Forced Bonds

Chapter 18

[Unknown]
July 23, 00:11 CST

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There is a growing pain in Dick's head forcing him to wake from the void he had collapsed into. He isn't sure how long he has been out but doubts it was very long- he sees that small contraption that pumped what-ever-the-heck that black crap was lying on the floor.

A floor he is no longer connected too.

Slade looks up at the boy with amusement in his eyes and Dick starts to struggle, suspended in air. He silently groans as his movements make the cuffs on his ankles bite his skin. He stops struggling after a few seconds, swaying slightly in the air.

"Enjoy your little nap?" Slade asks, mirth evident in his voice. Dick growls in response. Then, the suspended boy smirks as an idea comes to his mind. He rocks his body forward hard, head butting the metal mask of the man. They collide with a crack, sending Slade staggering despite Robin's lack of momentum.

It brings a smile to the man's lips.

Dick uses the free time to climb up the chain. His hands are still cuffed behind him so he clenched his muscles and brings his body up into a ball. Gritting his teeth from the pain, he pulls his hands over so they were in front of his body and began to scale his own chains.

There has to be a way out, Dick thinks.

Then, through the darkness, he sees a rafter. If he could just get there, he can escape Slade for a bit! He quickens his climbing pace, moving one thing at a time in succession. Hands, legs, hands, legs.

"Robin~" Slade coos from underneath him. "You constantly impress me, but it's no use running."

Dick ignores him. He is so close- Hands, legs, hands, legs-

Dick reaches for the support of the rafter. His cuffed hands extending for the metal, but he feels the chain give way. He brushes the coolness of the rafter and plummets downwards.

"Noooo!" Dick cries as he missed. Instead of giving up, he grips onto the lowering chain, and begins to climb up it once again. Slade watches from where he holds the controls to the chain length. Watching the boy climb the lowering chains reminds him of walking up an escalator going down.

Dick's body screams at the torment of being tossed around. However, he continues to climb. One thought keeping him going: There had to be an end to the amount of chain. Once it's reaches its end, he could climb the rest of the way to the rafter. Blood runs down his face from his collision with Slade and his ankles are raw. He doesn't give up.

He is strong.

That thought leaves once the chains give way completely.

Time passes by in slow motion as the last stability of the chains left. Dick watches the ends that were connected to the ceiling pass through his hands and he starts to free fall. Dick knew what came next- it's happened before.

But he could never be prepared.

His eyes became dazed and memories surge through his brain, raking his body.

To Slade's surprise- Dick screams. It is a terrified, gut-wrenching scream, and wasn't overly appropriate for the situation. He studies Dick as he comes down, he had time to, Robin had really gotten up there. He is flailing and descending head first.

"Well that's not good," Slade observes. He positions himself effortlessly and catches Dick by the ankles, his head only a few feet above the ground. "Why are you still a flopping fish?"

He lays Dick down and watches him seizure with curious eyes before calling Claude. As he waits for his butler to come in, he wonders what happened.

Did falling do this to him? Some sort of phobia? Slade had predicted every single on of these events to happen- after all, it's what he would've done (when he was young, of course). He and Robin were so much alike- but he didn't predict this part. Slade had wanted to show Dick that he controlled all things here, but discovered something a little more interesting.

He found a crack in Robin's shield. What this crack was, he can't tell just yet, but when he can- Slade smiles- he would place the nail and drive the hammer.

And Robin would break.

Claude enters the room still dressed in his Principal apparel. "Master Wilson, you called?"

Slade just gestures for him to join him and Claude breaks his manner mask when he sees the kid writhing on the floor. "What the hell?" The corner of Slade's mouth twitches upward at the comment. "Excuse my language, Master Slade. My apologizes. Shall I bring him to the medical ward?"

Slade considers for a moment before having an excellent thought. "No," he decides. "I want you to bring the medical ward here. Prepare plenty of restraints- and treat him while your at it."

"May I ask why, sir?"

Slade glances at the man with a bit of annoyance. "Patience, Wintergreen, you wouldn't want to end back up in your own room would you. I remember that last time you learned a particular lesson about patience. Wouldn't want to revisit, would you?"

Claude's face goes stony and impassive, but Slade can tell he is screaming on the inside. "No, sir," he responds slowly, politely. Slade's mouth twitches again.

"Good. Now hurry, I want to treat him to fear gas as soon as he's ready. We are on a tight time table."

Claude nods, then something catches his gaze. "What's that?"

Slade looks over at the boy, and remembers.

Dick is still shaking relatively bad- so bad that it causes his limbs to jolt and come back down, hard. It rolled up the sleeves on his hoodie, and started chipping away at something on his arms. From a distance, it looked like he was flaking off skin to reveal a metal skeleton- but Slade recognized it immediately.

He turns and grins at Claude- not that the butler could see from behind the mask- but Slade was sure that his smile would've been bigger than the Joker's.

"Now, this," he says gesturing to Dick's squirming body. "This is going to be fun~"