There was no way for Damian to tell how long he was in the room. Was he not hungry because it'd only been a few hours or because he felt sick? It was unbearably quiet with the most he could hear being his own steps when he paced and his heart thumping in his chest. It was a waiting game and he didn't want to play it. Maybe Slade wouldn't be so horrible this time. Maybe he too had learned from his mistakes and would change to account for those. Yet, that optimism was hard to keep up with all the horrors he already knew from the apprenticeship. It wasn't much of an apprenticeship. He sighed and felt anger bubble up inside him. It wasn't fair that he had to sit around and wait whilst Slade was doing all manner of things to Dick. Annoyingly, Dick had grown on him over the years and now he was protective of the acrobat. That wasn't helped by the fact his brother was now a child. The universe wasn't done making the man suffer apparently and by association, Damian. He threw his fist against the wall with a frustrated yell. He barely made a dent in the wall and all the action really did was send a shock wave of pain riveting up his arm but he needed to punch something. It was no good bottling it all up, that's what Dick had told him once. Punch something meant for punching was also something he'd been told but he didn't have that readily available. 

As he flexed his hand out, he finally heard something different from the familiar drone of quiet. Feet were hitting the floor hard and quick. His eyes widened as he turned to the door. He recognised at least three footsteps. One was harder than the others. "Who needs this many rooms?" That was Tim's voice. He never thought he'd be so relieved to hear it. 

"Demon Spawn? Where are ya?"

"I'm here!" he yelled back. The footsteps rushed towards him and he heard the lock click open. The door opened and he was all too happy to get out of the room. He'd seen the same four walls far too much for his liking. Although he was relieved to be freed, it was no time to celebrate. They still had a very big, very pressing problem to solve.

"Where's Goldie?" Jason asked, puzzled as to why he wasn't being tackle hugged by the tiny acrobat and honestly a little disappointed. He wouldn't admit to the disappointment though.

"He's gone," Damian answered. The family stared at him blankly as they took in what they said. They hadn't anticipated an extra step to the rescue nor did they bring the supplies for one. "I told him to run but he just tried to help me instead. The idiot was caught in his attempt."

"Any leads?" Bruce asked. 

"Wilson took him. He talked about training and he'd knocked Grayson out with a dart so I presume he needed him knocked out for the journey. I was dragged back here by my damn clone before I could see their means of escape." He wished he could do more but he didn't even hear any sort of transportation over the sound of his thumping heart and an overwhelming sense of fury that deafened any hopes of noise bleeding through. "At least if he wants Dick as an apprentice he escaped the secondary location rule? Right?" Tim suggested. They all sent him questioning looks, making him shrink in on himself. "Yeah, I don't know why I said that either."

"So what the fuck are we supposed to do?" Jason snapped. 

"Have you seen Mother?" Damian asked. Bruce shook his head. "Nor my clone?" 

"I shot him. Not to death but enough for fantasy fulfilment," the eldest sibling answered.

"Though she may not be here, the information on the deal made with Wilson is bound to have been left behind. Perhaps something on a location. This had to be some sort of transaction so that might be our best bet," the younger suggested. 

"You know the place better than we do, where would they keep that?" Tim asked.

"There should be archives above us. I'll lead you there."

"Let's hope we find something."

Luckily the archives were digital so the family of vigilantes could pull some quick computer magic and get the hell out before reinforcements decided to pay them a visit. They could also get supplies prepared for another mission if they did find anything of note. They decided to split up on the tasks with Bruce and Tim focusing on digging through files whilst Jason and Damian got things prepared. "You okay?" Jason asked as he checked his magazine. He'd used quite a few bullets on that clone but it really creeped him out and it wasn't like the thing could take it. In hindsight, it felt like a waste. 

"I'm fine."

"Bullshit," the older replied. 

"What do you want from me? I'm no happier than anyone else." 

"The resident nutcracker is currently who knows where and I wanna get my good boy points in," he retorted snarkily. The younger hummed and after a few moments of silence, he let out a sigh.

"I don't know what's in that dart, I don't know how long since he was taken and I don't know where he is. I don't like the unknown," he mumbled. He busied his hands with collecting smoke bombs, inspecting them to make sure they weren't defective. "Should've been able to do something."

"Nah, you wouldn't be able to do shit. Slade probably planned for that anyway."

"It doesn't matter whether he planned or not! I am supposed to be better than that mercenary."

"And you are. C'mon, don't be stupid."

"It's not stupidity," Damian snapped. "I'm angry. At him. At me. Seeing Grayson collapse and look so limp. It reminded me of when-" He couldn't bring himself to talk about it. 

"When he faked kicking the bucket to play spies?" The younger sent him a glare. "Yeah yeah, I know that's not how it went down exactly." Jason put his gun down and took off his belt, checking it for what was missing. He had another magazine but he'd need to fetch another as a backup. Especially if they were going against someone like Slade. "I feel the same y'know? How can you not when he's such a cute kid and he's too small to sit on a barstool without help? You just have to remember that we're gonna get him back to his normal state and anything we do now, he'll understand."

"That's not worth anything if we can't find him."

"You think those two nerds aren't gonna find him? You think even by the slim chance they couldn't, Babara wouldn't find him?" Damian shrugged before he felt a hand on his shoulder that squeezed gently. "He'll be okay. The Grayson luck isn't that shit." He nodded and hoped he was right.

"I've got something!" Tim announced, getting everyone's attention. They crowded around the computer as he highlighted an area of a document. On the screen was a list of addresses with some saying valid whilst others saying invalid. "These are all the addresses noted for transactions, normal stuff right? Well, they also put the name next to the addresses and these are all the ones with Slade Wilson. These are our best bets." 

"Most of these are invalid," Jason commented.

"But the newest one is valid," Bruce pointed out. "Find where it is and figure out our best way of getting there. We'll set out in two days."

"Two days?" Damian exclaimed. "Why not as soon as we get a location?"

"Slade is smart and we need time to prepare. We know he won't kill Dick so we can take the extra time to plan. I don't want to go in blind," he explained. 

"He's a child, you can't just leave him in danger."

"He's not going to be a child forever. Dick will be fine and I have the final say."

"Well, it's a shit final say!"

"I don't have time for your melodrama," Bruce snapped. "You either prepare or you go upstairs and wait there." Damian muttered a curse and stomped off. The brothers glanced at one another, both unhappy but smart enough not to voice it around their previous mentor. Neither wanted to wait. Had Dick been his regular age then yes, they'd take on what Bruce told them but he wasn't. He wasn't even his usual self within a child. He was plain old adolescent Dick Grayson. "Hold down the fort whilst I patrol."

"Seriously?"

"Slade's most vulnerable if he's confident. If he's got tabs on Gotham then he'll assume I don't know about what happened. I know what I'm doing," Bruce replied, the latter added in an almost spiteful tone. "I'll be back in three hours." They nodded and let him go about his job.

"So are we gonna wait?" Tim asked once the hero was out of earshot.

"Since when did we do what we're told?" Jason replied. "I'll get Demon Spawn and you do your hacky stuff."