A/n: Right, so I've had this idea for a while now but I wanted to put in a lot of time into it so I waited until i was bored to start, when I definitely didn't have other more important things to do (… hahaa but also in my defence, it wasn't a lot of stuff). And then I was gonna make it a Christmas present for you and uh, as you can probably tell, that didn't go great (sue me for actually picking up a book after months) but guess what happens six days after Christmas? New Year's, so HAPPY NEW YEAR INSTEAD, 2025 WHOO (im excited on the outside, terrified on the inside, 2020 was yesterday istg).

Anyway, enjoy!

Friday December 13, 23:48

He'd gotten the call from Oracle almost an hour ago now. Half an hour since he'd entered Gotham's city limits. Half an hour since he'd sat down, an hour since he'd been able to catch his breath, a week since he'd not been in pain and two weeks since he'd been able to relax.

Today had supposed to have been his night off, a day to recover after finishing up a major case in Blüdhaven.

He should have known better. It was Friday the 13th after all.

"Where to next, O?" He asked Oracle, voice sounding slightly tinny due to the gas mask he was wearing.

She answered just as he finished tying up the goons he'd just taken down.

"Red Robin needs assistance on 49th street."

"Understood."

Despite the dire situation, Dick couldn't help the smile that came to his face. He hadn't seen most of his family in weeks now, including Tim. Maybe seeing his brother might do him some good; give him some much-needed energy and light in the dark.

He grappled up to the rooftops, looking out over the city. Thick green fog hung low, the fear gas lingering due to the cold. Scarecrow had planned his attack well, choosing a day that already had people anxious and in a state of fear while also being cold enough to actually turn the city into his own gas chamber.

The air wasn't much clearer even this high up, but the fear gas levels were enough that if he really needed to, he could manage without his gas mask. All that running around in the green smoke when he was younger had built up a pretty solid immunity, but he left it on anyway. With how much he was having to dive back down to street level to help a civilian, it was better safe than sorry. They also had yet to find Crane's base of operations so none of them knew how long this night might go. No point taking unnecessary risks early on.

His visibility from the rooftops was impacted though, forcing him to rely on Oracle and the screams to guide and inform him of what was going on below him while he was flying over it.

Luckily, 49th street wasn't far from where he was. He only had to make one detour when he caught some low-level thugs trying to take advantage of the terror and threaten the owner of a jewellery store so it took him an extra ten minutes to get to Red Robin's location.

He just hoped those ten minutes wouldn't cost him.

Saturday December 14, 00:09

"Patching you into the main comms channel," Oracle informed him as he swung down onto the rooftop of the building Red Robin was in. On a normal night, he would have been on the main channel the second he stepped foot in Gotham as Nightwing, but he understood that Babs was busy enough with coordinating their response to the attacks.

Even with everyone out tonight - Batman, Robin, Red Hood, Orphan, Red Robin, and himself - it wasn't enough. As the night went on, they kept discovering more evidence that Scarecrow had been planning this for longer than they'd thought. It wasn't just choosing the right day; he'd built up a web of followers, goons and thugs all under his orders, carrying out his bidding. Somehow he'd had enough time and resources to build up a massive reserve of fear gas, potent and widespread enough to cover all of Gotham City without Batman noticing. Almost every Bat out tonight had been targeted - except Dick. Crane either hadn't been expecting Nightwing to show up, had forgotten about him, or thought him not enough of a threat to bother with. Either way, Dick would make Scarecrow regret his lapse in judgement.

"Nightwing's on comms," Dick announced after he heard the telling beep in his ear that the comms had changed. Then, peeking into the window to check on Tim, he decided it was time to hop into the fight. "Red Robin, I'm here as your backup."

"What are you waiting for then?!" Tim asked, and Dick grinned, making his grand entrance from the convenient skylight.

"Hey Baby Bird, long time no see," Dick winks as he lands in a crouch, whipping his escrima out and throwing it to knock out the three guys overpowering Tim.

"Mhm…" is all the reply Dick gets before they're rushed by four more men. They both steel themselves for the fight, but Nightwing takes the time to look his brother over for injuries and just because it's been a while. All of his younger brothers seem to have grown up too fast so he doesn't want to waste a second of time.

Red Robin's suit is mostly undamaged, but Tim is favouring his left foot - probably sprained his right ankle if Dick had to guess. Other than that, Dick can't tell much else regarding injuries. As his eyes go up to meet Tim's he notices something.

"Red Robin, where's your mask?"

One of the men decides that this is the best time to attack Nightwing while another uses the opportunity to sneak up behind Tim. Quickly blocking the man's kick and using his other escrima to knock out the guy behind Tim, Dick notes the irregularities in his younger brother's breathing. He's trying to regulate his breaths to minimilize the amount of green gas around them he inhales.

"Got knocked off a few minutes ago," Tim grunts, dodging a punch aimed at his head. Dick gets distracted fighting off the other two guys momentarily, but manages to stay back to back with Red Robin.

"A few- take mine." Dick doesn't hesitate with the offer, already half reaching up to his face when Tim stops him.

"No point both of us gassed," Tim nods, and though his sentence is broken, it's enough for Dick to understand its meaning. Tim's already been exposed, got it into his system. They don't entirely know if this version of the fear gas' potency is affected by how much you inhale or not, but either way, it's better for one person to be affected and the other not than the two of them half-affected. Dick doesn't like it, but he can't deny the logic.

There's just two guys left. Red Robin is starting to falter visibly. Dick picks up his escrimas and flings them at the remaining two, hitting them square in the foreheads before the sticks return to his hands. It's not the most effective, but with this many enemies in the field, it's better to cut down the numbers than waste time making sure they'll be down for a while.

Reaching out for Tim with one hand, Nightwing aims his grapple up to the skylight where he'd dropped down from and pulls both himself and his brother up.

He doesn't have an antidote on him. He's not even sure they have one ready for whatever new strain this is, but his generic antidote is used up when he helped a police officer earlier tonight. Tim's best bet is to get back to the Cave.

Nightwing's already got an arm around Red Robin, so he can feel the way Tim has already started freezing up. He doubts Tim can even stand on his own, let alone make his own way back.

"Red Robin, you with me?"

Tim barely acknowledges Dick, but that's not a surprise.

Dick's had enough experience with all of his family under fear gas to have a general idea on how to deal with all of them when it happens. Tim doesn't love to talk about what he sees, ever, and while Dick can guess, he doesn't actually know. He does know, however, that Tim usually retreats into himself so usually he just needs a nudge to keep him present. Nothing overtly personal, but he doesn't respond great to shouting or orders.

"Hey, look at me Baby Bird. I'm gonna get you back to the Cave okay? I just need you to keep talking to me." Keep him present. "Tell me five things you see on the way, okay?" Give him an, easy but impersonal task to focus on, doesn't matter if he knows what you're doing or not.

"Sky," Tim murmurs.

Dick looks up… at the layer of smoke, smog and green gas covering up the stars. "Um… yeah, sure, I'll take it. Try to be a little more specific next time though, something you can actually see and don't just know it's there?"

Tim nods absently into Dick's chest. Maintain a grounding physical touch.

"Building."

"Getting there, bud. Let's get going."

Saturday December 14, 00:32

It's slow, making their way through over the rooftops; Tim almost glued to Dick's side, Nightwing almost carrying Red Robin while encouraging him to keep talking about everything real he sees. Not all of what Tim says is real, but Dick doesn't reprimand him for it. He knows that'll only make it worse, even if he's not entirely sure why. Whether it's the 'being shouted at' part, 'being inadequate' part, or something else, Dick knows better than to test his brother.

They're about ten minutes out from the Cave when Dick's comms beeps.

"Batman's been hit with the gas, I repeat, Batman is down," Oracle informs them and Dick falters.

Tim's too out of it to react other than shivering.

"Red Robin's down too. Ten minutes out from the Cave."

"You and Red Hood are the closest to B. Hood, think you can handle that?"

Jason trying to calm down a fear-gassed Bruce probably won't go the best - because of the Red Hood thing, and just because Jason isn't the best at dealing with emotional stuff, specifically from Bruce.

"No. Red Hood, come take Red Robin back to the Cave. I'll go help B," Nightwing ordered.

"Sending your coordinates to Hood now," Oracle confirmed.

"En route," a new voice spoke up, and it wasn't long before Red Hood dropped onto the rooftop in front of Nightwing and Red Robin.

"Hey, Little Red, how you doing?" Jason asked, addressing the youngest brother on the rooftop. "Dickwing," Jason nodded to Dick.

"Hood," Dick greeted. "We'll catch up later, for now, take Red Robin." As he passed the younger teen over, Dick made sure to convey a message to Jason through sign language. 'Panic attack protocol'.

If you have to pass him over, make sure the other person knows what to do.

Dick couldn't see Jason's eyes under his helmet, but he could tell that his younger brother was rolling his eyes as he wrapped an arm around Tim.

"Yeah yeah, I know what to do. Come on Little Red, let's get going. Let's let Golden Boy go wrangle the Big Bad Bat."

Dick just frowned, but they didn't have time to dawdle so he just whacked Jason on the arm, gently squeezed Tim's shoulde as goodbye, and then swung away into the green clouds.

A/n: Ah, so um, as you can probably tell, I started writing this on the date that this takes place and well… *checks calendar and inconspicuously shoves it aside*. ANYWAY, gonna do about five, six-ish chapters for this, still deciding on when to post it because I don't exactly have enough time to post them leading up to the New Year, but it's weird to post them the days after but all on one day kinda defeats the purpose and yet the last one is the most likely option lol.

Welp, stay safe, take care of yourselves (actually relax even for a few minutes, dudes, it's the holidays), and see ya soon (prob really soon lol).

- CrowofArcadiaOaks