asked. She felt the boy tense and then fiercely return the hug. "Artemis! Am I dead?"
"No!" She said sharply, pulling back a bit to study him closely.
"But, it's all blank. This is my King's Cross Scene, right? Does that mean you're dead too and you get to be Dumbledore?"
"No." She tried to say, but he was on a roll now. He looked around.
"Isn't there supposed to be scenery forming now that I know where I am? I don't really want to die. Can I get on the train to go back home instead of on? Will it teleport me home?"
"Richard! You're not dead. You can't be dead! I don't believe you're dead." She brushed her finger across his face where there was a small bit of dirt. He was incredibly pale, not helping her case, almost blending in with the background, especially since he was wearing white pants and no shirt. Even his hair was streaked with white, although the black was definitely still there. He was thin, much thinner than she had seen him last, and she could feel that most of the loss was muscle. "What happened to you?" She asked softly.
"What happened to me?" he laughed hollowly. "A lot happened to me, but what about you? Did you get away? They didn't get you too, did they? Wally wouldn't survive with both of us gone."
"No. No, they didn't get me. I'm so sorry, Richard. I should have tried harder. I should have protected you."
"It's not your fault, Arty. I don't blame you, and you shouldn't blame yourself. And, please, call me Dick. I prefer the name Dick."
Artemis hugged him again. She heard a slight gasp she had not caught the first time. She pulled back and studied him once more. "What happened? Did I hurt you?"
"I don't-No, it wasn't you. It…it hurts. Arty, I want to go home. Please, take me home." God, he looked broken, completely and totally broken.
"We're going to find you." She reassured her friend. "Is there anything you can tell me that might help?"
"I-we tried to get everyone out not too long ago. Maybe…maybe a few weeks ago. A…a lot of kids made it out, but I don't know how many they caught. If you see a big group of kids with number tattoos on their arms, like this one," he held up his arm and Artemis resisted the urge to start cursing upon seeing 169 written in thick, black print on his forearm. "They can help. They came from here. They might have made it pretty far, but they can probably lead you back here." Dick was fidgeting. Artemis smoothed his arms down to stop it.
"Are you okay?" She asked. "You're hurt, on your back I reckon, so obviously not physically, but are you okay mentally."
"I…No… No, I'm not okay at all. Arty, I'm scared. I made him mad when we helped people escape and now I'm always hurt and he's targeting me specifically, and he's using Dami and it's not okay. I'm not okay."
"Woah. Slow down, Rob. Who's targeting you and who is Dami?" He stared at her wide-eyed. "Richard?"
"Did you just call me Rob?" He asked softly.
"Huh? Oh! I figured it out after you did not show up at the cave for a while when you said you would that first weekend. Wally was a bit too concerned, too involved in your missing person's case for someone who had never met you before. I eventually put two and two together, especially when Jason started going out a bit as Robin to try to keep people from figuring out your identities."
"Contingency Plan Jaybird? Is he okay?"
"Yeah. He's fine. He's doing a great job, too."
"Of course he is. He's my brother. He's Jason. Just like Dami's my brother."
"Who's Dami?"
"Oh, Damian's Bruce's son. He's with me. He's adorable." Artemis noticed that when she got him on the topic of his brothers, Dick relaxed a bit. "Artemis, did you laugh when you found out?"
"Laugh?" She asked. "Why would I… Oh yeah! The picture. I did, when I remembered. For a little bit, hysterically, but then I cried because you were gone. For hours. It sort of added a new dimension of failure to the whole thing. I couldn't protect you, Dick. And the fact that it was, well, you added a new layer. I should've been able to protect you. This shouldn't have happened."
"It's not your fault, Arty. You tried. You warned me about something, I think." He wrinkled his nose trying to remember what that thing was. "I'm just glad you're okay. I was afraid of what they did to you, if they had taken you too."
"They probably thought I wasn't worth the effort. I kept fighting, after you passed out. I tried to get you back."
"See. You did your best. I couldn't really ask for more. I wasn't exactly able to escape on my own, not for lack of trying."
"Hey, do you hear someone calling my name?" Artemis asked, as she heard a faint echo of her name.
"No."
"I swear I hear it. It sounds like Zantanna."
"Maybe she's trying to wake you up?"
"She can't! I'm not done talking to you!" She pulled him into a fierce hug, trying to hold on as something started tugging her away.
"OW! Artemis, if she's trying to wake you up, you have to wake up! I can't go with you. I'm not really here and neither are you. Please find me soon. You won't have to let go then." She loosened the hold and looked into his tear filled eyes. "You need to let go now. Please keep looking for me."
She opened her mouth to say something, but found she couldn't as she was torn away from Dick.
"Artemis!" Zantanna shouted in her ear. "Artemis! You have to wake up. There's a video. It has Richard!"
Dick woke up to a small hand on his cheek and a numbing pain in his back. He opened his eyes to see Damian's face directly in front of him. Instead of jerking back, like he might have had it been anyone else, Dick started searching his brother's face for information. Damian was shaking slightly, but was unharmed. He had tear tracks down his face, indicating that he had gone so far as to cry lately, an odd move on Damian's part.
"It's-" Dick started in Romanian in a strained voice, but interrupted himself with a cough. Damian's eyebrow furrowed. "It'll be okay, Dami. I'm fine. What-"he coughed again. "What happened?"
"They tied you up, and they hit you with the rope coil, and you screamed a lot. The whole time, Logarithm was talking to the camera. He said something about killing kids. Then, Logarithm had a gun, and put it to your head. They covered your mouth, and lifted the gun, and shot the wall behind you. I don't think you were on camera then. He said something like 'oh well, there's more where he came from,' and smiled. Then the guy with the camera said they were done. He replayed the tape, and he said 'that'll do.' They let me go, and cut you down. I grabbed Batkitty and ran over. You passed out on me and they stuck you with a needle. Then, they put some stuff on your back, and took us outside, and put you in the trunk. You wouldn't let go of me, so I came back here too." Damian explained in Arabic, another sign of his fear. Damian also still had Dick's goggles on his head. Dick nodded, and in looking around his brother's head, saw that his arms were still around the kid. Now that Damian had mentioned it, he could hear the gentle hum of an engine and the sound of the road passing below them.
"How long have we been driving?"
"I don't know. I fell asleep." Damian blushed, slightly embarrassed. "We changed cars once. I think we're almost back."
Dick nodded. The two settled in. Before long, the car pulled to a stop. Dick pulled Damian closer, and prepared to get out. His shoes were still gone, but that didn't matter in the smooth halls of their prison anyhow. He didn't want his shirt back. They could hear people talking outside the trunk.
Soon enough, the trunk opened, and a couple of the bluemen helped them out. Dick fought a sudden wave of dizziness. One of the bluemen looked at Damian as if wanting to take him, but Damian's mini Batglare quickly turned him away. He held his brother's pant leg, using him for balance. They were led to an examination room, similar to the one they had used for the initial examinations. Dick set Damian down on a chair, and laid stomach down on the table.
While the nurses stitched up Dick's back, he thought about the repercussions of the video that had just been filmed. It would give the League a lead, but would also serve as a warning. Dick had no doubt that the men would not hesitate to shoot him if it came to it. After all, they weren't supposed to hurt the kids, and they had almost shot him on TV. Although, that was also likely a purposeful miss, to convince the League he was dead. Additional motivation to stop searching.
He remembered the dream, but it was just that, a dream. Well it would be nice for Artemis to have gotten all that information he had given her, a dream was a wish, not reality. It wasn't like he was a telepath or anything. Besides, M'gann only had a range of a few miles. Even if he was a telepath, Artemis was on the other side of the world. There was no way it was real.
What could the video tell them? Dick hadn't bothered to try to send them a message, not knowing where he was or anything he could communicate to them besides that he was alive. Maybe they could figure out that there was someone else there, and they would probably see the number on his arm, but no location or other information. Even if they found where it had been filmed, their main interests would be long gone by the time the video aired.
Plus, there would be the media backlash. People would want them to keep searching and doubling their efforts, and other people would blame them for the beating and beg them to stop searching. Dick bet the Justice League would want to keep looking, but his 'death' may be enough fuel to fight them off. They'd find a way.
The bluemen finished up with his back, and helped him up.
"Don't sleep on your back for a few weeks. We'll include pain pills with your meals. Take them. Don't cover your back for a few days. You'll get a new shirt then."
Dick nodded, and picked up Damian, wincing at the slight pain in his back, numbed by the medicine flowing through his body. One of the bluemen flashed them a look of pity and regret as he accompanied them back to their room.
Alex leapt to his feet when they entered. He waited until they were inside, the blueman had left, and the door was locked before launching into a series of questions.
"What happened? Where were you? I heard a rumor you left the building and they were planning to use you for a warning? Where did you go? Are you hurt? Either of you? Did you see anyone who could help? Where's your shirt? Did they give you lunch?"
"Alex!" He stopped, and looked at Dick expectedly. "They needed us for some sort of warning video. They took us to a warehouse, and made a film of some guy whipping me, I think. Logarithm said a bunch of stuff to the Justice League. Damian would have a better account, right Dami?"
Damian nodded, and Dick set him down on his chair placing Batkitty on Damian's bed, while Damian explained things to Alex. Alex glanced at Dick at different times during the story, at his back in particular.
"You can stop looking at me. I've had worse than this." He told Alex.
"What? How?"
"It's complicated." Dick replied thinking of his time spent with Two-Face and Joker, and a couple fairly violent kidnappings. He studied the ground. "I mean, Tati has always been able to find me before now, but the actual whipping will only hurt for a little bit in comparison to the experiments and some other kidnappings I've experienced in the past." He rubbed his tattoo. "At least the League will know to look for these now." He held up his arm.
Before they could say anything further, they heard the light buzzer for lights out. An extra lock slid over the door. Dick swooped up Damian and dropped the kid on Damian's bed, just as the lights clicked out.
"Guess they're not feeding us today." Dick whispered. "Good night guys."
"Good night." Alex replied, as Damian slipped back onto Dick's bed and burrowed under his arms, having grabbed Batkitty from his bed. He felt Dick's gaze upon him.
"I am simply making sure that you have someone to provide miniscule amounts of comfort after your day." Damian said. Dick smiled and tugged the boy closer like a teddy bear.
A/N Hey everyone. Hope you liked. This is another chapter that was in the original NaNo. This is actually the second appearance of Logarithm, and he still didn't have a name yet. He was "the tall man" and "the rough voice from the dock." He actually got a name in the next chapter when I realized he was becoming integral to the story. I had comments in the original scene where Inky and I debated the name. He was Batenemy1 and then Logarithm because Inky told me that there were too many Bat enemies for him to be Batenemy1. Plus, we were afraid it might be someone's username. Logarithm came next because she said I should do something math related since Dick was a mathlete. He's still the least developed secondary character, but he has a name... Just not a real one. Damian also called him Solomon on the ride back originally, for some reason.
Credits to HP reference to Inky. She mentioned it while I was typing up the dream sequence.
Guest Responses:
In general, thanks for reviewing and I update when I feel the quality of the chapter is the best it can be.
No One Important- It's not it. It's just all I have updated so far. I binge read sometimes too. It's really bad for my grades. I'm glad you liked it. You really made my day with the review, although I definitely would appreciate 5 paragraphs of compliments. :) Thanks for reviewing. This soon enough?
Guest-I don't normally write romance of any sort. I'm horrible at it and not a huge fan because romance tends If it's not in the series, I probably won't even reference it. I am curious as to who you thought the relationship would be though. :) Yeah. That's why I made Dami so young. In the comics, he has this soft undertone where he's just trying to be accepted underneath a thick facade, so by making him younger, he hasn't built up the facade yet and can just be a little kid. They're trying to do a lot of stuff that will be revealed fairly shortly. Inky thinks I'm evil with this story, but I don't think I am. I just have way too much fun with cliffhangers. I feel like a lot of people on here may disagree with my assessment of my evilness though. Thank you!