Dick curled into is mom's chest, her warmth welcoming. Her chest rose and fell in a lulling rhythm, vibrations rumbling through it with every piece of the song she hummed. In the background he could hear the other members of their troupe hard at work within their individual tasks to make ends meet before the next show. Dick opened his baby blues to meet his mothers.

Instead of the alluring hazel he was expecting, two black voids stared at him. He jumped, prying himself from his mother's sudden Iron-like grasp. When he couldn't get free he began to scream, her once soft expression become horrifying and full of malice. A crack grew from her jawline up her cheek, as if her skin were porcelain.

"Tati- Tati!" Dick called to his father, but when he looked in the direction of where his father once was he was met with a black void. Dick whipped his head around back to face his mother, to find she too had disappeared, and he was released. He was alone now. The silence heavy on his ears.

"Richard."

Someone called him. He knew that voice.

"B-Bruce?" Dick whimpered bottom lip quivering. Looking around for his adoptive father, but he saw nothing.

"Richard." He stood. "Bruce! Sunt aici! vă rog să mă ajutați! Vă rog...!" (Bruce! I'm here! please help me! please...!) He called desperately. The darkness of the void was starting to suffocate him.

"Richard."

Dick spun around to see his family all grinning at him. Tim, Jason, Barbra, Damian and Bruce. They were in civilian clothes, Bruce had his arms open wide, a soft smile on his face. "Come on Dickie!", "Get over here pipsqueak!", "Hey lil' bud!" His family members called. Dick ran to them, relief overtaking him as Bruce wrapped his arms around him. They didn't move for what felt like hours. Dick started to push away, to ask where his family had been, but when he saw Bruce's face his fear returned.

He was suddenly standing in front of his family. No, the bodies of his family. All in a pile.

"Nu.." Dick whispered.

"Nu!" Dick shot upwards, knocking heads with whoever had had him in their lap. "Ah shit geez kid!" The kid mumbled rubbing the red spot on his head. "Ow ow ow." Dick repeated, tears in the corner of his eyes as he too rubbed his forehead.

Dick looked at the boy. He didn't know him. He looked around. Wherever they were was strange too. It stunk like garbage and Gotham bay. He and the other boy were in a cage just big enough for the two of them, with very little extra space. Where was he? How did he get here?

//// Flashback(Ah me and my love of Flashbacks) \\\\

Dick's legs hurt. He hand ran so far and so hard that his muscles were screaming for him stop. The screams of that night had died down too. His sobbing turned to whimpers, mewls and hiccups. He was still shaken up but much more calm. He had blindly ran and now had no idea where he was. In the distance was the low rumble of thunder, a storm was coming. Dick hated storms. They were loud and scary. Dick shook the fear out of his head! "Nu! Mami Tunetul nu poate să mă facă rău!" (No! Mommy said thunder can't hurt me!) Dick scolded himself and turned around, determined to go back the way he came. Surely he'd come across the manor then? He had to check on Tim too!

Dick started walking, there weren't very many people out. Perhaps it was because the sun was begging to set, and every smart law-abiding Gothamite knew the dangers that came with the dark.

Accept for the lost little Romanian boy.

The next few minutes Dick desperately walked aimlessly around. Maybe if he stayed where he was Bruce,Barbra, or one of his brothers would find him. So he halted beside an alley. He hid behind a small trash can and curled in on himself. Despite it being early fall, the breeze carried a chilled air with it, making him shiver. Too bad while he was in a panic he didn't stop to think about putting on some warmer clothes.

He giggled, thinking about the scolding Alfred would give him for not putting on shoes and a coat. All he had on was a long sleeved turtleneck black cotton shirt and a pair of thin Batman pajama pants he hadn't bothered to take off from the night before. He rested his chin on his arms, eye lids half lidded. Apparently panic attacks where you out.

"Hello." Someone's voice cooed, with a chilling and frightening tone. Dick's eyes snapped open staring up at the man that had approached.

He was really close. Too close. Dick fidgeted uncomfortably. When the man realized Dick wasn't going to answer him he continued. "Are you, lostttt?" The man drawled lost out in a way that arm chills down Dick's spine. Everything about this man set red lights off in his head.

Dick stood, "N-No talk t-o Stranger." Dick tried to inform and turned to walk away. "Oh you don't speak English well? My, how sad, a little boy lost alone in a big city like Gotham, and hardly knows English?" He didn't face Dick at first, just talking to where the boy had once been. Fidgeting with something in his pocket.

"I can't believe my luck." His tone became sinister and he lunged for Dick. Dick yelped and jump out of his reach, just barely dodging the man's colossal hands. A white rag was in his hands and Dick realized he was trying to put that over his mouth. Dick went to run out of the alley, to call for help, but the man was blocking the only exit with his much bigger body.

The next few seconds went by in a blur, he had managed to kick and punch the man a few times but in the end he had been snagged. The man's arms snaking around him like a python squeezing its next meal. The tag was put over his mouth and nose and he held his breath for as long as he could, but he had to breath.

He desperately sucked for air, also taking in the chemical. Black dots crowded the corners of his vision as the alley became blurry.

"Nighty Nighty, doll."

//// Flashback End \\\\

So he had been kidnapped. Taken by a large man.
"-ey!"

"-hey!"

"Hey, Kid!" He was snapped out of his thoughts by the boy he had just bonked heads with moments ago. Dick looked at him, head tilting. "Ok good. Thought yous' had a concussion or somethin'." The boy said checking Dick over. "Yous,' don't seem hurt or nothing. You OK?" He asked. Dick nodded. "What's a matta'? Cat got your tongue or somethin?" Dick noticed the boy had a slight lisp in his voice, and a strange accent, not that he could talk.

Dick shook his head. "English not good." He confessed to the boy. "Oh. Well, what's yer name kid?" He asked pulling away from checking the boy over. "Richard. Friend call me Dick." Dick out reached his hand for a shake, to be polite just like Bruce had taught him. A grin spread across the boy freckle dusted face. Red hair tucked under a hat, and blue eyes slightly dull. "I don't think your friends are very nice callin' you dick. So I'm gonna call ya Richie! I'm Anthony! You can call me Ant though, it's what my friends call me. Nice to meet'cha." Anthony shook his hand vigorously.

"Where at?" Dick asked looking around the room the cage was in. There were more cages, they were empty, but he didn't fail to notice the blood in them. "'Where at?' Oh yous' mean where are we. Well I don't know.  I just know that a big guy brings and takes kids in here. There was ones' before yous' was brought here. Name was Kenny.Real smart, funny too. He knew how to keep calm. He protected me." Ant said, a frown appearing on his face. Ant was definitely older then Dick. Maybe 8 or 9? His clothes were dirty and scuffed up, like they hadn't been worn and not washed in a long time.

Dick had to guess he was probably a street kid, and orphan that refused to enter an orphanage. Gotham had tons of them hidden within its alleyways. Tucked away into hide-holes(is that a word?) and defended themselves. Most of them hung out in groups, protecting each other, and seeing how this kid didn't seem to be starving, Dick assumed he was probably in one of them. Jason was a street kid before Bruce took him in. He would tell Dick small stories about his life as a street kid. How he tried to steal the bat-mobile's tires. He never got very far in most of his stories though, one of his other family members would tell him to "quit scaring Dick." As they put it, despite the fact that Dick had been the one wanting to know.

The door opened with a long eerie creak, scraping the concrete floor, dragged down by its heavy weight. A huge man sauntered in, a heavy chain in one hand and a boy over his shoulder. He didn't look in the direction of the two other rooms occupants. As of on instinct, Ant had shifted enough to be in front of Dick.

The man stopped in front of the cage adjacent to their own, open it then through the boy over his shoulder and very roughly into the cage. The cage shook and tilted as the body hit the back bars, but settled quickly. The colossal proceeded to slam the door to the cage angrily and locked it before stomping out. Slamming the door on his way out. Dick listened intently, hope diminishing as he heard a large shift and the door being locked.

"Bruce, where are you?"

//////// \\\\\\\\

RedHood stared at the doll in his hands, the rain still pummeling his backside, the rain becoming rather harsh. Lightning become more frequent and louder now that the storm was directly above. His intense glare guaranteed to make any man shrink in fear, hidden behind his red helmet. His vision turned red, his shaking fist, then finger, pressed his comm. "He's got him." RedHood seethed through gritted teeth. Malice rolling off in waves that nearby passerby's suddenly felt a chill run down their spin and the hairs on the back of their neck stand straight up. Increasing their speed as they passed the alley without a glimpse.

"Who?" Batman growled. RedHood squeezed the doll, it's already cracked porcelain skin making cracking noises under the pressure. He had a hard time controlling himself, wanting to run off into a blind range. He was going to kill that bastard. "RedHood! Who?" Batman repeated, a growl in his voice. "That fucking Doll bastard!" RedHood hollered making the recipients cringe slightly, but their hearts sank at the news, paling simultaneously.

"Everyone, return to cave." Batman replied desperately hiding the anger and fear in his voice, that he probably couldn't have successfully done if not for years of training.

/////\\\\\

Nightwing, having been the furthest away, was the last to enter the cave. His breath was still short from sprinting and roof-jumping all the way home.

Batman was already typing viciously at the Batcomputer's keyboard. His nostrils flaring as he tried to keep his breathing steady. Jason, without his mask or helmet, sat on his bike, angrily staring at the floor. Barbara pacing back and forth behind him. Tim rapidly read through physical papers of the case file, despite haven already read through it multiple times both before Dick's kidnapping and as soon as he heard the news. However the words were becoming blurry through tears forming in his eyes that he wouldn't let fall.

"Father, Please tell me you were close to finding this bastard." Damian growled, his hands shaking in fists by his side.

"W-We were. B-but when we went through ok a strong lead we ended up in the club- where I got shot. Oh god, the victims- what that sick bastard did to them-", "Tim." Bruce cut Tim off, sensing Tim's approaching breakdown, breathed in deeply, then let it out in a calming exercise. "We'll find him, I promise." He stared Tim in his eyes. His face hardened into Batman mode. Then he turned back to the screen, a whisper leaving his lips.

"Where are you baby bird?"

-----------------------------------------------------------

Aha you thought I was gonna be nice and rescue Dick already.

NOPE YOU THOUGHT.