“This is the part where, and I cannot emphasise this enough,” Gar says, “it would be really cool if Batman or Superman showed up.”
Dick laughs. He’s been laughing a lot over the last few hours—more than he’s ever done for the entire time that Gar’s known him—and while normally Gar would’ve been delighted to have proof that Dick had emotions beyond ‘angry’, ‘brooding’ and ‘worried’, Dick’s rusty, wheezing chuckles only twist his gut with anxiety.
“Off-world,” Dick says, grinning to reveal teeth coated in blood. “League business.”
Gar’s eyes widen. “Off-world like… off-planet?”
“You know Kory and yet—” Dick shifts then grunts, eyes squeezing shut, “—yet, you still act like—hnn—it’s news that alien civilisations exist.”
“Yeah, well,” Gar shrugs, “Kory’s… Kory.”
“Fair enough.” There’s that awful laugh again, the sound like air is trying to whistle past razor blades in his chest. Their lone remaining torch flickers dangerously, throwing shadows over Dick’s face, his blood black in the half-light. Gar thinks he sees something running up the cave wall just above Dick’s head, skittering into the shadows, and he shudders.
This wouldn’t have happened if Kory were here, Gar wants to say, but he doesn’t know how Dick would take that (doesn’t know if Dick would grab at his neck or leave him or both). Instead he says, “do you think that… thing’s coming back?”
“Gotta be prepared in any case.” He reaches over and flicks the switch on the flashlight, plunging them into total darkness. That in itself wouldn’t have been so scary, except Gar swears he can see the darkness moving, glinting and shifting like water at midnight. He can hear the skittering sound of creatures so close to him that he’s sure they’re going to land on his shoulders at any moment; he tenses, his jaw grinding.
“I shoulda done more,” he whispers, to distract himself more than anything.
He hears Dick shifting, the hitch in his breathing. “You did what you could,” he says.
“That’s not true, and you know it.” Gar squeezes his eyes shut, thinks of the black mess of hair and claws and teeth and glowing red eyes that charged at him from the darkness, the way he froze, unable to think beyond a white-out of panic.
Thinks of Dick pushing him out of the way, his blood-curdling scream as he was clawed open—
“I didn’t, is the thing,” Gar says, hating the way his voice wavers. “I could’ve—could’ve become literally anything, and I just. Just. It was like I couldn’t even think.”
Dick sighs. “Happens, Gar. Not your fault.”
“I should be doing something now.” Gar bites his lip. “You know? But I can’t, and there’s no excuse for that.”
“Gar—”
“I’m scared, Dick. There’s something weird about this place, and I keep thinking –what if this is the time that I turn and don’t come back? Like—I lose control for good? Where would that leave you—”
“Gar, it’s okay. I get it.”
Gar’s pretty sure that he doesn’t—he’s motherfucking Robin, the first sidekick, the most capable person that Gar knows—but he does feel better for having told Dick. He tries not to think about how much easier it was to tell him in the dark; how much the intensity of Dick’s gaze makes his nerves feel like overstressed wire, brittle and jangling.
Suddenly, Dick’s hand shoots out, squeezes Gar’s own. He startles badly, says, “Dick, what—” before Dick’s hand squeezes harder and he shuts up.
The skittering sounds have stopped, and a rancid smell fills the cave they’re hiding in. A distant huffing sound starts, gets closer and closer.
No. Gar’s heart starts pounding in his ears, so loud that he’s sure the cave’s echoing with it. So loud that he’s sure the creature can hear it—
“Gar,” Dick says suddenly, loudly, “Run.”
It happens before Gar can so much as think about what Dick just said. The entrance to the cave smashes open, and the moonlight that spills through shows Dick standing in front of him, blood flaking off his clothes and listing to one side. In spite of everything, he stands tall between Gar and the monster, and for a long moment, it’s more than Gar can really comprehend: he gapes, barely daring to breathe.
Then the monster lunges, swats away Dick’s attempt at defence, and closes its teeth around his leg.
Dick shrieks in agony, and that finally snaps Gar out of it. He grabs Dick’s hand even as the monster drags him away, and the unspeakably wet sound of flesh tearing is barely masked by Dick making sounds of pain that Gar has never heard from any human before.
“Run,” Dick gasps. “Gar, please—”
There’s a loud snap of breaking bone; Dick lets out one last blood-curdling scream, then finally, mercifully loses consciousness. He’s limp as the monster pulls him into the foliage, trailing blood that looks black in the moonlight.
Gar knows that this is it. He has no hope of getting help in time. He has no time to feel scared; if it means saving Dick, he has no time for Gar.
He snarls.