Protecting our leader.

Chapter Twenty-Two.

P.O.V of Jason.

"Have you seen Dick?"
I turned around, removing my ear bud from my ear, to see a panicked looking Damian standing in my doorway.
"Isn't he in his room?" I replied, if I'm being honest I rarely saw him anymore, as if he had turned into Damian.
"I thought that was where he'd be." Damian said, "But I've looked all over the manor and I can't find him anywhere."
"What about the mountain, maybe he went to see the team." I suggested.
"He just quit the team, I was following him out from the mountain." Damian said, walking into the room and sitting next to me on my bed.
I blinked in surprise, Dick had quit the team. He would never give up Robin, that just wasn't him. He prefered being Robin to himself, he must be much more depressed than I thought.
"Have you told Tim or Bruce?" I asked and Damian shook his head, "Alright, list off all his normal hiding spaces, outside of the grounds." I said, I had a few but Damian might have some that I didn't.
But the reaction that got from Damian really surprised me, instead of an answer I could have sworn I saw a glimmer of tears in his eyes, and his voice was cracking when he spoke at last, "Tall buildings, he likes to be in high places. You could die if you jumped from them." He paused and as I was about to speak he clutched my arm, "We have to find him. We can't let him...We can't."
It took me a moment but I quickly figured out what Damian was implying, he thought Dick had gone to kill himself. I whimpered at the thought, cursing myself for being weak when Damian was obvisouly keeping himself together so well.
"Alright, we need to tell Tim, Bruce and Alfred." My voice thick from the lump in my throat, "Maybe even Harley."
"I'll get on it." Damian nodded, standing up and looking back at me, "We'll find him." And then he left.
"Of course we'll find him," I muttered to myself, "But will he be breathing when we do?"

P.O.V of Dick.

I woke back up, my body shivering from the cold but I couldn't feel it. I could feel a metal surface on my back and see lights above me, bright and blinding like those in a sugery.
"I see you're awake." I didn't bother to look over at Slade as he stood from the chair in the corner of the room, "If you've not already noticed you're free to wander this room, though all doors and windows will be locked and I've had some bots built to tase you should you decide to try and escape. Meal's come when you please me and training is whenever I tell you it is. The bathroom is the alclove to the left, the cage from punishment the alclove to the right. I'll be back in five minutes and we'll being training." And with that he left, the metal door slient on oiled hinges as it was closed and locked behind him. I didn't move, I just couldn't find the energy to. The only thing I did do was close my eyes to prevent the lights blinding me. Maybe Bruce will come to save me, maybe he'll send the team.
Maybe he doesn't care.
"Get up." Slade growled and I did so.
I observed that he had removed his suit, instead opting to wear flexible work-out gear. Similar to the one that I'm in, but my arms had been bandaged to stop the bleeding from my reopened cuts. He didn't give a warning before he lunged at me, putting me on the defence. I was only half there as I parried with him, making sure that my guard was not completely up and that he may harm me. At least if I died this way it may not be found to be suicide. But even so, I still matched his every move and eventually he called for a stop.
"Good," Slade said, "You can keep up with me when I go easy on you, but what about when I stop holding back?"
"You'll kill me." I mummered, and that was the result I kept hoping for as he came at me again.
This time I didn't hold back either and found the battle challenging, and kill me now if I don't enjoy a challenge. I seemed to wake up in a sense then, and a glint of life came back to my eye as I forced Slade onto the defence. His eyes quickly flashed with surprise as I pushed him back and back, until he was almost at the wall. I felt a smile split across my face and I relaxed into the fight, but then I was taken from behind and thrown against the wall. I quickly got up to look at Deathstroke and one of what must be his bots.
"I give you less credit than I should," Deathstroke panted, "But keep an eye on your surroundings at all times as well as your opponent. I'll provide you dinner tonight. Impress me tomorrow if you want it again."
And he and the bot left, but my relapse was still here and I hoped it didn't go away any time soon. I examined the walls, the door and the windows for any route of escape, but the room proved to be well guarded. It would seem that I would have to wait for a slip up of any sort. Like the door not being locked... I walked over to it, finding it unlocked as predicted. But I didn't get more than half a step out of the room when a sword came at my head, I ducked and went on defence as about twenty bots circled my exit.
"Please step back in your room." One of them said in an automated voice.
Maybe not that way. I obliged them and this time I heard the door lock from the outside. I cursed them, the door and the window and the stupid lock that wasn't on this side of the door. But Deathstroke's cursing was the one that Alfred would wash my mouth out for.
I sat back on the table top which I assumed was meant to serve as just about everything for my stay whilst he converted me. As if I'd let him convert me, that would spell disaster for Gotham. Maybe even the rest of the world. Bruce had trained me to be nothing less than the best, and right now I kind of wish he didn't.

P.O.V of Damian.

I had searched with the family and the remains of the team when I was suddenly struck with how stupid I was.
"I'm going to check my camera's, we might have an idea of which way he headed off in." I said and ran back off to the manor and my room.
Father set the rest of the team to scout further out of Gotham anywhere where Dick might have gone. I arrived back in my room and rolled back the camera's to the previous evening and saw something that made my heart stop. Dick hadn't left, he had been willingly taken by Deathstroke.
"Batman, we're searching all wrong." I said through the comms.
"What do you mean?" Was the reply.
"He didn't exactly leave of his own accord." I explained, "He was taken by Deathstroke, he left through the window and my garden camera's don't take the back, we're still working on setting them up there."
"Mine do. Head to the Batcave, I'll get everyone else back now. And check up on Agent A, make sure he's still alright." He said.
I confirmed that I would and we cut off the connection. I left my room and headed to Alfred, who was in the office printing up missing photos of Dick. I peeked inside to see him holding a photograph of Dick's first day as Robin, wonder and joy written on his face. He sat next to the printer as it printed off way to many posters than was necessary but I left him be. I headed down to the cave and opened up the camera's that father had set up all over the house. I re-winded them to last night, just after the time I had read on mine but the screen didn't show our garden. No, instead it showed Deathstroke's logo pulsing, and after five minutes of that it turned back to show our empty garden.
"Did you get anything?" Father asked as he, Jason, Tim, Kaldur, Conner and Megan came into the cave.
"He hacked into the system and blocked the footage of him whilst he was here." I replied, "It's a dead end."
"Did you check all the camera's angled to his room though?" Father asked.
"There's more than one?" I blinked, he was more security obsessed than me, at least I knew where I got it from now.
Father took the seat and went through all the camera's all of them coming with the same result as the first. I was getting more and more agitated, and when we came to the fifth and final one I was about ready to smash the screen to pieces, but I kept my mask up, I controlled and channelled my emotions. And this time we had a result.
"He's gone west, just inside the tree line. Search for any clues to where he went next." Father said but Tim was already gone and the camera's showed him sprinting though the manor and out back. The rest of us quickly followed suit and soon enough we were all looking for clues to find our brother. The member of our family that kept us all sane.
Our Dickie-Bird.