Secrets hurt

Ch 12

There was something warm curled up by Dick's side when he woke... or rather someone.

Damian was curled up next to his recently proclaimed favorite brother, his face serene dispute the fact that he was currently clinging to a t-shirt stained with Dick's dried blood.

Dick's head throbbed and he closed his eyes, wishing for just a moment that the court hadn't sucked the electrum from his body... that and that Alfred would dim the lights.

A glance around proved that Bruce had been moved out of the med bay.

Dick lifted a hand to try and block the light out of his eyes, freezing when he felt the closely shorn strands of his hair.

"No..." he mumbled as he tried to force the memories back into their little box. "Not now..."

But really there wasn't anything he could do.

—

Dick was shaking, breath unsteady and eyes blown wide. What had he done?

The image of the woman he'd just killed wouldn't leave his mind, her glassy eyes staring up at him accusingly...

Everyone else was happy, congratulating him as they led him to a table set with food, seating him on one side, blood still flecking his face and clothes.

Why were they celebrating this? He'd just killed someone... that was bad... right?

Something told Dick there was someone who'd be extremely disappointed if they found out he'd taken a life... he couldn't remember who though. That memory had been locked away along with the rest of them.

"Eat," someone said, the tone a bit too commanding to be a simple invitation.

Dick physically couldn't stop himself from following the order, that was another aspect of the court's programming he supposed.

He took a bite of the food that had been set in front of him. Real food... it had been a long time since he'd had real food...

Dick felt his mind growing fuzzy, his limbs no longer obeying him after a few bites.

'At least the food was good,' he reasoned as masked owls dragged him to the operating room.

Dick was draped unceremoniously on an operating table where an incision was made just below his ribs.

The cut burned like fire, but Dick couldn't do anything other than lay there and blink slowly, whatever he'd been drugged with doing nothing to help with the pain.

A small circular device was tucked into the incision and up under his ribs.

'A tracking device,' his brain supplied. 'You really are theirs now...'

The incision slowly knitted itself closed, and then Dick was being dragged to another room, a man with clippers roughly grabbing his head and shaving his hair almost down to the scalp.

"Congratulations," he said when he was done. "You're finally one of us..."

Dick was starting to regain access to his limbs as he was dragged out of the room and back to the cell they called a room.

The two owls dumped him on the floor where he lay for a moment before crawling over to his sleeping corner and huddling there.

His freshly shorn hair scratched at his hands as tugged at the short strands.

They'd done it.

They'd made him a monster.

He squeezed his eyes closed, not daring to open them for fear he'd see the glassy gaze of the woman he'd killed looking back at him.

"You're finally one of us," they'd said, congratulating him as if taking a life was some sort of achievement.

He guessed it was true though... he was one of them now...

—

Dick sucked in a breath, shooting up in the bed despite the protests of his pounding head and aching body.

He'd forgotten about the tracker they'd implanted in him all those years ago... that meant they knew exactly where he was... they had this whole time.

He had to leave.

"Grayson?" Damian mumbled tiredly.

"Lil D..." Dick replied absentmindedly. He had to get out of there... had to keep his family safe. "I... I gotta go to the bathroom," he said, watching with relief as Damian nodded.

He slid off of the hospital bed, removing the various IVs and monitors attached to his skin.

Damian let out a contented hum as he scooted over to the spot Dick had been lying, still warm from his body heat.

Dick's heart broke at the thought of leaving... his father figure... his new brothers... he'd only just started to connect with them.

No... he had to go. They'd be better off without him... safer without him.

Dick wiped a tear from his cheek as he made his way out of the Batcave. "Goodbye everyone," he whispered. "Alfred, Tim, Jason, Damian, Bruce... I love you."