Disclaimer: I don't own Batman, Nightwing or anyone in the DC universe.
Red Robin looked down at the dark city he had sworn to protect in the pale moonlight. He was about way through patrol, in another few hours he could sleep for a little bit before waking up going to work and doing this all again. At least Batman would be back on planet soon and maybe he could take a night off.
Tim scoffed aloud, probably not, at least not with the way Gotham was nowadays. There was always something ready to attack you the moment you even thought of letting your guard down. But at least once Batman got back he wouldn't be doing this more or less alone since Damian was grounded and Jason had his own stuff to deal with that only sometimes overlapped with his stuff.
Thankfully, so far, it was a slow night. Just a couple thugs trying to steal, no rouges, no highly detailed dastardly villain plans. Red Robin heard a scream in the distance and grappled towards the sound. He found the source of the scream before he saw the cause. It was a young woman, in her late teens or early 20's. She looked like she was coming from work, probably at a diner or a grocery store judging by the white apron around her.. Her shoulder-length blonde hair whipped around her face and she kept turning her head to look behind her as she kept backing up into an alleyway. Considering how dangerous Gotham's alleys were, she had to be pretty scared of what she was facing in order for it to be the lesser of two evils. It was then that he knew that tonight was not going to be easy like he had hoped.
Whatever was stalking the young woman was adept at hiding in the shadows because Red Robin couldn't make it out. He instead landed on the ground in front of the lady placing his body between the two.
"Who is it?" he asked the young woman who didn't respond. He turned to her and saw her trembling and still inching backward, like she didn't even notice that he was there. Red Robin frowned as that didn't bode well and her fear narrowed down the figure that was hiding in shadows.
"Why hello," a familiar voice called out. Tim paled, thankfully due to the cowl, it was mostly covered. He understood the woman now, Red Robin had seen the same reaction before many times. He wasn't prepared for this encounter. Red Robin had prototypes to try to handle him but he hadn't been expecting to, he was expecting a regular night of patrolling in Gotham.
The figure stepped forward and if Tim hadn't already figured out who he was then, he would have now as the figure stepped into a corner of light. The figure was unmistakable, dressed in a black suit that must have been at one time very fine but that Tim still didn't recognize it, even if it hadn't been half torn all across his body. But it was the figure's blue eyes and voice that had really told Tim who he was talking to, even if after all this time, it was still difficult to believe it was the same person. The figure quirked his head slightly and there was a large grin on his face like he had found a new toy. Tim had a feeling he was the new toy. Tim didn't want to be the new toy, especially his new toy but he had a feeling like he didn't have a choice in the matter. 'Tim really wished he had brought one of the prototypes' that went through his head the moment the figure moved his hand and Tim's head smashed into a brick wall.
Tim woke up to a throbbing head, he wished that wasn't a feeling he was getting more and more used to as time went on. He opened his eyes slightly and kept them open as there were no unnatural lights to blind him. The room was just starting to lighten up and he realized that he must have been asleep for a few hours. Unconscious, he corrected himself.
"Oh, you're awake," a voice called out from behind him. Tim tried to turn but realized he was tied to something. A chair, surprisingly strong looking for how old it looked. It also seemed like the figure didn't forget, in everything else that had happened to him, how to tie a knot as Tim experimentally moved his hands to test it. The figure came around the chair and Tim could see him again but he forced himself not to outworldly react again but couldn't stop himself from further taking in his features.
The figure was pale, the paleness looked very unnatural on his usually tan skin. The figure also looked gaunt, like he hadn't eaten a good meal in a long time and he probably hadn't, but at least still seemed to be alive for the moment. The smile on his face stretched the thin skin making it look like wax and somewhat like the joker. It had been a while since Tim had seen the figure so close up and despite everything, Time couldn't help but be worried both for himself and the man in front of him.
"Dick." The word was out of his mouth before he had a chance to stop it. The smile disappeared and Dick looked down at him with anger flashing in his eyes, combining with the madness that was always present. The look, especially with his previously kind eyes made a chill run down his spine. Granted, everything about this new Dick gave most people chills and worse.
"I thought I told you, Timothy, I don't like my old name," Tim supposed that he was lucky that everyone avoided this new Dick like the plague because currently Dick either had no concept of secret identity or just didn't care.
"Right," Tim said, his throat drying up slightly as he wondered if Dick was going to do something to punish him for that slip or not. Dick didn't. For a long moment, Dick just stared at him impassively and Tim tried to not think about what Dick was doing and instead focus on getting out before things got worse. He tried again to test the knots but those weren't loosening anytime soon, so instead, he looked down. Tim was still wearing his Red Robin suit which lifted his spirits and with a little work, he was able to move his hands around and realized that his emergency beacon was still on him. Tim wondered if Dick left it on him on purpose or just forgot to take it off him due to the other things on his mind. But before Dick could realize his mistake, if it was in fact a mistake, pressed his emergency beacon which lifted his spirits even more. Now it was just a question of how long it would take Jason to get to him and if he would come before the effects came.
"You want to leave?" Dick's voice interrupted his thoughts and Tim met his eyes that were looking down at the beacon. Dick sounded almost sad and Tim felt slightly bad but he knew what was coming. What always came and without his prototypes, there was really nothing he could do to help stop it and he would rather avoid it if possible. Still, that didn't mean he wouldn't try while he was here.
"So, you remember who I am today or just my name?" Tim asked, trying to figure out who was talking to and how much control Dick had today.
"Do you remember mine?" Dick asked sharply and Tim winced as he felt the sensation briefly of insects crawling all over his body before it just as suddenly stopped. Tim nodded.
"The Jabberwocky," Dick's face split into a smile yet again. He was so gaunt. How was he still alive? Dick looked amicable again and gestured down and that's when Tim realized he was tied to a chair that was around a rickety table that looked like a good breeze would blow it over. In fact, he realized it was missing a leg and should be down on the ground already. But that wasn't surprising, not anymore.
"Oh my manners," Dick said, sitting down across the table from him. "Would you like some tea?"
"Do you make it like Alfred?" The confusion in his eyes answered his question. This new Dick had three modes, sometimes flickering between them lightning fast but usually sticking with one for a while. On a good day, he sounded like the Joker, on a bad day he didn't make any sense at all but in either of those modes, Dick could hardly remember much about his life before this.
"Would you like tea?" Dick asked again, lifted up his hand and the steaming teapot hovered in the air beside a cup. Telekinesis. The first time Tim had seen Dick do this parlor trick that wasn't actually a trick, it had surprised the hell out of him and even though Tim had seen it several times he had to hold back the jump that wanted to escape from him.
"No," Tim forced himself to say even though he was thirsty and his head still distantly ached, not knowing if there was actually anything edible in there. The teapot slowly lowered until it met the tabletop with a soft clink. Every time, Dick used his new ability, it reminded Tim of why he could. Dick, being Dick had learned that there was a group of missing kids in Gotham and had gone to go find them, only to come back 14 months later like this. They only realized after he had come back, that the children had been taken in hope of forcing meta abilities into children and it seemed that they forced some into Dick as well.
"Timothy, Timothy, Timothy, Timothy, Timothy, Timothy," Dick said, chanting his name again and again and the feeling of insects was briefly back until Tim managed to move one of his hands enough to make noise on the table. Dick stopped and looked at the teacup on the table and then back to him.
"How is a raven like a writing desk?" Tim wasn't sure where this fascination with Alice in Wonderland started. Before Dick left Tim was sure the acrobat had read the books maybe once and saw the Disney movie a couple of times, but after he was fascinated with it, embedding his life in it so much that Dick called himself the Jabberwocky.
"Beware the Jabberwocky my son!" Dick looked into Tim's eyes without blinking as he recited. "The jaws that bite," Dick smashed his teeth together in a slightly more than jarring way. " The claws that catch!" he said, bringing up his gaunt hand and smashing it down on the table and all the objects including the table wobbled.
This was not what made him nervous. Tim had dealt with telekinetics before, even if it was jarring to see Dick the one using it. Even his intimidating tactics, if that's what they were, were not so worrisome as what he knew was coming. Especially if he pushed but he had to try. Tim had to try to get Dick back even if it expedited it.
"Dick," Tim winced slightly as he knew that Dick hated his old name but this time at least Dick didn't consciously or unconsciously lash out, instead, Dick just stared at Tim without blinking. "I can help you. I can bring you home where it's safe. We can help you control it. " Tim tried not to hope because every time he and everyone, even Damian had tried this in the past they had failed. He wanted his brother home, safe, fed, alive and happy. Yet at the same time, he wanted as far away from him as possible knowing what was coming. "You don't have to be alone, in abandoned factories or warehouses. We can help you through this,"
Dick smashed his teeth together audibly several times and Tim wondered how much longer they could stand the barrage without breaking.
"Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe and the mimsy were borogoves and the mome raths outgrabe." Tim had the whole Jabberwocky poem memorized by now, as well as having read the books dozens of times trying to see if it would give him any insight into his brother's mind now. So far, it hadn't.
"Just talk to me Robin," Time said, trying to pull his brother back to himself even if it meant using Dick's mother's nickname for him. Dick tilted his head.
"Mother is dead, she broke her head. Isn't that what the policeman said?" he said and Tim couldn't stop himself from wincing at hearing Dick talk about his mother like that, despite his fractured mind and his new fascination with rhyming.
"They locked The Robin away, he couldn't stay and he had to pay." Tim supposed that was something, Dick seemed like he remembered his past, even if Dick wasn't himself still.
"I can help!" Tim shouted, even if he wondered if that was even true. All they had were prototypes and even then it was mostly aimed at taking his powers away until they could get his mind back.
"You want to take it away," Dick said straightening his head and looking at him straight on and Tim inwardly winced again. "You want to take me away,"
"No, I just want to help you!" Tim shouted back, rocking his chair slightly as he did, trying to test it as he did so. It was too solid to break simply by forcing it to fall to the floor. The teacups and pot and plates were all starting to clatter against the table and Tim knew that he had excited Dick, hopefully, though Dick would stick to Telekinesis. Tim could deal with a teacup flying and hitting his face a lot easier than the other thing. "You're my brother Dick! That's all I ever wanted to do was help you!" he said honestly, hoping to calm him down but the teacups just rattled more violently and the table itself was starting to shake now too. "Please Dick, don't start spiraling," Tim said this time mostly for his own sake. He remembered the last time he got caught up in Dick's wake and it wasn't something he wanted to, he normally tried to keep that experience in a locked-down corner of his mind.
"Dick!" Everything suddenly stopped and Dick looked at him.
"Tim?" Dick asked for the first time in months sounding like himself: confused and possibly sane. Tim knew better than to think it was over that Dick was back to normal. It had happened before, brief snippets of his brother but the worst part was that it never stayed.
"Tim, what's going on? Why are we.." Dick trailed off taking in the dilapidated room that they were in. Little hurt more than these moments because for a brief moment having his brother back was dangled in front of him and usually just as quickly taken away. Dick's eyes settled on the teapot and Tim could see the moment his brother left and the madness came back again...like it always did. Dick's eyes snapped up and met his.
"He's trying to gnaw our brain, he's trying to gnaw our skin," Dick said in a sing-song voice with a heavy British accent. Tim inwardly winced at the words. "He wants us gone, he wants us broken, but we're already mad. Mad. Mad. Mad." Dick clicked his teeth at him again. It was a bad sign when Dick started talking about himself like there was more than one of him. Well, worse than usual. Tim couldn't stop the outward wince this time. As much as Tim misses and loves Dick he hates being around him. Tim closes his eyes as the reason is starting to make itself clear as the itching feeling is coming back.
"He calls us brother? Is he a brother? Is he alive? Is he dead? Is there a hole inside his head? Brother?" Dick is not questioning though, just pondering the word. Dick's voice was starting to echo which was usually a sign that it was starting.
Brother. Brother. Brother. The words start to resonate echoing in his mind so loudly it's like they're made of red. Of a deep blood red cascading down filling all the words and holes around him. There's too much red. He can't breathe. There's no air, it's filling, suffocating. He has to breathe. A sharp twang fills the air around him and suddenly he can breathe. The red is emptying falling, leaving, but he is falling with them falling through them and between them split, falling, shattered, splattered, ripped, tor., falling. In the sky a kaleidoscope, turning dizzily nauseating as he dives, he falls, surrounded, invaded by the red.
"Tim," he hears the blood-red walls call out to him inviting, calling out to him for him to come to be, to meet, to intertwine, to be forever embedded. The blood-red walls want him, they want him whole. They want his body, want his meat. To chew to spit. He didn't want to be part of the wall but when has what he wanted ever mattered.
"Tim!" This time a sharp pain brought him back to the room. The rickety table was still there but on its side with the remnants of the tea set scattered broken all over the floor. Dick, however, was not. How long dick had been gone was unclear but the drinks were no longer streaming. He blinked several times taking in the room, the room that wasn't the terrible vision that Dick had put into his head. Jason was standing in front of Tim looking concerned.
"What did he put in your head?" What he saw didn't make sense, it didn't come from a real place but the feelings of fear and desperation still lived inside him. That was Dick's other ability, the one that made others stay away. It was similar to Scarecrow's fear gas but it didn't usually pull from what had been or could be. It was madness. The feeling of insanity that Dick shared with anyone sooner or later who was unfortunate to come across him. Only being lost in something that never existed was usually scarier than being lost in memories that did.
As far as they could tell, it was a form of telepathy that just happened to usually express itself that way. From what they could tell. either the process that had given him his powers had driven him crazy or he had been tortured until he was crazy then given powers. Of the two, Tim knew what he hoped for.
"Where did he go?" Tim said not answering the question, not knowing how to explain the feeling of drowning in words. Jason looked at him incredulously.
"We can't go after him, not without something to stop his powers."
"We can't just let him go again," Tim said frustrated even though he knew Jason was right. If they went after him like this it would just be the two of them tied up stuck on something resembling a bad acid trip until Dick got bored and walked away or they got rescued...again.
"I talked to him," Tim admitted softly, his eyes blurring slightly but he swiped at his eyes furiously before tears could fall. "The real him. I haven't seen him in months. He's still in there somewhere. We have to help him." Tim looked up when Jason didn't speak in fact he seemed to be avoiding his eyes...purposefully like he wasn't sure he agreed.
"Jason, you know it's not his fault?" Tim asked, trying to touch Jason's arm but Jason avoided his hand and swung around so that he wasn't facing him anymore before turning back around in a huff.
"I don't know that. I know you theorize that and the demon has jumped on your bandwagon but you don't know how much of this he knows is happening. How much of this he can control." This was an argument they had before but apparently it hadn't stuck the last time.
"It's not his fault," Tim had to believe that. Jason sighed,
"Let's just go home we can't take it up from there." Tim was usually a man of science but in this case, he was a man of faith because he had to believe that his brother was still in there and he would never purposely inflict his insanity on anyone else. Had to believe that Dick was savable that he could come back. The alternative would destroy him.