Hello! Me again! Nothing much to say today so please enjoy!

Disclaimer-I do not own DC or any of their characters.

Bruce took a hesitant step toward his ward, arms outstretched. "Dick, stay with me. Look where you are. You are here with us, your family. Look at Barbara. You are scaring her." Dick's only response was to pull his bo staff from his utility belt, a harsh grimace contorting his face as he pressed the button to extend it to its full length. Though mere seconds, the pause seemed like ages as the two warriors warily stared each other down. Tension filled the air and I tried unobtrusively to ease my way between them and Barbara, my sweaty palm tightening on the hilt of my katana. I had always thought I understood the dread of battle, but now, powerless, I was petrified. It suddenly occurred to me how dangerous the situation was. How did Bruce do this every night?!?

Taking a breath a gathered my courage and directed my attention back to Dick. Without his mind intact, it was hard telling how or where he would strike. Bruce's calm voice finally pierced the silence once more. "Dick, remember your training...center yourself." The boy wonder, as quick as a flash, dove forward, aiming his staff at Bruce's head. Bruce ducked and dove forward, angling his body toward his ward's in a full on grapple, trying desperately to get him to the ground, but Dick was not raised as a gymnast for nothing. He shifted his weight at the last moment and flipped away from Bruce, managing a hard kick to one of his batsuit's weak spots where the arm met the torso.

I winced in sympathy pain, but Bruce took the blow in stride, following up with a sweeping kick as Dick landed, knocking him to the floor. As he landed, Bruce moved towards him, but Dick reached into his utility belt and grabbed his smoke bombs, leaving us all coughing in the small space. "You can't beat me, Bruce. Her Darkness has shown me how you emulate her, how you long to be one of her minions, but she has realized your flaws. She will not make the same mistakes."

I moved backwards carefully in the darkness until I reached the soft mattress and reached for Barbara's hand. Sobs shook her slight frame and she leaned in to whisper in my ear. "What should I do, Diana? I can't move! I tried to reason with him, but he's too far gone! I am so glad that you and Bruce came back when you did!"

Bruce's voice then rang out in response, but as the master ventriloquist he was, his voice echoed around the room to the point where he could have been anywhere. "Dick, I want you to remember that day at the circus. Think hard and long. What happened?"

We all waited with bated breath, but the room stayed silent. Could Dick have snuck out in the fray? Bruce had been positioned between him and the door, but I had no doubt that Bruce had planned several exit strategies the moment he had stepped into the room, and I would be baffled if he hadn't taught Robin those same tactics.

Bruce once more picked up his train of thought. "Commissioner Gordon was there, urging you to look away from the paramedics and crime scene personnel, but you insisted on watching every detail, memorizing it so that you never would forget. You didn't hear me come up beside you until I started talking. You were crying, who wouldn't be, but you didn't make a sound. I could feel your rage building higher and higher.

"It was that moment I decided that I would do everything I could to help you avenge your parents. Who better than I? I understood your pain better than anyone else could ever understand. I understood the uselessness of Gordon's comfort. What could he say that would fix it? His sympathy and pity wouldn't bring them back or erase the memory from your mind. Watching them fall would be burned into your brain, it would replay every time you closed your eyes. You didn't take your eyes off their bodies, even as Gordon tried to shoo you away into the arms of the social workers who had come to take you with them.

"Do you remember me talking to the social worker? I greased quite a few palms that day to bring you back with Alfred and I. The model I had brought as my date, whatever her name was, got mad and left. She wasn't expecting her sugar daddy to decide to play Daddy Warbucks, did she?" Bruce let out a mirthless chuckle. "I couldn't find it in me to care really. All I could picture when I looked at you was the memory of myself sitting in the back of the limo as Alfred argued with the officers on the night my parents died, telling them in no uncertain terms that I would be going back to the Manor under his care. If Alfred could do it, surely Bruce Wayne could manage it in a town as crooked as Gotham.

"Are you surprised that no one truly batted an eye? Even as I filed the paperwork? Sure, there were some judging looks and raised eyebrows over why I was so adamant, but no questions were asked. I loaded you up and brought you home, neither of us really saying anything. With everything that happened, I don't know if you really knew who I was until we pulled up in front of the house. You looked up at the door and told me that no matter who I was or how much money I had, I was never going to be more than a meal ticket. No one could replace your parents. Without missing a beat, I told you that if that was how you wanted it, so be it, but I could show you how to give your parents justice.

"For a moment you just sat there, the stress and shock of it all still filling your thoughts, and then finally you grudgingly agreed. As Alfred led you into the Manor, I was fine with our agreement. I was under the assumption I was helping you. I was helping you free yourself from guilt, anger, and fear. I was helping you become a better version of yourself. I foolishly told myself that I had gone out of my way to make your world a better place. I would give you my money and my guidance and then we would go our separate ways. Do you truly understand how insane that was?

"No matter what either of us wished, or said we wished, you and I became family. Maybe through sweat and blood, even if it was not our own. We changed each other, in some ways good and others bad, but that is what families do. We encouraged each others talents, honed our shortcomings, and accepted each others flaws. I may not have been prepared to treat you as a son when I took you in, how could I, being stuck in my own past, but that is what you have become, Dick. You are not my ward, you are my son."

I felt my breath catch and hope swell in my chest. Bruce spoke so earnestly, from the heart. If it hadn't been Dick's mind on the line, would he ever have done so? I sincerely doubted it. He would have struggled to admit it to himself in the safety of his own mind, let alone aloud to the hurting child in question. Chilling laughter, however, met Bruce's words. It came from Dick, but it was tinged with the higher pitch of Nyx speaking through him as if he were no more than a mouthpiece.

"How deep...I am so glad I could inspire such a touching revelation. You love your son after all." The laugh grew louder. "Parenting these days...it takes the end of the world for you decide you do actually care about the child you adopted on a whim. My children are literal monsters, born out of chaos and they manage to eke out more emotion than you. Your plan may have worked, if there was enough of your son's mind left to comprehend. He gave it to me rather willingly you know. Sure, he struggled at first...obsessed over doing what was "right". But unlike you, he has so many emotions, all bottled up tightly inside. It didn't take long for me to convince him that dark and light, right and wrong, aren't always what they appear to be. So afraid was he to disappoint you and your impossible expectations. Well, now he is free from the anxiety and the shame when he fails."

Bruce straightened his shoulders. "I may give him impossible goals, but only so he can test his limits and prove himself. At the end of the day he is still my son and Dick, I know you are still in there, no matter what this witch says. If you can hear me, this is something that I should have told you long ago. I've told myself that you weren't ready to hear it and I wasn't ready to say it, but you are one of the best decisions I have ever made and you have made me so proud. I love you, please keep fighting the darkness. Do not give in to her."

Dick's knuckles tightened around his bo staff until they were as white as a sheet. His featured were pained and violent shaking took over his frame. Without thinking I took a step toward the teenager and placed a hand on his cheek. It was covered in a sheen of sweat and I could feel a few hairs trying to grow. "You have me too, Dick. No matter what does or doesn't happen between Bruce and I, you have become so special to me. Whether you need advice on girls or just need a sparring partner, I am here for you. Bruce and I will never give up on you, don't give up on us."

His shaking continued and, though it may have been wishful thinking, the darkness in his veins appeared to be retreating. Barbara must have caught it too because her entreaties joined our own. "Please, Dick. I need you! So much has changed these past few weeks and I don't think I can do this without you. What about the dance? I know I can't exactly dance with you anymore, but..." She broke back down into sobs, hiding her head in her hands, and as her tears fell from between her fingers, Dick awoke, the last of the darkness receding in from his face.

Panting, Dick dropped to his knees, his Bo staff falling to the wooden floor uselessly. Bruce knelt in front of him, lifting Robin's gaze to meet his own. "Dick, you are one of the strongest people I know. Don't let Nyx convince you otherwise. More so, I trust you. You of all people know how short I keep that list, hell half the people are in this very room." Bruce flashed a rare grin. "Besides, it would be a nightmare to train a new sidekick." Dick smiled weakly in response and rose to stand shakily. "We need to get a move on. Akantha is preparing Nyx's monsters to take over Earth. Gotham was just the foothold she needed and once she crosses the Grand Avenue bridge, let's just say she's extremely convincing."

Bruce let out a small grunt of acknowledgement before lifting his arm and activating his computer. "Has anyone tried to notify the Blue Lantern Corp?" Dick stooped to his staff and returned it to his belt. "Nyx is blocking all off world communications. She even managed to infiltrate the Watchtower. She compromised everyone who went on the Africa mission except Doctor Fate and you, Diana. Everything that happened under her control was a little hazy, but she fears you more than anything. As for Doctor Fate, well, apparently not even an ancient goddess can bend fate easily toward her will."

I shuddered and strengthened my resolve. If she did indeed fear me, then I would do everything in my power to surpass her expectations. We would prove to her that she had messed with the wrong family.

Hope everyone enjoyed! Thank you to fantasyandlogic who did a quick beta. I post off the app and sometimes autocorrect decides to be helpful. Reviews, comments, and thoughts are always welcome!!