The small child wiped at his eyes, still crying heavily but it felt good for once, and good was a hard thing to come by as a halfa. Danny rocked back and forth, his least painful activity that he knew of that could express his elated happiness.

Robin wanted to hug the poor kid, but he felt like that was a hill to be climbed another day. The child was emotionally spent as of right now, he could tell the small experiment was getting tired.

Robin backed away but held out a hand with a kind smile. "sa mergem, Știu unde a găsi o cămașă Pentru dumneavoastră." (Lets go, I know where to find a shirt for you.)

Danny continued to wipe away his tears, quieting enough so he could do what this boy wanted. He really really hoped this all wasn't a trick, it would be a mean nasty trick the GIW wouldn't think twice about doing. But he didn't care at this point, if he was free he was free, if he was getting tricked then it would be no surprise and hopefully they would finally kill him.

He didn't know what to do about the outstretched hand though, he stared at it in confusion, eyes flicking up to Robin's for a split second before going back down to the hand. He started leaning away from it, hands always hurt him, even if this kid promised safety he was still wary if it was a trap of sorts.

"It's okay Danny," he said for the thousandth time. But this time Danny understood it was supposed to be a calming or comforting phrase, in which it did neither for the small experiment. "We're not going to hurt you, we want to help."

The Boy Wonder had an odd expression, his lips were tilted upwards but it was like the old man's, sad even though it was an action that meant happy. His gloved hand that he stretched out was reaching for him now, going to his right side where his good hand clenched the bed sheets.

Danny flinched upon contact, even though the brush of his hand was gentle against his own. The younger male kept saying it was alright, that he was safe, but even if they weren't GIW he didn't know what they wanted, what they were going to do to him, or what he should be doing to keep everything 'alright' and 'okay'.

The small gloved hand dug at his own, prying it off from the bed and gently positioning an odd hand-hold. Robin lifted their joined hands to show Danny, his unmasked eyes searching his face for something Danny didn't know of.

"Come on, let's go upstairs."

Oh, they were going somewhere, his teary eyes squinted in confusion, wasn't this his cell? Were they taking him somewhere else for something harmful? That's what the GIW would have done, but Robin and the other guy... Batman... said they weren't GIW. So what were they going to do? It shouldn't matter though, even if they did mean things to him he still had to follow orders.

Danny shifted his legs over the edge of the bed, his hand still being held by Robin and the older boy moved away to give him room. The halfa quietly slid off the bed, head down and nervously keeping himself to himself. He wanted to let go of Robin's hand, it felt weird, it wasn't like when the agents grabbed his arms to drag him anywhere, their hands were together, like both of them were holding onto each other. Danny didn't know what to do in this situation, so he reciprocated the hold. If Robin wanted to hold his hand then Danny should hold it back just in case, he didn't want to get in trouble.

Once he was sure on his feet Robin began to move slowly twards the fallen door, gently tugging Danny along. Again, Danny was thrown off guard, Robin wasn't being violent with him at all. The GIW were the bad guys and Robin and Batman must be the good guys because they didn't do GIW things, but... how was Danny supposed to act with good people? They were obviously very different, but now that Danny was 'free' he had no idea what to do, what would happen to him now?

The grip on his hand was constantly imposing on his stimulus but it was also gentle, he tried to ignore it, but the presence was impossible to not notice. He... he had to stay here, he couldn't leave these people just like he couldn't leave the GIW, they're just different rules and agents.

That made Danny feel better, he knew how to do rules and schedules, he just needed to figure out the 'good guy' schedule before he got into trouble. Even if they said they weren't like the GIW, punishment was punishment, no ghost escapes that no matter how free they were told they were.

Robin and Danny silently passed through the doorway, greeting the odd wet cave again. Robin was walking so slow, Danny liked it, but he couldn't help but feel pressured to walk faster. Robin shouldn't have to wait for him, that was bad, and bad means punishment, and punishment means electric chair, or knives, or robots, or any other painful experiment.

"Go to the computer, we will take turns changing."

Danny nearly jumped in surprise at Batman's sudden vocalization, while he was able to keep from jumping he was unable to keep from flinching back into Robin. The Boy Wonder gave him a comforting whisper to calm him and Danny resumed his original position to not upset either person.

He must make sure to follow all orders and all rules, even if they contradict GIW rules.

Batman was walking next to them and Danny looked up to observe. His core was still black, though it was blue too and a touch of... bright orange? The agents sometimes had that bright orange, usually when they got a certain result from a certain experiment, or when he reacted the right way to something they did. Light orange must mean victory or something, it was orange and yellow mixed, and while orange was also something the agents had it was a lot smaller than the light orange they more often wore. He didn't know what orange meant, but yellow meant happy, so Batman must be somewhat happy about something.

Happy was good, happy meant he was doing something right, weather it be screaming in pain or following orders.

Speaking of... Danny looked to his and Robin's joined hands, Robin had wanted this, did that mean Batman did too? His eyes glanced at the bigger male's giant gloved hands swaying at his sides as they walked. Should he hold his hand too? Would that follow the rules? Oh! It must be like the agents dragging him everywhere, maybe the rule was they HAD to hold his hand, or else it would be bad and he'd get in trouble.

At this thought the small experiment felt a burning desire to hold the bigger man's hand, although this was new and he was scared. He lifted his free hand, watching trepidatiously before he hesitantly bumped his hand with the gloved hand. The other hand jerked a little, scaring the halfa back, but when the hand held still with it's palm up he recognized it as the same thing Robin did. Danny slid his hand into the man's palm, his small appendage absolutely dwarfed in the giant hand. Danny couldn't even hold his hand properly, but the bigger fingers wrapped easily around Danny's hand and wrist. He couldn't deny the fear that rose from the pit of his stomach at the grab, but he glanced at the Batman's core, nervously making sure this was the right thing to do. It definitely changed, it was a lot more yellow now, the suffocating black made the contrasting yellow look brighter, giving Danny the A-okay.

Danny felt good, he had guessed a rule and followed it, he didn't even get hit! It felt strange having both his hands being held by other people, it was not unfamiliar since he was dragged around a lot but this was definitely different.

Now that he was content with his superiors' moods he took the chance to look around again, it was all very dark and gloomy, the almost literal opposite of the Guys In White. The only white around was the lights strung up above, the floor was either cave ground or dark cement, although a few bridges and walkways were a silvery metal.

They were getting closer to this weird space, it was circular, well more like half circle, he saw a really weird thing nearby that he recognized as the thing Batman came out of earlier when Robin tackled him. But they went around it and slowed down as they came closer to a big chair and a lot of bright screens.

Danny's grip tightened as his anxiety came back up, chairs usually meant electricity punishment, what did he do wrong? But the GIW made it clear he didn't have to do anything but exist to deserve pain, he really shouldn't be complaining, electricity punishment was less messy- even if it hurt his head more.

Danny made no objecting moves as Batman let go of his hand and moved off while Robin gestured for him to sit. So Danny sat. And waited.

Robin had let go of his hand by now, he was doing something on the computer at the moment, probably setting the wattage to the chair while Danny sat stiffly and awaited the leather straps. He was a bit puzzled, this chair didn't have any wires on it and it was super comfy, but maybe the wires were hidden and the comfiness was so he could spend longer time in the chair. The halfa didn't really understand why they would care about comfiness though, one time the GIW kept him in the chair for three days (he knew because the agents were talking about it). He also didn't see any straps before hand, but he wouldn't point that out to Robin, it wasn't his place to speak. Danny swallowed thickly, wondering where his muzzle had gone, and his collar for that matter. Some odd sense made him miss the heavy presence of the collar and muzzle, they were constants in his painful life and now it was disorienting to be without them. Why wasn't anything making any sense?

"Danny? You okay?" Robin suddenly asked.

The halfa flinched, ducking his head because he was expecting a swat. He dug his fingers into the cushions and screwed his eyes tightly closed in preparation for the pain.

"Danny? What is it?" He heard Robin speak, but the child shrunk away. "Danny talk to me please." His voice said urgency and his words said comfort, but the sudden hand on his arm said punishment.

Danny sucked in a breath the same time he whimpered and jerked away, jerking so violently that he twisted out of the chair and toppled to the floor.

The halfa sucked in quick panicked breaths, realizing his terrible mistake. He just defied Robin! He must be in so much trouble now! Danny dug his hands into his hair, curling up on the cold floor so he could protect his ribs from the brunt of Robin's quick fists.

But nothing happened.

"-nny! ...Danny!"

The halfa flinched as he finally recognized his name being said through the roaring blood in his ears. He whimpered pathetically and gasped out an "I-I-I s-sorr-orry...!" in his tight huddle of limbs.

"Danny it's okay, you're safe, nothing is going to hurt you." Robin said from somewhere above him.

The child mulled over these words, Batman and Robin said these words a lot, they must be some type of truth, like a rule, but that didn't make any sense, safe is a rule? Safe can't be a rule! Punishment happens no matter what!

"Danny, please, can you stand up? Or at least sit up? Please, Danny."

Dread shot through the child and he scrambled to his feet, slightly backing away from the colorful teen and keeping his head low. He made sure his arms were stuck straight on his sides and his feet were placed neatly together, his eyes were on the ground even though he wanted to see Robin's core to make sure he was doing it right. It was scary not knowing.

"Take it easy Danny, it's okay." Robin has that soothing tone, but he sounded scared. Wait... he sounded scared? The child's desire to look up skyrocketed, he'd never seen a scared agent before... why was he scared?

Danny was still gasping for air, and he found himself teetering to one side. But no, no movement is allowed when there were orders to be followed, that would make them angry.

"Danny it's alright." Robin stepped closer, causing another whimper to escape the scared halfa, but he came into Danny's line of sight. He couldn't see much, only his black boots and bottom of the black and yellow fabric he had draped over his back. The elder's hands were outstretched towards Danny, like he wanted to grab him, making the child flinch away no matter how hard he tried to stay still. Robin's gloves were gone. "Danny can I see your hand?"

The child hesitated, but quickly enough he thrust his hand out and felt it shake in the open air. He found his mouth moving, stuttering out the words he had tried and failed to use so many times before, "...I-I s-sor-orry... p-please-"

"Danny you're not in trouble, you did nothing wrong. Look." Robin's gloveless hands ghosted over Danny's trembling hand as he crouched down in front of the halfa. Danny took a staggered step back, but he forced himself to return now matter how scared he was at the moment.

But then his face slid into Danny's vision, and he froze. His eyes were wide on the older kids face, never mind his core, his face said so much.

Robin was scared. The older kid was worried, angry and sad all at the same time. He held a quiet hope, a yearning desperation for something Danny couldn't identify, but his hands finally clasped around his own. His skin was warm... and surprisingly smooth.

"Danny, look." Robin said even though he kept the eye contact Danny was avoiding by studying his features. He had slim fingers, they rubbed the back of his hand and flipped it over so his palm was facing up. "Focus on the feeling," Robin said as he dragged his fingers lightly up and down the child's palm, even down his fingers and wrist. "I'm not hurting you. I don't want to hurt you, and I won't ever hurt you."

Robin just stared at him while he said this, again looking for something Danny didn't know what for. Instead Danny followed orders, he focused on the feeling across his skin, it didn't hurt, it just felt weird, but soon it didn't feel so weird anymore. They stayed like this for awhile, it might have been 30 seconds or 30 days, it didn't matter much to Danny. But he didn't notice that his breathing had calmed, or that his hand had stopped trembling, in fact he felt rather calm.

"I'm sorry."

Danny's tired eyes flicked up in surprise, watching those startlingly blue eyes convey as much sadness as his deep blue core did.

Robin had stopped caressing his hand, now it just sat over his hand like a heavy weight, it felt good for once. Both of their eyes went down to their hands, Robin's core dashed with purple flares. "Probably overstimulation," he muttered, almost like he was talking to himself. "I bet you have a lot on your mind, I'm sorry I startled you."

Robin was... saying sorry? That's not right... Robin didn't owe him anything, it was Danny's fault he fell out of the punishment chair. Maybe just this once he could point out the wrong thing, he would deserve any punishment anyway so he might as well explain it the right way.

"E-electricitate...?" (E-electricity...?) Danny prompted, lifting his other hand to point at the offending chair. "Am facut ceva gresit..." (I did something wrong...)

Robin looked to the chair in confusion and... horror(?), when he looked back to the child he was shaking his head. "No, no no, no Danny, you didn't do anything wrong. Nu aveți probleme. Fără scaun electric." (You are not in trouble. No electric chair.)

Danny's eyebrows furrowed, taking another leap of faith and deep breath to speak again. "A-atunci de ce sta?" (T-then why sit?)

Robin was apparently not expecting this question, because his mouth just gaped open and only a little sound came out. His core on the other hand, flashed a violent red and it left as soon as it came, but it was enough for Danny to be frightened. The halfa took a step back, but didn't get very far because of his trapped hand, the contact was growing unwelcome, his hand felt sweaty and hot, he didn't like hot.

His movements pulled the older boy from whatever trance he was in, The Boy Wonder blinking rapidly before inching closer to the child. "Danny, people sit when they're tired, most chairs are not electric chairs. Chairs aren't meant to be electric in the first place."

Recognition sparked inside the halfa, this reminded him of something before the GIW! "H-hou-house!" He said like he won something, eyes wide and almost eager to get the word out.

Robin nodded and Danny felt warm with success, not noticing his cheeks glowing a faint green that Robin definitely noticed, "Yes, just like in a house, chairs are normal and not electrified." His eyes became distracted and Danny saw his core shift into less scared colors, like he was relieved, but soon his eyes were back on Danny. "Do you want to sit down again?"

Danny blinked, he was being given a choice.

A choice?

He could choose?

Oh no, he hated choices, which one would make Robin happy?!

Well Robin was scared when he was on the floor, so he must want him on the non-electric chair, yes that makes sense. Danny nodded, his hand twitching in the older boy's grip because his hand was really sweaty now and it was gross.

Despite that, pleasure flowed through Danny as Robin's core became sprinkled with yellow, he had chosen correctly!

The Boy Wonder stood up, finally letting go of his hand rather reluctantly. "Alright, you get settled, I have to go get changed now, Bruce will keep you company."

Danny's eyebrows scrunched as Robin walked away. Who was Bruce?

"How are you feeling Danny?" A familiar deep voice asked, coming from the direction Robin had left in. Danny twisted slightly and his hands played with each other as his shoulders lifted up defensively. He stumbled back from the oppressing presence of the man, his hip hitting the chair and reminding the halfa he had to sit in it to make Robin happy. So he ignored the man for now, climbing onto the chair to sit with his knees drawn up and his hands resting around his ankles.

"It's okay, you can look." The dark voice said, the words reminding Danny that these people had different rules he needed to follow.

His head jerked -maybe too quickly- up at the man, he wasn't surprised to find it was Batman, but he wore different clothing and he wasn't actually bald. He had black hair like Robin, blue eyes too, but they were a bit icy-er, cold like the cave. His core was the same black and yellow, though the yellow was now halved into the light orange he saw earlier, what did that color mean? Two thirds of those colors Danny didn't know, that was dangerous because that meant he didn't know what he was feeling, which made it ten times harder to do the right thing and ten times more likely to do the wrong thing and get punished.

Robin said he didn't do anything wrong, but Batman -or Bruce as Robin called him- might not agree.

Bruce wore something weird too, it wasn't a suit like the agents, it was just... pants and shirt. The man stayed oddly still, and Danny liked that because he could see if he did anything mean or if he gave him any orders. So Danny just waited in silence for something to happen as usual, with Bruce being a respectable distance away, now doing something on the computer.

Danny liked silence, it meant nothing was happening, and if nothing was happening that meant no pain, no pain was good. He fought to keep his eyes open, but they dropped and were way too heavy, so he finally decided he was safe enough in this silence to let his eyes sink closed.

He must have blanked out or something because the next thing he knew was footsteps and Robin's thrown voice. "Did he actually fall asleep?"

"It was touch and go." Bruce replied from the computer, barely giving a glance in either boys' direction.

Danny's eyes flew open, watching Robin come up next to Bruce and slightly closer to Danny. The different-clothed-Robin looked a lot cleaner now, he had a bruise on his arm Danny didn't notice earlier but his eyes were clear and he was doing that thing with the lips pointing upwards.

Robin crouched down in front of him again, his hands touching the edge of the chair as his eyes compelled Danny to look at him. "Alright Danny, were going to go upstairs now, we're going to get you a bed then you can sleep however long you want."

Danny blinked owlishly, that was a lot of words and he was barely coming out of sleep, he caught the words 'upstairs' and 'bed', then the 'sleep' and 'want'. Alright, so Robin and Bruce we're taking him somewhere for sleeping, that was ok, they were in charge anyway, Danny didn't have much to say about it.

Robin stood back up, offering his hand down to the halfa. Danny couldn't help but flinch at the motion directed at him, but he reached for the hand and slid off the chair. Robin's core flashed purple but it mellowed into a sheen while the yellow stayed prominent, of course with the black encompassing it all, he really wanted to know what that black was.

Robin started walking, the black cored man coming up as well on Danny's other side. Now that he knew the rule Danny reached for the man's hand gladly, even if his body jittered at the initial contact.

"My real name is Dick Grayson," Robin said above him, "and when we're upstairs you can call me Dick and Batman Bruce. Down here you need to call us Batman and Robin though, is that alright?" Di- wait no they weren't upstairs yet, he was still Robin- said with a surprising amount of fear swirling in his core. Danny just nodded, new rule, different places made them have different names, did Danny have a different name upstairs?

The trio cam upon some stairs, the stairs Robin was talking about probably, Danny grew anxious. Was there a specific way he should go up the stairs? He couldn't go very fast on his feet, but he could fly? Did they want him to fly?

Danny kept looking at his two... well they weren't agents... hmm... his two... keepers(?), trying to discern what he should do before it was too late, but his feet already hit the first step and Danny nearly recoiled. His hands were given a little tug, but that might have been him stopping while Batman and Robin continued to move, because the tug stopped when Batman and Robin turned once they realized he wasn't following.

"Hey it's okay," Robin spoke lightly, again a certain fear dashed through his core. "You know how to go up stairs right?"

Danny shook his head as his grip on the others hands shifted anxiously, he didn't know what these people wanted, it was scary.

"Well just put one foot in front of the other, you can use us for balance, you won't fall." Robin said, gesturing to the hand he held captive.

Danny's brows were furrowed in concentration, now that he knew his orders Danny was ready to begin. He lifted one foot and placed it on the first step, he stalled when he realized he had to bring his body with him to the step. The small halfa jumped with his bad leg, but he overcompensated and his face sped towards the stairs. He was stopped by the tug on his arms, pulling him back upright until he was balanced and the pull disappeared.

Danny had wide eyes and he looked to Robin, again his core was positively teeming with fear but his face said he was doing a happy thing. "See? It's okay, you can do it."

Danny lowered his eyes to the stairs, he would not be beat by stairs. He fought ROBOTS and survived getting his insides ripped from his open body, stairs shouldn't be this hard. Danny huffed and placed his foot on the next step, quickly following up with his other leg, he wavered, his balance going askew for a second before he reclaimed it without the help of Robin or Batman's hand.

He did this many times over, one painful stair at a time until he finally got to the top. He was breathing heavily and his bad leg burned with overuse, this was definitely not the hardest task he was ever assigned but he couldn't say he wasn't glad it was over. Batman and Robin seemed happy though, even though their cores were riddled with fear.

"Good job, Danny." Batman grunted, pausing at the top. Danny took that moment to catch his breath, it also took him a second of deciphering to realize he'd been praised. Robin rubbed the back of his hand again and the child remembered it was the comforting motion. With the double cases of positive reinforcement from both individuals Danny figured was supposed to feel good about this. So he did, he swayed from side to side rather happily, rocking on his feet (tenderly with his bad leg) and not frowning. He knew he wasn't doing the happy up lip thing, he just wasn't frowning, which means a straight line, his face was passive, not afraid- which is very good.

"You ready to go?" Robin asked, leaning down a little to catch Danny's eyes. The small halfa nodded, stopping his happy motion and looking to the path ahead. There was no more stairs but a little pathway to a tall door, even more interesting was there was no wall to Robin's side. Danny's eyes bugged and he stared for a second, they were so high up, it's like they were on the wall of the cave!

Robin's core changed colors again and that distracted Danny, "The elevator is kinda small, are you okay in small spaces?"

Danny's face scrunched, was he OKAY in small spaces? He nodded slowly in answer, even though he was still scowling in thought. Yes he was okay in small spaces, they were safer than big places. What a weird question, the GIW never asked if he was okay.

Robin nodded too and they started walking again, although Danny couldn't help but limp on his bad leg. Batman pulled ahead and let go of Danny's hand, doing something to the metal contraption before them. Danny waited with wide eyes until the metal door slid open and Batman walked in, Robin followed, tugging Danny along.

Danny's free hand felt cold and it clenched in the air because now it had nothing to hold onto. Batman was on the other side of Robin, he was too far away to hold, so Danny just locked his eyes onto the floor and held still. He had no idea what an... 'elevator' was, but they were standing in this box now.

Then the box jerked and it was like the floor was moving underneath them.

Danny yelped and his free hand flew to Robin's, clutching onto the older boy with both hands as his wide eyes darted around for any dangers.

"It's okay Danny, it's just moving us up." Robin explained, his other hand coming around and accidentally brushing against the little halfa's white hair. Danny ducked at the ghost of a touch, pressing his body even closer to Robin as he was scared from all the feelings and sensations. His grip was really tight, but he didn't know it until the box stopped moving and Robin nudged him in the direction of out.

Danny took in shuddering breaths, eyes peeled for anything dangerous and his tense hands began to shake.

"It's okay..." Ro-wait now they were upstairs, he was Dick now- Dick said to him, his thumb running across the back of Danny's hand.

"You're in Wayne Manor now Danny," Ba-Bruce said, coming up on his other side. Danny looked up at him, that's when he noticed his surroundings were a lot different now. It was a dark room, but the lights were on, the colors were all dark, browns, reds, some purples, even some black decorated the room. There was lots of stuff in here, everything was so big looking. The walls were big and tall, there were some chairs off to the side, a table - wait no, it's a special table- a desk sat on one end of the room in front of giant see-through stuff.

The rest of the world dissolved from view as one particular thing caught the small experiment's attention.

His mouth slightly opened.

Danny saw the sky.

5006 words.