(no subject)

[daringyoungman]

Bruce,

I found Harvey Dent, but lost him again. You're not the only one looking for him. A guy named Shrike is runnign a school for killers... kids my age. He calls it a Vengeance Academy.

I kind of got in over my head.

I'm going back there because he's got some kind of lead on Dent.

 

  

Dick leaves the note in the Cave. He should stay and talk to Bruce, but he can't - he just can't. Even the appearance of Alfred has him running. 

 

He messed up so much and only the fact that lives are at risk has him even here.

 

He does remember what Klaus said, and leaves cake from Bar with the note. Two, in fact, one for Bruce and one for Alfred.

(The cave is warm from the whirring of the Bat computer and the yellow light of the screens, Bruce's chair smells of leather and disinfectant and his expensive cologne.

He wants to stay here forever.
He wants to come back.)

 

 

He returns to the Academy later. Too late.

 

 "Where were you?" asks Shrike.

 

"I got separated from the others and--"

 

"Lies. And that's not the first one."

Shrike has a picture, stolen from Dick's personal belongings - stupid stupid why did he have this? - of Dick, and John and Mary Grayson outside the Big Top, a picture he only had because he couldn't go back the the Manor.

 

 

 

 

Boone grabs him from behind, and Dick can feel the glee in his stance and his body as he holds the younger boy back. He knows there's a grin of delight on his face. He knows Boone is looking forward to this.
 

(And Dick thought they were friends.)

 

 

 

Boone doesn't hit him, though. He holds him, and Shrike is the one that hits him. The full force of a grown man, an expert kick right in Dick's face. This isn't the delighted fury of Two-Face, this is the cold strike of an assassin who knows exactly how to get blood and pain in just the right amount needed to get Dick to talk.

 

"I had such high hopes for you, 'Freddy.' The other boys pale in comparison. In time I would have presented you to the O-Sensei, the master of masters. The world, as they say would have been your oyster. But you had to go and muck it all up! I will ask just once more...
 

 

"Who are you?"

 

Dick swallows spit and blood and looks right up at Shrike.
 

 

"Robin."

 

"Who?!"

 

 

 

"You heard what he said."

 

The answer is cold, heavy, dropped into the darkness of the Academy's dojo like a glacier.

"His name is Robin. 

"He's my partner."