Chapter Text
Dick took a deep breath. Exhaled sharply through his nose.
Weeks of planning had led up to this one moment. It was Dick's job to convince the crowd—the outcome of their entire storyline was dependent on how well he could execute his part. Bruce had made it clear that he was expected to play his part, convince the crowd, and not be too fancy about it. Then they would both retire.
That was Bruce's plan. Retire together. Send Dick to college. Get out of the wrestling game and into administration. Send Dick into a real career when he graduated.
Dick gripped the handles of the zip line and waited for his cue.
He looked out on the crowd. The sea of strangers sat in near-reverent silence as Dick waited above them, shadowed on a platform no one had even thought to look upon. He took a breath and kept waiting. When he heard Bruce say the word, he pushed, chest forward, off the platform and sailed through the air. He could hear the crowd cheering as he came down on them all but in the rush of the zip it felt far away. He counted down, then let go, knowing he would stick the landing.
The No-Fear Kid made his triumphant return.
He prepped for the landing, rolled, and came up with a smile, waving as the crowd screamed his name and Bruce introduced him.
"—And I wouldn't have been able to do it without my sidekick: Robin." Bruce grinned at him and it wasn't empty. His eyes sparkled with pride that Dick hadn't seen in too many years to count. The anguish that unfolded between them was wiped away, if only for the moment.
Dick bit his tongue. The pride in Bruce's eyes kept Dick from correcting him—he hadn't been Robin in a long time, and he would never be Robin again.
He turned to the crowd.
He grinned and waved around the arena. Neglected to turn the cartwheel that all the old fans wanted to see from him. The view on the jumbotron jumped from Dick's shining face to the announcers table and then back again.
Then the lights cut. The arena was forced into a palpable darkness.
Fog that would put the Undertaker's shtick to shame rolled in and a spotlight shone on the entrance to the arena. A line of cloaked figures floated out of the entrance and parted, standing in two rows on either side of the ramp, and waited for the last two to make their way to the head of their spear formation.
The foremost figure raised a mic to their shadowed face.
"You didn't think I would miss your retirement—did you, Bruce?" The crowd gasped as they pulled off their hood—only to reveal that Diana Prince, Wonder Woman herself, had interrupted their celebrations. "For we are old friends, are we not?"
"Diana—" Bruce started into his mic.
"No," she continued. "My name is not the answer I am looking for. Did you think I would stand for your scorn? For your repeated betrayals?" Her words echoed into a deadly silent arena.
Diana could have been the most powerful woman on Earth if she had chosen to be so. Her presence commanded the attention of everyone in a room, regardless of size, and she had everyone's attention.
The older fans, who remembered the beginning of her career, stared unblinking. Their children, who had only seen her as the leader of the company, were dry-mouthed with admiration.
"Diana, you chose to leave our alliance—that's on you." Bruce's voice was low. "This has nothing to do with us. Let it go."
"I won't—either end your career or I will end it for you." Diana let her mic fall to the ground as the other hooded figures threw off their cloaks to reveal the Amazons that Diana had led against Bruce after they had first gone their separate ways.
The last person to take off their hood stood just off to Diana's left side—Donna, Dick's best friend, gracefully lowered her hood and raised her chin defiantly. Both of them looked like royalty.
Dick tried not to look as proud as he felt.
"I will give you a month to prepare—if you are not ready when I am, I will end your career with pain. As it should have ended all those years ago." Diana tossed the mic off to the side and the lights cut again. When they came back on, the Amazons were gone, Donna and Diana with them.
Bruce feigned frustration and chucked his mic over the ropes to pretend conference with Dick. The jumbotron flickered back on and cut to Ralph at the announcers table.
"You heard it here first, folks!" Ralph 'Stretch' Dibny announced over the loudspeaker. "Our very own Amazonian princess, Wonder Woman herself, has issued a retirement challenge to the Bat! Only time will tell who will come out on top—the Bat and Nightwing? Or will it be Wonder Woman and her grown-up little sister, Wonder Girl? You'll have to tune in to find out, folks!" Ralph's voice boomed over the arena. "And here I thought we'd never get another shot at seeing the Bat in action!"
Dick rolled his eyes, away from the cameras. Ralph always had a flair for theatrical.
The crowd screamed as the cameras cut away from Ralph to the ring again. They trained on Bruce posturing angrily as he conferenced with Dick, then flipped back to the crowd, then to the wisps of fog that still clung to the ramp where the Amazons had disappeared.
Donna waited for Dick on the other side of it all. He knew what she would be waiting to tell him. That, even though she'd agreed to the retirement match (the match of the decade, maybe even the century, for Bruce and Diana), that it was going to conflict with her break. Not his break—no, the wrestling world never put a man's career on pause—but her debut as Troia.
Any dedicated Wonder Girl fan would know how badly she wanted to break out. She wanted her own legacy. A name that didn't just make her Wonder Woman's kid sister. The sidekick angle had screwed them over as teenagers, then again as adults, and they both wanted out. They had their own names now—not that it changed anything. Her ring debut as Troia coincided with the match—the timing was designed to make her new moniker forgettable. No one would take her seriously as Troia if she couldn't get away from being Diana's baby sister.
The every-day fan didn't care about Donna's career away from Diana. She was a means to an end, a way to help satisfy the fans with an end to the Bat's career.
The cameras cut away for a commercial break and Bruce slid out of the ring with Dick not far behind. He strode up the ramp and the calls of their audience followed them.
"You can do it, Bat! You can beat her!" Shouted a man in the front.
Dick tried not to roll his eyes. Bruce had beaten Diana once and that was all it had taken for the Bat to gain a hold over Diana in the memory of their fans.
She had shown him mercy—she had him pinned after breaking his pride. Match after match he had come up empty against her and she had finally broken him. Or so she had thought. Seeing her former friend beaten had broken something in her—as per the storyline—and she let him go. Turned her back on him and tried to leave the ring.
Bruce's win that day had been written in advance—no improvising allowed here—and they had written him as someone who took any chance they had, used any resource they were given, and took down their opponent without mercy. When Diana turned her back, Bruce leapt up and put her in a hold. He took her down by surprise and maneuvered his way into a win.
If his fans didn't remember that it was his only win—as a heel—then they needed a refresher.
Dick sighed and ran his fingers through his hair as they passed from the view of the camera and into the tunnel. He hadn't even talked and the crowd had drained him.
He'd been away for too long.
Diana's eyes alighted on Bruce and she smiled as she pulled him in for a hug.
"It was so good to see you in the ring again, my friend." Diana rested her cheek on Bruce's shoulder for a moment then pulled back. "It's hard, knowing that the next time will be your last. I know Dick will fill your shoes just fine but I never thought I would know a day in which you were not leading us from center stage."
Yeah, just fine. Right.
"Thank you, Diana," Bruce smiled but Dick couldn't decipher it. When other people smiled, they were happy, but Bruce? Dick could never tell. "But Dick has his own path to follow. Aside from that—they're going to forget the Bat as soon as I leave that ring."
Diana gripped Bruce's hand softly and smiled wider.
"Who could forget the Bat?" There was a glint of mischief in her eyes. "I don't think anyone could ever forget Wonder Woman's greatest enemy."
"Right—that should be what they remember of me." Bruce let go of Diana's hand and tucked his own into the pocket of his slacks. His eyes cut to Dick and back to Diana. That was his cue—Dick turned to Donna.
"So," he crossed his arms awkwardly. "Big changes, right?"
Donna rolled her eyes and laughed. "This is the first time you've been home in a year and all you have to say is 'big changes, right?'"
"Well, it's true," he shrugged. "You're Troia, I'm Nightwing, and those two are retiring. Big changes."
"You sound like you just turned eighty," she leaned back against the wall and watched her sister talk to Bruce.
He grinned, tried not to laugh. "Yeah, well, that's what happens when you grow up a little."
They took their time small talking backstage, their age differences catching at the fabric of their conversation. Diana and Bruce were well-meaning, the conversation was fine, but Donna couldn't help but feel that she was stuck in a long conversation with a great-aunt who had forgotten she had graduated from high school. They were kids still. Nothing would change that for Bruce and Diana.
"So," Diana turned to Dick. "How are you? I think Donna told me you had a girlfriend, right?"
"Diana—" Donna shook her head violently at her sister but Dick waved her away.
"Oh no," he laughed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I've never been serious with anyone like that."
"Oh," Diana almost looked disappointed. "I could have sworn—I must have been thinking about someone else."
"Well," Bruce paused and looked directly at Dick. "There was Kory, wasn't there?"
Donna laughed. "Sorry—no, there wasn't Kory."
"Right, there was Kory—" Diana hadn't heard her sister. "That must have been who I was thinking of." Diana tilted her head to the side. "What happened to you and Kory?"
Dick held up his hands. "Nothing happened to me and Kory—"
"Exactly, Di, nothing happened. Actually, they can't stand each other—"
Dick cut Donna off. "Okay, that's a little harsh—"
"Alright," Donna waved Dick down. "Diana, they're not even friends. Kory is nice to him but Kory's nice to everybody."
Dick couldn't protest that. Kory was nice to everybody.
"That's a shame—I thought you two were cute together. Or, I suppose," she leaned back in thought. "I suppose I thought you two would be good together. Kory is such a nice girl—I have her over for dinner with Donna a couple times a week. They got an apartment together a few months ago—Donna told you, didn't she?"
"No," Dick cut a glance to Donna. "She hadn't told me that she and Kory had an apartment together."
"I was just going to let it come up organically," Donna smiled at him slyly.
"Yeah, alright—I think that's a good place to stop for now," He laughed, exasperated. "It was nice to see you, Diana." He reached out a hand to shake hers and was greeted with a hug instead.
"You as well, Dick," Diana squeezed him, then let him go. "I'll see you again soon."
Donna and Dick waved to Bruce and left their mentors to catch up without them.
Dick snatched his jacket from a pile of steel chairs and shoved an arm through one sleeve as they walked away.
"So," Donna turned to him. "How're you feeling, Nightwing?" She grinned as she watched him actually struggle with his jacket and picked up the other arm that he hadn't been able to find.
He finally shoved his arm through and twisted towards her with a grin. "Better than it feels being Wonder Girl again, I'd bet. So," he adjusted the jacket collar. "What's with all the Kory stuff?"
She snorted and punched his arm. He winced jokingly, hiding the real pain that bloomed on his triceps.
"Yeah, well, I just meant how it feels getting approval from your idol – oh, I'm sorry," she held up her hands as Dick opened his mouth to correct her. "Your mentor. The Kory stuff—well, that's just because Diana sees her all the time and has this idea of, you know, the Boy Wonder and the Golden Girl of the Wrestling Giants together."
Dick stuck his hands in his jacket pockets and paused for a moment.
"Yeah, well, as for Bruce, he's not exactly thrilled about me wrestling. Still." He shrugged and looked away, trying to hide his hurt. "No surprise there, really." He scuffed his toes against the polished concrete floors as they walked. "So, does everyone think Kory and I were...together?"
Donna looked ahead, into the tunnel. "Everyone but you and Kory does."
He waited for her to laugh. It never came.
"Thought everyone knew she hated me and I mean—you know—" he struggled and finally gave up. "I was never interested in her that way, anyway."
Donna sighed and rolled her eyes. Subject closed.
"He'll come around. You know, eventually." She shrugged. "I can't say Kory will, but I know that Bruce will get used to you being here again."
They were both quiet for a while after that.
They passed other performers in the concrete hallway on their way back to the lockers, waving here and there to old friends and new-ish faces.
They passed Wally and Roy arguing, their voices bouncing off the polished concrete floors as they tried to decide on the final choreography for a match were among them. Then there was Vic and Gar, warming up for the same match, more in-sync than Roy and Wally could or would ever be.
"Hey, Vic," Dick waved and got a nod in return. Gar didn't even look up to crack a joke at him. They were too focused on beating Roy and Wally and Gar refused to use up his quips before interviews.
"Wow," Donna looked behind them, then back to Dick. "Not even a 'lookin' good babe wonder' from our favorite green bean, the world must be ending."
"Or he's just growing up. Finally."
They looked at each other and laughed.
While they all teamed up every once in a while, their friends had mostly split up into tag-team pairs. Roy and Wally, Vic and Gar, Lilith and Karen. Sometimes Raven made a dramatic and smoky appearance with Joey. The last two weren't on the premises that night; they got a one-night break sandwiched between non-stop matches.
There was one face that Dick didn't catch as they passed wrestler after wrestler, tag team after tag team, and he found himself hoping he'd catch a glimpse of her red curls. As he and Donna parted ways at the locker rooms, Starfire, glimmering in purple spandex and body glitter, happened upon them.
Donna's high school best friend turned tag-team partner was headed out for a solo match against Shimmer, one of the Fearsome Five, but stopped as she spotted them.
Her eyes glittered as they slid over Dick and he tried, desperately, to pretend she didn't affect him. Tried to be aloof as he leaned against the cinderblock wall. He didn't blush easy but his heart skipped a beat as he held up his fingers in a weak greeting. She smiled back at him.
"Hey, Kory," Donna leaned in for a quick hug. "Are you going out against Sparkle tonight?"
Dick interrupted. "Donna, you know her name is Shimmer." Both women looked at him, an amazing combination of incredulity and amusement on their faces, and he cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I mean, you know that she – uh," he ran his hand through his hair, trying to look nonchalant as they looked on, amused. "You know, she hates it when you call her sparkle."
Kory laughed and Dick watched as she tossed her hair over her shoulder, her curls somehow still shining and beautiful under the harsh fluorescent light. He hoped that he looked half as good to her as she did to him but he knew that ship had sailed.
Donna rolled her eyes and ignored him. She couldn't stand the Fearsome Five in the ring or out of it and Shimmer was an easy target, physically, metaphorically, and any other -ly she could find.
Dick knew that.
He just wanted to have something to say in front of Kory.
Because he rarely had anything to say in front of Kory.
And after all that talk about her—and with the embarrassment of knowing that Donna knew exactly what had happened between them—his mind was a complete blank. He had nothing and they knew it.
Kory and Donna turned back to each other after the interruption had been dealt with and they barely acknowledged him after that. He didn't blame them; Donna and Kory were closer than he and Kory were. Not that they were really friends, not after the way he had treated her when she'd shown up her first day.
He watched as they chatted. Kory's eyes sparkled while she spoke, and it was hard to look away while she was so alive. That was the hard part—pretending that she didn't draw him in. Her green eyes drifted over to him and he hoped he wasn't blushing as he looked away. Sure, he wanted to look at her, but he only wanted to look when he knew she wouldn't know.
He could only pretend he was waiting for Donna for so long before he blew his cover as an aloof cool guy with no interest in someone he had already turned down.
Then it was over and Kory was saying her goodbyes. Her hand brushed his as she walked past him and he went rigid. She stopped, turned towards him, her eyes bright, beautiful and looking into his.
"I was watching from backstage—you and Donna both did very well tonight." And then she was gone, leaving Dick to stare and Donna to smirk as he watched her hair swish across her back. Her curls bounced as she looked over her shoulder, eyes sweet and mouth smiling.
Dick watched her go. Pretended that his chest wasn't beating out of his chest. Played it cool.
Donna grinned and backed away from him, towards the locker room door.
"I thought--" He pointed in Kory's direction. "Does that mean--"
"If you really want to know, you have to ask her. But my question is: are you still not interested, Nightwing?" Donna laughed as she pushed the door open, leaving Dick to his thoughts.
"'You still not interested, Nightwing?'" Dick mocked his best friend and scuffed the floor with the toe of his boot. "Yeah, that was fucking stupid, wasn't it, Dick?"