A/n: I'm taking the easy way out by doing an alt prompt and yet I ended up having to choose a different prompt and fandom and rewrite the whole thing anyway. Yay…
Today's prompt: (alt prompt) Time loop
He'd been here before. Over and over again, so many times that he'd lost count by now.
It more or less went the same way every time, following a script almost.
Nightwing would be tracking the mysterious new magic user they were up against and notice him place something that looked like a glowing alarm clock on the pedestal on the other side of the room. Batman and Robin would be too busy fighting off the forty guys in between Nightwing and the pedestal. Red Hood would announce he was going after the magic user, leaving the room. Red Robin would be distracted trying to figure out what the object was. And Dick would be left there, watching it all play out as the clock counted down from 6:00… 5:59… 5:58…
He'd tried to change things. To get to the alarm before it went off and restarted everything. Sometimes he didn't make it, and sometimes he did… but some of those times it was better to let it reset the fight. Those were the times that he couldn't save them all.
Batman and Robin would be too busy, drowning under the sheer number of goons. Batman had just recovered from an injury and Robin was tired from having to help compensate from Batman's absence, even if he steadfastly denied it. Even if him being tired resulted in his arm being broken and Bruce took a knife to the neck trying to protect an injured Damian.
Red Hood would go after the magic user and less than a minute later, there would be an explosion from the door he'd left through, that entire part of the building decimated. Dick had used one of the time loops to go after Jason and find out what really happened and suffice it to say, when that explosion goes off… Jason doesn't have a chance of making it.
Red Robin… well Tim couldn't help trying to figure out what the magical object was so he never saw the guy behind him with the metal rod raised, hitting the teen on the back of the head so hard that, well… Dick had tried but he hadn't been able to find a pulse.
He'd let the loop fix it all, then.
For some godforsaken reason, he was the only one to remember what had happened the loop before, that there was a time loop in effect at all. Even if he died - and he had, after going with Jason, letting his guard down, once just… doing nothing to stop it - he was always pulled back to the moment the clock was placed on the pedestal.
At this point, he'd tried everything. Warn Tim, which saves him but distracts Bruce and Damian. Stop Jason from leaving, but they only end up fighting and the goons take advantage of that and the others are dead anyway. Help Batman and Robin, but Tim and Jason don't stand a chance.
He's seen this play out so many ways, and none, none of them are good. Someone always dies.
If he had to guess, he'd say it was about loop 22 that he realised this. He may be back in that moment after every loop, but the toll of the loops before still remains, at least in his mind and - to some extent, at least - his body. Loop 22 was when he just sat down and watched it play out, closing his eyes when it was too much. He'd ended up having to cover his ears too as the others shouted for him, Damian's scream, the crack of Tim's skull breaking, the thump of Bruce's body hitting the ground, the explosion… all of them echoing in his head even ten loops later.
He'd kept his eyes on the countdown, watching, hoping for it to reach zero so it could be six minutes again. He hadn't made it to zero. He still felt the bullets embed into his skin many loops later.
He didn't know how to end it. He figured breaking the clock itself would work, but reaching it took most of the time he had between fighting off the people in his way and actually making it to the other side of the room. That was if he didn't try at all to save his dad and brothers. Doing both tasks? One wasn't worth the cost, but the other didn't solve the problem.
Sacrifices would have to be made either way and he was sick and tired of this. Someone had done this either to torture him, or give him a chance to save his family. He wasn't going to waste this opportunity either way.
He watched the clock, jaw set in determination.
0:03… 0:02… 0:01… 6:00…
He didn't waste even a second.
The clock was placed, the magic user running off into the other room.
"I'm going after him," Red Hood's voice came through the comms, already running towards the side door.
"No, B and R need backup," Dick ordered at the same time he threw his escrima to knock out the guy behind Tim. Red Robin yelped, distracting Damian but Dick was already running. He tackled the guy who would break his youngest brother's arm, but ended up dislocating his shoulder.
"Nightwing!"
"'M fine," Dick ground out, reaching out to pull Damian out of the way of the stray bullet that was shot from the direction of the goon Tim was engaged with. Batman kneeled down to protect his boys. "B no-"
Dick tried to get Bruce to move, to kick Batman away, but with his injured shoulder, and protecting Damian and being trapped, he was helpless to do anything as he saw the glint of the knife.
There was a bang.
Batman fell down next to them, crushed by the weight of the goon's unconscious body, knife slipping out of his hand onto the floor. As Bruce pushed the body off of himself, grunting as he stood and helped Dick and Damian to stand, they saw who had fired the gun.
"Go," Red Hood said, nodding at Dick.
Dick didn't have time for relief, that he'd saved three already, that something in his voice had actually made Jason agree to stay. The clock was still ticking down.
4:01… 4:00… 3:59…
"In five seconds, duck," he told Batman and Robin, before leaving to go towards Tim. On the way, he picked up a stray gun, one he knew for sure had a full cartridge and tossed the cartridge to Jason.
"Hood, catch!"
He purposely did a low toss, so Jason had to lean down to get it just as his bullets ran out and the explosion went off behind him, sending various debris flying out towards their heads. Thankfully, Batman and Robin had listened and ducked too. With his new bullets, Jason was able to shoot the two guys starting to overwhelm Tim just as Dick got there in time to prevent Tim from being taken as leverage, knocking the goon's gun out of his hand so his younger brother could easily get out of the headlock.
1:58… 1:57… 1:56…
He'd saved them all, and there was still time left. He hadn't ever gotten this far before. This was good, but it also meant this was unpredictable. He had caught up now, new territory for what would happen now.
Just grab the clock, it's two steps away…
He doesn't know who did it, but a bullet shoots into the clock a split second before a goon crashes into the pedestal, smashing the clock into pieces. Dick freezes.
Then he blinks.
6:00
A/n: Right, okay, second chapter will be up in a sec, I promise. I have already written it and everything, it's just that this seemed like a really really good place to stop and wouldn't have the same effect if I gave you the ending right now. There is an ending, I promise!
Stay safe, take care of yourselves and see you really really soon.
- CrowofArcadiaOaks