Chapter 15: Return?

With two moral preachers breathing down his neck, Bruce sat at his big Batcomputer and just looked at the first section of the ongoing evaluations. There were only external characteristics and first assumptions regarding their functions, but no clear statements yet. Even if he normally did not, due to the lack of information, Bruce read these still vague assumptions carefully.

Possible functions of the individual claws, possible causes for certain behaviors, his main reason was that he could just calm down with the help of the work. Bruce tried to keep up his facade and not to give in to his inner feelings. Not as long as all those present were around him and this monster could continue to threaten their lives. He had to keep a cool head under all circumstances.

It really didn't help that the two behind him were trying to tell him how ethically questionable some of the Batman's methods were.

Bruce turned around in his chair and was about to end this children's circus when he saw a flashing blue spike rise above Damian, who was standing dangerously close to the cage.

The father was still shouting in panic:

"Damian, get away from the cage!"

But the boy seemed to be trapped in a track. Too late, his son's gaze slid up and lingered briefly on the flashing tail spike diagonally above him. Only then did reality catch up with him again, and while the hardened feather tips were already darting down to impale the boy, someone suddenly grabbed him by the collar and Damian could still see the metal floor he had just been standing on being effortlessly pierced.

It was only thanks to Superman's superhuman speed that another disaster was prevented. Seriously, the otherwise so positive man grabbed the stunned boy by his slender shoulders and looked him decisively in the widened eyes:

"Have you gone mad? It could have killed you!"

Clark's initial admonishment, quickly gave way to open astonishment as he noticed how the usually composed Damian could seemingly only stare at him in complete shock and tried to stammer out a response in his chaos of thoughts: "I...it."

Batman's heavy boots echoed loudly through the large cavern as he walked toward the two. Superman noticed, how the slightly trembling boy turn uncertainly to his father in his grasp and then, before his father was even able to say anything, spoke with a voice that was actually an uncharacteristically childlike:

"Father it...it's Richard."

Bruce paused in confusion as he saw so much rare emotion in his son's face and it wasn't until a moment later, that the said words penetrated his thoughts.

Batman's eyes snapped open and Clark and Diana also just looked perplexed to the stunned boy. While Superman's gaze then also slid to Bruce in confusion, trying to find an answer to this situation, the father now addressed his agitated son directly:

"What do you mean it's Richard?"

He saw the youngster squirm out of the Kryptonian's hands and now spoke even more agitated:

"That creature, it has the same face as he does. And that voice recorder...that's Grayson! Look at him closely!"

Bruce didn't know what to say. The words were getting through to him, but he couldn't believe them. Looking for answers, the father complied with his son's request and looked toward the cage.

In fact, he too saw the monster's face now and in some ways recognized Richard's features. Immediately he instructed his AI: "Computer, compare physical characteristics of the subject with records of Richard John Grayson."

Tinny replied the female voice:

"Comparison in progress...matches found. Facial recognition and fingerprint scans Identical. Subject identified as Richard John Grayson."

A shock silence fell upon the cave. Those few words ensured that no one said anything anymore and only the growling as well as hissing sounds echoing in the background broke that silence.

None of them could really understand that this strange being was really Dick. Especially since he didn't seem to recognize them.

Waiting for a reaction, everyone present stared in disbelief at Bruce, who himself could only stare in puzzlement at the large cage.

Finally, Clark ended this silence and said calmly but firmly to his longtime friend:

"Bruce, if this is really Dick, then we should clarify what happened to him as soon as possible."

Batman said nothing in response, but merely walked toward the large cage where, what was left of his adopted son, was snarling at him more and more menacingly with each step the man came closer. Stopping about six feet from the sturdy metal bars, he just silently contemplated this beast before him.

He still couldn't believe that Dick was really alive and what this hell had apparently made of him. Anxiously, a hand went to his head and pulled back his cowl before Bruce crouched down to Dick's eye level and calmly spoke to him:

"Richard do you recognize me? It's me, Bruce."

But the only response he received was a warning thump of his hardened tail against the metal bars.

Damian now joined his father and took off his mask as well, while Bruce continued: "Do you remember us?"

Suspiciously, the piercingly bright eyes wandered back and forth between father and son, seeming to weigh how much danger they could do to him. But he did not recognize either of them.

Finally, Bruce sighed heavily and rose from his crouch again, whereupon the hissing triad and threatening blows rang out once more.

A dejected undertone could be heard as he turned to his son:

"Contact Raven. She has to come immediately. If anyone knows what happened to him, it's her."

Calmly, the tall man turned to the others while Damian was already composing a message to his teammate:

"No one gets closer than ten meters to the cage. For now, we need to use caution. Alfred, please take Batcow and Damian's other pets up to the Manor. It's too dangerous for them down here for now."

Slightly sourly, the boy screwed up his face as he sent the message to Raven. He didn't like the way Dick continued to be regarded as a monster, despite the fact that they now knew who was under all those feathers, but he said nothing about it.

Meanwhile, Alfred quietly made his way to the back of the cave to take the animals to their new quarters. The butler was currently quite happy to give his old heart a break after this succession of bad news. To see one of his foster grandchildren like this, was a slap in the face even for him and weighed heavily on his chest.

As Bruce watched Alfred quietly move away, he rubbed his eyes strained before going back to his computer, followed by Damian. He looked at the information's that now appeared on the display and switched his mind to automatic. This chaos inside him was more than out of place right now.

Therefore, keeping his control, he sat down on his chair and immersed himself in the work. The worried glances of Clark and Diana watched him closely, constantly moving back and forth between the father, who wanted to maintain his facade and his son, who didn't quite know what to do. However, they knew it would be wrong to talk to them about the new topic now. They needed time to become aware of the situation and would only block a conversation anyway. So they let the time pass as silently as it already was.

Suddenly, after several minutes, a dark portal opened behind them and Raven floated out of it. Surprised, she looked at the top three of the Justice League gathered in front of her, before speaking quietly:

"You need me for an emerg-?"

Before she could even finish her sentence, the witch felt a menacing presence on the back of her neck and jumped around, her hands wrapped in black magic out of caution.

But when she saw the creature in the cage and realized that the beast seemed to be banished, she gave up the tension in her body and let her magic disappear again. Surprised, she turned to those present:

"Why is this demon here? He shouldn't even be in this world."

Calmly, Bruce rose from his chair and approached her as he spoke:

"Actually, he belongs to our world. This is Nightwing. He came through a portal last night that was created because of an accident in a particle accelerator. I was hoping you could tell us why he's in this state."

Clark heard Bruce's voice become more energetic toward the end. He was careful not to let the billionaire lose himself in this delicate situation and intimidate the witch as he had a year ago.

Raven's eyes grew wide when she heard Bruce's words. Perplexed, she stared at this strange creature in the cage and stepped closer to it: "This...is Nightwing? But how?"

Warningly, Dick hissed at her, not daring to take his eyes off the witch. He seemed to realize that this person was different from the rest of those present.

Raven tried to relax and became more involved with the aura Richard was radiating. It was typical among demons to clarify in this way who was hunter and who was prey, as well as to distinguish friend from foe.

And she noticed a few things right away:

"It's amazing that he has become such a powerful demon. It's extremely atypical and he doesn't seem to be able to go through the stages of development properly. Strangely, his demon aura is not unknown to me at all. Almost like we're part of the same tribe."

Now even more irritated, Bruce interrupted her initial musings. Such wishy-washy statements really didn't help right now:

"Can you describe it to us in more detail? We're not experts in demonology."

While Raven continued to maintain the contact with Dick, she explained:

"Here's how it works in the other dimension. Demons go through different stages in their lives, starting with the animalistic. Normal demons start out as animal-like beings and gain more and more power with each different creature they devour. The more powerful their prey was, the more powerful they become and continue to mutate until they eventually transition into a humanoid form. But that usually takes thousands of years, unless the parents are extremely powerful demons, or by some lucky circumstance they devour an extremely powerful demon."

Damian interrupted her:

"But that doesn't explain his condition."

"In Nigthwing's case, it's really strange because he's originally not a demon. But somehow his body has started to mutate into that of a demon and is stuck somewhere between the Animalistic and Humanoid form. However, it doesn't make sense that he has changed so much and become so powerful in such a short time. That could only have worked if he had been able to incorporate a very strong demon, as I said before. But my father killed all of them, so it puzzles me. Also that his aura is so strangely familiar. Nothing of this makes any sense."

Damian glanced briefly over Dick, who was still eyeing Raven suspiciously. Strained, he thought about what could have changed his adopted brother so much and he forced his mind back to the day when the fight with Trigon separated them both. Like a recorded movie, the boy let scene after scene wandered through his thoughts, until finally, his strained brows jumped up as something occurred to him:

"Is a simple exchange of blood enough for this incorporation?"

Surprised, everyone looked to the little boy before Raven's fingers moved to her chin and she thought more intensely about this. Eventually, she shared her guess:

"Maybe if this demon had been on the same level as my father, but as I said, that's impossible."

Damian crossed his arms knowingly: "Not if it was your father's blood that got into his system."

With wide eyes, everyone looked at Robin, as he turned to Bruce and now spoke on even more agitated:

"Back in the fight against him, Trigon sank his bloody hand between Richard's ribs. Couldn't this be enough to get this kind of reaction on his body?"

Damian could remember that fateful day clearly. The events had burned themselves into his trained memory too much and ensured that he could recall every detail immediately. This bloody hand was no exception.

Raven drew her brows together suspiciously:

"I'm not sure, but that would also explain that familiar aura and that he developed into a demon so quickly and violently."

Seriously, the witch looked around:

"If this is indeed the case, you must proceed with extreme caution. The fact that I can feel my father's presence in him tells me that he has probably taken abilities from him. Even if this is Nightwing, right now, without his memory, he is a serious threat and definitely not someone, who should be underestimated. I can try to get his memories back with my magic, but I'm not sure if that's even possible after all this time. At some point the brain deletes things to make room for new ones. It's the same with other demons."

Batman briefly weighed the possibilities. However, it didn't take him very long to get to the following decision: "Try it."

Raven just nodded in confirmation and turned back to Richard. She moved even closer to him and was confronted with sinister shrieks. Gradually, her slender hands wrapped themselves in black magic, which stretched its threads further and further towards Dick. He tried to stop this disembodied mass with his moving tail and black claws, hitting it again and again and jumping suspiciously back and forth in the cage.

However, he could do nothing against the dark magic that was now crawling up his feathered body and finally enveloping his head completely. Raven began to penetrate his consciousness, and as soon as she did so, the resisting movements that had just occurred became less and less and finally fell completely silent, so that Dick now sat quietly in front of the witch while she meticulously rummaged through his memory.

She saw images of countless killed demons of all kinds and how they were cruelly played with shortly before their demise. Raven dug deeper and saw a cave in which a shallow spring plashed down dark stones and many bones, as well as familiar objects such as blankets and torn pieces of paper, lay scattered on the floor. However, she still could not find any of his original memories. The witch now concentrated much more to penetrate even further into his subconscious, hoping to find something there.

Finally, she caught sight of a shadowy dark figure against a glistening white background. Raven tried to get a better picture of it, but she seemed to get no further than that, no matter how hard she tried.

Instead, her efforts rather had the opposite effect. Apparently Richard noticed the intruder in his head and began to mentally fight her off.

And with success.

Those present in the room saw how the bodies of the two mentally connected, first began to twitch slightly, before Raven began to grimace her face more and more violently until Dick finally managed to push her out of his head completely and the witch was thrown back onto the metal floor, panting heavily.

Now seemingly really pissed off, some of Richard's tail feathers changed to a strange metallic sheen and before she knew it, two sharp feathers flew through between the bars and straight at Raven's face.

But instead of being pierced by them, they collided with Diana's protective gauntlets. The woman had jumped between them just in time and managed to prevent worse.

"Are you all right?"

Concerned, the Amazon inquired about the perplexed witch's condition as the sharp metal feathers fell to the ground with a clatter.

Raven looked at the feathers briefly before saying: "I'm fine, but unfortunately I couldn't find his human memories."

She looked apologetically at Bruce and Damian:

"Either they really are already lost forever or sank too far into his subconscious, unable for me to reach them. I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about it."

Damian gritted his teeth in response. It couldn't be that they finally had Dick back with them and yet he wasn't there.

Annoyed about this, the boy went to the next table and smashed his fist on it, whereupon it suffered damage and Damian shouted: "What a fucking SHIT!"

Puzzled, everyone just looked at this uncharacteristic emotional outburst from the usually cool boy, and it could be guessed that Batman hadn't been far behind either.

Raven tried to take some of the tension out of the current situation by offering them hope:

"That doesn't mean his memories have to be truly lost. He may still be in there somewhere, even if the chance of getting him back is slim. But the chance is there. Besides, that incident just now made sure that I had already found one of my father's abilities on him."

Curious, Bruce looked to the witch, who was now holding one of the metal feathers between her fingers as she continued to speak:

"He can manipulate molecules, even if it only seems to work on his own. All the more reason to be wary of him."

To Clark, this realization made total sense. After all, he was allowed to feel this ability to it's fullest extent in the form of Kryptonite.

Bruce, on the other hand, seemed to be thinking hard about it and finally said:

"Is there any way to draw blood from him to analyze it and possibly create some sort of antidote?"

Raven answered:

"Well, I could take away his power for a while, like I did with my father one year ago. Then it should work."

Batman nodded briefly and then addressed the others: "Good, no one must know about Nightwing until I find a solution to this problem, is that clear?"

Understanding, everyone nodded before the father turned to his son:

"That goes for the other Robins as well."

Damian's visible surprised about this, quickly turned in anger. He couldn't just hide this from everyone, could he?

"But Todd and even Drake have a right to know father!"

However, Bruce did not share this opinion. Determiningly he looked down at Damian:

"For now, Dick represents a potential danger and the fewer who get near that cage the better. I don't want to risk anything anymore. You're not going back into the Batcave either for now. Do you understand me?"

Damian was getting really pissed now and noticed how a headache was starting to plague him:

"You can't treat him like a wild animal! This is Richard, after all! And how on earth is he supposed to remember if you shut out everyone around him!"

Bruce was getting louder now, too. His nerves reached their end now, and he pointed his finger at the snarling beast in its little cage:

"Right now that's not Dick but a wild animal! He almost killed Clark, almost killed you and who knows who else if we didn't keep him in that cage at a distance from everyone else. We don't have an alternative!"

Damian felt how his pulse went up in anger at his father and also continued:

"But in this way, he'll never be like his former self again! If you were the one in this situation, Richard would have tried everything he could think of to get your memories back and wouldn't have put you in a little cage without anyone knowing you were still alive!"

Bruce's voice became calm and occupied. He wanted to end it all now, so he took an authoritative stance:

"You will stay in your Head Quarter in Metropolis for the time being and recuperate there."

Batman turned his back on his perplexed son:

"It's too dangerous for you here as long as you underestimate the danger."

Damian couldn't believe what his father was saying. He was actually trying to keep him away from Dick:

"You can't just dump me like this, especially with the situation we're in now! You're not helping Richard one bit by doing this! This is..."

Surprised by sudden dizziness and nausea, Damian could not finish his last sentence. Swaying, he tried to keep his balance and heard Clark's concerned voice at his ear before his feet gave up on him. Just before Damian's mind swapped away completely, he thought to himself:

'Shit, concussion'

Then his consciousness left the scene.