[Fic] Arc 1: Rescue, Part 1 [Undead AU]

[jayeinacross]

Progress: Incomplete
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Just some swearing.
Word count: c.1600
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.
Summary: Bruce is missing for a week. Now they have a clue as to where he is.
A/N: First part of the main storyline of my undead AU.
Also posted at my tumblr here.

***

"Master Jason," Alfred frowns, stitching a wound on Jason’s arm with the speed and accuracy of one well practiced, "you really must be more careful. You know very well that your wounds will not heal, and you only have so much flesh to mutilate. Whatever would you do if you ran out?"

"Thanks, Alfie," Jason snarked in reply. "It’s not like Timmy hasn’t told me that a million times already."

"Well, I’m right, aren’t I?" Comes Tim’s indignant reply.

"If he has told you so many times," Alfred says, snapping the thread off, "perhaps you should, for once in your life, listen? At least until Master Bruce’s prototype formula is complete."

Jason flinches at that, and not at the pain from the stitched cut. He doesn’t feel pain - that sort of pain, at any rate. At the mention of Bruce, Tim’s typing ceases.

"We are going to look for him, right?" Tim’s voice is timid, quiet. He sounds like the scared little kid he was when Jason first met him, not the young man he’s grown into since then.

"Of course we are." Jason puts on a brave face for Tim, but he’s not so sure about that himself. Bruce has been gone for two months now, and every night they’re out looking for leads - that’s where Dick is now. They will look for Bruce, but first they have to have a way of finding him.

"Robin. Red." Dick’s voices comes through the comm system. "Are you there?"

"We’re here, Nightwing," Tim says. "Have you found something?"

"Yes," Dick says lowly. "You have to see it. I’m gonna need you to run some tests on it, Robin. I’m on my way, see you in a few minutes."

Jason and Tim look at each other. Jason gives a tiny nod. "I think this is it."

They wait impatiently for Dick to arrive, and when they hear his motorcycle, they both jump up. By the time Dick’s parked it inside the cave, his two brothers are practically beside him already.

"Dick! Did you find a lead?" Tim asks, but he stops still when Dick takes his helmet off and he sees the grim look on his older brother’s face.

"What’d you find?" Dick just pulls a note in a plastic bag out of his pocket and hands it to Jason silently, who mutters under his breath as he reads it.

"‘I have him.’ What the..." Jason glares at Dick, passing the note along to Tim, who examines it silently. "This is all you have? Fuck, D, this--"

"Jason!" Tim interrupts him. "Look at this." He points to a small drawing of the sword on the corner of the note.

"Ra’s al Ghul," Dick says darkly.

"What?" Jason stares at the drawing.

"It’s Ra’s al Ghul’s sword," Tim said urgently. "Look!"

Jason does, and he pales when he realizes that Tim is right. "But if Ra’s has him..." He trails off and watches as Tim takes

the note and heads over to the computer bank. "What are you doing?"

"Running tests," Tim replies without looking away from the screens. "We have to confirm that it’s Ra’s before we jump to any conclusions."

"Tim’s right," Dick says firmly. "Jason, come with me and we’ll go back to look for any more evidence."

"And where’s that?" Jason asks.

"Crime Alley."

***

While some of the basic tests are running, Tim brings up a reference of Ra’s al Ghul’s sword to compare the drawing with. Upon examination, he finds that it is the same. The drawing is incredibly detailed, an exact miniature likeness of the real sword. Every engraving and decoration has been added.

"Master Timothy, here is the disc you were looking for." Tim jumps at Alfred’s unexpected comment. "I’m sorry if I disturbed you."

"I just wasn’t paying attention," Tim admits sheepishly and takes the proffered disc. "Thanks, Alfred."

"You’re welcome." Alfred starts to turn away, but stops. "Master Timothy?"

"Yeah?"

"If it is this Ra’s al Ghul that has taken Master Bruce," Alfred says hesitantly, "Will you know where to find him?"

Tim stares at the floor before answering quietly, "Unless we get some solid evidence...no. We don’t know his location." He looks up and promises, "But we will find him, Alfred. We’ll find him."

***

"I’ve come by here every night for the past two weeks and that note definitely wasn’t there before tonight," Dick says. "Scanner’s picked up about five sets of fresh prints."

"If it is Ra’s, whoever he hired to leave the note probably would have been smart enough to wear gloves or something," Jason complains. He’s bagging anything that could be evidence or hold traces of whoever left the note. "Do we have to track down all those people?"

"Afraid so, Jaybird," Dick sighs. "We have to rule everything out before even considering going after Ra’s."

"It’s just ‘Red’ out here, remember," Jason warns him. "You should know that. You were the one that taught me that."

"And B was the one who taught me that," Dick murmurs. "Sorry, Red. I just..."

Jason lays a hand on his brother’s arm. "We all miss him, big bird. But we’re gonna find him and bring him home."

***

The three of them sit in the Cave, not speaking for a while, just letting the realization sink in.

Ra’s al Ghul has Bruce.

All the evidence - which, granted, is not a lot - points towards Ra’s. All of it comes from the note. Interrogating the owners of the fingerprints left behind came to nothing. The other samples that Jason had collected just led to dead ends as well. But Tim a clue in the note. One clue.

Of course it was Tim, Jason thinks. Though logically he knows it was because Tim was the one looking into the note, Tim’s always been the brightest out of the three of them. The best detective, maybe even better than Bruce.

There were no fingerprints that Tim could find. No dust or traces of any other substances. The paper is the kind you can buy for four dollars for a hundred sheets in any office supply store, cut into a smaller rectangle with standard scissors. The handwriting is block-print, looks like whoever wrote it took great care in trying to conceal their identity. A hell of a lot of care. There’s almost nothing to find.

But Tim did find something.

Maybe if Jason or Dick had run those tests, they would have found it too. But both of them have the feeling that not even Bruce would have thought of this.

"I ran the ink through the system," Tim explains. "Anyway, the ink is pretty uncommon, especially in America. It’s mostly used in the Middle East."

"Isn’t that where Bruce thought Ra’s headquarters are?" Jason asks.

"Yes. And I had an idea." Holding up a different bagged piece of paper, Tim passes it along to Jason and continues. "Talia al Ghul used to write these letters to Bruce when she was living with her father. She wrote with the same kind of ink that the note was written with."

"But what use is that?" Jason says, frustrated. "So it’s pretty much confirmed that Ra’s is the one who took Bruce. Unless we find something that will lead us to Ra’s--"

"Wait, Jason," Dick interrupts. "What else is there, Tim?"

"Talia would probably be a lot easier to find than Ra’s. And if she believes that Bruce is in danger..."

"She’d be a lot more willing to help us find Bruce," Jason finishes. "Tim. That’s brilliant!"

"Now all we have to do is find Talia." Dick grimaces. "It won’t be easy, though."

"I’ve also. There’s also another possibility." Dick and Jason turn to Tim, motioning for him to continue. "As there was no other clues except for the ink that I could find on the note, it would have been easy for whoever sent it to leave absolutely no trace. Whoever it was must have intended for us to figure out who they were, or even find them. I think that Talia might have sent the note."

Dick closes his eyes. "If Talia’s telling us. It must be bad."

"Goddammit," Jason growls.

"We can’t know for sure. But I think it’s either Talia or Ra’s. And we’re going after Talia anyway." Tim hesitates. "Right?"

"Of course we are." Dick opens his eyes. "Let’s go get some rest. We’ll talk more about this in the morning.

Tim and Jason both protest at once.

"Dick, we have to start as soon as we can--"

"What the hell! Let’s just--"

"Hey!" Tim and Jason fall silent and Dick stares at them. "We’re all too hyped up. Give it a little time, and we’ll start planning first thing in the morning. We won’t have a lot of time to relax later on, so take the chance now while we’ve got it. I’m going to to go take a shower."

Jason sighs. "He’s right, Tim. we gotta get our heads straight first before we do anything."

"I know." Tim stares at the floor. "I just. Bruce has been gone a week already. And if we wait any longer."

"Hey. Hey." Jason drags his chair closer until his knees are knocking with Tim’s. "Bruce is tough. He can handle whatever Ra’s is throwing at him. And we can’t rush into this."

"I know," Tim repeats. "But if we lose Bruce. We don’t just lose him. We lose each other. Who knows what’ll happen if Bruce isn’t here to fix us if something happens. And then Alfred’ll be all alone again--"

"Whoa, hold up there, Timmy," Jason says, grabbing one of Tim’s hands and squeezing. "Getting a bit ahead of yourself there. We’ll worry about all that some other time. But right now? No chance. We’ll get Bruce back."

***