A/N: Well, this is my first chartered fic in a while. I should be posting about once a week, but school is hell and I don't really have a summer break yet. Stay tuned!

Set before February 2015 in the YJ universe, meaning that Wally and Artemis are still on the team.

Decayed

Nightwing had seen a lot of clichéd villain shticks in his career as a vigilante, but this was just flat out unoriginal.

"Really? Zombies?" His tone was incredulous as he responded to Batman's call.

"Yes, that's what they look like. From what I can tell, this isn't a form of Joker Venom, nor is it the Hatter's mind control devices." Batman's gruff voice drifted through Nightwing's . "I've got them blocked off at the docks, but Robin's at the Batcave with a sprained ankle, so I need you to head up here and help me subdue them."

Nightwing nodded, even though there was no one to observe him. "On my way." With a running start, he leapt off of the building he had been keeping vigil on, swinging down to the streets below with his grapple. Sure, there had been flight of stairs behind him on the roof, but what was Nightwing if not a bit dramatic? Hopping onto his motorcycle, he revved the engine, speeding off towards Gotham. "Any more details for me? Why'd you call these things zombies? I mean, you could have chosen any other word."

"Well… it's a group of twelve, and they look very zombie like, shambling around with un-bleeding wounds. I've scanned for Hatter tech, but there is none, and they display none of the Joker Venom side effects. They seem to be attracted to heat. In case this is mind control, we need to take these people back to the cave unharmed. We'll study them there." There was a scuffling sound and a grunt, causing Nightwing to furrow his brow in concern.

"Batman?"

"One of them attacked." Batman's voice came through the , followed by obvious sounds of combat. "The rest are starting to notice. Full on conflict is inevitable. What's your ETA? I need backup, these things aren't going down easy."

"Less than five minutes, hold tight." Swerving around a corner, Nightwing sped up, readying his non-lethal weapons as the docks came into view.

When he reached his destination, Dick skidded to a stop, leaping of his cycle in one smooth motion.

"Where at the docks are you? I'm here." He spoke into his , but all he got back was static. He waited a second before trying again. "Batman?" Just more static.

Giving up on the , Nightwing decided to scope out the docks in hopes of finding his mentor. It didn't take him long, considering the docks weren't a very large area.

He spotted Batman hunched over what looked like a pile of bodies, and to be honest, it looked pretty ominous. Nightwing noticed a crushed on the wooden docks, explaining Batman's radio silence.

"Hey, Batman, what happened?" Dick took a step towards the hunched figure, mildly confused when he didn't respond. "Batman?" it was only when he took another step that Nightwing noticed the blood on Batman's cape.

"Bruce?" His tone was apprehensive and worried, matched by a stance that allowed him to run at a moment's notice.

"Aliases only, Nightwing." Batman's voice came with a scolding tone as the man stood up and turned to his former protégé. "I thought I trained you out of that bad habit when you were ten."

"Goddamnit Bruce," Dick ignored Batman's words, "don't scare me like that! The way you were hunched over those things, the way you didn't respond… I thought you had been…"

"Infected?" Batman's scowl shifted into a small smirk, showing his amusement at Nightwing's worry.

"You called them zombies, what else was I supposed to think?" If Batman wasn't Batman, he wouldn't have noticed Nightwing's embarrassment. But he was Batman, and he had noticed. His look spoke for that, causing Nightwing to further justify his reaction.

"Look, Wally's made me watch too many zombie movies, and you looked like you were in one of them. I can't help that I'm paranoid." Nightwing frowned before changing the conversation. "So what happened?"

That brought back Batman's scowl. "I had to kill them, but only after I determined they were already dead."

"Already dead?" Nightwing raised an eyebrow, causing his mask to contort.

"They seemed like some sort of failed experiment from The Court."

Dick immediately sobered. "You mean The Court of Owls?"

"Yes, The Court of Owls. We need to bring these corpses back to the Cave for me to analyze. I'd like you to stay in Gotham, just in case this does have anything to do with The Court."

Nightwing nodded, following Batman's lead as he picked up the corpses, bringing them to the batcave to burn.

"Find anything out yet?" Dick's voice echoed through the quiet cave, reaching the ears of Bruce, who, as usual, ignored it.

But Dick knew how to read his surrogate father. "I'll take that as a no, seeing as you haven't discovered enough info to share anything." Walking over to where Bruce sat hunched over a microscope, he flopped down in an office chair, spinning around lazily. "Any way I can help?" Dick always asked that question; even though he knew the answer would always be no — or more silence.

"Yes," Bruce's answer surprised the retired Boy Wonder. "I need you to ask Alfred to bring me a small sample of Poison Ivy's sex pollen."

There is no word to describe Dick's reaction other than flabbergasted.

"What?" He was practically sputtering, staring incredulously at the back of Bruce's head.

"I need to compare these samples to toxins and materials we have encountered in the past. I've already compared this with Joker Venom and the Scarecrow's fear gas, and there have been no similarities. The sex pollen is the next sample to test." Bruce explained his logic to the staggered young man beside him, never once looking up from the microscope.

"Okay…" Dick drew out the word, his confusion not mollified.

"Whatever infected those corpses is alive, so I doubt it will match, but I am covering all the bases." Bruce spoke again as Dick stood up to fetch Alfred, stopping him in his tracks.

"Wait, it's alive? Like… a germ?" The vigilante was officially interested.

"More like a parasite, making Poison Ivy a possible suspect as distributor." Bruce finally looked up from the microscope, making a few notes on the papers next to him.

Dick raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't poison Ivy deal with plants? Kingdom Plante, not Animalia."

"There are very few species of plants that function as a type of parasite, and this looks very similar to those. I want to see if I can find any other similarities with Poison Ivy's other materials." Bruce continued taking notes.

"Interesting." Dick was genuinely fascinated. "Let me grab you that sample."

Turning around, he left both his mentor and the batcave behind, walking up the stairs to find Alfred, avoiding looking at the mangled corpse lying on the medical table.