A/N: I'm excited to let you all know that the remainder of this story should be updated on a weekly basis! Thank you guys for all of your patience. I'm very happy to be able to give you the rest of the chapters in a decent amount of time rather than making you wait. Please enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics.
They'd been on standby for forty-eight hours, and now Dick was on the move.
Since Bruce had decided it was in their best interests to partner with the Red Hood, Dick had been nothing less than wary. Their whole mission relied on information from the same person that had caused this entire mess. Dick had every worry in his mind that this was just a trap somehow, that Hood was trying to take them all down. But then he remembered the footage of Tim, and the worries disappeared. This wasn't about the Red Hood. They were doing this to stop Tim before it was too late.
In some strange, twisted way, Dick believed underneath the worry that the Red Hood was genuinely trying to help them. He still held onto his conversation with Tim months before and how the teen had insisted that Hood wasn't what they thought. And now, with Tim hellbent on vengeance, Dick saw some of that coming from the Red Hood. Dick didn't understand why, and while it troubled him immensely, he had no other option than to trust the evidence and go along with their plan.
With Damian at his side, they'd been following the transport vehicle since it entered Gotham City. As if they were hunters going after their prey, they stalked the van through each street, never letting it out of their sights. Dick was glad that Damian was fast and could keep up-never once did Dick worry that he'd left the boy in the dust. They worked as a unit, swinging on lines and traversing the rooftops, following the van at a close distance.
Dick figured that the transport would take them all to Blackgate, where they could escort Harkness inside and make sure the guards stayed on high alert. But as they followed the trail, something seemed off. Dick could map a faster route to the prison in his head than the one that the van took. It missed all the important streets, travelling in almost the complete opposite direction. Even Damian, who didn't know Gotham nearly as well as him, spoke up as they paused on one of the rooftops. "Isn't Blackgate the other way? What are they doing?"
"I'm wondering the same thing," Dick said, his brow furrowed. If they weren't going to Blackgate, where would they go? Down below the van sat at a red light, and Dick looked out over the buildings and tried to think of their surroundings. Certainly Harkness wasn't going to Arkham. Even though he was a criminal, he wasn't insane. There was no reason to put him with that crowd. Dick swore that Bruce had assured them that Harkness was going to Blackgate, and he had a feeling that neither of them were mistaken on the location.
The light changed to green and Dick had no choice but to motion Damian forwards, the two of them continuing the chase. It was only as Dick followed the streets that he realized where they were going, the pieces clicking together. They didn't leave him feeling satisfied, but only brought him more confusion. His pace picked up and he hurried Damian along, sending them a few paces ahead of the van.
Dick stopped them on the roof of one building, putting his hand out to stop Damian. A street separated them from the building that Dick had his suspicions about, but he waited to see if his logic was correct. Sure enough, the vehicle turned into the right lane and pulled into the GCPD parking lot.
"Why are we stopped here?" Damian frowned, looking to Dick.
"Something isn't right," Dick said, his senses heightening as he grew more alert. The thrum of anticipation started in his veins, the kind that always filled him before a fight. "Come on."
They pulled their lines again, firing them and hooking onto the GCDP rooftop and swinging across. The two of them landed, dropping into the parking lot and rushed over to the van. The two officers assigned to transport Harkness stepped out of the van, and did a double take as the two vigilantes approached. Dick didn't really want to have to explain, and so he rushed in before they could ask questions. "Why isn't this transport at Blackgate?"
"Blackgate?" The one officer stared at Dick in confusion. "Our report said we had a transport here."
That wasn't right by all the accounts that Dick had heard. He pushed past the officers and hurried to the back of the van, Damian at his heels. Dick didn't hesitate to fling the back doors of the van wide open. Behind them the officers gasped, but the shock hit Dick for only a moment before he clenched his jaw in frustration. The empty van held no trace of Harkness-no trace that anyone had ever been in there at all.
"It's a decoy," Dick said. "We've been following the wrong van."
"Tt," Damian said, his hands curling. "Now what?"
A figure dropped out of the sky, landing hard on the top of the van. Dick looked up, taking a surprised step back, and his eyes locked on a boy dressed in black and red. He'd never seen the uniform before, but it took only seconds for him to connect the pieces together. The officers yelled and drew their weapons, but Tim leapt from the top of the van and landed in a crouch, springing to his feet. In two quick strikes he had the officers unconscious on the ground. Dick couldn't remember Tim ever being that fast. His time away had changed him in more ways than one.
Tim turned towards them next and said nothing, but the harshness in his posture told Dick everything. The teen rushed forwards, and Dick pulled his escrima sticks into his hands and rushed to meet him. In seconds they were trading blows, Tim narrowly punching Dick right in the jaw. Dick ducked in time and drew himself upwards, swinging his weapons and trying to throw Tim off balance. But the teen was not the same fighter that he knew. He dropped under Dick's swing and his foot launched out, knocking into his abdomen and sending Dick stumbling backwards.
"Tim, stop!" Dick grit his teeth, not wanting to continue but knowing that they didn't have a choice. "We don't have to do this."
"You don't have to do anything," Tim answered coldly, "except get out of my way."
"Killing Harkness isn't going to fix this," Dick said. "It's not going to bring your dad back."
Despite the mask, Dick could see the darkness spread over Tim's face. From behind the teen, Damian jumped into the air, sword drawn and about to strike. Dick nearly cried out for him to stop, not wanting him to strike a killing blow, but Tim spun and drew a staff just as the sword came down in a metallic blur. It clashed against Tim's staff, and Damian hissed, "Just surrender, Drake. You can't win."
"Of course you think it's all about winning," Tim answered, pushing against the force of the sword. "You're just as closed minded as I thought."
Suddenly Tim lurched, disrupting the delicate balance of their clash and twisting his staff. The movement caused the sword to go off course, and Tim flicked the staff straight into Damian's chest. It send the boy falling backwards, rolling up onto his knees and glaring. Tim spun the staff in his hands and faced them both. He wasn't going to back down, that much was clear. Dick moved beside Damian, the boy drawing himself to his feet.
Tim looked between them and scoffed. "So much for loyalty. I shouldn't have ever fallen for that ploy."
The words hit Dick at his core. He knew what it looked like, but he couldn't do anything in the moment to change Tim's mind. The teen rushed forwards to meet them both, and Dick dove in with Damian at his side. Tim went for Damian first, swinging at him and causing the boy to have to double back to avoid the staff making impact with his face. Dick moved then, swinging at the teen. Tim blocked his hits with the staff, striking out when he had the chance. He managed to butt the end of the staff into Dick's shoulder, the force shoving him backwards.
Tim raised his staff, about to step in for another attack. But Damian used Dick's back as a springboard and jumped into the air. His legs wrapped around Tim's shoulders, the boy then leaning backwards and using both his weight and the momentum to draw him down. The combined forces pulled Tim down with him, and as Damian leapt off and landed on his feet, Tim dropped the staff and hit the ground, rolling away from them.
Dick thought that without the staff they could subdue him, and he and Damian moved towards the fallen teen. But Tim lifted his head and his hands flung out, two wires shooting in their direction and wrapping tightly around their arms and torso. Dick looked at the wire and then at Tim, and watched the teen pull a black rectangular object into his hand. It sparked with electricity, and Dick could only watch in horror as Tim released his hold on the lines and touched the sparks to them.
The electricity travelled up the lines and around their bodies. Dick cried out at the intensity of the shock, hearing Damian's yell over his. The searing of his nerves seemed to go on forever before it quit, and Dick fell to the ground, his nerves twitching as the shock set into him. He had no strength to try and get himself out of the bindings, darkness seeping into his vision. Beside him, Damian laid in a heap, knocked out cold.
"Tim…" Dick muttered the teen's name, watching him as his vision blurred and darkened. If only he could call him back, get him to stop and reconsider. But there was nothing more that he could do. Tim rose to his feet, staring at the two of them for a moment as he placed the taser into his belt. He then turned away, retreating from the scene. The last thing Dick saw was the black of Tim's cape before the darkness swallowed him completely.
By the time that Tim located the real van, it was dark. It hadn't been hard to send out another fake transport order and establish his timeline once he'd realized that Jason was trying to intervene. Sure, it delayed him a little, but it was better to knock out some of his issues before he got down to the real plan. With Nightwing and Robin incapacitated and Jason back at the safehouse, he had his chance to get to Harkness without interference.
This van was actually headed to Blackgate, as the order stated. Unfortunately for the drivers, Tim needed to derail them for his own interests. He waited on the edge of a rooftop, hand on his grappling gun. The timing had to be right or none of this would work. Luckily, Tim had it figured out to a science. The van rounded the corner and Tim fired the grappling, his feet leaving the ground and finding air. As he swung he drew closer and closer to the van, until his hand flew out and buried an "R" shaped blade into the tire of the van. Then Tim released the grappling gun's hold and landed on the vehicle's roof, crouched on all fours.
The tire split open, losing air quickly. It didn't take long for the van to slow and pull off on the side of the road, Tim still hovering on the roof. He waited until the two officers were out and examining the tire, and then dropped down silently and hit them both from behind. They collapsed to the ground, no longer posing a threat to the operation. Tim made sure that they'd fallen out of harm's way and then stepped over them and around to the back of the van. Then he grabbed a hold of the doors and threw them open.
Inside in an orange jumpsuit, hands tied behind his back, sat Digger Harkness. His hair had grown out since his arrest, his face bearing stubble. But overall, Tim's blood burned at the sight of him-alive and decently well.
"Who are you?" Harkness narrowed his eyes, clearly taken aback. "You're not one of those Bats that hang around in this city."
Tim stepped into the van, walking towards Harkness and having to tell himself not to act too quickly. "Good observation."
Harkness glared up at him, leaning back as Tim hovered over him, his shadow stretching over the criminal. "What do you want? The cops not good enough to check me into this joint?"
"We're not going to Blackgate," Tim answered. "But you're coming with me. We have a score to settle."
Harkness narrowed his eyes, caught between confusion and defiance. Tim wouldn't give him the choice to act on either. He reached out and caught Harkness by the collar and dragged him to his feet.
Jason couldn't believe he'd been so stupid.
He struggled against the wires, knowing that he couldn't break through them with force alone. The pressure of time seemed to weigh down on his shoulders with every passing minute that he remained caught in Tim's trap. A trap, he reminded himself, that he should have seen coming. All Jason could picture in his head was Tim getting to Harkness, Tim breaking his bones and blowing him up the same way he'd done to the drug dealers on their missions. Meanwhile he was stuck here, unable to contact anyone and let them know what was going on, and unable to do anything.
So stupid. He'd underestimated Tim when that was the one thing Jason should have known better than to do. There had been far too much hope in him that he could convince Tim, that he could sneak around without the teen catching wind of his plan. Leave it to Tim to distract him with some heartfelt talk and make him think that everything would be alright. He should have ran with his suspicion right then and there and confronted the teen. But it was far too late now. Jason growled in frustration, the growl turning into a yell as the wire rubbed against his uniform, digging into his skin. At this rate he wouldn't even have the chance to catch up to Tim, who had to be far ahead.
Jason took a deep breath, forcing himself to focus. There was still a chance if he could get out of these wires. No doubt that Tim had figured out everyone who was involved and taken action against them. That itself had to buy him some time to escape. He had to utilize every moment he had and make it count. Jason looked around the room, knowing that there weren't many objects that could cut the lines around him. They were made specifically so that they wouldn't break. But Jason knew of something that he'd fashioned entirely for that purpose-so that Batman couldn't tie him down.
The knife balanced on the table, right where he'd left it. Jason was glad he hadn't finished putting his gear together, or else this would be much harder. He struggled to his feet, falling into the wall until he regained his balance, and made his way to the table. Jason pushed the knife to the edge of the table, the handle facing outwards, and then brought his foot down hard on the handle. The knife flipped and sunk into the wooden floor, standing upwards. Jason knelt back down and pressed the wire by his hands against the blade and started sawing at it as best as he could.
It took a few minutes, precious minutes that Jason hated wasting. The fibers of the wire snapped little by little, until they loosened enough for Jason to move his arms and pick up the knife. He quickly cut away the rest of the line and shrugged it off of him, the pieces of it falling onto the floor. Once he was free, he bolted into action. Jason attached the knife to his belt and dove for his helmet, quickly placing it over his head.
He touched the side of the helmet, voice gruff and urgent. "Where are you?"
"Here," Batman's voice came over the comm after a few seconds of silence. "What's happening?"
"Tim knows that we're planning to stop him," Jason said, hurrying out the door. "He's on his way after Harkness."
"I can't get in contact with Nightwing and Robin," Batman answered. "They should have had Harkness inside Blackgate by now."
"It's probably one of Tim's traps," Jason said. He pulled out a tracker, wondering briefly if Tim had shut it off in preparation for his own plan. To Jason's surprise, it wasn't disabled. He found Tim's location and pinpointed it, noticing that the teen was still on the move.
"I'm sending you Tim's coordinates," Jason said as he transferred the information to Batman. "If I had to guess, Tim has Harkness. It's time to move."
Maybe he should have made a better plan than that, but Jason was out of plans and out of time. All he could do was tell himself that he still had a chance to stop Tim from making a grave mistake. He took off across the rooftops without waiting for Batman's agreement, following the path to his partner.