Hi everyone! So, great news! School is finally out! And, I'm sorry for not updating as quickly as I probably should. But I was working on a different story, The Long Lost Brother (check it out if you like Jason Todd acting brotherly towards Tim Drake) and I just went to the comic book store and bought a whole bunch of Batman, Nightwing, and Red Hood Comics. (Sadly, I could only find 1 Robin comic and no Red Robin comics) So enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice
Tim POV
I laid on my back, staring at the ceiling. Questions circled around my head, and they never stopped.
I wanted to hate Nightwing so much. For leaving me alone after the orphanage, for never taking the time to even call. But... I was finding it harder and harder each day to hate him.
Nightwing treated me like a brother on the team, that much I knew. And... it reminded me of the time where I didn't hate everyone that looked at me the wrong way and I actually knew what a hug felt like instead of blade on my skin.
But then there was that feeling of anger that I had when I remembered the pain of knowing Dick knew where I was but chose to leave me alone. The pain of thinking He'll show up tomorrow. Yup, tomorrow after school he'll show up at the front door and he'll say he's sorry for not coming sooner. The pain of disappointment in knowing that never happened.
Ugh, why did my brother have to make things complicated? I stood up out of my bed and walked towards the other end of the room with the punching bag hanging down from a hook.
The sounds of me beating the crap out of my punching bag echoed through out the room and the rest of the house. I couldn't find it in myself to care. "Tim, what are you doing?" Dana, Jack's stupid new wife, asked from outside of the door.
"Nothing, Dana." I said, pausing before starting to punch the bag again.
"That doesn't sound like nothing, Tim. Open the door." Dana said, jiggling the door knob that was locked.
"No. Go away, Dana." I said, slipping off my pajama shirt so that it wouldn't smell bad when I went back to bed finally. That was the wrong thing to do, apparently.
Dana opened the door seconds later, a bobby pen in her hand. Her face was frozen in shock, and she was gaping at the marks on my chest. Oops. "Tim, where did you get those?" She asked with slight fear.
"You know about those magazines saying things about the Drake's being child abusers a few years ago before Janet died?" I asked, pausing slightly before punching the punching bag again.
She nodded, a look of recognition dawning on her face. "Yeah, they were right." I said, punching harder.
Dana didn't say anything, and I stopped focusing on her since I thought she would leave. But she didn't. Instead, she walked up to me and wrapped her arms around me in a hug.
I froze, my body going rigid. I don't think I've been hugged... ever since me and Dick were in the orphanage. "Tim, I'm sorry. I never knew. Is this why you don't get along with Jack?" Dana asked, which, yeah, it was a big part of why I didn't get along with him. Maybe it was also because when he was in his coma and nobody hurt me, I learned what it was like to be some what normal, and I didn't want to go back to what was happening before. It was probably both.
"Yeah." I said, pushing myself out of her hug.
She looked sad, then looked at all the scars on my chest and back. "Tim... I-" She started.
"Don't start Dana. I don't want to talk about it." I said, picking my shirt and slipping it over my head.
She frowned but said, "Okay, Tim. But... if you ever want to talk... then I'm willing to listen." Dana before walking out the door.
I laid back down in bed with a sigh, and hoped she didn't tell Jack. Because if she did, I knew things would only get worse.
2 days later
Tim POV
It had been two days since Dana learned about my scars, and she hadn't told Jack yet. Apparently she was smart enough to know that if she told him, things would only get worse. Which was good, because I didn't need a worse right now.
Nightwing had made it an order for everyone on the team to take a few days off since Artemis died a few days ago, and the real Roy Harper tried to kill Lex Luther yesterday. Without any action or the rush of adrenaline going through my veins, I was going crazy with only being able to work out in a gym. All of this put together with the fact I still didn't know what to do about Dick, it was like living in hell. A hell I couldn't escape.
My thoughts were interrupted by the ring of the door bell, and I frowned. Almost nobody came by Drake Mansion, and Jack and Dana left 30 minutes ago on a date, so it couldn't be them if they forgot their keys. They should still be out.
I answered the door, then scowled. "What are you doing here? I have a secret ID for a reason." I snapped at Bart.
"I know, but come on dude! There hasn't been anything going on for a few days and it's driving me crazy. Come on, don't tell me your not bored either." Bart said with a hopeful smile.
"Fine. Where do you want to go?" I asked with a frustrated sigh, closing the door behind me.
"So crash! First we need to stop by Blue's." Bart said with a bright smile. He grabbed my arm and ran off while still holding my arm before I could ask why. Stupid speedster.
In a few minutes, Bart had taken me all the way from Gotham to El Paso, Texas in front of some house. "Where are we?" I asked when he let go of my arm.
"Blue's house, duh!" Bart said with a smile as he rang the door bell.
"What are you guys doing here?" Jaime asked when he opened as I slipped on some shades.
"I got Osprey and came over here. You know, so we could hang out together?" Bart asked as I yanked my hand away from his.
"Dude, you're going to blow my secret ID." Jaime said with a glare.
"That's what I told him." I muttered darkly.
"Give me a break. I'll never be able to get used to this super obsession with the whole retro secret ID thing. I mean, what's the point of hiding how crash we are?" Bart asked with a sheepish grin.
"If you don't know I don't think anyone can explain it to you. Let's just get out of here before someone sees us." I said, looking around the street we were on to check if someone saw us.
"Agreed." Jaime said putting on his suit and flying away while Bart ran behind him, dragging me along. I really hated this guy.
Luckily, we didn't go as far this time. Instead we just went towards a desert with boulders, cacti, and sand. "Remind me, what are we doing here?" I asked, trying to balance myself after being put back down on my feet.
"To have some fun, duh! Hey Blue, what can your armor do?" Bart asked with excitement.
"Well, I can do this." Blue Beetle said, his arm transforming into a sonic cannon and blasting away a boulder next to him.
"Is that it?" I asked, stuffing my hands in my pockets.
"No." Blue said before turning to an even bigger boulder and blasting it away to rubble.
"Not bad, the boulders definitely feeling the mode. But if it's one thing I've learned in the future, it's easier to destroy, then to create!" Bart said, running around the rubble, twisting it into lines and shapes.
I stepped back, tracing the lines with my eyes and remembering what each one looked like until I saw what Impulse made. "Not bad. Not original, but not bad." I said with a grin. After all, not everyone could make a picture of themselves out of rubble.
"What are you talking about? It's just rubble." Blue asked with confusion.
"Curb the attitude and gain some altitude." Bart said with a grin.
Blue Beetle frowned, but flew up anyways. "Wow. That is crash." He said with a laugh.
I smiled slightly, then frowned when I saw a shadow tackle him to the ground. By one of the terror twins, the girl. "Dude, I worked on that for 1.6 seconds! It was my master piece!" Bart said with a glare before running towards the rest of the people who followed behind the terror twin.
A girl with a tiger mask dodged him, like she knew how to do it, and Bart ran straight into the other terror twin's chest. Great, just great.
The girl with the tiger mask shot a trap gun at Bart that released a rope trap and wrapped around him, making him trip and fall to the ground. Sadly for her, that left her at a distraction.
I charged at her, punching her in her solar plexus, then brought her face down on my knee hard. I let her go, and she crumpled to the ground. "So, who's next?" I asked, looking at the others.
"Your going down, kid." A terror twin, the boy, said before charging at me.
He was bulky, at least 3 times the size of me. Good thing for me I was used to fighting these guys in Gotham, right? Only except being meta's they're usually on steroids. But, who cares about the little details?
I dodged his attack, then flipped over his shoulder. "You know, you really suck at this." I said with a smirk, kicking him in the face with my steel tipped combat boots I happened to be wearing when I answered the door for Bart.
He didn't go down like the girl in the mask, but he did stumble back, giving me enough time to pull out my bo-staff. "You little-"
The terror twin didn't get to finish since I hit him with the end of my staff that I used as a taser. He fell on the ground after jerking around, and I could feel a cold smirk grow on my face. Being on the Young Justice team for so long, I've forgotten what it was like to actually use no mercy on someone. "Are you okay, Osprey?" Bart asked, getting out of the net easily.
What freaked me out was the fact that he was serious and a hard look was in his eyes. "Yeah, fine." I said, turning towards the other fighters to see Blue fighting Icicle Jr.
"How did these guys find us, anyways? We're in the middle of the desert for crying out loud!" Blue said as he shot a sonic blast at Icicle Jr.
"Well, how about him?" I asked, pointing to Kaldur, who was standing on a cliff.
Kaldur was looking over the entire battle, but he kept on staring at me, like he was trying to figure out my motive. That made two of us at least. But why was he staring? He probably remembered me from the Light meeting I had on board his father's ship. Shit. "I'll get him." Bart said, running up to him while Tuppence, the girl terror twin, charged at me.
"You'll pay for what you did to Tommy." She said, glaring at me.
"Oh yeah? How? I know teenagers younger than you in Gotham that scare me more. Though, I have to admit, your face is frightening." I said with a grin.
She growled, aiming a punch for my face. I dodged just in time to not have my glasses punched straight through my head, and flipped backwards. "You know, you remind me a lot of wild bull. Stupid, strong. Always charging in when you see red." I said with a smirk.
"And you remind me of Robin when that kid was still around. You talk and flip around just like him." She snarled.
I froze at that comment, and something cracked inside me. "I am nothing like him!" I snapped, charging at her before she could smirk at finding a weak point and elbowing her in the face hard enough to knock her out.
"Wow, remind me to never piss you off. But I got the tracker!" Bart said, running down to us with Kaldur chasing him.
"We should make a tactile retreat. We're out numbered." Blue said, noticing the fallen members of their team waking up.
I scowled at them, fighting down the urge to tell them 'hell no!'. But, Bart did have super speed, and he was able to grab my arm and run off while dragging me before I could say anything.
"Will you stop doing that! Your going to make me sick." I snapped as I tried to stop my vision from spinning.
"Who cares? We totally left them in the dust." Bart said with an excited grin. What do they do in the future to make these sort of people like this?
"Left who in the dust? And what is that?" Nightwing asked, walking up to all three of us.
"Souviner." Bart said, making me roll my eyes and groan.
"That's Beast Boy's thing, el mono." Blue said, as if it really mattered.
"Really? I thought it was Kid Flash's-"
"Can you get to the point?" Nightwing interrupted, slightly annoyed as he saw me lean against the cave wall from dizziness. Seriously, how did Bart not get dizzy from running faster than the speed of light? Well, in all fairness, he usually isn't being dragged behind while waving in the wind like a flag.
"Kaldur ambushed us in the desert with the Terror Twins, Icicle Jr., and a ninja girl I don't know." Blue said with a sigh, just as I could tell up from down again.
"I snatched this from him. This is the device he used to track, Blue." Impulse said with a grin, holding it up like a prize.
Nightwing narrowed his eyes at us and said, "So you brought foreign, maybe even alien tech, into the cave? Rookie mistake."
Bart and Jaime looked down at the ground, but I stared at him head on. The comment, 'your just like Robin', played through my mind. How could I be like him? I was nothing like him!... Was I?
"Give it to me." Nightwing said, taking the tracker from Bart.
We followed Nightwing to the examination room, and stayed with him as he analyzed it. "So, how long does this usually take?" I asked, happy that the room was spinning anymore.
"Not too long, usually. But that's with normal tech. This looks alien, so I don't really know." Nightwing said, crossing his arms as he looked at the screen.
The screen beeped seconds later, just as I heard the doors open. "Oh man, I'm an idiot!" Nightwing said before pulling out his stupid escirma sticks, and turned around just in time to have an unconcious Superboy thrown at him.
Damn it. So it was a tracker that lead them here, and I was too busy trying to be able to get rid of my dizziness to notice. "I believe we have an unfinished fight." Tuppence said, smirking at me.
Great, could my night get any worse? Of course, as every hero knows, you never say things like that. Because things will only get worse when you do...
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