Unbreakable (A Dick Grayson story)

CH 25: Unbreakable

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Haly International Traveling Circus; where the world of the Century is your oyster. And these are our latest pearls, the Daring Dangers!"

The familiarity of it all was enough to make Dick feel ill, something not helped by the fact that he did in fact feel quite sick already. Not that he was going to complain. Bruce had barely let him go on this mission, considering the fact that Dick was still healing from being tortured, and Dick was not about to risk complaining and being sent home.

This was something that he needed to do.

Because if he did not find a way to solve whatever was going on with Haly's Circus, then it would be shut down, and Dick... well... Dick could not handle another loss in his life at the moment. His parents had loved the circus, had died performing for it. Protecting it from going out of business was the least that Dick could do.

That being said, Dick was definitely out of practice and his sickness was not helping. His leap fell short, eyes widening in panic as he plummeted straight for the ground.

Was this how it would end?

Like his parents.

If he was being honest, Dick was unsure if he felt relieved when Connor boosted him back into the air on a barrel and M'gann caught him. Falling to his death would have been poetic justice, after all.

No.

He could not afford to think about that, not now at least. He needed to focus on things getting better. Because they would get better.

Bruce said they would.

Except things were not getting better, at least for the mission.

They had failed to catch the thief, a building had exploded, M'gann had nearly died from the fire, and Dick was still feeling out of it. To make matters worse, while Wally had told the team his true identity in order to help rescue him, none of them seemed to understand his connection to the circus.

"Maybe Haly is the culprit." Connor insisted, standing protectively over M'gann, eyes narrowed angrily.

Dick gritted his teeth, shaking his head. "Haly didn't do it."

"Come on, Robin... this is his circus. It would make sense." Artemis placed a hand on Dick's shoulder, frowning when he flinched away from the touch.

"It's not Haly. Keep an open mind about it." He insisted, turning toward the door. He wished Wally was there. Or even Jason. But Wally was busy, and Jason had his own hero work to do, which meant that it was just Dick and the rest of the team, plus Red Arrow.

And Dick honestly did not know Red Arrow all that well. Apparently, he was friends with Jason which was why he had tagged along.

Speaking of Red Arrow...

"Robin, are you alright?" The archer asked, stepping up behind Dick and blocking him off from the rest of the team.

Dick let out a soft sigh, shoulders slumping as he managed a faint nod. "Yeah... I'm fine. I'm going to go for a walk."

"Okay... if you're not back in half an hour, I'll come find you."

"Thanks." Dick mumbled, giving him a weak smile before stepping out of their train compartment, ignoring his teammates protests at his leaving. He really could not deal with them at the moment.

It was like they were babying him to the point where everything that he said was automatically ignored. Still, he could not blame them for it. This was his first mission back, after all, and, while he had spent time just hanging out with the team, it felt like they were walking on eggshells around him.