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There was a sound in his ears, going tick, tack, tick, tack, and another one going badum! badum! badum! right inside his head, and a metallic scrape going skrrrrr! that he could feel in his teeth, and a sickening laugh going Hahahaha! swirling all around him. Jason squeezed his already closed eyes; it didn't help muffling the sound. It also made his headache worse, so he opened them.
He scanned the room, big and empty and poorly lit. Jason was alone now. He didn't know for how long, he lost track of time after the first hit to his head. The ground was cold and hard underneath him, and also wet and sticky.
Ah, that was his blood…
He tried to sit up, and the world started spinning. His head was hurting. His whole body was hurting. He was shaking. Where was his cape? He was cold without his cape.
Jason was so tired. He closed his eyes. Opened them immediately. He shouldn't fall asleep. He was badly hurt, he probably had a concussion. He shouldn't sleep right now, that could be dangerous. What if he didn't wake up?
He rubbed his temple, trying to tone down his headache. It didn't help. He looked around again, noticing the door on the farthest wall. Then his eyes landed on the bomb going tick, tack, tick, tack, and he would have winced if he wasn't feeling so weak.
“I think I'm dying…” He coughed, watching the blood drip from his forehead and his nose and his mouth.
“But that's okay.” He whispered to himself. He pushed on his arms, whining at the effort—it hurts it hurts it hurts—until he got on his knees. He couldn't get up, but he could still crawl. “Robin always bounces back.” He had to.
He dragged his body across the floor. His hands were slipping and scraping against the concrete floor, his breath whistling from his broken ribs, and his head spinning so much he started seeing double, triple even, hearing sounds that were long gone and seeing shapes that weren't there.
His arms buckled underneath him and he would have fallen face first if he hadn't had the reflex of rolling on his shoulder to break his fall; white pain shot through his whole arm as he cried, rolling on his back with his other hand firmly clinging at his shoulder. How did he miss a dislocated shoulder? Or did he dislocate it with his fall? Jason didn't know nor did he care. He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, blinking away tears. He had to get out of here. He tried to sit up again.
“It's okay…” He said again. Who was he trying to convince? “Robin… Robin is magic. Robin a–always bounces back.”
“Hm-hm, not this time.” A deep voice said, and Jason snapped his head up so fast he almost threw up from the dizziness.
Batman's face was blurry, kind of like the Gotham streets in the early morning fog. His voice was distant too, but maybe it was just muffled by the incessant badum! badum! badum! sound of his heart beating in his ears. Jason tried to reach out for his father, but he was too far.
“But I–” He pressed the heel of his hands to his eyes, the lenses of his mask uncomfortable against his eyelids. “But I have to! I'm supposed to save the city, that's my job! I can't do my job stuck here…”
“Now your job is to be dead.”
Jason let out a strangled gasp, “Oh no…”
He pressed harder and harder on his eyes, trying so hard not to cry as he curled up on himself. When he lifted his head back up, Nightwing was standing next to Batman.
He crouched down in front of Jason, putting a ghostly cold hand on Jason's knee.
“Robin, you can get through this!”
“Really?”
“Just kidding.” Someone said. Jason couldn't tell who. Their voices were muffled in his ears, and their mouths weren't moving “You are not a hero.”
“You are nothing but a little kid, Jason.”
Jason tried to reach out again, but his hand passed right through Nightwing's body, and in the blink of an eye both of them disappeared.
Jason swallowed hard around the knot in his throat as his eyes searched frantically around the room for his father and brother. His heart started beating faster, going BADUMBADUMBADUM! in his head, shaking his whole body.
“Batman?” He called, only answered by his voice echoing back to him. “Nightw– Dick? Dad…?”
The room stayed silent, except for the bomb going tick, tack, tick–
It stopped before he could register it.
Jason closed his eyes.
There was a sound in his ears, going tick, tack, tick—BOOM!