Demigod in Gotham

30) Fire Can Be Helpful Too

A/N: TRIGGER WARNING! this chapter includes scenes of torture and emergency medical procedure (its not super graphic, but it's still there). I would skip the whole chapter if you are not okay reading that. I will do a brief summary at the end.

Nico really needed to stop spending time with heroes; it was making him way too much of an easy target. He was going to just shadow travel out of the room as soon as the wall exploded because he knew the others would escape easily, but then they got Bruce. In hindsight he should have just trusted Bruce to get out on his own, but then he got caught.

And then he was stupid again. He thought that if he could keep the Joker distracted with his Italian and Jason's 'translations,' then the others would have enough time to not only free him, but reinforce that Bruce wasn't Batman.

That's where he went wrong.

He didn't know that the Joker would panic at the sight of the Bat and straight up stab and kidnap him. 

Maybe next time I'll leave the planning to the Athena kids, Nico thought as he looked around the disgusting room. He knew they were in a warehouse because he peaked through his blindfold on the way in, but other than that, he was lost.

His hands were tied in barbed wire behind his back and the knife was still in his leg. He really didn't take into account that his hands would be tied in wire when he let himself get taken. He was counting on using the button the boys had given him a while back, but it was in his breast pocket and there was no way to get it.

The door burst open suddenly and in sauntered the Joker. The man squatted down in front of Nico and grabbed his face. When the boy tried to pull away, the hand shifted from his chin to his neck as he was pinned against the wall. "Tisk tisk fresh meat," the Joker said as Nico choked. "I just want to get a look at my little play thing."

As Nico began seeing spots, the man stood up, releasing his throat, and called to the goons. "Release his hands and bring him out here."

Nico's hands were painfully freed before he was literally dragged out of the room and into the main section of the warehouse. He was thrown at the Joker's feet, purposely not catching himself so he could slip a bloody hand into his pocket and grab the keychain.

"I know you don't know who I am or what I'm saying, so I'll have to explain everything really thoroughly." Nico could barely click the button before the first kick came at his stomach. He let out a grunt as he slipped the tracker up his sleeve and moved his arms to cover his ribs.

The clown kept kicking him, but Nico barely made a sound above a groan, which seemed to only anger him more. He felt himself being dragged up by his hair and grit his teeth as he found himself face to face with the killer.

"Think you're so tough? Let's see how you do with nothing to block me with."

Nico was physically thrown against one of the support beams and his wrists were pulled behind him. He felt the sharp pain as the barbed wire was not only wrapped around his already bleeding wrists, but around his chest so that every breath would push it deeper into his skin.

The Joker was about to finish his 'art' when he spotted the device up the boys sleeve. Nico suddenly got a sharp punch to the jaw as the psycho stood up. "You think you're clever do you? What is this, a panic button?" He threw it against the ground and it shattered. "For that, you get the premium treatment."

The Joker stormed off and retuned a few minutes later with a large camera attached to some wires. He smiled wickedly at the boy before clicking a button and watching as the red light flashed. "Hello you creatures of Gotham. I know how you missed me while I was away, so I thought I would bring you a surprise guest. It is my pleasure to introduce you to the newest Wayne."

Nico watched as he stepped aside and immediately the boy understood. He was on tv. The people he once walked the streets with were watching his torture. Nico hated everything. It took everything in him not to curse out the clown, but he had to control himself and focus on the fact that his family would be there any second. They would come, he knew it.

~~~~~~~~

-Damian POV-

The second they burst into the warehouse, Damian was immediately tasked with freeing Nico while the others took down Joker and his goons. The boy had been missing for just over an hour, but apparently the psycho worked fast. His brother was slumped forward, the wires across his chest digging into his skin. His teeth were clenched in pain, but he wasn't making a sound.

Damian made quick work of cutting the wire, making sure not to pull it out of the flesh in case it worsened the bleeding, while trying to keep his brother upright.

"Hey Little D," Nico said through gritted teeth, using Dick's nickname for him instead of his vigilante name. "Do me a favor and tell Alfred I don't want pain meds."

Damian simply muttered his assurance as he carefully hooked his arms under Nico's armpits and quickly dragged him away from the fighting. The youngest brother had to admit that he wished more of the people they rescued were like Nico; the boy was nearly silent and didn't try to fight to get free.

As soon they had cleared the building, Damian went into analysis mode. He knew he had to get the wire out before they could transport him, but he didn't want to risk him losing too much blood.

"Remove the ones around my chest first. They aren't on anything major so it should be fine." Nico's head tilted to the side as he leaned against the Bat Mobile, but his voice was clear and, since he seemed to know a good amount about field medicine, Damian did as he said.

Robin was careful as he removed each spike that was burrow in his brother's skin, but the boy barely even flinched. After they were all removed he put wrapping around his chest to help limit the bleeding a little bit before referring to Nico again.

Nico sighed, sitting up straighter as he examined his excessively bleeding wrists. "This is the hard part. Usually the bleeding wouldn't be this bad but they ripped out the wire before putting more on, so you're gonna have to do a field cauterization."

"What?" Damian wasn't easily horrified, but that was too much for him at that moment. "I can just wrap them and hold pressure until we get you back to Alfred."

Nico shook his head. "There would be a good chance of me bleeding out before we got to him. With how much I've already bled, something important was definitely nicked. I know this is gross-"

"I've done these before, I'm not concerned with the grossness." Damian clenched his jaw as he thought about when he learned to cauterize as a child. "I had to do one on my Aunt Nyssa while on a mission. I'm not worried about doing it, I'm worried because it's excruciatingly painful."

Nico let out a chuckle, his head lulling to the side slightly. "I've had to do it to myself a couple times over the years, trust me I know. Now, not to be an ass, but can you get to it because I'm gonna pass out soon and I want to make sure you do it right."

Damian steeled himself and nodded, quickly readying the supplies and giving Nico a bundle of his torn suit jacket to bite down on. He set a small fire next to the car and put one of his knives in it as he undid the wires from Nico's wrists. His brother was right about the bleeding only getting worse no matter how much pressure he held. With the sounds of the on going fights still coming from the warehouse, Damian grabbed the scolding knife and began cauterizing his brother's wrists.

A/N: this one was a little shorter than I wanted, but I didn't wanna make it super graphic, so here we are. I usually try for like 1500 words for most chapters, but yeah.

Vote. Comment. Tell me what superlative you would give each bat boy (I really just want to read yours, I don't wanna make my own).

Summary- Nico is tied up with wire and beaten by joker. it is briefly televised, but then it cuts to Damian's pov. Robin gets Nico out while the others take down joker and Damian has to treat Nico's wounds since they are bleeding too much.