After he showered and Alfred brought him his cup of tea, Dick stared blankly at the wall. They had moved upstairs in the main living room, and were out of costume now. Dick hardly touched his tea. Not because it was bad (Alfred made the best tea), but because the news he had just received disturbed him. How could it not? Zhe thought he had escaped the Scarecrow wannabe years ago, but now they were after him again. And they were someone insane, if their mask was anything to go by.

"Grayson!" Dick heard Damian demand. "Stop moping around."

"Sorry Damian," Dick replied, sounding exhausted. "Its just… I wasn't expecting to see this baddie again. Why did they wait all these years? Why not go for me again sooner?"

"Tt. Its obvious. They took that time to prepare and devise a new and better plan."

Dick ran a hand down his face and sighed. "Gee, thanks Lil' D. That makes me feel so much better."

Damian scowled. "There's no reason to take that sarcastic tone with me. I was only answering your question. As bitter as the truth may be, we need to be ready for anything." The ex-assassin moved to sit on the couch next to Dick. "And why does this upset you so much anyway? You've faced Scarecrow before and he's never traumatised you like this."

Dick's gaze darkened and his hand was clenched tightly around his tea cup. "I'm not traumatised, okay?!" His tone was angry, and Damian was surprised by it. It was rare to see Dick in a frenzy like this, and Damian knew something was always wrong when he was. "I'm perfectly fine." His last statement, said stubbornly, was spoken in a barely audible whisper.

Damian raised an eyebrow, refusing to just let this slide. He knew something was bothering Dick, and he wouldn't let the only person he actually considered as family be hurt like this. "Dick…" The name was uttered quietly, and Dick turned to look at Damian in surprise. He had only called him by his real name (or rather nickname) a small number of times before. Usually it was just 'Grayson'.

"Dick," Damian repeated, this time more audible. His tone was much softer; another thing which was rare for the current Robin. For once, the tough and arrogant facade Damian wore was down. "Please. Just tell me what's bothering you about this."

Dick stared at Damian in amazement. He didn't know Damian cared this much about what was bothering him! Ugh, and now he couldn't refuse to talk. Not with Damian actually saying 'please'."

"Fine," Dick said about a minute later. He turned away. He sighed. "Yeah, I guess it's pretty ridiculous for me to be so...so frightened by this. I'm an adult now, and that was years ago. And it's like you said, I've faced Scarecrow before, but never been this deeply affected."

He shook his head. "It's complicated, I guess. Every time I've faced Scarecrow, he's been predictable. Batman has always had a cure to his fear gas. Yeah, it was scary every time, but I never felt like I had to worry about dying while facing him."

Dick took a deep breath, and then slowly let it out. "But with this other villain guy—we don't know anything about him. We don't know how he's connected to Scarecrow, or if he even is. We don't know why he went after me all those years ago, or why he was ever mad at Batman. And the scary part? Batman knows everything. Always. But not this time. Not this time…"

The acrobat leaned back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling now. "There's fear in the unknown. You don't know what to expect. You don't know how dangerous it could be. You don't know how to prepare yourself… Batman and I thought we were prepared back then, but we were wrong. That baddie...He got to me and injected his fear gas. When Batman brought me back to the cave, we couldn't find any trace of it, so we just assumed my body fought it off."

Damian leaned forward and held his head up with his left hand. "I heard the next part from Alfred. You were at a gala and it acted up. You had to call the Flash for help."

Dick nodded, albeit rather solemnly. "Yeah. And if it weren't for B's quick thinking in asking Barry for help, I would have...I would have died. Do you know how scary that is? I know with our job, death is always a possible outcome, but I never thought that I would be faced with something I couldn't do anything about. If you asked Alfred or Bruce, they'd just tell you I was unconscious the whole time. But I wasn't. My eyes were closed, but I remember everything. The hallucinations I had…". Dick gulped, the emotions he felt that night after he'd been saved coming back. "...They'd never felt so real before. I forgot all about being Robin, I felt as though I was back there again at the Circus the night my parents died. Only, the fear gas made it a hundred times worse than it already was. I watched them fall over and over Damian, and I-"

He suddenly leaned forward and buried his face in his hands. "I couldn't do anything to save them. I was helpless both in and outside of the hallucinations. I was at the fear gas' complete mercy. I know- I know that might not seem like a big deal to you, but when you're the one experiencing it...It's not something you can just easily forget. I was so overcome with fear and grief that literally nothing else could cross my mind. I was just…frozen… Stuck. Trapped in that horrible, horrible nightmare."

After that, Dick was silent and Damian didn't ask any more questions. He had heard enough. And now, whether Batman gave him permission or not, he knew what he had to do.

He had to find that unknown villain who put Dick through all this crap and get his vengeance.