Chapter Seven: Neath Dark Waters
The circus had always been a place of bright lights, loud noise and the smell of sickly sweet butter. It was all the things Dick had been used to calling home. Through all the chaos of large crowds, rides, games and the tent at the center of it all, Dick loved it.
He was swinging his hand with each skip of a step as his father guided them to the big top tent. They were going to do what he loved most and put on a flying performance. Dick himself wasn't quite old enough to join but his parents would often allow him to watch from the riser.
"You. . . t. . . up. . ." Dick jerked his head to the side as a group of kids, loud and rambunctious, ran past him. He could've sworn someone had been talking to him. A light tug at his fingers had him glancing up into a matching pair of blue eyes.
"Come on, we don't want to keep your mom waiting do we?" With another light tug on his hand, Dick couldn't help smiling up at his dad. There was a returning smile and a wink as they reached the tent.
"Can I sit on the riser this time too? I promise I'll be good! Mr. Haly even told me it would be okay if you said so." Dick couldn't help the pleading and puppy eyes he shot up at his father. With a mock wounded noise and a hand over his heart his dad crumpled to his knees.
"Don't. . . on. . .again. . " Dick scrunched his brow as another voice echoed over his fathers.
"Aw don't look at me like that kiddo. Come on, let's go ask your mom. I bet we can convince her to say it's okay." His dad scooped him up letting him settle over his hip.
"Dad. . ." Dick started before stopping. maybe he'd just heard another family through the flaps of the tent. "Can I have a piece of candy?"
"Only if you promise not to tell your mother." There was a quick wink before a small yellow marble was pressed into Dicks tiny outstretched palm. It was one of the tart lemon candies his dad loved so much. While not Dicks favorite it always gave him a warm feeling when his dad would share his secret stash.
"And what do you think you're doing!" Dick giggled as he shoved the piece of candy into his mouth. His momma was standing there, hands on her hips and a light glare gracing her features.
"Caught us red handed." Dick could hear the smile in his dads voice as he walked closer and placed a gentle kiss on his moms cheek. " Could you have resisted such a face?" At his cue Dick turned a pleading look on his mom even as the candy bobbed on his tongue.
"God. . .Dick. . . . I. . . get. . " That strange voice was back and Dick couldn't help but glance around the empty tent. It was familiar but he couldn't place where he'd heard it before.
"Be good Dick, your dad and I have to go get ready to fly. We'll be done before you know it." Dick was nodding along as his father gently set his feet against the dirt.
"Riser?" Dick chirped out as his parents walked deeper into the tent. There was a mischievous glint to his mothers eye as they rounded a tent flap.
"You have an hour and we'll see you there." Dick could hear as his mothers voice changed into something warm. It brought a beaming smile to his lips as they left his view.
"Dick. . . . can't. . . .Hypnos. . . . Please. . ." Dick felt his back tense up as the voice rang in his ears again.
"Hello?" He called out hesitantly. The white noise from the crowds outside was the only forthcoming response. It was as unease began to settle on his shoulders that Dick saw the shadows move. It was a subtle thing. Not something Dick would have noticed if he wasn't already on edge.
"You let them take you." There was a deep growl in his ear that made Dick jump. His heart was hammering in his chest like Jaque when he was pounding the stakes for the big top. He stared where he'd seen the shadows move. There wasn't anyone there but Dick could almost hear a low whisper.
"Better watch your back Mr. Haly." Dick only caught the last part of an apparent argument. He pushed his way under the tent flap and could see Haly pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Who was that Mr. Haly?" Dick queried as he crawled out from under the tent. "They didn't seem too nice." Dick continued with a scrunch of his nose.
"Don't worry about it Dick. Did your dad give you more candy? I swear that man spoils you rotten. It's a wonder your mother can keep track of the two of you." Dick beamed and flashed the yellow candy between his teeth.
"It's a lemon candy! Dad's favorite!" A large hand reached down and ruffled his hair. Dick closed his eyes and smiled at the warm feeling settling in his chest.
"Don't be late if you're going to sit on the riser tonight. You know how your momma can be about it." Then Haly was gone, swiftly weaving between the tents and signaling to Jaques as he came into sight. Dick watched for a moment before looking back at where the angry sounding man had walked away. Dicks vision seemed to darken around the edges and suddenly he was sitting on the riser watching his parents soar.
It was all graceful flips and dips. Arms spread out as they fell into each other with a nearly fluid motion. Dick loved it when his parents flew. Loved watching as they showed their trust in each other with each catch and release. At least until there was a resounding crack in the air. Like an out of tune key on a piano causing a break in the song. He saw the moment His father grabbed his mothers hands and instead of swinging back up they continued on a downward plummet. They succumbed to gravity as the line snapped.
"He's. . . Down. . . " Dick could barely hear the voice in his ear as his vision blurred and a scream echoed in his ears. An inky Blackness seemed to converge on where his parents had fallen. It writhed around their still forms before seemingly consuming them and leaping towards Dick. He flinched. He'd flinched and felt himself slip off the riser body tilting as gravity pulled at him..
As the black consumed him Dick blinked and found himself again in a new place. He was sitting in front of a policeman. There was blood coating his hands and knees. The sour after taste of lemon candy coated his tongue and mixed with the salty tears he'd not been able to stop. It was too much.
"We can't leave you here kid." Dick blinked back more tears as he stared at the man in front of him. He could hear Mr. Haly shouting behind him.
"You can't take him! We're the only family he's got!" Dick wanted to run into Mr. Halys large arms and stay there. Pretend this was an elaborate nightmare and he just needed to wake up. Yet the police officer, as if knowing exactly what he was thinking, Grabbed his arm in a firm grip before setting him into the back of a police car.
"You can't DO this!" Mr. Halys enraged voice reached him through the car and Dick couldn't help but watch as the man was restrained. There was a shadow lurking behind Haly. A familiar form he'd seen stalking angrily away before. Yet now, Dick could see a satisfied smirk on the man's face before he turned away.
He blinked and was laying on a worn out bunk mattress. A moth eaten threadbare blanket wrapped up under his chin as he shivered from cold and grief. Everything was too fast and yet not fast enough. How was he supposed to think when his reality kept distorting.
"I watched you die." The shadows condensed in the corner of his shared room. more sharp points and lethal tendrils jerking towards him. Dick felt his throat constrict. Rage, fear and an anguish so strong raged war against each other.
"But I'm alive. . ." Dick whispered as he pulled the blanket over his head. He hadn't fallen with his parents. Hadn't had his stomach do that topsy turvy flip flop before smashing into solid ground. He was choking now. Air became a commodity he apparently couldn't afford.
"Dick! Focus!" The voice was back. stronger this time, clearer. It was there and Dick wanted to reach for the familiar voice. His lungs weren't cooperating. His chest hurt as he tried to suck in a breath.
"It's. . . real. . . fight it!" Dick wanted to. He wanted the shadows to stop consuming him. Wanted to stop feeling such strong emotions. He definitely wanted to breathe. But how was he supposed to fight intangible shadows.
"Help me. . . Please. . ." Dick whimpered from under his makeshift shelter. Slow tendrils of darkness reached for him and he couldn't suppress the whimper that crawled out of his lips. A gasp later, as his lungs finally caved and he took a breath, and the scene was changed.
Cold air draped over his shoulders sucking out whatever warmth the battered hoodie he wore gave him. Dick should've known better. He knew it was going to be cold tonight. This was likely his only chance though and he would suffer the cold to have his vengeance.
The man he'd seen arguing with Haly was below him. Laughing in the alley with a beer gripped in one hand. It stirred up an anger Dick was sure would consume him. This was the man responsible for the fall of his parents.
"I need to make sure they didn't break you." Dick froze as a shadow seemed to loom behind him. His lip quivered in fear and a profound sense of dysphoria. All his anger was forgotten as the shadows seemed to lick at the ground in front of his feet.
"I'm alive!" Dick yelled at the shadow. He screamed his throat raw trying to convince this shadow that he was alive. He didn't die. He was still here. It wasn't until the shadow drifted closer that Dick stumbled back. His foot caught on the edge of the roof and he felt as gravity pulled him down. His stomach lurched a scream settling in his lungs before the shadows dove and consumed him.
"I'm sorry Dick." The voice he's becoming accustomed to whispered. Dick blinked as his surroundings changed again. Dirt coated brick and mortar walls stretched skyward. Rusty fire escapes and slime coated dumpsters lined the alley he was standing in.
A gun wobbled in his unsteady grip as Tony Zucco drunkenly laughed at him. It was maddening. His parents died because of someone like this. They FELL because a drunkard wanted an easy payday. He was an orphaned gypsy thief bound to be ruined by a system that didn't care. All because of this man. The shadows seemed to press inward on him then. as if reaching for the shaking gun.
"Tsuchigumo." The voice reached his ears before an excruciating buzzing started in Dicks brain. Pain seemed to pulse in time with his heart as his body seized. Tendrils of fire lanced up and down his spine with each chaotic beat. As instant as it had been it ended just as quickly. A cooling sensation flooded his nerves as his limbs seemed to twitch involuntarily.
"I swear to god if you made him worse." A guttural growl echoed in his ears. Dick could feel someone wiping a cool cloth against his face. Probably to remove the blood he knew would have been there.
"The Hypnos should be done repairing itself. The command was a way to reset it. Believe me Slade, the last thing I want to do is cause more harm to Grayson." Dick knew these voices. They were eerily familiar but his brain was still feeling like a freshly mashed bowl of potatoes. His memories were still too fresh. Still haunting him at the surface of his thoughts. Bile rose in the back of his throat and he jerked to his side letting it out.
"I'm Alive." Dick whispered to himself as he pressed his head into a solid wet mass. He was here, wherever here was. His breath was filling his lungs no matter how shallow each inhale was. His heart still beat solidly in his chest. A gentle hand stroked his hair back and Dick couldn't help but lean into it.
"Tiger?" Dick rasped out. The name felt right, familiar even. A low hum reached his ears as the hand paused before carding through his hair again.
"I'm here." Dick felt himself relax. With a slow caution he squinted open his eyes. It was as a street light passed by the window that he realized they were moving and he was lying in the back of a car. His clothes were soaked and the pain he'd been feeling was very much real and not something provided by the Hypnos. "We need to be moving soon."
"Sorry bout the mess. Mission parameters?" Dick queried with a grimace at the vomit on Tigers boots. His mind was slowly coming out of the fog. Old memories still hung around the forefront of his thoughts but slowly he was recalling more current events. At Least he hoped they were current.
"We're working on our exit strategy now. Apollo and M are going to get us a Door. The Talon got a lucky shot in. Crippled your Hypnos as you hit the water." Dick hummed as the memories came to him like sludge.
"He got me in his panic. Talons don't exactly do cold." Dick relayed the information aloud.
"ETA 5 minutes. Get him up and running." Dick knew that voice. The low gravelly tone coated in irritation to hide blatant concern. It was a voice he was all too familiar with.
"Ugh. . . Dad not so loud. . ." Dick whimpered out as he brought his shaking hands up to his eyes in an attempt to ease the headache growing there. As Dick moved to sit up he felt Tiger pull him flush against his side.
"We're taking a hot shower as soon as we're able. That river was much too cold." Dick could only hum in agreement as his limbs trembled.
"I'm going to ask M to double check your Hypnos. It shouldn't have malfunctioned as it did even with a direct hit." Dick knew Tiger was worried. It was in the way he had an arm firmly wrapped around his waist, the way his head rested just so on his shoulder, and needless to say that he's asking M of all people for a favor.
"Kay." Dick relented, he was too cold and tired to care. The manipulated memories were still sloshing about in his head. Small slivers of shadows pulling at his concious all thanks to his Hypnos. It wasn't just the Hypnos if he was being honest. It had been years coming and with his recent confrontation with Bruce, well, his nightmares were ripe for the picking.
It was as he was just starting to drift and Tiger tugged at him. His 5 minutes were up.
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A Quick shower had been all they'd had time for. It hadn't exactly warmed Dick up but it did get the slimy feeling on his skin cleared away. He'd ended up changing into loose gray sweats and a t-shirt with a pair of combat boots courtesy of Tiger. Dick ran a hand through his wet hair as he slowly descended the stairs. He hadn't quite been able to bring his thoughts back to order. A concussion was likely given a talons enhancements.
"Door should be open in 2 minutes." A yell echoed through his skull. He teetered to the side with a wince.
"Careful Dick." Tiger's voice soothed as a hand gripped his shoulder. Dick blinked and couldn't suppress the flinch as the shadows seemed to melt down the hall. He knew either his concussion or the Hypnos was providing him a partial hallucination. Knowing this didn't stop his memories from spiraling or fear clenching at his chest. Dick knew Tiger had seen his momentary lapse in awareness, had seen if not felt his minor flinch as he blinked clear his vision.
"M's having a look at you first thing." The firm hand on his shoulder slipped into a gentle prodding at his back as they finished their descent. Slade was standing in the living room, hair still dripping from a quick shower, with two black duffles sitting at his feet. Dick could hear the soft scuttle of feet upstairs as Joey and Rose gathered their things. Grant and William were, however, nowhere in sight.
Dick sat heavily in one of the chairs letting his head swing back to rest on the cushion. They had managed to get Slade back with minimal injuries as long he didn't count whatever had happened to his Hypnos. All in all, a success. A warm hand brushed his hair back. Dick cracked open one eye to see Slade focusing on him with an eerie intent. It was almost unnerving how the man's single eye seemed to dig into Dicks own.
"We need to talk to Bruce." Dick couldn't help the glare that he settled on Slade.
"No." Dick wasn't up for this. Not with shadows dancing in his vision. Not when he'd told the man he'd be a ghost and nothing more. "I'm not setting foot in Gotham Slade. It's not happening." Something soft took over Slade's features. A sympathetic look that Dick wanted no part of.
"If we must speak with the man I'm willing to cover that front. I've been wanting to have words regardless." Tiger said with all the calm of a relaxed cat. A relaxed 'tiger' waiting to pounce in anger. Dick knew there were other motives behind why Tiger wanted a visit but he was going to play the ignorant fool.
"We can't. . ." A flash of light and thudding steps interrupted Slade. Dick almost smirked as the man's face clouded over in frustration. Joey and Rose slid into the room just as William and Grant rounded the corner from the kitchen. Dick felt his cheeks pull into a smile as Midnighter stepped out of the Door.
"Double time kids. We don't have a lot of time here." Dick faltered for a moment at Midnighters urgency. The man rarely took the initiative to move things along. It was then he noticed the black pool gathering underneath his black boots. Before he had a chance to ask Tiger was shoving him through the Door after Rose and Joey.
The normal warmth he associated with the Door was a welcome feeling to Dick. Rather it had been up until he'd exited into dark halls of the Garden. He felt as his Hypnos activated and the shadows seemed to reach for him from every corner. He could only squeeze his eyes shut in an attempt to ignore the illusion.
"M." Tiger called as Dick heard the Door deactivate, the heat no longer pooling at his back. He refused to open his eyes as Tiger placed a hand on his shoulder. Refused to move at a gentle prodding. He couldn't if he wanted to.
"We need you to look at his implant. It took a. . . From a Tal. . ." Dick knew he wasn't standing straight anymore. Gravity had pulled him sideways and he had little energy to resist.
"I trained you to live. . . And I watched you die." Dicks eyes jerked open at the harsh voice echoing in his ears. His Chest ached as he felt himself stumble before his knees hit the floor.
"DICK!" He knew there was blood leaking down his face again. It was reminiscent of when Bruce had broken his nose and busted his lip in their altercation. It cemented his mind in the illusion as the shadows went form a tentative dance at the edge of his vision to swarming around him in a violent whirlwind.
"Tsuchigumo." The word hit his ears followed by pain and blessed darkness.