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"I hung out with Damian and Tim today," Talon announces as he breezes into the room.
Dick had warning, at least. Time to steel himself against the conversation to come. The door to his 'cell' has multi-faceted security, and beeps and thunks and always lets him know when he's about to receive his visitor. Talon was thorough in making sure he was never going to get out of here, and just about the only perk of that is that at least Dick can school his features into something blank by the time Talon's actually in eyesight.
So he barely bats an eye as Talon strolls in. He's wearing Dick's clothes—as per usual—with an iced coffee in hand, hair tousled from spending the day outside. There's a cruel smile on his face, a sharpness to his eyes, that looks so—wrong.
Because it's Dick's face, too. Because it's wrong to see his own face be twisted into something that cruel, that psychotic. And it's made all the worse by the knowledge that he knows he's the only one who sees it.
It's been a little over a month since Dick arrived home after patrol to find his Earth 3 counterpart waiting for him. The fight had been brutal, and left Dick's apartment nearly in ruins, and Talon had managed to get the upper hand. Knocked Dick out and brought him here, wherever 'here' is. Some base Talon set up, he guesses. Outfitted for a long-term stay, not that Dick's seen any of it outside his cell.
In the beginning, Dick spent every minute trying to escape. To get out of the chains binding him to the wall, and figure out how to get past the security on the thick metal door, and plot his take-down of Talon. He had nothing to do but make plans and worry about what Talon was doing when he was away from this place.
Attempts to escape tapered off the longer he was here, the longer he spent in isolation. It does something to the mind, despite how hard Dick tries to fight against it. And once Talon started pretending to be him...
It's a masterful performance, Dick can give him that. He doesn't know why Talon is on this Earth—and why he hasn't gone back to his own, since he so obviously misses his psycho partner—but the man sure is giving it his all. Cleaned up Dick's apartment, started wearing his clothes, copying his mannerisms. Even goes out on fucking patrol each night.
Before all this, things between Dick and his family had been...tense. Spyral is still a fresh wound for them, and any communication has been stilted and awkward. Damian is really the only one who makes any attempt to reach out to him, spend some time together. Dick had been trying with the others, but...
But then Talon happened. And Talon decided to have some fun.
A few screens were set up in Dick's cell, with camera and audio feeds to various locations. It allowed Dick a front row seat to Talon interacting with his family in the Manor, in his apartment, around Gotham. A front row seat to watch Talon imitate him, work towards making amends with the others, watch him make amends with Jason—
There had been—something, between them. Between Dick and Jason, before. It had been budding, building to something that filled Dick with excitement, heart fluttering every time Jason smiled at him, every time he broke into his apartment to watch a movie or eat some takeout. There had been a future there, maybe. One that was ripped away after Dick was revealed to be alive.
(Jason's rage, his despair, his fist flying through the air. The betrayal he felt, despite everything they'd been through, despite the fact that it wasn't Dick's fault, but it seemed like there was no coming back from this—)
And now Dick has had to watch as the sociopathic version of him does a better job of mending fences than Dick ever has.
Tears had slipped down his face, the first time Jason went over to his apartment and sat on his couch with that pretender, and tentatively joked with him like he and Dick used to. It felt so—final, like that was the point of no return. That Dick truly was trapped here, his life belonging to another.
Talon checks in about every other day, sometimes less. Makes sure Dick isn't starving himself, that he has enough food to last him until the next time. And he always comes armed with quips and stories, cruel anecdotes to make it clear just how much better Talon is doing than Dick ever did, how none of them miss him, how everyone clearly loves the new version of him. Really rubbing it in that no one has noticed.
Like Dick needs to be reminded of that. Like he can ever fucking forget that not a single member of his family has realized Dick isn't there anymore, that an imposter has taken his place. That Dick is so meaningless and Talon so good at what he does that the family is moving on, stronger than it was before. Stronger without him.
"Damian gave me a hug," Talon continues casually, with a malicious glint in his eye that is so familiar to Dick by this point, even if no one else sees it. "Arms around my waist and everything. Of his own volition! Such a sweet kid, huh?"
Dick doesn't respond, doesn't let himself react, instead staring blankly at the wall. He knows Talon just wants to rile him up; he might not know why Talon is here, but he knows he's a fucking sadist, and enjoys causing Dick pain. And everything'll only get worse if he shows that it's getting to him.
(But it...it is getting to him.)
"I'm meeting up with Jason before patrol," Talon adds, eyes boring into him, look for the weak point he knows is there. It hadn't taken Talon long to read what the tension between him and Jason really was, and even less time to begin pressing. "I think he's going to make me dinner. So thoughtful, isn't he? Most might not see past that thick shell of his, but the Red Hood really is...sweet."
Yes, Dick knows. Dick's known for a long time, since Jason was a brash kid hiding a big heart. And it only became more pronounced after he came back from the dead, back to Gotham. So much more closed off than he ever was before, so much quicker to shut people out.
But Dick could see it, and it pulled him in. Jason's gentleness, his kindness—Dick soaked it all in, loving each and every second of it. Every moment he got to see who Jason really is, when he's not fronting. And as Jason let him see more and more of himself, let Dick in...
Which all stopped after Spyral.
And now Talon has managed to bring it back. It's Talon Jason has begun to smile at, Talon who Jason tentatively jokes with and hangs out with, body language more relaxed than he ever is with anyone else. Talon, who Jason is beginning to...care for, in the way Dick had so hoped he would for Dick someday. A way he had so hoped they were building to before.
Dick still doesn't react. Unfortunately, he can't not listen.
"Maybe tonight is the night," Talon says with a devilish smile. He leans against the wall by the door and flexes his hips in the air, biting his lip seductively. "Maybe I'll engineer a scenario that puts our faces close together, you know? Let my eyes flick down to his lips, give a small moment of hesitation as I look back into his eyes again, all soft and nervous, then kiss him gently...He seems the type to enjoy that. 'Specially since he's had a desperate puppy love for you since he was wearing your short pants."
Dick twitches, unable to help the reaction in his surprise. And of course Talon notices, and jumps on it like a shark smelling blood.
"Did you not know?" Talon asks, voice dripping with condescension. "Are you really that oblivious? Oh, honey, Dickie baby, Jason Todd has loved you from the day he met you, and he's not nearly as subtle as he thinks he is. It's damn obvious that you forming feelings in return was the best thing that ever happened to him, and exactly why you going off to play superspy hurt so much."
Dick fights to keep his features perfectly blank, unaffected, not letting on to the storm inside. Christ, Jason...
No, he hadn't known. He'd been—second guessing himself this entire time, wondering if he was seeing things that weren't there between them, if it was all in his imagination because he wanted it so badly. But if—if Jason has had feelings for him for so long...Fuck, did he miss his chance? Could they have started something real, something definite, before everything went to shit?
"I'm gonna make all his dreams come true," Talon purrs, a smirk dancing across his face, and rage sparks in Dick's chest, ugly and burning. "I'll take my time, don't worry. Be gentle like you would be. Have him eating out of the palm of my hand. Then...a little way down the line...that's when I'll shatter him into a million tiny pieces."
"I'm going to get out of here," Dick says dangerously, hands twisting in the cuffs that bind him to the walls. "And when I do, I'm gonna make you wish you never set foot on this Earth."
Talon smiles, eyes bright with amusement. "You do that, champ. In the meantime, I'm gonna enjoy fucking your boy over every available surface. Bye bye!"
And then he's slipping right back out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. The security beeps, then clangs, and Dick is trapped alone once more.
A few hours later, one of the screens flicks on.
Dick lifts his head at the small burst of sound, and his lips press into a thin line as he sees it's the view into his apartment, and it is no longer empty.
Talon and Jason are sitting on the couch, Talon reclining against one of the arms of it to face Jason completely. There's a bright smile on his face, eyes crinkling with amusement, and Dick's gut clenches at how much he looks like him there. It's more than just having the same face—it's the body language, the ease in his expression, the gentler joy rather than the maliciousness Dick has become so used to.
He can't...he can't blame everyone for believing Talon's charade. He does a really good job of it. And any small changes, any potential sharpness, could easily be explained away as Dick being a little bit changed after the horrible year he spent with Spyral. Hell, maybe Jason even likes the changes. Maybe he likes a Dick that gets his hands a little dirty.
He loves you, Dick reminds himself fiercely. He loved you before Spyral, long before according to Talon. He doesn't like Talon better.
(But Talon got Jason to trust 'him' again after Spyral. Talon convinced Jason to give 'him' another chance, got him to look at 'Dick' with affection instead of anger. Something Dick hadn't managed in months, and saw no chance of happening any time soon.
Dick tries not to linger on that. But—but fuck does it hurt sometimes.)
Jason laughs at something Talon says, and maybe it's a blessing that Dick can't hear what's going on. Sometimes Talon wants him to listen in, forces Dick to hear every moment of him bonding with Dick's family, but at least doesn't have to have that aspect of this. Doesn't have to listen to all of the disgusting things Talon is surely going to say, using his voice and face and body to trick someone Dick loves.
Talon says something, and then gets to his feet and heads to the kitchen before returning with a pair of beers. Jason turns on the TV in the meantime, and flicks the channel to some soccer game. Talon returns and passes Jason a beer, then sits down beside him—closer than before—and they settle in to watch the game, talking companionably all the while.
That goes on for a while, and Dick can't tear his eyes away. From Jason's smile, his eyes, his relaxed posture, the occasional soft looks he sends Talon's way. Dick's heart aches for him, and he yanks uselessly against the chains, shuddering breaths coming in and out.
When it happens, it goes just like Talon described it.
Talon looks over at Jason, laughing at something the younger man said, Dick's easy smile on his face, and it puts their faces very close together because of the place Talon sat himself earlier. And boy does he put on a performance; his eyes flick down to Jason's lips, and Jason's breath seems to catch, the man going perfectly still. Talon's eyes flick back up, and there's a hint of nervousness in his expression, something searching as he looks into Jason's eyes.
Talon leans in slowly, hesitantly, before brushing their lips together, soft and slow and questioning more than anything else. And, after a moment of Jason's eyes going wide with surprise, he melts into it, returning the kiss.
Dick squeezes his eyes shut, ducking his head. Fuck, he did this. He put Jason in Talon's path. He was weak enough to get caught, and weak enough to not be able to fix things between them before this, and too much of a coward to make any kind of move. Everything is his fault, and now Jason is—is...
He forces himself to open his eyes again, to watch the horrible scene that he's caused. One of Talon's hands is tangled in Jason's hair, the other around the back of his neck. Jason has an arm wrapped around Talon, his free hand cupping Talon's cheek. The kiss has heated up a little, but isn't filthy. It's—passionate. Nearly caring. Nearly...full of awe.
Everything Dick will never have with Jason, because of this. Because a psychopath with his face has taken advantage of a piece of Jason that has been hidden from the world, that Dick was lucky enough to be trusted with. It's all ruined. Jason will never trust him again, just in case. This will always be in the back of his mind.
And Dick can't even blame him.
Jason reclines, and Talon climbs into his lap. The kiss deepens. They start grinding together. Dick feels sick.
He would give anything to be able to be there, to tell Jason what's really going on, to break the deception and not allow Talon to manipulate Jason into what he wants. To save Jason from this abuse of his trust.
But Dick is useless useless useless, and just has to sit locked up, watching as Talon removes his shirt, then Jason's. As hands begin exploring.
Jason stops it, when Talon's hands reach for his belt. Dick feels a moment of hope, of utter relief, that Jason has noticed something off and is going to beat Talon at his own game, but—but it's not that. Jason has a shy, nervous smile, eyes lowered to the ground as he says something in stuttering words.
Talon's expression flattens when out of Jason's line of sight, and he even has the audacity to look right at the camera and roll his eyes.
But his hand is gentle when he brushes back a lock of Jason's hair, his expression warm when Jason lifts his eyes again. Whatever Talon says has Jason relaxing, and they share a sweet kiss before Talon pulls back. They both put on their shirts again. And then they...go back to watching the game.
Dick can barely believe it. It actually—it stopped. Jason asked Talon to stop and the psycho actually did it.
Playing the long game indeed.
Dick doesn't even care if Talon's actions are just part of the con; he's too fucking relieved that Jason has been spared to care about why.
The rest of the night is uneventful. They go back to talking as casually as they were earlier, attention still mainly focused on the TV. The only real change is that Talon is leaning against Jason's side now, and after a little while Jason loosely wraps an arm around his shoulders, a pleased smile on his face. Innocent, and happy, and Dick longs to be there with him. For that expression to genuinely be there for him.
At the end of the game, Jason leaves, the pair sharing a kiss goodbye before the door shuts between them. Instantly, Talon's body language shifts, all of Dick's mannerisms sliding away like shrugging off a second skin.
He snatches up a remote, and then the screen switches off.
Dick lets his head thunk back against the wall, and releases a slow breath. He has to get out of here.
Another week passes, then another.
The relationship between Talon and Jason slowly begins to grow, and Dick has a front row seat to the entire thing, a forced voyeur to the life he always wanted.
He tries to escape again and again, but it's just as useless as it was in the beginning, and all Dick gets for his trouble is bloody wrists and burning frustration. Talon knows what he's doing, probably has years of experience locking up prisoners. A pair of sadists like him and Owlman—surely they have perfected the art of breaking people's spirits along with their bodies.
Not that Dick is broken, not even close. But it's getting harder and harder to pretend like he's fine. Like it doesn't cut him deep, that no one has noticed. That no one cares enough to notice. Is Dick simply so interchangeable that someone could take his place without a blink from anyone? A family full of the best detectives in the world, and none of them have picked up on it?
Maybe they just like this Dick better. Maybe he's a better Dick than Dick's ever been.
He has to cut himself off every time he starts thinking that way. It's only a dark road, and will never end well, not even close. He can't let Talon win. There's no coming back from that if he does.
On the two month anniversary of Dick's imprisonment, Talon and Jason have sex for the first time, and no matter how hard Dick presses his hands to his ears he can't block out the sounds.
It's two days after that that Dick realizes something is truly wrong.
The screen shut off as per usual with the push of a button by Talon, and they haven't switched back on since. Nor has Talon come to visit Dick in his cell. Considering what the man managed to do, Dick thought for sure he'd be here at his earliest convenience, gloating to Dick about the act, pressing at all of Dick's pressure points until there is truly no escape.
But there's...nothing. Talon never shows up.
Dick has nothing to do but worry. Nothing to do but sit chained up and think about all the awful things happening in the real world, Dick completely powerless to do a damn thing.
He takes stock of his food, calculating how long it'll last, how long he can make it last if he's trapped here, if Talon is gone.
Did he go back to his Earth, satisfied that he was done here? Did he get killed, maybe on patrol? Was he captured somehow? Dick doesn't know, and the not-knowing is truly the worst part of it all.
It's on the week mark of Talon having vanished that the door to Dick's cell bursts open.
He startles near violently, and tries to pop to his feet before the short chain stops him and he's forced back to his knees. The force with which the door crashed in took some of the wall around it with it, and Dick stares at it for a moment, at the imprint of a fist in the center of the metal door.
There's a figure in the doorway, and Dick looks up at her with wide eyes, barely believing the sight in front of him.
Donna's face is set in the way it always is on missions, powerful and inhuman, but when her eyes settle onto Dick her expression softens, a smile breaking out across her face.
"Slacking on the job, Dick?" she asks, something teasing but also relieved in her voice, while Dick still struggles to wrap his brain around the fact that she's here, that she actually found him, came for him.
"Donna," Dick croaks, and finds himself shaking, the chains rattling under the force of it. His best friend immediately strides forward, sharp eyes examining the chains. She reaches out and snaps them from the wall like they're made of tissue paper, and then yanks him up to his feet, crushing him in a tight hug.
Dick melts into the hold, tears stinging his eyes. He weakly wraps his arms around her in turn, and she lets him sag against her, holding his weight effortlessly.
"Did you find—oh."
Dick blinks, and turns his head towards the destroyed doorway. There's another person here now, and Dick's breath catches when he realizes that it's Jason.
He's bare-faced, his helmet and even his domino missing. There's a gun held loosely at his side, and his eyes are locked onto Dick, a little wide, looking like he's barely daring to breathe.
"Dick," he says, and Dick can't interpret the tone of his voice, can't tell what Jason's thinking. How can he stand the sight of him? After everything Talon did—because surely they know, if they're here—how can Jason bear to be around him?
But Jason strides forward, and Donna's arms are sliding away only to be immediately replaced by Jason's, Dick being pulled into another fierce hug, this time by the man he loves and had come to accept he would never have.
Dick hugs back automatically, and then he's crying, clinging to the back of Jason's jacket and burying his face in the curve of Jason's neck. And in response to Dick's tears, Jason only holds him tighter, murmuring what sounds like soothing words, barely audible above Dick's crying. But God does he soak them in desperately.
"You're gonna be alright, Dickie," Jason says thickly, and Dick almost thinks he feels a kiss he pressed to his forehead. "Everything's gonna be alright now."
Dick doesn't quite believe him. After these past two months of isolation, Dick can't help but feel a little—broken, by it all. Can't help but resent his family just a tad, even if that's not the slightest bit fair (Talon sure put on an amazing show). Can't help but wonder if he'll ever be able to look at himself in the mirror and not see Talon in his own face.
But Dick wants to believe him. And right now, wrapped up in Jason's arms, that's good enough.