A/n: I was bored and wanted to write some batfam fanfics even though I just posted one story already, so I thought I might as well finish this story once and for all. Hopefully. You know how these things tend to get out of hand… especially because I have no real plans and/or outlines for this chapter…
Also, I originally was going to just make this a bonus chapter for Disadvantages of Caring, but as I was writing, I decided it might do better as a separate fic connected to that story. It's not entirely necessary to have read Disadvantages of Caring to read this, but I would recommend it for more context and the angst would be angstier and make more sense later on.
"I'm in position," Jason's voice said through Dick's comms. He searched the docks and sure enough, behind a stack of crates at the base of pier 6, a faint glint of red was visible. Why Jason had ever chosen one of the brightest colours in existence to protect the most vital part of his body, Dick will never understand. But then again, as Jason and all his friends and family never let him forget, he'd made some questionable suit fashion choices in the past so he couldn't speak.
As it was, Dick was just trying to find anything to distract him from the memories waiting on the edge of his mind as he settled in for a long night. They didn't have the exact time for the shipment so they might be here for a while.
Dick sat down on top of the warehouse, legs hanging over the sides of the roof. He would have stayed crouching, but he was tired today and he didn't feel like having sore legs in the morning.
As he sat, he thought about how quickly this plan had come together. Jason had texted him only this morning, telling him about the shipment.
I have a lead on the truth serum. Call me when you're free - J
Dick stared at the text on his phone. He hadn't even known Jason had been looking into that. Of course, he didn't need to ask about what truth serum he was talking about. He remembered well enough; it'd only been a few weeks.
There was only ten minutes left of work until he had a break so he'd call Jason then. He shot a quick text to his brother telling him just that, then went back to work. Ten minutes passed fast, and Jason picked up on the first ring.
"A lead? What do you mean you have a lead?" Dick asked, not wanting to waste the little time he had in his break with pleasantries.
"I've been trying to track down the manufacturer of that truth serum you were hit with a few weeks ago. Remember the one where you couldn't lie or - "
"Of course I remember," Dick snapped, before he sighed. "I'm sorry. Yeah, I remember."
There was a pause, and he could almost hear Jason's frown. "Yeah, well I think I managed to get a time and location for a shipment. We can intercept it then track down whoever made it from there."
"When's the shipment?"
"Tonight. Gotham docks, pier 6. I don't have an exact time, unfortunately so it might be a bit of a stakeout. You up for it?"
Dick didn't need to think. He shuddered, the memory of feeling something so cold and foreign in his veins invading his mind. He still had nightmares about that night. Now he had a chance to prevent it from ever happening again.
"I'm in."
After Dick got off work, he called Jason again and the two came up with a solid plan - far from foolproof, since they only had so much time to work out the details, but it was better than nothing. There'd been a few hours before he'd left for him to mentally prepare. They both knew the chances of them getting dosed with the same drug they were fighting against were high, and Dick didn't let himself admit how much that thought scared him. It did help him breathe a little easier to know that Jason had somehow gotten access to the results of some tests that had been run when the serum had been in Dick, files that must have been tucked away somewhere in the Batcomputer so if they needed to make an antidote, they had something to go off of.
Besides, there was no going back now.
So far, the harbour was quiet with the exception of some drunk men who'd wandered by about half an hour ago.
"You okay?" Jason asked. He must have seen Dick get up to stretch, muscles sore and needing a distraction from being in his head too long.
Dick had tried to ignore the way Jason had been watching him throughout this whole thing, likely doubting if it'd been the right choice to bring Dick on this mission and not someone else. It was like Jason was waiting for him to break, and while Dick couldn't be sure that Jason wasn't completely wrong in his thinking, he didn't exactly appreciate it.
He was fine. And he told Jason that.
"I'm good, you?"
A pause. Then his comm crackled. "Just restless. The longer we stay makes me more worried my intel was wrong."
Dick gasped dramatically. "The great Red Hood, wrong?"
"Shut up, Dickface. I meant the info I was given by someone else may have been wrong."
"Sure, sure," Dick laughed, and it felt so good to be able to do that. Such a simple thing, but one he did way too little lately, just laughing. The thought sobered him quick. He knew exactly why he hadn't been able to. Life - his life, always - was shit, so he'd learned to treasure moments like these because he knew they never lasted. His relationships with his family and friends had been almost perfect - no fights, more frequent hang outs or at least chats, not feeling lonely for more than just the time he was actively with someone which was so incredibly rare - until that mission.
Until he'd gone on that mission with Jason, just the two of them - one of his favourite times - and they'd both been kidnapped and Jason had been hurt on his watch, had been hurt because of him, and the fact that he cared for everyone around him so deeply because he was so afraid of losing them like he'd already lost so many but how many of those people had he lost because they had a connection with him and it was a vicious cycle that just went on and on and on and hurt everyone and made them leave and him push them away, on and on and-
"I think I see something. Be on guard. Are the explosives ready?"
Jason's voice almost wasn't enough to snap him out of it. Almost.
His breath stuttered as he fought to bring it back under his control, forcing himself to take deep breaths instead of hyperventilating as he'd started to do. Pasting on a fake carefree smile for no one's benefit but for his voice to not sound panicked over the comms, he finally replied.
"All in place, primed and set."
He took a few more deep breaths before refocusing on the matter at hand. A ship was only just visible in the dark waters, slowly drawing closer to the docks. Dick could see a few men, dressed in black, gathering around the warehouse and pier.
"We got some henchmen starting to gather," Dick warned Jason. "Be careful."
He saw Jason peek out of his hiding spot to see where the henchmen Dick was talking about were, before throwing a thumbs up to Dick. Jason tapped the side of his helmet then held a finger to his lips. His message was clear. Radio silence for now, just on the off-chance that the gathered men might hear Jason.
Dick threw a thumbs-up back, and then turned his attention to the end of the pier. He noticed three men break off from the rest and start towards the pier, likely to meet the ship.
"Three men headed your way," Dick relayed to Jason. Jason's comms wouldn't be loud enough for the men to hear so just because Jason couldn't speak, didn't mean Dick couldn't either.
Jason shifted slightly, moving around the boxes so he could stay out of sight. Dick had no doubt his brother would be listening in to any conversation between the men that might have been happening.
He watched the men way more intently than necessary, tracking their progress to the ship and the ship's progress to the pier to give himself something to do. Anything was better than remembering how the drugs on that ship had felt as they took over his body, forcing him to speak when he didn't want to and making every nerve in his body alight when he dared to resist.
He dragged himself back to the harbour before his heartbeat could speed up this time.
The ship finally docked, and two men came down the gangway to meet the three goons. They talked for a bit, and then all of the men converged by the ship, unloading crates full of the truth serum. Dick watched as the men carried the goods to the warehouse, keeping track of how many crates were transported. In the meantime, Jason snuck his way to the end of the pier to do his bit; placing a tracker on the ship and then quickly going back into hiding.
Their plan was simple. They'd waited for the shipment, but they'd have to wait a little longer until all of the truth serum was in the warehouse. Once the ship was out of sight, Jason and Dick would take out all of the men who would remain, and hopefully by then, the ship would have returned to wherever it'd come from. The vigilante brothers would follow the ship, blowing up the warehouse and the serum with it.
It would have been a lot easier to just blow up the ship, but the chances would have been lower to find out where the shipment had come from and they couldn't risk Gotham harbour being contaminated by the truth serum. The waters of Gotham were far from clean to start with, but they did what they could to avoid it getting worse.
The men took almost half an hour to empty the ship, the sailor wasting no time in leaving the second the last crate was safely on the pier.
"Tracker's active," Jason relayed. One major part of their plan down.
"I'll create a distraction to draw everyone in the warehouse the second they bring in the last crate. Be ready."
"Copy that."
Satisfied, Dick made his way to the middle of the roof where a convenient skylight was placed. He pried it open quietly and snuck in, dropping down onto some beams and then to a metal catwalk a little below. Inside, the crates were neatly gathered in the middle of the room, some guards already in place and pacing around the boxes.
Keeping an eye on what was happening below, Dick made his way to the other side of the warehouse. If all went well, Jason would enter from the same skylight and they'd take everyone out quickly and quietly. That way, none of them would have a chance to alert their suppliers that they'd been compromised.
He counted how many men there were. It was about nine on two, easy odds to take out, but a bit difficult to take care of them all before at least one of them realised what was happening and sounded the alarm. Oh well, they'd just have to deal with it.
Jason dropped down from the ceiling across the warehouse and their eyes met. His brother nodded, bringing out his guns as he perched on the beams. Dick got out his escrimas just as the last crate was dragged in by two men below him.
"That the last one?" One of the men asked as the crate was set down with the others.
"Yep. Now we just keep a watch over them for the night and then we get paid the big bucks, boys," grinned one of the others, dusting off his hands.
"Wh-what if the Bat shows up?" Someone stuttered, and half of the men glared at him. The man who'd answered the first guy made his way towards him. Dick held up a hand for Jason to see, mouthing his countdown as well as showing it.
"Then we kill him," the man below growled. "And any of his little birds he brings along."
Three… two… one…
They both jumped down at the same time. "Kill us then," Jason announced, and fired off his first shot. Unfortunately for the goons, they didn't react until that first guy's body hit the ground and by then, two more unconscious bodies had joined him.
Three down, six to go.
The goons conveniently split themselves up for Jason and Dick, making the fight three on one. Dick let his body take over, instinct and training overtaking his thoughts, just the way he liked it.
One of the men threw a punch at him, and he easily deflected it, grabbing onto the outstretched arm and using the man's momentum to throw him into one of his friends. The third guy came up behind Dick, and having grabbed a broken piece of wood from somewhere, proceeded to smash it right across Dick's shoulders and head. Nightwing quickly whipped around and whacked the guy a few times with his escrima before flipping the guy over his head, delivering a swift kick to the guy's face and breaking his nose as he lay writhing in pain on the ground.
Dick rubbed the back of his head, flexing his shoulders. Pain shot up from them, but it wasn't bad enough for him to assume something had been injured; he'd just have big bruises and be incredibly sore the next day. His head wasn't bleeding, so that was always a good sign, even if the blow had made his vision temporarily blurry.
The man he'd tossed into his friend got up from the ground and pulled out a gun, taking aim at Dick. Three loud bangs later, Dick landed in front of the man, his flip helping him dodge the bullets. Disarming him from there was simple - a quick hit to the wrist with an escrima was enough - but the guy wasn't done yet. They fought hand-to-hand for a bit, the guy getting a few hits in, but not as many as Dick.
A familiar cry from the other side of the warehouse distracted Dick and as he turned to see Jason holding a bloody arm, the guy he was fighting slammed into him, knocking him down, escrimas flying out of his hands and scattering across the floor. Dick's head hit the ground hard, breath knocked out of him and vision dark at the edges as he fought to flip onto his back to push the guy off of him while the goon kept punching and kicking him relentlessly.
He held his arms up to protect his face, managing to get a leg under the guy and finally kick him off, flipping him onto his own back over Dick's head but not before Dick was painfully kneed in the ribs. Coughing, he got up, stumbled over to where the goon was scrambling to his feet but after a swift roundhouse kick to the head, the man dropped back down again, still.
Dick staggered, surveying the room. The guy whose nose he'd broken was still whimpering and rolling around on the ground a little ways away, face bloody, while the goon who'd had the misfortune of having his friend thrown into him had come to but knew better than to try and fight, instead turning tail and bolting out of the door. Before he could make it, he was shot down.
"You okay?" Jason asked, coming up behind Dick. Nightwing whipped around, intending to search his brother for injuries but instead having to hold onto Jason's shoulders to stop the world from continuing to spin, waiting for the black spots to disappear from his vision. "Woah, concussion?" Jason looked at him concerned, arm outstretched, but unable to do much because of the blood dripping down it.
Dick nodded towards his brother's injury. "'M fine, you?"
"Guy surprised me with a knife is all. It's not deep, I just need to wrap it up before we keep going. Assuming we do keep going?" He glanced at Dick for confirmation and Dick let go of Jason's shoulders, nodding.
"I'll be okay. They might move base once they find out what happened here. We finish this tonight."
Even though the helmet hid Jason's face from him, Dick could still feel his brother's disapproving and worried gaze. For a moment, he thought Jason might force him to go home, but eventually his brother just nodded. "Okay. The tracker hasn't stopped yet, so we have a little time. I'll patch myself up then grab a sample of the serum to analyse. Can you tie those guys up?"
"On it. Let me know if you need help with the arm," he said, glancing pointedly at the injury as he left to grab some rope.
As it turned out, Jason hadn't been lying for once when he'd said his cut wasn't deep and he had it bandaged before Dick had all the goons bound and gagged. He was just dragging the last one - Jason busy with prying the crates of serum open to get a sample - when the stupid goon suddenly flailed out, grabbing an abandoned gun and aiming it at Dick.
"Get back," the guy said as he wrapped a finger around the trigger.
"You know, for hired help, you guys are ridiculously persistent," Dick sighed, arms out in a placating gesture. Sure he could knock the gun out of the guy's hand easily, but the goon was already getting up and could fire faster than Dick would be able to dodge in his slightly-concussed state.
Jason was by the crates to Dick's right, and he'd heard the interaction so he'd pulled out his own gun and turned towards them.
"I'd put that down if I were you," he warned the goon, and the guy whipped around to face Jason, giving Dick the opportunity he needed to knock him out. He grabbed the gun from the floor and took out the cartridge, tossing it and the empty gun in opposite directions.
"You get the sample?" Dick asked, tying the guy up with the others, knowing better now than to look away while he did so.
"I got a few, just in case," Jason answered, making his way over as Dick stood.
He glanced over at the crates, a sick feeling in his stomach at the sheer amount of vials visible in the one his brother had left open.
"Nightwing, you good?"
Dick looked up at Red Hood. "You think blowing it up will really take care of it all?"
At the mention of explosives, one of the still conscious goons started struggling against his bonds, eyes wide with terror.
"Oh, shut up," Jason scoffed. "Did we say blow you up too? I don't know why exactly, but we're gonna drag you all out of here before we do anything."
"Red Hood, we're not murderers, that's why," Dick said, rolling his eyes.
"But this idiot tried to sit on me to knock me out," Jason protested, and the guy started crying, what sounded like apologies muffled through his gag. Jason just glared at him - as well as he could through his helmet, that is - and the goon promptly shut up, tears still streaming down his face.
Ignoring him and turning back to Dick, Jason pulled his brother a little ways away.
"We're not just blowing it up, remember. We're going to deal with it at the source. We'll make sure there's none of it left except the samples I took on the very small chance that someone manages to recreate it in the future by which time, we'll have an antidote because of the samples," Jason reassured Dick, answering his original question.
Dick nodded. "Right. Thanks, Little Wing."
"I've got you, Big Bird."
Just then, a small beep sounded from Jason's pocket. He pulled out a small device, then looked up at Dick. "Perfect timing. Our tracker just stopped. Now let's get these guys out of the way and into the hands of the GCPD and blow the roof off this place. Literally," Jason grinned, and Dick didn't doubt that if he'd looked under Jason's helmet in that moment that his brother's eyes would be lit up with mischief.
"Let's go."
By the time the sirens sounded, the two vigilantes were long gone across the water.
A/n: I didn't mean for this itself to be multiple chapters but it felt like a good place to stop. I promise more Dick angst is coming, I just have to find a natural place in the story for it to pop up. No idea when or what the next chapter will be but I'm working on it rn I promise.
Stay safe, be nice, and see ya soon.
- CrowofArcadiaOaks