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Here's a new chapter! Yay! It's the last of the rest chapters so next chapter will be violent. Violent towards Heartless though, not characters. It'll also be really long. Anyways, have 11.

Spoiler: Chapter 11 - Stab Threats and Singing

He woke up slowly, not quite remembering when he had fallen asleep. Cracking one eyelid, the sudden burst of bright white light had him snapping it shut. Blearily, he took stock of his situation. His head was pounding, but that seemed to be the only ache he had. Ouch, never mind. He still had those injuries in his shoulders. Eh, they were healing. Shifting on the uncomfortable surface he was laying on (medbay bed. Had to be) his eyes flashed open at the warm weight splayed across his chest. Ignoring the way the light added to his headache, Jason glared down at Dick, who was laying right next to him on the narrow bed, arms wrapped around his torso.

“Dick, what the actual fu-,” he started, but the sudden appearance of Alfred at his side stopped the curse before he could finish it. Alfred was holding food, pancakes to be specific, and he didn’t want to miss those. The butler put the pancakes down, just out of reach, and started checking Jason’s vitals, displayed on a screen next to the bed.

Jason’s sudden movement and loud almost-cursing managed to stir Dick slightly. “Jay, go back t’ bed. I’m shleepin’.” The eldest former Robin made another few contented murmurs, then settled back down to sleep.

Like hell he was allowed to sleep. Jason shook him. “I can see that. Why are you sleeping on my bed with your stupid arms wrapped around me?” Dick, being decidedly unhelpful, simply buried his face in the pillow and smiled, still asleep.

“He has to.” Bruce walked in, clearly having just come from the gym. He grabbed a water bottle and joined Alfred at Jason’s vitals screen. “He’s keeping the darkness in your system down.” He grunted at the data on the screen, then went to sit down, grabbing a mug of coffee on his way. Alfred delicately lifted the pancakes and handed them to Jason.

He flung Dick’s arm off his chest and sat up. “So why can’t someone else do it? Does it have to be Dick?”

Bruce smiled over his coffee. He knew Jason would be difficult about this. “Yes. Dick was the one to, as Riku put it, ‘rid you of the darkness’ the first time. He’s going to have to be the one to do it from now on.”

Fork halfway to his mouth, he blanched. “This isn’t a forever thing, is it?” If it was, his life was over. That was it. Might as well kill him now. He could not go through life with Dick hanging off of him every day.

“No,” the corners of his eyes crinkled at the obvious relief that crossed Jason's face, “but it will continue until we can figure out how to stop the substance completely.”

“Does he have to be hugging me all the time?”

“No, once every few hours should do.”

Jason grabbed his plate and stood up. He rocked slightly as his body reminded him that he had spent all of yesterday giving out blood like it was a slightly more macabre Halloween, but didn’t let any more of his faint weakness show. Moving quickly, he strode out of the room and up the stairs.

Sora woke up about a half an hour after Jason. As if by magic, Alfred appeared the moment he sat up, a plate piled high with pancakes and various cut fruits in his hands. Tim and Damian had apparently woken up already, and after a brief spat involving Damian trying to slip a dagger through Tim’s ribs, had gone their separate ways. Damian had departed to the gym, and Alfred recommended not bothering him until he had worked off some steam. Tim had gone to the library though, and Sora hadn’t had enough time to chat with him. So, after quickly finishing his pancakes and dropping the plate off in the kitchen, he headed to the library.

“Hey Sora!” Tim was reclining on a sofa, laptop on his lap and a few dozen books open and spread across the table next to him. “What’s up?”

“Nothing.” Sora plopped down on an open stretch of sofa. They sat in silence for a few moments, Tim absorbed in his work, Sora being content with the silence for once. Finally, he asked, “What’re you working on?”

Tim shifted so Sora could see his screen. “I hacked the files your friend Riku had on the gummi ship. Just sifting through them, trying to find anything that can help.”

Somehow not surprised at Tim’s confession to stealing Riku’s files, Sora simply shook his head. Maybe he’d been in this world too long. “Anything?”

An evil grin spread across the other boy’s face. “Besides a video of you singing Cruella de Vil in your room?” He pressed a button, starting the audio.

“WHAT?” Sora reached for the laptop, trying to figure out how to stop the music. “Gah, how do I get this thing to stop? Please tell me this is the only copy?”

Grin still in place, Tim shook his head. “Sorry. Already emailed copies to the entire family.”

Somewhere in the house, laughter that sounded suspiciously like Dick’s rang out. Turning beet red, Sora dropped his face into his hands. “So that’s five copies?” The look on Tim’s face said no, so Sora added Alfred. “Six?” Tim cocked an eyebrow. Desperately, Sora searched his memory for who else might have a copy. “Batlady? That makes seven?”

Tim barked out a laugh, “It’s Batgirl. And no. The Batfamily is pretty massive. Most of them wouldn’t get the context though, so it’s just us five, Alfred, Batgirl, Black Bat, Spoiler and Catwoman.” He leaned in conspiratorially. “Catwoman loves this song.” He then left Sora to his moping.

Had Sora said he hoped he could get along with Tim? This kid was more mischievous than Stitch on a bad day, and that was saying something. He glanced over at the current source of all the problems in his life. Tim had sunk in to work mode, eyes flicking over the laptop screen as he read and absorbed information. His mouth was still curved in to a smile though.

After a few minutes, Sora had gotten over most of his embarrassment. He glanced back over to the screen, reading a few paragraphs over Tim’s shoulder. “Riku entered that in wrong. Vanitas didn’t fall asleep, Ventus did. Vanitas was returned to Ven’s heart and then Ven’s heart mysteriously vanished. Mickey wasn’t sure where it had gone.”

Tim looked up, startled at the interruption. “Wait, how much do you know about this?”

Crossing his arms, Sora thought. “Quite a bit. It’s mostly hands on knowledge, but Mickey has spent a few days telling me stories of the other three Keyblade Wielders, and Yen Sid gave me a few books to read. Why?”

“Hm. If I have any questions, could you answer them?”

“Sure, as good as I can.”

Tim didn’t respond; he simply smiled a less evil, more grateful smile, then went back to his work. Sora sat back, no longer regretting his decision to come up here.

The regret came back instantly when Damian appeared in the doorway. He marched across the room, not looking at the sofa or its occupants, grabbed a book and then marched out. Right before he left, he turned back to look Sora straight in the eye. “Tt. Pathetic Sora.” He exited the room, leaving the door open behind him.

Sora’s head went right back into his hands and Tim’s evil grin crept back up. It only got worse when Jason walked by, humming Cruella de Vil with a wicked smile on his face.

He did feel better a few minutes later when Dick’s voice rang out throughout the manor. “Jaaaaaason~! Time for your hug!”

Something crashed, and there were sounds of a scuffle. “No! Dammit Dickhead, get off of me!” Another crash, then a dull thud.

“Gotcha!” Dick's voice rang out. “Seriously Jason wha- Ow!”

Sora cocked his head, interested in whatever was going on. He stood up glancing at Tim and gave him a parting wave (the boy wasn't even paying attention) and then strode out of the library casually following the sound of distress. On his way he passed Bruce. The man looked at him, raised an eyebrow, and moved on. Sora couldn't resist the urge to face-palm once again.

“Sneak up on me one more time dick, and I swear I'll stab you!”

Sora walked into the large front foyer and leaned against the doorframe, watching events transpire.

Both Jason and Dick were having a stare off, the difference being that Jason was scowling heavily while Dick was smiling mischievously.

“You know the rules Jay.” Dick sang happily. He seemed to be quite enjoying himself despite sporting a painful looking black eye. “I'm the only one that can keep you from going crazy and turning into a dark blob or something like that.”

“At this rate I'm going to go crazy faster from you being in my personal space than by any stupid cellular darkness crap!”

He turned and took a few steps towards the stairs, then glanced back. “Look, if you have to hug me, then tell me when you're gonna do it. Don't sneak up on me. And only every 6 hours, got it! I don't care what Bruce says, that's plenty of time compared to the roughly ten hours last night!”

With that Jason stomped away angrily, muttering curses under his breath. Sora watched Jason stock off, then turned to Dick who glanced back at Sora with a mischievous glint in his eye. Before Sora could ask him anything, he had left too. Darn the bats were good at vanishing.

Sora couldn't help being interested in how this was going to turn out. But with nothing else happening in the room, he started making his way down to the cave. He wanted to take a look at some of the Bats’ weapons. Maybe Bruce would even let him throw one of those small sharp blade things. Once he had descended the stairs into the chilly damp depths of the cave however, he found Damian again. The kid was practicing with a sword, slashing at moving holograms appearing around him. Sora stood back and watched with interest as the kid worked. The movements with an actual sword were much less fluid then with a Keyblade. More tight and controlled. But that allowed Damian to be less open to counter attacks. Suddenly Damian stopped and glared at Sora.

“What are you doing?” He growled.

Sora shrugged innocently. “Just watching.

“Well stop, it's ruining my concentration.”

“I dunno.” Sora countered. He was getting used to the kid’s attitude and wasn't deterred in the least. “You looked like you were doing fine to me.”

“You wouldn't know the first thing about sword play.” Damian snapped.

“Oh yeah?” Walking over to a stack of wooden training swords, Sora grabbed one and spun it around in his hand playfully.“Try me!”

Damian shot him a bland look of irritation. “Tt, fighting an amateur such as yourself is beneath me.”

“So you're scared then?”

The immature tactic seemed to work perfectly. Damian clenched his teeth tightly and took up a defensive stance. Sora smiled and stepped forward. He wished he was wearing his usual clothes but he was the one who started this after all. He would just have to deal with it.

The two rushed each other, Sora easily repelling Damian's initial thrust and twirling around, slashing at the kid in response. Damian ducked it and swiped his wooden sword at Sora’s ankles. Jumping back, Sora brought his sword down at the kid, who held his own sword up above his head with both hands. Sora's weapon bounced off and Damian used the few seconds of recoil to swing out at Sora’s chest. The blow connected and Sora stumbled back slightly. It stung, but that was a lot better than the alternative. He could deal. Damian was smiling smugly. Sora took the opportunity to charge him. To his surprise it worked. The kid dodged, but not before his attacker’s sword grazed his shoulder.

That didn't make Damian happy.

For the next forty minutes or so they kept at it, Sora getting knocked down often, but always bouncing right back up again. Damian had his fair share of hits too. Sora might have been used to fighting hordes of monsters rather than close up combat with a single individual, but he was pretty amazing at it for having such little experience. Was that a sliver of respect Damian was feeling? No, couldn’t be. Ridiculous.

Just as the two were clashing swords and reveling in their exhaustion, a British voice called out, “Would either of you care for a drink?”

Both swords broke apart as their owners made a bee line for Alfred who was holding up a tray with ice cold lemonade balanced precariously on it.

“Lunch will be served in twenty minutes young sirs” He said before turning to venture back up the stairs. “I would suggest you get cleaned up before the meal. “

Sipping his lemonade, Damian walked over to the storage cabinet and tossed his practice sword back into the pile. “You could have been worse,” was all he said before stalking away.

“Thanks!” Sora called back smiling. “You weren’t so bad yourself!”

Twenty minutes later, and everyone in the Wayne manor found themselves seated not at the large oak dinner table, but instead on stools around the eat in kitchen counter. They were all munching sandwiches with mysterious yet wonderful things in them. Damian and Tim were having a staring match to the death while Jason was pointedly avoiding looking at Dick while devouring his food. After the expected ridicule about the video Tim had sent out, Sora decided now was a good time to ask Bruce if he could try throwing one of those bat shaped objects, the reply being a blatant no. He was expecting that. In a mere five minutes Jason had finished eating and after rinsing his plate, had practically sprinted out of the room while shouting a word of thanks at Alfred over his shoulder. Bruce was next to go, and with Alfred bustling around in the back kitchen, it was just the four of them.

“So guys?” Dick said leaning forward and grinning evilly after a minute of silent eating. The effect was ruined by the purplish bruising still surrounding one eye. “I have a little proposition for you.”

The other three leaned in. “What kind of proposition Grayson?” Damian’s face had the exact same expression as Dick did. Actually, looking around the table, Tim did too. Sora shrugged. Must be a Bat thing.

“Jason wrangling.” Three raised eyebrows popped up at him. He sighed, his grin melting into a semi-serious frown. “I’m worried. He doesn’t want hugs, I get it, but he needs them right now. So!” Maniacal grin back in place, Dick held up a finger, “I figure we should kill two birds with one stone! We have nothing to do while we wait for the Corridors to link back up. I’m bored out of my skull. Jason needs affection. Hey, maybe we can make it three birds and teach Sora some skills. His stealth needs work.”

Sora opened his mouth to protest, but Tim spoke before he could. “So, what’s the plan?”

Dick motioned them closer. Heads almost touching, he whispered his plan.

~*~​

Sitting in one of the more unused rooms of the manor, Jason was rebuilding his helmet. It was mostly done. He had even raided Bruce’s store of materials and added the newest tech he could. Twisting one final screw, he sat back satisfied. The new helmet was definitely better than the other one. And, hopefully, less breakable.

A sudden shuffle from the hallway caught his attention. This entire wing was only used when Bruce had one of his charity balls. By all rights, he should be the only one here. So who…?

Opening the door a crack, he peeked out. Nothing in the hallway. He paused, listening, but there were no other sounds. Quietly, he stalked back to the table and grabbed his helmet. Slipping it on, he activated the new infrareds in his lenses. These were special infrareds. Recently developed by WayneTech, these could spot an ice cube at two hundred yards through a concrete wall. There, hidden in one of the vents. Based on the size, it was the Demon Brat. And there, just above the chandeliers. Probably Dick.

Rolling his eyes, he simply walked over to the window and dropped down. Right into an almost-invisible net wired up. Infrareds still on, Jason saw as Dick leapt down from the chandelier and dashed into the room Jason had just jumped out of, Damian following. Moving fast – he had a feeling he knew what this was about and it made him sick – he scrambled out of the net. Just as he landed, smoke bombs went off all around him. He smiled. These wouldn’t work. Again, infrareds. Since he had just installed them, his brothers probably didn’t know he had them.

Someone – either Tim or Sora, but he was guessing Tim based on the glider cape – swooped down from the roof as he ran out of the cloud. Jason leaped as Tim got close, jumping onto Tim’s back and crashing him into the ground. Dick landed right behind him, so Jason grabbed Tim and hurled him into the former Boy Wonder. He kept running, lunging forward to avoid Damian, who was swinging a katana at him. Seriously, who kept letting him use these things? He caught himself with both hands, snapping a foot out and catching the brat on the chest, throwing him backwards. He rolled, smoothly flowing onto his feet and then continuing his run. He tapped his helmet: the infrareds had stopped working. He probably had to recalibrate them. Rounding the corner of the manor, he saw the tree standing right next to his window. If he could make it there, he was basically home free.

Ten steps from the tree, the window right in front of him popped open and Sora jumped out, hands extended. Jason grabbed one of his wrists and threw him (gently) into the tree. Well, that escape route was useless now. Sora was already up, and while he could probably get around the kid, he didn’t want to hurt him. Running a wide circle around the tree, and relative safety, he started for the kitchen door. Dick, Tim and Damian were already on his heels, each throwing an array of nets, batarangs and insults to try and slow him down. Yeah, like he was falling for that.

He made it into the kitchen and was almost to the front hall when a wooden pole pushed itself into his path at ankle height. He tripped, falling flat on his face, very grateful that he was wearing his helmet. Dazed, he pulled it off and looked up to see Alfred, sweeping the floor.

“My word Master Jason, where did you come from? And what have I told you about running inside?” Alfred looked shocked beyond belief to see Jason, so he probably hadn’t tripped him on purpose. The damage was done though. Dick burst through the door Jason had left open and all but leaped onto his brother, arms going tight around his shoulders. Tim, Damian and Sora stood in the doorway, watching.

This was honestly Jason’s first time watching this. Last night, he’d been unconscious and this morning, he’d been busy punching Dick in the face to get a good look. Where Dick’s arms touched him, a faint light shone. He shifted uncomfortably as flecks of darkness lifted off of him, dissolving into nothing.

Finally, the steady stream of darkness died down and the light faded. “Dickhead?”

“Yeah, Jaybird?” Jason couldn’t see his face, but he could hear the smile in his voice.

“What did I tell you this morning?”

“That you would stab me if I snuck up on you?”

“That’s the one.”

“Didn’t sneak up on you. I chased you.”

“Your logic is terrible and I choose to ignore it. Alfred, could you grab me a cleaver? Heck, a paring knife would do. I can’t summon the All Blades without pure evil nearby. Wait, the Brat’s here. Maybe I can summon them after all.” He mock concentrated, pretending to draw his blades.

“Haha, Todd. You’re a riot.” The other three dropped to the floor next to Jason and Dick. Alfred stared for a moment (they were sitting right where he was about to sweep), then wandered off to see if Bruce needed food.

Jason just rolled his eyes. Maneuvering his hands in between their chests, he pushed hard, trying to get Dick off of him. Dick just held on tighter. “Hey, Timmy, could you get Dick off of me?”

Tim just shook his head. “If I do, he might relocate to me. I’m not risking it.”

Jason looked pleadingly at Sora, who raised his hands. “Don’t look at me. As much as I like hugs, I feel like this is more of a brother thing.”

Damian was already shaking his head, the most deadpan expression on his face. “Don’t even think about asking.”

He sighed. “I didn’t want to do this Dickiebird, but you really aren’t leaving me much of a choice.” He jabbed his fingers into a pressure point on Dick’s side. Dick released his death grip immediately, curling in on the spot. Jason then stood up and kicked him in the stomach, not hard enough to do any damage, but hard enough to hurt. Finally able to see his face, he was vaguely disappointed to see the black eye gone. Sora must have healed it after lunch.

A polite ahem caught the attention of the boys. “Master Bruce would like to see you all downstairs. Master Riku has contacted him.” The smiles all melted and seriousness set in. If Riku called, that meant that the Dark Corridors were about to connect again. Jason grabbed his helmet off of the floor and followed the others to the study.