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“Bart!”
Tim watched his best friend sink to his knees, through the glass that separated them. Professor Zoom was standing over him, chuckling as he watched him cringe and scream in pain, his whole body shaking, vibrating every now and then, so that Tim felt a little motion sick, but he also couldn't look away.
He felt as if every jolt of agony Bart went through, shot right through him, too.
How had they ended up like this? It had been a normal mission, they just had caught the newest bad guy and had decided to look around a bit more, sending Gar, Steph and Kon ahead.
The Flash's archenemy had appeared out of nowhere.
They stood no chance, Bart might have been as fast as the adult, but he was in no way as strong or as experienced in fighting speedster's. It had been an easy game.
Tim hammered his fist against the glass, too thick to break.
“Bart!” Secret identities didn't matter. Thawne was from the future, just like Bart, and knew already everything he needed.
Bart had stopped twitching and for a second Tim's heart stopped beating at the sight of his limp body, but then he noticed how fast his chest was moving up and down. Thawne just turned his head like a curious cat and poked the speedster's side with his toe. He immediately started screaming again, until he seemed to be to weak to continue. This time it was Tim's name.
No.
Stop this!
If Bart died, he would, too. He needed to talk to him about too many things! Hang out more! Make fun of his little brother or Bart's cousin! Play video games together and he still had to... He had to tell him! He even prepared a damn speech!
Tim had to put an end to this. He couldn't watch how Bart got slowly killed!
He had to come up with something!
But he couldn't.
And he didn't need to. Suddenly Professor Zoom was standing next to him and before he could get up and fight, he had been vibrated through the glass and pushed to the ground.
He almost threw up, his body was not made for this, but he got himself together.
He tried to get up, but a foot was pressing his face back into the dusty ground of the old warehouse.
“I want this to be a warning... no, an example for the Flash. I'm going to kill everyone of his family, related or not, before I get to him and I need someone to give him the message. So I guess you can live. Good, huh?” He grinned manically.
“What did you do?!” Tim growled, even if it sounded muffled.
“Oh, you know. Little experimenting over the years. I finally found a Virus that infects and takes apart cells too fast even for a speedster.” He leant his hand on his thigh to steady himself, Tim groaned slightly under the weight, and leaned in to let the now empty syringe dangle in front of Tim's face.
“So.” Thawne pretended to look at a watch. “It's time to go now. See you soon, probably. Important things to do, people to kill...” As soon as the weight was off of him, Tim jumped to his feet, but the villain was gone the moment he had finished speaking. He looked around helplessly for a second, until Bart made a noise. He shot to the place his friend was lying and sunk to his knees beside his upper body. His eyes were closed, blood was running out of his nose and ears and he whimpered again.
“Bart? Oh god, Bart please stay awake!”
Bart's eyelids fluttered open halfway. “T... im...? AH!” Tim jumped back a bit in attempt to get away from him, should he just have caused his pain. But Bart was fast enough to grab his hand. “No! Stay!” he almost shouted. “Please... don't leave me to die...” He was back at his side faster than he could think, holding his friend's hand in a firm grip.
They stayed like that for about a minute, Bart's breathing hitched every now and then and his body seemed to jolt. He had stopped vibrating, though.
“I can't see.” He said and tears started running down his cheeks again. “I can also hardly move or feel anything.” Tim swallowed hard. “Do you feel this?” He lay the hand that wasn't holding his friend's on Bart's chest. His heartbeat was too fast. Even for a speedster. It seemed to flicker against his ribcage, almost like a hummingbird's wings. Bart shook his head, but laid his other hand over Tim's, not finding it at first and feeling around without direction.
“I'm scared.” He sobbed and nothing about him even seemed the littlest bit similar to the happy, positive and quirky kid he used to be.
Was.
He would be again. They could make it.
Right? They could.
Tim bit his lip and let go of Bart, in order to carefully move his fingers through Bart's hair. He relaxed a bit, only to be struck by a new wave of pain. He didn't even make a noise this time.
“I'm gonna die, Tim. Oh god, I'm gonna die! Help! I don't want to die yet! I had”, he coughed, “I had things I wanted to finish and start!”
Tim's heart sank. Why wasn't help coming? He had activated the SOS signal as soon as Zoom had shown himself. Why was this happening?! He couldn't lose Bart! Not like this!
He took a deep breath. They couldn't both panic. “Bart. Shh, it's going to be fine. You're not going to die.” He didn't seem to hear him.
“I wanted to see how Dad and aunt Dawn grow up! I.. I need to save Gramps! It's one of the reasons I came here for! He's gonna die if I don't help him!” If possible, Bart's heartbeat went up even more and the kid started to squirm and tried to get up.
“Bart! Bart stop, you're making it worse!”
Tim didn't need this. Tim didn't need to watch his best friend kill himself, by overdoing it. “It's okay, we will make it! I called Batman and the Titans, They're going to get us out of here! But you shouldn't move too much. Stay still, please.”
Bart started crying, sobbing loudly and somehow he had actually managed to sit up and hug Tim as good as possible. Which wasn't much. His arms were going limp. But he still burried his face in the crook of Tim's neck. Tim carefully hugged him back, holding him more than Bart held himself. If Bruce didn't come in the next few minutes it would be too late.
Bart mumbled something and Tim shook him, to keep him awake. “What? Speak louder, I don't understand you!” He said loudly in case his hearing also got worse.
“I said... I love you... I don't know in which way... Might be pl'tonic... I don't think so though.” He slumped into Tim's embrace and now he started crying, too.
“Stay awake, Bart.” He sniffed.
“I... I really like you, too. We can talk about this wh-when you feel better, okay? Please just stay awake!”
“Tim.”
“And don't talk.”
“Sh'ddup.” Bart lifted his head slightly, so that he was almost on Tim's eye level. He stared in the wrong direction and it looked creepy, but Tim looked at him anyways.
“Tim... could you maybe.. uh... please, just... Kiss me.”
“What?”
This was... unexpected. And wrong. This was not the time for things like this! Right? They shouldn't do this!
It could be their last chance, though... No.
Bart didn't move.
All he did was shivering.
Tim gave in. Maybe he could keep him awake this way?
He leaned in until their foreheads and noses touched. Bart bridged the rest of the space.
They were careful, Tim paid attention to not touch him anywhere it could hurt and Bart didn't have the strength to do more than move his lips slowly, a few times. They broke away shortly after, still leaving their foreheads touching.
Bruce came in two minutes later. Behind him a pair of medics from the nearest S.T.A.R. labs he could get, the only people that knew enough about speedster's to heal them and didn't look at heroes secret identity when operating. He had hurried as much as he was able to, since he had gotten the signal thirty minutes ago, when he was on the other side of the city and in the middle of a fight. It took only a minute to get the information that only Red Robin and Impulse were missing from the team.
When they got into the room that was separated to another with a glass wall, it took him only a few seconds to get through it. Tim didn't have the same equipment as he did. He would need to change that. If he even found them alive. Bruce's stomach turned at the thought of finding another of his children dead.
He didn't, though.
What he did find instead, was his ward, quietly talking to a seemingly unconscious Impulse, leaning their foreheads together. But something about the scenery seemed off. The speedster was too still and his eyes were open.
Tim was crying openly, but didn't stop mumbling to his best friend.
Bruce felt regret and slight horror rise up.
He was too late.
Bart Allen was dead.