Chapter Text
Cassie and Tim had fought. And a lot. They both missed Kon so much, but what the gothamite was doing was truthfully stupid and unethical. Idiotic, as he would say to make himself sound smarter. Scratch that, it would be Bart, not Tim, who would say idiotic to make himself look smarter.
So much for being trained by THE Batman. Maybe it was growing up in Gotham of all places, she would go mad if she did. Probably kill someone from punching them hard enough.
And she wasn’t having the best time mourning her now-dead boyfriend, but she didn’t try to clone him! But the dude was as stubborn as he always had been and no matter what Cassie did he couldn’t change his mind. And Cassie had given up on trying to change his mind. Or go down into the underground lab, still she knew he must be close to his hundredth attempt. Again, that Robin may have been the smartest one out of them all, but he still was a Robin and being stubborn was more a set trait than a coincidence, even if she had only met Batman, Nightwing and spoiler who was the one she interacted with the most. Even so three former robins out of 5 and some things that Tim had told her were evidence enough.
As she descended the concrete stairs, her steps barely made any sound being the only one filling the room. The silence was maddening, she got the feeling that something wasn’t right. There was a distant sound of moving bubbles in liquid and the beeping of the computer, but not it talking like it had been the last time she had gone down there, counting every time Rob had failed.
The bats were extremely aware of their surroundings, knowing who was around them without looking and making you not notice them. If they didn’t want you to see them, you most probably wouldn’t see them. And yet, when Cassie saw Tim, standing still, looking at the tank with its green liquid, the one that with its lights illuminated her friend’s face in its uncanny shade, she felt like he didn’t want to be seen.
Her breath hitched as she stopped at the end of the stair, he didn’t turn towards her, like she didn’t exist to him right now. Whatever was in the tank, she couldn’t see, and yet she feared what may have one of the robins entranced, the kids that had seen everything they shouldn’t have from their job and from their city, everyone knew the mythos, specially when your only surviving best friend was apart of the family that carried it. That same robin that had lived through hell and back (metaphorically, of course) looked like shit. From her position she couldn’t quite see him full, but his longer hair- Kon had always said it would suit him better, how it hurt that he was right and hadn’t gotten the chance to brag about it like he would’ve done - grease from, probably, days without washing it hiding his paler face and the eyebags that peaked as if taunting her.
Daring to get closer, maybe out of curiosity, maybe out of sadness for the poor almost man, made her see what had bewitched the other hero, what he had created. There, in the cristal tube, floating in the green liquid which light now seemed to fill the room as if asphyxiating her, a baby that looked one or two months old posed in the fetal position, as if protecting themselves from the two onlookers they managed to get. Floating with him, as if making him company, were Kon’s shirt and sweatpants, the one he had last worn, the ones his life had been taken away in.
She felt as a tear fell down her cheek, but had no force to move from where she stayed, her last surviving and present friend at her side. The one that she had almost lost from leaving at the side while she grieved. The one that had run away from them all, and not only her like others had done.
Another tear fell, and another one, one after the other until she lost count. She didn’t hiccup. She didn’t make any sounds. Her heartbeat was normal. Yet she was crying and so clearly it hurt. All her energy went into it and so she whispered, almost as if forcing herself “What have you done?” not incriminating nor reprimanding. She wasn’t angry, if anything she was worried. Still something assured her her voice wobbled a bit. She didn’t know what she wanted to be answered, or if she wanted even that.
There was a collision sound, of someone falling to the floor. Tim sat on his knees on the floor, some space he had been before. He looked at the floor and Cassandra dared to look at him. He, just as her, was crying without any noise, shaking through the emotion. His hands were in fists, pressing down on his thighs, maybe even hard enough to sink in slightly the extremely toned muscle, he probably also grit his teeth against each other, she knew him enough to feel free to guess that last one.
She sat down with him, hugging him close to her chest as they both cried for as long as they needed to, time hadn’t matter since they lost their friends, it still didn’t. They needed the time the others lost.
Robin tried to talk once or twice, but when all that came out were sobs he quickly gave up. “Crying in my house was not allowed” he once had told her “I was a young man, my father always said men didn’t cry. My mother said to cry for important things” . This was important. Men do cry. She wanted to tell him to let it all out. She to sobbed instead of talk. It felt pitiful, even if she knew it wasn’t.
The kid floated around in the tank as if waiting for them, even if they were probably asleep. Tim shaked under her arms and the hug was returned. They both parted to look at eachother faces. Her face must’ve looked like shit, puffy and red eyes, her face painted with dried tears and if there was something else there it would surprise even her. There probably was, Tim looked like he’d seen a ghost.
Tim’s face was as bad as she believed it to be. His eyes were red, probably from crying, lack of sleep and staring, the eye bags weren’t much better either. He probably hasn’t slept in around 36 to 40 hours. His expression looked sorrowful, and his hair covered part of his face. His domino wasn’t on, so he had probably been crying for a while, he always said that it was really uncomfortable to cry with it on, that the tears spilled on inside and couldn’t escape.
She kissed the top of his forehead as she smiled. He returned it. “I don’t-” His voice was wavy and he took a big breath before he continued “It must- I just-” another big breath followed this time by some silence, he was thinking how to put it.
“It’s okay love” her voice was much the same, still she hoped it was reassuring.
Tim breathed in and out again. A deep breath. “I don’t know how it happened. I kept adding more human DNA, kryptonian’s are quite unstable” She had been aware of that, there’s a reason Kon had a shit bio dad “But- but I just- It just” He breathed again and looked sad.
She looked at the baby, floating there like nothing really mattered. They looked happy, more at peace than any of the other people in the room.
Her friend tried to explain again, but just gave up. Not even putting up the robin’s report front help. He just called for the computer to explain. Its robotic voice could only say the facts, no opinions or thoughts, not like someone like Red Tornado could. It gave the facts of the experiment, all the processes used and how they were successful or failures. How it spliced and combined the DNA, how it was almost like in vitro fertilisation but for chromosomes from what Cassie remembered from school.
How there had been DNA from 3 different users, and that shocked Cassie. The computer called them donors 1, 2 and 3. Donor 1 was the kryptonian DNA, so that was surely superman’s. Donor 2 and 3 were human, one she was sure was Lex Luthor, but who the other was haunted her. The computer mentioned that the Donor’s 1 and 2 DNA were in the same proportion as the previous experiment’s files, both Tim’s and other’s.
She looked at him, her eyes asking him even before she voiced it “Who’s donor 3, Rob?”
He didn’t answer, just pointed at a screen. She could see the tears forming in his eyes. Fear. A fear he would only wear around someone who he trusted. The screen showed data, barely any images on it. There, in small letters and almost hidden where the donor’s names:
Clark Joseph Kent. Kal-El.
Alexander Joseph Luthor.
Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne.
The small letters screamed at her. Screamed what happened. Told her that her friend was crazy, a lunatic, a maniac, as if she hadn’t known that. Timothy fucking Jackson Drake-Wayne . Any other day she would’ve laugh at the fact that both of Kon’s bio dads- and them being bio dads as any other name would made her feel mean and condescending towards her dead boyfriend- shared a second name, almost wishing that it was his second name too, just because she would’ve find it hilarious. Any other day she would’ve focused on how Tim had too many names, no one should have two surnames AND two names, only one of those options. Any other day she would question how Tim got the first two DNAs, if he had gotten them from Batman and if Batman had their DNAs if they had her one too.
Today she could only focus on the boy’s name there. And today she could also only focus on how the same boy was full on sobbing in her arms, saying sorry and being ashamed of his position, maybe both physical and psychological.
She hugged him closer, hiding her face on his neck. His cry was ugly and he stained her shirt with mucus and moisture. Her cry was silent again, repeating over and over again that it’ll be okay, it’ll be fine, that it’s okay to cry.
He took the back of her shirt in fists, weeping as he spoke his sorrys once again.
She held him. He held her. They both cried. And the feeling was so familiar that she missed her old team even more. When they were in young justice they may have not gotten along all the time, but they were there for eachother all the time. Just a friend group with peculiar origins. And she didn’t have them anymore, for one reason or another. And at times like this she missed them even more.
“I loved him” Tim cried, his voice low as if he didn’t want to be listen “I loved him so much, Cassie”
She held her head petting his head lightly “I know”
“I loved him like you did, Cassie” He cried harder, as if he thought she wouldn’t understand.
“I know, Tim” She patted his hair once again. Her friend needed her confort “I’ve known for a while”
She hugged him even harder, if that was possible.
Tim was tired. Tired of crying. Tired of his life. Tired just from this last year. It had been too much. In the last 24h alone he had cried 23 times, he had counted them. It helped that he had only taken a one hour nap in that time.
And if he had to guess the last 3 or 4 times had been with Cassie on his side in between 1 hour and 1 hour and a half.
They now sit on the floor. They were wearing their hero costumes, it was normal when they visited the titan tower. He sat on his knees, as if he was waiting to spar with Steph or Dick and Bruce was watching them. Cassie sat hugging her legs, her chin in the middle of her knees.
They looked at the baby. He didn’t move, but you could see his chest slowly rise and fall as he breathed. The monitor that connected to the tank said he was healthy and that biologically he would be around 2 months old. His jaw already looked like the one the three kryptonian kents had once shared. His hair was black and looked to be curly like Kon’s but not like Clark’s or Jon’s. His eyes were closed and his chubby hands in loose fists.
Tim wanted to cry again.
What was he thinking? Why would he even decide to clone Kon? What was wrong with him? And now he had created a kid. His kid. With his and his dead best friend’s DNA. His dead best friend who was dating his friend. His dead best friend who he had had a crush in almost since he had become his best friend.
And he had told his dead best friend’s girlfriend that. AND SHE KNEW? AND NEVER SAID ANYTHING?
Tim calm down. You’re a calm and cool individual. Panic is overrated and that’s not what you’re doing again.
Sometimes one just had to tell those sorts of things to himself. It didn’t really help internally, but when one was fighting whoever decided to attack Gotham today it sometimes did. And even if it didn't, some habits die hard, he guessed.
Logically Cassie wouldn’t have said anything no matter how long she’d known. For a long time Conner would flirt with anyone and everyone that identified as a woman, except for Cassie. So none of them had a chance. This was also the first time he had told someone he liked men. It felt like those words didn’t fit in his mouth. Truthfully he didn’t know why he hadn’t told anyone before, he just knew it felt wrong to voice, even if he knew there would be no problems around it.
What if they had talked about it? Would she have never dated Kon? Would she tell Kon about it? Would it have gone down the same way it did? It was, and had always been, as matter of fact as it could be. Kon liked women. And a lot.
Cassie looked at the baby intently. Tim looked at the floor intently as well. “I wanna keep him” That made him look up.
“Huh?”
Cassie raised her face and lowered her legs as she pointed with an open hand and a slightly outstretched arm to the tank. “ I want to keep him.” She then turned to point at Tim with an accusatory finger. “Dunno what you want to do. But I want to keep him”
“Huh”
He hadn’t thought it was an option. Logically, he was going to keep him. He was the creation of his bad choices and stubbornness, but it wasn’t guilt what made him want to keep the baby. The baby was approximately a fourth kryptonian, which came with its own powers and restrictions. Leaving the kid for adoption felt like taking a risky gamble. Best place scenario, the kid was adopted by loving parents and had a childhood similar to what must’ve been Superman’s, concealing his powers but being an overall normal kid. A worse place scenario is that he stayed in the foster system or had bad luck with his adoptive parents, his powers being discovered and probably being exploited as a kid for fame, money or whatever else illegal plan someone in Gotham had tried to make their kids do. Worst of all would be being found out by Lex Luthor. That would be catastrophic.
“I can hear you think, you know?” Her posture relaxed and she fully turned to look at him “You make this face” Her lips pursed, her eyes crossed as she was looking at her nose and she adopted the thinker’s posture. That made him laugh. That made her laugh too, losing her concentration and going back to a much more comfortable position. “Its okay if you don’t know yet”
He shook his head “No. No, I want to take care of him” His eyes darted to the baby, his posture the same as it had last been “It’s what's best for him after all but…”
The phrase never ended, he couldn’t quite find the words to explain himself, still the blond softly smiled and nodded as if she understood. “Sometimes you just don’t know what's right for someone, Tim, but I think you’re right” She hopped off the floor and offered him a hand to stand up, which he gladly took. “Why don’t we go grab something to eat, sleep for a while-” that felt targeted “-and talk about it more when we're in a better headspace?” It didn’t sound like a bad idea, truth be told. He was tired and hungry, she must’ve been as well or just felt like it was the right thing to do.
They reached the stairs and a red light with a siren’s sound loudly played for everyone to listen. Someone was trying to break in. He reached for his bo staff to be ready to fight whoever came in, he had a faint feeling it had to do with the baby.
He tried to go up but Wonder Girl stopped him, bumping their shoulders, walking past him and somehow taking his bo away with her. “No, you’re not going to fight, you look like you’ll fall down from going up the stairs” She was exaggerating, he knew it. She threw the bo back to him. “ You leave, I stay and fight”
The sound of steps and breaking objects was above their heads and the red beeping didn’t stop, the red light that accompanied it overpowering the green the tank emanated. That green that for some reason reminded him a bit too much of the hellspawn that was the new robin and of the time Jason tried to kill him just because. That green should’ve warned him enough, that green spelled death and torment.
“Cassie I can’t leave you here alone” He walked towards her, but she took him by the shoulders and as lightly as she could threw him towards one of the other computers in the lab.
“You sure as hell can” She hugged herself as she slammed her whole body into the tank, breaking it and letting the green liquid spill out, the kid in one hand and Kon’s clothes in the other. That’s it! The green liquid!
Robin incorporated himself and shouted an order to her “Start my motorbike! I’m blowing this up” He turned fully from her to start inputting the right codes and passwords into the computer. He had installed a self destruction mechanism and multiple safety measures to make sure he didn’t accidentally turn it on.
The bike made a noise of it turning on and their exit made sure to alert him it was opening as he finished inputting the last password and a countdown appeared onscreen. He raised towards the bike and jumped on the driver’s seat, Cassie waiting just behind him with the baby in her arms, using what remains they had from Kon as a very bad blanket and a very bad onesie
“I could’ve just flown us away” The bike had started and they raced out of the tower, going past the speed limit into the dark night of san francisco. He didn’t respond, he focused on trying to exit the city.
5 seconds to the explosion he told Cassie to protect the kids ears and to hang on tight. The moment the tower disappeared almost all the traffic stopped, making it harder to exit the city, but Robin still managed. “You didn’t want to leave with me” he shrugged his arms and the baby cried, Cassie rocking him to sleep so close that the baby was almost touching the driver’s back.
He touched his comm, the one that connected all the bats and not the one that made him talk to anyone associated with the justice league. Three beeps. Someone was online in star city. He had the feeling that he knew who it must be.
“Jason” he called out, getting only a sigh in response. That was Jason “You’re in star city, right?”
Star city was at most 3 or 4 hours away. It was their best bet of a place to go to. Either that or Gateway, and something told him that Cassie didn’t really want to see her mother or her- technically- older sister. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea for him to take them on as little sleep he was on as he was, but there was something in him that pushed him to his limit.
“Mister ‘no legal names on the job’ is calling me my legal name on the job. Finally breaking the rules, huh kid?” Jason had taken his sweet time to answer, but only if he had known all the things- which weren’t many mind you- that he had done while not listening to B. If only.
“Are or are you not in star city?” The older man was beating around the bush. Tim needed answers.
“Yes, why? What do you want from me?” His voice sounded concerned. That was a new expression to add to the roster.
Tim smiled “Great. Don’t move from there” He deactivated his coms before he could answer.
The baby had calmed down when they had already been 10 or 15 minutes out on the road. Maybe even falling asleep, it felt weird to think so from the speed they were going in, but he knew Cassandra had him secured in her arms.
He felt a tug and then a rip, and suddenly his suit lacked a cape. He knew it had been Cassie the one to tear it apart, and still it wasn’t fully separated, a piece of his cape still hung to his suit, and his friend was strong enough to tear kevlar. It surprised him still, guessing she was only using one hand.
He knew that the girl was not falling off the bike because of her super-strength, still it felt wrong. “I’m using it as a blanket” she was referring to the cape “It should keep him protected” Tim couldn’t turn around, still he nodded. “I still feel like I could’ve flown us to star city”
“Maybe” He increased the speed of the bike knowing that the baby was protected by his cape. At this speed and rate they would reach Jason and probably Arsenal in closer to 3 hours than four. If he didn’t fall asleep, which he wasn’t planning to do, determination and the importance of the situation was keeping him awake. “But you would end up really tired”
She scoffed “When was the last time you slept? And I’m as strong as Kon was and he carried you while flying well enough!” Her anger was faux, her arguments valid and her tone of voice brought fondness to his heart he had thought he lost a long time ago.
“My bad or good habits are not important right now” His anger was faux as well, his tone mocking how he would talk to batman or nightwing while on a mission.
An exaggerated gasp “You’re going to pass them down to the baby! What a dishonor of a father!”
He laughed lightly “If we are keeping him maybe he deserves a name”
Cassie gasped this time truly. She had an idea. Maybe a bad idea for the name, but the best they had. And when one had slept as little as he had, any idea was a good idea.