Synopsis: For an entire year after the Crisis which threatened to wipe everything they knew and loved off the Earth, after so many hardships and loved ones lost, Cass and Tim find themselves battling on different sides of the globe not only for the fate of what's left of the world, but for the sake of once again feeling purpose. [A One Year Later fixer upper]
I have been anxiously planning to get a story like this out for years now and, well, it may have been a decade since the Evil Cass incident and One Year Later shenanigans, but what's a good comic fan without a grudge?
Special thanks to secretlystephaniebrown for putting up with me hinting and mumbling about this story way way WAY prior to its release X3
Batman and related properties © DC Comics
story © RenaRoo
Promises
Chapter One: Premonitions
One Year Later…
He could feel his pulse thundering in his ear as he raced through the city.
Smoke and soot mixed toxically in his nose, and there was the stink of coppery blood not far from where he was.
"I'm too late," Tim muttered to himself as he skidded to a halt on the building's ledge and began to pull the grappling gun from his belt.
There were blaring sirens in the distance, a Bat Symbol burning itself into Gotham's reddened skies. The commissioner needed them – all of them – but they were still so scattered by the calamity.
Gritting his teeth, frustrated that he still felt so out of the loop, Tim switched hand sand moved to his earpiece instead. He needed to activate his comm's open channel.
"This is Robin," he said out loud through the obnoxious static from the secure line. "I need to know if anyone's answered the Bat Signal yet. I need to know what's going on out there."
He paused for a beat, listening to the mix of static, his breathing, and that throbbing pulse in his ears.
"Anyone?" he repeated just before the faint sound of metal scraping against metal in the distance came to his attention.
As Robin, Tim trained with many of the best warriors in the world. He recognized the faint noise of throwing stars and in response he was swift to unveil his staff, avoid the first star entirely and catch the second in a block.
Even with the rainwater pooled around him, he was able to keep his feet light.
His eyes scanned the area for the attacker, knowing what their location should have been given the weapons' trajectories, but before they could even solidly land on anything, he heard the loud THWACKS of a struggle.
And sure enough, fully garbed assassins from the very court which had set siege to Gotham that night fell forward.
He wasn't surprised at all when he saw the familiar silhouette step over the body and look at him expectantly with those black, piercing lenses.
"Cassie," he breathed.
"Tim," Cassandra Cain said back, her head tilting back as she said the name.
He dared to glance toward the burning visage of Gotham and then back to her. It was almost a courtesy to him that she didn't vanish in the time it took him to do so. He knew she could.
"You know what's happening out there?" he asked thinly.
Her head tilted slightly. Even with a full mask, he could practically see the grimace, the determination, the resignation.
When Cassandra looked back, it was as Batgirl.
"Yes," she said firmly.
"You're taking on the entire League of Assassins on your own, Cass?" he asked, voice nearly begging her to say otherwise.
Her look somehow hardened beneath the mask. "Yes."
"Cass–"
What he didn't expect was for her to hold out her hand toward him, to look at him like the long lost brother she had finally found. To look at him with need.
"But I don't want to," she continued. Her hand shook slightly for emphasis, outstretched to him, fingers reaching. "Please."
Tim took a breath. He needed to decide…