Chapter Text
If someone were to tell Dick that he'd start his nightly patrol with witnessing a man falling from the sky then he most likely would have told them to sleep. He was far too tired to deal with anything such as that ever happening, not that it would, but if in the hypothetical scenario that it did happen then he'd be stumped. Speechless even, because out of all the things that he'd ever witnessed during his time as a vigilante, raining men was not one of those things.
But of course, that's what happened.
“Uh guys,” he says hesitantly, because he's not even sure how to even begin explaining this to the others, “I'm coming back to the cave and I'm bringing a guest.”
He looks at the unconscious form of the man before him, he looks absolutely awful. He's far too pale for normal standards, he looks sickly and thin, there are faint bruises littered across his face — they must be a few months old, bad ones too given that they're still fading. His dark brown hair is matted and unkempt, it clearly hasn't been brushed in a fair while. The man looks like he's been having the worst time of his life for weeks on end, there's far too many untreated injuries to count and his breathing is shallow and the breaths that come out are ragged and hitching.
Quickly deducing that the man must have a few cracked or broken ribs due to the pattern of his breathing Dick has seen many times before, he carefully gathers him into his arms and looks to the sky again from where the strange man had fallen just moments prior. There's nothing there, no portal or anything that could be a sign of just how he came to be. There had been a vivid flash, Dick recalled, but nothing more.
He really had simply appeared out of thin air, seemingly without any explanation. Though, perhaps he'd be able to get one when the man was conscious again, whenever that would be given the extent of his injuries and his clear exhaustion.
“ A guest? ” Jason's voice ripples through the comms, “ isn't it crowded enough here? ”
Dick sighs, but doesn't give his brother the satisfaction of a snarky retort, instead he replies, “I'm gonna need someone to put out the med-kit, this guys hurt.” He launches himself from the roof with his grappling hook, neatly balancing the unconscious man in one arm and gracefully landing on the rooftop closest. He repeats the motion a few times, growing closer to the Batcave.
There's static on the comms for a moment until Babs' voice rings through, “ all done Nightwing, what's going on? ”
“Can't really explain it right now,” Dick responds through his teeth, concentrating all his focus on making sure he doesn't jostle the man too much, “I'm almost back, I'll see you guys—”
He cuts off when he hears a muffled groan and he has to force himself to keep moving in the air, the man stirs in his hold. He feels movement, like he's almost trying to crane his neck to see him but with a quiet hiss he stops. Dick glances down ever so slightly, still moving silently through the air, he opens his mouth to ask the stranger if he's okay but a soft mumble causes him to fall quiet again.
“P…t…r?”
“Hey there, don't worry everything's gonna be okay.” Dick tells him, eyes drifting down again to where the man's face is buried in his chest. He groans again, blinking rapidly, not quite seeing.
“Pe…er?”
“I'm sorry?” Dick asks, not quite catching what he says — the man mumbles again, his lips parting in a million silent questions. Concussed too maybe, he notes, he seems to be very out of it.
“P…Peter?”
Now Dick does freeze, he falters on his landing, staggering a little as he does so and looks at the man, shock and confusion mixing together in his expression.
“How do you—” but it's too late, the man slumps in his grip again and his eyelids flutter shut as he drifts back into unconsciousness. Dick shakes off the strange wary feeling and continues on, the man is silent for the remainder of the time it takes him to reach the Manor and hurry down into the Batcave. Babs is already waiting next to the table, her eyes widened as she sees the man's limp form — Jason is beside her, his eyes sharp and focused solely on the person in Dick's arms with suspicion. He's clearly not a fan of Dick bringing him here, but what choice did he have?
“Listen,” Dick snaps calmly as he places the man gently on the table, “he appeared out of thin air and fell from the sky, this isn't any ordinary thing we're dealing with here.”
Jason's hard expression doesn't waver, in fact, with Dick's words his suspicion only grows.
“So a man falls out of the sky,” Jason starts with an incredulous look at him, “you don’t know how or why, and you brought him here ?”
“Enough,” Babs cuts in before Dick can reply, “once he’s awake we can ask him who he is and where he came from,” she turns to Dick again, “did he say anything to you? Or has he been out the whole time?”
Dick reaches back and rubs at his neck with his hand, a nervous habit. “Well, he did come to briefly, he said something but… I don’t know.” He furrows his brows, still wandering about how this man had known Peter’s name - or how he’d somehow mistook him for Peter himself. He hadn’t seen the look in the man’s eyes but he’d heard enough in his tone, something hopeful, something pleading almost.
“Well,” Jason snaps impatiently, “what did he say?”
“He said Peter’s name.”
This causes Jason’s eyes to widen a little, he and Babs exchange a quick glance with one another before turning their focus back on the table where the man lies unresponsive. His breathing is still labored, definitely due to bruised or broken ribs. In the better light Dick can see the full extent of his injuries and by god are there a lot of them, he wonders just what this man had to endure before he found him.
“He knows the kid?” Jason asks, Dick doesn’t look up from the man’s beaten body.
“Maybe, I think he thought I was him. He blacked out before I could ask.”
“It could be another Peter?” Babs supplies as she begins to clean the dried blood from the man’s face, “it’s not exactly an uncommon name.” She points out, gathering up the bandages and wrapping them carefully around his bruised and battered arms.
Dick shrugs, moving to help her as they start to get a better look at the man’s chest, using some of the equipment on the far table to see how much damage was caused to his ribs.
“Maybe, still, we need to figure out how he fell from the sky.” He muses, still pondering how it could’ve happened. Perhaps he was an alien of some kind, Dick knew his fair share of humanoid looking aliens, Clark was a clear example of that. But this man definitely wasn’t Kyrptonian, no, he looked undeniably human. Though looks could be deceiving, he’d have to make sure with some thorough tests.
“We’re not going to get much done if we’re standing around talking,” Alfred steps in, surprising the other’s just as much as Dick with his sudden appearance – so that’s where Bruce got it from? He thinks – he has a point, they’re really not going to get any answers if they continue to deprive the man of the medical attention he desperately needs, he looks paler with every second that passes.
Dick nods, “alright then, let’s patch him up.”
“Why is there a corpse in the Batcave?”
It’s been a good few hours since Dick brought the injured man from the Manor and into the Batcave, with Alfred’s help they’d managed to determine the full range of his physical and internal injuries and help him the best they could. Luckily, Alfred had seen all sorts of injuries with both Bruce and the rest of the Batkids so with all that experience and knowledge from past – and more recent than he wanted to admit – events, he was able to fix him up nicely. A few of his ribs had been cracked, one of his lungs collapsed and deflated which had been the main cause for his difficulty breathing and that had been the worst of it. His more minor injuries, such as the closed wounds and fading bruises were easier to deal with.
Damian peers over at the stranger laid out on the stretcher with an identical look of suspicion that Jason still holds presently, Dick stops his youngest brother from getting closer, he knows Damian will be anything but gentle with the man who’s lung they’d only just gotten to inflate again.
“Not a corpse, still alive.” Dick tells him, Damian’s scowl deepens.
“Y’know Bruce really isn’t gonna like this.” Jason drawls from where he’s watching, arms folded across his chest as he leans against the opposite table.
Dick tilts his head at his brother, “since when do you care what Bruce thinks?”
“I don’t,” Jason says with a shrug, “I’m just saying.”
His words have a clear point. Bruce will not be impressed that he decided to go against his plainly stated rules and bring a man – no matter how injured – into their secret base of operations, especially if the man he just so happened to save had fallen from the sky with no explanation or knowledge of who he was or how he’d wound up here in the first place. But Dick trusts his judgment, well, most of the time but in this particular situation he’s certain that the man won’t harm them. His blood tests had come back normal, one hundred percent full blooded human. Not even a metahuman, just human.
Besides, he was in too much of a beaten state to be able to cause them any trouble or harm, if he tried anything they’d be able to overpower and incapacitate him without any trouble or effort required on their part.
But, the tests hadn’t done anything to explain the odd, glowing thing in the center of his chest that Dick hadn’t even noticed before. Babs deduced that it was a power source, but she hadn’t been sure of what it was even powering.
All they can do now is wait for the man to regain consciousness, Dick isn’t sure how long that will take given his state, but he’s prepared to wait as long as needed. He wants answers.
“I’ve just told Duke, Steph and Cass are still out of town but I’ve let them know too.” Babs pipes up, wheeling herself over to where he’s standing.
“What about Tim and Pete?”
“Asleep to my knowledge, I think the deprivation finally caught up with both of them.”
Dick chuckles fondly, his lips twitch up into a soft smile. It’s the most serene he’s felt all evening, even though the stress over the whole situation creeps back quickly and quietly – his smile falters, he hopes he hasn’t made a mistake in bringing the man here. What if he’s put everyone at risk and it’s too late to fix it?
They wait. It’s all they can do, silence washes over the Batcave again and no one dares to break it. Jason idly taps the ground with his foot, Damian paces in a tight line, Babs tugs at the strings of her vibrant purple hoodie. And Dick remains still, tense and unmoving, watching the slow rise and fall of the man’s chest with a hard and focused expression.
It’s only when Babs taps him does he snap out of it, he hears it almost as soon as the sound leaves his mouth, the others do too. The man whines, pained and quiet, Dick instinctively steps closer to him. The man’s eyelids flutter open for a second before closing again, Dick almost thinks he slips back into his prior blacked out state for a moment of tense silence but he’s relieved when the man lets out a light cough and moves his arm to his chest.
“Hey there,” he leans closer, his voice calm but his body tense and prepared for any sudden movement, “are you feeling alright?”
The man’s eyes snap open in an instant, Dick startles a little but keeps himself firmly in place, brown eyes lock onto him gleaming with a sort of clarity. He stiffens, looking wary as he surveys his surroundings and the people around him. He looks back at Dick with narrowed eyes.
“Where am I?” His tone is sharp and demanding, nothing like the weak and feeble voice from earlier. Now he’s awake and from what Dick gathers he’s nervous and confused more than anything
“You’re somewhere safe–” Dick starts, but the man cuts him off.
“Somewhere safe? Well, that sums it up perfectly.” His voice drips with sarcasm.
“We can’t tell you anything yet, not until you tell us who you are and how you got here.” Jason grunts, stepping forward, the cold look in his eyes rivaling the man’s own.
The man stares at him for a few moments and then he frowns, visibly not at all intimidated by Jason’s harsh tone.
“Tony,” the man grits out, “Tony Stark. Now who the fuck are you people and where the hell am I?”