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Tim was an idiot.
He wasn’t a “boy genius” “boy detective” “a wiz kid” whatever the hell his older brothers– late brothers– had called him as they teased.
He hadn’t “inherited” Bruce’s mind like Jason and Dick had jested. Not like how Dick “inherited” his heart–the heart that he tore out of Bruce’s chest–, he didn’t “inherit” his strength like Jason–crunches and greedy slurps were all Tim could hear–and he was for sure not the “blood heir” —Damian drench in blood and gore, face blank–
Tim was a failure.
Cass was the one who “inherited” Bruce’s mind. Or at least just the common sense to not dive in and try and overthrow a vampiric king and his all-powerful army when it wasn’t the time. She was still out there, waiting. Steph and Duke and Kate and the rest of them, waiting. She knew what had to be done and she wasn’t the one currently beaten to the floor, surrounded, head pulled by his hair by some lackey that he should have easily been able to escape from as he watched men and women who had trusted Tim to lead them to end this brutal vampiric reign have their heads bashed in, jaws kicked clean off, intestines spilled to the floor, drained of all blood–
“Nuh uh Timmy, no closing those baby blues!” The imposter sang. Dick’s had brought mild annoyance and fondness, it was pleasant. This sing-song voice grated his damn ears.
“I'm not saying your guys’ eyes aren’t handsome buuuut…I have the prettiest baby blues!”
“Not even”
A gasp. “Jason! Tim, I have the prettiest baby blues, right? Blues that make all the women and men swoon for? Jason is just being moody, right?”
How could Tim even hesitate? Those blue eyes spoke volumes and Tim pretended to be deaf. Bruce would have never and that's why he’s dead. He was a threat in a plethora of ways that Tim could never be.
Dick’s had shined and gleamed, constant communication even if in his worst moods, you just had to look deeper.
Tim was so wrapped up, he didn’t think to look.
“Plea–ase—plea–ase!”
“Well since you asked so nicely…” A sharp grin with far too many teeth, fangs clearly on display. “Little wing! It's your turn!” A single shriek that quickly cut out into gurgles and slurps.
Tim was such an idiot. An idiot with his head stuck up his own ass, blind.
“Oh Dami, I didn’t mean to exclude you.” Tim wanted to bash that pout in. But he missed his chance. Missed the chance to use the move that he told Jason he’d never really need. No Kill Rule. “Here you go baby bat, just for you!” A man, Tim didn't even know his name, struggled but it was over just as soon as it started. A clean cut and the man’s fear and horror were cemented on his face rolled along the floor before Jason quickly moved to fill his endless thirst.
Damian simply stared.
“Drake, how could you be so careless?” “It is truly a miracle you have survived this long, Drake” “I will end you, Drake”
“Sure you will, Damian”
Damian just stared before bowing his head and waiting. Cold and waiting.
“Such a good little boy, letting the others eat first”
Tim was such an idiot.
An idiot who clearly wanted more of a beating as he let a snarl rise out of him. A snarl cut in half as he noticed a familiar figure appear aside the fraud.
“No….” Tim was the biggest failure. This was his fault. All of it.
“Cass! You’re awake! Go, enjoy yourself, little sis” Cass was quick and efficient, grabbing the nearest soldier and as if second nature, finding the perfect spot to drain every drop. None wasted.
Tim doesn’t believe in a god, and he doesn’t pray. But he desperately hopes and wishes that the others don’t follow behind. That they were cowards and ran far far away.
“Isn’t this so nice guys? The whole bat family is together, Bruce would have been so proud” Tim wished to hide his face but the damn guard held on tight and Tim was stripped of nearly everything useful. The fake himself ensured it. “I mean we’re still missing quite a few members but all of Bruce’s legal children in one place, how sweet!”
Tim was an idiot. An idiot who still tried to kick, punch, headbutt, anything to get free.
All he was rewarded for was his face smashing into the floor. It wasn’t enough to kill, no matter how desperately Tim desired it. He didn’t want to face his failures. He didn’t want to see Bruce’s shame in each of his siblings’ eyes.
How disturbing all of Bruce’s children had inherited his eyes even Damian with his green eyes still looked like Bruce. Even when Jason’s eyes would flash green, they still reminded Tim of Bruce.
Then it was quiet. The screams and shrieks and pleads and begs stopped. They were all dead, now it was just slurps and inhales and growls and gulps. Three were doing it and Tim was glad his face was smashed to the floor. He didn’t want to see Damian feed, he was so young.
“Now it's your turn Timmy” And Tim was right not to pray. There could never be a god, if there was, Tim’s head would have been smashed in right as it slammed into a bloody floor. If there was a god, he wouldn’t feel the release of his hair only to be caught by another and to be lifted. If anything out there, anything merciful and truly cared about Tim, he wouldn’t be face to face with a vampire that had his eldest brother’s face. Twisting and mutilating the expressions and looks that Dick gave.
“You look just delectable, Timmy” The monster cooed. One hand, sharp, came to cradle his face and Tim lunged as far as he could to bite, teeth catching nothing as the hand moved back fast and it moved fast as it smacked Tim. “So bitey just like Damian. You could have made a good vampire, offer still open” That toothy grin came back, fangs bared.
“Fuck you” A spat and there, the drop of the act. The flash of anger. Tim had been fooled, thinking this was his brother but it simply had its face and voice. It was just a greedy beast.
“Jason’s rubbed off on you, so aggressive. Always knew it was a bad idea to leave you two alone together for too long” He chuckled before once more the niceties dropped. “Sadly, despite all that supposed training, only his rude mouth and attitude stuck” The grin closed but it spiked a sense of instinctual fear all the same. “But you’re still too much like good old B, too human to be a good and obedient brother. Can’t be fully trusted.”
The grip tightened and then raised, his neck stretched out, fully exposed.
“You likely wouldn’t even be able to survive the transformation. Such a fragile baby bird” Tim scoffed, what was even the point in maintaining the act? His breath hitched as he felt fangs scrap his neck.
“You have no clue how desperately I wish to sink my teeth in” A breathy sigh. Tim clenched his teeth.
“Do it then” A chuckle.
“I could never to my little brother”
Then Tim flew backward.
It was mere seconds before he met the wall and the pain wasn’t the worst he’d face, throat slit, spleen stabbed, dropped off a building, backstabbed, so much pain. Just enough force to send blinding pain and aches throughout his entire body. The vampire was right about Tim being weak, he was.
He is physically weaker than his brothers. Fragile enough to kill him by sending him into the wall, letting the force obliterate his body with pure speed. Bart. Wally. Kon. Yet the vampire still kept Tim alive. He let out a weak grunt as he flopped forward. Something had to have broken or shattered but he couldn’t pinpoint anywhere. It all hurts. He couldn’t move his limbs.
Only his head as the vampire’s shadow enveloped him. He started a snarl despite aches.
“You did so good Timmy. You kept away for a good while.” The vampire’s foot twitched. “But what could you do? You're merely human” The foot began to raise. “My little brother…” Higher and higher.
“It's only natural that I would beat you” And down it came.
______________________________________
Tim’s eyes blared with hate and fury. It was certainly much more exciting than pure terror. Fear was delicious but hate and fury represented a strong will. All his younger siblings had but Tim, he certainly was strong in that way.
His body wasn’t but his mind could have been so powerful with vampiric power imbued. Something akin to brotherly pride flared in him before being extinguished.
Such a shame that Tim denied Dick’s offer. He would have figured out how to ensure Tim survived the transformation.
He also knows that he can never trust Tim, just like Bruce.
So there was never really a chance for the teen to join their new era.
The only future for him was to be nothing more than another stain.
A mere puddle of skull fragments and brain matter underneath Dick’s boot. As his foot shot down, as he loomed, his grin widened—
“Why are you on the floor, Timmy?” Dick asked, amused as he loomed over his brother who had just been staring at the ceiling, on the carpeted floor, deep bags under his eyes and a scowl. “Trying a new way to get some clearly needed rest?”
“I'm trying to solve this case” Tim moved his head, as Dick so rudely had blocked his view. Dick glanced to the nearby couch and noticed the open laptop along with quite a few tabs.
“I think someone needs to go take a nap. An 8-hour nap.” And before the teen could argue, Dick scooped him up with ease, and with his octopus hold, despite all the squirms and threats, Tim eventually had to surrender.
The boot paused a mere inch away from Tim’s face. The teen’s eyes were wide and despite that hate and fury, Dick saw the fear. He saw the way his eyes blinked, flinching.
Tim was fierce but he was mortal. And it seemed to have hit him that this was finally the end.
He tried to move his boot down again. Fine, a small glimmer of hope then Tim would be nothing more–
“Tim, what are you doing here? Isn’t it a school night?” Dick was sure it was Wednesday, but it was also 4 am and his brain was already trying to process that Tim was in front of him, a small bag in hand.
Fear and panic are heavily present in his eyes.
“I–I know it's really late and I'm so sorry but IjustneedaquickplacetofindsomewheretolivesincemydadkindakickedmeoutandBrucejustkickedmeout” Dick blinked as his sleep-deprived brain that was just forced to wake up only after an hour of sleep tried to process that sentence.
“What?”
“I just need—I just need a place for the night. Morning? At least until 9 am, please,” The teen begged and Dick was so confused.
“Why?”
Tim took a deep breath. “I—I…Bruce grounded me, Robin. I was stupid and I went to find a trafficking ring alone. But I had to! They were going to move and I couldn’t wait—” The boy cut off with a sob”
Dick nodded, sounded like Bruce to get upset that his Robin went off alone. It was a rite of passage really but why was he here now just cause he got grounded?
“And why are you here?”
Tim wiped his eyes. “Bruce kicked me out.”
What?
“You said he grounded you” Dick gasped.
Tim shook his head before looking at Dick like he was some kid before he muttered “Of course, you wouldn’t get it.” A bitter tone.
“What are you saying, Tim?”
A shaky breath that sounded slightly exasperated. “When Bruce grounded you and Jason, you were his kids, of course that meant you’re grounded like normally.” Another shaky breath before a light sob and in a quiet voice “I'm just some kid that forced his way in”
“Tim, do you really think you’re just “some kid” to Bruce? To me?” Dick put his hands on the boy’s shoulders which startled the teen as his gaze snapped up to meet Dick’s. “You do, don’t you?”
“I am, which I get. Just…” Tim shakily took another breath.
“Bruce loves you, he just is terrible at saying that. I don’t think he even knows the words “I love you” Dick chuckled. “But I do and I clearly haven’t been saying it. You are a part of this family regardless if you are Robin or not”
Tim’s eyes began to water and as the teen, whether he knew it or not, leaned forward. Dick met him, holding him close.
“You are a part of this family. Nothing will change that”
Dick snarled, clutching his head as his foot once more stopped moving and his headache. What were these memories? A reminder that Tim was fragile?
Dick wanted his brothers and sisters, all of his family, to be standing at his side. To be above the rest. He had expressed sympathy for those who couldn’t be turned like the Flashes as their friends and families grieved.
He had grieved Wally’s demise, not for the first time cursing the speedster’s nature.
In order to firmly secure his throne and by extension, his family’s status as vampires, he had to kill Tim. He was too much like Bruce, clever and stubborn.
Bruce, too, had to die and even if something in Dick had wailed when he first realized it, he had done it.
So why could he not bring his foot down to smash the teen’s head in?
“Headaches? I know the perfect solution for that” Tim spat even as Dick’s boot hadn’t moved from his position. Even if in just an instant he could be no more. Even with the fear in his eyes…
The fire of determination still roared.
The headaches turned to blinding pain.
“I know you are Nightwing and once, Robin. Bruce Wayne is Batman” A small and pale possibly six-year-old declared, brows furrowed, holding a folder, and stood outside Dick’s door.
“Excuse me?” Dick never could catch a break, could he? Gotham or Bludhaven, was always ready to throw something his way.
“I know your secret identities and I need to talk to you. May I come in?” The shift from bold to polite left Dick reeling though he still moved aside to let the boy come in. “Thank you.”
“Why are you out at…” Dick looked over at the wall clock. “1 am, alone? Where are your parents?”
“Not important.” The boy shook his head.
“Well, may I at least know your name?”
“I'm your neighbor, Timothy Drake. Well…” Tim paused. “Before you retired being Robin which is why I'm here”
“Well, Tim, as cool as it would be to be Robin or Nightwing…” A sour taste that sentence left in his mouth. Being Robin had caused Dick and Bruce’s relationship to drift and being Robin has caused his little brother to die.
And Bruce had simply Nightwing out for it was “Gotham business”, the ass. It was his brother.
“I have evidence that you are. Only two people still alive can perform a quadruple somersault and Dick Grayson was the only one, fit enough to do so. The first Robin and Nightwing have done this move” Then Tim opened his folder and the boy flipped to find, presumably a picture of him performing his flip-–
“Ha! Knew Dickwing would be the one to reveal us!” A small voice spoke in his head and he shook his head, he couldn’t let this kid see Dick lose it.
“Kid, you’re like six? When did you–”
“I'm 12! Only 3 years younger than Jason Todd was when he–” The boy quieted and Dick felt rage flicker up before it soothed itself.
“Okay, fine, so I am Nightwing. And…you know who Batman and Robin are” Were “So what? Blackmail time?” Dick chuckled and to his surprise the kid’s fierce determination turned to horror.
“No, of course not! I would never reveal it!” Tim protested, clutching the folder. “But I had to get you to listen and this is the only way.”
“Only way?”
“You have to become Robin again. Batman is…he needs a Robin” The boy steeled himself and Dick could see as the horror transformed to the fiery determination.
This was going to be a night.
Once the pain had dissipated, Dick felt like he had just naturally woken up after a long day/night. His mind had cleared and he could think.
How could he even think of squashing his baby bird?
Of dousing that fire? To pretend his family was complete, as complete as it could be with Bruce rotting away, without Tim?
Yes, Tim couldn’t be trusted but that didn’t mean Dick had to kill him. He was the vampire king, and with his newfound commanders, well, there were ways to ensure Tim couldn’t easily sneak about.
“Dami?” Dick chirped as he moved his boot away from where it loomed over Tim’s face. The utter confusion and skepticism painted on the teen’s face was so adorable, he could coo.
Just as adorable as how Damian perked up when he was called, blood painting his face in such a messy yet precise way.
“Could you cripple Tim for me, please?” Tim’s gasp was just as cute and while Dick hadn’t enjoyed a small and quiet sob as Damian quickly completed his task, well he did enjoy just how strong his brother stayed.
Aside from the sob, the only other indicators that Tim was in pain were his clenched jaw and fists.
Dick cooed as Tim even managed to speak.
“What—What are you doing?” His brother breathed out. That skepticism burning bright.
“I have seen the light, Timmy.” Dick chirped. “Yes, you can’t be trusted and your fragile body isn’t up to being a vampire like us” He stepped closer before crouching down.
“So what?” He spat and Dick cradled the boy’s face. Despite the anger, he learned his lesson from the last time as there was no attempt to bite his hands.
“You were always a special one Tim.” Dick chuckled. “So smart too. Even as a human, you’ll be just apart of this family.” Tim’s face twisted into something between horror and anger.
“Our little human, fighting for his vampiric family. And in turn” Dick laid a kiss to the boy's forehead. “We’ll always take care of you.”
“Fuck you” Ah that classic Jason's aggression again.
“Oh Timmy, you’ll learn to love it.”