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Dick was halfway through suiting up for patrol when his phone rang. He glanced at the caller id and his face lit up happily when it registered as Jason Blood’s number.
He immediately picked it, and before he could get out a word Blood stated, “I’d like to call in that favor now.”
“You got it! What did you need?” Dick eagerly asked.
“I need to keep Ra’s al Ghul from getting his hands on a somewhat important magical artifact,” Blood briefly explained.
Dick’s eyes went wide in horror as he hastily put on the rest of his costume. “Do you need me to grab the rest of the Batfamily? We all have experience with him.” Plus, Damian would probably kill for the chance to fight against his grandfather.
There was a light humming sound, and Blood was obviously conflicted. “No, if Ra’s were to get his hands on the artifact, it wouldn’t cause the end of the world,” Blood reluctantly said after a few.
“Are you sure? We’d be more than happy to help.” Dick put on civvies on top of his costume and grabbed his weapons, before slipping out of his NYC apartment. Well, there’d be a lot of grumbling, moaning, and groaning, but they’d be willing.
“I’m positive,” Blood said shortly.
Dick shrugged, before getting onto his motorcycle. “Give me an hour and I’ll be at your house.”
“Thank you,” Blood said gratefully into the phone, relief evident in his voice.
“No problem,” Dick replied back, before hanging up. He started up the motorcycle, before heading out. An hour later, he was sitting in Blood’s living room with his civvies in his bag.
“Just hear me out, alright?” Dick waited for Blood to let out an agreeing noise, before going on. “I think you should fight the ninjas and I should fight Ra’s.”
Blood looked intrigued to hear that. “Interesting idea.”
“In a fight against me, Ra’s will have to hold himself back. He knows that if he kills me, the capes will come after him with a vengeance. He has nothing stopping him from trying to kill you.” Dick watched as Blood seemed to turn the idea over in his head before he nodded.
Dick flashed Blood a wide grin. “Let’s go kick some ninja ass.”
A faint smile curled Blood’s face as he tightly grabbed Dick’s arm, before teleporting them. The moment they touched down; Blood dragged him into the shadows of the ruined temple to hide.
“Do you want to know what the artifact does?” Blood asked Dick once he regained his bearings.
Dick pursed his lips before shaking his head. “The less I know about this, the better.”
Blood let out a wry chuckle before they fell silent. It didn’t take long for Ra’s to stride into the temple. He confidently walked up to the magical artifact, before warily glancing around.
As soon as Ra’s picked up the artifact, Blood stepped out of the shadows. “Put it back.”
Ra’s startled ever so slightly before a look of annoyance curled his face. “Blood. I thought I’d be seeing you here.”
“Al Ghul. I’m afraid you’re not going to be leaving with that.” Blood snapped out.
A smirk curled Ra’s face. “Oh? You and what army is going to stop me?”
“Me,” Dick slid next to Blood.
Ra’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “Richard, what a surprise. I didn’t realize Blood had gotten the Detective and his family involved.”
“I offered to bring in the rest of the Batfamily, but Jason didn’t seem to think that you’re a big enough threat to need them,” Dick smirked at the spark of anger in Ra’s eyes at the dismissal of how dangerous he was.
Ra’s pursed his lips, a thoughtful look on his face. “I assume I can’t call in my favor now?”
Dick shook his head. “Sorry, I already promised to help Jason out in order to repay the favor I owed him.”
Ra’s had a calculating look on his face. “How about we play a game? You two fight against me and my ninjas. Whoever is still standing by the end gets to take the artifact.”
Dick and Blood exchanged looks before Blood nodded. The artifact was insignificant enough that Ra’s getting it wouldn’t be too much of a problem.
“Deal,” Blood gritted out before transforming into Etrigan; while Dick took out the sword strapped to his back. Ra’s put the artifact down and snapped his fingers, causing 20-30 ninjas to appear behind him.
Dick locked eyes with Ra’s before they all charged forward. Dick immediately started sword fighting with the immortal, and he couldn’t help the grin that curled his face.
He loved when there wasn’t any time to think and strategize during a fight; when all they could do was trade blows out of pure instinct. Slash. Parry. Block. Attack. Dodge. Strike. Charge. Thrust. Cut. Lunge. Stab. Deflect. He didn’t even make any quips and quotes; since he had to save his energy for the fight. The adrenaline flooded through his veins, and his head hadn’t been this clear in ages.
Unfortunately, Ra’s was a highly skilled opponent that clearly outclassed him. Dick knew he was a good swordsman since he had beaten Ra’s before, but that was when Ra’s was emotional and distracted. This time, he had no expectations of winning this fight, not with what was at stake. He couldn’t afford to distract himself by checking to see how Etrigan was faring, but he needed to draw this out for as long as possible for the demon to get rid the ninjas.
It was only going to be a matter of time before Ra’s would play dirty, especially since the fight was evening out and they were starting to stalemate. And Ra’s didn’t fail to disappoint him.
Without warning, Ra’s reached up and tightly grabbed Dick’s hair with his free hand, drawing him closer. He quickly plunged his sword through Dick’s stomach and out through his back.
Dick screamed in utter agony as he was practically disemboweled by Ra’s. He fell onto the sword impaling him, driving it deeper into his body. His head dropped forward to rest on Ra’s shoulder as he collapsed onto the older man, and the grip on his hair was the only thing keeping him upright. His sword clattered to the ground out of his limp hand, but Dick barely noticed due to the sheer amount of pain he was in.
“You’re lucky I didn’t decide to aim a bit higher,” Ra’s purred into his ear, before pulling the blade free and releasing his grip on Dick’s hair.
Dick crumpled down onto the floor face down, which he distantly thought was a good thing since it helped keep his organs inside his body. He could hear Ra’s slowly walking away, and pure instinct overcame him. He carefully got into a kneeling position and reached for his gun at his ankle.
After working for Spyral, Dick hadn’t really felt safe anymore without a gun strapped to his body. Jason had a field day at the idea that the precious golden boy liked using guns. Bruce had thrown a fit, and he had been forced to promise that he would only use the gun as a last resort.
Dick was suddenly grateful for the handgun for the first time. He didn’t think he’d be able to knock Ra’s out of the fight with any of his traditional weapons like his escrima and wingdings. He could try to throw them, but they wouldn’t injure Ra’s enough to prevent him from joining the fight against Etrigan.
Dick managed to get the gun out of his holster and aimed it at Ra’s back. He took a deep breath, before emptying the whole clip. Ra’s spun around at the gunshots but wasn’t able to avoid them going into his chest and stomach. A look of pure shock was on his face before he crumbled to the ground. Bullseye. Dick hadn’t expected Ra’s to scream, but he had probably been caught off guard.
Dick was finally able to look over at Etrigan, who was surrounded by multiple ninjas lying on the ground. He was still fighting against 5 ninjas, and Dick figured they’d be dead soon.
Dick carefully sheathed his gun and sword, before getting onto his hands and knees. Slowly, Dick crawled over to where Ra’s had fallen, one hand pressed against his stomach. After a few agonizing moments, he was next to Ra’s. With a bit of effort, he managed to reposition himself, so he was straddling Ra’s. After a few seconds, Ra’s slowly opened his eyes.
Dick leaned forward, before mockingly whispering into Ra’s ear, “You’re lucky I didn’t decide to aim a bit higher,” repeating the taunt from a few moments ago before he straightened up.
“I’ve got Etrigan on my side, while you’ve got 5 ninjas left.” They both glanced over at where Etrigan was fighting, and one of the ninjas suddenly went down. “My bad, 4 left. You’ve got quite the dilemma on your hands.”
“Is that so?” Ra’s managed to get out, a wary edge in his eyes.
“If you call off your men, you’ll have at least 2 ninjas left to take you to a Lazarus Pit, but you’ll lose the game.” Dick put a hand to his mouth when he started coughing and grimaced at the sight of blood on his hand.
“If you don’t call off your men, they’ll all be taken out by Etrigan, and you’ll lose the game. You’ll have to wait for backup in order to get to a Lazarus Pit, and you might not survive the wait. I, on the other hand, have Blood to heal me up once the fight is over.” Dick had to brace his hands on both sides of Ra’s head at a wave of dizziness overcame him. The last thing he needed was to collapse on top of Ra’s.
“Zugzwang, Ra’s. What’s it going to be? No matter what you chose, you’re still going to lose. Which would you prefer, your pride or your life?” Dick watched as Ra’s frowned, mentally debating his options.
After a few agonizing seconds, which felt like an eternity, Ra’s sagged against the floor. “Well played, Richard, well played.” There was a gleam of respect in Ra’s eyes that thrilled Dick, he didn’t think he’d seen it directed at him from the immortal in a very long time. Ra’s reached up with a shaking hand to his ear and whispered, “Retreat.”
Dick’s grin widened in utter delight at the sound of that magical word. “I’m sorry Ra’s, do you mind repeating that? I couldn’t manage to catch what you said.”
Dick’s snickered at the glare that Ra’s sent him. “Gloating is unbecoming of you, Richard,” Ra’s scolded before his eyes softened. He reached a trembling hand up to lightly stroke down the side of Dick’s face. “Do not worry, Richard. I promise I will keep quiet about what happened here.”
Dick relaxed ever so slightly in relief. He knew Ra’s well enough that he could normally be trusted to keep his word.
Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed him and pulled him off of Ra’s and onto his back. “Jesus Christ kid, what the hell happened to you?” Blood’s worried visage was above him.
“You should see the other guy.” Dick grinned as he gestured at Ra’s.
Blood let out a shocked noise. “You shot him with a gun?”
“My instincts overcame me,” Dick weakly defended himself. “I just recently got back from playing James Bond 24/7 with Spyral, it’s hard to completely deprogram from that.”
“This is the best day of my life,” Blood taunted Ra’s after a moment, who let out an irritated noise.
Suddenly, the four remaining ninjas rushed over to Ra’s, before carefully picking him and taking him out of the room.
Blood got out a knife, before carefully cutting open the stomach area of Dick’s costume. “Shit, this is worse than I thought. Describe to me how he injured you.”
“Impaled me on his sword, went straight through my stomach and out of my back.” Dick looked down and grimaced at the sight of his stomach.
Blood rolled up his sleeves and lightly pressed a hand onto Dick’s stomach. “You’re going to feel a bit uncomfortable.” Blood started chanting something under his breath that sounded vaguely like Latin.
Dick rolled his eyes; it wasn’t like he could feel any more uncomfortable than he already was. This was probably one of his worse wounds in a long time.
Dick grimaced as he felt the familiar sensation of pins and needles sweep through his body, before settling in his stomach region. After a few minutes, the pain started slowly fading away. Eventually, Blood stopped his chanting and removed his hands from Dick’s stomach.
Dick warily looked down to see his stomach was completely healed. The only evidence he had been wounded was a thin scar that looked several years old.
Blood carefully helped him to his feet, keeping a tight grip on him when Dick swayed from the blood loss. Once he made sure Dick was somewhat steady on his feet, he teleported them back to his house.
Once there, Blood dragged Dick over to his couch before sitting him down on it. He disappeared from the room, before coming back after a few moments with a potions bottle. “Here, take this blood replenisher.” He uncorked the bottle, before helping Dick drink it.
Dick shuddered ever so slightly at the metallic bloodlike taste of the potion but immediately started to feel better. Blood took the empty bottle, before going into the kitchen and coming back with tea and cookies. “I don’t want you moving from the couch for a full hour. Once I’m positive you won’t pass out the moment you get up, you can clean up in my bathroom.”
Dick’s eyes softened at how Blood was fussing over him before he took a big sip of the tea. “How’d you fare against the ninjas?”
Blood smirked at him. “As you so eloquently put it earlier, I ‘kicked their asses’.”
A laugh escaped Dick’s lips, amused as always on the few occasions that the immortal swore. “Good.”
“You lasted longer than I expected against Ra’s.” Blood sounded impressed, and Dick knew that was a huge compliment.
“Slade’s given me a few pointers over the years,” Dick said with a shrug before he crammed a cookie in his mouth. Dick covered his mouth with his free hand as he suddenly yawned. The adrenaline was quickly draining from his body, leaving him exhausted.
He quickly polished off the tea and two more cookies before he quickly fell asleep. A faint smile curled his face when right before he passed out, he felt hands carefully lay him down on the couch and cover him with a blanket.