Protecting our leader.

Chapter Twenty-Five.

P.O.V of Bruce.

The first place I looked showed no results, no had seen him nor had anyone been fired. And so the same story went for the first three offices but the fourth was men short. And so that meant at least part of the story was true, which gave me something to work with. However, this would have to stay a job for Bruce Wayne and not Batman, which would hinder me greatly.
"Mister Wayne, what brings you here?" The desk man asked as I entered the building.
"Just checking up on the work. Someone needs to keep this place profiting whilst Zuch's gone." I replied, "Can I see the register please?"
"Yes, of course." He rifled around under the desk than pulled out a thick book and handed it to me.
I flicked through the pages, looking for when Zuch last signed in, which was three weeks ago. Finally, something that didn't add up.
"I see some of the workers haven't been in recently." I said as I handed the register back, "Sudden sickness?"
"Fired sir." He replied, "Mister Zuch called up two nights ago and got rid of them for drug usage. He never came to check on us again. And now I hear he's missing."
"Thank you." I said as I walked out of the door.
Once in the car and on the road again I called up Alfred, "What do you need Master Bruce?"
"Can you load up the phone addresses, Robert phoned in to fire them. I need to get the location." I said.
"Of course sir." And he hung up.
I pulled up to Costa, parked the car and sat down for a coffee.

P.O.V of Robert.

I saw the boy raise the gun to his head, Bruce's first adoptive son, and then he pulled the trigger. The image replayed in my head again and again in the dark room I was trapped in. I don't know what went through his head, I don't even want to know how it happened and ended. I had been dragged out the room before I could see if he had been stopped. I really hoped it had been, the kid didn't deserve to die, he had a bright future ahead of him. But I did want food and water. It had only been twelve hours but in this darkness I couldn't tell anymore, the battery in my watch now dead. I know that they didn't plan on feeding me, or watering me and that I was going to die a slow and painful death.
I heard a gush and then water started pooling at my feet. But it didn't stop, it rose to my ankles, my knees.
"HELP! HELP!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, banging on the air tight door as I suddenly burst into action, "HELP ME SOMEONE PLEASE!"
It was at my waist now, I back from the door and tried to look around the pitch black room, but I couldn't see anything. I was going to die here, and no one would ever know what happened to me.
What happened to Richard Grayson.
"HELP!" I screamed again as it rose to my chest.
I continued to bang and scream as it rose until it covered my head. I held my breath for as long as possible, white spots appearing in my vision as the rumble of the water continued to grow louder.

P.O.V of Jason.

I had heard screaming, and instantly changed the direction of my bike towards it. It had been a whole 48 hours since Dick had gone missing. Well, at least he was still missing, it meant he could still be alive. And alive was good, we could always save him if he was alive. Well, at least try to. I stopped the bike as I thought I heard something, removing my helmet and straining my ears.
There it was again, someone screaming bloody murder. And they sounded not to far, I instantly broke into a sprint, trying not to get my hopes up that it would be Dick, and the sound broke out again, much louder but muffled by a wall. I quickly turned on the heat vision from my mask and saw that there was a man behind this wall. I could tell it wasn't Dick from the amount of man there was but the heat from him was muffled by a cold substance, my guess is water. I turned it off and began to look for a weak point in the wall, found a loose-ish brick and pushed it through with all my might. Instantly water came pouring out the small hole and some of the other bricks also collapsed. Whilst the water began to drain out I called up Bruce.
"Batman, I have someone of interest to you." I said.
"Who is it?" He growled back in his usual fashion when I didn't get straight to the point.
"I have reason to believe his name is Robert Zuch and he almost drowned." I said.
"I'll be right there, make sure he's okay." And he silenced his side of the line.
"Does he look okay?" Tim's voice cut through the radio.
"He looks like a soppy dog." I replied with a slight chuckle, "But apart from that he seems fine."
The line went back to silence and a few minutes later Bruce dropped down next to me.
"Where is he?" He asked.
"Still in there." I replied pointing through the small hole to where he was lying on the ground where a small amount of water was trickling through, but nothing enough to be alarming.
He gave me a glare as if to say I should have got him out, and went in to drag him out himself. I waited up on the grass, making sure that there was nothing else suspicious around, and there wasn't. I turned back around to see Bruce lying Zuch on his side, a slow line of water dribbling of his mouth. A couple more seconds and he was conscious again.
"Zuch, I need to know what you saw in there." Bruce said, not giving them a a chance to recover.
"Am I alive?" I asked.
"Yes, did you see anything?" Batman pressed.
"Oh god...that boy..." He began, a horrified look crowding his features and my heart started racing.
"Tell me exactly what happened!"
"Bruce's son...Poor little Dick... he. I. He. I couldn't stop him." And he broke into sobs, but it was cut into a coughing fit as water surfaced from his lungs.
I heard a figure settle in the roof above me, it could have been anyone but my bets were on Tim.
"What happened!?" Batman was close to threatening now, but the horror was still more intense on Zuch's face than fear.
"He had a choice. He.. he could kill me quickly or leave me to die. To die slowly. He didn't. He didn't choose either. 
He shot himself."
I felt Bruce recoil as my senses came to a stop on those words. Dick was dead. Bruce jumped down the wall and broken through the door, he was going to see him. I couldn't bring myself to, I didn't want to see Dick like that. Vulnerable in his last moments, probably still thinking we hated him. I couldn't even remember the last thing I said to him, it was probably me being angry at him for not getting better. I felt tears prick my eyes as the cold wind stopped biting at me, or I just stopped feeling it. I couldn't tell anymore.
Dick was never coming home.

P.O.V of Tim.

The words that came out of Roberts mouth but Bruce had gone in and seen it himself, he had even got some images that he would send to the G.P.D tomorrow. And that confirmed what we believed.
Or so they thought.
I had hung back, wanting to say my last goodbyes to Dick when I saw that the body didn't add up. The hair was more blue black than black to be Dick's, and the skin to fair.
"Tim, it's going to be okay."  Bruce placed a hand on my shoulder, his voice thick as he tried not to cry in front of us.
"He's alive." I whispered, still staring at the images.
"Timmy, please..." His voice cracked and I pulled away towards the screen.
"Look, it was planned to look like Dick shot himself, but this isn't him." I looked over my shoulder to see Bruce watching me with pity in his eyes, "I'm not insane, look at the skin. Dick's is slightly tanned but this dude is fair as the day. How about the hair? Look at it, the black is too blue for Dick's shade. What about this? Robert said he saw him shoot himself, but is he did that the blood stain on the wall is Angeles wrong, it's slightly down as if he was in his knees and he was shot by someone else." I looked back over to Bruce and saw him also analysing the scene.
"But that would mean they've moved." Bruce mused, "Which means that he's resisting. But how does Zuch's story fit?"
"Maybe Dick did go to kill himself, but Zuch was knocked out before he could see what happened." I suggested.
"I need you to go back to the station and see what Zuch told the police. Bring me any new information. I'm heading back to where we found him and see if I can find any clues."
I nodded and we split up to do our jobs, the day night still look up yet.