This shouldn't have happened. It just shouldn't have happened.
Why did it have to be him of all people?
Batman flicked his cape back. "Oh no…"
It wasn't his fault. It wasn't his fault his adopted brother and father fought all the time. Never his fault. At least, that's what Nightwing had kept telling him. He knew it was his fault.
"Jay?" Nightwing ran up as he noticed the Dark Knight holding a limp form.
Like how he knew it was his fault he was dying.
Batman took off the cowl, revealing Bruce Wayne. "Dick, get back,"
He was taken, sacrificed himself hastily for Artemis. He was the damn Boy Wonder. He could handle anything! That's what the Team had thought.
That was before he was taken in front of their eyes.
"Is he…?" Nightwing trailed off, shifting closer with a worried breath.
Jason knew every risk there was. Every little consequence for any slip-up. He knew the consequence for disobeying Nightwing – punishment dealt by Batman. He knew the risk for shoving Artemis back from the collapsing roof of the bank – the threat of being smashed.
But saving her life to make Wally happy seemed worth it to Jason, in all his angry glory. At the time he wasn't thinking. He wasn't thinking when that thug stuck the knife between his ribs, when he blacked out in front of the Team on the other side of the debris. He wasn't thinking when he awoke in a cold warehouse with his real mother, and when that crowbar hit him again and again, when that madman's laughter echoed through the warehouse.
"I don't know." Came the grave response.
He did begin to think when the crowbar went in for round three, when he heard the terrified gasp of his traitor-mother. He did think about how cruel it all was. Why he was forced to suffer. And he thought he'd forgive, through all that pain.
"Jason? Jase, can you hear me?"
He did think when he got up to help her, ignoring every nerve of his body that screamed blazing agony. He thought when it was helpless, when he heard the bomb ticking,
Tick, tick, tick, tick
He did think that he heard Batman's motorcycle in the distance as his mother apologized over and over. Jason did think when that last tick signaled 'one', and his world was detonated in a frenzy of fire and pain.
The boy's green eyes opened halfway. "B… Br…uce…?"
It was his fault, in all technicality. If he hadn't tried to steal the Batmobile tires all those years ago, he wouldn't have been drafted into being Robin; he wouldn't have driven Dick to an angry solitude away from their 'father'.
He wouldn't have been in this mess.
"Jay, yeah, it's me," the man nodded.
"D...ck..."
"I'm here," the older boy's voice cracked as his little brother's darkening eyes fell on him.
All his fault. It was already hopeless to try to keep trying, to keep his breath going. He let himself start to fade. No one would care. Bruce and Dick and Alfred, sure; but the others? They didn't think he lived up to the Robin reputation. They'd never admit it, but Jay knew.
He wasn't nearly as skilled. A disappointment. Jason rebelled. He was rash, arrogant, didn't listen. At times they were good in the field. At times they weren't. No one was fond of this witty, irritable second Robin.
Jason's eyes began to droop.
"Don't close your eyes!" Bruce ordered gently.
Jason didn't listen. The green eyes flitted. He didn't listen, ignoring his orders. That's what got him in this problem in the first place, after all.
Jay knew he was a disappointment to the Robin name… a horrible brother to Richard. He'd change that if he could.
"D…ick…?" the kid rasped again, coughing up a little more blood as he struggled to sit up a little.
"Little Wing?" the Winged Wonder inched closer, grasping his little brother's hand. Jason's breath hitched and he tugged at Nightwing's mask. Dick exhaled slowly and listened, peeling it off to reveal tear-filled sapphire eyes.
He wanted to take it all back, all those times he was arrogantly rude and offended anyone. He wanted to take back that fight he had with Golden Boy. He wanted to take it all back. Not saving Artemis, that gave him satisfaction, but everything else. All of it.
"M'sorry…"
Everything went dead still. Everyone froze. Jason gave up. His head thumped dully against Batman's chest, his breath slipping from his throat in a small sigh of permanent defeat. His hand went slack and slipped from his brother's.
"Jason?"
No answer. Nothing.
"Jay-bird?"
Still no response, just the swoosh of ash.
Bruce bowed his head, shoulders shaking ever-so-slightly, and stood up. Richard's lithe form shook, and he took his brother's hand again, pressing the bruised knuckles against his chest, just under his neck in that way he used to when Jay had nightmares. The sad name of the fallen bird, the fallen son, the fallen brother, echoed as it left Bruce's lips.
"Jason…"
He was gone.
The arrogant, rash kid from the streets. The irritable and sarcastic second Robin, Boy Wonder. Jason Peter Todd, Dick's little brother and Bruce's second son.
Gone.
A/N: I claim nothing. Nothing is mine. I claim it not. *ahem* Anyways, this came to me last night reading my dad's old comic books. Yes, this story is kinda bad. And no, I don't care. But if you liked it, review kindly! This birdie likes kind reviews. Oh! And thanks to Lakeshine for assisting me and telling me to publish it! I appreciate the help! :)