Richard was crouched on the side of the building looking down at the street. It looked as though he was contemplating something. His face was still cold and determined as ever. Damian glanced at his older brother to check on him every few minutes. Father had decided that it would be better for Damian to go with Nightwing for the night while he investigated on his own.
And Damian didn't disagree. Grayson, at the moment, was unstable and frankly going to make irrational choices driven by his emotion when it came down to it. Damian would take it upon himself to take care of his brother to make sure he doesn't do anything too reckless.
How Dick could blame himself for this whole situation was beyond Damian. The man had done nothing wrong. Granted, he was the one that shot the ghost down in the first place and brought him in to put him in that -frankly unnerving- cage. But that was not the part that he blamed himself for.
He claimed he should have been able to catch on faster. Figure out what happened faster. Stop the ghost from stealing Drake's body away like a puppet forced to do its master's bidding. But there were no clear signs that the boy was possessed. Timothy acted strange to Damian on the best of days. A few changes here and there could easily be chalked up to sleep deprivation.
Not only did Dick immediately tell Damian to go and check on his brother -which Damian acted on a little slower than he should have, might he add- which honestly made Damian feel a bit to blame, himself. But they had already been barricaded in the room and were still there. Damian didn't go into the room and conversate with him personally as he probably should have. So it was as much his fault as it was Grayson's, more even.
Grayson had no right to take all of the blame for this situation onto himself. Damian wished he could stab some sense into his older brother. Right now they both needed to think straight and find Drake before something worse happens.
Of course, Damian was certainly going to be having some very pointy words with this ghost once they recaptured him. One of them was in its sheath at the young Robin's side right this very moment. Even if Drake is incredibly infuriating and annoying- but no one should take someone's free will away.
Especially just to walk around in their body and steal it. He also clearly could have left Timothy here. Instead, he decided to leave with the body puppet and continue on leaving the manor grounds and walking into Gotham. Which was an incredibly dangerous place, especially for not only a young teenage boy but also one who was incredibly well known to be a part of two rich families.
Damian glanced up as Richard rose to his feet and walked over to the other side of the roof. He glanced down again. They were getting a little closer to Crime Alley, which was not a good thing. Especially with Hood's rules on Bats in his territory. But this seems like the most likely direction that the ghost could have escaped.
Damian sighed and stood up as well, following behind his older brother. They seemed ready to continue searching for more of the night when their comms sparked to life. "I have found a lead." It was Father. "You two are the closest. Meet at this warehouse."
Dick put his hand up to his comm. "Copy that, me and Robin are on our way."
)-(
Jason had originally panicked when Tim had fallen unconscious. He fell forward onto Jason's shoulder, who had to catch him with one arm. Jason was not expecting the kid to just fall like that. But he did look pretty worse for wear.
But he was terrified for a split second that the kid just died there in his arms. But a quick hand to the neck showed they were fine. Probably passed out from stress or blood loss. Maybe even a mix of the two.
It didn't take Jason long to patch them up. Especially after they were unconscious. He probably could have done it with his eyes closed, not that he was going to, anyway. He did have to pull the bloodied shirt the rest of the way over the kid's head. He glanced down at the garment as he was thrown to the side on the hardwood floor of his safe house.
The kid needed a new shirt, he also needed a place where he could rest for the night. Jason glanced down at his old decrepit couch that he probably got for free somewhere. No way in hell the kid was going to sleep on that. He glanced at the kid one more time before deciding to pick him up, straining his shoulder as he did so, causing him to hiss in pain. He almost forgot about it in the heat of things.
Jason always forgot how light Tim was. Then again, he had only ever really picked him up twice. And one of those times he was in a pit rage trying to murder the poor kid. Man, Jason really shouldn't be surprised that Phantom was so wary of him. He shook his head.
His bedroom door was already open from before, so it only took him a moment to maneuver himself into a position to put Phantom and Tim down on the bed. -Timtom?- Phantim?- Ah, he'll figure it out later.
Once the kid was down on the bed he sped over to his dresser and pulled out one of his plain gray shirts. He figured the kid didn't want to wake up half naked and injured in Jason's safe house. It only took a moment to maneuver it on the dead weight of Tim's arms.
Jason stood there for a moment just staring at Tim. What was he supposed to do? The kid just lay unconscious on his bed. Now in the new shirt, his pulse felt normal which was good.
He was definitely going to live unless there was something that 'Phantom' didn't tell him about Tim's condition. But it seemed Phantom wanted Tim alive just as much as Jason did. Maybe even more so. Which was kinda bad to say about your technically-adopted little brother.
As he looked at the boy, he could see the green waves still coming off of him as they did at the warehouse. But these ones were much lighter and a lot less scared or nervous. It was obvious it was connected to the possession, and it was scary how much Jason could feel what was going on with Phantom.
He just felt like death… and life… it was strange. Just pure death pulsing around Tim in a way that made it feel like the energy was alive. It was getting weaker and weaker as Jason stared at it. He could still feel the leftover protectiveness floating around but there were no new emotions ever since the kid fell asleep.
Jason stared down at the kid for a few more seconds before he realized how weird it was for him to be standing here over this sleeping child. He winced and backed up a bit. He needed to let them rest.
He raised his arms a couple times up and down, hesitating before eventually reaching over pulling up his blanket over them. Not that he was tucking the kid in or anything but they seemed strangely cold. Probably help to have a blanket.
He quickly turned away from them before walking over to the two bedroom windows and locking them. There was no way they could escape this way without falling. The fire escape was in the living room where Jason was planning on staying until the two of them woke up and he could get some answers.
He sighed and swiftly grabbed some clothing to get changed into and some of his guns that he had left on the floor of the room. He sure as hell wasn't leaving those behind for the kid to find in the morning. Especially with how protective and scared he was earlier. Better safe than sorry.
As soon as he left the room he was reminded very rudely about his shoulder twitching in pain. He had been putting it off ever since he put the kid down. The blood was leaking between the gaps in his armor.
He needed to patch that up too, which was just great. He sighed and walked over to the couch putting his guns down on the coffee table next to the med kit. The folded clothes he placed on the armrest of the couch for him to grab in a moment.
)-(
It didn't take him long to patch up the shot. It went clean through and didn't hit anything vital. He now had gotten changed into sweatpants and a loose black shirt and was sitting on the couch. Jason decided that he didn't want to try and sleep on the couch that night.
He didn't want anything happening if he did fall asleep. But now he kind of wished that he grabbed his book from the nightstand before leaving. He didn't want to go back in there and run the risk of waking the kids up. They needed rest. And Tim certainly needed rest from what he heard from dickface last time they talked.
Jason sighed and the next six hours went off pretty okay. He did end up falling asleep at a few points, mostly out of boredom. But when he went to check, Timbit was still there. As morning light shone into the window, Jason decided to get up and start making something to eat for breakfast, maybe dinner in this case.
Probably best to feed them. Who knows how long they were kidnapped or if Phantom had even fed Tim turning this? He didn't know how Phantom felt about eating but Tim definitely needed something. He sighed how did this end up being his responsibility? He searched through his cupboards. Nothing much in the way of food here. But there were some mac and cheese boxes.
He shrugged and pulled them out, placing them on the counter before he turned around and started pulling out the saucepan. Suddenly he heard some shifting coming from the room. He turned his head around and in the process dropped the pan onto the floor with a loud clang.
He cursed and picked up the pan placing it on the stove before turning back towards the hallway. He walked over so he was standing at the opening of the hallway looking at the door.
There was a hushed conversation on the other side. It sounded like Tim's voice. It also had large beaks in the middle of it. Probably space waiting for an answer that Jason couldn't hear.
He decided that it would be best to leave them. The only way out would be the main door or the windows, and he was sure Phantom wasn't going to throw them out of a third-story apartment window.
After a few more minutes of Jason buying time and waiting for them to do something, he heard the door crack open and the light pad of footsteps heading down the hallway on the hardwood floor.
Jason turned around to look at the hallway where the boy was poking his head around the coroner to look at Jason. He smiled at them. "There you are sleeping beauties. About time you got up."
Authors notes
Beta read by gamma_radio
Hey! We got some Damian POV here now. I haven't been able to write him in any of my fics yet but I love him so much! I hope I did him justice! And of course, we have Jason who is now going to have to deal with the two chaotic insomniac teenagers. XD
Thank you all so far for your amazing comments! they mean so much to me! 3
