Sofia Falcone

“It’s not….that easy,” he felt like a broken record, spitting out his excuse over and over again until it stuck. “I can’t just let this go,” he breathed out, looking over at his sister with a gentle smile. “I don’t think I can forgive him. What he did…it still hurts. How can you be so okay with it?” He asked genuinely, no animosity in his voice. He respected Cassandra, and though he disagreed, he’d never hold it against her. “Yeah,” he scratched the back of his head, “just a little.” 

He picked at the seat under him, feeling restless, “do you want to talk about something else? Do something else? We can watch a movie.”

Cass shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t want to tell her brothers how to live their lives - after all, they had plenty of more life experience than her in general. “Because.... family.” She decided, nodding to herself. They might not be blood related, but they were a family all the same. “Family..... forgive.” She added, smiling sadly and squeezing Tim’s hand. She figured it wouldn’t be enough, but it had to be something to help him.

“Movie and.... pizza?” She said, brightening up a little. She needed to log tonight’s incident, but she could do it after they relaxed a little - they’d both earned it, after all.

Jason munched on some of his findings and then picked at some of the stuff Cassandra had been snacking on. When the younger Batkid squeezed his arm, Jason smiled affectionately. “For the moment anyway,” he told her, patting her head. “Until things calm down anyway. Maybe you’ll want to come with me some time, Cassi. Even if just for a while,” he proposed. “You’ll like it. So much to see, learn, explore… Ass to kick,” he added with a mischievous smirk.

Cass had been restless since Halloween - she’d realised how much Shiva had been at the back of her mind, and she’d become almost complacent - forgetting that it could happen. But now it was all she could think about, and she’d taken to training after patrols, locked away in a room. If she wasn’t physically training, she was watching and memorising videos of Shiva, of her fighting style, trying to find any weakness she could use - and there were none. She’d known that already.

She looked up as the latest video came to an end, seeing Bruce standing in the doorway, and she rubbed her eyes, sleepily.

“Can’t... sleep.” She lied, smiling a little as she shut the computer down. “You too?”

Cass rolled her eyes at her friend, but she held back a laugh, shaking her head, before picking a pepperoni off of her slice of pizza, and throwing it at her. They were in Cass’ room, the girl not really in the mood for being out too much since Halloween, but she’d missed Steph, so she’d told her to come over, not caring whether her father liked it or not. Their conversation had somehow ended up turning onto the subject of Damien and his.... unique people skills, which was how the pepperoni had ended up being hurled at her best friend.

“Not.... killing my brother.” She smiled, biting into the pizza herself, as she tilted her head thoughtfully. “Unless I.... keep his cow.”

Tim smiled, the gentle way he did around his family. He often wondered where his life would be had he never approached Bruce, but the answer is clear—worse. He’s happy to be here, even with all the injuries.

“It’s not that simple,” he shook his head, “he lied to us, Cass. The one thing we’re never supposed to do to each other. We trusted him and he lied.” He breathed out, taking pause. “I am happy he’s not dead it’s just…not that simple.” He smiled again, pushing past the emotional topic, “have you talked to him recently?”

Cass frowned as her reassurances didn’t seem to have helped. She had very few things she wanted to achieve in the year she had left, and one of them was for her family to be back together, to be talking to eachother, and that meant Dick and Bruce, and now Tim and Dick too. She couldn’t pretend to understand why Dick did what he did, but she knew the family needed him.

“Then.... forgive?” She frowned, finishing up cleaning his injury, then shrugged her shoulder. “Little... he’s busy.” He seemed to work all the time, and when she was out patrolling as Black Bat, it wasn’t exactly the ideal time for a heart to heart. “Have you?”

Leave it to Cass to be a beacon of reassurance. He followed her to the medical bay in comfortable silence, peeling off most of his costume the first chance he got. He sat up on one of the beds, nodding. “Thanks, again,” he smiled, “I probably say it a lot but sometimes I think I don’t say it enough.”

“It’s…” he struggled to find the words, looking up at Cass with guilt in his eyes. “Dick. You know he….I can’t get over how he lied to us, Cass. I just can’t. I want to forgive him but–” he breathed out, his nails digging into his knees as he tried to steady himself. “I saw Steph again too and…” he sighed again, “I’m worried about her. It’s just—I wish things could go back to how they used to be with us. All of us. With Dick and Steph. And who do I blame for any of this?” He looked over at Cass, forcing a smile. “Sorry, that’s probably a lot. I’m also pretty tired. I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep.” Not that he ever did. “We don’t have coffee in the medbay do we?”

Cass smiled, patting his cheek gently to show him that it was nothing - she didn’t need his thanks, she did it because she cared. Because he was family, and family were supposed to help each other.

As she cleaned up his wound, she listened to him talk, and frowned a little at the mention of Dick. She couldn’t help but just be thankful he was back, instead of mad that he’d lied to them. The way she saw it, they were in pain because they thought he was dead, but him not being dead stopped that pain - wasn’t that a good thing? She continued listening as he talked, not wanting to interrupt, and trying to put together a response. She liked that Tim would be open with her, but her brain just took a little time putting the words together. When he said it was a lot, she smiled at him, and nodded, not mad at him for it, though.

“Sad.... that he died.” She said, raising one hand. “Not dead.... not sad.” She lowered it again, showing that that sadness didn’t matter now. “It’s... good. Him being okay. Be.... thankful. Not blaming.”

Dick has never seen Cass like this before, he’s never seen her so afraid, so vulnerable and so shattered and he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t want her to feel like this, he never wants her to have to face whatever could do this to her. Whatever she’s seeing right now isn’t real, he knows - but he also knows it’s coming from somewhere. And he needs to make sure it never becomes a reality.

Right now, though, his attention is on Cass, on finding a way to get her out of here. “Cass, you think I’d let you leave? C’mon, you know how stubborn I am.” He says softly, trying his best to lighten his tone hopefully enough to get through to her properly, to help her overcome this, but he knows not everyone can do so. The fear toxin is relentless, it has a vice-like grip and it doesn’t let go without a fight.

“Okay, okay. We’ll find a way out, just stay with me, okay?” Dick assures her gently, keeping a tight hold of her as he begins to move to the doors, hoping someone’s managed to find a way out.

All Cass could tell right now was that Dick was here, Dick was real, and she grasped onto his words almost as tightly as she grasped onto him, allowing him to move her over to the doors. Still she shook in his hold a little, her mind fighting what was real and what wasn’t - and worst of all, what would be real soon enough.

“Don’t.... have a choice.” She muttered, squeezing his hand. She had a good idea that what she was seeing, the flashes out of the corner of her eye weren’t real, but she told herself she still had to prepare him. She wanted to tell him that it would be alright, but she couldn’t believe that herself. “Made.... promises.” 

“You are not going to die.” Dick tells her firmly, tightening his grip on her shoulders. Whatever it is she’s seeing has her truly terrified, he can see it in her eyes - he’d learned long ago, you have to look for the signs with Cass, watch her movements, let her show you, and right now he can see the fear.

He pulls his sister in for a hug, wrapping his arms around her tight in an effort to calm her down, to bring her back. “Listen to me, Cass. Just me, okay? You’re not going to die. I’m here, and I’m never leaving you again, and I am going to make sure you live. Whatever it is you’re seeing isn’t real, I promise.”

Cass shook in his arms, from the fear, the adrenaline of preparing for a fight before it disappeared. She clung to her brother, listening to his words, shaking her head. He didn’t understand, he didn’t know, and he had to know.

“I.... leave.... you....” She sobbed, gripping him tightly. She took gasping breaths, trying to focus on his voice, on being in his arms, on knowing that he was here. He couldn’t protect her, not when she’d brought it on herself. She should be stronger than this, should be here helping people, but her brain was confused in what was real, and what wasn’t. All she knew was real was her brother.

Tim didn’t deal in favorites, but it was gnawingly obvious that Cass was his favorite of the bats. He felt closer to her than Dick, or Bruce and certainly more so than Jason or Damian. When news of a kidnapping broke over his comms, there was no one he’d rather handle the situation with than his sister. He moved with her in sync and complete silence, knowing and understanding her style of fighting well enough to work in tandem with her. Even if there was a lot on his mind. 

Between seeing Stephanie again and his talk with Dick, his mind was clouded with thoughts he’d never get the chance to express. He swung his bo staff around without really thinking about it. He wasn’t alert, he didn’t notice the gun until he heard a click and swung around to see Cass diving at the man. The bullet zinged past him, grazing his shoulder but tearing through his costume all the same. He watched Cass move in a daze, clutching his wound. 

“I-I’m fine,” he breathed, “thank you, Black Bat. I think this means I owe you dinner–or breakfast—or lunch. Whenever you want to eat–I mean–” He winced, growling through clenched teeth. “Sorry, my mind is….kind of somewhere else. I know, it’s not safe. I’ll get over it.”

Cass shook her head, and once the area was cleared, she gently moved his hand away the wound to check how bad it was. No stitches, but she did need to clear the wound up before she put a pad on it. “Owe.... nothing.” She said, rolling her eyes that he could even think that. He’d have done the same if the positions were reversed, after all.

Once they were at home, she immediately took his hand, pulling him to the medical bay, and it was only then she pulled her mask off, before pulling out the things she needed. “What’s..... going on?” She asked, pointing to his head. He said his mind was elsewhere, and while she partly wanted to know so that something like this didn’t happen again, more importantly, she wanted to know that he was okay.

“Won’t.... tell.” She reassured, smiling softly as she did.

This wasn’t what she had expected when she attended the party. But at the same time, she wasn’t all that surprised. A room filled with superheroes. This would be the perfect chance to get their walls down and make them as vulnerable as possible. As Ororo walked around, immune to the gas due to her being a mutant, a frown formed when she saw a girl slam someone against the wall. Rushing towards her, she gently wrapped one of her arms around her waist and pulled her away. “Hey hey shh, it’s okay” she whispered, her motherly instincts kicking in. All she wanted to do was make sure that she was okay and that the person that got slammed into the wall wasn’t all that hurt. Holding onto the younger girl like her life depended on it, Ororo looked around in the hopes of finding an exit.

Cass was about to attempt to strike when she was pulled back from her target. “NO!” She yelled, trying to fight the other, but the gas and the fear it was creating in her were too overwhelming, and she felt so tired. She’d been so focused she hadn’t even noticed the other moving to grab her, and she cursed herself that she wasn’t any better.

“Let.... go!” She yelled, trying to twist out of the other girl’s arms. She didn’t understand what she was holding her back from. She didn’t even have the damn words to explain it, either. “Go!”

There are two things Dick is incredibly grateful for right now. His immunity to the toxin that’s driving so many of the party attendees mad right now, and the fact that he had the foresight to move inside before the doors slammed shut. And he has a job to do, he knows, he needs to find a way out, clear the room, find the person responsible, but in the chaos Dick’s only priority is his family.

He sees Cass and doesn’t even think, moving through the crowd to try and reach her as she slams a stranger against the wall. “Cass! Cass, listen to me.” He calls out to her, a hand reaching out when she’s within arm’s reach. He grasps her shoulder, firmly enough to get her attention but gentle in a way that he hopes won’t frighten her. “Cass, it’s me. It’s Dick, I’m right here.”

Cass grew scared and confused as she was pulled away from Lady Shiva, the woman darting around her, mockingly, and she tried to follow her with her eyes, before she was able to focus on Dick’s voice. She blinked, looking him in the eyes.

Tim wobbled through people, clutching his shirt over his mouth. He cursed himself, always be prepared, always be prepared. This was fear gas, he knew that well, but he had nothing to help him. No mask, no costume, only the thin fabric of his shirt keeping him from breathing it all in and a clear enough head to piece fact from fiction.

His eyes landed on a figure that looked like Cass and he moved towards it. “You’ll never be good enough!” Voices shouted out around him and through the fog but he ignored them. “Cass!” He called out, reaching out to press his hand into her shoulder. He wasn’t sure if she was real, but he couldn’t leave her even if she were a hallucination. “They’ll all die! And it’ll be because of your faults! You’re just a boy!”

“Cass,” he tried to hold her, tried to make sure she was real and warm and safe. “Cass, it’s me. Tim.” He didn’t know what she was saying, but he knew it couldn’t be good. “Cassandra, listen to me. You have to think logically. You are at a Halloween party, whatever you’re seeing now, does it make sense? Should it be here? Listen to my voice.” He knew the techniques for overcoming fear gas, but it never really was as easy as just thinking your way through. It only worked for so long. “I’m here. I’m real.”

Cass felt the hand on her shoulder and she jumped, not having been expecting it, and she sobbed as she heard Tim’s voice. She didn’t want them to be here for this, didn’t want him to see her die, and she took in deep breaths, trying to focus on him, focus on his words. Think logically. She saw Shiva walking past behind Tim, and she shook her head, tiredly. She could be here, she knew that. Could be breaking her agreement.

“Not.... time.” She repeated again, blinking a few times to try and focus on Tim. Her brother felt solid, warm, real. “Have.... months.” Her hand tightened on his arm, and she shook a little. Shiva was bad, but she was honorable. They’d agreed when, she wouldn’t have broke that. She would’ve given her time to say goodbye. “Tim...”

Her breath grew ragged, and her heart leapt into her throat as she heard a whisper in her ears. It’s time. She spun around to face Lady Shiva, only to see no-one there, and her heart raced. It couldn’t be time, she’d been counting down the days, it was too soon, she wasn’t ready, she would never be ready but emotionally it wasn’t time. She hadn’t said goodbye to her brothers, made sure Steph and Barbara were okay, seen Bruce and Diana get married...

You promised. She spun around at another whisper, and finally she saw her disappearing into the crowd. Pushing past people, she caught up to her, grabbing her and slamming her against a wall.

“Not..... time....” She hissed, tears in her eyes. She wasn’t ready. This couldn’t be it. She couldn’t die here tonight.