TW: Kidnapping, brief violence


Dick stood frozen in place, eyes wide. How could it have escaped? Tim had said… Dick suddenly gained his ability to move again as he ran towards the cage. He grabbed onto the bars of the door and pulled it open. Nothing besides the riped-out wires and glowing green goo that had dripped onto the floor of the cage. Slowly crusting with dark green around the edges as it dried.

Dick glanced up to where he had put the ghost's weapons and belt on the desk, they were gone. And some of the tech Tim was experimenting with was moved as well, but none missing as far as Dick could see. He narrowed his eyes and rushed over to the bat computer, it was still open. That was very unlike Tim.

He glanced down at the desk to see Tim's mug that was still half full with cold coffee. Not like that ever stopped the insomniac from drinking before. Dick bit his lip. This was bad. He didn't bother sitting down in the office chair as he started going through the security footage.

His eyes narrowed under his domino as he scanned over the footage. It showed Tim talking offhandedly with the ghost before he turned to the monitor with a notification on a case they were working on.

As the boy was preoccupied with the screen Dick watched as the ghost slowly pulled apart the wires of the cage and it powered down. The ghost then reached out and put, Ice? On the lock before pushing the door open. After a glance around the ghost floated straight up out of camera view.

Dick sped up the footage biting his lip. There is no way Tim wouldn't notice that the ghost was missing before he came upstairs. He wouldn't be that irresponsible. He returned it to normal speed when he saw Tim turn his head towards the cage. The teen's eyes widened in shock as he practically jumped out of his seat and grabbed a nearby baton for defense.

Suddenly the ghost appeared behind him with an amused smirk on his face before phasing into Tim's body! His brother's body! Dick felt his gut drop as he watched Tim fall down in pain clutching himself. Only for him to stand up a moment later and start walking around with a very different posture.

Dick didn't need to see any more. He turned around and bolted to the exit. That ghost had his little brother and Dick wasn't going to let it take him. How did he not notice how strange Tim was acting! It was so obvious! If only Dick was paying more attention he could have caught it sooner.

The elevator pinged as he pushed past the bookcase as soon as it was open enough for him to get out. He took off running down the hall. He said he was going to his room. Dick also sent Damian to check on him so maybe…

Dick practically crashed right into the young boy. "Grayson, what was the meaning of that? You know how Pennyworth feels about running in the manor." Damian raised an eyebrow.

Dick was a bit more frantic than he would have liked to admit. "Damian, where is Tim?"

"In his room, actually. I have just spoken with him. He told me to fetch you." He spun on his heel and started walking away. "And you have been fetched, so now you can go deal with Drake."

Damian let out a small yelp of surprise as Dick grabbed onto his forearm and started to run them down the hall. The young demon scrunched his eyebrows and looked up at his older brother with confusion.

"Tim's been possessed." Dick elaborated as they continued rushing towards the stairs.

Damian's eyes widened and Dick was able to let the boy go as he was carrying on beside the acrobat. "We should contact Father." They made it to the stairs.

"No, we need to stop the ghost from escaping with Tim's body first, if we call Bruce right now we'll just lose time." Bedroom hallway.

Damian paused in thought for a second before nodding. They made it to Tim's room. Dick knocked and listened for a second. Nothing. He quickly reached towards the handle and tried to turn it only to be met with a click signaling that the door was locked from the inside.

Damian was instantly in a crouch at the handle, lockpicks already in hand. It took him about 6 seconds to unlock the door. As soon as the final click sounded Damian stepped out of the way for his older brother to push open the door.

It took a couple of rough shoves but the door opened. Damian squeezed through first, under his brother's arm, as the small 11-year-old he was. Dick followed soon after. "He's gone." Damian pointed out.

Dick looked behind the door to see Tim's desk chair that was originally propped up against the door had now fallen on its side. He then glanced down to see Tim's Red Robin suit discarded in pieces on the floor, his domino mask on the floor outside the bathroom. "He's in civilian clothes." Or at least Dick hoped so. But judging from the messy dresser it was probably the right assumption.

Damian rushed over to the open window and looked out. Dick stuck his head out over the top of Damian. "We just missed him. They can't have gotten far." Damian started.

Dick was practically about to jump out the window before he got a hold of his better sense. He bit his lip and grabbed onto Tim's com that was discarded on his desk. "Nightwing to Batman… Red Robin has been taken."

)-(

"This is kidnapping you know." Tim grumbled with annoyance, if he was in control of his body he would be crossing his arms and pouting.

Phantom rolled his -Tim's- eyes. "Red, my whole existence is illegal. I don't think kidnapping is gonna make much of a difference." He gestured vaguely around him. "And technically, you guys kidnapped me first."

Tim felt a tinge of guilt again. "We just wanted to ask you some questions. That's all. We would have let you go." He tried.

Phantom put one hand into his hoodie pocket. As he continued down the Gotham sidewalk, at night! Which was a great idea. "Do you put everyone you want to ask questions to in a cage first? Or do you just shoot them out of the sky instead." He raised an eyebrow.

"Well…"

"That's what I thought." The ghost rolled his eyes again before glancing around the street they were on. Barely anyone was around so it was still okay to talk out loud.

"Look, Phantom." Tim sighed in his head. "We… we needed to get our questions answered. And we- well."

"Couldn't have me run away?" Phantom questioned. "Couldn't have me murdering you with my scary ghostliness?" Phantom felt a little hurt, Tim could feel it.

Tim cringed. "No… yes. I don't know. Okay, it wasn't the right thing to do, but you have to understand that we had no idea what you would do." 'It was for safety' Tim didn't say.

Phantom scoffed. 'Right because all ghosts are soooo evil.' His mind muttered bitterly. But after a couple of seconds pause, instead of voicing what Tim had heard in the ghost's mind, he decided to change the subject. "Why is your house so far away?" He wined. "We've been walking for an hour."

"What? Don't like touching the ground, your ghostliness?" Tim mocked.

Phantom stuck out his tongue. "For your information Red, floating is much better, it's easier on the knees." The ghost glanced around again. The further they went into Gotham, the poorer the city got. Once where there were mansions and expensive cars, there were now rundown apartments and abandoned buildings.

Tim was puzzled "Where are you trying to go anyway?"

Phantom sighed. "Well, I'm trying to find my way to Wayne industries at the moment." He bit his lip.

Tim was shocked and slightly worried. Why would Phantom need to go there? Was it because he had Tim? Technically, Tim ran at least half of the company's tech and he could use Tim to get in anywhere there. Especially with his face.

Phantom must have sensed Tim's shock because he immediately followed up with. "I'm trying to get to the ghost hunter's convention. They have tech there that can help."

Tim breathed a sigh of relief -Or as much as he could without using his own lungs-. "Well, right now you're going sort of the wrong way."

"Sort of?"

"Well. You're closer but you're heading towards Crime Alley, not Wayne Industries. And trust me, Crime Alley is not a place you want to be." Tim shivered.

Phantom stopped and turned around. "Okay then… which way?"

"Well you nee-" Tim's thought was suddenly cut off by a shriek of surprise from Phantom's side as he jumped back to avoid a white unmarked van that pulled up beside them, running its front left tire onto the curb.

Suddenly three men jumped out of the back of the van all wearing masks. Great a kidnapping. As if Tim didn't have enough of those in his life right now. Phantom's eyes widened as he backed up. It seemed he wasn't as familiar with how common this situation was, unlike Tim.

One of the men leaned forward to grab them and Phantom dodged out of the way and kicked him in the knee before trying to run down the street. The other two men ran after them and one of them grabbed onto the back of Phantom's hoodie yanking him back with a jolt.

Phantom quickly spun around and punched the man in the jaw, causing the masked man to stumble back. But the third man was still there and was able to grab Phantom's arms from behind him and hold the boy -boys- in place. Despite Phantom's struggles.

The second man straightened up, still holding his jaw in one hand. "You little brat." He snarled. He got closer, reaching forward to grab Tim's face to deliver a threat. But Phantom didn't give him the chance and kicked one of his legs up and hit the man in the crotch, causing him to let out a strangled yelp. Phantom smirked, and Tim could feel his feeling of victory and amusement.

The third man holding the teen stared in shock for a second before gripping tighter, leaving marks on their skin. The hurt knee-cap man quickly stumbled over and helped the third man by grabbing onto Tim's other arm so that both men were restraining them.

The second man got up again, obviously in a lot of pain. "Oh, you're gonna pay for that." He rasped, trying to catch his breath. He then pulled his fist back, aiming a punch at their face.

"-Oy! Jake, we need his face for proof in the video, you can't botch it all up. Just get him in the van." The driver, with a thick Gotham accent, had stuck his head out the van window. Jake, as he was now deemed, glowered at the teen before grabbing them by the front of the hoddie lifting him up a bit. They could smell the smoke and alcohol on his breath which made their nose wrinkle.

And then Phantom decided to open his mouth. "You need a breath mint." And then their vision went blotchy for a second as Jake punched them in the gut. This was going to be a long night.


Authors notes

Beta read by gamma_radio (ao3)

oop, now they have been kidnaped for real :0 Tim has been double kidnapped. And Dick is worried about his little brother! Big bird is coming with a vengeance.

Thank you so much for all of your comments! I love this story so much and I am so happy with how it is turning out! he he, I'm so excited for future chapters XD

Please tell me what you thought of the chapter! :) And what do you think will happen next?