Hello, guys. I know, it's been forever, weird time to update. XD Sadly, I think I've had this written up since last spring. Please forgive me for the wait, and for wrapping this up. Thank you for reading, and I swear my writing's improved since I wrote this story. Only reason I'm posting this is because it's been sitting forever. I regret to say, don't expect any more from me, even though I love you guys. See you at the bottom!
"Robin?" Jerra called, expecting the boy to pop out of the shadows to welcome her back. No answer. She decided to venture to the kitchen. To her concern, no one was there, either. "Seriously, not funny," she said weakly. "I thought we learned last month I don't handle 'Boos' well." She stopped talking when she realized it wasn't a joke. "Computer, where is Robin?" The computer burst to life.
"Robin is untraceable at this time," it hummed.
"Where is the team?" She demanded, knowing they had to be around.
"Also untraceable at this time."
Jerra scowled and tried again. "Where were Batman and Robin last seen?"
"Gotham City."
Jerra sprinted for the zeta beam, grabbing her suit in the process. "Send the Batcave an alert, Bat and Bird are missing, along with the rest of the team. Jerra out to find them. Left eleven-oh-three Friday night. Backup."
She disappeared through the tube.
"Guys!" Jerra called desperately. "Please, are any of you here? Superboy? Aqualad? Artemis? Kid Flash? Miss Martian? Robin? Batman?" There was no answer. Her voice echoed coldly, a false hope of more life on the smog-filled night. Jerra had been searching Gotham for the past thirty minutes.
None of her teammates were there.
"Please!" Jerra began crying. "Anyone! "
A clatter came from below her. She set a determined expression on her face, yanked out her grappling hook, and leapt from the skyscraper.
A terrible cackle filled the alley.
The Joker.
Jerra stared a the screen a moment longer. She took a shaky breath and yanked out the exploding batarangs she'd confiscated from Jason on her way to base. The laughter wasn't near her. It was a recording. Jerra scowled at the device and put on a batbreather, impervious to Joker Venom. The blinking thing merely cackled again and shut off. A new laugh, and a new light, came from across the street.
Jerra did the only thing she could: she followed the trail to the trap.
Her communicator was on transmit, which meant it would go to all leaguers and young protegees. "I've gotten a trail to the Joker, I'll send out a signal for anyone to follow when I find him!"
Black Canary replied first. "Go to the Watch Tower, the league will take it from-."
But she didn't. Tempus knew exactly where the Joker was. She was already halfway there. "No," she panted, breath hitching from running and tears, not even noticing the static in her earpiece. "Meet me in at the docks."
"Batso!" The voice was one of a maniac, unstable, unyeilding. "and the Boy Wonder! And friends." Dick shivered at how he said the word. He knew what usually came of these sort of things. He'd rescued people from Joker before. But when he finally woke up from the terrible drugs he made sure Jerralin wasn't one of the "friends" Joker had welcomed. Dick sighed when he saw she wasn't. At least they hadn't completely failed. "So, Batty, why don't we start the party with old pals? Let the new faces know how these things work." Suddenly, someone was grabbing Robin's cape. "Oh, yes, just like old days." Dick waited for a Batarang to cut the police club out of the other hand of the Joker, but none came. He looked around for Batman.
Bruce was chained-no, gagged, strangled by ropes and chains, dangling a dozen feet up. He looked like he was still suffering from gas. or had been extra-drugged.
"B-Batman?" Dick asked, trying to sound strong. His mentor said nothing, though. This terrified Dick. Richard soon became a little acrobat, watching his family fall to their deaths. Except this time he was falling, too. He was helpless,
and he knew what the Joker would do. "Don't worry, team," he slurred as Joker threw him to the floor, chained and woozy. "Tempus' gonna come with help soon. You'll be fine."
He couldn't bring himself to say "we."
The torture hadn't even started, and Robin was already scarred for life.
It took too long to follow the lights to the warehouse.
Jerra braced herself for impact, running full-speed, and brought down the rotting wood doors Superboy-style.
The team cried out when they saw her. She pressed a button, signaling the League where to come. Unfortunately, it took her ten minutes via time-sprinting to get there. Black Canary was at least thirty minutes off, and Superman (though on his way) wouldn't beat her from Metropolis. The league wouldn't come soon enough.
"Time to stall," Jerra whispered weakly.
The Joker cackled. The sound of some odd object being beaten came, and a heart-clutching moan slipped from the object's mouth. It took an agonizingly long time for the mental realization to reach her muscles and lips to make any sort of movement against what her mind figured out. It took her... from the time she realized they were gone...two hours...following the trail...ten minutes….Joker...baton…beating...team...team member not accounted for in the lineup.
"Robin!" It came out as heartbreaking as it was. Jerra warped time, shoving herself as fast as she could between the boy wonder, her best friend, and the evil maniac who had been torturing him for at least two hours... "Don't. You. Dare." She growled. Jerra grabbed the oncoming club and threw it across the stale place, having it break into pieces when it hit the other wall.
"Oh ho," Joker grinned. "And what is this? My new little friend? Aw, how sweet, she's protecting you, Boy Wonder." Joker got extremely close. "Want to play, too?"
"Try me," Jerra growled, suddenly filled with rage beyond measure.
"I don't know," Joker mused. "Not many people can play my games. Not the right sort of minds."
"Right now, pal, I can and will give you a run for your money." Jerra didn't know what she was doing, or why, but she'd had it with people trying to take away her loved ones. "Everyone in my family is dead, partial thanks to you. So you're a very stupid lunatic if you think I'm letting a clown take away Robin."
Joker laughed. "I like you. You're fiesty."
"I'm pretty damn dangerous, too." She challenged, letting herself lose it, finally. Fight fire with fire, or fight matches with volcanoes. At least both end up burned in the end. "Be my guest, you pathetic psychopath!"
She grabbed an escrima stick from the ground-Robin's escrima stick, and hit Joker as hard as she could in the head with it at her best time warp (making her a hundred times faster than normal). The man went sprawling, a surprised look on his face.
The Joker was not happy about the blow. "Oh, a super girl, huh? I can play this game." He shot her an antagonizing grin. "Batman's kids never hit too hard."
"Good thing I'm a lone ranger, and I shoot to kill." Jerra's expression mirrored his own. Knowing he'd be unable to help, Robin saw his chance and slowly pulled himself away, until he collapsed near his teammates. He held out a hand to Artemis, who struggled to reach the lock-picking key from him as he fell unconscious.
Jerra bit back the fear that was climbing her throat. Stall was over. The battle began.
Joker had a crowbar. Jerra hated crowbars. As it hit her left ribs for the third time, she felt the horrible crack! of bones.
She didn't care she cried out. She screamed in rage and clawed at the man's face. She and Joker were both spitting blood, rolling on the floor, one fighting for fun, the other trying to kill. Eventually, Joker got the upper hand. Jerra used both her feet to kick him off, and he soared into old crates, making them splinter. Jerra got to her feet dizzily.
Her team had been in more determined, trying to free themselves, but now were confused and scared. Ten minutes had passed since Jerra's arrival. Where was backup?
"They can't find you, kiddol!" Joker cackled, as if reading her thoughts. "I jammed your little transmission toys three miles out. No one's coming to help."
Jerra suddenly felt cold. She would have yelled, but her ribs hurt and she could barely breathe, so she settled for limping over and throwing an electric batarang (she'd have to thank Jason for his tampering later). It hit the tall man and he crumpled, cackling crazily as he arced with the light. He suddenly reached out for her, and she stumbled back, falling onto her already bruised tailbone. She scooched away as quickly as possible, watching him thrash.
It ended quickly. Joker's jacket was smoking slightly. He jerked his torso up, staring at her intently.
"I do believe I've met someone as crazy as me," he said gleefully. "Sadly, kiddie, I can't have any competition in my own game. Join me, or die."
"C," she coughed, grinning a grotesque red. "None of the above." She clutched her ribs gingerly.
Robin was coming to, hazily watching from the corner, unable to work anything but his eyes and lungs.
"Too bad," the Joker clucked. "Would've made a great addition to the crazy club. We meet on rainy Thursdays." He grabbed a piece of splintering wood and stood precariously, towering above her. "Goodbye." He said cheerfully.
"No!" Robin cried, reaching out.
Time slowed.
It usually does when people are about to die, Jerra thought sardonically, but I think this time it's just me. The wood, sharp as a knife, came down slowly.
Jerralin tried moving away.
Halfway to her.
She wouldn't be gone in time.
Time.
That yet again.
Well, Jerra realized. I do believe I've finally run out of it.
She had one last option.
The unspeakable option.
The I'm-going-to-die-anyway-so-why-not option.
She'd have to stop slowing time.
Three fourths closer.
Jerra looked back at Dick and the team, and her could-be mentor.
She smiled bitterly. "I love you," she said, not directing it to any of them in general. "Just remember that." She sure hoped Robin could play that back later. She closed her eyes.
A bright gold light appeared from where Jerra and the Joker had been. It came from Jerra's chest.
She grabbed the knife, letting it tear her hands, and yanked the Joker into her as she burst energy.
It was like an explosion.
They were all blinded, feeling the gold powder wisp by.
Using all his capable memory, Dick remembered the day in the cave, when they wrote her profile. ATP conversion. The one she said she'd never use. That was her literal functioning body power coming out. Could someone survive without power? "JERRA!"
He began struggling with his chains and injuries, crawling closer.
The gold faded. Screaming came from the once smiling Joker. He clawed at his face and body, as if burning.
"Put it out! PUT IT OUT!" He yelled.
Robin felt tears streak out from under his mask. Next to the flailing man, who toppled over in an attempt to get rid of the pain, was a very unmoving figure.
Unmoving as in chest not even rising and falling with breath.
"JERRALIN!" Robin found the strength to stagger over, spitting blood and unable to get either foot planted.
He fell into a sitting position.
"No," he choked, shaking his pounding head. "No. Jerra. Don't you dare. Don't you dare die for me." He began performing CPR in handcuffs, his own lungs protesting with every safety breath, his broken arm screaming in agony, and the taste of his and Jerra's blood on his lips. He didn't stop until the leaguers dragged him away fifteen minutes later.
The last Grayson woke in a hospital-like place. As soon as he came conscious, he yelled, "Jerra!" His teammates jumped to their feet. Conner and Wally pushed Dick back into the bed. "Batman! Joker!"
"Rob, calm down!" Wally soothed.
"Where. Are. They?" Robin coughed, cringing and then wishing to cringe because of the cringe.
"Joker is in Arkham Asylum, covered in bandages and unable to do anything but breathe and eat," Conner informed him. "Batman is down the hall, trying to get the drugs out of his bloodstream."
Dick was a genius, but it didn't take one to see his friends shying around a point. "And-and Jerra?" His heart shattered before any of them even spoke. Their faces told him the truth.
Wally took his best friend's hand. "I'm sorry, dude. She's gone."
Robin was so unashamed of the tears that spilled from his eyes that he was angered that he wasn't even more distraught. "Restart her heart," he demanded, "We've got th-the b-best technology in the solar system, w-we can-"
"Robin," Kaldur said calmly, but with pain, "we've been trying for the past two days. Her body does not respond. Even when they gave her a blood transfusion, there was nothing for it to use as energy."
"Then give her an adrenaline injection!" He yelled.
"We did!" Artemis yelled back. She was crying too. They all were. "It didn't work."
Dick wasn't hearing this.
He wasn't.
It wasn't real.
Jerra was fine.
She was in the cave.
Yeah. The Cave, looking through files, waiting with some good jokes to make fun of his younger uniform with Jason.
There was no way Jerra was just...gone.
"Get out." He said quietly. His friends, though wishing to protest, nodded and left. Miss M buried her face into Conner's shirt. Dick was left alone. He began to sob uncontrollably. He felt like his parents had died all over again, and he was ripped into a new place, full of strangers. Sometime in the hysteria, Richard completely forgot what he was supposed to be crying about, and kept waiting for Jerra to walk through the door to comfort him, like she had on the anniversary of his parent's death and when he just couldn't be brave all the time. Then he would realize he was mourning the loss of her. And nothing in the world could be terrible enough to show just how much his heart had been destroyed.
He cried himself to sleep, with the help of some anesthetics. Batman took him home. Alfred was waiting, no cookies, no smile. He was grim, watery red brimming his eyes as he watched his two boys return home. But, somehow, he could not think that, because his boys never returned home without his girl. Alfred had not felt a pain like this in many years. He could only imagine what Master Richard was feeling...
They had a ceremony at the Hall of Justice. And Dick had to be Robin, and had to be "team member," not best friend, not awkward crush, not comforting boyfriend. But mainly not best friend.
Because some people knew Jerra's real identity. And knew her best friend was Richard Grayson. And there was too much coincidence between Robin and Dick already for it to be safe. He assured himself, Jerra would understand. Would have. If it weren't for him, she would understand, right now, because she wouldn't be past-tense. Jerra would be alive. Robin felt the wave of nausea, as well as the emotions. He tried to shut the flood gates. He stood there as the Leaguers, mainly Batman, spoke. He nodded. He even said a few words that could never possibly describe her enough. He wanted to yell, to scream how beautiful her laugh was and how distracting her habit of flicking her hair behind her ears was because she refused to wear headbands because they hurt her head but she loved her hair too much to cut is and she loved cookies and sparring and kissing softly and holding onto people because she had lost so many things and she never even truly complained, because she could've acted a lot worse and no one could have blamed her. And—
Robin had to stop himself. The tears rolled down his cheeks again. He had to do something for her. Not a monument. He couldn't live, work, breathe at Mount Justice if they put up a shrine for her. He had to do something more, something with meaning. The thought burst to his mind. Why he was Robin. For his parents. Well, Robin got people killed. Robin couldn't lead. Robin wouldn't let go. Couldn't. He decided there, in his mind, on the steps of the Hall of Justice in the rain, standing in front of a crowd of people who would never understand just what they had lost, exactly what he would do.
Her real funeral was small. She didn't have any relatives left to attend it. There were three world-worn men of varying ages, a red headed classmate, and a few other friends and teachers and neighbors. None of them spoke to the boy in the front row who got up and kneeled by the coffin.
"You died for me," he whispered. "I'd do that any day for you. The two of us, we'd always do that for one another. But you beat me to it, Nightingale. And I'm so...thankful...and sorry, that you had to, but you saved us. I love you, Jerra. And I promise I'll never forget you." He looked at her peaceful face and messy curls, splayed like a halo.
"God, Jerra, why did you save us?" he wept. Dick pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, tears splashing against her pale skin. He shuddered with emotion at the iciness of her skin.
She smelled the same. His Jerra. His fallen Nightingale. "Jerra," he whispered, pushing his old mask underneath her pillow, next to her suit. "You'll always be with me, okay? Goodbye."
Taped to the mask, as if she would one day read it, were the words,
Thank you, Nightingale, for everything. Especially my life. I want to honor you for allowing me to continue saving lives, so no one will ever have to make your sacrifice again. I hope you don't mind I stole your designs (technically, we worked together on it, so.) I'm doing this for you—you would've killed me if I quit. I love you, Jerra.
Love,
Your Robin.
Richard Grayson smiled at the ground, water running down his nose, knowing that wherever she was, he'd make it up to her. She'd given him more time to make a difference.
Time.
He'd never be able to think anything about time without remembering her, or looking at his chest, where a nightingale would perch over his heart for the rest of his career.
"Bruce," Dick stated. "I don't want to be Robin." His mentor froze and turned warily.
"I think you should think about what she would have wanted—"
"I'm not talking about quitting the hero gig, Bruce," Dick growled, "I just—I can't be Robin in memory of my parents if she's the one I'm mourning. I can't be your protégé if I want to dedicate myself to the team, 24/7, to make sure something like this never happens again."
Bruce waited before asking, "Are you sure you don't want to think on it more? What would Jerra have done?"
"It doesn't really matter, does it, cos she's dead. I'll make sure to ask her next time I'm in the Beyond." Richard scowled and stomped towards his little brother. "Jason, it's your time to be Robin."
The boy looked awed, then horrified. "I don't want to be Robin!" He yelled.
"What?" Bruce blinked.
"Master Jason," Alfred reasoned.
"I don't want to work with the team that killed her!" Jason glared. "Why would I want to meet them if they let her die?"
"Jay, I'm on that team." Dick said quietly. "And they didn't let her die. She died for them. If Jerra thought that those people were worth her life, I think you should give them a chance to prove the same to you." He placed a hand on the younger boy's shoulder. "Besides, Jay," he whispered even softer. "How can I face them without you?"
Jason suddenly lost the furious scowl and replaced it with a determined frown.
"I'll use your older suit until Alfred and I can design my own," Jason decided. "But, what about you? There can't be two Robins, can there? You promised you were still on the team."
Dick looked up to his grandfather figure now. "Alfred? Were you able to finish the designs?"
"The red is now grey and the new insignia is in place, sir. It's waiting for you in the cave." Dick smiled at the old man, whom he thought was some form of superhero-raising god.
"Thanks, Alfred." Dick took his brother's shoulder again. "Come on, kid, let's get this bigtop going."
Robin, B01.
"Dude!" Wally wailed. "Wherehaveyoubeenhaveyoubeeneatingwehaven'tseenyousincetheHallofJusticeGodareyouokay,waitwhat'swiththenewsuit,waitwhat'swiththekid,Batman-?" Artemis had the decency to punch him to shut him up.
"Guys," the former Robin said shakily, putting on his best smile. "Me, Batman, and Jer—Batman and I have been training up a new Robin for the past few weeks. I'm getting a little old for it, and I promise he'll step up to it. Meet my little brother for all unlegal purposes…Robin."
Jason gave them an arrogant smirk to hide the fact he was shaking like a leaf.
There was a confused greeting. "Um, Rob, I mean, former Rob, ugh, this is confusing," Zatanna scowled.
"What do we call you now, Former-Rob?" Conner asked.
"You can call me," Dick paused, just for a second, just to go through with it. For her.
"Nightwing."
Well, that was slightly depressing. :D I hope you liked it, regardless. Thanks again for reading, and I hope you all find something very happy to read after this.
-Auri is the Awesome