.

Dick walked down the stairs and into the cave, it had been five days since his injury and he was glad to say that he was starting to feel somewhat better. The dizzy spells weren't as frequent, but the level of tiredness was still high, though with just waking up from a nap, he did hope to last the whole night on the comms.

He reached the bottom of the stairs to see Bruce, sitting at the main computer terminal while Tim, Barbara and Steph were gathered behind him, muttering between themselves. There appeared to be some tension between the four of them.

"What's going on?" asked Dick as he approached the group. Everyone remained silent, no one answering him or even looking at him. "Okay, who died?"

"No one," stated Bruce.

"Great, so you want to fill me in on what all the issue is?" Dick leant against the main terminal, so he was standing looking down at Bruce who continued to focus on whatever he was working on, while Barbara, Tim and Steph were all standing behind Bruce, looking somewhere between resigned and angry.

Dick let out a long sigh, he could guess what had happened. "So why is nobody allowed to go out on patrol tonight?" he aimed the question at Bruce, though he didn't miss the slight smirk that Barbara flashed and the look of surprise from both Tim and Steph.

Bruce didn't look at him when he answered, "It's too dangerous."

"Arkham breakout?" asked Dick. When he got no reply he continued, "League of Assassins?" still nothing, should he pull his next card? When Bruce still failed to look at him it made the decision for Dick. "Deathstroke?"

"No!"

"So what is it?"

No one answered, which was starting to make Dick angry now. He looked over to Barbara, Tim and Steph who all looked away from Dick. They knew something about why they were being benched, they just weren't going to tell him.

"Okay, well I'm heading back to Bludhaven. Nice chatting with you all." He pushed away from the console and had only taken two steps before Bruce was speaking.

"I need you to stay at the manor."

Dick kept walking as he waived to them, "Start telling me the truth and I'll consider it. Until then, I'll see you around."

"I should have put money on Dick bailing," muttered Steph which had Barbara and Tim smiling slightly.

"Dick!"

Dick kept walking, he had a lot of practice at ignoring Bruce's commands and this was no different.

"I believe there is a Talon after you."

Dick stopped and turned to look at Bruce. "What's a talon?"

Bruce didn't speak for a moment which had Dick shaking his head before turning and heading for the stairs again. Stopping when he saw Alfred blocking his path.

"Perhaps a little patience on everyone's part would be best in this situation," stated Alfred.

Dick turned around and looked at Bruce again, keeping eye contact until he saw all the tension leak out of Bruce.

"A Talon is an agent of the Court of Owls. An assassin to be specific," explained Bruce.

"You took out the Court of Owls over a decade ago, I've read those files," said Dick as he approached the group once more.

"I haven't seen those files," said Tim in confusion and he'd read everything on the server.

"Wait, are you talking about the nursery rhyme?" asked Steph. When everyone looked at her in surprise, she continued. "It's a creepy rhyme my cousin used to tell me. Something about talons and cutting off heads."

"The Court was an organization that Batman took down about a year before I became Robin," explained Dick. "You're telling me they're back?"

"I don't know," said Bruce quietly.

"Bull-"

"Patience is a virtue that you are all lacking," stated Alfred calmly as he approached the group. "If you want answers then I suggest starting from the beginning and leaving questions until the end."

"The Court of Owls is an old secret organization formed by the elite of Gotham nearly as old as the city itself. It's hooks ran deep within all aspects of the city, the legal and not so legal areas. They controlled how the city developed, who gained power and who lost it," explained Bruce.

"The nursery rhyme that you remember Stephanie was a warning. As time passed and people forgot the origins that was all that remained. The Court though still existed, just in smaller numbers than before.

"I'd been following leads for years, connecting dots until I finally found an entrance into their power-house and discovered that they still had some of their Talons.

"Talons have unique regenerative powers, to the point that they are nearly immortal. The only thing that seems to work on them is extreme cold. Which is a fine line between hibernation and true death. They can be stored in pods and only released when they are required for certain assignments.

"With the help of your father," said Bruce looking at Barbara, "We were able to link some very wealthy and influential people in Gotham to The Court. He rounded up the citizens while I took out the Talons. Permanently."

"That was the case that made him commissioner," said Barbara quietly, putting the timeline together quickly in her head.

"Three years ago, the Light wanted to take out some powerful groups one of them was The Court. I thought they just had some outdated information," muttered Dick to himself.

"You didn't mention that in your report," stated Bruce, thinking of the disastrous undercover mission that had Dick nearly joining Deathstroke for real.

Dick just glared at Bruce, "I was hardly in the information giving mood after that last fight."

"Dick-"

"So why now?" asked Barbara interrupting Bruce before another fight between father and son took them off track. "What's happened recently to convince you that the Court is back?"

"The knife Stephanie found. It has one of their symbols etched on the blade."

"I knew he recognized it," muttered Tim, making Steph grin at him.

"That doesn't mean it's an actual Talon after Dick. And why would one of them go after him anyway?" asked Barbara.

Bruce remained silent as he thought about how best to give the information over. "Because I believe Dick was meant to become a Talon."

"What?" said Dick in surprise.

"If I hadn't been at the circus and witnessed that fateful night and therefore not offered to bring you home with me, I believe you would have been taken in by the Court and trained to be a Talon."

"You can't know that!"

"I believe that Haly's circus was a front, where they trained young performers before bringing them into the fold-"

"No way!" interrupted Dick. "Pop Haly wouldn't do that. My parents wouldn't do that." Dick's voice getting louder and louder as he became more agitated.

"Dick, let me explain," said Bruce quietly though he was looking at Alfred at this point who gave him a small nod in encouragement. "It was only a theory, that didn't even form until three years ago."

"Okay, what happened three years ago?" asked Steph getting frustrated with all the crypted-ness. She looked over to Tim who just shrugged, he was just in the dark as she was. Barbara though looked like she was thinking through a tough math problem before Steph witnessed the light bulb moment and all tension seemed to drain out of her as she stared up directly at Dick.

"The mirakuru? You're saying that's why it didn't work?" asked Barbara.

"What's mirakuru?" asked Steph, still no closer to an answer.

"It's a super soldier serum, it's what makes Deathstroke so formidable," said Tim, when everyone looked at him he shrugged his soldiers. "I read some of Oliver's files when we were in Star City last year."

"You were just meant to be running overwatch on that mission," said Bruce.

"I was multitasking."

"Okay, so what does that have to do with Dick, or Nightwing, or were you still Robin back then?" Now Steph was starting to confuse herself and she was giving herself a headache.

No body answered her for a moment, Barbara though walked closer to Dick and took his hand. "You want me to tell them?" she asked quietly. Dick sighed but shook his head, rubbing his temple.

"Three years ago I ended up being Slade Wilson's, or Deathstroke's apprentice. I was injured at one point and was near death. Slade gave me mirakuru, but it didn't work the way it was supposed to." Dick found himself rubbing the old, healed bullet scar which had started that mission. Thanks to the mirakuru it had completely healed and never caused him any physical pain, but sometimes he found himself kneading it anyway.

"The serum healed me, I was stronger and faster than I had been before, then for some reason it started to disappear, until it was gone completely." Dick laughed, "No permanent super powers for me."

"Oliver's files didn't mention anything like that," said Tim.

"Slade has played around with the formulae on many occasions, with varying results. But any increase in strength has always been permanent. Most people who take the serum either don't survive or they go insane," explained Dick before he looked back towards Bruce who had remained uncharacteristically quiet through the whole exchange.

"You think this has something to do with the Talons?"

"Potentially," answered Bruce. "I had your blood analyzed after that incident. Best I can tell is you had an immune response to the mirakuru. Your body fought it off like it was a virus, until it was mostly gone.

"An increase in a specific protein could be seen in your blood but only for a short period of time, I believe that is the key that Talon's need to make sure the electrum binds to them."

"Electrum?" asked Steph.

"It's a combination of coin metals, silver, gold, copper, things like that," said Dick thinking back to what he knew of chemistry.

"It is also believed to have magical properties that can regenerate the dead," added Bruce.

"Hang on, your saying these Talons are undead assassins? You never said they were zombies. I've seen that movie, humans don't survive," said Steph waiving her hands about.

"Not zombies," sighed Bruce. "But I don't believe they are completely alive either. Their blood is like a black ichor which holds the electrum.

"When I witnessed them the first time I encountered the Court, they acted more like puppets. Directed by an individual and they carried out specific tasks."

"So why do you think this Talon is after me?" asked Dick.

"The man in black who was holding him?" whispered Barbara.

"What man?" asked Dick in confusion. Thanks to the concussion, he didn't remember much of the night he was injured, and he didn't remember anyone talking about a man in black to him. Of course, Tim told him for the first day after injury Dick had been asking the same questions over and over again and never remembering the answers.

"When we found you, you were unconscious and this man all in black with a hood on was holding you above the ground like you weighed nothing," explained Barbara.

"He dropped you and ran off when the three of us arrived," added Tim.

"Okay, what did he look like?" asked Dick.

"Tall, and in all black," shrugged Steph. Which just had Dick rolling his eyes, stopping when the slight pain in his head spiked. This was not the time to for another headache.

"He had knives strapped across his body and swords on his back," indicated Tim.

"He was wearing a hood, covered his whole face but the eyes were marked out in gold and looked…" Steph paused as she looked between Tim and Barbara.

"Like what?" asked Dick his anger rising again.

"Like an owl," said Barbara quietly.

The room was silent for a while as information was digested.

"There are still holes in all of this logic," said Dick after a while. Everyone turned to look at him in question. "First, if you've never analyzed the blood of a Talon then you can't know that whatever protein you briefly saw in my blood matches." He held up a hand before Bruce could interrupt in.

"Two, Slade messed with his serums all the time, what he gave me could just be a weaker version and something he planned on me becoming addicted to, that would always give him control over me and keep me close.

"Three, you say this Talon is after me, but clearly he was going after Nightwing so there is no reason for me not to leave, seeing as I can't patrol right now.

"Four, The Court of Owls operates in Gotham, not Bludhaven. Still another reason for me to leave town." With that Dick turned and started walking towards the stairs. He wasn't staying here.

Calls for him to return from Bruce and Barbara he ignored as he picked up his pace and practically ran up the stairs. He ignored how his vision started to blur slightly and he started to feel lightheaded. He didn't want to think about yet another assassin coming after him so he could join up and be part of the killing crew. Just once, he'd like a pacifist to try and convince him to join their cult.

Damn it! He needed out of this house.

He headed straight to his room and started packing a few of his things. A sudden bought of dizziness overwhelmed him and he found himself sinking to the floor and bowing his head between his knees as he waited for it to pass.

He heard the door open but didn't look up to see who was approaching.

"I've managed to negotiate with Bruce," said Barbara softly, from beside him. "Come to my house instead. Steph and Tim are coming too. We'll have a movie night, leave Bruce to patrol the city on his own tonight like he wants, but you get to leave here and feel some kind of freedom," she explained.

"Any other conditions?" mumbled Dick, still keeping his head down.

"Yeah, I'm driving. How far did you think you would get on your own anyway?" she chuckled slightly.

"Further than this," sighed Dick as he raised his head slowly to look at her. "There's an envelope in my desk drawer, could you grab it?"

"Sure," said Barbara as she walked over to the desk. "Which drawer?"

"The slim one in the middle. It'll be at the bottom."

Barbara did as instructed, pulling out an A4 brown envelope that looked like it had never been opened before. Walking back to Dick she handed it to him. Dick took it silently and found himself just staring at it.

"Do I get to ask what's inside?"

"I don't know," said Dick quietly. "I've never opened it before.

"Slade left it for me. Told me it had the answers that Bruce already knew but would never tell me."

"You think this has to do with the whole Talon thing?" asked Barbara.

"Maybe. I mean it's Slade, it could be anything. He has whole files on heroes and their secret identities, with information that could be useful one day. He's just like Batman in that respect."

Barbara bit her lip before she said something that would have Dick being pissed at her, as well as Bruce. Sometimes though it sounded like Dick admired Slade, and sometimes even looked at his time as the mercenary's apprentice with fondness. It worried her.

"Come on, Steph and Tim will be waiting for us, let's get moving before Bruce changes his mind and grounds the four of us to the building."

.

-/-

.

Barbara looked up from where she sat curled up in the arm chair, as the front door to her home opened and her dad walked in. "Hi dad."

Jim smiled at his daughter as he looked around the room. He recognized Richard Grayson who was lying on his side on the couch, he looked to be asleep. He also recognized the young Tim Drake who was sitting on the floor with a girl of similar age next to him surrounded by blankets and pillows, plus snacks.

"I didn't know you were coming home this weekend, it's good to see you," said Jim.

"Sorry, Tim called me and asked me to help keep this idiot from leaving Gotham," smirked Barbara as she indicated Dick.

Jim smiled again, "What did he do this time?"

"Quad bike accident last weekend," said Tim, going with the cover story they'd picked this time for Dick's injuries. "He was doing fine, but then…"

"Then he got into an argument with Bruce," smiled Jim fondly.

"How did you know?" asked Steph in shock.

Barbara chuckled, "This isn't the first time Dick has stayed here."

"I can see you have candy, but did any of you actually eat a proper meal tonight?"

"We ordered Chinese, there's left overs in the fridge," said Barbara jumping up from the chair and walking out the room and towards the kitchen, her father following her.

"So that was a familiar sight," smiled Jim as he kissed his daughter on the top of the head. "I don't recognize the girl though."

"Stephanie Brown, she's a friend of Tim. A little rough around the edges but a good kid," smiled Barbara as she got the left over take-out from the fridge.

"That's a lot of left overs, how much did you order?" asked Jim looking at all the boxes.

"Dick barely ate anything," shrugged Barbara. "According to Tim he's doing better but he still gets dizzy and easily tired."

"So you came running back from Hudson to make sure he didn't fall over on his way to Bludhaven?"

"Hah-hah," said Barbara as she rolled her eyes at her father. "I just know how idiotic he can be and I…"

"It's okay to say you care about him."

"I will always care about him, it's just…" Barbara shrugged. "I don't know."

Jim placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder and squeezed tightly, "Maybe you should tell him how you feel. If I were a betting man, I'd say he felt the same about you." Jim picked up his plate and moved towards the microwave, smiling slightly to himself.

Barbara shook her head as she went back to the living room. Dick was her best friend, it would be too weird for it to be anything else, right? Looking over to where Dick was still sleeping she couldn't help but smile. Best friends, she was good with that.

.

-/-

.

AN: Don't worry, there will be more action soon. Thoughts welcome.