Bloodlines (Nightwing x Reader)

Chapter 17: Offers

"Thanks Rob, I'm just going to check on him. I think you should be the one tell Bruce."

"Will do (Y/n)."

I made my way through the halls of the cave, taking my time. Everything was silent, giving me time to think. My mind wandered to fairytales I had read as a kid after I was rescued. I liked reading them because everything worked out in the end, the prince and the princess lived happily ever after. But look at original stories, there wasn't happy endings, they were sugar coated over the years.

This wasn't a fairytale, and there wasn't going to be a happy ending.

Reality was becoming a prison.

Someone had to save me from my mind before I succumbed to the darkest parts of it.

I had built myself up, learned, and began to be happy. But I had built myself up on glass, and it had shattered. I had learned one side of the world, and I was becoming the other. My happiness was me trying to distract myself from the war.

I was still learning, growing, building. I had fallen down the walls, and was pulled back up. I was falling down again. But this time, I wasn't as afraid. I had seen the worst, felt true pain. I had learned that I wasn't perfect, I wasn't fine, I wasn't a hero.

I was chaos, I had been through Hell, I was from Hell. Yet somehow, the people around me gave me Heaven. Despite everything I had been through, I was still smiling, because deep down, I was crazy, all of us were.

When I reached his room I put my hand on his forehead, he was hot, dangerously hot. I bent some water from a sink and cooled it to the point where it was almost frozen. I placed the water on his forehead, keeping my hand up to keep it steady and on his forehead.

Robin had changed him out of his costume while I had been calling Wally and Artemis. I moved my wrist to the right, flicking the water back into the sink. I walked towards a corner of the room, where the chair that held his costume was. It was then I noticed a package sticking out of the utility belt. Vertigo must have put it there.

I picked up the package and ripped it open. A packet of blue powder and a piece of paper fell out of it. I picked the items up, setting the powder aside and unfolding the note.

Greeting (Y/n),
I do hope it is you who finds this note. The blue powder enclosed in the package is a cure for the poison, there is enough to make Nightwing conscious, and well for a few days again. But if you want him to live he'll need more.
Meet me in the mountains in Peak District, England. There you will find a house, your old home. If you come, I will give you a cure, I give you my word. Don't bother scanning the powder, I took all precautions. Tell no one of where you are going, burn the note.
~Brain
P.S Happy Birthday, you'll chose once again.

I looked up at the clock, it was December 31, almost 11:30. I was going to be 20 in half an hour. I glanced at the feverish, squirming, Nightwing, Brain was a villain who actually kept promises, I learned that the hard way.

Nightwing already had another layer of sweat collecting on his pale forehead. I closed my eyes tightly, igniting a small flame on my palm. The ends of the paper burned first, turning black and ashy, I dropped the note to the ground.

"This is for you Dick." I whispered, tears starting to form in my eyes, I sniffled, wiping my cheeks.

I put the cure in a glass of water, making him swallow it. I found a piece of paper and a pen, I had to at least leave a him a note.

Once I finished writing I looked at Nightwing once again. He wasn't sweating anymore, and was calmly sleeping. I set the note on the bedside table, taking off my necklace and setting it on top of the piece of paper, the ring on the chain glinted in the dim lamp light. I left a gentle kiss on his lips before slowly exiting the med bay.

While I was walking towards the zeta-tube I ran into Aqualad. He grabbed my wrist so I couldn't go around him. He knew something was wrong.

"Where are you going," He asked.

"Out," I mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

"(Y/n), where are you going?" He repeated, more stern this time.

"To save Dick, I'm going to give myself to the Brain for a cure. You can't tell anyone."

"I can't let you sacrifice yourself."

"As your friend, I'm asking you to let me go. As (H/n), I'm saying that you can't stop me."

He hesitantly let my wrist go. I gave him a nod before continuing my walk through the vast halls of the cave, my former home. We didn't say goodbyes much as heroes, goodbyes could mean that something could happen to us, we always try to stay on the bright side.

"Told you something was going to happen."

"You never said anything like this," I snapped.

"Touchy."

I started to memorize everything I could about the cave as I was walking. This was most likely going to be the last time I saw it. I ordered the computer to erase where I was going to zeta to. The closest I could get to Peak District was London.

"Goodbye," I whispered to no one. There wasn't a bright side for me anymore. Once I stepped through the zeta tube I would step into darkness. That was worthy of a goodbye.

Nightwing's P.O.V

I woke up feeling a lot better than I felt before. I couldn't wait to see (Y/n), maybe the poison passed through me. I noticed something glinting on the bedside table. Sitting up I looked to see what it was. (Y/n)'s necklace and a note. I opened the folded piece of paper slowly.

Dick,
this has to be done, for you. Brain has offered an exchange, a cure, for me. Some has already been given to you which is how you're able to read this.
I want to thank you. For loving me, for showing me light when I was surrounded by darkness. People say the hardest thing to live with is loving someone who doesn't love you back, but I have to disagree. I think the worst thing is when you're in love with someone who loves you back, and you have to leave them.
I remember one of my birthdays I was upset because I was spending it without my parents again. You told me that was how the universe works. That we love, and we hurt, until that's all we are, until we die. I will love you until I die.
With love and light~ (Y/n)

I dropped the note, looking at the necklace I gave her, and I screamed. It wasn't a scream of pain, or fear, or anger. It was a scream of loss, because loss, is the worst feeling.

The team came running into the med bay. I felt the affects of the poison crash over me again. My hands were shaking to the point of them looking blurry. I stood up, despite the teams, and my bodies, protests.

A slight crunch came from under my foot. I picked up a piece of paper. The edges were burnt off, only a few words were legible.

Peak District, England. Cure will come. Brain.