Chapter Text
Robin showed up at Mount Justice the next day, and the young hero acted like nothing had happened the day before. Conner can tell the Team has questions – he had listened to their concern the night before after Green Arrow was seen carrying Robin to the Zeta. Wally had ended up running laps outside for thirty minutes when his calls and texts were ignored, but even after using up some of his anxious energy, he didn’t seem any better.
Robin just laughed them off, thanking them for their concern but stating that it was a Gotham issue. That made everyone wonder if something had happened to Batman. Conner caught Robin’s gaze and nodded to him before they were pulled away to spar by Black Canary, and his friend nodded back, making a motion with his hand.
Thank you , it said.
Conner smiled in response, and walked after Robin when the boy hurried to the sparring line.
Dick enjoyed spending time with Roy – well, maybe he enjoyed it a little less now, seeing as Roy had spent a majority of the past three days snipping at Oliver and coddling Dick whenever the father and son weren’t screaming at each other – but Dick wanted to go home, wanted to talk to Wally, and maybe go get some of that vanilla ice cream that he could stomach without issue with B.
But, as much as he wanted to do any of that, he didn’t. Couldn’t. He found words harder and harder to form, and hours would pass unbeknownst to him. The first time Oliver tried to shake him from his daze ended with a blade against the man’s throat and a snarling teen atop him.
“I am deteriorating.” Dick couldn’t help but say, cutting off whatever Roy had been saying.
“What?” Roy said, his face falling.
Dick stared at his hands, flexed them slightly. He could almost see golden talons sticking to his fingertips, and felt oddly numb to it. There was no nausea rearing its ugly head like it normally did when he thought that – he just felt nothing. He felt like he did in the Court.
“I can’t feel anything.” Dick replied, “I’m...”
He’s broken. But that hadn’t been a surprise, had it? He’s known that since the day he had been recovered from the Court.
“Dick, no.” Roy was suddenly in front of him, and Dick blinked at his friend. “God, no. You aren’t deteriorating, or whatever the fuck is going through your mind. Yo-You’re scared, and it’s okay. It’s okay, Dick.”
“I don’t feel anything.” Dick admitted in a whisper. “I don’t feel anything, Roy.”
Roy’s face crumpled, and he pulled Dick into a hug. He held him close but the grip was loose, easy to escape if Dick so wished. Fingers rubbed against his back gently, as if he deserved the comfort, as if he didn’t have blood of dozens on his hands.
Dick was crying before he realized it. He wailed, a short, broken sound that tore through his throat and left it raw. He gripped Roy’s shoulders, muffling his sobs into the cotton of Roy’s shirt, desperate to keep himself quiet.
He was expected to be quiet. Talons were supposed to be quiet. Talons didn’t have a voice.
“I’ve got you.” Roy said, “You’re safe. You aren’t going back there; I swear I won’t let you go back.”
Dick knew, that if it came down to it, Roy would die doing that. If the Court came for him, and Roy put up a fight, he would die by their golden talons.
Dick didn’t know if he would give himself up to save him. To save anyone. He couldn’t go back there, he couldn’t . But Bruce and Clark and Diana – all of them promised he would never have to make that choice. They promised they’d protect him. Bruce promised to protect him from the Court and the shadows and nightmares.
But Bruce wasn’t here. No one knew where he was.
“I want Bruce,” Dick cried.
“I know.” Roy replied, soft, “I know.”
Dick walked into Bruce’s room slowly, uncharacteristically hesitant. Clark sat at Bruce’s bedside, and Diana was on the other side of the room, holding a water pitcher and a half-filled glass. They both looked over to him and smiled, expressions tired but genuine.
Dick only had eyes for Bruce. Bruce who was propped up in his bed, bandages covering his body. There were bruises on his arms and his jaw had a dark coloring already blossoming. He smelt like blood and the tang of electrum clung to him. For a moment, Dick felt panic at the thought of Bruce being a Talon like him, but his eyes were still their normal, kind blue and he was too injured and didn’t seem to be healing at an inhuman rate.
The Court had Batman, but it seemed they knew better than to turn him.
“Bruce.” Dick whispered, and stumbled forward when Oliver nudged him towards the bed.
“Dick.” Bruce said, and raised one of his arms. It was wrapped in a cast, and he flinched slightly at the movement, but he held it up, silently requesting Dick to come to his side.
Dick’s eyes stung with tears as he lurched forward. He crawled onto the bed and fit himself into his father’s side, careful of his injuries, and held onto him. Bruce carded his fingers through Dick’s hair, and dipped his head to press his lips to his forehead, shushing him softly.
“They’re gone,” Bruce said, as though it was Dick that deserved comfort in that moment. As if he hadn’t been held captive for a week, as if he wasn’t injured. “They’re gone, Sweetheart.”
(He wouldn’t mention what he had learned until weeks later, telling Dick that the circus had always planned on giving him to the Court. His heart would break when Dick told him he already knew that.)
Dick shook his head. “I don’t care.” he rasped, fumbling to form words. “You’re safe.”
That was all he cared about in that moment.
Bruce hugged him tighter. That was all Dick would need.
(He took to staying by Bruce until his wounds healed, and even then – in an act of childishness he hadn’t thought he was still capable of – made sure Bruce always carried Zitka with him. She had protected Dick when he came back from the Court, and she would do so for him, too.)
“Ookay,” Wally said, raising an eyebrow at Dick the moment he walked into the Cave with Batman looming by his side. It had been roughly two weeks since anyone has seen either of them. “Where the hell have you been, Rob?”
Dick smiled at him, and shrugged. Wally frowned, but didn’t push – he knew his best friend well enough to know when he didn’t (couldn’t) speak, and he wasn’t going to make Dick think he had to. Dick didn’t necessarily like signing in front of the team for a reason that was beyond Wally, but Wally would rather starve than make Dick uncomfortable.
Batman rattled off a mission that only a few of them would join – Wally noticed how Rob was decidedly not given the option of joining, which just made him more suspicious, and waved the mission off when he was asked if he’d like to be added to it. It was an easy mission, and he knew the Team could do it without him.
Batman nodded and walked with the Team as they headed to the Bio Ship, and Wally noticed how Dick hesitated, as if he wanted to follow, before he looked back at Wally and sighed softly. He jerked his head to the rooms, and Wally nodded, following the younger hero as he started towards the hallway.
Dick’s room was exactly as it had been the last time Wally was in it. It was neat with very little personal touch; Dick didn’t tend to use the room much, and he didn’t want to leave anything personal in case someone came into it and figured out his identity. He sat onto his bed, gave the space next to him a pat, and then started to remove his mask.
“Are you okay?” Wally asked once golden eyes peered up at him.
Dick made a face and his fingers twitched before he signed, Not really. Gotham issue. Batman went missing.
Wally frowned slightly, “You could have texted. I would have helped.”
Dick’s body went taught, and he erratically signed “No” multiple times.
“Okay, okay.” Wally raised his hands, placating. “You...You know you can always come to me, right?” he asked hesitantly. He didn’t add I just want to help or You had me worried because he knew how Dick would feel guilty over it.
“I know.” Dick rasped. His voice was hoarse from disuse, and he absently rubbed over his throat. After a moment, he signed, I used to be alive.
“You are alive, Rob.” Wally said sadly.
Different before. Dick said, was killed once. People changed me. There was a pause, and tremors went through Dick’s body as he signed, a monster, now.
“No, you’re not.” Wally said fiercely. “You’re good . You’re so good. You are strong and brave and you do so much good. Monsters don’t do that.”
“Killed many people.” Dick croaked, looking at his hands. “No good.”
Wally grabbed his hands, and held them close. “But you didn’t want to, did you?” He asked, because he knew Dick. Dick was the best damn person he’d ever met, and he would never do anything like that willingly.
“No,” Dick said, shaking his head. “I didn’t.”
Wally pressed closer after Dick leaned against him, and wrapped his arms around his friend. “You’re good.” he insisted, desperate to make Dick believe it. “You’re the best.”
Dick pressed his forehead against Wally’s shoulder. “Was scared.” he mumbled, “That you’d hate me.”
“Never,” Wally said. It almost scared him, the fact that he didn’t think he could ever hate Dick. “Never ever.”
Dick sighed softly, and his arms rose up as he wrapped Wally into a hug. They stayed like that until the Team returned from their mission later in the day, but Wally couldn’t find it in him to care that he’d spent hours wrapped up with Dick, not when he looked happier, more like himself, when they left that room.
Dick might think himself a monster, but Wally knew he was anything but. He’d gladly spend the rest of his life reminding him of that.