fandomtrash74 wanted this but I may have gone over the top because I was in a mood

EDIT: TW TORTURE//BLOOD

"Don't tell them anything." Came a desperate demand. The voice was fuzzy but Robin recognized it. That was Nightwing. Why would Nightwing demand that? "Come now, your brothers should know what I did." That voice was snarky and smug. Slade. He knew that voice anywhere. That begged the question, why was he hearing it? He tried to retrace his steps but there was a black spot in his memory after hearing a shout to run. Robin remembered running but he mustn't have gotten very far. He could feel tight ropes against his wrists and his arms were fixed in place. It felt like he was in a chair but he couldn't be sure. He opened his eyes but found only black. That would have panicked him had he not felt a material across his eyelids and something resembling a knot digging into the back of his head. "No they don't!" A loud slap sound followed by a satisfied chuckle. 

"I missed doing that to you." There was a grossed out groan. "Trust me, a little slap like that is only the beginning."

"Leave him alone fuckwit." So Red Hood had been captured too. 

"Ah, are all you bat brats awake?" Robin nodded his head, wondering if his brothers did the same. 

There was some silence before the blindfold was taken off. Robin blinked rapidly at the bright lighting before his eyes adjusted. He was right about the chair. He glanced around to get his bearings. Red Robin, Red Hood, and himself were all sitting in a line. In front of them, Nightwing was tied to a pole in an extremely uncomfortable position. There was a red handprint on his face and bruises dotted here and there. Robin wondered how long he'd been alone with Slade. He struggled against his bonds just at the thought of it. As much as Nightwing was the protective big brother, Robin was fiercely protective over him. Maybe even more so. "What's this about?" Red Robin asked. 

"Call it a redo of an old experiment of mine. Only this time, Nightwing will stay in my care."

"Wouldn't call it care," Nightwing commented. Slade fixed him with a glare but he simply returned it. 

"He's got a troublesome will but I've come close to breaking it once. I'm sure I can do it again. Especially since it's family now," the villain continued. He walked to somewhere behind Robin and returned with three needles. They all struggled against their bonds but it was no use. They were injected all the same. "You've been given something along the lines of nanobots that will kill you. Nightwing is familiar with them, aren't you?"

"Stop it," the hero snapped but it came out more like a beg. He was clearly uncomfortable by what was being alluded to and that made this all the more personal. This wasn't some stupid do what I say or I'll kill someone plot. It went far deeper than that. There was a past that none of them knew about. 

"Getting upset, are we? They'll know soon enough about our time together. It was short-lived but I made such progress. I suspect you'll be easier to subdue thanks to the new target. Not to mention you've learned to control that rage that controlled you so many years ago."

"Nightwing, what's he talking about?" Red Robin inquired. 

"It's nothing."

"Why must you belittle my work? I'll tell you what I did to your brother but the details have to be cut for time," Slade pitched in. "I gave his little friends something similar when Nightwing was Robin. The Titans were all he had, weren't they? When I threatened to kill them, the only way to keep them alive would to be my apprentice. I'd trained him so well but his friends had to swoop in and steal him away before he could finish his training."

"You never said anything about it?" Robin commented. He and Nightwing had shared so much, why would he leave out the crucial detail of his life? It would've worked in one of his perseverance analogies. Unless it was something far more. "He didn't say anything because he's still terrified of what happened back then. I haunt his dreams, don't I?" Nightwing didn't have a sassy remark. His eyes fell to the floor in shame. "If we weren't pressed for time, I'd tell you everything. The way he screamed when I electrocuted him. The whimpers he'd let out when I beat him. Oh and the begs to stop. Those were my favourite. I'll get to hear them all again if you really care for your brothers."

"What do you mean?" Nightwing asked worriedly. There was a new sense of panic in his eyes.

"I realized my mistake last time. I made it so you could fight back more. The nanobots I've given them will go into self destruct every hour. Only I have the antidote that can be given to them every hour to stop the self destruct. Resistance means no antidote, no antidote means bots go boom."

"Shit," Red Hood muttered. His brother's shared the sentiment.

"Here's how this is going to work. You're going to be my apprentice and you're going to deal with it. I'll break you down into nothing before building you back up and you'll do it or they'll be killed," Slade explained. He stared at Nightwing smugly, knowing he had the upper hand. The panic in the heroes eyes was accompanied by fear. He couldn't maintain eye contact with the villain anymore and had to cast his eyes to the floor. "You don't want to kill your family, do you? The family you worked so hard to build up?"

"Don't listen to him! We'll figure a way out of this," Red Robin insisted. 

"He's right! You don't need to do jackshit!" Red Hood added. 

"Wilson is deceiving you, Grayson," Robin argued. Yet their arguments fell on deaf ears. They knew the older had made his decision and it hurt more than anything in the world to see how defeated he was. They couldn't stand to see him like that. He was clearly scared of whatever would come his way but he wouldn't let them die. "I'll do it. Just don't hurt them."

"Nightwing no!" Red Robin cried. 

"Smart decision. I'll get these boys out the way then we can resume our training," Slade replied. He knelt down and grabbed Nightwing by the chin. "This is going to be fun."

Robin was dragged out of the room first then Red Robin followed by Red Hood. Nightwing couldn't look at them as they were taken out. They could see he was frightened but his fear was outweighed by his need to protect his family. In theory, this would be a rather loving moment but in practicality it was terrifying. Something bad was going to happen to him and yes he'd gone through things like this before but Slade seemed to have lost any scrap of mercy he had when Nightwing was Robin. The three were brought into a brick room with nothing in it. They remained tied to the chair. "You won't get away with this," Red Robin snarled. "I bet I could remake your antidote in ten minutes flat." Slade chuckled darkly.

"Oh, you idiot. You really think I'll risk that again?" he asked. 

"I did before you asked that question," the younger mumbled.

"You weren't injected with anything of the sort. I gave you nothing that would harm you. I simply needed Nightwing to believe I did," he explained. 

"Why?" Robin asked.

"I need you alive for a few days to get some footage. You'll eventually die of starvation or thirst which will be captured by that camera up there. He will eventually resist and I'll show him the footage. He'll think he killed you. Eventually, you'll all die and he'll be catatonic. Family means so much to him after all," he expanded as he paced around the room. "He'll think he can't come back to being a hero so he may as well work under me. At one point, I'll kill Batman so that the last hope of freedom is stripped from him. I'll keep killing heroes whenever he feels brave enough to defy me."

"You can't do that to him! He'll be traumatized!" Red Hood shouted. 

"That's the point. The best part is, even if Batman finds you three somehow before you rot away, he won't find Nightwing. I finally won and I'll tell you now, victory is sweet." They pulled at their bonds upon finding out his plans. They couldn't let that happen to their brother. He couldn't go through this. He couldn't lose his family twice. "Struggle all you like but I've won. Your brother is gone."

"I'll kill you for this! You put your hands on him and you're dead, you hear me?" Robin yelled.

"Cute. I would stay and revel longer but we've got a flight to catch."

"We'll find him!" Red Robin insisted. Slade rolled his eyes as he turned on his heel. He was clearly unfazed and it was annoying them to no end. They were putting this guy in a coma for sure once they got out of the ropes. "Trust me, he's as good as dead to you now." He closed the door behind him with an extra loud slam, leaving them in complete darkness.

They didn't know how long it'd been before the door opened again but they were thankful to see who they did in the doorway. Batman ran in with Orphan by his side. The pair quickly untied the three heroes before Spoiler came in too. She shook her head with a worried look and panted like she'd been running a marathon. "Where's Nightwing?" Batman asked, concern laced within his words.

"Slade took him. He's making him his apprentice," Red Robin answered. He rubbed his wrists with a pained hiss. They must've been here a while for it to hurt this much. Either that or the ropes were too tight to begin with. The colour drained from Batman's face. That didn't mean anything good. "We need to find him before Wilson convinces him we're dead," Robin insisted. 

"We thought you were all being kept together. There was nothing to say you'd been separated," Spoiler informed them. "His tracker was left here."

"Slade said he had a flight to catch. We just need to find where he would go and Nightwing will be there," Red Robin deducted. 

"We need to get you to a doctor first. You three have been here for a week," she responded. 

"I'll take them. You two go back to the Cave and contact Oracle. We need all hands on deck for this," Batman ordered. The girls nodded before running off. "If it took a week to find you three then it'll take much longer to find Nightwing."

"Not necessarily. Those cameras are filming us. Hack the signal and we can pinpoint where he is. I doubt there are tapes in them," Red Robin suggested. His mentor nodded and immediately got to work only to curse under his breath after a few minutes. 

"He cut the signal. I've only got a country of origin."

"That's better than nothing," Red Hood stated. 

"I'll get you three to Leslie then I need you back to work as soon as you can. You can rest after we find him." They nodded, ready and willing to put their all into finding their lost brother. 

Five months later

The door creaked open and Nightwing scrambled to get up. He stood to attention, his body stiff and his face expressionless. "Very good my apprentice. You've learned well," Slade greeted. If this was the beginning then Nightwing would've had a smarmy comment. But it wasn't the beginning. He stared off into the distance. He didn't have the same kind of fight anymore. He'd killed his brothers. "We're working on endurance today. If I decide you wimped out too soon, there will be consequences. Orphan is next on the list." Nightwing nodded silently. He wouldn't mess up again. He couldn't be that much of a fuck up. Slade snapped his fingers to signal that they were leaving the room and Nightwing followed him. He was no longer Nightwing he supposed. He was Slade's apprentice. His uniform bore the signature steel S. Half of the uniform was orange whilst the other was black. It was extremely similar to the suit he'd worn when he was sixteen. Only, he'd actually killed people this time. His body ached and screamed at him to give up the act. To call out for help even though it would be pointless. Yet he stayed firm. He knew his injuries. Fractured ribs, broken nose, cuts that went that little bit too deep, bruises that made every movement insufferable, infected wounds dotted here and there. Perhaps the list was longer than that but that's all he could remember. He was brought into a room and was sat on a chair. Thick leather straps were fixed over his wrists, ankles, and chest. He breathed through the immense pain of having something press against his ribs. The chair tipped back a bit before clicking into place. "You've been waterboarded before yes?" 

"Yes sir."

"Good, you'll have some practice then. You're going to keep going until I say so. If you tell me to stop, you'll kill someone else. Got that?" 

"Yes sir." Slade hummed happily and brought over what looked to be a stand with a hose attached to it. The direction of the water would be focused on Nightwing's mouth and nose so he wouldn't be able to breathe. "Oh and remember, I don't need to keep you from drowning. I'll probably have just as much fun dumping your dead body in the middle of town as I will having you as an apprentice. Just a reminder." Nightwing didn't react. Death wasn't as scary as it once was.

As he choked on the water once again, an alarm blared. Slade stopped the water and pulled out his radio. "What's going on?" he yelled. There was no response for a few moments before there was a crackle. 

"It's Britney bitch," a girl responded. He growled under his breath and threw the radio down. They'd found him. How the hell did they find him? This was supposed to be perfect and he'd gotten away with it for five months but now they had to come along and ruin it all. He glanced back to Nightwing who remained still. He'd trained him so well and he was supposed to let this all go? Slade thought through his options. There was a helicopter he could get to and he could always get to a safe house. It wouldn't be the best but he'd still have his apprentice. He stalked over and undid the straps, letting the traumatized hero get up. "This is your next phase of training. You may see the family members you killed, maybe even the ones that you haven't yet, but they are simply not there. You keep following me and doing what I say. Got it?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Follow me to the helicopter." Nightwing nodded and they ran out. 

"C'mon Slade, I thought that line was funny," the same female voice announced through the speakers. Nightwing recognized it immediately. Oracle. "Nightwing would've laughed." He almost cried with relief until he remembered that it simply wasn't there. Slade had said it wasn't real so it wasn't real. They kept running until the door in front of them shut and locked. "Mother fucker," Slade muttered. He went to the terminal to enter the override code. He wasn't going to back down that easy. Then there were two gunshots. Slade cried out as he sunk to the ground, blood pouring from his legs. "That felt good," Red Hood announced. Nightwing stepped back a little and swallowed thickly. His eyes were blown wide with shock. He'd died. He killed him, right? That's what he was told it's what he was shown."C'mon Goldie, we're getting you out of here."

"He's not there. Help me up," Slade ordered. The acrobat did as he was told. This was just another training exercise to show endurance or something. This was a plan that was part of his training and it would be all over soon enough. The override code didn't work which made Slade curse under his breath. He was losing. "What're you doing? I'm right here!" Red Hood shouted. Robin and Red Robin joined him. That was too much. Their eldest brother was frozen. His grip went limp as he stared at them. He looked as pale as a ghost. "Nightwing, whatever he told you it's not true," Red Hood continued. 

"But I resisted," the acrobat whispered. 

"And he fooled you. I'm going to walk over to you okay? I'm going to help you to the jet and we'll get you home," Red Robin said, his voice very calm. The older nodded slowly. He was running on little to no sleep and pure adrenaline so this was not going to end well. His body was going to give out on him at any moment and Red Robin would much prefer if that moment was in the jet. He approached Nightwing cautiously. "I don't know exactly what he told you but none of it is true. I'm real, I wasn't killed. Batman found us a week after we were captured. We weren't given anything."

"Don't listen- FUCK!" Slade yelped when he was shot again to keep him quiet.

"I'll get you home and we'll get you fixed up. You're okay now." It proved all too much for Nightwing. The pain he was in, the shock of seeing everyone, immediately running after hardly being able to breathe for what felt like an eternity and no sleep was the perfect combination to make him collapse. Luckily Red Robin caught him and Red Hood ran over, hoisting the older over his shoulder. He was worryingly light. The anti-hero shot Slade one last time. "One for the road. Hope you bleed out dickhead."

pt 2?