My head was pounding as I came to. I slowly sat up, placing a hand on my head and opened my groggy eyes. But I couldn't remember anything. I stood from the concrete and leant against the wall for support, slightly surprised when my hand slipped against the brick. I turned it over to look and saw exactly what I expected. A thick coat of blood. In fact, I was covered in blood from head to toe. I licked my lips, and almost retched at the vile taste. At least it meant no one would find the scene of the crime and condemn me. I slowly moved to the mouth of the alley, still trying to regain the feeling of control over my body, and looked for anything I might recognise. I perked up when I saw a small Wayne enterprises office and stumbled over. The small offices weren't camered, Bruce said that if they held nothing important there was no point spending money on it, not even security guards. It was literally a two-room flat complex like thing with an office and bathroom. Still not sure why he had them either, no one ever came in here. My theory is that they're stop off points for Batman, but he doesn't deign to tell me that. I pushed open the door to the bathroom and almost jumped at the sight of myself in the mirror. So much blood. I quickly stripped off my suit and threw it in the filling bathtub to soak for a minute. I turned back to the sink and began to splash water in my face, over my wrists where some blood had seeped through the suit and my hair. My beautiful hair. The cold water seemed to shock me fully awake and my brain started whirring again.
What day was it? What time was it? Whose blood was it? Why was I here?
Once I was soaked, frozen and cleaned of all the blood I could see I ventured back into the main office to sneak a peek at the clock. 03:48. At least that answered one of my questions. I headed back to the bathroom, picking up a bar of soap and emptied the red water from the tub to start scrubbing my suit. This was going to take a while.

It was getting light outside and I was only halfway done with the scrubbing of the suit, but I had had a proper shower to make sure all the blood was gone from me. All that blood and not one injury on my person, it wasn't a good sign. I'd flicked on the radio in the background, thankful for some noise to break the silence, and finally, the news came on.
"In the past two weeks, 7 people have been abducted from their homes all over Gotham. The police are still looking into these cases and advise anyone with any information to step forward. For more information visit us online." It blared and I tuned out the rest.
6 people. 2 weeks. That answered a couple of questions for me. One being why the blood was so hard to get out, it was up to two weeks old and there was 54 pints of blood all over it. And it must be June now, so schools would have just kicked out. Meaning I've missed my exams. Damn it. I continued to scrub my clothes as music played in the background, trying to come up with my excuse for why I was the only abductee alive. So not feeling the aster.

"Has there been any news on the kidnappings?" Artemis asked as she entered the cave to see the rest of the team waiting, her eyes snagged on me as she stopped, "Where the hell have you been?"
"Busy." I replied, "Batman and I've rescued one of them. Dick Grayson. We found him down by the south river."
"And you couldn't tell us?" She snarked as she sat down next to her boyfriend.
"I was busy." I replied, trying to keep my annoyance down, my emotions were always wild for the first couple of days after.
"Geez, no need to get angry." She rolled her eyes.
"I'm not." I growled.
"Is it your time of the month honey?" She teased and earned a small chuckle from Wally.
"God, you know what I'm leaving. Bye." I said as I stood up.
"It's a joke Boy Wonder, learn to take it." She said.
I didn't respond as I left back to the Batcave, Bruce waiting.
"What do you want?" I said, still trying to reign in my anger, and failing miserably.
"You've been gone for two weeks and seem in prime condition. Just like last time, and the time before and-"
"What's your point?" I asked, not smart to interrupt, but I didn't care right now.
"There's something you're not telling me. The others are never found, but we see you every time. You can trust me Dick." He explained and I felt myself tense up.
"I've told you everything I know, everything every time. You can choose whether to believe me or not." I hissed and stalked past him.
I slammed the door to my room and picked up my Wingdings, throwing them at the wall and into the usual holes they had made for the self, repeating the process until my anger had seethed.
I was being a real bitch at the moment, but it wasn't entirely my fault. I'd just lost two weeks of my life to a murder spree and people were starting to join the dots. By people, I meant Bruce, and I couldn't have him knowing what happened. Well, I mean, it would be nice to have someone to tell me what I did, but I'd already figured out half the picture. I pulled my Wingdings out of the wall and fell backwards onto my bed, letting out a heavy sigh. All I knew was that every now and again I'd black out for a period of time but I'd still be doing something. And that something was pretty gory. I'd figured that out the first time when I ended up retching out someone's eyes. My stomach had grown used to eating human now though. I shivered at the thought. But apart from that, I had no idea, and I didn't like that one bit. I'd already tired camering myself up, but the feed cut out instantly. So then I tried looking for symptoms for the blackout and came up empty. It just happened. And I hated it. But I hated the idea of anyone finding out more, because than I'd be in jail. I think the only reason Bruce hasn't reached the truth is because I'm a golden kid, never even stole a pencil from school. Though I may or not have eaten the head teacher. I quickly ran over to the toilet and threw up, trying not to look at the half-digested remains. Once I was done I flushed the chain and swilled with mouthwash to try and get the taste back out of my mouth. I climbed into my bed, now pale and shaking, and lay there, staring at the door and trying to remember.

"God, he needs to learn to take a joke." Artemis muttered as the zeta beams announced Nightwing's departure.
I wasn't going to bother correcting Artemis, he was probably still wound up from his kidnapping, I mean, he was only found this morning. He'd already been in contact with me before he got to the mountain, it was another case where he had no idea what had happened. And that was starting to get worrying, it was happening far too often. He'd get kidnapped along with some other randoms, he'd return with no memory and the others would either be found or never seen again. And the state in which they were found, it was sickening.
"Maybe he is just going through a rough time at the moment." Kaldur said.
"Or maybe he's just acting like a royal dick." She snarked, "Now if that's all you wanted to see me for I need to get on with my coursework."
"Of course." Kaldur said, "We thought maybe Nightwing would divulge some information but it would seem not."
"Yeah, it would, wouldn't it." And she was gone as well.
"M'gann, are you okay?" Kaldur and I turned to Conner as he spoke to see M'gann sweating and over in the corner.
"Yes, it's just that Nightwing's emotions were really strong." She said, "Almost out of control, it was exhausting."
"Why was it exhausting for you?" Conner asked.
"Becuase she needs to fight off the emotion to stop it overtaking her. Duh." I mocked and got sent a death glare from Conner and shut up.
But the mocking was only to cover my concern. This was something else that always happened. If anyone could use one word to describe Dick it was controlled. He controlled his movements perfectly, he knew when to stop pushing his limits and he had perfect control over his emotions. But every time he got kidnapped his emotions would run rampant for a day or two. It just wasn't like him.
"You know what, I'm going to leave you three to it." I said as I stood up and stretched out, "I need to get on with some work myself."
"Alright my friend." Kaldur waved me off.
I entered the coordinates for the Bat cave and stepped through the Zeta's. Bruce was at the computer, as expected of the scary Batman, but Dick was nowhere in sight.
"Where's Dick?" I asked as I went over to see what was on the screen.
"Upstairs." Was the curt reply, "If I was you I'd leave him to cool for a while, he seemed rather worked up."
"That was Artemis. She was having a joke but he's still wound up from the last two weeks." I said.
"Did he tell you anything about the two weeks?" This time Bruce turned around in his chair, chin on his fists.
"He doesn't know anything that happened." I replied, "The same as every other time."
"Always the same." Bruce mused as he turned back to his computer, "Every time these disappearances happen Dick is always the first to go missing, and the only one found alive. But he can never remember anything. There's something else going on."
"What are you implying?" I asked, he couldn't mean what I thought he did.
"I think Dick might be behind them." Bruce said, "That's why he doesn't say anything."
"But he wouldn't do that would he?" I asked, shivering at the idea.
"That's the part that doesn't add up." Bruce said, "He's a golden kid. Always has been. So why would he start kidnapping people?"
"He doesn't Bruce. He would never." I said, still trying to remove the image of how we found Barry's neighbour.
"He wouldn't kill them or do that to them." Bruce said, "But he'd also never kidnap someone. But he must be, it's the only explanation."
"Unless someone created a drug to make him forget his kidnapping." I suggested, "It's not impossible, they're being studied and created at my lab."
"I'll think it over." Bruce sighed in a way that told me he was completely stumped, "I suggest you leave."
"I'm going to see Dick, whether you advise it or not." I said as I headed towards the stairs to see him.

I could hear footsteps outside my door and then it opened to show a certain ginger.
"Geez, you've looked better." He said as he closed the door again.
"I've felt better." I said as I sat up so he could come on the bed with me, "What are you doing here?"
"I've come to check on you." He said and another emotion overtook me, fear.
"Why?" I said, trying to hide it but scepticism was clear in my voice.
"To see how you are." Wally replied, "Would you prefer I'd leave?"
"No." I said too fast. "Don't leave. Just tell me why you're really here."
Calm it emotions, calm it.
"To check up on you. You seemed riled up." He said, now looking slightly scared.
"Stop lying!" I shouted and then collected myself a bit more, "Sorry, I didn't mean to shout. It just kind of happened. Just, ugh. I don't know what's wrong with me." And then I burst into tears, "What's wrong with me?"
Now Wally just looked shocked and confused as I buried my head into his shoulder. I felt his arm move over my shoulder as he brought me in closer for a hug, "It's okay Dick. There's nothing wrong with you."
"But there is." I mumbled into his now wet shoulder, "There has been for years."
"No, you're just unique." He said, "There's nothing wrong with you. We all let our emotions get the best of us sometimes."
If only that was all that was wrong with me. But it's not like he'd understand, he doesn't randomly find himself in an alley after eating human flesh for god knows how long.
It felt like forever until we parted again and my eyes were dry.
"You feeling okay now?" Wally asked as he gave me a tissue to blow my nose.
"Sorry. I don't know what that was." I said as I chucked the tissue across the room and into the bed, "My emotions are just too wild at the moment."
"Megan said." Wally chuckled, "She said you almost killed her with them."
"I should probably apologise." I said, guilt gnawing at me.
"Later, you need to get a lid on your emotions again." Wally said, "And I'll be right here if you need me, understand?"
"Yes sir." I said with a mock salute and burst into fits of laughter.
I don't even know why that was funny, but apparently it was hilarious and soon Wally was laughing with me.
I guess this curse wasn't just full of downsides.