The villain laughed, "Pathetic heroes! You were all too easy to beat! And now, I'm going to kill you!"

"Stand. Down." Jay said, eyes narrowed, voice firm and full of authority. 

"What is this? Another pathetic hero?" the villain asked.

"No. I'm your worst nightmare." Jay snarled.

The villain laughed, "HA! YOU? You're nothing but a small, pathetic plaything! I should kill you with the rest of the so called 'heroes'!"

"Those so called heroes ARE MY FAMILY! NOW RELEASE THEM!" Jay yelled.

The villain stopped to think.

"No. I think I'll keep them in their cages until it's their time to die. But you, I'll kill first." the villain smirked.

Jay pulled out a few throwing knives and threw them at the villain.

One of them embedded itself into the villain's arm.

"AHHHHH! YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" the villain screamed.

The villain grabbed Jay by the cape and threw him into the far wall.

"NIGHTWING!" Tim screamed.

That drew the attention of the villain.

"You care about this one Nightwing? I'll kill him first, slowly and painfully." the villain said, picking Tim up by the cape.

That got Richard's attention.

Richard ROARED and threw himself into the villain, knocking both of them down.

Tim rolled away quickly.

"YOU!" Nightwing punched the villain.

"LEAVE!" Another punch.

"THEM!" Nightwing grabbed the villain by the shoulders and slammed his head into the floor.

"ALONE!" Nightwing had his hands around the villain's neck, squeezing tightly. 

He was chocking the villain with all his might.

And he didn't care.

For at that moment, Nightwing felt an unholy rage.

A rage that he hadn't felt since the Joker killed Jason.

It was in that moment in which everyone saw the real Nightwing, raw and angry.

It was this moment which everyone also realized that Nightwing was going to kill the villain. 

"NIGHTWING STOP!!!" Tim screamed and jumped up to his feet.

"STOP! STOP IT! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HIM!!!" Tim screamed and tried to pry Nightwing's hands off of the villain's neck.

"NIGHTWING PLEASE! PLEASE STOP!" Tim screamed, having no luck in getting Richard's hands off.

The villain stopped moving.

"RICHARD STOP IT!!!" Tim screamed at the top of his lungs.

That snapped Richard out of whatever daze he was in.

Richard immediately back away, scrambling over his arms and legs to get away from the villain.

Tim checked the villain for a pulse.

He didn't have one.

Tim immediately started CPR. 

"Richard! Go get a crash cart!" Tim yelled.

But Richard had curled up in a ball, his hands gripping his hair tightly.

"Stop sitting there and HELP ME!" Tim screamed.

But Richard was unresponsive. 

"RICHARD JOHN GRAYSON GET OFF YOUR ASS AND GET ME A FUCKING CRASH CART!!!" Tim screamed at the top of his lungs again. 

Richard looked up with wide eyes and tears falling down his checks. 

"MOVE!!!" 

Richard scrambled to get.

And he ran out of the room.

He came back a bit later with a crash cart.

Dick prepped it and handed the pads over to Tim.

Tim got to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took several minutes, but the man started breathing again.

And Tim soon after released the other heroes. 

Richard was in his ball again, hands tearing at his hair, shaking uncontrollably. 

The original seven Justice League members and Black Canary gathered around Richard's huddling mass.

"Red Robin, come here." Batman motioned for Tim.

Red Robin came over to Batman.

Batman pointed at Richard.

And Tim got what Bruce was saying.

Tim got down next to Richard and pulled on one of Richard's arms.

"Richard, it's okay now. We're safe. We're okay." Tim whispered into his ear.

Richard looked up, his face tear-stained. 

A sob tore out of his throat and he grabbed Tim into a hug.

Richard buried his face into Tim's hair and cried.

"Shhhh! It's okay Richard. We're here. We're safe. We're okay." Tim tried to calm Richard down.

"Bruce, we need to talk about his mental stability." Black Canary said.

"Later. Right now, we need to help him." Bruce said.

Black Canary nodded.

Everyone soon gathered around Nightwing as he cried.

And everyone felt sad.

Very few heroes had ever seen Nightwing cry.

And there he was, raw and open for everyone to see.

The heroes had no idea what to do about it.

For once, the heroes were at a loss.

They didn't know how to help Nightwing in any way, shape, or form.

They were at an utter loss.

So, they did what any family would do when they felt loss.

They cuddled and hugged, trying to find comfort in each other.

And at the center of the bug hug, was Nightwing.

The Nightwing who couldn't stand the idea of any of them leaving.

Nightwing who cared about them all, no matter how short or long he'd known them.

No matter what right or wrong they did, Nightwing cared about all of them.

And he wasn't about to let go anytime soon.