[Fic] Arc 1: Rescue, Part 2 [Undead AU]

[jayeinacross]

Progress: Incomplete
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Mentions of violence?
Word count: c.2300
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.
Summary: The boys might know who has Bruce, but they've no way of finding him. Until Zatanna Zatara shows up in town.
A/N: So this took about a week longer than it should have due to my laptop charger breaking, but it’s finally here! Steph was not actually intended to come into this story much, much later, but she insisted. Comments are hoarded much appreciated.
Also posted at my tumblr here. Masterlist here.


 ***

Two days later and Dick, Jason and Tim are close to tearing their hair out. The few leads they’d managed to find about Talia’s location had resulted in a lot of wasted time and effort, and took them no closer to her than they’d been before.

Everyone is down in the Cave, and the phones in the Manor are hooked up to the computers downstairs as well, so when the phone rings out and a woman with an unfamiliar voice leaves a message, they all hear it as it’s recorded.

"Hey, Bruce, it’s Zatanna. It’s been a while, huh? Well, anyway...I’m doing a show in Gotham in couple of nights, and I’m calling to see if you wanted to catch up while I’m in town. Call me back?"

"Who’s Zatanna?" Dick asks, pausing in his work. "Name sounds familiar."

"Isn’t she some stage magician?" Jason looks up from where he’s leaning on the table.

"Miss Zatara was a childhood friend of Master Bruce’s," Alfred informs them. "They have been out of contact for a number of years, but I believe he does keep track of what she’s doing."

Tim brings up a file on the computer, projecting it onto the big screen. "Zatanna Zatara. Very successful stage magician. And real magician, apparently." He zooms in on a photo of the woman standing with a number of other well-known figures dressed in colourful costumes.

"What, she’s a magic-using superhero?" Dick asks. "With the Justice League?"

"Looks like it." Tim scrolls through the information that Bruce has written in. "Says here that she’s a really powerful magician, not all just stage tricks."

"Yeah, right," Jason snorts, spinning his swivel chair around. He notices the others looking at him strangely. "What? Magic? It’s all just science, really. They just don’t like their audience to know that."

"Jay," Dick says. "We're dead. We're moving and talking. And you don't believe in magic?"

Jason just shrugs. "Like I said, it's just science. Maybe we don't understand it completely, but it's science. Magic doesn't exist."

Dick opens his mouth, but before the two brothers start arguing, Alfred speaks. "Since Miss Zatara is in the area and planning on visiting anyway, might I suggest that you go to her for help with finding Master Bruce?"

"You think she'd be able to find Talia?" Tim asks, straightening up.

"Indeed, she is a powerful magician."

"Hold up," Jason says. "We'd have to talk to her ourselves, right? She’s not going to just help some random guys unless we explain. Which means we'd have to explain why three guys that are supposed to be dead are living in Bruce's secret basement."

"Do you think we can trust her, Alfred?" Tim is chewing on his bottom lip.

"I believe so," Alfred says.

"Sounds like she's our best chance of finding Bruce," Dick says. "So how are we gonna get her to come here?"

"Well, if Alfred just calls her back and asks her that Bruce wants her to come over," Tim suggests. "She's already said she'd like to see him again."

"See him, yeah," Jason says. "Not three dead guys."

"We don't have to tell her that Bruce isn't gonna be here," Dick points out. "Then we just. Tell her what happened."

"I don't know," Tim says, sounding worried. "What if she tells somebody about us? Then what ?"

"We gotta take that chance," Jason says firmly.

Dick nods. "Alfred said she’s trustworthy. We have to find Bruce, and if this is our only chance...then we have to do it."

"When should I call Miss Zatara back?" Alfred asks.

"In the morning, I guess," Dick says, looking at his brothers, who nod.

"Very good, sir." Alfred goes upstairs again, leaving the three boys sitting with each other.

"I’m gonna go out," Tim says abruptly, standing up. "We haven’t been out for a couple of days. And I’ve gotta get out of here. You guys want to come?"

Jason shakes his head. "Nah. I think I’m gonna do some research on this magician chick."

Dick does stand up, though. "Sure, Timmy." Jason moves to the computer bank, and Tim and Dick grab their backpacks and start filling them up.

They don’t bring anything too special, just the basics. Bandages, antiseptic, painkillers, though nothing too strong. Cough syrup and a bunch of disposable inhalers, because Gotham winters are always nasty. Anything more specialized than that, they’ll bring if anyone needs it.

After they’ve suited up and have their simple domino masks on, Dick and Tim leave together to go to the first shelter. It’s the biggest one in Gotham, and they’re always needing more supplies.

They slip in round the back, where they know they can get into the volunteer’s office through the window. Morgan, a regular volunteer is in there, and she jumps in surprise when she notices them in there with her, but relaxes and smiles when she recognizes them.

"Oh, it’s just you two." Morgan sighs in relief, brushing her blonde fringe out of her eyes.

"Just us?" Dick acts wounded, placing a hand on his chest. "Ouch."

Morgan rolls her eyes and gives Dick a gentle slap on the arm. "Shut up, you know what I mean, Nightwing." She nods at Tim. "Hey, Robin. Haven’t see you two around here for a while."

"Sorry," Tim replies. "Been dealing with some...personal stuff."

"No problem," Morgan says. "What have you got for us today?"

"The usual." Dick pulls things out of his backpack and hands them to her.

"Anything in particular you need?" Tim asks.

"Katie’s got an ear infection," Morgan tells them, putting the supplies that Dick is giving to her in the cupboards. "Got anything for that?"

"I’ll need to have a look." Morgan nods, opens the door a bit and sticks her head out, calling for the little girl, who obediently comes in, tugging on one of her dark plaits. Tim kneels down beside her, smiling. "Hey, sweetheart. Morgan says your ear hurts?"

As Tim’s examining Katie, Dick closes up his bag again. "We don’t have anything tonight that’ll help her, but we’ll bring some stuff tomorrow." Katie scampers off again, after Tim pats her head affectionately.

"I’m not in tomorrow, but I’ll let Anna know. She’ll be pleased." Morgan winks at Tim. "She’s got a bit of a crush on you, Robin."

"See you later!" Dick laughs and gives Morgan a kiss on the cheek, while Tim ducks his head in embarrassment, and then together they disappear out the window again.

On the way to where their bikes are parked, Dick nudges Tim, smirking. "A shelter volunteer with a crush on a masked do-gooder? That sounds familiar."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," Tim replies haughtily, but Dick knows that if Tim still had blood, he’d be blushing bright red.

"Well, it’s probably more accurate if you replace ‘bit of a crush’ with ‘huge crush’." Dick grins evilly and dodges as Tim tries to elbow him in the ribs.

"Shut up," Tim mutters, then says, "Hey. It was your idea to do all this, right?" He gestures to themselves, and points to the shelter they just left.

Dick nudges him again. "Don’t pretend you don’t know the story, little brother."

Tim smiles sheepishly. "Yeah. I guess I just like hearing it."

"Well, then." Dick lowers his voice to a dramatic whisper. "It was a dark and stormy night..."

Dick didn’t manage to dodge Tim’s bony elbow this time. "Just tell the damn story."

"Fine," Dick sighed. "So I’d been the Manor for about six months, right? And I don’t think I’ve ever stayed in one town for that long, let alone one house. Granted, a huge house, but still. And I could only sit down and read books and stuff for so long. B had been teaching me some basic medical things, and I remembered all the people in cities that we’d seen that were just living in the streets. I figured they could use some help."

"And B?"

"He warmed up to the idea." Dick cracks a grin. "Eventually. First he made me learn how to fight, even though we can’t really get hurt."

"At least then he didn’t have to glue your bones back together all the time," Tim comments.

"True. And then he developed this armour and the masks." Dick taps his chest. Both of them are wearing clothes that are pretty casual: thick jeans, dark jackets with the hoods on, their mask on underneath. But their boots and are reinforced, there’s light body armour in their jackets and the technology in their masks is the best that the R&D department of WayneTech could make. "Sometimes he goes a bit overboard with the protection."

Tim snorts and opens his mouth to say something, but he’s cut off by someone grabbing the back of his jacket, hauling him against a brick wall and holding a gun to his head.

They don’t bleed when they’re cut. They don’t feel physical pain. They don’t need to eat or drink or sleep. But they don’t know what’d happen if a bullet was sent into their skulls, and they sure as hell don’t want to know.

"Drop the bags." Another guy emerged, pointing his gun at Dick.

"There’s nothing in there that’d be of any use to you," Dick said firmly. "Put the guns down."

The guys ignore him, and one grabs Dick’s backpack and starts unzipping it. Dick nods at Tim, and in a matter of seconds, the guys are lying unconscious on the cold concrete.

"Jeez, you’d think they’d learn." Tim dismantles the thugs’ guns and Dick zips up his backpack again.

***

When Jason checks in on Robin and Nightwing, they’ve just split up. Dick’s heading to another shelter, and Tim’s on his way to Leslie Thompkins’ clinic to make sure she has enough supplies.

While his brothers are on their rounds, Jason gets to work researching the magician. Bruce has pretty extensive files on her, but that’s not exactly surprising - Bruce keeps extensive files on pretty much everyone he knows. After reading through them, he’s still kind of skeptical about the magic thing. He’s sure that Bruce is too. Most ‘magic’ can be explained by science - really, really high-tech science, but science nonetheless, and Bruce says as much in those files.

She seems trustworthy enough, for now. She’s a part of that Justice League, and so far they haven’t shown any signs of hostility towards innocents, either.

But just in case, Jason calls one of his contacts to try and dig up any additional information about Zatanna Zatara. Bruce told them they can never be too careful. And maybe Jason jumps into fights without thinking of anything except to get the innocents away from harm, not worrying about himself. But when it’s someone else...

When it’s Alfred that someone’s trying to knife on his way to Leslie’s clinic. When it’s Marie, an orphan living on the streets, taking a vicious beating for a kid she doesn’t even know. When it’s a woman wearing a string of pearls around her neck and a mugger pointing a gun at her husband. Then it’s different. His own life - or, well, existence - being in danger, that doesn’t matter.

This time, it’s Bruce’s. And that does matter.

His contact calls back an hour and a half later, just as Dick and Tim have returned. Jason waves to his brothers, then hits the ‘accept call’ key on his phone. "What have you got for me?"

"There’s not a whole lot on this lady, Red. Most of it I think you already know - really successful stage magician, lives in San Francisco when she’s not touring, plus she’s got a mansion in Gotham. Superhero, too, works with the Justice League sometimes. Rumours about her having powers that aren’t just for the stage. Maybe she’s a meta?"

"Right," Jason replies, drumming his fingers on the table and glancing over his shoulder at Dick and Tim, who are blatantly listening in. "Anything else?"

"She’s been spotted holding illegal card games in the streets sometimes. 3-card monte, that sort of thing. Robs everyone of their money, she’s that good, but never gets caught out. That’s all I got, really. Did it help any?"

"Not really," Jason admits. "Thanks anyway, Spoiler. Just keep an eye out for anything else that might be useful. I’ll see you around."

"Gotcha, Red." Before Spoiler can hang up, Dick and Tim both call out.

"Bye, Spoiler!"

"Take care, Steph."

"See you, Nightwing. Stop showing off, Robin." She tuts and they can practically hear the eye-roll before she cuts the connection.

"You really love doing that to people, don’t you?" Jason remarks.

Tim smirks. "Yep."

When Spoiler had just been a mysterious girl in a hood and a mask, it had taken Tim less than a day to figure out that she was Stephanie Brown, daughter of the third-rate criminal Arthur Brown, AKA the Cluemaster. And he hadn’t even had to follow her home.

They’d been wary of her at first, before they found out she wasn’t a meta or a criminal, just a teenage girl determined to do something good in the suburbs where she lived. Then they’d just gotten downright condescending, something that all three would admit too.

But Steph had proved her worth many times over. There was a reason she was their best contact. And though she lacked the expert training that Tim, Dick and Jason had been through, she was strong and innovative. They’d never forget the day she smashed a brick into the side of Tim’s head then bolted when she realized that Tim wasn’t even dazed.

For an information supplier, Steph was remarkably good about not prying into the boys’ lives. She may have her suspicions about them, but she never asks, and they’re all grateful for it.