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Jason cursed as the jolting of the plane jostled his bullet wound.
Fuck Slade
Fuck Bruce
Fuck the whole mission
“Dick…” Jason all but screamed from the back of the plane as Tim came stumbling back to Jason. His arms now filled with medical supplies, a few rolls of gauze dropping to the floor, the plane swayed beneath him before he fell to his knees before Jason.
There was no response, just a faint murmur of Damian and Dick speaking to each other as the warning lights flashed and the alarm blared in the cabin.
Jason accepted the shears to cut his armor away while Tim started preparing to pack the wound as soo as it was open. It was a clean shot, meant to throw him off balance as hurt like hell but it didn’t hit anything vital.
Sldade hadn’t been aiming to kill, Slade had been aiming to slow them down. He had aimed for Damian, knowing that if the kid was hit Dick’s rational thought would likely go out the window. With Jason hit, they could all ignore it, finish the mission of collecting whatever weird artifact Ra’s was trying to get his hands on and bring it back to the safety of the cave before anyone bled out or got kidnapped.
That plan also hinged on them not falling out of the sky…
Which seemed to be the way things were going.
Slade's jet behind them began firing again, trying to further damage their engine if it was still even fully functional.
Based on the noise and flashing lights, Jason didn’t have much hope. He didn’t have much time to worry about it though, as soon as he had gotten his armor open he felt his flesh being forced apart as Tim began shoving gauze and his gloved fingers into the wound to put pressure on the bleeding vessels. The pain was immediate, like scorching fire that made your vision white out, unrelenting as Tim continued despite Jason’s groaning and inability to sit still from the feeling.
The engine buckled from under them, the motion causing Tim’s fingers to dig into the side of the bullet wound and make Jason cry out.
He had closed his eyes at some point, but Tim had removed his fingers from his side. Now it just felt like his guts were in his throat. Jason blinked his eyes open, unaware of how much time had passed.
He knew not much though.
Tim was no longer in front of him, and he was now buckled into his seat. That wasn’t the concerning aspect though.
Through the windshield of the plane, he could see the Earth quickly whipping past.
They were spinning.
One of the engines was fully offline and they were losing altitude.
He watched as the rocky side of the mountain approached closer and closer.
0o0o0
Someone was tapping his face, he could tell they were talking but it sounded as if they were under water.
He was freezing cold.
But the voice was slowly fading into focus. “--on, can you hear me? C’mon Jay.”
Dick.
Jason blinked his eyes open, trying to focus his vision as Dick’s blurry form appeared standing before him.
The windshield was dark, completely buried in snow. The only light being from the emergency overhead lights and day light coming from behind them.
“Wha–” Jason tried before the cold air caught in his throat, forcing him to cough.
“C’mon, we gotta move,” Dick instructed as he unbuckled Jaosn from his seat. He had a pretty good gash on his upper arm, and he seemed to be trying to keep that limb close to his body. Hooking his good arm under Jason and helping haul him up.
The back half of the plane had all but ripped off as they crash landed. Damian and Tim were outside, prepping bags.
“Emergency beacon is already going back to the cave, but Slade is no doubt already tracking us,” Tim summarized as he shouldered on the bag and began adjusting the straps to fit around his winter armour. “B should be able to track our suit sensors.”
Jason stumbled, tripping over his feet as Dick helped keep him upright. As they left the safety of the plane, Jason finally noticed the gash spanning the width of Damian’s forehead. His face coated in dried blood and he squinted at the light reflecting off of the snow.
Concussion.
Must’ve bashed his head off the dashboard.
“Everyone grab a bag,” Dick instructed, his hair whipping around his face as the wind picked up. “We need to get moving.”
0o0o0
Jason tripped on a rock that was buried in the snow, his breaths cutting through him. The movement of his chest pulling at the wound in his side along with each step he took.
He barely got his arms out under him before he face-planted into the powder below.
There were hands on his back as he shifted his weight, pulling his legs underneath him again as he sat back on his haunches, still huffing.
“You good,” Tim asked as he tried to help pull Jason to his feet. “Oh, shit. Hey, WING!”
Jason was panting through his mouth, the snow beneath him telescoping in and out of focus. He just couldn’t catch his breath…and the shivering wasn’t helping. The blood soaked armor on his side had frozen almost as soon as they had left the shit. The frozen fabric clinging to his skin as the wind whipped past, cutting through the shorn fabric and fostering the chill deeper into his bones.
Dick crouched down in front of him as he tried to get up. The action pulling at the wound once more and causing his legs to give out from under him.
“Hey, hey hey,” Dick called out as he tried to stand once more. They had been walking for almost an hour. There had been no signs of Slade but that didn’t necessarily mean shit.
And he had been colder before. “I’m good,” Hood argued as he looked Nightwing in the eyes.
Dick stared into his features, they were all walking away from this mission with frostbite, there was no changing that. But did must not to have like what he had seen. “Red Robin,” Nightwing addressed. “Take the front, keep an eye out for anywhere we can hide out.”
“I’m fine,” Jason argued once more, no one paying him any mind. Damian stood ahead of them, his arms wrapped around himself as the cold tried to bite through his jacket. His nose was beat red.
Dick helped him stand, Jason was only half paying attention, his eyes focused on Damian as his body moved without his brain fully registering it.
They fell into line once more, now with Red Robin leading, then Robin and Nightwing helping Red Hood.
They just had to keep moving.
0o0o0
0o0o0
“Why the fuck would they leave the jet,” Spoiler asked as they stared at the blinking dots of their trackers, the jet now almost 2 miles behind them.
“I was able to recover part of the recording,” Oracle explained as she projected the audio through the cave. “I think they got shot down.”
Bruce stared at the screen, giving nothing away.
0o0o0
“W’ere are, we goin’,” Hood mumbled from his side.
Dick looked over, Jason was pale other than the bright red areas on his face from the wind chill. He had slowly been transferring more and more of his weight to Dick as time had passed. He was still holding his side, he was breathing harder than he likely should be.
“Red, anywhere we can take shelter for a bit,” Nightwing called ahead.
0o0o0
Nightwing helped lower Jason onto the ground, leaning him back against the tree. “Let me see,” Dick stated as he gently pushed Jason’s hand away from his side. They had found a large pine tree to hide under, the low lying branches holding the snow and creating an insulated make-shift shelter.
“‘Mmm okay,” Jason mumbled as he leaned his head back, bonking it against the trunk. He closed his eyes, letting Dick move his arm and look at his side. The pulling of the frozen fabric away from his skin felt like he had been turned to velcro.
Dick paused though, apologizing before just laying his hands over the area, pressing down lightly. It felt nice, the warms of his hands slowly bleeding through the frozen fabric. “Dami,” he said. “Count backwards from 100 in multiples of 7.”
“I am not–”
“You hit your head on the console and you have been squinting against the light off the snow,” Dick countered almost immediately. The hands were slowly losing their warmth, but it still felt nice.
“100, 93, 86, 79…” Damian began, his voice trailing off like background noise as Jason began to drift.
“I’m gonna go cover out tracks,” Tim informed as he left the safety of their hideyhole.
0o0o0
Someone was hitting him.
Jason blinked his eyes open slowly, the world around him a fuzzy undistinguished world of white with a blob of black in front of him. The blob slowly morphed into a tuft of hair and a domino, revealing his brother.
“Hey,” Dick cooed. “C’mon, you gotta stay awake, Jay.”
He just swatted Dick away, “‘m jus’ ‘ired, Dickie,” Jason tried to rationalize as he let his eyes fall closed again.
Dick started to shake him, “don’t you dare, Jay.”
Jason groaned, a pitying small noise that sounded closer to a whimper.
“Bruce is coming, yeah,” Dick tried to rationalize as he sat down next to Jason. “Don’t you wanna be awake to tell him off when he arrives?”
0o0o0
“Is he good,” Tim asked as he re-entered under the tree, Jason looked like he was in between consciousness and asleep. His shivering wasn’t as aggressive as it had been when they first brought him into the shelter though. Granted, that could mean things were getting worse…
“I don’t know,” Dick admitted as he glanced at their brother. Dick sat on one side of him with his arm around Jason’s shoulders. Damian sat on his other side, huddling into his side as they tried to help.
0o0o0
Bruce was pushing the jet faster than he should, keeping an eye on the heat of the engine just in case. He couldn’t be too late.
Someone had shot them down.
Someone was after his boys.
0o0o0
The wind had erased most of their tracks, two sets were all but gone from view as the biting windchill swirl to tracks filled with fresh powder.
But the heavier 2, their tracks still lingered. Especially Jason’s, he was stumbling, dragging his feet as it looked like Dick helped him keep moving forward.
Dick’s tracks had stared off in the front of the group,, his longer strides leading them as he always did in groups. Had to prove to himself and the bat that he hadn’t been a mistake, that he was a good addition to fighting the bats battle against crime. That insecurity, that doubt had been what had made it so easy to make him crumble at the seems all those years ago.
Now it was harder to tell, but given that he was all but holding Jason up, he was going to guess they had drifted to the back. Dick making sure that he didn’t lose his brother once again.
The shot had been good. Hadn’t hit anything vital. But, it would bleed like hell for a good 5 minutes, that should have been just enough to get him soaked. Make it so the cold could cut just that much deeper. Make it so they would have had to cut away his armor so the windchill could seep into his bones faster.
So they would have to seek shelter, find a way to keep him warm.
0o0o0
Bruce flew in, careful not to flow overhead of the boys or come the way that they had. Stephanie sat rigid beside him. She had no smart remarks for the entirety of their flight to the boys.
They sat in silence, hoping to make it there in time.
Bruce had accepted that he would likely need Leslie’s assistance after he got his children home safe and sound. His collar bone was still not healed completely for him to be cleared for patrol. If they found any assassins, he would likely shatter the boney callus that was still in the process of forming around the break.
It didn’t matter though, he had to find them.
0o0o0
Dick heard the crunching of snow. It was quiet, but it was just beyond the barrier of their little makeshift home. He stood up as quietly as he could. The snow beneath them having already been prepacked down from when they entered in case a scenario such as this occurred.
Tim was sitting in front of Jason, drawing his bowstaff as he shifted his weight to a couched position. Damian quickly following suit with his katana.
Jason stayed leaning against the tree trunk, his breaths slow as he continued to shiver against the cold.
“HEY FUCK FACE,” a familiar voice screamed out as the sun continued its descend down.
There was a deep, throaty chuckle as the crunching of footsteps halted. “I know you weren’t dumb enough to come on your own,” Slade greeted. “So where is–”
Slade grunted as metal clashed metal. Dick was immediately crawling out from under the branches, “STAY WITH JAY,” he commanded as he left to join the fight.
0o0o0
Jason felt like he was surrounded by a cloud. A dull humming by his feet as voices spoke from across the room. He was covered in something soft…fluffy. It was eluding a copious amount of warmth that made him want to slip back into the land of dreams once more.
“Little wing,” Dick cooed as he ran his hand through Jason’s hair.
Jason blinked his eyes open slowly. Once again finding his older brother hovering over him, smiling down at him as he laid in a med bay cot in the cave, covered in a heated blanket.