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There was no light in the cell, but unfortunately Bruce had trained himself to register the passage of time without external stimuli. At this point, he’d rather not know. He’d been in this cell for almost a full 24 hours. No one had come in. Nothing had changed.
It was a small room, mostly made of concrete. There were no windows and only one door that sealed completely around, not letting even a mote of light into the room. Bruce was currently laying on the concrete slab that could have been a crude bed, a bench, or something even less welcoming. He wasn’t worried, per se. Someone would have to come in to check on him, or to move him to a new location, or to give him some kind of sustenance eventually. Once that happened, Bruce had already considered several ways to get himself out of this. The problem was that he had to wait.
The other problem, of course, was that he had been captured as Bruce Wayne. Had he been in the suit, he would have had a multitude of tools at his disposal. He also would be able to react as he wanted to, methodically searching the cell for any way out and preparing for any change in his scenario. Bruce couldn't be sure if the people who had captured him were monitoring him, though, and so he couldn’t risk that sort of behavior as Bruce Wayne.
All in all, it added up to Bruce being bored out of his fucking mind. It had been a long time since he’d been taken prisoner by himself, and he was now far more used to spending any captivity frantically trying to protect his children. Bruce was glad none of them were in danger with him, but at the same time, he hadn’t realized how used to the company he’d gotten. He couldn't remember the last time he was truly alone for this long, without even a commlink to Barbara or to the League. Could he convince his kidnappers to let him have a phone call? If they were just after Bruce Wayne for his money, or for something from Wayne Enterprises, maybe they would buy into his act. If they were after anything else, though, he doubted that would play.
Bruce lay on the concrete, staring up at the darkness that presumably hid an equally featureless ceiling when he heard, for the first time in nearly a day, a noise. Bruce tensed. He needed to know what was going on before he could put any of his plans into motion, and while he tried to reason out what might be happening, the door to his cell hissed open. The sudden light made him wince, and he could only make out three figures. It looked like two of them were dragging the third between them, and before Bruce could react further, they threw the slumping figure into the cell, and the door hissed shut again.
In the sudden return of the darkness, Bruce tried to see who had been thrown into the cell with him. He could hear heavy, ragged breathing, as if the other person was trying to regain their breath. Possibly the people who had thrown them in here had hurt them somehow. Did they need help? Was it safe to check on them?
Then, suddenly, the breathing changed. They took a deep breath, and it sounded like they got to their feet, far more lightly than Bruce had expected based on the way they had been dragged into the cell and thrown in with him. The person came closer.
“Hi, Bruce,” Dick said.
It was quiet for a moment as Bruce tried to get a handle on his suddenly raging emotions. “What the hell are you doing here?” he hissed.
It was still completely dark, but Bruce was sure that Dick rolled his eyes. “Way to welcome your rescuer, jeez.”
“Your—” Bruce said, strangled. “How does getting yourself locked up with me in any way qualify as a rescue?”
“Well,” Dick said cheerfully. “I come bearing presents. Here, catch.”
Something hit Bruce’s arm and bounced to the side. He felt for it in the dark, and it didn’t take long for his hand to close around the small plastic object. It was one of their earpieces. When Bruce slipped it into his ear, he couldn’t hear anything. “You got yourself locked up just to bring me a commlink that doesn’t work.”
Dick’s voice was quickly losing its chipper tone. “It works just fine. We’re deep enough underground that it’s not picking up external signals, but it’ll work to connect to mine, and once we get higher up, we can connect to Alfred. Or Babs, whoever is on at the time.”
“And how exactly are we going to get higher up? We’re trapped.”
It sounded like Dick got closer. “Can you trust me for one single minute? I have a plan.”
“That’s not the point! The point is that I was doing fine, and now both of us are stuck here,” Bruce knew he was snapping at Dick, but he couldn’t particularly find it in himself to stop. It was irresponsible, and it was exactly the kind of pointless heroics that he’d been trying to train Dick out of for so long.
“You know what? No, nevermind. Stay there, then,” Dick snapped back. Bruce could hear him walking away, and he thought he heard him going towards the wall. Suddenly, there was a brightly focused beam of light. Bruce could faintly see Dick’s hands and his outline, glowing in the red of the laser. Dick bent down to peer through the small hole he’d cut, and then straightened back up, cutting a larger opening.
“They’re going to notice,” Bruce said.
Dick’s shoulders tensed up, but he kept cutting. It didn’t take long, the laser slicing cleanly through the concrete. Instead of pushing it outward, Dick worked the tips of his fingers in on either side, and slowly wiggled the block free. He rocked backward on his heels once he had the whole block entirely in his hands, but he set it down quietly on the ground. “Let’s go,” Dick said, not even turning to look at Bruce in the light glaring in through the hole.
They made their way out of the cell and into a long, empty corridor. Bruce didn’t like this at all. “Why is it so empty?” he said, very low. “Where is everyone?”
Dick didn’t seem nearly as concerned, but he matched Bruce’s near-whisper. “There aren’t actually that many of them, and most of them are off updating the ransom demand.”
Bruce stopped. “You didn’t tell me there was a ransom.”
“Well, gee, Bruce, you just gave me so much time to explain everything before yelling at me.” If it weren’t for his voice being so much lower, Bruce would have thought he was hearing twelve-year-old Dick again.
“You didn’t try.”
“I didn’t—Fine. Have it your way.” Dick’s stride was lengthening, as if he was trying to get away from the conversation. Bruce matched him. “You were taken by an unknown group that plans to hold you hostage until Batman shows up, since they know you funded Batman, Inc. We’re in their shitty secret base under a mountain, which they freely gave me the coordinates to when I offered them money in exchange for letting you go. They clearly never planned to let me take you, because as soon as I got inside, they hauled me off to the cell, which is exactly what I planned on. Most of our tech can’t seem to see into this place, I assume because of the depth under the mountain and possibly something in the rock itself. The easiest way to find you was to let them lead me to you.”
The corridor led them to a t-shaped junction. Dick leaned out, and stepped into the passage to the right. Bruce followed.
“Where are we going?” This corridor looked nearly identical to the first, but Dick wasn’t stopping at any of the doors punctuating it. “You said you didn’t know where I was, do you know where something else is?”
“No, I’m just leading us on a nice stroll through the underground secret base,” Dick snapped.
“I was—” Bruce cut himself off and took a deep breath. “If you tell me where we’re going, I can help.”
Dick shot a glare back at him. “Yeah? You wanna take point instead?”
“You need to give your partners essential information, I know I taught you that at least,” Bruce snapped back.
Snorting, Dick said, “Right, I only know anything because you taught me. How could I forget.”
They had passed under what looked like a fire door, and Bruce could tell that the floor of this part of the corridor was sloping up. He still didn’t hear anyone following them, no alarms going off anywhere else he could hear in the complex. It worried him. No matter how stupid this organization was, they wouldn’t be so completely lax as to not guard or check on the cell they were keeping a hostage in.
“How are we getting out?” Bruce asked.
“There’s a back door,” Dick answered. He seemed distracted, looking down at his watch. Bruce recognized it as one of his own, a small interface with the Batcomputer disguised as a regular watch.
“Are we in a hurry?” Bruce pressed.
Dick was gritting his teeth when he turned back to Bruce. “Would you like to stay longer? You could see if they have better accommodations elsewhere.”
“This attitude isn’t helpful. Tell me what’s going on,” Bruce commanded. It was ridiculous that Dick was expecting him to just follow along without any information. Everything Bruce was asking for was completely reasonable.
“ ‘This attitude’,” Dick mocked. “God, it’s like I’m fourteen again. We’re heading for the back door, and in about ten minutes, our distraction from the front door will be gone. Ideally, we’ll be out by then. I don’t know the exact passageway, but everything about this place suggests that it was constructed quickly, so I’m following the direction of where we need to go.”
“What distraction?”
“There was a small cave-in over their front entrance about the same time we broke out.” Dick tapped out something on the watch. “We’re getting there. I can almost make contact with the comms.”
“You could have just told me that.”
Dick shrugged. It was a quick, tense motion, mostly just in his shoulders. They were coming up on a turn in the hallway, and Bruce heard the sound only seconds before they reached it. He lunged out, pulling Dick back by his shoulder against the wall.
A woman in a dark suit rounded the corner, and there was a frozen moment before she fully realized what he was looking at. It was plenty of time.
Dick furiously tapped at the watch and there was a hiss and a pop from the earpiece the woman was wearing, as Bruce stepped forward to punch the woman in the stomach. She let out a hard gasp of breath and stumbled backwards. While she tried to regain her breath, Dick darted behind her and with a quick strike, she fell forward. Bruce caught her slumping form and lowered her to the ground.
“Thanks,” Dick said quietly, and then, “There, grab her keycard.” Bruce took the keycard.
They stood and listened for a moment, and then Bruce met Dick’s eyes and nodded toward the corner the woman had come from. Silently, they turned down the hallway.
Two more corridors later, and they were standing outside of an elevator. “This is the quickest way up,” Dick said, and started tapping at his watch.
“Climbing an elevator shaft with no gear is a terrible idea,” Bruce frowned.
Dick straightened up and took a half step toward him. “You know, I don’t know what I did to make you mad, but that’s fine. I expect that,” Dick snarled quietly. “What I don’t expect is for you to doubt my every move. We’ve known each other for nearly twenty years, and you still can’t accept that I know what I’m doing. But could you, for one goddamn second, just shut up and trust me?” He’d gotten so close that Bruce could feel Dick’s breath on his face.
“I…” Bruce didn’t know what to say. Of course he trusted Dick. How could he not know that? “It’s not about trust, it’s about being able to work together.”
“Jesus christ, Bruce, of course it’s about trust! How many times have you ordered me around with no explanation? I hate it, and I’ve told you that plenty of times, but you know what, if it’s a situation where we need to work together in the moment, I can suck it up and do what you tell me, because I trust you to know what you’re doing. So, again, all I’m asking is for you to extend that same faith to me just long enough to get you out of here!” Dick whirled around again, tapping furiously on the watch. The elevator door slid open. “Hurry up,” Dick said tersely. “I can’t stop the elevator forever.”
Bruce wanted to stay there, wanted to say that they could find another way up, a safer way, but Dick was already scaling the wall. The elevator shaft was relatively open, and Bruce could see, even before Dick started, that it made for plenty of handholds, with crisscrossing beams and only small stretches of featureless concrete. He started following Dick.
It wasn’t a fun climb. Bruce would willingly admit that it could have been much, much harder, but that didn’t make this easy. He was used to doing things like this wearing the suit, not regular clothes. Once, about halfway up, Dick cried out, and Bruce’s head shot up, seeing a scene from his nightmares play out—Dick falling, Bruce unable to catch him— but Dick was fine. He was still on the wall above Bruce, still firmly clinging to the girder. Bruce didn’t ask what happened. He couldn’t handle an argument right now. They needed to be out.
“Bruce,” came Dick’s voice as they reached the top floor of the elevator shaft. “Steady me? I need to open the doors up here.” Bruce grunted his agreement, and shifted up so he could wedge himself into a crossbeam around the height of Dick’s waist. He held him still as Dick tapped away on the watch. There was a slight hiss as the elevator doors opened. “Let’s go.”
They climbed out. Something buzzed in Bruce’s ear, and he remembered the commlink.
“N? You there?” It was Barbara’s voice, a little more choppy than usual. There must have still been some interference from the mountain.
“We’re both here,” Dick confirmed. “Not quite out yet, but if you could give me any directions, I’d love that.”
“Should be pretty much straight ahead, actually,” Barbara answered. “I think they’ve spread back into the mountain, though, so I suggest hurrying up.”
Instead of answering, Dick broke into a run. Bruce matched him, and they sped down the corridor side by side.
“Do you have the door?” Bruce barked into the comms.
“Should be opening up right… now,” and just as Barbara said it, the end of the hallway slid open. He barely would have noticed it as anything other than a dead end if they hadn’t been heading this way. Bruce thought he could hear voices behind them.
They ran out through the open door, and Bruce had hardly noticed the cold wind rushing by them before Dick was saying, “We’re out, can you close the door?”
It hissed closed. Bruce turned to take in their surroundings. “Do we have a way down?”
He turned back just in time to see Dick close his eyes and take a long, deliberate breath. “Yeah. Let’s start with walking away from the door, though, I don’t think they’ll be much behind us.”
Bruce frowned. “We could have done something to the door.”
“I did,” Barbara chimed in. “They’ll have trouble getting out, but it won’t hold them for long. The path widens out a lot about a hundred feet past the bend. That’s where your ride is waiting.”
“Got it. Thanks, O,” Dick said. He didn’t look at Bruce, just started walking.
Around the bend, Bruce could see a metallic surface, and once they reached the place where the mountain path they were following opened up into somewhat of a plateau, he saw the plane, ready and waiting for them.
They were inside quickly, and Bruce had barely turned to close up the ramp of the plane when he heard Alfred’s voice say, “It’s good to see the two of you well.”
“Thanks, Alfred,” Dick said, and Bruce saw him put a hand on Alfred’s shoulder. “Appreciate the getaway.”
“Anytime, Master Dick,” Alfred said, and then added drily, “Although, I wouldn’t mind if anytime came somewhat less often.”
Dick laughed at that, and Bruce felt something inside him relax at the sound. Bruce came to join them at the front of the plane.
“Need any help?” he asked. Alfred glanced over, and shook his head, a small smile on his face.
“No, I believe I can handle it quite well. I’m glad you’re unharmed, Master Bruce, we couldn’t be sure what they intended to do with you.”
“I’m fine,” Bruce said absently. “I’m also not sure what they intended to do with me, but as it was, they didn’t get past locking me up.”
Dick turned to slip away, but Bruce caught his arm. “Dick, I appreciate the break-out, but that was still incredibly reckless. You could have waited, or sent in someone else.”
“I could have—Bruce, we didn’t know what they were doing to you! I wasn’t gonna just wait while you could have been getting tortured or drugged or who knows what else. So no, I could not have waited,” he said, the tension which had leaked out of him since they made it back into the plane immediately present again in his posture.
Bruce was taken aback. “You were worried?”
Dick gaped. “I— Of course I was worried, Bruce! You disappeared in the middle of a business trip which I know you thought was going to be short enough that you didn’t have any of your tools or the suit or anything! None of us were with you, and we had no idea who had taken you! So yes, Bruce, I was fucking worried!” Dick’s cheeks were red as he yelled.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Dick,” Bruce said, still a little thrown off. “I… hadn’t thought about it.”
“God, you’re useless,” Dick muttered. “Come here.”
Bruce stepped toward him, and Dick closed the distance between him to wrap Bruce in a bruisingly tight hug.
“We always worry about you,” Dick said quietly, right next to Bruce’s ear. “You don’t have a monopoly on that.”
It wasn’t a new sentiment, but it was one that Bruce found particularly hard to internalize. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good,” said Dick, and stepped back. “Now go sit down and eat some food. We brought provisions.” He turned toward the front of the plane again.
“Dick,” Bruce said. Dick looked back at him. “Come eat with me.”
It was quiet for a moment. “Okay,” Dick said, and for the first time, he smiled a little. “Alright.”