Chapter Text
It’s been two and a half years, since he walked, or ran away from his life to start a new one.
Two and a half years later, and he sleeps better than he ever thought he’d be able to. At seventeen, life is…good.
He and Jade don’t work together as often, now, and he often goes off on his own to do his own jobs, though he’s gotten a bit more selective about it.
He takes contracts against murderers, child molesters, rapists. He kills those who deserve to die. As a result, some call him the Poor Man’s Assassin, because he doesn’t work for much, sometimes for nothing at all. He does revenge killings, helps people like Peter Raegan and Jade’s mother. And he can live with that.
When he’s strapped for cash he’ll take on one of those corporate espionage jobs, and the money from that, plus the potential blackmail keeps him going for a long time.
Life is good, mostly.
He and most of his friends have had fallings out by now. Wally can’t stand what he’s become; M’gann can’t look him in the eye. Most of them just don’t understand.
And he understands that, because he doesn’t know if he’d understand it—if someone he was so close to, thought of as a brother turned around and started killing people for money. But again, it’s not all about the money. He’s cleaning up the trash that the heroes of the world don’t, or won’t.
He’s still working for the greater good, they just don’t see that.
Artemis does, he thinks.
To a point.
She won’t speak to him regularly, but she doesn’t treat him like a stranger, like he’s the enemy, when they cross paths. She accepts that some people just view the world differently, and he’s glad for that. She, Roy and Jade are the only ones who haven’t given up on him.
Roy doesn’t agree with his life choices, just like he doesn’t agree with Jade’s. But he sees the person beyond the reputation, and beyond the persona, he knows Dick is still in there, he’s just different. He’s grown up, he’s changed. Roy knows what it’s like to need to be someone new, someone different than who you were. He knows that it’s the only way to survive.
And Jade, well. Dick might even go so far as to say she’s proud of him. She should be—he is who he is partly because of her. She took him in, god only knows why, and she gave him purpose, she gave him his dignity back. She didn’t try to fix him, didn’t treat him like a cornered animal that she was worried would bite her. She treats him like she treats everyone else.
Jade doesn’t care who you were, she cares about who you are.
He loves that about her.
Bruce…he doesn’t really think about Bruce.
Bruce stopped looking for him. Dick isn’t sure how much Bruce knows, but the man seems to think he knows enough. Even though they haven’t been in contact since before everything happened, the message that Dick isn’t welcome home has been coming through loud and clear.
It’s ironic, he thinks. That of all the people he knew, that he befriended over the years, the dozens of heroes he used to consider family, all he has left is two Arrows and an Assassin. He used to believe so adamantly that those friends, that family; they could overlook your flaws no matter what. And he supposes that’s still true, the only difference is that he knows who his real friends are, now.
He blows out a breath, and rolls his shoulders. He’s been sitting on this rooftop in Seattle for almost an hour, he’s unnecessarily early to his meet and greet with Roy and Jade. Apparently Jade spends a lot of her time here, now.
Dick may have gotten better, but Roy has been having some problems. Initially after he found out about that whole being a clone thing, which is infinitely messed up, Roy had been fine. Fucked up, but still Roy. But after nothing but failures in trying to find the original Roy Harper, he’d secluded himself to somewhere even Dick couldn’t reach him—and Dick had been there. He knows what it’s like when the Light comes after you in ways you never expected. He knows how it is to have your whole life ripped out from under you and crumpled up like it was junk mail that no one will ever read.
But he’s getting better now; Jade’s been kicking his ass right out of that slump, getting him back on track. They still haven’t found the original Roy Harper, the first Speedy, and according to intel, everyone else has given up on finding the kid, which Dick, and probably Roy, is not thrilled about. That kid deserves to be found, to be given his life back, if at all possible.
But still, it’s good to know that Roy is getting it together again.
He pulls back his cowl, and wipes away the sweat that was beading on his forehead beneath it. The breeze feels amazing, and he smiles a little. It’s not raining—which he gathers is unusual for the area—and there’s not a cloud in the sky; just the moon and stars and warm summer breezes.
This is his favorite kind of night.
“Hello, Dickie.” Jade purrs behind him, and his smile explodes into a grin as he gets to his feet and turns to her.
“Hey Jade,” he throws his arms around her, a gesture she is not the least bit pleased with, ever, but that she’s given up fighting. It took him a long time to get up the courage to hug her, even longer to want to, and when she hadn’t killed him on the spot, he figured she wasn’t as opposed to it as she’d like him to believe.
“Off.” She doesn’t shove him, but he steps back anyway at the command, still grinning. She looks as dangerous and as striking as ever, though she’s not dressed in her Cheshire get-up, tonight. Just shorts, a t-shirt and a dirty trucker hat. Dick’s not sure what about those appeal to her so much, but, to each their own.
Roy is beside her, also in civvies. Something like joy swells in his chest.
He’s thinner than Dick’s seen him in a long time, and he hasn’t shaved in a while, but he’s smirking at Dick, which he takes as a good sign. “You totally look like Lucky Leprechaun with that beard, dude.”
The smirk turns into a frown, maybe even a glare, and Dick grins a little wider. “Shut up Wonder Bread.” He throws an arm around Dick’s neck and pulls him into a playful half-nelson. Definitely a good sign.
Dick laughs, and hugs Roy, who returns it, unlike Jade did. “You look good, man,”
“Don’t lie to me, kid I look like shit.” Roy scoffs, stepping back out of the hug, but he’s got that smirk back on his face. Dick used to believe (childishly, he’ll admit) that Roy was practically invincible. Unflappable. Whelmed. Seeing him now, he can almost start to believe it again. “I haven’t exactly been pumping iron lately.”
“Yes,” Jade sighs. “And what a shame that is,” she gives Roy a disappointed up-down, and he rolls his eyes at her. Dick hides a snicker behind his hand.
“Like you could do better than me.” He raises an eyebrow and gives her an unamused look, hands on his hips in a defiant stance. Some of that pride is peeking through.
“Still, you look good,” Dick repeats, happily squashing their little moment. Their relationship, as Dick had come to see after that initial kiss in his and Jade’s motel room a few years back, was mostly arguing, and screaming and yelling. As a result, that tended to mean a lot of passionate apologies, some of which he’d had the misfortune of hearing through thin walls.
But he’s not going to think about that.
“Thanks, kid. You look pretty good yourself.” Roy appraised his appearance for the first time, and it’s true.
Dick has put on a fair amount of muscle and grown several inches the last few years. The baby fat that had filled out his cheeks during his preteen years had melted away and left a chiseled face that reminds him of his father—something he takes great pride in. He looks like a man, and not like a broken child.
He’s himself—just better.
“Thanks, Roy.” He nods at the older man, and then he turns to Jade. “So, why’re you guys so underdressed?” he gestures to himself, his body covered in a sleek black suit with a red bird splayed across his chest. Renegade looks good on him, he can’t deny that.
“I thought we could just stay in and eat pizza.” Roy shrugs, and Jade rolls her eyes in exasperation.
“Yes, pizza and a movie. My favorite of activities.” The enthusiasm in her voice is clearly false, but Dick chooses to ignore that and instead begins listing off movies he’d be interested in seeing. It’s been a while since he’s gone to a theatre, or even popped in a DVD.
“I was thinking we could power through some of the Fast and Furious movies, there’s a few new ones out since our last marathon.” Roy grins, not bothering to try and silence Dick before speaking, it is a hopeless cause. Jade looks less than impressed by the idea, but Dick is over the moon.
“Perfect!” Dick claps his hands a few times, and they agree on a plan for the rest of their evening.
Roy’s apartment is…well, it’s trashed. It’s dingy. The drywall is totally shot. But, it’s still nicer than some of the places Dick has stayed, so he can’t really complain. Plus, the shower has hot water.
After scrubbing his skin raw in a nightly ritual he’s never been able to quit, he walks out into the main living space in a towel, figuring he’ll dry out a bit before getting dressed. It’s humid, and he doesn’t like feeling like his clothes are sticking to him.
Absent mindedly, he rubs at some of the scars on his torso while he snoops around Roy’s things. They don’t bother him, not like they used to. Over time, he’s stopped seeing them as a reminder of what happened to him, and more as a reminder of how far he’s come.
“Ooh,” Roy’s laptop is only partially closed on the counter, and it’s been a while since Dick’s had internet access. He doesn’t look at anything in particular, mostly just news articles about his former friends. Just because they had shunned him, doesn’t mean he isn’t curious about their well-being. He may not mean anything to them, but he has always been sentimental.
Everyone seems to be doing well, and he gives a warm smile, because it’s good that they’re doing well. He hasn’t been able to check up on them in a few months, and he laughs as he scrolls through Wally’s Facebook page. It’s the best one for photographs, and there are plenty of them. Wally and Artemis have been dating since just after Dick ran off, and they’re still going at it.
He and Artemis are at Stanford University together, and it looks like Wally hasn’t stopped taking pictures since. There’s pictures of him and his roommate, who looks like a nice enough guy. He comments often, and based on that he has a good sense of humor, which is totally necessary when dealing with Wally.
Artemis has found herself a couple of friends, too, and they’re in almost all of her pictures. He thinks she’s picked up a sport, but he can’t be sure, because she never says anything specific about it.
Conner and M’gann are still together, too and they’re attending some college or another, he thinks. M’gann never shows the name of the school, though Dick assumes it’s in the northeast.
Kaldur doesn’t have a Facebook page, but he does filter into the pictures that everyone else posts, especially Conner’s. They’ve gotten close, and Dick feels a small twinge of jealousy. But he’s not going to entertain the feeling.
Next he looks at Babs’ page, and this is the one that hurts him the most, because as a kid he was always at least half in love with the Commissioner’s daughter. Still is he supposes. He’d never met anyone quite like her, and he doesn’t expect to ever again. She’s got a lot of pictures with Bette, who is some kind of Tennis champion now? Good for her. Dick had always found Bette to be a bit… obsessive when he’d known her, so it’s nice to see her putting that incredible focus to good use.
After he internet stalks Babs for a little while, he closes Facebook and looks at the digital clock in the corner of the screen. “Taking their sweet time.” He frowns, because they’re probably bickering about the exact toppings they want on the pizza—he’s seen Roy and Jade argue for a solid 45 minutes about what show to watch, so this isn’t really a surprise, but he’s hungry, so. He can complain a little.
He groans and stretches his arms over his head, and it feels nice to be in Roy’s apartment, because although it’s a little underwhelming, he actually feels like he can relax, here. And that means so much more to him than it did when he was a kid.
He turns his attention to the internet as a whole, and starts looking through articles on the Justice League, and the members he was familiar with. And other than the garbage put out by G. Gordon Godfrey, most of the press is positive.
He smiles again.
And then he sees…that.
And his smile falls, and his heart stops beating, or maybe starts beating too fast, he’s not sure.
Does Batman Have a New Partner in Gotham?
Reading that headline feels like someone is stabbing him in the chest. All the happy, warm fuzzy feelings that came with seeing Roy for the first time in months and seeing Jade again and looking at how well everyone he used to know is doing disappears and he’s angry.
How could he? How could he do this?
And there’s a picture. And it’s of Batman and of Robin but Dick isn’t in the picture. There’s someone else. There’s some kid running around calling himself Robin, running around pretending that he’s Robin.
Like he deserves it, like that name doesn’t belong to Dick.
That pretender, that little boy is playing dress-up in Dick’s clothes, running around with his name living his life.
And Bruce is LETTING him!
And before he can decide if he’s being rational, he’s dressed as Renegade again, and he’s on the job.
The pretender is his target.
And when Roy and Jade return with pizza, he’s not there waiting for them.