The Blind Bird [FINISHED]

Chapter 11

Nightwing stirred, opening his eyes but he didn't really expect to see anything. He couldn't even feel presence around him. He could tell he was at the mountain's medical bay because of the smell. All of the events came crashing down on him and he gasped, sitting up on the bed, only to grunt loudly and hunch over to the severe pain in his ribs. He felt his head pound at the sudden action and he felt around, feeling that he was shirtless with bandages and in jeans. He grunted, swishing his feet towards the floor. He didn't realize that the team had entered the room and saw all the scars on his back. All the whip marks, the still healing ones, the other scars that didn't make sense. Dick wasn't really paying attention. In fact he almost forgot about all of his scars.

"Dude..." Wally accidentally says out loud. Dick snapped his head to the voice, finally feeling the teammates presence. For some reason, he felt they were a nuisance, but then again, he found comfort in their stay. He sighed and felt himself being pushed back down onto the bed by an oh so familiar daddy bat.

"Dick you need to rest." Bruce says. Dick snapped his shoulders away from him, causing his chest to sting from the sudden jolt.

"I don't need to be babied, Bruce." Dick snapped, coldly.

"Fine, at least tell me what happened." Bruce says, not pushing the boy to sit down anymore.

  Dick sighed. So they didn't know about Deathstrokes presence. But didn't I tell them about him? No, I was electrocuted before I could. Dick commented in his mind. Should he trust them? Actually the real question is if he trusts them. He was skeptical considering he hasn't fully started trusting anyone since Daeathstroke told him about how he was gonna go dark side. He was trained to tap into his dark side but he never truly went full dark. He still had remorse for the people he killed and he still had nightmares from it.

  "Dick?" This time he knew that voice and it was non other than Connor. The one who really drew him away in the first place. That bubbled some anger up in him and he snapped around.

"What do you want?" He spat, sending his best blind glare at Superboy. Connor looked surprised, but instead he glared back.

"I want to know what happened, we all do." Connor says coldly.

Dick chuckled sadly. "Why, so you guys can call me a broken bird?" He stood up, receiving a screech from his ribs. He grabbed them and grunted. "So you guys can be scared of me?" He said that last one with venom present in his voice.

M'Gaan gasped. "I didn't mean that I swear." She say.

Dick listened to the world around him and no matter how mad he was and how sad he was, he was glad to be here and away from Deathstroke. "Whatever. You wanna know what happened?" He didn't wait for a reply, instead he continued. "I left the mountain because I found out my old team was talking behind my back about how broken and scared I was. And what hurt the most is knowing you guys abandoned me." Dicks blood started to boil again and he glared back at them.

"We thought you were-"

"What? Dead?" Dick spats coldly. He could feel them physically flinch. "Well I wasn't. I was suffering at the hands of a raging assassin who was trying to make me the perfect protege." Dick dead panned.

"We wouldn't have known that! You were off the grid for 3 years!" Artemis shouted.

"Exactly! And when did you give up on me?! Hm?!" Dick yelled back.

"We gave up last year in the winter." Kahldur explained.

Dick glared. "See, and all the while you guys were doing missions probably everywhere and you didn't bother to look in the forest in Gotham where I was placed?" He mainly shot that at Bruce who knew it was for him. "Some detective and team mates you all are." He says.

"What happened out there, Dick?" Bruce asked again, but his voice was laced with hurt.

Dick laughed, which made him cough and grab his side. "Your not letting this go," he mumbled to himself, "well when I was walking through Happy Harbor, I didn't exactly know where I was going and felt a familiar presence. When I turned around, he gripped my throat and shoved me against a wall."

  "Who?" Bruce asks.

  "Who do you think? Santa?" Dick says sarcastically. "It was Deathstroke. He wasn't proud of me when I call him that and that's when he kicked me to the ground. When I told him I wasn't Renegade anymore though he got even more mad and smashed my face in. I'm guessing I was electrocuted because I didn't call him master and I told you guys it was Deathstroke instead of Master." He explains.

  Dick paused, thinking back at Deathstroke. He knew he was keeping tabs on him, he just didn't know why. But with all that stuff about Dick crawling back to Deathstroke or tapping into his dark side was information he couldn't share. Not until he knew it was true. Not until he gets to the bottom of it.

  "There's something you aren't telling us." Bruce says after a moment of silence.

  Dick smiled. "Of course there is, Bruce." He says and straightens up. He makes his way to the door... Or at least he followed the presence of the team. He felt the door-hinge and started walking out, when Bruce said something.

  "What happened Dick? You used to tell me everything. You used to tell the team everything." He says, for the first time, he actually sounded depressed.

  Dick stopped at the door and didn't look back, just kept his face straight. "That Dick died when he was taken from Deathstroke. Im the new one. The new, broken, blind and serious Bird. The Dick Grayson you knew, I killed. Get used to it or stay away from me." Dick deadpans before fully leaving the room, feeling the teams shocked auras following him to the zeta tubes.