AN: I'm sorry that this hasn't been updated sooner, but I had a few personal problems holding me back, as well as the writer's block that always gets to me when I write this story. I am here now though, so please enjoy this instalment!
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If one wasn't familiar with the massive emotional walls Batman built around himself, they would marvel at how calm he was in the situation he was in. While the boy he thought of as his child was at the enemy's mercy, and had been for over a day, Batman kept up the emotionless mask he was famous for donning. But those who knew him saw the faint downward turn of his mouth and the persistent twitch in his hand that acted as a sign that he was distressed. Hell, he was mentally ripping out his hair as the hours his protege was missing continued to add up.
The holographic screen in front of him showed no progress in it's task, and the bold letters of "SEARCHING" began to drive him mad. He needed someone, anyone, to find his missing partner. The image of his grinning ward was constantly surfacing to the forefront of his mind, and that only added onto the stress hanging over his shoulders. What was Dick experiencing right now, as his guardian was sitting on his ass and not doing anything? What kind of hell was Deathstroke putting him through? Would history repeat itself again? Would Dick suffer another five years at the enemy's mercy, driven to amnesia by the torture he went through?
The eye lenses of his cowl narrowed as his thoughts continued to spiral downwards, but that was the only sign of his distress. The signal that Dick's chip set off was not being picked up by the Watchtower's systems, and he had been searching for a little over a day now. It was becoming painfully obvious that there was something wrong; perhaps Deathstroke found a way to mess with the radio waves? Or had found a way to dampen them? If it was the latter, Batman would eventually be able to locate them, but if it was the former...
He would never find Dick.
That was what he feared the most, that the boy he spent so long protecting would never be seen again. Even if the League does succeed in finding him, the amount of time he had spent with his worst enemy ensured that he would come back as a different person. Batman could only hope that the majority of the time Dick had been gone was spent in the mindless state that he had been when he fought the League. That would be the only way for things to return to normal. But the chances of that being the case was slim, for Deathstroke was the kind of man that would want his captives to suffer. So in conclusion, Robin, as they knew him, was definitely gone. But that didn't mean they would give up on him. No, they would have to find him before there was nothing left of his former self to savage.
"Batman..." Wally's voice carried to him from across the room, and Bruce didn't bother to turn around to face him. It was hard for him to interact with someone that his adopted son had almost murdered, and the redhead was aware of it. The two of them shared almost no words after Batman told him what they would be working on, but Wally checked on his progress frequently. "Bruce, my leg is completely healed. When am I going to start doing something productive?"
"As soon as either someone in the League or the Team finds Robin, or after the Watchtower picks up his chip's signal," Batman told him gruffly. "Until then, rest. You and I will need to be at our best when we finally face Deathstroke."
"...We will find him, Bruce," Wally said loudly, voice unwavering. "It might not look like it, but we will. I know it."
And all of a sudden, Wally was added to the list of people that could see through his facade. Hmph. "I am aware, West, but thank you." To be honest, he was slightly embarrassed that a teenager felt the need to bring him comfort, but the gesture was kind nonetheless. "Five years ago, I lost Dick Grayson the first time. The other Leaguers told me to give up, because it seemed as though he was long gone, and I did. Because of our actions, Dick spent those five years on his own, with no recollection of who he was, and no hope of escape. I'm not doing that to him again. The League be damned, I'm not giving up on him a second time."
"How sweet," A somewhat familiar voice teased and suddenly, Batman's holographic screen was taken over by the image of a man with an orange and black mask. "For the coldest man on Earth, it's fairly easy to get under your skin."
"Deathstroke," Wally gasped, and in a split second, he was at Batman's side and glaring at the mercenary. "Where is Robin?!"
"West," Deathstroke greeted in stride. "I see you're alive and breathing, how fortunate for you. But as it is, my apprentice was given specific orders to kill you." A sigh. "More punishments are in order."
A shiver ran down Bruce's spine. More punishments? How many did Dick go through already? No, he would not let his protege suffer any longer if he could help it. "Answer the question, Deathstroke. Where is Robin?!"
The man shrugged. "He's around..." He took a step to the side so that the two of them could see the medical table behind him. Bruce could feel the air being sucked out of the room as he and Wally caught sight of the limp figure laid across the table- Dick.
The boy's wrists and ankles were cuffed to the table, and dried blood was splattered around the areas of his skin that met the restraints; he must have struggled hard enough to rub his skin raw. A black blindfold was tied around his eyes, and a couple of ear buds were stuck in his ears. The thing that truly caught Batman's attention was how pale he was, and the shallow breaths he let out. He was alive, which was a miracle of itself, but how hurt was he? From the lack of injuries, Bruce could almost believe that he wasn't harmed, but that couldn't be the case. Deathstroke must have done something, but what?
"Robin!" Wally called out, moving forward for a fraction of a second before remembering that he couldn't reach him. Fuming, the redhead could only stare at his motionless best friend. "Rob?"
Deathstroke scoffed. "He can't hear you, idiot. I didn't want him to overhear this call. I've been working hard to sway him to my side, and it wouldn't be beneficial to my cause if he heard or saw either of you. Brainwashing is fickle that way."
"Brainwashing?!" Batman couldn't help but exclaim. "What have you done to him?!" He felt the last of his patience dwindle away in an instant, and now his parental instincts were screaming for blood.
"Behavior control," Deathstroke said simply, holding up a remote control and ghosting his thumb over a suspicious looking red button. "Care for a demonstration?" He eased his thumb onto the button without waiting for a reply, and Dick jolted upwards at once, a loud cry slicing through the room. The boy continued to scream and thrash around in his bonds, and managed to open the small wounds he created on his wrists and ankles. Batman could feel the scream being permanently recorded inside his own brain. Even if he was able to save Dick, that blood curdling shriek would haunt him for the rest of his life.
"Stop!" He shouted after a minute went by without a single pause in Dick's pain. "Deathstroke, stop it now! What do you want?!" Besides him, Wally's face became a deadly shade of green, falling silent due to the effort of keeping the contents of his stomach down.
The mercenary chuckled at their sickened expressions but relented, and pressed the button once again to deactivate the shock feature. Dick immediately went still on the bed, and started to mumble something that sounded like 'my name is Robin' before he returned to his semi conscious state once again. Deathstroke seemed unconcerned with whatever it is what he had said, and Batman had a suspicion that he heard it often.
"What do I want? I want a loyal apprentice, and the only suitable candidate is Renegade. Since he belongs to me, forcing him to work with me wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for you Justice Leaguers. If I manage to successfully brainwash Renegade, an encounter with you will hinder my progress." Deathstroke held up a small blade, and Batman felt his apprehension grow. "If you do not cease your searches, I will have to perform more painful procedures on Renegade, and the more I hear about you sniffing around, the more damage I'll do to him." Deathstroke walked away from the camera, and towards Robin, holding the knife in plain sight. Once he was at the teen's side, he held the tip of the blade above Dick's face, and Bruce felt his heart hammer in his chest as he wondered what the assassin was planning.
"Deathstroke, don't-" he started, the next part of his sentence died in his throat as the knife was suddenly plunged down.
A waterfall of blood streamed down Dick's face, and an ear splintering scream shook Bruce to the core. Next to him, Wally turned away from the screen and threw up everything he had eaten throughout the day, but the sounds of his retching were lost by the pained shouts of the now one-eyed boy writhing on the medical table.
"An eye for an eye, detective," Deathstroke murmured, ignoring the flood of blood and the screams that his captive produced. Not batting an eye at the damage he caused, the mercenary simply yanked the blade out of Dick's eye socket and held it up to his face. Batman was more focused on the now fatally injured teen that became limp once again, the loss of blood causing him to fall unconscious within seconds. "Continue your search, and that isn't all that I will do to your precious sidekick."
"...Liar," Wally mumbled, surfacing once more. Bruce would have normally been disgusted by the puddle of vomit next to his shows, or the dribble of throw up that splattered on Wally's front, but he couldn't find it in himself to focus on anything besides the bloody eye socket of his ward. But Wally already got a grip on himself, or so it seemed. "What more can you do to him without killing him?! If you keep this up, he won't be of use to you, right? All you're doing is trying to trick us into abandoning Robin, but it won't work!"
"I am capable of hurting Renegade without killing him, or permanently making him incapable of performing my tasks. I'm certain you will not wish to challenge my word, West," There was a pause. "I believe my next punishment will be easy to carry out; Richard is a pretty little thing, wouldn't you think?" He chuckled. "Continue your search, and I won't hesitate to take advantage of that."
Those words created a ball of dread in Bruce's stomach, but it was surrounded by a burning fire of hatred and fury. "Lay a single finger on him, and I'll..." He struggled to come up with a suitable threat, but found that was unable to. If Deathstroke touched Dick like he implied, there was no way to describe how angry he would be. To say that there would be hell to pay would just be the tip of the iceberg.
"I sense an empty threat approaching, and I don't have time to listen to it. I need to address Renegade's wounds or he will likely bleed to death. We wouldn't want that, would we Wayne?" A huff of laughter followed his sentence and before either Bruce or Wally could respond, the screen went back to its original state of "SEARCHING."
But wait... Why did the holo computer have a new location notification at the bottom of the screen? Deathstroke wasn't stupid enough to let someone trace the call back to him. Unless...
"No... No, no, no!".Wally grabbed a handful of his hair. "Now we have no way of finding Dick! If we try to do anything, Deathstroke will-" He swallowed thickly. "-hurt him. Rob's probably already losing his mind, and now he doesn't have one of his eyes, and-"
"Dick will be fine," Bruce said briskly, forcing his voice to remain level as he exited out of the searching screen and began to start the process of contacting other Leaguers.
"Fine?!" Wally spluttered, incredulous. "Fine?! Dick lost a fucking eye, Bruce! And Deathstroke just threatened to..." His face became green again. "What can we possibly do in this situation?! We're completely helpless!"
Bruce continued to type, doing his best to distance what he had just witnessed from his mind. Instead, the detective side of him focused on what Dick had been doing during the duration of the conversation. "We have a better option than searching for them blindly, which was what caught Deathstroke's attention in the first place. Dick must have been able to sense that his captor was using a communication device, because he connected himself to it and was able to hack into it to send us their location. He did this after he lost his eye, which means he had enough strength to fake unconsciousness. Dick isn't broken, far from it."
Wally's eyes widened, the shock and disgust still present in his gaze, but now there was a glimmer of hope. "We can save him," he whispered, a smile gracing his face for the first time in hours. "We can save Dick!"
Batman wanted to return the smile, but found that he was incapable of doing so. Even with the glimmer of hope in the situation, he was still weighed down by the horrors he had just witnessed. But still, Wally would not be able to handle acknowledging what had just happened, and Bruce had to admit that he had no desire to either. So his only solution was to remain in denial, to shove that scene to the darkest corner of his mind.
That being said, Batman nodded at the eager speedster. "We will find him, and Deathstroke will pay for what he has done."
Neither of them brought up what Deathstroke had done, or what he had threatened to do, during the video calls with the other Leaguers.
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AN: Yeah, that was it. I apologize for the shortness, but I'm having a lot of issues right now and it's becoming more difficult to keep up my usual writing style. Quite a few of you have been very supportive during these past couple of weeks, and I could never be more grateful, but I'm going to have to ask that you continue to be patient with me.
Okay, one more thing: Do any of you think that I should change the rating of this book? I didn't go into too much detail about what Dick went through, but I did imply some dark stuff. I'm not good at determining what kind of rating goes with what story, so a little advice would be greatly appreciated.
Well, that's it for this chapter. See you next time!