Successor

“Shut up,” she muttered, giving herself a moment and feeling some of her injuries start to heal little by little. There was a bonus to being a demi-god. You could take the hits and you might have some broken bones but they’d heal a little bit faster than they would for any normal human. Whatever she had gotten her ass handed to her with she would be okay. At least physically, she managed that pretty well. “There is only one me, Robin.” Sure there were other Wonder Girl’s but there was only one Cassie. Sometimes she needed to remind herself of that. Let alone… anyone else. Seeing Bart had her heart softening and the breath she didn’t realize she was holding slip out, fingers twining around Tim’s with a nod. Trying to get up slowly so she could try to get Tim off the field. It was a slow move though. “You’re already the coolest,” she replied to the speedster though she wasn’t moving clearly as fast as she would like but she got an eye on Kon as he went in to save the day. These were her boys. She would literally die for them if she had too. “Breathe for me,” she told him softly, shifting enough to draw him into her lap and wrap around him in a protective way. She could get him out of there in a heart beat but the way she moved was so distinct. So very careful that she knew she would jostle him a little but not enough to cause any more damage. “I have to get you out of here…” the recovery for her was going to take time, and for the rest of them, half the time they were just there for sheer determination alone. “It’s been a long time since it was… young just us, right?” She was teasing a little bit, the blood running down her cheek from a wound on her head that hadn’t healed itself yet. She did NOT have the healing where withal that Kon did.

Tim’s eyes flickered back and forth between Kon and Bart, watching them through his own blurry vision and their occasional use of super speed. Suddenly his breath felt caught in his lungs for a whole other reason. Reality snapped into bright overexposure like a bad photo filter, like someone hit mute on the world and cranked up the white balance. Kon and Bart-- They were out there alone. They were fighting alone and Tim was laying in debris, useless. Get up, get up, get up-- They can’t-- They were already taken down once. He had to help. Everything could go wrong. He had to get back out there. If he didn’t--

Kon’s body broken and mangled in the dirt--

Bart’s screams of raw agony on an operating table--

Tim’s body moved but not by his doing. A distant part of his brain reminded Cassie, let her help, but the vice grip of panic instead had him pushing against her, muscles stiffening in renewed pain that went ignored. Where was his bo staff? He’d dropped it near here, hadn’t he? It would take too long to find. Had Cassie just said something? She had but Tim couldn’t parse the words when his full attention was back to watching Superboy and Kid Flash. They were still moving. Kon was smiling, clearly having fun denting and tearing metal with renewed vengeance. But all it would take was one second, one small mistake, and they could go down again. And if they did, they might stay--

It was rare that she would be knocked back so hard. But she wasn’t invincible. The struggle to get up was battling worn out limbs and a broken bone or two without being able to give them time to heal. Yet, there was no time. Not knowing how long she’d blacked out after she’d tabled her own monstrosity she got trying to get to her feet, needing to shake the cobwebs from her mind. Right, right, think Cassandra. She was the leader in the field she knew how to lead. Tim was tactics and he knew how to organize an assault. It was Cassie who handled what happened in the field and she did it well. With every aching bone in her body screaming she shoved herself to her feet just in time to see Tim snatched up by the robot and her heart stopped. If it had stayed stopped any longer her best friend might not survive it. Between Kara. Tim, Bart and Kon– very few were so dear to her. Without an actual thought she pushed off the ground throwing all of the speed she had into, to catch the robot’s arm in the middle and crush it so it would let Tim go. “Get. Off. Him.” There was lightning in her eyes, the kind that spoke of Gods and Monsters from long ago. That demigod blood of hers ran deep, but she couldn’t tap those powers yet. Just the ones she’d been gifted with from the start. With the deftness of a dancer she managed to get her lasso caught on one of the jagged parts of the twisted arm, breaking it off before she flipped and flung with all the strength she could muster the robot clear through whatever was in that direction. She didn’t care. Really. “Robin? Robin!” She had to use what strength she had left and when she finally got to where he was she caught his hand and tipped over to lay beside him. Her body finally took something akin to a rest. She fought unconsciousness, her voice was soft. “ Tim.. open your eyes and tell me you’re in there.”

Tim hit the ground and rolled out of the cold, metal hand. The loud clang had sent his brain rattling in his skull. He clenched his jaw, fighting through the pain to keep himself mentally present. This wasn’t over yet. He couldn’t afford the luxury of checking out. He’d meant it: no one and nothing was going to hurt Conner, Bart, or Cassie while he was still breathing. That might have been a currently difficult task but not yet impossible.

“H-hey, Wonder Girl.” He should move, he knew that-- he could see the looming metal giants behind Cassie’s frame-- but his muscles felt locked with exhaustion. Blinking sluggishly, he smiled with bloody lips. “There’s two of you.”

His fingers loosely curled around hers. After a moment, he picked up on the softest crackle behind them, and closed his eyes in relief at the recognition of the sound as Kon’s heat vision sliced the air above them to cut through one of the other robots. There were words said as Kon rushed by them, up and moving again with ferocity, but Tim let them go without really hearing them. Kon was okay. Cassie was okay. He could feel his pulse and hers in their fingertips squeezed together. 

Another hand closed over theirs, vibrating slightly. “You guys good? Nope. Dumb question. Stay down. We got this. I’m a little rattled but I’m a’okay. I got this. Gonna earn that hero card while you two play damsels in distress. Let me be cool, ‘kay?”

Very rarely was Tim, the squishy human of the group, the last one left standing. It was terrifying. His team was down and he couldn’t stop the sound of Conner hitting the ground from echoing in his head. He didn’t dare look. The last time he’d seen Conner unmoving in a crater he’d been dead. Instead, he stood before his team as a final defense. One of them would get back up. They had to get back up.

Bo held firmly in his left hand, his right hung useless at his side, dislocated at the shoulder. The cowl was dented and cracked above his right eye, blood matting his hair. He was tired. So tired. But that hadn’t stopped Tim before. If he gave up now, they were all dead. This time, Tim had a chance to save them, and there was no way in hell he’d move aside now. 

In front of him were the last four massive robots of what had been, without exaggeration, a metal army. Tim had spotted an L Corp logo on one of the chips inside their shell when Bart had taken one apart earlier. If this was some twisted father-son bonding thing Lex was attempting, Tim was sure Conner wouldn’t appreciate it. Couldn’t Lex just ask to play catch like a normal person? No, of course not.

Four. Four robots, each at least eight feet tall and geared to the teeth. Tim couldn’t punch through them. He couldn’t lift them and throw them. He couldn’t speed-phase through their armor. Everyone who could do those things was down. Down. Down-- Focus! His arsenal was depleted, he was injured, and he was backed into a proverbial corner. Think. He had to buy time. Bart would get up soon. One of them had to get up soon.

No broken bones. He could take a few more hits. He had to. If he was right and Lex was watching through these things, or controlling them, Tim wasn’t at risk of dying. If Lex still wanted Conner on his side one day, he would have to leave Tim alive. Lex was smart enough to know Conner would never join him if he was at fault for Tim’s death. A risky assumption but Tim was out of options. 

Pushing off his bo staff, he leapt and whipped himself up onto the shoulders of the front-most robot. He almost had his staff jammed down into the weak neck joint when the thing reached up and grabbed him, throwing him back down. He hit the ground right where he’d been standing before, wind knocked out of his lungs. Gasping, he rolled onto his side, numb fingers reaching for his bo. The robots stood, almost as if waiting, teasing. Was this some kind of game? Tim pushed himself back to his feet, spitting out a glob of blood. This was no game. Bart, Cassie, and Conner-- Their safety was no game to Tim.

“There’s a thing called shar-ing!” He wiggles his finger at Tim, “Does the big bat not teach that in his house? Grampa does.”  He still sits by the other’s side, pulling his legs and feet in towards his body to minimize the space he took up. “‘Sides, with me around, you don’t need a blanket. I’m like yer personal heater, but I’m  leagues cooler and I have feelings.” 

The speedster simply rests his chin on Tim’s shoulder; clearly eager to spend some downtime with Tim. It didn’t come as often nowadays and Bart made sure to really appreciate what time they had together.  

       “Nope. No sharing. Only justice.” Despite himself, he couldn’t help the little chuckle. Robin didn’t actually live with Batman but it wasn’t like that was information that could be given out. Tim wasn’t a believer in absolutes but he was nearly absolutely sure that it was impossible to be unhappy around Bart. Outside of Robin-- and nowadays including Robin-- Tim’s life was a mess. Of course he had to get sick on top of it all. If Lady Luck was real, she was on a mean streak with Tim. At least he knew where he stood with the team. Around Young Justice, all he had to be was the level-headed planner. With them, there were no expectations to meet or shoes to fill or whatever because the team was new. It was just theirs. For the first time, Tim felt like he had a place to simply be.

@thiirdbiird​ <3′d

“Hey Timmy!” As per usual, Bart speeds over to Tim’s side and embellishes him in a quick hug, cheerful as always.

     Tim huffed as the air was forced out of his lungs. He rocked slightly to the side before righting himself again. He’d been comfy on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket with an array of papers spread out around his laptop on the coffee table in front of him. He hadn’t been feeling one-hundred-percent lately but he didn’t want to slack off on any of things his team expected of him.

     Tim grumbled wordlessly, halfway to suited in Red Robin’s kit. Taking nights off just because he was sick had never been a luxury he’d afforded himself, not unless Alfred or his team trapped him on a couch and kept vigil. Without a spleen, he should be hyper aware of taking care of himself in these matters, but old habits were hard to break, especially for a person like Tim who deemed his self-worth on how useful he could be to those around him. His self-destructive tendencies had gotten bad over the past couple years, but, with Bart and Conner, back, Tim was trying-- trying so damn hard-- to be better about caring if he lived or died.

     “I--” He floundered for an excuse that would be good enough to get Conner off his case. The fact was, there wasn’t. No matter what ‘logic’ Tim spewed, Conner would insist on staying in and watching trash TV. A small part of Tim-- the tiny, boisterous part of his thirteen year old self that had survived the last several years, buried somewhere deep down-- wanted nothing more than to curl up on the couch and pick apart a poorly written ‘super hero’ show with his best friend. But there was work to do. His fever wasn’t bad enough to be impairing his thought process so why should he sit and do nothing for a whole night?