Blood Ties

Chapter 10 -Under Pressure-

The walk was silent, while he wasn't exactly relaxed he was a lot less anxious than before, knowing Kid Flash hadn't sold him out. That didn't stop the nerves from crawling into his skin, making him itch on the inside like he was walking to his doom rather than a simple library.

The distance traveled was short, the entrance to the library was a wide, heavy, automatic lifting door. The sigh gave the apprentice a thought, knowing Batman, there was probably a secret passage behind one of the bookcases inside. He couldn't wait to find out where, it could be a good spot to hide in if he were to become too crowded.

His mischievous thought was quelled by a sudden observation. To fuel Renegades growing fear, the library was wide open, lots of open space, although it was rather dim.

Dim lights... lots of shadows... big open area.

Too vulnerable.

Canary kept walking in, and Renegade couldn't help but feel like a fish on a line, reeled in to be gutted and served for lunch.

On that happy imagery, Renegade was brought to a different room, smaller thankfully, but much more crowded.

Miss Martian was finally accounted for, she sat in a green single chair next to an identical but vacant chair. She sat stiffly and attentively, obviously here to pick at his brain. Again, a dead fish was brought to the young mercenaries mind.

Another being caught his attention, he would have mistaken him for Batman but he lacked the cape and the cowl, but certainly had the dark and brooding factor. The unnamed man's suit was all black, save it be the blue bird-like symbol across his chest onto his shoulders, even his utility belt was black. Now that's just bad style, Renegade critiqued.

He didn't realize he had paused in the doorway until Canary prodded him in, he nearly jumped out of his skin when she did, but he was able to minimize it to a flinch instead.

Batman-look-alike had a deep scowl and watched him with merciless eyes, if Renegade didn't know any better he might have assumed he was a bad guy, instead of himself.

"Sit." The man growled, masked eyes narrowing and head bending slightly down as if to show his dominance.

Renegade promptly sat in the vacant chair, keeping his gaze on the highest threat in the room. Renegade didn't want to show it, but he was really scared right now. This man scared him more than the Joker, more than Batman. His lungs shuddered without his permission and he grunted to hide it. His hands gripped each other in his lap as he felt his forehead begin to perspire.

Big empty room, dim lights, dangerous people.

This scene was screaming disaster, heavy on the dis. His panic was escalating to an alarming height, but was able to hide it from manifesting in a physical panic attack.

Canary slid over to the unnamed man, leaning casually against the chair that the young acrobat supposed was the man's chair.

"Renegade, this is Nightwing, he used to be a partner to Batman. He is going to talk to you." Canary said. If she noticed how nervous he was, she did nothing about it. He could only imagine what the telepath was getting from him, he was in no state to mentally shield himself. "He's going to ask you some questions, Miss Martian is here to assure you are telling the truth. But don't worry, anything said in this room stays here with us and Batman."

Of course, Renegade figured as much. 'Talk to' was a bit more like 'interrogate' in this situation, this guy didn't look like he did 'talk'. Besides, they were only trying to get information from him, not much else. The question was, should he answer?

Nightwing didn't sit, he kept standing, his folded arms like a wall, a wall that was about to fall on him.

"Canary says you don't want a therapist," Nightwing started and sat down, somehow able to maintain his aura of dominance. "You get your wish, this isn't therapy. This is an interrogation."