Chapter Text
"Maybe if you stop being such a dick and answer your com when I ask -"
"I told you it was handled."
"How am I supposed to know that?"
"Maybe by listening when I say it's handled!"
"Guys? We've kinda got bigger problems here!"
The Red Hood scowled behind his helmet. He wanted to argue that the only reason they were even in Bludhaven was to avoid their idiot brother fading out of existence, making his safety their most important problem.
However, the replacement was right.
His irritation continued to prod at him as he turned his attention back to the rest of the warehouse. Even with all three of them, barely a dent had been made in their numbers. Occultists ran around, leaving disgusting trails of blood behind them that were only smeared further by other bare, broken feet dragging through the mess. The whole place had a scent of iron so thick that the Red Hood could taste it through his helmet.
And there in the center was the altar with their leader on it.
She stood on top of the altar, not even noticing the candle burning a scorching mark into her bare shin. Her nude chest heaved as she chanted louder and louder. She opened her eyes wide, too wide, staring at them before a wild smile came over her face. It would have been a pornographic sight if it weren't for the sigils written in her followers' blood dripping down her skin.
"That can't be good." Nightwing muttered. "I'll go left -"
"You and the replacement go left." Hood interrupted. "They're after you."
"Exactly. I play distraction while you two go after her." Nightwing said simply.
"If they're after you, you should have more protection."
"I don't need -"
"I need you both to focus!" Red Robin snapped before looking sharply at the Red Hood. "Now come on!"
Hood scowled, but he followed Red Robin into the rafters as Nightwing laughed "Come and get me!" whilst he flipped onto the floor. A wave of disgust rolled down Hood's back as he watched grabbing hands and bloodied digits reach and grope at the older vigilante. However, he gritted his teeth and turned away. He and Red Robin crept along the rafters, doing their best to keep quiet despite the rotting wood groaning at their weight. They had only just managed to drop down past the hoard when their leader began to laugh.
"You're too late! We're going to erase Nightwing from existence!"
She shut her eyes, chanting, and the Red Hood spun around to stare at his brother.
Two of the cultists were holding onto his arms, one on each, while another had a hand tightly wrapped around his neck and drew strange symbols on the side of his face.
However, no one was holding his legs.
In a show of flexibility that made Hood wince, Nightwing threw one leg up in a brutal kick to the man's temple over his shoulder. He crumpled to the ground, stunning the other two holding onto Nightwing. With a toothy grin, the hero pulled against one of them while moving toward the other. Both off-balance, he danced into a leg swipe that toppled them both to the floor.
Nightwing then wiped at the grotesque fingerpainting, making a face as he smeared half of the sigils into a disgusting mess. He caught Hood's eye and winked, jumping back into the fray.
He turned back to the crazy lady as she picked up a knife from the altar.
Red Robin pulled out his staff as Hood took his gun out of the holster, prepared for an attack.
However, as she pressed the knife to her own throat, Hood only had long enough to think shit before there was a spray of blood.
She opened her eyes, euphoria in her whole being even as she bled and bled and bled - until her eyes caught on the ruined sigils on Nightwing's face. Her mouth twisted into angry, upset words even as she collapsed, blood beginning to pour out of her mouth and her eyes and her ears, and suddenly, her blood began to twist and turn into the air into -
"Fuck! Move, move, move!" Hood shouted, and he and Red Robin began to run.
The occultists began to drop one by one, eyes glazed over in death before they even hit the ground.
Nightwing spun around as the person he was fighting dropped, eyes catching on the massive portal that was opening behind them. He sent his grappling hook into the rafters not a moment too soon as a great force began to suck everything inside. He swung towards his brothers as quick as he could. He just managed to clasp the Red Hood's arm as Hood gripped onto Red Robin's hand.
"Hold on!" Nightwing shouted as they were pulled almost parallel to the ground.
The suction and growing winds pulled at them painfully, and Nightwing let out a wheezing noise. The portal seemed to almost loom over them, crimson and black so deep it looked like a sky with no stars. It pulsed, somehow even pulling the light into it's sickening maw. Hood had the awful vision for a moment of ruby red lips grinning, laughing, opening wide to swallow them down -
It took the Red Hood one second to realize exactly what was going to happen after it was too late to change course.
They were too heavy for either the older vigilante or the rotting wood that the grappling hook had caught onto. Nightwing would never let go, not willingly, but his body would slowly rip and break. Tendons, fingers, ligaments, bones. Nightwing would hold on until he couldn't anymore or the grappling hook was ripped from its station, and then they'd all be lost.
Unless -
"Let me go!" Red Robin cried, one step ahead as always.
"Are you crazy?" Nightwing yelled.
"You can't hold both of us!" Red Robin shouted back.
Nightwing partially suppressed a cry as the beam holding the grappling gun gave just a little, jolting all of them towards the portal.
"He's right!" Hood gasped out before raising his voice. "He's right! You can't hold us! You have to let us go!"
"Us?" Red Robin gaped. "He could still hold onto you -"
"I'm way heavier than you are!" Hood shouted. "You're a twig. I'm all muscle!"
"Now isn't the time!" Red Robin laughed just a little hysterically.
"Both of you shut up!" Nightwing shouted. "I'm not letting either of you go!"
Then he gave a little cry as his shoulder gave. Even with the severe amount of pain and burning that Red Hood knew he'd have to be feeling, he didn't let go of the grappling gun or them.
"Wing!" Red Robin cried out.
His face was twisted from the strain, red and scrunched up in an awful way that told the Red Hood all he needed to know to make a decision.
"It's okay, big blue. You'll get us back." Hood said with more confidence than he felt.
Nightwing looked at him with more fear in his eyes than Hood had seen . . . ever. The blood on the side of his face shined like tears. "Jason -"
"See you later." Hood said, and he twisted his arm out of Nightwing's grasp.
"No!" Nightwing let out an awful noise, hand still reaching towards them. As Jason felt himself slip through the portal, he watched as Nightwing let go of the grappling gun, flipping midair in some wild rebellion against the forces of nature. His hand was reaching out so close, close enough to grab, and relief slipped through him as the portal closed just before Nightwing could reach them.
The Red Hood closed his eyes and let the darkness take him.
Red Robin groaned as he sat up. Every muscle through his arms and shoulders felt like Swiss cheese, not to mention the sharp pain down the back of his neck. He ran a hand over it, trying to stretch out the ache just a little when Nightwing's terrified face drifted too slowly into his mind. His eyes snapped open.
They were in the same warehouse, but instead of blood and gore and death, the entire place appeared untouched. There was no blood, no gore, no dead bodies. Just the sound of rain pounding on the rooftop, thunder rattling somewhere in the distance.
"Not dead. Whoopie." Red Hood muttered dully from where he stayed sprawled out on the hard floor. He didn't even try to get up. Red Robin winced for him. He could only imagine how sore the older man was after holding both Red Robin and his own body weight.
And that was not to mention Nightwing.
(God, his face -)
There was another boom of thunder, but this time, it was closer.
"Are you hurt?" Red Robin asked simply.
"I sure hope not." Red Hood replied, still not moving.
"You're not helping right now." Red Robin said.
Hood snorted.
"Who are you?" a voice called, and Red Robin spun on his heel. Hood was on his feet in an instant, but both of them relaxed when they saw who it was.
"Zatanna!" Red Robin gasped out. "Boy, are we glad to see you!"
She eyed them both wearily, hands raised threateningly and her soaked hair sticking flat to her head. She pursed her lips before slowly lowering her hands. "I take it we're friends wherever you're from?"
"You don't recognize us?" Red Robin asked.
"Can't say I do." she replied. "But you're obviously bats, and I know them."
"Great." Red Hood grumbled. "So can you send us back?"
"I don't even know where you're from." Zatanna pointed out with an amused huff. "But yeah. You certainly can't stay here."
Red Robin's eyebrows jumped up, curiosity on his face when Zatanna interrupted him with some kind of spell. Unsure, he kept his mouth shut as she reared even further back from them.
"This is blood magic." Zatanna hissed. "It's all over you."
"So we'll take a shower." Hood snapped. "Now can you get us home?"
"This isn't good." she murmured, eyebrows furrowing.
Red Robin stepped towards her. "Look. We don't know what that means. Can you help us? Or at least tell us where we are?"
She sighed, brushing a wet strand of hair out of her face. "You're in the past. I can't tell how long ago this is for you, but you're in the past."
"Great." Hood said. "So send us forward."
"It's not that easy." Zatanna replied, a grim note in her voice. "For one, the spell to return you to your place in time is difficult. It'll take spell work on both sides -"
"I'm sure dickface will have called in reinforcements, so just start the spell."
"Let her finish." Red Robin hushed his brother.
"Thank you. As I was saying, the magic that sent you back had a requirement - a binding if you will. It won't return you unless you fulfill it, so we have to break the binding before we can even try to return you home."
"Well, what did the magic portal require?" Hood asked. "We could just do that and get home. It's faster than breaking some kind of magic curse or whatever this shit is."
Zatanna raised her hands threateningly. "I'd take you both out before I let you do that."
"Whoa, we don't want to fight!" Red Robin exclaimed, stepping forward and moving his hands out in a placating gesture far away from his belt. "We don't know what the - the binding was asking. We don't know. We were with Nightwing -"
"Nightwing?" the magic user asked, hands lowering just a touch.
"Yes!" Red Robin exclaimed. "He was being targeted. We were trying to help him when this big portal opened -"
"And we were dropped off here." Hood finished off.
Zatanna blew out a breath. "Okay. Okay, I believe you."
"You do?" Red Robin blinked.
"I do." she confirmed. "What, not used to someone trusting you?"
"You're the one who called us bats." Hood muttered with just a bit too much bitterness beneath his tone.
"Fair. The requirement - Well, it's to kill Nightwing." Zatanna said.
"Fuck." Hood said, and based on his tone, Red Robin could imagine his eyes wider than normal. "I guess we can't do that."
"No." Zatanna said sharply. "Besides, now - now is one of the worst times you could be here."
"Why? What's wrong with now?" Red Robin asked.
"Because you're at a fixed point in time." Zatanna said severely, face far tighter than normal. "Why else would I be here? My magic drew me here to protect the time stream. You two being here - It's bad. So listen to me carefully."
"Aye, aye, captain." Hood replied.
Just a hint of amusement slid onto her lips before she continued on. "I'm going to give you two my card. You will get a hotel room somewhere, and then you will stay there until I say so."
"Great." Hood said.
"Okay. We can do that." Red Robin said. "Thanks, Zatanna."
She pulled out a credit card and pressed it into his hand, saying "I mean it. Hotel room and nothing else. Even if someone's screaming. You can't do anything while you're here or time could unravel."
"We won't." Red Robin assured her. "Hotel and nothing else. I promise."
She nodded tightly. "Okay. I trust you."
It took the Red Hood approximately twenty minutes to prove Red Robin's word untrustworthy.
They had just cut through an abandoned alleyway when a black and blue blur flung itself past them down the street.
"Nightwing." Hood said before pulling out his grappling gun.
"What are you doing?" Red Robin hissed.
"Come on. You can't tell me you're not curious about what makes tonight so special." Hood scoffed. "If Nightwing's here, it obviously has to do with him."
"Of course I'm curious! That doesn't mean I'm willing to destroy the timeline to find out!"
"Relax. I'm not gonna do anything." Hood replied, and then he was swinging away.
Red Robin wanted to tear his hair out. Instead, he pulled out his grappling hook and flew through the rain.
Later, Red Robin would berate himself for - for a lot of things. For not insisting Red Hood do what Zatanna said. For not seeing the way Nightwing far ahead of them never once noticed he was being followed. The way Nightwing stumbled, the way Nightwing's flips were practically nonexistent.
However, in the moment, Red Robin found himself following Red Hood to a rooftop, a rooftop that Nightwing already stood upon next to a Nightwing signal that burned into the sky. The two of them hid just below the ledge in time to hear a woman say "Take these. Please. I never should have made you turn them in." Red Robin chanced a glance over the rooftop, eyes catching on a badge.
A gun.
"I can't protect you if you're not --"
"Amy, listen." Nightwing said, and it threw Red Robin for a moment to hear his voice sound - sound different. Younger. The timber of his voice wasn't as deep, wasn't as steady, and he sounded tired in a way that Red Robin wasn't used to. "It's not your job to protect me, it's the other way around . . ."
"I mean . . . legally. As a police officer you can . . ."
Red Robin sucked in a breath.
He glanced over at Hood to see his reaction and found himself surprisingly grateful for the helmet. He didn't want to see the older man's face.
"You have more options." the woman, Amy, continued.
The sound of the grappling gun was oddly loud, echoing, and that was answer enough.
"That's the same kid that saved us when our house blew up?" a man asked, voice incredulous, and Red Robin's eyebrows furrowed at the idea of anyone calling Nightwing a kid. "No offense, hon, but I hope you sent him to the hospital . . ."
The Red Hood stiffened beside him.
Red Robin had just a moment to think We should go find a hotel.
Then Red Hood was swinging into the night after their brother, and Red Robin was right on his heel.
When Nightwing led them right to a hotel, Red Robin didn't know what to think. Whether it was ironic or a sign from the universe was a question better left to philosophers. Red Robin didn't have the nerve to ponder it, not when a giant of a man was crashing through glass, the sounds of gunfire echoing loud enough to reach them outside of the building.
Red Hood was obviously itching to go inside. The arching lightning in the gray clouds above them didn't do anything to help.
(Red Robin would deny it, but he wanted to run inside just as much. However, one of them had to be the impulse control, and it obviously wasn't going to be the Red Hood.)
"Do you think . . ." Red Robin's voice drifted off, unsure of what he was going to ask.
Do you think he killed someone?
Do you think he's okay?
Do you think he's a murderer?
Do you think he's a liar?
Do you think he's a hypocrite?
Do you think he's the same man we think he is?
Red Hood said nothing.
Then there was a bang, loud and jarring. Red Robin rushed to the fire escape, hiding to the best of his ability, but he may as well not have. The door to the roof stayed open where it'd been thrown, and Nightwing . . . Nightwing stumbled into the rain. His footsteps were - were awful. Uneven. Stumbling. Even as the rain began to wash away the blood, Red Robin couldn't tear his eyes away from proof of . . . something.
(Don't jump to conclusions. Red Robin thought to himself, desperately not putting together the puzzle pieces he'd been handed. You don't know -)
Nightwing collapsed to his knees. Red Robin couldn't hear anything, but Red Hood stiffened from his hiding place behind the roof access.
Red Robin didn't want to know what Nightwing said.
Then there were more even footsteps walking through the rain. A woman. Relief ran through Red Robin's veins thicker than his own blood, clogging up his arteries with newfound hope. Adrenaline drained out of his body bit by bit -
Until she pushed him down onto the wet roof.
Until she climbed on top of him.
Until -
("No!" Nightwing had cried out, arm outstretched as if he could stop them from falling, falling, falling just like his -)
("Even if someone's screaming. You can't do anything . . ." Zatanna had warned, dark eyes boring into his as if she knew just how monumentous, how traitorous, how torturous what she asked was -)
Red Robin's hands shook, staring as she - as she -
Don't. He hissed at himself.
Then there was a hole ripping through the back of her head, blood misting through the air as her brain matter spilled out through a blessed, cursed hole. Her body, suddenly boneless, collapsed forward onto Nightwing at the same moment that the sound echoed through his mind like another roll of thunder in the storm.
Slowly, slowly, Red Robin turned to stare at the Red Hood.
And the gun in his hand.