Dick limped off in pursuit of Tracy, and Tim grimaced. After racing death over miles of jigsawed country together for the last week, he could barely stand to let him out of sight. Charity's presence beside him wasn't enough to keep a blade of loneliness from slipping into his gut as the older man vanished into the tunnel. If he hadn't known that Batman was waiting above Tim would gladly have waited to tackle the force field in order to assist his brother; as things were, though, it made more sense to do it this way. Despite that fact it took a great deal of effort for him to wrench himself back to the monitors. "Okay," he muttered. "Let's make this quick..."
Minutes passed, but no matter what he tried he hit brick wall after brick wall inside the system. "Fuck!" he cried as he was bounced back to the first step for the dozenth time.
"I'm sorry," the girl beside him whispered.
"...It's not your fault. This is just a good security system." And I don't have any of my usual toys to make things easier, he added to himself. He knew exactly how many times over he could have broken through the field's protection by now if he'd come here as Red Robin, but all that knowledge did was aggravate him further. "Come ooon," he encouraged as he reached his last stopping point and took another stab at the password for the next level of protection. Please. I need to get out there and help Dick... "No! Ugh..."
"I wish I could help more," Charity wrung her hands. "I just...she never let me near this stuff..."
"Don't worry about it, I said," he snapped. His fingers flew over the keyboard as he re-entered the list of passwords he'd already figured out. The name of the university that had, most unfortunately, given Tracy Collins a doctorate; the little town where she had had her humanitarian epiphany; the relief organization under whose name they had been traveling when Jerome died. As he typed those and several other terms in, it struck him that they were all connected to Tracy's personal history – no one who didn't know her life story would be able to just manually hack the system the way he was trying to do. "Charity," he caught her eye, "do you know how many levels of protection there are to this?"
"She never told me anything," she shook her head.
"Maybe not, but did you ever hear her typing the passwords in, or even see her do it from a distance?" he pressed. "Do you remember how many pauses she made?" He knew his question was a long shot at best, since Charity hadn't been trained to pay attention to such things the way he and Dick had, but he had to try.
"I...um..." Her forehead creased as she thought. "I think I sort of remember...maybe...maybe six?"
"Six?"
"I'm...not sure, honestly. But...six sort of feels right."
"I'll take it." Six. Six passwords. If that was right, then he was on the last one. The problem was that he'd used what seemed like the most important pieces of Tracy's life story on the earlier levels. This is her last line of defense, he mused, his fingers stroking the keys meditatively. If the force field goes down, she goes down. Her final bulwark...but what...
"I'm sorry," Charity lamented again.
'I'm sorry, daddy,' the little moan of contrition she'd given before she told him everything he needed to know about her mother rang in his head. He frowned. Hadn't Tracy said that her whole project was intended to give her daughter a better world to live in? Sure, there had been a level of revenge and personal belief mixed in there, but in the end it had been the girl's betrayal that had sent the older woman over the edge. "Charity," he breathed, typing it in. A broad grin spread across his lips. "You're the answer."
"What?" Leaning over his shoulder, she peered at the screen. "Oh...you're...you're in?"
"Yeah. You were the last password. And now..." The dashboard was simple enough once you got past the passwords; now that he was in, he could shut the field on and off at will. "...We end this."
A single click was all it took. "Alpha sphere deactivated," he read the message that popped up aloud. "We did it, Charity. It's over."
She flung herself at him, burying her tear-streaked face in his shoulder. It was impossible to tell whether she was happy, sad, or both, but at the moment that wasn't Tim's top concern. He held her for a second, then gave her a squeeze and spoke. "...I've got to go help Dick. Are you coming with me? It's okay if you need to...you know...stay here until we get your mom secured."
But she shook her head against his neck. "I don't want to be alone right now," she sniffled, pulling back. "Let's...let's go."
Tim wanted to run down the subterranean corridor, but Charity had grabbed his hand and was trudging along at a much slower pace. Biting back his impatience, he tried to get her to speed up without saying anything or yanking on her arm. The method wasn't as successful as he'd hoped, but he hesitated to push her too hard given everything she was dealing with. He needed to help Dick, but he didn't want to alienate Charity in his attempt to do so, so he chewed his tongue and kept walking.
They hadn't gone far when a distant rumbling began. "...What is that?" Charity asked, stopping in her tracks to look around.
"I don't know," he shook his head, urging her along. "C'mon, we really need to keep going."
"I'm coming, I just...that doesn't seem like an aftershock, does it?"
"No. It doesn't. I don't know what it is. Let's just-" He broke off suddenly. Wait... "Oh, no," he breathed.
"What?"
"I...I do know what it is," he gulped. "It's the river. I released the force field, and now the river's coming back in. Oh, god..." If Dick's outside...if he went down into the basin. Paling, he pulled his hand from the girl's.
"Tim, wait!"
"Stay here! I'll be back!" He took off down the passageway. For a second her pounding footsteps echoed behind him as she tried to keep up, but they were far from equally matched in the athleticism department and he quickly outran her. Dick...climb, Dick. Wherever you are, climb.
The world began to shake, and before long he was more bouncing off of the walls than running. His body protested every jarring strike, but he pressed on. He and Dick had come through too much over the past week for things to end like this; he had to get to him, and fast, before it was too late...
When the deafening roar reached its crescendo, the lights went out. "Gah!" he cried out involuntarily as he tumbled forward. He landed without injury, but the air was now pitch black. Somewhere behind him he thought he heard Charity scream. I'm sorry, he winced. First I left you alone, and now the power's out. Some great rescuer I am.
He didn't dare go back for her right now, though. Sliding to the wall, he pressed himself against it and rose. It was difficult to maintain contact through the worst of the tremors, but he knew that letting go of the rock would leave him completely disoriented. If he could just get outside and make sure that Dick was clear of the water, then he could get Charity out of the dark...
The noise permeating the cave no longer rose, but merely rolled on at the same level. He tried not to think too hard about the fact that that probably meant it had flooded the pool, but images of his brother being swept away to an ignoble death assaulted him over and over again. Maybe, he hoped as he crawled along the pitching corridor, Batman had dropped him a rope, or gotten down to him some other way. Tracy would have been saved as well, of course, and secured. They were probably sitting in the plane and waiting for him. It would all be okay...everyone was fine...
An eternity went by before he saw a faint glimmer ahead. It wasn't much, but he'd take a sliver of moonlight over no light at all any day. Leaving the wall behind, he scrabbled forward on his hands and knees. Sharp rocks dug into the scabs over his joints, but he simply groaned and kept going. He could get help, or at least lights, before going in after Charity; that would make it all so much easier...
His intention was to go as far down the stairs as he could and wave to the plane, but as he approached the cave's entrance he discovered his folly. It was hidden, he sighed. It was hidden before, and now...now it's hidden again. Indeed, there was a solid curtain of icy water blocking his path down and scattering the light from the world outside. He peeked over the edge and saw nothing but spray; to jump would mean death, and from the look of things the staircase would be impassable until the flow died down some. "Well," he spoke to himself as he glanced back into the shuddering darkness, "I guess I'm doing this the hard way."
Suddenly a new, throatier rumble joined the sound of the river. What is that? he wondered, trying to stand up. He was thrown down again as the ground shifted beneath his feet, and only a combination of experience on roof edges and luck kept him from being sucked into the maelstrom far below.
"Tiiiiim!"
Charity's petrified scream reached his ears, galvanizing him. If he couldn't move forward, he could at least go back and get her. "I'm coming!" he shouted back, struggling to make progress. "Keep calling!"
He hadn't gone far when something tickled the back of his neck. Raising his hand, he felt dust. Somewhere up the corridor, a thunk sounded. ...It's falling in, he determined, his stomach dropping into his shoes. It's all falling in...Charity... "Charity, run!" he ordered at the top of his lungs.
Still he pushed on, groping through the invisible space before him. His feet found greater amounts of rubble as he went, and more dirt landed atop his head and shoulders, but he persevered. "Charity!"
"Tim!"
He gasped. She was close, but where...? "Charity!" he stretched out his left arm.
"Tim!"
"Aaahhh!" He dropped to the floor and clutched his arm to his chest. Her fingers had just brushed his when something had hit him hard midway between elbow and wrist. The limb was broken, he was positive; already he could feel it swelling up. "Damn it, why now?!"
"Tim!" She found him in the dark and latched her arms around his neck in panic. "What do we do, what do we do, it's all falling apaaart..."
"I know. I...I know." Grabbing her with his remaining hand, he wrenched them both to their feet. "We've got to get out of here."
"How?!" she sobbed.
"Just walk, Charity. Just walk. We have to move."
"Ok-k-kay...Tiim..."
"Walk, Charity."
Their walk was more of a stuttering jog, but it worked. Bouncing off of one another and the walls, they managed not to fall too often. The ground under their feet grew more and more littered with each step, twisting their ankles and tripping them up. Tim didn't know how many times he'd cried out in pain before he came into view of the waterfall again. "There," he panted. "There's light."
"Oh, thank-"
Her relief was cut off by the sound of falling rock from their rear. The air thickened with dust, choking them both. I never thought I'd have a choice in how I died, Tim thought. Battered and drowned, he stared at the cascade ahead, or crushed and buried? Bruce was waiting overhead; if they jumped, maybe he would see...maybe, just maybe, Batman would swing in at the last impossible moment and save them. I have to try, he gulped.
Dragging the girl with him, he took off. The crashing behind them grew louder as it drew near, racing them to the finish line. He ignored it, intent on his destination. So close, he ached as something scraped down his back. So close... "Jump!" he shrieked at Charity.
Their hands were pushed apart by the pressure of the water as soon as they leaped. He didn't hear her scream, but he imagined she must have done so since he was loosing a fearful bellow of his own. It was so cold, and the rocks would be so hard in that first moment when he hit them... I tried, he closed his eyes as he fell. I tried my best. Dick...be safe. He's going to need you more than ever...