The Angel of Death

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I stood after a moment, groaning as I felt the bruises and burns from Minos' sword. A little ambrosia and they'd be fine, but I'd left my bag somewhere between the truck and the basement fight and didn't know where to find it. I'd have to retrace my steps. I could always call Will, and have him bring me some, but I didn't want to bother him, he said he was busy lately with all the extra training. I wondered if he had figured out where I was yet. I'd told him Gotham, and I know camp didn't exactly do the internet but I'm pretty sure Bruce Wayne's newest son wasn't going to be old news for a while yet. It probably never would be, judging from what I'd heard. That is, if I was still his son after all this. I suppose I technically never was, and I couldn't be unless I could somehow magically manifest a file for myself that wasn't from the forties, and I didn't have that kind of power. Usually I'd ask my father if he could, but...

And that was assuming that Bruce even wanted me still.

I was lost in my thought process and didn't remember the weird doorway behind me until something wrapped around my leg and I was suddenly tasting the concrete (which was gross, thank you) and being dragged across the room.

I could swear it was fog wrapped around my ankle, but that made no sense. I tried to cut it, but my sword passed right through the silvery substance, despite its very solid grip on my leg. I summoned my wings, but they did no good either, both in trying to cut the weird tentacle-thing and trying to pull myself free. I dug my sword into the ground in a last-ditch effort, but it dragged through the solid concrete like it was butter, and my sweaty hand lost its grip when the thing pulling me gave a harsh, unexpected tug and I shouted as my sword was left behind, sticking out of the ground in a weird angle and the rest of me was pulled through the doorway and into a dark so complete even I couldn't see anything.

-

Bruce had only ever had to tell one of his sons that he'd lost one of them before- Dick, when Jason had died. Tim and Damian hadn't known him before he came back, so it hadn't been the same for them. And as terrible as it had been for him and Dick, telling them Nico had been taken away was somehow worse.

Because now Bruce was faced with four different levels of shock and heartbreak, and all his sons reacted very differently. Dick crumbled. He slouched over on the couch he was sitting on and put his head in his hands, not making a single sound. Bruce knew he was blaming himself, he knew something had happened before Nico had left between the two, but with all that had happened since, he hadn't had a chance to ask.

Jason was angry. Angrier than Bruce had seen him since he'd come back from the Pit. His jaw was clenched so tight Bruce worried for his teeth, and his eyes were dark, his breathing even in a way that was more terrifying than if he had blown up and started attacking them all.

Tim let out a 'whoosh' of air like he'd had the breath knocked out of him, and blinked, staring shocked down at the carpet under his feet. Bruce hadn't thought Tim and Nico had gotten as close as they were with the other boys, but Nico's sudden departure had hurt Tim, too.

Damian went sort of lax. His arms- which had been folded since Bruce had called this family meeting- dropped down to his sides, and for a moment, his tough exterior cracked open. Then he was turning on his heel and disappearing up the stairs into his room, the door closing with a loud snap. And then it was quiet.

Bruce let himself sit down, too, mirroring Dick's posture; head in hands, elbows resting on his knees. He let every scenario run through his mind on how he could've prevented this from happening. If he'd been more present, more observant, he could have seen something was different about Nico. God, powers? He's known things, of course, and he'd made assumptions based on those things- Alfred said Nico had an abnormal amount of scars- more like what you would see on one of the Justice League members or a seasoned soldier than a child. He'd also mentioned tattoos- all of which he'd said looked at least more than a year old, and Nico was only sixteen. Of course Bruce had drawn conclusions, but he hadn't pried, he'd assumed Nico had been through it in his short lifetime, and he wanted the boy to open up on his own, not feel pressured. But maybe Bruce should have pushed?

He looked up when Dick sucked in a breath. His oldest son had lifted his head, and looked at Bruce and Jason. Tim had followed Damian, and Bruce let them be. "I mean..." Dick started, voice soft and desperate. "It's not like he's gone forever, right? He'll still come visit?"

Jason surprised both of them by dropping to sit next to Dick and resting his head on his brother's shoulder. "Does he want to see us? Things were pretty tense between all of us before he left. What if he doesn't want to come back?" Dick didn't have an answer, he just shifted his arm to wrap around Jason's shoulder and looked at Bruce with the same eyes he'd shown him when he'd broken the news that Jason had been killed- like Dick himself was dying, and it broke Bruce's heart into even more fragments.

Damian came back down the stairs, Tim hot on his heels after Bruce didn't know how long of him just sitting there- Dick leaned against one side of him and Jason on the other, all three of them thinking how things could've gone differently, all blaming themselves in the way only the most selfless people really can.

"Father," Damian said. "I think you should see this." Bruce could hear the urgency in his youngest's voice, and it was able to stir him from his wallowing. If Damian's eyes were a little red, no one said anything as he and Tim led them back through to the batcave, where the computer was showing Dyson di Angelo's file, presumably the one the agency had authenticated for him to gain custody of Nico. Beside it was a birth certificate, Nico's to be exact. One that, as far as Bruce knew, hadn't previously existed. He would know, he'd spent much time looking for it, or any sign of Nico at all.

"What is it?" Bruce asked, interest already piqued.

"Damian and I were looking into this Dyson guy-" Tim spat the name with such foul venom Bruce might've thought it was a cuss word instead of a name- "and we found something weird." Tim pointed to the section of Dyson's records that listed previous employment. Several corporations were listed. "I looked into all of these places, and none of them have any record of ever having a "Dyson" or even a di Angelo at all, work for them. The first time, I thought it might've been a system error, but..." But once it kept happening, it had become apparent that it wasn't an error, and that Dyson simply hadn't worked at any of these places. Bruce furrowed his brow. "There's more. He's listed his next of kin as his wife, Penelopae, but according to government records, she doesn't exist. She had no information at all- driver's licence, birth certificate, or anything. There isn't even a marriage licence."

Bruce narrowed his eyes. "The agency should have caught that if they checked him as thoroughly as they should have."

Damian cleared his throat, pulling their attention to him. "While Drake was playing around with government databases, I discovered something as well." He gestured to the birth certificate the man had produced for Nico, as well as one which looked to be Dyson's. "Look closely. What do you notice?"

Dick tilted his head to the side a little. "There's an error," he muttered.

"Exactly. Nico's last name is 'di Angelo'. On both of these certificates, it reads 'D'Angelo' instead." Damian looked at Bruce. "All these documents are fake, Father."

Bruce frowned. "But why wasn't this discovered when the CPS agency screened him? Something as easy as a spelling mistake on a birth certificate–"

"Bruce, didn't you bribe the workers there to get through the process faster? He could've done the same. He likely paid them to overlook discrepancies. You know how overcrowded and overrun those places are, especially in Gotham, they would have been glad to get one more case off their hands."

Bruce didn't like the way the pieces were connecting his head- the fake documents, the suspicious aura, the way Nico had protested the fact that he could even have an uncle to begin with. "Fuck," he finally said. "Everyone suit up. Tim, get the guy's address. We're going to do a little of our own investigating." 

dont mess with bruces kids man. Daddybats is scarier than hades sometimes. also, is nico about to meet our big bad villain??? **le gasp**

second round of put a finger down, u guys ready? 

Put a finger down if you have to drive more than an hour to get good produce. 

also, little fun (ahem freaky) fact- barnacles- the things that stick on whales and the sides of ships- are actually classified as arthropods- the same class as insects and spiders and crabs, because they are actually little creatures living in shell-like things that use thier tiny legs to cling to stuff. I dont like that. theyre like spiders in tanks