Fall of Darkseid Alt Ending Legends Part 2

In the quiet of a small medical room, a sudden whosh! interrupted the tapping of gloved fingertips on a keyboard. White masked eyes glanced up towards the door as a red blur rushed into the room.

"Flash."

"Hey Bats."

The Scarlet Speedster stopped on a dime as the door slid closed behind him. Across the room from him, Gotham's Dark Knight, glared, the exact same punishment he had been giving anyone who had come into the room in the past 24 hours. The red clad hero threw up his hands in response.

"Hey, I ain't planning to bother him. Superman's doing enough bragging for an army of him."

Batman narrowed his eyes, taking in every detail about the doorway, listening closely for any noises outside the door before his eyes turned to the other hero that was occupying the room, but this one, on a medical bed. On the blue sheet covered, thin bed was the Dark Knight's first protege.

Nightwing lay there, broken and bloody.

The Gotham hero turned his eyes away quickly, enough time just to observe that the younger hero's hair was still matted with blood and behind his eyelids, there was no movement. Shoving it off the mental cliff of his brain, the eldest hero returned to his work, typing out on a small computer nearby. Truthfully, it wasn't what one expected. The device actually controlled the machines hooked up to the suffering hero. All in all there were two oxygen masks hooked up to six oxygen tanks, a defibulator nearby that they had had to resort to earlier to restart the heart, an Electroencephalogram was showing near flat activity, a heart monitor showed a normal, but low normal, heart rate, blood pressure was dangerously low and all systems that were being monitored were keeping up with the help from the drugs and machines, which had to be installed and injected when the younger hero's systems had begun failing some 40 minutes ago.

"Any improvement in the kid?" the speedster asked, reaching up and pulling back the cowl that hid his identity, revealing a mess of blonde hair.

The Dark Knight said nothing and the Flash belittled his hopes then and there.

"The Black Hole?" Batman asked.

"Oh yeah, Wonder Woman, Superman and the lanterns were able to close it, and put Mercury back."

"Darkseid?"

"No sign of him."

The red and lightning bolt themed hero glanced over at the once Boy Wonder and sighed, "We're all hoping he comes out OK."

Silence. The speedster let a worried frown mar his face as he looked at the suffering hero. He should call Wally.

With that thought in his head, the red cowl went back over his head and face before the blur vanished out the door. Safely in a sound proof room, the Dark Knight let out a breath that was as close to a sigh as he would ever make. He turned from the machines and let his eyes roam to his student's face.

OK, your student goes, saves you, the Amazonian princess of Paradise Island, and the Man of Steel from a demi-god, battles said demi-god, wins and suffers life threatening injuries.

Deep breath. So what do you do next?

Batman got to his feet and walked the small space that separated the console from the machines, which was inlaid with numerous wires and tubes. He stood before the one who-

"Huh? Uh, where am I?"

The last four steps he would have taken at a normal pace, were taken in one.

"Dick?"

Blue eyes turned as a mop of onyx hair swept over the white pillow before they landed on the speaker. A black gloved hand landed on the acrobat's shoulder and he smiled.

"Knew we'd make it out of there."

Silence met his statement.

Blue eyes of pain tolerance morphed into ones of curiosity as they turned up and met the ones of his mentor.

"What's wrong Bruce?"

Silence. What do you say?

We had to restart your heart twice?

Good job?

You were dieing?

You technically shouldn't be alive?

What possessed you to do something so ignorant!

All the words in Bruce's mind dissipated just as they reached his tongue, but finally he found some words to speak.

"How much pain are you in?"

Pale lips mashed together painfully as the younger was reminded of the pain coursing through his limbs, bones, muscles, insides, blood, hair, toenails; EVERYTHING hurt!

Not like Bruce needed to worry about it that much though.

Dick forced a smile onto his face and through a shaken breath muttered, "There's a 5,000 between 1 and 10, right?"

Batman reached up and pulled off his cowl, the eyes on the younger were now those of his guardian, not just his teacher, and this guardian did NOT like this. Cue the dissapointed frown and look. In response, the Kryptonian themed hero lost his strong facade and whimpered as his heart gave a sudden leap in it's beating rate, near trying to jump from his chest. The black gloved hand squeezed his shoulder.

"Come on. Use what I've taught you."

Right. The mental techniques. Which would have been more effective if the drugs designed to keep him alive weren't keeping him from focusing to use those techniques.

In response to the partial focus he DID have, Nightwing switched back and forth to different techniques.

The pain...

Some from Bruce, some of his own, some learned abroad and even some he remembered under Deathstroke's tutalege. Bruce took an extremely discreet deep breath and removed his hand.

"Dick I-"

Deep breathing.

Blue eyes widened. He had fallen asleep!

"..."

Since no one was around to see, Bruce smiled the smallest degree and reached to pull his cowl back on. He'd have to wait another hour before most of the heroes in the Tower were either gone or asleep, but he'd get his boy home tonight.

Away from the Superhero poparazzi that was sure to rise soon.