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“Hey B,” Dick answered the call, pushing open the door to his apartment. “What do you need?”
Bruce, as always, got straight to the point. “Have you seen Jason?”
“Nope,” Dick told him, popping the “p”. Of course that was the only reason why Bruce was calling.
“Don’t lie to me.” He sounded serious.
“I’m not lying, I swear,” Dick pushed down his concern. “I haven’t seen him since the last time you needed my help in Gotham. Why? Did something happen?”
Bruce grunted. “He must’ve gone after Crane.”
“Wait, wha—”
Dick stared at his phone. Ah, Bruce, last to speak, first to hang up.
Still, that didn’t sound good. Jason had run away after a fight with Bruce before, hiding with Dick in Blüdhaven, which is likely why Bruce even called him. That’s what Dick would assume too, that Jason was coming here, but it sounded like Bruce had another idea.
He decided he wouldn’t wait to see if Jason was coming.
Suiting up, he put his comm in and swung out the window. “Oracle? What happened to Robin?”
“He snuck out of the manor three hours ago. We can’t find him.”
Even Babs couldn’t find him with her cameras? Dick headed for his bike.
“Do you know why? What’s this about Scarecrow?”
“He escaped in the recent Arkham breakout. Batman benched Robin to keep him from coming into contact with him. He’s never dealt with Scarecrow before and B didn’t think he was ready.”
“Well, you’re not supposed to tell him that,” Dick grumbled under his breath, hopping on his bike. He could imagine it clearly now; Bruce’s cold words, the implication of Jason’s incompetence, how the love that drove Bruce’s decision would not be visible in the eyes of a young, prideful, stubborn vigilante.
He shook his head, clearing the image from his mind. “I’m on my way.”
Dick swung through Gotham, paying rapt attention to his surroundings. His mind filled with horrifying possibility after horrifying possibility. Villains were about as kind to vigilantes as crime was to innocent civilians. Dick would never forget his first encounter with Scarecrow, with fear toxin. They didn’t have a working antidote at the time, and he’d found himself paralyzed for almost twenty four hours, watching his life fall apart over and over again. He’d had nightmares every night for weeks, then occasionally, as those weeks became months. He’d never forget that grotesque scarecrow mask and the fear that had overwhelmed him at the time.
Even if it wasn’t Scarecrow who took Jason, it could be any number of terrible people looking to hurt Robin. In this city, those colors were seen as a target to more people than they were as a symbol of hope. Dick clenched his teeth. He didn’t mean for Robin to be anything more than the hero half of himself. Now Jason was out there, fighting, maybe hurting, maybe even dying in Dick’s colors, in the name of what Dick created.
“I got something.” Oracle’s voice spoke in his ear. She didn’t sound happy.
“What is it?” He asked.
“I’m not sure,” she started firmly, “but Crane was caught on camera heading into the sewers. It looked like he had something planned. It’s the deep tunnels, N. We wouldn’t be able to track you down there. We wouldn’t be able to communicate. You’re the closest one but I’ve alerted Batman and—”
Dick was already swinging to the nearest entrance to the underground network of tunnels.
“Here?”
“Yeah. Just…be careful.”
“I’ll do my best,” Dick smiled a grin he didn’t feel.
The tunnels were damp and dark. He snuck through them at a swift but relatively silent pace. All that time he’d spent memorizing the layout was certainly helping him now. But navigating was not easy and there were many places to hide a group of henchmen and a captured vigilante. Dick was not afraid to check all of them.
Soon, he heard voices and splashes that signaled the movements of several people.
“Almost there,” Scarecrow hissed gleefully.
Dick peered around the corner, watching as the villain and his procession came to a halt outside a door in the concrete.
“You’ll pay for this!” A young voice screeched. It was Robin, struggling against his bindings and the arms of the goons that held him. “Batman will come and you’ll be sorry!”
“Shut up, brat.” Crane turned to him, grabbing him by the chin. “You know what? If you’re so eager to begin, we can start right here.”
Dick sprang into motion the moment he saw the needle.
There were about twenty thugs, and he downed half of them in less than two minutes. But he wasn’t fast enough.
Scarecrow injected the toxin and held a knife to Jason’s throat.
“Stand down,” he snarled.
Dick stopped fighting, holding his hands up placatingly.
Jason struggled in Scarecrow’s arms, likely not all there. The villain wasn’t strong enough to hold him. In the moment when he was distracted, his grip loosening, Dick threw a wingding and knocked the knife out of his hand.
He lunged forward, grabbing Jason, throwing him over his shoulder and taking off down the tunnel before his adversaries could even take a step.
“After them!” Scarecrow’s enraged voice echoed through the tight space.
Dick kept on. There was an exit somewhere around—Jason elbowed him in the back of head.
“Let me go!” He yelled, panic in his voice.
Dick shushed him, adjusting his grip. This wasn’t good.
“That way!” A voice shouted behind them.
“Stop it,” Jason stuttered, tone fearful. “Stop, please. ”
Dick wondered if all of Gotham could hear it as his heart broke.
“Shhh,” he attempted to sooth. “You’re okay, Little Wing. It’s not real.”
He shifted him into more of a bridal carry. Jason wrapped his arms around his neck and squeezed .
“That’s—That’s alright, Robin,” Dick muttered, stumbling. Almost there…
The kid sobbed in his arms, still squirming restlessly.
Dick pried him off his throat as they neared the exit.
Jason screeched , punching wildly at him and then running in the opposite direction.
Dick cursed, hurrying to get ahold of him. If he remembered correctly, there was a pit in the ground around here—
“Robin!” He wrapped his arms around the kid just as he would have gone over the edge. Then Jason was kicking against the wall with his legs and headbutting Dick in the face.
They both went over the edge.
Dick awoke to Jason hyperventilating, curled up on his chest.
“You’re okay,” Dick whispered to him, wincing at the pounding in his skull.
“Jay, it’s not real. You’re safe. You’re safe .” Dick rubbed his back. “Come on, breathe. ”
The kid didn’t even twitch in his direction.
Dick hummed a lullaby he’d almost forgotten as he shifted into a slightly more comfortable sitting position.
They stayed like that for a while.
“You’re okay.”
“Don’t,” Jason hiccuped after a moment, calming down. “Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t,” he ran a hand through his hair and peeled off the mask. It couldn’t have been comfortable with all the tears wetting it. “I won’t leave you, Little Wing.”