[Edited April 17, 2023]

Nico had spent a week at the Wayne manor now. The prank score was up to:

Nico- 5
Dick- 5
Damian- 4
Jason- 3
Tim- 3

After the gala, Nico was too tired to use the centaur figurine and he had still yet to find the perfect moment. He just hoped that he would get the chance before the prank war ended and it was too late. Nico had grown rather close to his new family, and they accepted him. This begged the question of whether or not he would ever be able to tell them his secret without violating his oath. He had seen what had happened to some of the people who had violated their oaths and it wasn't pretty. He had no desire to meet the same fate. Because of this, he had spoken once more with Diana and they discussed their world and if he should tell Bruce.

Diana seemed adamant that he should. She assured him that Bruce would still accept him, but Nico wasn't so sure. Nico couldn't tell him outright, that was an invitation to be smote down where he stood. No, he would have to help Bruce guess it for himself. It was a good place to start. If he changed his mind about telling him, there would be no harm- no foul.

Things were not completely great, however. He and Damian had gotten into an argument about how unproductive Nico seemed to be. Nico had argued that there wasn't really anything that he needed to be accomplishing right now, but Damian wasn't hearing it. The only biological Wayne child seemed to think that self-improvement was always on the to-do list and that any minute that you weren't working towards bettering yourself in some way was a minute wasted. 

While Nico could see the appeal of that sort of thinking, it didn't seem realistic. He typically picked up skills and hobbies when the mood struck him or it became necessary for survival. For instance, he had picked up a butterfly knife twirling in a week because the thought it looked cool but hadn't touched one in almost a month. He hadn't touched a sword before he'd gotten to camp but now he practiced almost religiously, sneaking in drills when he would wake up from nightmares in the middle of the night.

 To end the argument, Damian said something about how he was wasting his life and Nico stormed off. Granted it was said in a moment of passion and Nico wasn't sure if Damian meant it or not, but it still hurt and made Nico wonder if Damian had always thought that. Did they all think he was wasting his life? Sure, Damian didn't know that he had turned the tide of the war that could have ended the world. If he knew that, things might be different. Even as he tried to convince himself that Damian was wrong, he found himself believing it.

After the fight, Nico hadn't said a word, he just turned his back on the boy and walked out onto the street. He needed to blow off some steam, so he was going to go monster hunting. The demigod figured he'd been in the area long enough that the monsters had to be closing in on his location. He might as well kill them off now instead of letting them track him back to the manor and causes problems for him there. His logic had seemed reasonable at the time.

Every time he thought about what Damian had said, Nico found himself becoming angry all over again. He hadn't even thought he was going to live long enough for self-reflection or improvement to mean anything. What did it matter how many other skills he had picked up during his life if he wasn't going to make it past his teens? He'd always been living life in survival mode without time for participating in anything that wasn't geared toward his continued existence.

Nico was so absorbed in his anger that he didn't realize that he was being followed until someone grabbed him. The person was 3 times bigger than Nico and had the advantage of surprise. He didn't stand a chance in such close quarters and without the ability to reach his weapons. Nico tried to fight back but a damp cloth was held over his nose. Eventually, he had to breathe and he passed out quickly after that. He really shouldn't have gone out alone. What was he thinking? This was Gotham, not New York. This city came with its own breed of monsters.

++++

Nico woke up on a thin mattress in a dark room. There was one dim light in the center of the room and it was slowly burning out. The walls were your cliche moldy concrete, with a large metal door on the other side. It looked like the inside of an old bank vault. Did that mean it was airtight? He didn't have time to consider this possibility for long as he became aware of voices in the distance.

He quickly scanned the room, hoping to see something that could help him. The door was definitely that of a vault door, which meant he wasn't going to be able to open it from the inside. The walls were solid, too, and didn't have any noticeable cracks. The mildew smell was becoming more and more apparent as he breathed and Nico hoped it wasn't going to make him ill-- if he lived that long.

The sound of a conversation was getting louder with every passing second and the son of Hades was still no closer to finding something useful than he had started. Besides the mattress, the room appeared to be empty. The mattress itself was tattered and covered in a substance that Nico hoped wasn't blood. The light flickered and Nico prayed to anyone who was listening that it wouldn't go out. 

 He was almost able to pick out individual words, now. One of the voices was very distinctive, Nico had no trouble recognizing it from the videos Dick had shown him on the internet from one of the times that this villain had commandeered a TV show. He had been captured by the Joker. Nico cursed himself for getting himself into this situation over a stupid argument.

 Nico checked his pocket and was relieved to find that they hadn't taken his dagger coin. It was the only weapon he had that would work on mortals. He didn't know if this meant that they hadn't gone through his pockets or if they'd just decided the coin wasn't worth taking. Either way, he was grateful.

"Well, let's see if our guest of honor is awake yet, shall we?" Joker cackled, his voice getting closer by the second. Nico briefly considered pretending to be asleep but he decided that his acting skills weren't that good. Besides, avoidance wasn't really his style. The door was thrown open wide. There stood Joker in all his psychopathic glory.

"Ahhh! You're awake! Good, I want to talk to you a little before Batman comes and spoils our fun." Joker grabbed Nico roughly by his trapezius muscle and dragged him to his feet. The trapezius muscle was the one that the EMTs were supposed to pinch in order to wake up an unconscious person. It woke them up because of how much it hurt. 

Nico gritted his teeth and allowed himself to be led through the dilapidated bank. The Joker's men had guns and Nico wasn't bulletproof. He didn't like his chances of being able to shadow travel faster than a bullet could fly. It was times like these that he wished he had taken on the Curse of Achilles. 

Joker dragged him in that manner through the building and into the lobby. All the windows were boarded up and the only lights came from little desk lamps that may have been 20 years old. There were several armed guards stationed throughout the room, watching him intently. Fighting his way out was not an option.

Joker brought him in front of the group and threw him to the ground. Nico growled in annoyance and slowly picked himself up, wiping away all the dust from the nasty floors. It smelled like mildew and made Nico feel like sneezing. It was cold and Nico pulled his jacket around himself tighter to conserve his body heat. Did he not have the money to pay for AC? Did this building even have AC? 

"Ooooohhh! This one has spirit! You Wayne boys are all so spunky! I like him, I may just keep." He laughed, watching Nico closely.

" I am not your entertainment. " Nico growled.

"HA HA HA HA HA!" Joker busted up startling him, "You say that as though you have a choice." He smiled in a way that didn't match the threat. His lips were stretched to the limit, showing absolutely every tooth. It was sickening to watch.

" I do have a choice. You'll have to kill me before I cooperate with anything you want me to do," Nico challenged. He had no fear of death, why should he? He was aware that he probably wouldn't get out of this situation alive, and he wasn't hoping for the big bad bat to come to rescue him.

" Ah, bold words... though they are all bold at the start. Yes, I like you, you're interesting." Joker took out a gun and pressed the barrel to Nico's head. Nico froze, wondering if this was how he was going to die. If it was, he wasn't going to make a spectacle out of himself. He didn't flinch, forcing himself to take an even breath. If this was it, he wanted to go out with a little bit of dignity. He was at least grateful that he wouldn't have too much time to think about it. He closed his eyes and held his breath

 When Joker pulled the trigger, the hammer clicked harmlessly down. Nico wasn't dead. He couldn't help but wonder what the Waynes would have thought when they found his body if he had actually just died. Would they blame themselves? Would Damian? Would they curse Batman for not getting here in time?

"Hmmm... perhaps I underestimated you," Joker smiled fondly. The son of Hades only stared.

"Tell me, newbie!  Are you suicidal or stupid? Or both?" Joker sat himself down on top of a rather large crate and swung his feet back and forth like a kid. He tossed the gun off somewhere in the dark warehouse, Nico didn't see where it landed.

"I don't want to die, I just don't fear the afterlife," Nico replied, folding his arms uncomfortably.

The Joker's normally cold gaze glittered in sudden interest, "Really? And just why not, may I ask?"

Nico shrugged, " I dunno... I almost died before and it felt peaceful?" Nico said in the tone of a statement but in the form of a question.

"Ah, so I'm not the first to get their hands on you? Pity." Nico growled at the man in front of him-- his face heated up at the thought of belonging to someone in that sense. The very idea of it made him sick.

"I am not your property!" Nico growled sharply. The Joker motioned for his men to leave the room. Nico absently noted that Harley was nowhere to be seen. He couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing. She couldn't make things worse for him but it also meant that the Joker's full attention was on him, which was not great.

"You really should watch the way you talk to me, you know... I could play with you in so many different painful ways. I think it would be fun to unmake you piece by piece to see what made you tick." The threat was real, Nico knew. Joker wouldn't feel any remorse in tearing him to shreds for his own sick enjoyment. Then he'd be discarded like a broken toy once the man was done.

"I'm not afraid of you," Nico said defiantly. Joker certainly made him uneasy, but scared wasn't the right word. Joker made him sick more than anything. Yes, sick. That is the right word. Everything about the Joker made Nico sick. The color of his hair, his unnaturally pale skin, the huge smile on his face, the scars that created the excessive curve of his lips, his empty eyes, and his hoarse voice. The way he walked, the way he took control of a room, and the way he formulated his words all made Nico's skin crawl in disgust. His laugh grated on the demigod's nerves until it was all he could do to keep from ripping out the Joker's vocal cords and silencing the clown permanently.

"What, none of that 'Batman will save me' nonsense?" Joker teased.

"No. No one cares enough about me to search for me. Especially not some dude dressed up as a bat," Nico snorted. He was sure that Batman had more important matters to attend to than a hostage rescue. Surely there was something bigger happening in the city that required his attention. Then again, this was the Joker so maybe not. From what he heard, the Joker provided Batman with most of his job security.

"I care about you! You're making my life interesting! It gets boring with all those people screaming in terror and begging for their lives. No one fights back anymore. But you, you've got fire in your eyes." Nico did not like how this was starting to sound. The green-haired man almost sounded like a child admiring their new toy. He was not a toy. If he was, he would probably have been recalled due to a painful death hazard.

"What is your name?" Nico hesitated so the Joker continued, "If you don't tell me I'll just figure it out some other way."

"Nico." Nico figured that Joker was right, after all his name was in the papers this week because of his first public appearance at the gala.

"Hmmm, boring!" 

"Excuse me?" Nico cried, offended. 

"You heard me, boring!" Joker ran his hands down his face in exaggerated frustration, "I think I'm going to have to come up with a different name for you. Zombie? No... too cliche. Shadow? No, that's dumb. Hmmm... give me a minute I'll come up with one." Joker hopped down off his box and started pacing, mumbling under his breath. Nico glanced around at the guards and saw that none of them seemed to know what to make of this, either.

"Wha--" Joker shushed him and Nico glared.

"You're ruining my process," the clown complained.

"Your process?" Nico hissed indignantly. 

"Yes, shut up!" Joker waved him off. Nico was fuming but he didn't dignify this with a response.

"I've got it!" Joker cried, "Snowman! Because you look like one and it would be just as easy to crush you." That wasn't a comforting thought.

"Absolutely not," Nico said, but his words were wasted on the Joker.

"And why not? Are people even supposed to be that pale?" Joker seemed mock offended.

"You are!" Nico countered. He didn't know why he was arguing over a stupid nickname with someone who calls themself the Joker. This was clearly a losing battle.

"This is from a vat of chemicals. What's your excuse?" Nico crossed his arms but didn't reply. He didn't have one that would make any sense to a mortal.

"That's what I thought, Snowman. Be careful or I'll have to see just how long it takes you to melt. Maybe I'll even keep you for a while. We could have such fun!"  The playfulness had left the older man's eyes and something scary had taken its place.

"I'm not staying here with you."

"Oh? I don't think you understand your situation here. You don't get to say no." He said simply. Joker grabbed a length of wire from a shelf. Nico began to back up, starting to get a grasp on just what kind of situation he had found himself in. 

Normally he wouldn't be so worried because he could just Shadow travel out, but the Joker and his men were mortal and so were the Waynes. It would be way too hard to explain how he had escaped and it would probably count as exposing himself and violating his oath. He couldn't take that risk. He had to get out of this himself, it seemed.

 Nico backed up until he hit a storage shelf. He had nowhere to go and the clown was still advancing. The Joker pounced on him, grabbing him firmly by his jacket and swinging him around. This threw him off balance and sent him crashing to the ground. The larger man was on him again in seconds, rolling him onto his stomach and pinning him to the ground with his knee on his back. 

 The creep then tightly bound his hands behind his back with barbed wire. If the sharp edges bothered the psycho, he didn't show it as he made several loops around each wrist before twisting the ends together. Next, Nico found himself being dragged to his feet and led back to his cell. Joker was stronger than he looked.

The Joker shoved him in and shut the door. Nico tripped ungracefully on the mattress, falling on the tired boxspring like a fallen tree, nearly banging his head on the wall in the process. The fall gave him about as much whiplash as the conversation with the clown had. One moment the Joker was laughing and the next he was contemplating kidnapping and torture. Now the demigod understood why the others were wary of Joker, he was anything but funny.

The son of Hades curled into a ball and waited for something, anything, to happen. He needed a distraction to use to get out of the building undetected. He could shadow travel away, but he'd still be stuck in the bindings and have even more to try and explain to whoever found him. His best bet now was to either wait to be rescued or try to escape the old-fashioned way. He hoped that he wouldn't have to stay there long, he was cold and uncomfortable. Plus he had no interest in having another conversation with that maniac for a good, long while.

Not even a minute later, an explosion sounded across the compound. Nico heard the cell door being unlocked and he mentally prepared himself for another meeting with the Joker. When the door opened, though, he was met by a man in a black bodysuit with an oddly shaped blue emblem on his chest. The figure wasted no tie stepping into the vault. Nico, still apprehensive, shuffled back from the man as much as he could with his arms bound behind him. 

The costumed figure knelt to his level, "My name is Nightwing and I'm going to get you out of here, ok? I need you to let me get to your hands so I can free you."

Nico watched the other boy suspiciously for a few moments before nodding. Nightwing helped him sit up and moved behind him to get to his wrists. With all the movement, his wrists were badly scratched up and he could feel lines of blood trailing down into his palms. Nightwing cursed under his breath before shuffling through his utility et for a few moments.  Seconds later Nico could hear what sounded like wire cutters snipping through his bonds like butter.

Once his hands were free, the masked man helped him to his feet and led the way through the bank, sneaking as he went. There were gunshots in the distance but this man didn't seem all that concerned. Nico decided that he wasn't going to panic until Nightwing did. 

In a few minutes, Nightwing led him back through the room where he had talked with the lunatic. The Joker was still there except this time he was fighting Batman. The rest of the goons were all laid out across the floor with various injuries. None of them were dead, though. Nico was sort of surprised to see the bat. Did he take care of everyone or was fate just screwing with him again?

"Awwww! Leaving so soon? Well, be sure to come back and spend more time with your Uncle J, Snowman!" He yelled as he was dangling in Batman's clutches.

Nico growled, "You're not my uncle." The vigilante, Nightwing, grabbed him gently by the back of the neck and pulled him out of the bank as the Joker just laughed maniacally. Nico didn't fight, not feeling threatened by the new masked figure. Batman finished the Joker off inside before coming to check on Nico.

"What were you doing out here?" Batman didn't bother with niceties as Nightwing had.

Nico sneered at him, "Oh, I was just out for a stroll. I thought it was a nice night." Nico's words absolutely dripped with sarcasm. Batman just watched him silently. The son of Hades dropped his gaze to his wrists which were raw and bleeding, he pulled his sleeves down over them as best he could. They looked worse than they were, the gashes weren't deep enough to be fatal and the bleeding had already slowed to a trickle.

"The police will be here soon, I'm sure that Mr. Wayne is worried. I have other things to attend to. Nightwing, you can finish up here." Nightwing nodded silently. The big bad bat used a grappling hook to get to a nearby roof before disappearing. Neither spoke for a long while.

"He was asking if you were alright," Nightwing stated after they had waited a couple of minutes in awkward silence. Nico hummed, unimpressed. The vigilante seemed like he wanted to say something else, but Nico was trying very hard to ignore that fact. Luckily, Nightwing didn't attempt to make further conversation and simply handed him over to the police when they came. 

"Ah, you must be Nico. Mr. Wayne is worried sick about you," a man said as he came up to the pair, "Thank you, Nightwing, we can take it from here." Nightwing gave the man a curt nod before following Batman's trail.

"Hello, son. I'm Commissioner Gordon. Just call me Mr. Gordon, ok?" Nico nodded in an unconcerned manner.

"Can you take me home now? It's probably really late." The commissioner eyed him for a few long moments before nodding and leading the boy to his police cruiser. The drive home was basically silent with Officer Gordon asking a couple of questions every now and then. The son of Hades would answer the questions to be polite, but he didn't waste syllables on it either. 

The trip to the manor took way too long for Nico's liking, he just wanted to go to sleep. He was ashamed at how easily he had been taken. He had been careless, not paying attention to his surroundings, not grabbing his weapon, and not defending himself. It was sloppy. He decided that he would train harder, Joker wouldn't be so lucky should he ever try that stunt again. He had to learn to defend himself in close quarters and when he didn't have his weapons. Now that he lived in Gotham, he needed to be able to defend himself against mortals.

Bruce had a gym and Nico knew how to use it. He was also thinking about an idea that he had had for a while now. He wanted to learn something new in order to improve his fighting style. He wasn't sure what yet. As of right now, his style was completely traditional Greek. It was comfortable, but it got to be predictable when you fought beings that have been using that style since they were born, thousands of years ago. 

He didn't want to change to a new style, he just wanted to update his own. He decided that he was going to search for a new style using any means necessary. Perhaps even tech, if he got that desperate. He was not going to die by a monster's hand and he wasn't going to be the Joker's entertainment. He wasn't going to be anyone's entertainment ever again. He swore it to himself.

"Here we are." Gordon coughed, breaking him out of his thoughts. Nico exited the vehicle and started to walk up the drive. He could sense that Gordon stayed by his cruiser, standing up against it. Nico walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. Almost immediately, it was opened by Alfred who looked unsurprised to see him. Had the man just been waiting there for him?

"Master Nico! I am very glad that you do not seem to be harmed. Go into the living room, the others are congregated there. I will bring a first aid kit for your wrists." Alfred said, waving warmly at the commissioner, who waved back and then got into his car and drove away. Nico did as he was told, though reluctantly. He heard their voices as he reached the living room. He didn't pay much attention to their words as he approached. He walked silently into the room to see Damian sitting on the cushioned windowsill, staring out at the garden. The window wasn't facing the driveway so he wouldn't have seen the son of Hades enter.

Dick was standing by him glaring down at his brother. Jason was also glaring at Damian from his place on the sofa. Bruce had his face in his hands as though he had just facepalmed. Tim was sitting next to Jason staring at the floor. They had obviously been fighting but Nico couldn't bring himself to care.

"Wow. If this is how you act right now, I'd hate to see you at my funeral," Nico said flatly. He had meant it as a joke but it sounded bitter, even to him. All their eyes shot towards him. He was surprised by the looks of relief on their faces. He hadn't thought that they would be that concerned about him. Alfred showed up with a first aid kit and forced him to sit on the couch while he wrapped his wrists. He watched the older man's work intently he didn't even notice when the butler applied the disinfectant, his mind too far detached from his body.

"Are you ok, Nico?" Bruce asked after a few moments of silence. He didn't get a reply so he asked again.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. I'll be fine. It's not fatal." The fifteen-year-old turned his attention back to the bandages. The bat family shared looks between them. Was he just in shock or was he really just this unfazed?

"That's good. What did the Joker want with you?" Bruce pressed on gently. He figured the boy was just in shock and wasn't really processing everything yet. Nico's expression darkened and he shuddered involuntarily.

"He wanted to keep me for... entertainment purposes. Whatever that means," He replied shortly. The others exchanged disgusted looks. Jason in particular had a visceral reaction. The son of Hades got the feeling that they knew exactly what that meant and it wasn't good. 

"Are you hurt anywhere else, Master Nico?" Alfred asked as he started packing up his kit. Nico shook his head.

"You sure you're alright?" Bruce asked uncertainly. 

"Yeah... I'm fine. Batman and Nighting got me out of there before anything really bad could happen."

"Did you talk to the Joker at all?" Bruce pressed. Nico wasn't really sure why he wanted to know and he didn't really feel like getting into it all right then. 

"A little bit," Nico admitted uncomfortably. 

"What about?" Jason spoke up next. All this attention made this feel an awful lot like an interrogation. 

"He mainly just wanted to taunt me, I think. He was trying to scare me."

"Were you scared?" Tim asked. Nico shrugged. He didn't know how to explain that he hadn't been afraid, just disgusted. 

"I don't know. I'm not really sure what I was feeling."

"That's reasonable," Bruce agreed, "Can you remember anything specific that he said to you?" Nico frowned. What did it matter to Bruce what the clown had said? What difference did it make to the billionaire? What was Nico missing?

"Just that he started calling me Snowman and thought it would be fun to pull me apart piece by piece." Without reacting to that revelation Bruce moved on to the next question.

"Good, can you remember anything else?" 

"Why does it matter what he said to me?"

"Nico..."

"No! Why do you need to know so badly? You weren't there. This didn't affect you. Why do you want to know what the Joker said to me? Are you a fan of his or something?" Nico knew it wasn't fair to make that accusation, but he didn't get why Bruce was so interested in what he and the madman had talked about. It wasn't like it had been anything noteworthy. 

"Of course not, I'm just worried, that's all."

"You have a weird way of showing it, interrogating me like this. I'm not the bad guy here." 

"No one said that you were, but I am curious. If I were the one tied up with barbed wire and held hostage by a killer clown, you'd all be interested to know what he'd said to me, too." Nico didn't deny this because he had no idea how he would have reacted if anyone else had been in his position. I took a few more seconds for what Bruce had said really kick in. Then his heart sank.

How had he known about the barbed wire? He would have thought that maybe Officer Gordon had told him, but the police commissioner hadn't seen it.  Only Nightwing had seen the barbed wire he'd been restrained with and Nico knew for a fact that Nightwing hadn't told Gordon as he'd been with him the whole time. Nightwing could have told Batman, but he doubted that Batman would have had the time or taken the effort to inform Bruce personally. Neither would Nightwing.

How had Bruce known about the barbed wire? 

"Whatever, I'm just going go to bed, night everyone," Nico said hesitantly, a curious frown still on his face. 

"Goodnight. I'll be up late finishing up some reports, so feel free to stop by my office if you need anything tonight," Bruce offered. Nico nodded absently but he knew he wasn't going to be taking him up on that offer. 

"Sleep well!" Dick called after him as Nico stepped out into the hall. He didn't bother responding. He was too lost in his thoughts.

The only people who had known about the barbed wire were Nightwing and maybe Batman, so how had Bruce come to know about it? He'd already decided that the vigilantes telling him was too unlikely so what other options did that leave? Bruce had to have either been there or been able to look in on the situation somehow. 

Nico didn't think that Bruce had any magical abilities so that left the possibility that he had been there. Bruce couldn't have been one of Joker's men because he wasn't injured and Batman had made sure that they had all been arrested. There was also the fact that the Joker had made them all leave when he'd tied Nico up. They wouldn't even have known about the wire. That left Nightwing and Batman. 

Clearly, Bruce wasn't Nightwing so that left Batman. There was a non-zero chance that Bruce Wayne was Batman. 

 Nico reached his bedroom in a daze, still confused. Bruce can't be Batman, can he? No, Batman wouldn't be a playboy. Or would he? It would be a pretty good cover. Plus he owns Wayne Enterprises, he has the means to get all the cool gadgets. Nico thought about it late into the night, finally deciding to investigate his idea. For that, he was going to have to run into the big bad bat again. This time on purpose. He had decided that it was better to follow up on this lead and to be wrong than for it to be right and for him to be used as bait or leverage later on.

Later that night, Nico was woken up by people talking softly in the hallway. Nico, seeing the perfect opportunity to use his centaur, hurried to retrieve it. He used his powers to see that his brothers were at the end of the hall in a huddle, roughly 8 ft down the hall. He set the centaur down on the floor and set it to 'follow' mode. He opened his door, leaving it open for the centaur to follow. He could just barely hear it shuffling. He walked down the hall, not looking up as though he didn't expect to see anyone.

"Nico?" Dick asked in confusion. Nico's eyes snapped up and he made sure to put a guilty face on. He was in luck, they were all still in position.

"Oh, hey. I was having trouble sleeping so I was just going to go see if I could find a book that I could read," Nico lied kicking the hardwood floor lightly as though he were nervous.

"You can't read," Damian jabbed. Nico tensed. He hadn't told him that. It was all he could do to keep from lunging at the arrogant boy.

"What? Damian! Of course, he can read!" Timothy countered. His gaze turned towards Nico, "Can't you?"

Nico felt his cheeks start to burn and his eyes prickled, "No I can't read! Who even told you that?" Nico felt betrayed. Bruce had no reason to tell Damian that he couldn't read. It had to be Bruce because he was the only one he had told. He didn't want to hear the response so he put his little plan into action.

Nico hit the button on the remote that would start the countdown for 3 seconds. Damian opened his mouth and started to speak. Nico hit the deck. Everyone stared at him in confusion until the centaur started screaming: " Die Vlacas! In the name of Seymour!" And started shooting his special darts. Nico had met Seymour before and was aware of his fondness for sausage.

After that, chaos ensued. To his endless amusement, the very first dart hit Damian right in the mouth. His mouth filled with pink glitter. Damian doubled over, cursing and spitting pink glitter out of his mouth. The next dart hit Jason on the side of the head, as the boy had turned to stare at his hacking brother. White glitter covered his head in a thin layer. Tim was nailed in the chest by both yellow and red-colored darts. Not even Dick remained safe, he was nailed by a blue dart and it spread out on his chest.

The darts kept firing for a couple more seconds, spattering his brothers with green, orange, and purple glitter. Then the centaur shut itself off saying: "Mission Complete". Nico picked himself up off the floor, grabbed the automaton, and launched himself into his room, bolting the door and shoving a chair under the handle. He could hear his brothers yelling but he just sank back into his bed. Then came the sounds of arguing for a few more minutes, the slamming of doors down the hall, and then uncomfortable silence. They must have all gone to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a fun day.

The anger he held about Bruce's gross betrayal of his trust, and his annoyance at Damian's bad attitude were still fresh in his mind.

[This chapter feels so much better than it used to! I hope you all like the edits as much as I do!]