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He was staring at their bodies.
Bruce. Damian. Tim. Clark. Wally. Countless others.
They were strewn around him in bloody piles, eyes open and staring back at him, some covered by masks and some not; something inside of Dick cracked and shattered when he looked up and saw Jason’s body, lying next to Kori and Roy’s bodies, where he’d tried to protect them.
Even Slade lay near to Green Arrow, back broken and two or three bullets through his skull. It was obvious that he had taken the shots for either Canary or Arrow, from the way they lay around him, protecting his body.
Dick had been too late to even see what had happened, only arriving after the fighting had finished. He had run faster than he ever had before but was still too late; he saw the light fading from Kori’s eyes as she fell in front of him, succumbing to her wounds. Blood began to soak into his suit.
Whatever it was inside of Dick that had shattered began to scream. Spirals of power exploded around him, encasing his hands as he fell onto his knees. He didn’t register something ripping through his costume along his back, didn’t register that a shadow much bigger than his own had fallen around him. He did register however, that something was crawling up his arms.
He opened his eyes, a tear slipping under his mask and resting on his cheek as he looked at his arms. He watched… something… crawl up his arms… maybe energy? Dick was transfixed by whatever it was, as it encased his arms and began to bleed down his suit, hardening into oddly flexible armour. It shifted in colour, changing his Nightwing emblem to Batsuit-black. It was only then when he realised why he felt so top heavy.
He had wings.
Huge white feathered wings that were at least 10 foot on each side; Dick experimentally moved them, and… wow… they responded perfectly. They dipped onto the ground and blood began to soak the bottom feathers.
When his eyes followed the movement, he felt his world crash again when his eyes fell on Bruce’s face, blood slowly making its way down the side of his cowl. Looking at his adoptive Father, his spirit hardened.
They wouldn’t go unavenged.
He felt another tear fall down his cheek when Dick thought about how he would never get to hear Bruce’s irritating grunts or see the way Jason’s eyes lit up when they did something together. He would never get to spend hours debating with Tim, or spar with Damian.
A broken sob forced its way out of Dick’s lungs as he stood up on unsteady feet; then promptly fell over again, not accounting for the gained weight on his back. Another sob had him gritting his teeth again sorrow that threatened to drown him. He could barely walk without falling, how was he supposed to avenge anyone?
Finally, Dick got the hang of walking, then running, with his newly found wings. It was child’s play after that to adjust his acrobatics so he didn’t fall on his face. Dick, feeling numb, searched through piles of partially broken machinery around him, trying to find something, anything to guide him to who did this. Shifting through the piles, Dick found a screen that was not too cracked and broken and turned it on. Once on, he hacked through the files and accessed the camera footage from earlier in the day.
On the screen gathered a group of villains, and Dick immediately recognised the group as the Light. Lex Luther, Queen Bee, Black Manta, The Brain, Klarion and Vandal Savage. Ra’s al Ghul wasn’t there and looked like he had either left or had been kicked out of the group; his screen had been removed and no League of Shadow’s members were standing in his place.
Fire burned in his chest as Savage asked on whether everyone was clear on the plan. Everyone casually wrote off the deaths of his family like they were nothing. Then something caught his attention. Luther was talking.
“And we are meeting afterwards on your island? Are you sure it will be safe?”
Savage laughed and didn’t say anything else. Dick’s chest heaved in sanger, but he pushed the emotion down in favour of finding out where the island was. After only a few minutes, he had the location imputed into his wrist computer.
Might as well put his wings to use- if he was going to use them for anything, flying to murder a group of villains on an island seemed like an (awful) idea. Raising his wings into the air, he began to flap them back and forth, softly at first, until he got a rhythm. His feet slowly lifted off the floor and Dick saw that the end feathers had been dyed red from the blood.
How fitting.
Raising his wings further, Dick shot into the air after one last look at his dead family. The wind whistled in his ears, but only one thought encompassed his being: they needed to pay.
Pay for killing his family.
Pay for making him look at Clark’s cold blue eyes.
Pay for making him see the broken and bleeding bodies of his closest family for the second time in his life. The first time, Bruce had picked him back up. This time?
This time his anger and would take him the rest of the way.
Feeling numbness spread around his body, Dick focused on the pit of rage and desperate sorrow building in his gut, making his hands tremble as he flew through the air. His wings pulsed in the air as the air thickened with clouds; it didn’t rain though, the sky just went dark, lightning and thunder crackling overhead, but no rain… almost as if the sky was asking for permission. He furiously wiped away the tears from his cheeks as he flew.
He knew he should have asked some questions and done some research about his wings… or the armour… but he pushed it back, anger sparking to the front of his mind again as an island came into view. He landed on the beach and looked at the sky; as soon as he did, a drop of rain landed in between his eyes. His wings curled around his sides and he extended the feathers, making them look as big as possible.
As he walked, the rain fell along side him, soaking his hair and rolling off his feathers and costume. Lightning hit the ground a few feet to his left and thunder crashed, so close that it was virtually in his ears. Dick didn’t flinch.
There was a dome in the centre of the island; Dick flew up to the glass top and dropped. The sound of glass splintering underfoot was the only thing he could hear for a few seconds it took for him to hit the floor… or the table. His feet hit the table that was in the centre of the room, and the small group of villains flew backwards into defensive positions. Dick kept his head down and extended his wings out, blood-dyed tips on show for everyone to see.
“You killed them…” his voice was barely a whisper in the room of supervillains.
They stared at him until Savage let out a low chuckle. “And the Great Nightwing survived by the looks of it. With a few upgrades by the looks of things. Are you here to fight for your family, boy?”
The rain poured in through the jagged gap in the ceiling, still falling onto Nightwing. A strike of lightning hit the tips of his wings, and Dick felt the energy move along his suit, sinking into his fingertips.
“Yes,” he breathed, “I’m here to kill you all.”
He directed the energy from lightning into his hands and placed his fists into the water. The water crackled with electricity and Black Manta, standing in the water puddles, went down immediately. His head hit the floor and Nightwing was already moving. He launched himself at Queen Bee; she may have been able to control pheromones, but with the rage that was taking up most of Nightwing’s mind, she didn’t stand a chance. He slammed her into the ground before lifting her up again and doing it again.
He turned around to see Klarion rising into the air. Dick used his wings to lift himself up to Klarion’s height, then he attacked. Using his gauntlets, he crashed through the thin shield the Witch-Boy had summoned and grabbed him by the neck, making him lose his balance and fall. He tried to spell cast, but Nightwing used both hands to squeeze his neck.
“Teekl!” Klarion choked out, clawing at Dick’s fingers. But Dick was waiting for him. The familiar launched himself at Dick, but he took out the knives given to him for Christmas and plunged them into Teekl’s neck and side, dragging them along the fur. Klarion screamed as Teekl hit the ground. The two of them faded into nothing.
Angry tears pricked at the corners of Dick’s eyes, behind his mask, but he blinked them away quickly. He had work to do.
Three down, three to go.
Luther looked much less confident now they were down three but got into one of his mech-suits anyway, standing beside Savage and the Brain as they faced down Nightwing.
The eldest Batson took down the Brain by throwing knives at him, almost all of them hit their marks. The Brain went flying back into the back wall, electricity sparking. The French man-machine yelled out in pain until another knife hit the dome that held the actual Brain. He was silent after that.
Savage ran at the vigilante and the two of them duelled back and forth for a few blows; Dick used his wings to throw the villain off. He swiped his escrima sticks at Savage, catching him several times and slowing him down. The blades on Dick’s escrimas extended and Nightwing launched himself into the air, flying in a sharp circle before folding his wings and thrusting the blades into Savage’s chest. Savage didn’t have time to look surprised as Dick twisted and kicked him straight in the face, sending blood spraying everywhere. Flecks landed on his wings. He plunged two knives into Savage’s back, making more blood leak onto the floor.
Finally, it was only him and Luther.
Luther was pale and a thin sheen of sweat was visible on his face as a living Death-Angel approached him, blood dripping from huge wings. Luther fired his guns on Nightwing, who dodged and twisted to avoid them; when they did hit, they bounced off the suit he wore; bearing the Bat Symbol.
A lightning strike hit Dick’s wings through the hole in the roof again, and the electricity arched and spiralled around the individual feathers, as well as dancing along the costume. It took only a touch for Luther’s heavily armoured suit to be thrust into the wall. When Luther blinked the spots out of his eyes, he could see the dark silhouette of wings as they slowly approached him. Nightwing’s feet weren’t touching the ground, which made the overall image terrifying.
Luther scrambled out of his mech and took off, a look of terror marking his face as he saw a flash of metal in Nightwing’s hand. He screamed as a knife embedded itself in his upper leg, ripping through his hamstring and making him fall. He tried to drag himself away, but with the wound soaking onto the floor, he hadn’t made much progress by the time Nightwing hovered directly above him, face eerily blank.
“Five down,” Nightwing whispered, “one to go…”
Queen Bee groaned from her position on the floor and Nightwing was over to her in a second. He took hold of her neck and one sickening crack later, she was silent. Luther pressed a hand over his mouth and yelled out as Nightwing turned to him.
“No! Don’t! Everyone’s alive, okay? The bodies were magic impersonations, it was a spell. The people were dead but spelled to make them look like Batman and the others! Don’t kill me!”
Dick had gone still, not breathing. He narrowed his eyes at Luther, who was shaking and snivelling. “You’re lying.” He said, leaning down.
Luther’s face shifted to one of terror. “No I’m not, I swear! I’ll show you where they’re being held, on the island, down stairs!”
Nightwing stared at Luther for a minute before nodding and dragging him to his feet. “Show me.”
Luther, with Nightwing’s help, went down the corridor, putting in code after code of numbers to enter each section. Finally, they made it to a section that was guarded; the four guards standing there lifted their guns and started to shoot. Nightwing let himself be hit by the energy blasts, and his suit absorbed the hits, sending crackles of electricity into his wings. He yelled out and a shockwave of energy sent the men crashing to the ground.
“Where next Luther?” Nightwing growled.
Finally, they made it to an empty room. “You lied to me.” Nightwing said, and his hand closed around Luther’s throat, drowning out his cries. “How dare you.” He threw the villain at a wall, and blood dripped from his head.
Everything was silent.
Nothing moved.
Dick fell to his knees but stayed silent. His wings lowered to the floor and blue energy pulsed from his hands when he placed them on the floor. Tears streamed down his face as his hope died with Luther.
“How dare you.” He whispered at Luther’s corpse, and looked down at the blood on his hands.
Everything was silent.
Nothing moved.
Until… thump. Thump. Thump.
At first, he thought it was his own mind, but then he heard it again.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Dick rose to his feet and approached the wall. Something was on the other side; he needed to get to it… He placed his hands on the wall and concentrated; the ground shook as power flowed through his body and onto the wall. His wings extended and stretched as he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.
The wall gave way with an almighty crack and Dick was momentarily blinded with how bright it was in there; then he heard it.
“Nightwing?”
Breathing increasing, his eyes opened, and he almost broke down. He looked straight into Jason’s masked eyes.
Almost afraid to ask, he took a step forward. “Little Wing?” he breathed.
Jason smiled despite himself. “Yeah… it’s me…”
When Nightwing looked around, he saw many eyes on him… and many eyes on Luther. The wall was a one-way window.
Swallowing, Dick began to unchain Jason. He flung his arms around his boyfriend at the quickest possible moment and held him tight, before helping everyone else out. When everyone was free, Nightwing felt himself go limp and his breathing increase. A yell of alarm form Jason had everyone surrounding him.
“He’s shaking…” Jason said worriedly.
“He’s in shock. He’s just gone through the trauma of losing everyone, then regaining them in a short space of time. We need to get him home.”
Dick passed out.
When he woke, he was lying on his side on a bed somewhere. He thought that maybe the last few hours were just a nightmare… but then he felt wings on his back. Numbness spread over his body again. Everyone had watched him kill Luther. And they’d obviously seen Queen Bee, Brain… Savage. He didn’t know if Manta was dead or not. Didn’t really care. When he turned his head to look at his wings, the flecks of blood had been washed off, but the tips of them were dyed red still- probably would never come out.
“You’re awake.” Dick jumped and turned to see Jason and Bruce in the doorway, in full costume. He was on the Watchtower then.
Dick nodded and then embarrassingly, started to tear up. Before he knew it, he was sobbing, and both his dad and boyfriend were around him. Not saying anything, just being there.
d
“Always knew you were an angel, Dickie.” Jason whispered, when his sobs had slowed to just hiccups. Dick buried his face into his chest and curled his wings further into himself.
“You’re alive.” He said in wonder, eyes still closed. “You’re… alive…”
“Yes, we’re alive. We're...”
“I saw you dead!” Dick yelled, shocking both Jason and Bruce. “I saw your bleeding bodies when I got to that field, I watched as you died before my eyes.” His voice went quiet sudd Ely, and he stared at the floor. “I could protect any of you. I failed.”
He felt arms pull at him. “You did not fail.” Jason growled. “Without you, we would still be in that room, trapped. You got us out.”
“But... I killed them... I was just so angry... and now no one will ever trust me again. I saw their faces when they looked at Luther-they we’re disgusted with what I’d done.”
None of them spoke for a few seconds.
“Give them time, Dick, give them time.”