Chapter Twelve

Guardian Angel

His head hurt.

He could feel the pain pressing against the walls of his skull, a dull throbbing ache that made him wince. One side of his body felt cold and his limbs ached, adding to the general discomfort forcing him into lucidity. His thoughts were foggy but not simply because of the pain. It felt like the lethargy of waking up except it didn’t feel like he awoke from a restful sleep. There was something not right about it and it bothered him being unable to articulate the sensation.

Blinking once or twice, he lifted his head and a groan escaped his lips in reflex.

The sound felt muffled in his ears as Dick Grayson took stock of his surroundings and found this was definitely not the comfortable surroundings of his room at Wayne Manor. His body ached because he was lying on a hard, stone floor in a windowless room resembling a dungeon one saw in those movies with knights and wizards. There was a bed mounted against the wall not unlike the ones in the trailers of some of the circus folk at Haly’s. The stainless steel bowl of a toilet protruded from the walls on the other side with the button to flush also built into the rock.

He was in jail.

The thought sparked a jolt of clarity and in a millisecond, images flashed before his eyes like he was viewing his very own picture show. They broke through the window and took him! Alfred tried to stop them, Dick realised and then a wave of despair remembering how one of the strange women, the one with razors on her fingers (like Wolverine!) attacked him. Like the night he saw his parents die, watching the crazy lady slashing at Alfred, his impeccable butler’s shirt staining with blood was more than he could stand.

Dick sat up with a start and another groan of a pain escaped his lips.

Sitting up did clear up the fog in his head and when it did, he recognised another sound. Crying. He was alone in the room but he could still hear the soft, pitiful sounds of tears coming through the walls.

Rolling onto his hands and knees, he crawled across the stone floor to the metal door that sealed him inside this room. At the foot of the door, there was a slot, presumably for a food tray to be slid in. It was way to narrow for him to use as an escape but it if he got right down against the floor, it allowed him a look outside the room. Pressing his cheeks against the floor, he pushed the slot open and peered outside. Perhaps it would help him figure out where he was.

Beyond his cell, Dick saw a long corridor that stretched as far as his limited view could see.

Against the walls were more doors like the one he was trapped behind. They ran along the walls as far as the eye could see and it took every ounce of strength he had learned to develop since his parents died, to not allow his eight year old self to descending into panic.

Don’t be afraid Dick, his father used to say when he was on the fly bar. Just think what comes next. If you panic, you’ll fall.

Thinking about John Grayson wasn’t helping. If anything, it made him want to cry even more. It made him miss not just father but also his mother, whose embrace he wanted to feel more than anything in the world right now. He blinked and felt angry that there were tears on his cheeks. He had to be brave, he told himself. He was in a bad place and he had to be brave if he wanted to survive it.

Another thought exploded in his head, like artillery shells at that moment. The Batman! The Batman promised to find out who had hurt his parents. The Batman was the world’s greatest detective right? He’d know if Dick was kidnapped! It was a foolish, fragile hope to assume that the Dark Knight who promised to find his parents would also be his guardian angel but right now, Dick would cling to any shred of hope he could get.

Instead, he forced away his fear and focussed on the sound that had drawn him to the door in the first place—the crying. He sniffled away his own anxieties and strained to listen. After a second, he was rewarded with the same muffled tears being shed close by.

Perhaps as near the next cell even.

“Hello?” He called out gingerly, realising only after he had spoken that his jailors might answer instead.

Luck was with him because the crying paused abruptly and an uncertain voice replied back after a few seconds.

“Hello?”

It was another kid! Dick thought excitedly, his chest swelling in hope.

“Hi, I’m Dick,” he introduced himself quickly. “What’s your name?”

Dick heard a loud sniffle and guessed the other child was pressed against the floor speaking through the slot as he was doing. After a few seconds, he received an answer.

“Doe,” came the soft voice.

“Doe? That’s pretty,” he said back and wondered if the other kid was a girl. Doe sounded like a girl’s name but it was hard to tell. “Doe, do you know where we are?”

“No,” Doe replied in a small voice and Dick suddenly had the feeling that the other child was much younger than him. Doe sounded like a baby.

“How did you get here?” He asked instead. He hoped Doe’s experience might share some light on where they were.

There was another pause and it seemed like Doe had to think before answering Dick’s question. “I don’t know. There was a fire and someone carried me out but I don’t remember anything else.”

Definitely a baby, Dick thought impatiently.

Doe started to sniffle again and Dick was sure Doe was a girl. Only girls cried like that. Once again, he remembered what John Grayson said about girls and being nice to them.

“Its okay,” he assured her even though he was frightened himself by this place and the situation they were in. “Don’t cry. I have a guardian angel you know like Warrior Angel except he’s a bat and he’s real smart. He said he was going to help me so if I’m lost he’s sure to come looking.”

Doe didn’t answer straight away but did stop crying. “Warrior Angel? Who’s Warrior Angel?”

“He’s a hero,” Dick explained and then went on to explain the whole story about Warrior Angel and his battles with Devilicus, his arch nemesis.

Dick was confident that just like Warrior Angel, the Batman would come to save them both.

At least he hoped so.

*****

“How is Alfred?” Lois Lane demanded when Bruce opened the door to the manor.

As soon as they learned what happened, Lois insisted on Clark bringing her to Gotham even though she knew he wanted her to remain at home in Metropolis and recuperate. Clark had initially intended to make the journey alone, suspecting he would need to Bruce from going off the deep end in his efforts to rescue Dick.

As it stood, Clark felt bad enough that Dick was taken because of Kara.

“He’s alive,” Bruce answered, turning his back on them as soon as the door was open, fully expecting the duo to follow him. “He’s lost a lot of blood because of the deep lacerations but he’s in serious condition.”

Bruce’s tone indicated that even if he wasn’t wearing the cowl, he was operating with the mercurial calm of the Batman. No doubt it was the only way he could handle this kind of emotional turmoil, Clark thought silently.

“Bruce, should he be here?” Lois asked. Since Chloe’s death, Lois had become very fond of Alfred Pennyworth. The man was a warm presence in this cold house and Lois feared for what would become of Bruce without him. “Wouldn’t he be better off at a hospital?”

“I can’t take him to a hospital. They will take one look at his wounds and call the police. None of us here can risk the exposure.” His voice was bitter and Lois knew it was twisting him up inside being forced to take that into consideration when Alfred’s life was in danger. “Not to mention that the police will know Dick is missing. Fortunately and old friend of mine was able to treat him and she’s willing to remain discreet even if she’s not very happy about it.”

“Leslie?” Lois ventured a guess, knowing something of the woman.

“Leslie?” Clark stared at her, unfamiliar with this particular acquaintance.

“She’s an old friend,” Lois explained hastily as they followed Bruce up the stairs.

During the five years where he was absent, Lois and Bruce had bonded over their losses with Chloe’s death and Clark’s departure. They would have been family if not for Chloe’s death and in the aftermath, develop a friendship that was almost as keep as blood. Bruce had let her into his world so Lois knew something of Doctor Leslie Thompkins even if the two women had never met.

Doctor Thompkins had been young Bruce Wayne’s counsellor in the months following his parent’s death. While she was never able to repair the trauma done to his psyche, she and Alfred took on the role of surrogate parents to give Bruce some semblance of the family he’d lost.

“Bruce I’m sorry about this,” Clark felt compelled to apologise. He felt tremendously guilty that two people Bruce cared about so much, was harmed because of Kara. “I shouldn’t have…”

Bruce halted in his ascent and glanced over his shoulder.

“Clark, you didn’t break in here and attack Alfred nor did you take Dick.” His voice was even more brittle than usual. “This was all Valerie. She’s obviously remembered me from six years ago. It would have happened whether or not you came to me for help with Kara.”

“Exactly!” Lois declared, never having any patience with recriminations or apologies when they had a situation on their hands. “We’ve got to think of what to do. We’ve got to get Dick back and figure out how to keep Kara out of those psycho aliens’ radar. We can’t keep her on Themiscyra forever.”

“Spoken with your usual eloquence,” Bruce remarked, unable to help adore the hot-headed woman who might have been his in-law if Fate had been kinder. Her impetuous, balls to the wall bluster was the perfect complement to Clark’s calm, sometimes overly cautious manner. Furthermore, she had a way of cutting through the bullshit far more efficiently than any person Bruce had ever met.

“You’re right Lois,” Clark agreed begrudgingly as they reached the top of the stairs and started down the long hallway toward Alfred’s room. “We’ve got to get ahead of this. Bruce, did they give you any idea how to contact them to make the exchange?”

“Not yet but I assume it will be coming,” Bruce frowned, thinking on those bloody words on the wall. “They’re probably letting me stew first.”

“We need to talk to Diana and get her to bring Kara back. Agree to the exchange so they’ll bring Dick back and then deal with them.” Clark suggested.

Lois let out an involuntary exhale, showing her dislike at the idea. Years ago, they lost Valerie because Michael Canto had technology that had caught them unawares, resulting in Valerie being literally spirited away beyond their reach. Who knows what precautions they would take with a Kryptionian in the mix? Canto had shown that he knew how to neutralise Clark with blue kryptonite. Who was to say Dick’s abductors wouldn’t be prepared for the same with any exchange for Kara?

“No.” Bruce surprised them both with that one statement.

“What do you mean no?” Clark stared at him. “Bruce, they won’t show with Dick unless they see Kara.”

“I know that an exchange is our fall back position.”

“Then what do you have in mind?” Lois asked, throwing a sidelong glance at him.

No doubt his formidable intellect had been working on a course of action well before they arrived at the manner. In the face of adversity, that what Bruce did, Lois thought silently to herself. It was how he coped with pain—by making sense of it with a plan.

“We find out where Dick is first. Then we bring him home,” Bruce said firmly. “We’re not sacrificing one for the other.”

“Okay,” Clark was fully supportive of such a plan. “Where do we start?”

Bruce’s eyes narrowed, “I have a few ideas.”

******

Grace was a light sleeper.

She wasn’t this way because she possessed any natural aversion to a deep slumber but because the nights on this Earth was more difficult to tolerate than the waking hours. While she could train her mind to ignore the sanitary sentimentality of the humans during the day, at night, she was at their mercy. The sounds of the night were so alien to her; Grace found she was unable to fully relax.

There was no ever pervading scent of poisoned atmosphere, not pounding or grinding of heavy machinery, not even the flap of para demons on route to enforcing Darkseid’s commands. Worse of all, there were no screams of pain, no pleas for mercy and no cruel taunts of rejection. These were the sounds that nursed her to sleep at night when at home but there was none of this on Earth and it served only to remind her how fragile she was.

She heard a sound, almost soundless in its delivery, like the near silence of cloth being dragged over the floor. At first she thought it might have been the rustle of a curtain because of an open window. Grace quickly discounted it because she occupied the penthouse of the Desmarcher Building and that high up; there were no windows that could be left open without high velocity winds rushing through the place. No, it wasn’t any window.

The thought prompted the mechanism of her waking mind into operation and she blinked awake, her eyes bleary from the restless sleep. Her room was shrouded in darkness and only vague shapes of her bedroom furniture came into focus at first. Grace’s instincts immediately kicked in and she knew there and then she wasn’t alone.

She had only a split second to do anything with this information because without warning, something clamped around her ankle and yanked back hard. Panic filled her as she was suddenly dragged across silk sheets, her nightdress rolling up her body as she edged the bed and landed with a light thud on the carpeted floor.

Grace tried to fight back but her assailant had other ideas. With her dress rolled up above her arms and the force of the grip on her ankle, Grace found herself dragged out to the next room before she was release. She tried to sit up but the boot was planted firmly on her sternum forced her back down again.

“What the hell is going on?” She demanded haughtily.

The room was shrouded but even in the darkness, Grace made out three figures in the shadows. Two were standing a few feet away but one was closer, standing over her. A glint of light pouring through the window gave her silhouettes she recognised immediately and gave her some sense of confidence, now that she knew who she was dealing with.

“Where is the boy?”

The voice that asked was cold like ice. It was barely a hoarse whisper but the command in it was unmistakable.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Grace replied smugly, “Mr. Wayne.”

If her statement was meant to unnerve the man in the cowl, it did not. Instead, he repeated the question. “Where is the boy?”

“What boy? Why have you attacked me in my home? I don’t know anything about any lost child.” She assumed their investigations into DeSaad led them here, that somehow the detective had pierced through her identity to guess that she was affiliated with Canto and responsible for the abduction of the child.

“Yes you do,” Bruce repeated himself. “You have no history before five years ago and what credentials you do have, you faked. You’re not local Miss Good.”

“You know all about false credentials don’t you Mr. Wayne,” Grace retorted snidely.

The Batman didn’t rise to the bait and that galled Grace. Compared to the other two, he was puny, inconsequential and yet she could see the other two reacting to her words while the man in the cowl remained unmoved.

“You went out of your way to acquire DeSaad, Miss Good and instead of dismantling it like all the other companies you’ve acquired, you’ve kept this one alive. In fact, you’ve nursed it back into prominence. I suspect that it was your intent all along.” He said.

“I made sound corporate decisions Mr Wayne,” she insisted on using his name, hoping to shake him. “Something you appear incapable of by this foolish display. By morning, I’ll have every law enforcement agency after all three of you. Heroes aren’t supposed to resort to coercion.”

“Let’s get this done,” the Kryptonian spoke up impatiently. “She’s just trying to bait you.”

“I know,” the Batman said and through the darkness, Grace thought she might have seen the gleam of teeth exposed in a smile. “Where is the boy?”

Grace’s patience stretched thin and then snapped, “even if I knew where he was, why would I tell you? Are you going to torture me? None of you weaklings have the mettle for that.”

“Now that’s where we have a surprise for you,” this time it was the Kryptonian speaking. “Do it Diana.”

There was no point hiding their identities because this woman obviously knew who they were. Of course by revealing that, she had given herself away and cemented Bruce’s theory that Grace Good originated from the same place at Michael Canto. Proving that she was complicit in abducting Dick was one thing—getting her to tell them where he was taken, was another matter.

Diana hated binding another sister and forcing her to their will but this woman had information they needed to save not just one child but two and that overrode Diana’s natural feminine solidarity. Uncoiling the golden lariat hanging from her belt, she pulled Grace into a sitting position and wrapped the cord around the woman.

“What are you doing?” Grace demanded, unfamiliar with the Amazon as she was with the Kryptonian and this human.

Diana ignored her, making certain that the lariat was coiled several times around Grace and holding her in place. It would take a god to break through the chain and Diana’s instincts told her that while Grace had her secrets, she was mostly human.

“You’ll get nothing from me!” Grace spat. “All you’ll succeed in doing is ensuring you never see the little brat again.”

Bruce ignored the taunts, aware that the woman was unnerved because she had no idea what Diana was up to. When Bruce had first suggested that they focussed their search on the enemy’s corporate face, he had asked Diana to return to the Patriarch’s World. Her golden lariat was the only way they could guarantee the truth about Dick’s whereabouts. As much as he cared for the boy, Bruce couldn’t sacrifice Kara for Dick but he was not about to doom Dick to the same hell that turned Valerie Beaudry in a monster either.

“Where is he?” Diana asked, her voice calm and almost soothing.

“Go to He….!” Grace started to say when suddenly the words died in her throat and for a moment, she seemed confused at the sudden detachment from her train of thought.

“Where is Richard Grayson, Grace?” Diana repeated herself, pleased that the lasso of truth given to her by the gods of Olympus proved its worth.

“Gone,” Grace said simply, blinking as if she were trying to dispel her fugue state.

Bruce’s chest tightened. “Gone? What do you mean gone?”

“They took him away,” she answered, “Somewhere safe where the Kryptonian wouldn’t be able to find him.”

“Where is that?” Clark asked this time, seeing Bruce’s jaw part slightly in horror.

“Granny’s Orphanage,” Grace answered more easily this time, as if the fight if there had been one, was all but gone from her.

“Granny’s Orphanage?” Clark exclaimed, wondering if the lariat was making the woman a little crazy. “Where’s that?”

“Its where we were all taken,” Grace explained, still staring into nothingness, that vague expression solidifying with some focus. “Granny teaches us how to be great warriors, so we can fight for Darkseid. The boy was taken there. Granny will make him one of us.”

Darkseid.

Bruce remembered the name from six years ago. During the confrontation with Michael Canto, the man had spoken of his master, a dark god named Darkseid who was searching for something called the Anti-Life Equation. This Darkseid was convinced that Clark’s Kryptonian DNA held the answer and was wiling to dissect the Kryptonian to find out. The thought of Dick in the hands of such a monster was an even worse fate then Bruce had imagined for the young boy.

“You were going to trade him for Kara,” Clark spoke, aware that Bruce was too overcome with horror to do so. “How were you going to do that if you plan on making him one of you?”

“We were never going to return him. No one leaves Granny’s.”

Diana cast a glance at Bruce and Clark, feeling her own rage escalating at this latest bit of intelligence. Who were these people who could not even honour their own terms? “Where is this orphanage?” She demanded.

Grace stared at her and replied without hesitation, “On Apokolips of course.”

******

They left Grace Goode in her penthouse and returned to the farm after ensuring she revealed everything of value to them, thanks to Diana’s lasso of truth.

Grace originated from Apokolips, a savage world where its citizens were bred for war. Her master, a powerful being named Darkseid, ruled over the planet with an iron fist and cultivated a bloodthirsty army within the walls Granny’s Orphanage. Children that showed promise were brought to the orphanage and forced to undergo brutal training to mould them into Darkseid’s elite.

It was here, that Valerie was taken after Michael Canto abducted her, six years ago and turned into a ruthless killer.

It was also the place where Dick Grayson would be similarly groomed if he were not rescued soon.

Grace’s intelligence extended beyond her revelations about Apokolips. More importantly, they learned that Dick was been taken to Apokolips by means of a point to point transport system that spanned stellar space. Grace was able to communicate and travel to Apokolips using a device called a Mother box. Bruce and Clark remembered seeing Canto step through the portal years ago and realised that he must have used the same technology.

Liberating the device from Grace after forcing her to show them how to use it, Bruce dosed Grace with enough stun gas to ensure that she would remain incapacitated for at least a day. This gave them that much time to get to Apokolips before she could raise the alarm.

At farm, Clark found himself facing Kara who had insisted on returning to the Patriarch’s World with Diana once she learned what had happened to Dick Grayson. His cousin was determined to help in anyway she could since Dick was abducted because of her.

“But I can help!” Kara insisted as she stood before Clark inside the barn.

“Absolutely not!” Clark declared, wondering how in a space of weeks, the frightened young girl he had found in Miller’s Field had become this headstrong teenager. “Kara, we don’t know anything about this Apokolips!”

“Kal,” she said staring at him with impatience, “I know about space faring races than you do! My school teachers were Kryptonian!”

Clark frowned because she did have a point there. As much as he might like to think he had the benefits of age, Kara was raised in a Kryptonian city with all the benefits of an education provided by a highly advanced civilisation.

“That doesn’t mean anything!” Clark countered refusing to entertain the idea of allowing her anywhere near Apokolips, especially after what had happened to Valerie. “These people have blue kryptonite. Kara, they stripped me of my powers once before, I won’t let that happen again, to either of us.”

Kara fumed, “Kal, if this place is as dangerous as you say then I should be there! Diana has taught me a lot of about controlling my powers and you could keep me as a secret weapon! I mean I’ll go with you and keep out of sight, they won’t know I’m there! Please Kal! I don’t know this Dick but he’s just a little boy and he’s kidnapped because of me! I already saw Martha and Lois get hurt, I don’t want anyone else to suffer. Please let me help,” she pleaded.

Clark wanted to refuse her but then remembered what he had been doing when he was fifteen years old. Hadn’t he been rushing headlong into danger without a moment’s thought despite Jonathan and Martha Kent’s advice to the contrary? How cautious had he been when it came to helping other people.

“Kara, I don’t want you to get hurt.” Clark tried to make her see reason.

“And I don’t want to see you get hurt either,” she poked him in the chest. “You’re all the family I have in this world. My father and mother sent me here so we could take care of each other! Please Kal, I can’t help!”

Kara eyes were glistening with tears and against that, Clark had no damn defence.

“I’m so going to regret this…” Clark shook his head, feeling himself cave into those tears.

“Oh thank you Kal!” She hugged him hard. “I swear I’ll stay out of trouble. I won’t do anything unless you tell me to! I can help! You’ll see! I promise!” She jabbered on and once again, Clark found himself praying he wasn’t making a dreadful mistake by agreeing to let her join them on this rescue mission.

Still, he could not ignore the advantage of having another Kryptonian at their side when they ventured into enemy territory.

TO BE CONTINUED