Protecting our leader.

Chapter Sixteen

P.O.V of Tim.

We escorted Dick down to the Batcave to get a final reading from Slade. As much as we didn't trust him we knew he wanted the real Dick back so that he could train him. Unfortunately, we did have to keep Dick chained, but he had already reassured me that he could escape without thinking about it, and the fact he wasn't just made me more confident in him.
"Morning Deathstroke." Kaldur greeted, "We have Richard."
"And you want me to give him the antidote?" He said, "I'd have to make it up first."
"No, we believe he has come back without the antidote." Kaldur said, "We just wish for you to run a final test."
"Of course." He turned to Dick, "I'm going to need some of your blood."
"Tim, would you do the honours?" He turned to me, jangling his chains.
"Do it yourself." I chuckled and he gave a dramtic role of his eyes as he slipped out of the chains to the surprised look of his team and our brothers, but Bruce looked like he knew Dick could have done it already.
He then made a small cut on his arm and held it out to Slade. Slade took some of the blood and moved over to his little table at the back of his cell. We all stood in silence for ten minutes as he went through the procedure and then turned back to us. I could have almost swore that Slade and Dick exchanged a look but when I took a proper look they were back to normal. I must have imagined it.
"He's clean." Slade announced, "None of the serum left in his system at all."
"What did I tell you?" Dick said, "You just can't seem to get rid of me."
Bruce put a hand on his shoulder and he flinched in surprise, "It would seem that way, wouldn't it?"
"So," He said, "Do we just go back to normal now?"
"No, we have a few points we all need to get together and discuss before anything like this happens again." Wally said, "And I'm going to go first."
"What, you have a big secret that the world doesn't know yet?" Dick chuckled.
"We'll do it upstairs, we don't want any eavesdroppers." Wally said with a pointed look at Slade and we all headed upstairs and settled into the lounge.
"Make it quick, you all need to be at Gotham Academy in an hour." Bruce said.
"Yeah, yeah." Dick chuckled, "I've already completed that school twice. I think I'll pass with no mistakes again for the third time."
Bruce gave him a look and told Wally to get on with what he was going to say.
"It's not really my secret to tell." He said, "But the actual secret holder isn't going to be telling anybody. It's about you Rob."
I saw Dick stiffen and I think I knew what Wally was about to bring up. And by the way that Jay's and Dami's eyes were moving to his leg, I think they did too.
"That time he went missing when we were working on the trafficking ring case," Wally took in a deep breath, "He was taken and used by the ring."
Dick sat stock still as the others all looked to him, emotions running in their eyes, but the look of hurt and betrayal on Bruce's was the worst by far. Nothing was said for a while, just the shocked silence filled the room. Megan was the first to speak, "Rob, is what he's saying true?"
"Of course not." He lied, "Why would I not tell you if I had been being raped for two weeks, three times a day by some guy that I was meant to stop?"
"Alright then," Wally said, "If you're going to play it like that I bet you'd be confident that there was no brand burnt in down the side of your leg."
"There isn't." He growled back.
"Dick-" I tried.
"Shut it Tim." He said, "I said it didn't happen, so therefore, it didn't happen."
"Then show us your leg." Jason joined in.
"I don't have to do anything for you." He snarled, "Because I was fine and working a private case."
"Dick," He turned to face Bruce, "I need to know if what your brothers and Wally are saying is true. Show us where this scar is meant to be."
I saw him hesitate, and I didn't blame him. I was something no one would want to share, and to add to it, it was only three months in the past. But, eventually he removed his top and trousers so that we could see all his scars. Of course, the team were taken aback by how many there were, but Bruce was near tears at the sight of the 'Property of Jerffery Crowder' one. But I noticed some raw ones on his back.
"What are they?" I asked, pointing them out.
"Oh, it was where master had me whipped and then I had to rub a teaspoon of salt into them everytime I failed a mission or wasted time." He replied.
I shuddered at the thought, Dick had been whipped by Niles and when ordered to rub salt into his wounds, he would have done it without a second thought.
"We will continue this line of conversation later." Kaldur said, his voice wavering with pain, "For now we must get to school and continue in our roles."
We all got ready for school and headed down to the academy, leaving Bruce to start a search for Niles and bring him to justice.

P.O.V of Dick.

My first lesson was Science, and my teacher; Kid Flash. This would be a prime time to act on my orders, escpalliy after the lies he had told earlier. I had not been taken to the trafficking ring, I was delievered, first class, by him. And now he wanted to play like he had nothing to do with it. I, again, supressed my rage. Anger would not get me anywhere, to be any good I had to enter the killing calm. And so when he handed out all these flammable and toxic chemicals for a practical, I was beaming ear to ear. I poured the flammable liquid onto his bag that contained all his extra food and uniform, then threw a match in with it. The flames instantly engulfed the bag and followed the trail of liquid to Gertrude's desk. Then I stole his one water bottle from the desk and poured in the toxic liquid, thanking the Owl's that his bottle was opeque.
"Everyone out now." Wally called, "Hit the fire alarms. Go."
The class abandoned the classroom, leaving Wally to try and put out the fire. Once everyone was out, I locked the door with him inside. Hopefully the smoke would be enough to kill him. If not, he would grab his bottle and drink some in hopes of getting rid of the dryness in his throat. And if that didn't happen, I could just stab him through the heart. Thinking about it, that was better then taking chances. I removed my shortsword from my backpack and unsheated it, unlocking the door. I soaked a ripped off strip of my shirt in water and tied it around my nose and mouth and entered the room. It was hard to see, so I shoved on a pair of safety goggles so that the smoke wouldn't enter my eyes and saw a shillouette move towards me. I didn't think, I raised my sword ready to cut across the gut but they avioded it at the last minute and came up behind me. I flipped around to face them and saw horror and betrayal in his eyes.
"What?" I smirked, "You thought that I would fall for your lies ever again? Master has given me freedom, and a mission. And I have to agree with him, no one would care if you died."
"Rob, you don't want to do this." He said, backing out of the smoke and into the more breathable air of the corridor.
"I've been waiting for this moment since you all overpowered me on Saturday." I cackled, "And now, I can use all those techniquies I practiced on all of those innocents. I can't wait to hear your screams."
I didn't give a chance to reply as I lunged at him again, but he dodged and I brought my leg across the floor where I knew he would step, bringing him to faceplant into the ground. I placed my shortsword at his throat and he looked up at me with such betrayal and hurt that it made me feel slightly sorry for him. Joke, as if I could ever feel sorry for him.
"Wally, Richard." I heard from behind me but their footsteps stopped as Artemis saw the position we were in, "Rob, what are you doing?"
"I was going to have some fun with this guy here, but first," I quickly threw a knife at her, and another, embedding in her arms and pinning her to the wall with a scream of pain, "First is story time."
I shoved my sword down into Wallace's arm to his scream of pain as he was pinned in place and turned to face Artemis.
"Once upon a time, there was a young boy called Richard Grayson who only wanted to be able to perform in the circus with his family. But a family caught wind of his ideals, their family wasn't great and so the Crock's hired Tony Zucco to kill his family. He was then adopted by Bruce Wayne, and you'd imagine life would get better, but no. Poor Richard was kept as a slave, abused for years. And when Bruce adopted his new brothers, they joined in abusing him. So when he was told he could join a team of sidekicks he would do anything to get out of the house of his abusive family. But on the team he found nothing better. Do you know what he found? Pain. The girl who had ordered the murder of his famliy; Artemis Crock. The girl who abused him mentally by making him believe that there was nothing wrong with his situation; M'gann M'orzz. The boy who wanted to stop him from thinking for himself; Kaldur'ahm. The clone who wanted to make sure his wounds never healed; Conner Kent. And the boy who sold him to a trafficking ring; Wallace West. And so when the Owls took him in and showed him the truth he knew he had to get revenge and make sure everyone paid for what they did to him. And that was what master made him do, make sure he was the best as he could be, make sure he was free. And allow him to kill those that deserved to be killed. And then once everyone is dead, Richard will be truly free and bring real justice to the world, not the fake justice that was fed to him by the Team and Batman. The end."
They seemed shocked by what I had just said, as if they had imagined I would always remain their pet with no idea what was really going on.
"You think what you say is the truth." Wally said, "But it isn't." I turned to see him with tears in his eyes and betrayal on his face.
"I've never been more certain of anything in my life." I replied, "Now I think I'll just leave you guys to sufocate on the smoke."
And with that I left.