Chapter Text
It was moments like this where Dick missed being Robin the most.
Surrounded by skilled attackers, surprised by an ambush he hadn't been expecting, and completely alone; It wasn't hard to long for the so-called good old days in between dodging punches.
Things hadn't been the same in a long time, not since Kaldur (and later Artemis) had left to begin their undercover mission. The secret he kept weighed heavily on his shoulders every single day, and he still wasn't sure how he managed to handle it all those years.
But that feeling was nothing in comparison to the immense guilt he was now saddled with instead. His teammates all looked at him as if he was a traitor, heartbroken and angry that he had dared to be the secret keeper for Kaldur and Artemis.
Dick knew that they had every right to be angry, he would be if he were them, but it didn't make it hurt any less that they were obviously avoiding him. The usual mission banter had become clipped and short. Outside of their usual missions, they barely spoke to him. Even his best friend, Wally, had given him the cold shoulder.
Their friendship hadn’t been the same since March, when Wally had confronted him about the secret. Wally’s words to him had become short and harsh, the connection that once shared seemed to have crumbled. Dick wanted to fix it so badly, he promised himself he would… And now it was too late, his best friend was gone.
Hindsight is painful, and it made him second guess everything he had done up until this point. Were his friends right? Should he have told them? The Nightwing in him says no, but the Robin in him says yes. Was he turning into another Batman? Would they ever trust him again?
Kaldur and Artemis had done their best to mediate, but after Wally's death… It had been hard for them all. They were all grieving, they lashed out at him, he was an easy punching bag for them. They had already been mad at him before, so they didn’t feel guilty in continuing their treatment.
He let them do it. They needed an outlet, he could be that, it was the least he could do after all he had done. Once their grief had begun to subside, but their anger stayed, he knew it was time to step down. He needed to go solo for a while, he needed the chance to mourn the loss of his dearest friend too.
Time stretched by; Too overwhelmed to reach out again (and knowing it would likely end in rejection), Dick continued his own cases and investigations alone. The team never reached out, and never responded to his weak attempts at reconciliation. He was hurt, but he forced himself to keep going.
It had seemed simple, a warehouse full of dangerous and volatile tech that needed to be taken down. It was simple, until the ambush attacked. He did his best to hold them off, he sent a distress message to Batgirl, but he knew anyone she sent wouldn't reach him in time at this rate. He needed to turn the tides.
He retreated momentarily, using the shadows to blend in until he got a good angle and attacked again. They scrambled in an attempt to recover now that their advantage was lost, but he was able to take quite a few down while they tried.
The tide of the battle was turning, the goons were retreating, and Nightwing thought he was in the clear.
Then, their leader ran. Nightwing knew he had the information he needed, so he ran after him with a spark of hope. Maybe after this, the team would stop pushing him away, maybe after this, his friends would finally talk to him.
They turned a corner, and suddenly the criminal was gone. Nightwing stopped, his eyes scanning for any sign of the man he had been chasing. None, it was like he vanished. He searched, he listened, then…
Red lights started to flash around him.
Beep, beep, beep…
In a flurry of panic, Nightwing tried to run, to dive for cover, anything, but it was too late. His vision went white as the warehouse around him blew up. There was hot, tortuous fire burning him, his veins were like hot lava, he screamed and it was drowned out by the sounds of destruction around him.
His body felt like it was falling, his mind couldn't keep up. All he could do was descend as the world around him faded away.
-- -- -- -- -- --
At first, he didn't realize he was awake. The darkness was wrapped around him like a suffocating blanket, and he didn't even try to escape it.
Then, the noises began. At first, a few squeaks, then squawks, and then the world around him erupted in the sounds of excited creatures. Leaves and branches shuffled high above him, and water ran from somewhere nearby.
Dick paused suspiciously. He took several deep breaths, and realized that he was surprisingly not dead. New questions erupted within him immediately, all clambering to be answered: How am I not dead? Why don't I feel injured? What kind of explosion was that? One particular question stood out among them all: Where am I?
It most certainly couldn't be the warehouse he had been exploring. The cities he frequented had many noises, but these were not among them. Curiosity and caution pushed the hero forward, and he forced his heavy eyelids open.
The light attacked his unprepared eyes and he hissed in surprise, his talons coming up to shield himself from the-
Wait… Claws?
Slowly, Dick lowered his gaze to what he had just brought in front of him. Instead of the black clad arm he was used to, he found himself staring down at shimmering blue scales and four fingers attached to long talons.
He opened and closed the taloned hands as realization dawned on him. This was him, his talons. But he didn't have talons last time he checked. How could this have happened?! What did they do to me?! What am I?!
The blue scales seemed to shimmer and then suddenly switched in between green, pale green, and white. This did not help Dick calm down, in fact it only made him more freaked out.
Thankfully, in the midst of the chaos, something did reach out to him. Bruce's stern voice soothed his brain . "Keep calm. Panic will only cause mistakes." The vigilante had told him often. "Take a deep breath, and use your head."
Dick forced himself to breathe in and out and push away the desire to freak out. (It was warranted, right? Either way, not what he needed right now). He focused on the sounds of the birds until his heart slowed down. Then, he opened his eyes again, it was time to figure out what was going on.
He was laying down, Dick realized for the first time. That wouldn't do, especially if he needed to react quickly. He prodded the leaf covered floor until he found a comfortable way to rest his talons, and then pushed himself up.
"Okay, okay… Back legs feel weird, smaller?" He glanced behind him, and felt his heart lurch all over again at the sight of large wings attached to his back. Behind those were his back legs, which reminded him of an animal more than a human, and last was a long tail that curled inward like a chameleon.
Dick felt a laugh bubble out of his throat, things seemed to grow more incredulous by the minute. "A… A dragon? How the hell did this happen?!"
He turned his gaze away from his freakly blue lizard body and back towards his surroundings. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the warehouse he had blown up in. Instead, he was thrown off guard by a lush, bright, and colorful rainforest.
Dick felt his heart pick up again as he stumbled backwards. He stared down at the ground, shoved leaves aside, desperately looking for any sign of the explosion he knew had happened, but there was nothing. Not a fire, not scorched plants, not even a single hint of ash. Absolutely nothing .
In a last, frantic attempt for anything to make sense, he threw his head up and yelled. "Guys?! Superboy? Kaldur?!" He shut his eyes tight, and screamed in his mind. M'GANN? ANYONE?!
Nothing. The birds didn't pause in their songs, even they weren't listening to his desperate calls for help.
It seemed that, at least for now, Dick was on his own… But that was the story of his life at this point. It wasn’t like anyone from the team would help him either way… He quickly shook his head, the purple ruffs on the side of his head flaring. No, no, not the time to spiral. Focus on the situation!
"It's fine. I've been trained for situations like this." He tried to reason with himself, only to step on his awkwardly placed blue and purple wings and trip himself. He fell forward, his head hitting the dirt with a thunking sound. He huffed, leaves scattering away with his breath. "Well… Maybe not a situation exactly like this."
Dick was used to working alone, he knew what it meant to rely on himself. Solo missions had been a thing even before the team got angry with him. He'd use that knowledge now, to figure out more about what exactly happened to him.
With one last glance at where he had first woken up, the young hero gathered his courage, and ungracefully stumbled further into the forest.
-- -- -- -- -- --
Three days, three long, painful days passed and Dick was still no closer to finding an answer than when he had started. The rainforest seemed to go on for miles with no end in sight, the birds were always making noise, those damned monkeys that screeched all the damn time, and he'd definitely passed that tree before.
It felt impossible. He tried to slash the trees with his talons to keep track of where he went, but the damned things weren't sharp enough. He tried to fly, but it was extremely difficult to actually stretch his wings wide enough when surrounded by all these trees. Eventually, he gave up on trying, and decided to pick a direction and walk. The rainforest had to end eventually, right?
Sleep was another difficulty. His sleep schedule was already screwed up (he was a Bat after all), but the screeches that seemed to happen at random always activated his instincts and jolted him awake. Just when he settled down, it would happen again.
He was exhausted, scared, and alone. He wanted to keep going, it had only been three days and he already missed everyone. Even if they were mad at him, he still cared about them.
Worried thoughts threatened to overwhelm him. Was he even in the same world anymore? Did they know what happened? Did they think he was dead? Were they even looking for him? All questions he couldn't answer, or didn’t want answered, so he did his best to shove them deep down into his mind only for them to return with a fury.
Eventually, he knew he had to stop. He was getting nowhere, exhaustion and hunger wouldn't help that. He stopped during the day, the screeching was less frequent during that time, settled down on a gathered pile of leaves, and let himself drift away into slumber.
As quickly as he had fallen asleep, he found his instincts once again forcing him awake at a sudden, familiar feeling. There were eyes on him, someone was watching him… Who?
Dick's blue eyes snapped open and he quickly raised his head, only to collide with something above him. He winced, and whatever he hit let out a surprised yelp and scrambled away.
He shook off the pain and jumped to his feet, his wide eyes scanning for danger. It didn't take long for them to land on something that made him pause in shock.
It was another dragon. His size, yellow with pink markings on her. Her lower jaw was sprinkled with white scales, but it faded away when she saw him looking. She smiled wide, showing off her bright, sharp teeth, and her scales burst into bright spirals of gold.
"Oh wow! I've never met you before, that’s cool!" She bounced up and down, her green eyes bright and hopeful as she leaned forwards. "Hi there! My name is Kinkajou! What's yours?"
Dick hesitated as his mind tried to register what was happening. Another dragon, another talking dragon. So I’m not alone… Relief washed over him for a moment, and then the questions returned. Could I tell her my real name? Is that a risk, even here? Where is here?! Am I even on Earth anymore?!
After struggling to decide for several seconds, he finally muttered,”I’m Nightwing…?”
Kinkajou tilted her head at him and giggled. “What do you mean, silly? You’re a RainWing, not a NightWing!”
Dick sent her a curious look. A NightWing? So there’s more dragons out there then, called NightWings? And we’re- SHE is a RainWing… Are there more?
She giggled again as she circled around him. “Curly tail, shiny scales, ruffs… Yep, you're RainWing alright! Huh, I thought I knew every RainWing…”
Kinkajou didn’t seem dangerous or hostile, but Dick knew he still needed to be careful. He quickly formulated an excuse, and gave her a casual smile. “Oh, well, I’m not from around here, that’s probably why you don’t know me.”
“Wait, you grew up outside the rainforest?” She gasped, her voice suddenly growing in volume. “WHOA! That’s so cool! Where did you grow up? Were you raised in another tribe? Oh! Was it the SeaWings? I bet it was the SeaWings!!”
Tribes? SeaWings? What?? His head was a whirl of confused questions, and the world seemed to spin slightly. He shook his head quickly to try and stay awake, he couldn’t lose his mind now, not when he may actually have a chance to figure out what was going on.
Thankfully, Kinkajou didn’t notice his bewilderment, she was too excited to focus on anything else. “Oh wait! You’ve never seen the village, have you?! Since this is your first time here?” She squealed as she grabbed his talons and pulled. “Come on! You gotta come see it! It’s awesome!”
A village, a village means other people, and that means possibly a way home! Dick quickly nodded his head, her excitement leeching to him at last. “I’d love to see your village, Kinkajou.”
“Oh yes! Awesome! Alright, let’s go!” The bright yellow dragon spread her wings and took off into the air. She flapped several yards before she glanced back and realized that he wasn’t following. She stopped mid-air, flapping her wings to keep herself aloft, as she sent him a look. “Um… Aren’t you coming?”
Dick’s scales began to change to a bright shade of pink, he felt his wings press close to his sides and his tail curl up instinctively. “I um… Never learned how to fly?”
Kinkajou nearly dropped out of the air in shock. “What?! You can’t fly?! Oh wow, that’s crazy! Were you raised by Scavengers or something? That’s insane!” She swooped down, landing somewhat-gracefully in front of him. “Don’t worry! We can walk there, it’s not that far! And then when we get there, I bet we can get you someone to teach you to fly!”
The idea of staying in the village for too long made Dick’s scales itch (ugh why did he think that? You’re a human, Dick, not a dragon!!), he wanted to keep moving and try to find a way home. But, Kinkajou was right. If he couldn’t fly, he probably wouldn’t get anywhere fast. He needed to understand his strange new form if he was going to use it to his advantage.
Their walk wasn’t awkward, because Kinkajou filled the entire trek with excited chatter. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get a tour from me and a good teacher! Not like that old sloth, Bromeliad. Ugh! Did you know she’s going to be my trainer when I’m older! I’m so upset, she’s so mean!! But Grandeur said no when I asked for a switch! SO not fair!”
The small dragon never seemed to stop, and part of him was glad she didn't. Her chatter helped fill the cracks in his mind, and kept him focused. Once at the village, he could check for any familiarity and then comb the area for hints of how he got to the strange place.
"But it's okay! I'm going to show her just how awesome I am and then she'll realize that being a stinky sloth all the time isn't nice! That's why I made sure to-" The dragon suddenly stopped, and turned to look ahead of them with a bright grin. "Oh! We're here!"
Kinkajou flapped her wings and rose into the air, spreading her arms apart in a dramatic gesture. "Welcome to the RainWing Village!"
Dick was pulled from his thoughts as his blue eyed landed on the village. High in the gigantic trees, he saw large tree houses connected by platforms and bridges, a pavilion covered in flowers, and hammocks hanging all over.
Most notable of all were the dragons. Dozens of vibrant, brightly colored dragons flew all over the forest, as happy as can be. They were relaxed, they were happy, this was their wonderful, peaceful home…
A home for dragons, with no humans in sight.
It was at that moment that the gravity of his situation finally clicked for Dick Grayson.
Oh, I am
definitely
not whelmed right now.