Chapter Text
Jason could see the zeta tube, that's how close it was. But he could also hear the massive horde of undead behind them, and knew it was only a matter of time until they caught up.
He would not have enough time to set the zeta tube up, for him and Tim. Suddenly the weight of a skinny, ten year old boy was very heavy in Jason's arms. He knew Tim would be disappointed.
Once they got to the zeta tube's station, Jason quickly put Tim down and sandwiched his face between his two calloused hands. He could hear the horde cracking whatever appendages they could to break glass and get through. When they did it would be over.
"Listen Tim, I- I can't go with you." Jason tried to steel his voice, but in the end it wavered anyways. Tim's face immediately fell.
"No! You're supposed to come with me! It's not fair that you can't come just because Batman doesn't like you." The young boy's face flushed a mean color red and tears threatened to fall.
"No, please don't cry. Listen- I was never supposed to come with you. This was a drop-off for you, Timbers." That's what Jason had been telling himself this entire time, just to get through it. Jason didn't want to go to the Watchtower anyways. Bruce had already chosen abandon him once before.
They both flinched when they heard the final shattering crack of the glass. Jason took a second to glance behind him, but he regretted it. There were so many of them. Probably hundreds. The building collapse outside had attracted almost every undead creature in the area. Jason had one gun, and a good aim he learned from an assassin in Berlin.
Tim letting out a terrified gasp was the one thing that grounded him. He was not going to fail this kid. Through all of Tim's scrambling and fighting, Jason set him down on the zeta tube pad and moved to the tube's touchpad. Since Tim had no affiliation to the Justice League, Jason would have to make a guest profile from scratch for it to work.
He didn't want to look behind himself again, he knew that they were closing in anyways. The machine gave Jason an excruciatingly slow loading period and all he could do was watch the goddamn thing load. It would have been comical if Jason didn't feel like his heart was going to rip out of his chest.
It was when he heard the first scream too close for comfort, a shock running up his spine, that the panic equalized into an all time high. He shot that one and the one next to it and soon it blended together.
Eventually he ran out of bullets. So he used his fists. His heart was beating rapidly inside his chest, his brain fighting off the raging anxiety, and his vision blurred at the edges, with hints of green. But he was still alive. Tim was still alive. That was the important part. That was what separated him from the things he was fighting off. Jason had coherent thoughts. A will to live. He didn't know what his real goal would be after sending Tim off, but he would figure something out.
When he heard the tell-tale whirrrr of the zeta tube charging up, he punched one of the creatures square in the face and turned around.
"Jason! Please! Don't leave me." Tim's face was a mess of snot and tears and messy bangs falling in front of his face that hadn't been cut in months. He did say he would cut those, huh.
Then, with his guard down, one of the creatures flung itself at Jason, sinking its since rotted teeth into his forearm.
Jason let out a pained scream and backhanded the undead that has bit into his arm with his empty gun, and it flung the creature backwards. He held a hand to the wound, that was now spurting blood as a last resort, but he already knew it was going to end as more of the creatures clambered on top of him, the fist fighting doing nothing.
He hated that this would be Tim's last image of him. "Sorry Kid. I can't come with you." Jason croaked out, ignoring how the hints of green on the edges of his vision faded out for something misty instead. That's how it had been last time too. He remembered Bruce cradling him and it feeling like he was looking at him through a fog. He hadn't been able to tell if it was just him or the smoke of the building in shambles of failure.
He watched as Tim finally materialized and was eventually sucked into the beam before anything else could reach it. Hopefully landing safely on the Watchtower. He hoped B wouldn't mess this kid up too. Jason had an inkling they'd get along this whole time, and conceivably, he would be right. Tim had been nothing but insightful, brave, and persevered through every obstacle they had faced. If Jason could pass the mantle of Robin onto someone --if he had the right to-- Tim would be a good candidate. Not as a replacement, but just breathing fresh air into something that had undoubtably gone stale with grief and time. Something B needed.
After that, Jason's vision went black.