This is a fic based on the animated movie 'Batman vs Robin' when Nightwing gets stabbed by the Court of Owls' soldiers and then has to face off against Talon himself. I thought they skimmed over it in the movie but then again I am biased because I love Nightwing H/C so much. If you like it too, you might enjoy this piece.

Picks up just after Batman and Nightwing trap the invading Talons in the Wayne Manor ballroom and enter the library.

The Court of Owls' soldiers were absolutely everywhere. They had invaded Wayne Manor in hundreds and it was up to Nightwing and Batman to fight them and destroy them. One thing was perfectly clear: they wanted the Dark Knight dead. Nightwing was not about to allow any such thing to happen.

The soldiers were putting up a much more challenging fight than the Duo expected. The human-like creatures had been trained extensively in combat and seemed to recover immediately from even the most debilitating blows. They certainly weren't mere mortals beneath their masks, their suits, and their arsenal of knives and sharp claws.

The Duo was doing a decent job fighting together back-to-back but they were split up as soon as more talons rained down from the shattered skylights and busted through the reinforced steel lockdown doors that had previously sealed the library from the ballroom.

Batman shot his grappling gun and flew to the second level of the library and was able to fight off about a dozen talons on his own. Nightwing remained down on the main level fighting his way through a dozen of the talons too. All the Duo had to do was make it across the room to the grandfather clock and take a concealed lift down to the Cave where they could regroup and Batman could don armor that was reserved for emergencies such as this.

But the talons just kept on coming. As soon as the Duo was able to take down one, another two or three would appear. And then, the one that they had smashed and broken to pieces would grotesquely revive itself and attack them again.

Finally, Batman got a break in the action after he took out three talons at once with a charged batarang. He ran over to the ledge to regroup with Nightwing and continue the quest to descend to the Cave.

But what Batman saw terrified and momentarily stunned him.

Nightwing had successfully neutralized about another dozen talons quickly, beating them expertly with his escrima sticks and landing well-practiced kicks and punches mixed in with a series of deft acrobatics. He caught an opening, back flipped lightly over the pile of defeated talons and made to dash for the clock.

But amidst the chaos, eight talon soldiers had revived and formed up in a column abreast and took aim at the back of the younger hero with several deadly sharp knives.

As Nightwing ran, the sickening sound of sharpened steel stabbing into flesh and muscle rang in his ears and he realized he had been impaled twice in quick succession, once in the right calf and then once in the left just below his knee.

Horrified, he looked down to see two blade points poking out of the front of his lower legs. He tried to keep running but the knives were each tethered to the grappling gun from the talon who had shot it and the lines were pulled taught, holding him in place. Before he realized it, another three knives were thrown and impaled him in both upper thighs and in his lower right ribcage. Again, the knives in his upper thighs made an entry and exit wound and were anchored into him, pulling him backwards with the strength of the trained warriors.

Nightwing cried out in agony as blood from his fresh wounds ran down his legs and onto the carpet beneath him, but he held his ground. Attempting to use his upperbody to reach and gain momentum against the five tensioned lines that were cruelly pulling him backward, he pumped his arms strongly. But it was only a second until they too were each stabbed cleanly through his triceps and emerging through the front of each bicep in a rush of crimson.

"Ugh-Ahhh!" he cried out again in pain as the seven knives finally brought him crashing down to the carpet. The talons immediately began reeling him towards them with powerful, synchronized strokes.

Nightwing scrabbled at the ground reaching for purchase on the carpet so that he may draw a blade and sever the lines, but it was no use. He was already loosing feeling in his limbs and strength as his blood seeped out through his seven terrible stab wounds.

"No!" came a deep shout from the balcony of the library and the Dark Knight leapt to the rescue.

The talons had pulled the injured Nightwing close to them and one of them brought a battleax high over it's head to finish the young hero. Then Batman threw a charge that successfully detonated, causing the talons to lose their concentration and allowing Nightwing to roll out of the way of the deadly battleax head and try to crawl away again to regain his footing.

But six of the talons recovered from the blast and began painfully reeling him in again. "Agh!" he cried out in agony again, as he struggled against his cruelly anchored binds but was pulled helplessly toward the column of talons once more.

However, Batman was determined to get this young partner to safety. With an expertly aimed shot, he threw a batarang that severed the lines that had Nightwing trapped. Finally, Nightwing was free from their grasp and tried to rise.

The batarang detonated in the faces of the rest of the talons and took them out for good. Batman then looked sadly to his severely injured partner who was struggling to rise out of a pool of his on blood.

Gently, Batman got a strong arm under him and lifted him up off the floor, putting one of Nightwing's arms around his own shoulders and walking the injured bird to the clock.

Nightwing could barely stand let alone walk. The Dark Knight supported most of his weight for him as blood was spilling out and around the seven weapons still embedded in his partner's body. Listening closely, he could hear Nightwing wheezing slightly and trying to hide his grunts of agony.

The pair made it across the room to the clock and Bruce keyed in the code to the hidden entrance. But they could hear more talons approaching. As soon as the clock slid on its tracks exposing the opened hatch, Bruce pushed Dick inside and sealed the door, sending the wounded hero down to the Bat Cave by himself.

Dick collapsed onto the floor of the lift almost immediately and then saw Batman's gloved gauntlet reach into the lift and send him down.

Realizing what Batman was doing, he called out "Bruce! No!" But before he could pull himself up, the doors sealed and he was descending on his own to the confines of their cavernous lair.

Dick was extremely pissed but understood why Bruce had done that. Batman thought that Nightwing couldn't fight anymore and was trying to buy him enough time to get to safety. Batman would fight a few more talons and then make his way to another one of the Cave's many entrances, giving Nightwing enough time to crawl in the medical ward and hide away.

Nightwing grinned to himself slyly. He might be injured, but he wasn't finished helping Batman. This was his home as much it was Bruce's, Damien's and Alfred's and he would fight until his dying breath to keep all of them safe.

The lift came to a halt and the door slid open, giving him access to sublevel three of the Cave. With effort, he lifted himself out of the puddle of blood and pulled himself out of the elevator. With a renewed sense of determination, he limped over to the medical area, dragging seven lines of severed wire behind him. He grabbed a few rolls of white gauze, a set of spare escrima sticks and proceeded gingerly up a flight of stairs to the main computer console, where he could keep tabs on Bruce while trying to patch himself up enough to rejoin the fight.

"Here goes," he said apprehensively to himself as he grabbed the blade in his upper left arm by the hilt and wrenched it out. "Nnn" he groaned as blood poured out. Seconds later, he was wrapping white gauze tightly around his arm, putting pressure on both the entrance and exit wound. He repeated the same process with his right arm. The procedure didn't hurt any less the second time.

"Two down…" he thought to himself as he moved down to his legs. As he went to extract the blade from the back of his upper right thigh he realized that he was queasy and shaking. "I don't have time for this," he chided himself, continuing on and wrapping his fist around the hilt and pulling. The blade reluctantly came out and another river of blood followed. Shit. Dick grabbed the role of gauze and wrapped it around and around his leg until the crimson liquid was swallowed up by the white fabric.

He repeated the process three more times, finally extracting the remaining three blades in his lower body and expending another two rolls of gauze. Hopefully he and Bats could finish this soon; blood was already starting to stain the gauze on his arms, especially as he continued to use them.

"How many was that?" he wondered to himself before hearing a whoosh and seeing the Dark Knight emerging into the cave.

"Dick! What the hell are you doing? I sent you down here to get first aid and escape! Not to butcher yourself!" yelled Batman as he noticed Nightwing sitting on the main console, wrapped crudely in gauze next to a pile of discarded bloody knives.

"I'm fine," replied Dick shaking and standing up off of the desk, barely keeping his footing.

"The hell you are! I'm not fucking around, Richard. You need to leave!" yelled Bruce angrily and concerned before he was interrupted by rocks falling from the ceiling. The talon soldiers had breeched the Bat Cave.

"He used my full name... ouch," thought Dick dryly.

Nightwing immediately took up a fighting stance back-to-back again with the Dark Knight.

"Come on Bruce," he said brazenly to his mentor and unsheathing his weapon of choice. "You know me better than that."

Batman scowled. It was true. He did.

The talons wasted no time in continuing their quest to destroy the Batman and anyone in their way.

"There's too many of these things to fight without help," yelled Batman to his partner as they took on Owl soldiers from every direction.

Nightwing nodded and drew over half of the soldiers away from his mentor in an attempt to give the Caped Crusader a chance to run to the chamber containing the Bat Armor.

With six talons hot on his heals, Nightwing flipped up a flight of stairs to the platform used for storing uniforms. "Gotta keep them occupied. Roll with the adrenaline," he said to himself, engaging the talons who had ascended to his location.

Already all the gauze was leaking through, and his vision was starting to swim. But with the help of his escrima sticks he was miraculously able to defeat the group of talons. Wheezing and catching his breath momentarily, he was reminded of an extremely bad injury in the back of his rib cage. He looked down at his side to realize that he had neglected to extract one of the knives that he was stabbed with in the library. But he ignored it and was making to way to help Batman with the armor when, suddenly, he was distracted by a deep voice from behind him.

"You would have made a good Talon," said a tall man wearing Owl armor but no mask. He was a sinister looking son of a bitch, with auburn hair and a malevolent grin.

"You think so?" said Nightwing with feigned interest, turning to square up against this new foe. "Oh, you flatter me," he proclaimed sarcastically before audaciously challenging Talon with a flourish of his escrima sticks and an inviting combative stance.

Talon, excited by the challenge and his confidence soaring when he took in Nightwing's weakened state, attacked in a grotesque swooping fashion that was designed to pay homage to the bird of prey that he worshiped.

The fight would have been almost evenly matched, but Nightwing was so injured that the scale was tipped ominously instead inTalon's favor. Nevertheless, Nightwing fought bravely, determined to keep Talon's attention away from Bruce long enough to allow him to don his armor and end this invasion for once and for all. But he was tiring quickly and the gauze on his limbs was now stained entirely red and so saturated with liquid that it was all falling off. Blood seeped out of each wound and ran down both arms and both legs.

Still, he fought and was able to take a good swing at Talon's face and hit him so hard in the jaw that it momentarily stunned the villain and caused him to pause and take a step back.

"Impressive," said Talon rubbing his jaw and looking pleased with the maneuver that Nightwing had used against him. "But how long can you keep this up in your state?" he asked grinning and lunging again.

Dick was losing his battle with fatigue and he was greatly feeling the effects of the blade still lodged in his lower ribcage. His breaths came in short gasps and his movements were becoming slower and sloppier.

Talon noticed the shining hilt of the knife still embedded in Nightwing's back and gave it a rough shove.

"Aaagh!" yelled the young hero in anguish. Talon had struck him right in his weakest spot. He staggered and was overtaken by waves of blinding pain.

Talon took this opportunity to disarm the hero and throw him to the ground. Nightwing's escrima sticks fell uselessly to the floor below with a clang and he landed bodily on the ground at Talon's mercy.

"Come on, Grayson, Bats is counting on you," he growled to himself.

"Extraordinary effort, I'll admit. But now you're finished," gloated Talon as he dusted himself off cockily and approached the prone Nightwing for the final blow that would end his life. But as he brought one of his daggers down to end it all, he was shocked and angry to see it embed into nothing but concrete.

Somehow the injured hero had evaded his attack, regained his feet and now stood in a determined defensive posture with his back against a glass panel and both fists raised.

There was a small trail of blood leaking out of Dick's nose and one corner of his mouth. He wiped the blood away with the back of a gloved hand and stared Talon boldly in the eyes, challenging him once more.

Annoyed, Talon ripped his wrist blade out of the floor and charged at Nightwing again. Dick was able to block the first ten or so strikes, but was too injured and sluggish to last long.

Finally, Talon landed two strikes in rapid succession and Dick was stabbed and pinned into the glass by two blades, each imbedded in the meat of where his upper chest joined his shoulder. He roared out in agony.

Pleased with his work, Talon stepped away from Nightwing and leapt off the balcony to find his primary target, leaving Nightwing to a slow and painful death.

Through a haze of pain Dick saw Talon step away from him and leap off the balcony to pursue Batman.

"No," thought Dick to himself. "No..."

Dick's feet were sliding in the growing puddle of blood that he was standing in. As he tried to jump forward off of the glass and unpin himself, his boots lost traction and he slipped, causing his body to become suspended from the two blades that held him cruelly against the wall. Gravity and his body weight pulled viciously on the fresh wounds and he groaned in anguish before finally losing his battle with fatigue and pain.

TBC

:)