The comm clicked off. Tim knew his call was over. He'd probably make good time the Titans would be in good hands… he wasn't alone.

Tim. The visitor had called him Tim. They had called him Tim but right now he was in uniform and in Titans Tower and everyone else was in the building how did he get past them are they okay? Because the Red Hood was standing right in front of him and Robin knew better than to think he hadn't been prepared to take down his team.

He acts confident but this is the Red Hood. Former Robin. And Tim knows he's never been good enough to beat Jason. And Jason lets him know it. He says that Tim is weak. He says that he's taken the easy way into this life and he's done it after Jason scraped for everything he could pull from the mess he was handed by fate.

Somehow Jason was wearing a Robin uniform under the jacket jeans and army boots. It's not quite like anyone else's uniform the boots are too long for Dick the pants are yellow where Tim's are green. But it's a Robin costume through and through. And Tim doesn't understand all the feelings running through him so he tries to shut them off completely.

He doesn't quite succeed.

And then Jason is slamming into him fists first knocking him through glass and concrete through the walls of the Tower that should be safe should be home but he's attacking Tim with much more than his fists.

Tim had thought he'd been something special in his own way. Someone who discovered Batman's identity someone who had single handedly reunited the original Batman and Robin and saved Batman from the darkness. With a little help from Alfred.

Now he wasn't so sure.

"I know Bruce Wayne. And let me tell you, Tim… if someone was trying to figure out who Batman really was. If someone was trailing him for weeks. He'd know about it. You can't be that good."

And suddenly Tim wasn't so special anymore. Just another pawn in Bruce's game… no it wasn't true. He fought with the idea striking out as hard and fast as he could cuffing Jason in the mouth and declaring his own superiority. He hoped Jason couldn't hear his insecurity.

Jason didn't falter for a moment.

A kick almost smashed his ribs in and he knew he heard something crack… Jason was so much bigger than him.

"He let you find him."

No it wasn't true. Tim was special… even if he wasn't as special as Dick or the Robin Jason had been…

"And I bet he said the same thing to you as he did to me, didn't he?"

How could Jason, who hardly knew him know just what to say to hurt him so much? Tim's shoulder screamed from where it had cracked against unforgiving concrete. Jason kept advancing (how did he find a batarang?) and Tim began to wonder if Jason didn't know him better than he'd thought. Maybe… maybe Robin wasn't so special… or maybe it was just him.

Sometimes Tim wished his big brain could just shut up. Because what Jason was saying was true. Bruce had told him that he could make a difference that Bruce needed him because he could trust him that he was… light to his darkness…

Apparently that made him a lot less special than he'd thought.

And then Tim's bo is being wrenched from his hands and he's kneeling on the floor, the shadow of a bat around him (how ironic) and it's slamming into his back. His own weapon breaking him from behind. The shadow and voice of the boy he idolized looming above him. Did he have a right to feel sorry for himself?

After all… it was what the Joker had done to Jason… Jason had taken it, Tim could too… was he good enough for anything else? Crack. Rib. Crack. Shoulder. Tendons tearing bones breaking…

He knew he wasn't thinking straight he'd hit his head and everything was spinning worse and worse with every hit but… but if another Robin said he was worthless… wasn't he? Concussion dizziness… Tim found himself vomiting jerking in the pile of rejected sustenance.

What about his friends? Were they dead? Was he about to be dead? Shouldn't he have thought of this before? Failure. Failure. Fail…

Tim shook his head violently, dislodging the thoughts as best he could from his brain. His fingers hovered over the keyboard, trembling slightly, before resuming their ballet across the keys. He'd spent that night in the hospital. Spent months recovering from the physical injuries. Jason had wiped the cameras and when Tim had made his report to Bruce it had included an edited version of Jason's words.

Jason worked with them now. Claimed to be a hero. Claimed that he'd been insane… but Tim had seen Jason when he'd been Robin. And he'd seen Jason when he appeared as the Red Hood.

They weren't the same people. And Tim didn't know how he could ever fully trust Jason after… after everything he'd done. He wasn't sane. And especially if he still had pit episodes… how could he ever trust him around Dick: helpless innocent Dick who trusted so easily and broke even easier?

Of course, Tim knew that the pit's madness wore off, or at least decreased as time went on… But he needed to be sure. He needed information desperately, needed facts and logic and something to convince him that Jason wouldn't fly into a rage and beat Dick with a crowbar next.

Jason wasn't healed yet. His eyes hazed green when he was lost in anger or insanity: and Tim had watched him smile, hyena like, as he sliced a drug dealer's face with his knife, relishing in the cries as he fished for information, the man nothing but a wriggling, helpless worm on a hook… hadn't he seen that just last month?

Didn't Jason avoid children like the plague? And didn't younger heroes push him over the edge faster than anything else, Joker, of course, excluded.

Perhaps the pit's effects faded, but they never went away completely. And even Jason before the pit… perhaps not a murderer, but was he really that upset if a criminal died right in front of him? Maybe… not even saving them? What kind of example would he set for an extremely impressionable and confused Dick?

It had to be considered. No matter if it made him the bad guy or not.

He wanted to be able to trust his brother. And maybe if it were just him he would… but there was Dick to protect, even Damian! Red Hood might need Red Robin to get back home, though… so Tim doubted he would pull anything now. At least, not while in his right mind. It could be a good chance to get to know him again.

To see if Jason could be trusted, accepted… to see if Timothy Drake could finally have an older brother in Jason Todd. Just like he'd always wanted.