A/n: This should be fun…


When he woke up, it was to darkness.

That didn't mean he was helpless. In fact, far from it. He was Dick Grayson, Nightwing, former Robin and acrobat, after all.

His shoulder's felt strained and he was quite sure he was on a chair, as he was sitting on something tall enough for his legs to be planted on the ground with a hard back behind which his hands were tied. He was sore all over, and the darkness over his vision was external if the scratchy cloth on his face was anything to go by. Assessing himself as best he could without moving, he came to the conclusion that he wasn't injured except for some soreness in certain areas, but nothing too bad. It only meant the bad part was yet to come.

Speaking of, how had he even gotten in this situation? He couldn't really remember.

Muffled words suddenly sounded and footsteps echoed in the room a few moments later. They paused somewhere in front of him.

"Mr. Nightwing, we finally meet," a man's voice said, and Dick contemplated not responding. "I know you're awake, no need to keep up the act." The choice was made for him.

"And who might you be?"

A chuckle. "Nice try, kid, but I'm not new to this."

"You're not too experienced either though, evidently."

"Oh? And what gives you that impression?"

"An experienced person would know better than to let anything slip to their hostage at all, even if it's just how many years they've been in the business."

"Of course you'd know. You lot seem to know everything. It's why you're here, actually."

"You know, when some people meet for the first time, they usually introduce themselves, get to know each other a bit first, maybe don't tie the other person up and blindfold them…"

A smirk. "Oh don't worry, we'll be getting to know each other very soon. For example, why don't we start with introductions. Nightwing isn't your true name is it? So why don't you tell me your name?"

It was Dick's turn to smirk. "Well, this is easy. I go by many names. Nightwing, former Boy Wonder, Batman's protege."

His cheek suddenly stung at the slap the man had just given him. He blinked in shock, though the blindfold hid it from view.

"Usually you wait a little before going straight to the hitting," he winced.

The man's voice dropped lower. "You listen here, kid. I don't got too much time to waste. I'll make it nice and simple for you. Make sure you're listening because I don't like repeating myself." He must have leaned in, because Dick could feel hot breath on his left ear, the whispers sending shivers down his spine. "I ask a question. You answer it straight away. I want a nice clean answer first time I ask. If not, then I'm gonna do something a lot worse to you, okay? Nice and easy isn't it? Should we get started?"

"I can wait until you get a breath mint or something if you want," he quipped, only to gasp in pain a few seconds later as a fist hit him in his stomach. If he hadn't been tied to a chair, he would have doubled over in pain.

"First question," the man started, the cracking of knuckles accompanying his voice, the threat evident. "What is Batman's identity?"

"That was quick. You keep breath mints on you? That's smart," Dick gasped out, still reeling from the blow to the stomach. He earned another fist in the same place for his comment.

"What are the codes to the Justice League hideout?"

"The hall of Justice has tours everyday if you want to take a look, man. Pretty good prices too."

He smirked at the frustrated breath he heard the man blow out, only to get a punch to the jaw this time. He tasted metallic blood in his mouth. This guy wasn't playing, but Dick definitely was.

"Enough joking around," the man growled.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it. I tend to deflect when I'm feeling threatened."

He tensed in preparation for another blow, but it never came. Instead, a low, humourless chuckle filled the room. Somehow, it was so much worse.

"You're feeling threatened, then? Good. But it's still too little, too slow for me. So why don't we try something different? Bring him in!" The man shouted, the sounds of scuffling sounding outside a door, shouts - profanities - and then silence except for the opening of a door and footsteps and the suspicious sound of something - or someone - being dragged in with them.

A low thud.

"You can't see our new guest, so why don't I get him to say hello?" He must have gestured to one of the guards, because Dick heard nothing until a dull thump and a familiar groan. His stomach dropped.

"Red Hood," he breathed, and suddenly the memories that had been fuzzy until now became dreadfully clear.

Jason had joined him for a case, and they'd been investigating an old warehouse when they'd both been shot with what must have been tranquillisers, men surrounding them who they'd tried to fight off until - until he couldn't remember anything after that. Those men must have kidnapped them and brought them here… wherever here was. And now they were going to use Jason to get information from him.

The man must have seen him tense up, and he could only imagine the sadistic grin on the guy's face.

"See, I knew that'd get a reaction from you. I've done my homework. I know that there's no point torturing you for information - at least not physically. So why not make it a little more fun? We've already tried to get some info from your partner here, so he's already roughed up pretty bad. Keep that in mind when you try to be smart next time. So I'm gonna ask you again," - his voice dropped low once more - "what are the codes to the Justice League's real base?"

Dick was torn. He spoke and he damned the whole world essentially, or he shut up and Jason paid for it. The choice may have seemed obvious, but it was so much harder for him to make the call.

His silence was permeated by a grunt of pain from Jason as they hit him again. The man just tutted.

"Ooh, that was a bad one. Got some blood there, buddy, on your lip there, yeah. Okay, well that was my mistake, asking you such a hard question to start with so why don't we try again? Let's see… oh, I know! How do I access Batman's computer mainframe? What's the password to bypass the firewall, huh?"

Another silence, another hit, another groan, another question. On and on the vicious cycle went, and in a way, Dick was glad for the blindfold. He didn't have to see just what they were doing to Jason; he felt each blow hard enough as if he was the one being hit. He couldn't deny that it was a good strategy on their kidnapper's part - it was certainly more effective torture than if he'd just been beat up. Holding his tongue was getting harder and harder with each groan or cry of pain from his brother.

"Hit them harder! Yeah, both of them. We don't want the other one dying on us, not without getting answers!"

A couple blows dealt to Dick too to loosen his tongue, the man evidently growing impatient, which was good. If he was getting frustrated, then the more likely he was to make a mistake or give up, and the more time they killed just in general, the higher the chances of and less time until they get rescued.

His lip was stinging, his midsection throbbing with pain, one of his shoulders maybe dislocated if he was being honest and he thought that maybe he should come up with a plan to get out themselves. Only problem was, he was still blindfolded and had no idea of what state Jason was in. His mind was working rapidly - maybe he could give them an 'answer' to just buy some time while they verified the fake answer? - but all his thoughts came to a halt with a new voice piping up.

"Hey Boss, why 'on't we jus' give 'im somma that truth serum sample we got?"

"But there's still so much more fun to be had. The other one's not even passed out yet somehow." A vital piece of information for Dick, a bit of hope. He had built up a careful tolerance of truth serums for situations like these, but this could always be a new version and fighting it off could have terrible consequences. At the very best, it'd just exhaust him. He hated to think about the worst. But any hope he had of the boss rejecting the idea in favour of plain old torture was quickly taken away when he spoke next.

"You're right though. We are on a bit of a schedule. Maybe it is time to try another method entirely. Bring me the serum then."

He tried his best not to react to that, but he didn't know about Jason. His brother knew what could happen too, had been there once in the past when it had happened.

The door creaked open, footsteps fading into the distance beyond. It was only a few moments before they returned, the door clicking as it shut behind them. He stayed as still as he could.

"There we are. What do you say, Nightwing? I'll give you one more chance to talk, or else I'll make you with this handy serum. It's a new recipe, a stronger one; haven't even tested it out yet. I almost hope you won't give me what I need just so I can try it out."

Dick's mind raced.

"Still couldn't find a breath mint, could you?" He tutted, shaking his head in mock disappointment.

He could hear the smile in the man's voice when he spoke. "Wonderful."

Dick had to clench his teeth to stop the gasp of pain that threatened to slip out as something pierced his arm. He could almost feel the serum, foreign and cold, yet burning as it entered his system and ran along his veins.

"I'll give it a second to start working, and then we try this again. All good? Good. Now - " he was cut off by a loud bang, the door being flung open most likely. The sound of flesh hitting flesh, and then a thud.

"Hands off," a voice growled, a voice that made him instantly relax, a voice he knew so well. "Robin, check on Red Hood, then help Nightwing," Batman ordered.

Small light footsteps in the direction Dick knew Jason to be was all that gave Dick an idea of the situation. He could imagine that Batman was taking care of whatever other thugs had been in the room, more thundering footsteps outside indicating backup for the bad guys side.

"He's got a couple broken bones, but he's okay," Damian said, his voice moving to behind Dick as he felt small hands brushing against his and loosening the binding there.

He wasted no time in ripping off his blindfold the second his hands were free. The light - dim as it was - was still blinding and he took a few seconds just blinking to adjust to it. Once he did, he quickly took in the situation.

They were in a small concrete room, the metal door wide open, more burly guards rounding the corner into sight. Next to the door, Batman was fighting off all the men, the number of large bodies on the floor increasing each second. At his feet - still sitting on the chair as he took it all in - was a man lying face-down who he assumed had been the boss. He couldn't resist giving him an extra kick in the side as he got up, walking around the man to get to where Damian was hovering over Jason.

Jason, god. He was a bloody mess, helmet gone so a swollen eye was visible under the domino mask and a split lip smeared the red everywhere. Dick quickly moved to help, doing what he could with his one good shoulder to support Jason as Damian helped him up.

"I'm so sorry," Dick whispered quietly to Jason. "I'm so sorry."

Jason just gave him a half-conscious smirk, glancing at him sideways from his one good eye. "Of course you blame yourself. We're gonna talk about this, but later, when I'm wrapped up in my cozy sheets at the manor with a cup of Alfred's tea in my hand okay?" He managed to get out.

Dick nodded, and smiled a little. "Okay. Later. I promise."

The three brothers made their way slowly to where Batman was now clearing a way out by kicking bodies aside. He nodded silently at Dick and Jason in acknowledgment, eyes under the cowl probably frantically searching them for major or fatal injuries. They knew him well enough by now to spot the slight differences in his expression that told them he had actually been concerned about them.

"Let's go," was all that Batman said in the end though, and they all complied, following behind him at a much slower pace as he led them out to the Batmobile.

"Alfred, prep the medbay, please," Batman said once they were inside the vehicle, already on their way away from the warehouse, police sirens sounding in the distance. He took his cowl off, and turned to look at the two boys collapsed in the back seat. The worry was more obvious on Bruce's face now. "You two okay?"

"Fine," Jason said through clenched teeth, obviously not fine.

"Nope," Dick said, then promptly shut his mouth. Bruce raised an eyebrow. Dick was more open with his feelings out of the family, yes, but while he encouraged the others to do the same, sometimes he could be the one hiding his emotions most - especially when it came to the bad feelings.

"Everything okay, Dick?"

"I… they gave me a truth serum of some sort. It's making my head hurt - everything hurts actually, but what else is new - and it's working so well I think I'm going to shut up now," he ended lamely, cheeks already flushing a bit with embarrassment.

Jason just grinned and flopped his head sideways to face Dick, devious look in his eyes. "Peace and quiet or all your dirty secrets. I'm liking these options much better than what that guy gave me, but just makes it harder to choose."

"You weren't hit with any serum too, Jay?"

"Nope. Everything just hurts too much for me to care. And the opportunity is too good to pass up, let me have this B."

"Jason, please leave your brother alone. You both are injured, and neither of you are - "

"Please? Just a few questions? It'll help take my mind off the pain and the fact I'm probably going to pass out after the first two questions anyway."

Bruce sighed. Dick started crying. Jay laughed at him. Damian frowned.

"Just a typical Tuesday night, amirite?" Jason snickered from the back seat.


A/n: I… don't know what happened in the end there, but I finished this at 11 pm so… yeah. At least I actually wrote/finished the fic on the actual day of the prompt, even if I'll post it the day after right?

Anyway, if enough people are interested, there may be a possible second chapter with Jason and Dick talking it out because *trauma* - Jason just got beat up brutally (and we all know who did that last), and Dick is usually the self-sacrificial one yet his big heart is being used against him and just everything is a lot to unpack. But even if I don't get around to writing another chapter sometime after Whumptober is over, I think you guys can probably imagine it pretty well.

Stay safe and see ya soon.

- CrowofArcadiaOaks