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“How much longer?” Donna demands.
Vic looks up from the jet computer. “We’re almost there.”
Wally groans. “Nightwing is gonna kill me. I was supposed to go fetch him an hour ago.”
Garth pats his shoulder consolingly. “Not your fault, KF. There was no way you could have gotten away from them.”
Wally doesn’t look half convinced.
Roy grins back at him from the back of the jet “If Birdie gives you a hard time, just remind him of how he got us caught last time going back to fetch a souvenir for Robin.”
“But he’s been stranded there for an hour” Wally looks down at his still-mending legs.
He heals fast, but not fast enough. It’s going to take at least half an hour more before he is up to managing flash speed again.
“He’ll be fine” Donna smiles soothingly at the distraught speedster. "It isn’t that cold. Worst case, he’s got a bit of frostbite. Believe me, he is gonna be worried about you, not angry. Not once we tell him just why you couldn’t make the rendezvous.”
Wally manages to give a sheepish smile back.
……………………..
Donna and Garth go into the cabin.
It had been complicated to set up surveillance all the way out here, but they needed someone in position to hack into the signal at the right moment. With Vic out of action from that weird virus, it had to be Nightwing.
Well, now the virus mess is fixed, the nutcase who has been stalking them is locked up tight, and their social media ratings are soaring.
Roy glances at Wally, who’s practically vibrating from anxiety. The kid really ought to loosen up a bit.
If Nightwing goes full on Spooky Batman mode and lectures the kid for getting caught, he’s going to use that boxing glove arrow (never mind the bird caught it out of the air last time he tried, he’s figured out how to do it faster).
“What’s keeping them?” Kid Flash tries to press closer to the window, as if that would let him see into the cabin.
“Wait up, KF” Roy shrugs, but…
What is keeping them? Donna and Garth’s been in there for way too long now. He looks at Vic, who frowns slightly, shaking his head.
“Should we… Go check on them?” Wally suggests nervously.
Roy chuckles, ignoring the slight chill down his spine “Don’t get your panties in a twist, kiddo, bird boy is probably on the phone with his owlet. Even Donna wouldn’t risk interrupting that.”
Vic murmurs something into to comm. Likely asking them to report. There’s no reply that Roy can catch, for all he strains his ears.
Then, finally, someone comes out of the cabin. Roy squints, trying to see through the falling snow.
Only two figures?
Two figures… Two figures walking, one of them carrying a third figure, limp in their arms.
Wally leaps to his feet with a shrill cry. “Nightwing!”
Donna enters the jet first. She looks ashen. So does Garth, following. Holding Nightwing’s limp body cradled in his arms.
“Bird boy?” Roy stares.
No. Nope. No way. Abso-freaking-lutely no way. This is not what it looks like. This can’t be what it looks like.
“Donna?” Vic stumbles a bit, getting out of the pilot seat. “What… Is he…”
Garth is full on weeping by now, tears running down his face unheeded.
Donna nods numbly. “We… He was… We found him like this.”
“Donna tried CPR” Garth adds, voice hoarse. “But… it wouldn’t… He wasn’t…”
Roy just stares, frozen in horror. Garth lays Nightwing gently down on the jet’s floor.
Roy wants so desperately for this to be a game. A prank. Something Donna, Garth and Nightwing cooked up while in the cabin.
To get back at them. Maybe to get back at him for that shampoo prank last week. This has to be a prank, because it can’t be real.
This is not how it is supposed to work! No. Bird Boy… Nightwing… Nightwing can’t be just…just dead like that!
“What happened? What the hell’s wrong with…”
There are no injuries he can see.
“Looks like hypothermia” Donna says softly.
Wally blanches.
Roy instinctively moves to put an arm around him. “Nope, no way! Donna, it wasn’t even that cold! Not inside the cabin!”
Worst case, a little frostbite. That is what she said. That is how it should have been. Worst case. And likely not even that. Not that cold. Not cold enough to… No. Just no.
“It was colder than it should have been” Garth says. His eyes are fixed on Nightwing’s motionless body. “Something wrong with the insulation in the cabin. It was cold. Freezing, in there.”
“But…but…”
Even worst case scenario, even full on exposure to the elements scenario… People don’t die that fast! They can’t!
There was that rescue mission he and Ollie went on last month, those tourists stranded up the mountain, they were all still alive when they got to them! Sure, frozen and frost bitten and all that, but alive!
“Are you sure he is…”
Donna nods. So does Wally, whose fingers are trembling on Nightwing’s wrist, trying to listen for a pulse that isn’t there.
“We tried CPR” she repeats helplessly. “But… It was too late…he wasn’t responding…”
Too late. Roy hates hates hates how that phrase sounds. Stupid phrase. Stupid words.
They aren’t supposed to be too late! They’re the Titans, they are freaking superheroes, they are not supposed to be too late! Certainly not too late for one of their own! For their freaking leader!
Wally sinks to the floor beside Nightwing, shaking with sobs.
Donna kneels down beside him. “Wally…”
“I was supposed to go fetch him” the speedster whispers. “I was supposed to…”
“You couldn’t have” Vic declares, putting as much confidence as he can into his voice. “Hear me? You couldn’t have, Wally. We… We all saw what happened, okay? You… You just got unlucky. We just got unlucky. It wasn’t…”
“It was” Wally murmurs. He’s staring straight ahead. “I got caught.”
“And?” Roy demands, his voice a little too shaky “How many times has any of us gotten caught? It wasn’t your frigging fault, Wally! You wanna pin this on someone, pin it on those bastards back there! We’ll make them pay for this, you know we will…we…”
Roy’s voice cracks. Dammit.
Yeah, they can go get them. Brother Blood’s new acolytes are still locked up. They can get to them.
And…then what?
Nightwing is dead. Dead. One of the Titans is dead. That’s not supposed to happen. Superheroes aren’t supposed to die – at least, not supposed to die like this.
They’re supposed to go out in glory, go out blazing, go out saving the freaking world. They’re not supposed to… not supposed to quietly freeze to death alone, when a mission goes a little off the rails.
………………….
Roy isn’t sure how long they stay like that.
Finally, though, Vic moves. “We… We’ve gotta get back.”
Wally blinks up at him as is he’s speaking a foreign language.
“We’ve gotta get him back home” Vic says softly.
That, at last, gets them moving. They… They have to get back. They have to get back home.
They move like automations, even Donna. It’s all… It’s all still unreal. Roy supposes that is shock talking.
Okay then. Let the shock hold till they are home. Till they are at the Tower. Till they can call the grown ups in.
“Should we…” Vic glances at the rest of them “Call someone?”
Call who? JLA? Superman?
Roy actually wants to do that. Wants to step outside and scream for Superman. For a grown up. For someone to come help.
Because they can’t…they just can’t… this is not something they…
But they are supposed to handle this. They chose this life.
They were warned, the JLA tried, told them they are too young. Told them they shouldn’t be doing this alone.
But they had to. They had to, and not just because of their own egos, regardless what some of the JLA still believes.
Kids trusted them. Kids called for their help, kids who wouldn’t have called grown ups. Kids who got hurt by grown ups too often, for too long.
The Titans – kids themselves – could be trusted in a way the grown ups, even grown ups who are superheroes, can’t be.
That’s the point. That’s the whole point. They are supposed to be able to handle whatever might come their way.
They promised JLA – each of them promised their mentors – that they can handle whatever comes their way.
“No point calling anyone” Donna says numbly. “Nothing they can do.”
“We’ll call when we are back at the Tower” Garth adds. “We’ll have to.”
They have to.
They will have to call. Have to tell the JLA. Tell Batman. Tell Robin.
Roy can feel his insides freeze at the realization. They’re going to have to tell Batman and Robin. Tell them Nightwing is not going to come back home.
“Wally?” Donna glances back “You… Wally, get on the seat, strap yourself in.”
Wally shakes his head.
“Wal…”
“I’ll be okay” the kid sounds one wrong word away from breaking apart. “You… You guys fly really steady. I’ll be fine.”
He’s cradling Nightwing’s head in his lap gently. “I’ll just…stay with N? Till we get back home?”
No one really has the heart to argue at this point.
Vic and Donna steel themselves, locking their attention onto the jet’s controls. Lucky them. At least something to focus on.
Roy and Garth can only take their seats beside Wally and Nightwing.
The flight back to the Tower is eerily silent.
Sometimes there are visitors in the Tower. JLA members or other heroes or civilian friends staying over. The Titans Tower isn’t as exclusive as the Watchtower.
But today there is no one. Small mercies. Roy is pretty sure none of them will be able to deal with an outsider right now without breaking down
. At least once they get back they will have time to… To what? Decide how to tell the others? Call Batman?
“How do we tell them?” Garth asks softly, more to himself than to Roy.
They have had to break bad news to families before. Rescue missions, usually. Natural disasters. There was that earthquake a few months back…
No matter how fast you are, sometimes you…just aren’t fast enough. They have had to break bad news before. All of them.
Either as Titans or with their mentors. You kinda learn that too early in this line of work. But… This is…
This is one of their own.
And really, in most of those ‘breaking bad news’ scenarios, it is – was – Nightwing who takes the lead. Has the most experience doing it, given he is from Gotham.
Roy shakes his head. They… they’ll just have to do it. They will have to call, as soon as they get back to the Tower.
If they delay, they will delay too long. They won’t be able to bring themselves to do it. And…if they delay too long…
Sometimes Robin comes by to visit, if Nightwing is delayed getting back from a mission. No way they can risk the kid walking in on…on this.
“I’m sorry” Wally sobs. Garth reaches out to take his hand. “I should have… N… Birdie, I’m…”
Roy turns away. He really really doesn’t want to watch this. He isn’t the type to play comforter.
Even if there really is anything they can say, when something like this is…
He gets to his feet, intending to go tell Donna that he can co-pilot with Vic. She’d be – well, anyone would be, compared to him – better suited to handle Wally right now.
He tries really hard not to look at Nightwing’s face as he passes by.
He’s about to ask Donna to switch when the screams start.
Roy whirls around, hands immediately going for his bow. Sees what Garth and Wally are screaming about. Promptly screams himself, joined a moment later by Vic and Donna.
Nightwing is sitting up.
Blinking owlishly at them, looking confused. “Why’re you crying so loud?”
…………………………..
Roy stares. “It…happens? What the hell you mean, it freaking happens?”
“It happens” Nightwing shrugs. “When it gets cold.”
“And…and you’re back to fine when it gets warm?”
Vic frowns, clearly trying to compute just how the whole thing makes sense. Roy doubts he will be making much headway there.
“Yeah” Nightwing shrugs.
And sure, he definitely looks fine now. Looks normal, anyway, for him. And demonstrates that by perching on the headrest of the seats instead of just sitting down normally like Vic yells at him to do.
“Sorry, probably should have told you guys.”
“Probably” Roy groans “Probably, he says. Bird boy, you better be glad I left my boxing glove arrow back in the Tower.”
No one points out Roy definitely has the boxing glove arrow right here, they can see it in the quiver.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Wally asks again.
Nightwing smiles, a bit apologetically “Yeah, definitely! Promise!”
He’d probably be doing flips to demonstrate if they weren’t in the jet.
“And…” Donna hesitates “As for why this happens… Is it secret identity related? Is that why you didn’t tell us earlier?”
Nightwing hesitates, then nods.
Roy bangs his head against the nearest headrest. Nightwing is the only one of them who hasn’t unmasked or given his real name.
Sure, that isn’t particularly surprising, given he is Batman’s kid and all. They are all pretty sure he is just keeping mum because the Bat told him not to, and not because he doesn’t want to.
(Yes, they are all more than a little twitchy about just how things are between him and Batman, but as of yet, little chance of getting through Bird Boy’s shields).
Forget the name, they aren’t entirely sure which species or what flavour of meta Nightwing is.
Not quite human, that’s all they’ve been able to tell.
Not alien, Nightwing confirmed, but that still leaves plenty stuff in the options list.
Guy either has shape shifting powers or is really good at makeup, given he apparently goes to school with Robin as a normal kid.
And he might possibly be the Bat’s son, like Robin.
But then again, no one is sure what species the frigging Batman is, so that doesn’t really narrow things down much.
Their early agreement not to pry into secret identities still stands, so ‘secret identity related’ is an effective argument to head off a discussion.
“I’m fine” Nightwing promises cheerily “Really! You guys can call B and check when we get back, this just happens sometimes.”
Wally hugs him closer.
……………………………..
That is where they have to leave it.
Secret identities are sacrosanct, that is one of the rules the JLA insisted on. And one of the very few JLA Mandated Rules they haven’t pushed back on.
You can take off the mask if you want to, and anyone who knows is bound to silence, but you can’t push or poke at anyone else’s secret.
Even when the secret apparently involves how they can come back to life.
Roy can’t sleep. He is thankful they all decided to stay at the tower for the night instead of heading home (Ollie isn’t home – he almost never is, these days – and Roy definitely doesn’t want to be alone right now).
But still, sleep is out of the question, apparently.
So, archery practice.
Not that he is feeling particularly in the mood for that, either. And isn’t that just plain freaking weird.
The thing is, he just spent almost an hour convinced his friend is dead. And then the dead friend sat up and started talking.
That’s… weird, even by their standards.
And he’s still not convinced it wasn’t some kind of mass hallucination.
Because the whole freezing to death part makes a horribly mundane bit of sense. It was pretty cold out there. Enough that it might have been touch and go.
So, yes. Possible that Nightwing died in there.
Possibility of the dead bird just coming back to life… Not that high on the probability scale. Even for them.
Which is why, instead of making his way to the archery range or at least to the gym, he wanders over to Nightwing’s room.
Just… Just to kinda check. Make sure they didn’t all…like, go into denial or something.
He goes in hoping that he’ll find bird boy up and about.
Nightwing, true to his name, doesn’t sleep all that much. At least, not while he is in the Tower.
So maybe he can just go in and chat. Maybe poke at him a little. Roy is pretty good at that part.
Of course. Of course, the one night he actually wanted the guy up and about, Nightwing has decided to stick to normal human sleeping hours.
The light is off in the room, though the door isn’t locked.
Okay, it is pretty dumb to startle Bird Boy awake, given his…reflexes, but that has been getting better. (Roy definitely doesn’t want to think too much about what the hell happens in Gotham to give him those reflexes in the first place)
But still, he won’t wake him, he just wants to check… In the dim light filtering in from the hallway, it’s tough to tell whether the figure on the bed – the nest, actually – is moving. Breathing.
Roy knows he ought to go back, go to bed.
They… they can’t all have hallucinated it, suggestion or wishful thinking or whatever. But still…
Screw it. If bird boy claws him, he’s fast enough to dodge (he isn’t, but never mind).
Roy steels himself and moves closer to the nest.
Reaches out a slightly less steady than usual hand, pressing two fingers gently against Nightwing’s wrist. Listening for a pulse.
A pulse which isn’t there.
Isn’t there.
Roy screams. More in denial than anything else. Too many images flashing through his mind at once, they…did they drag the corpse here or…
Before his scream has ended, most of the others are in the room. Roy turns to them, shaking, wondering whether they’d see the truth now or if he’d have to-
“What?!” Nightwing sits up, glaring at him.
No, no. Please, it can’t be starting again. Not when he finally got through the damned delusion.
“Roy?” Donna frowns “Nightwing? What happened?”
“He’s dead!” Roy knows the words came out more as a sob than the declaration he tried for, but at least they are coherent. Which most of his thoughts aren’t, at the moment.
“Who’s dead?” Nightwing gets to his feet. “What the hell?”
………………………………………
After that, even Nightwing has to admit some explanation is due.
Mostly so that, as he will claim later, Roy won’t try to exorcise or bury him. Bastard.
Which is why they all find themselves in the common room – there is a conference room, JLA style, but almost none of the Titan meetings are actually held in there – at three in the morning, clutching hastily brewed mugs of hot chocolate courtesy of Garth.
By the time Nightwing finishes his casual explanation, Roy feels like he’s about to puke back up the bit of chocolate he managed to drink.
“So… Those times you talked about being ‘made cold’… You literally meant those bastards literally -freaking literally – KILLED you?!?”
Nightwing nods, frowning a little like he isn’t sure why they are all ‘overreacting’. “I come back
“You…come back.”
“Yeah?”
“To be fair” Donna manages, though even she is looking a bit ashen “That is not exactly the weirdest thing we’ve dealt with.”
“It is the frigging creepiest, though” Vic mutters. No one disagrees.
“So…” Wally moves closer to Nightwing, like barely resisting the impulse to wrap him in a hug “Do you…are you…”
“Do you even have a pulse?” Roy blurts out.
Nightwing grins. “Yeah, sure. It’s just… you know, really slow.” He holds out his hand. “Keep your fingers on for a bit. Couple of seconds won’t cut it.”
It is Wally who reaches out first, hand shaking a bit. He pauses for a horribly long time, fingers on Nightwing’s wrist. Then, finally, his eyes widen. “Yes!”
Nightwing grins. “Now convinced I’m not a zombie? At least, not all the way?”
“You look way too pretty to be a zombie, dude.”
“So” Donna’s eyes narrow “This… Court of Owls. Batman dealt with all of them?”
“Practically all. They… They killed themselves when it was clear they couldn’t escape. And they killed the other Talons.”
“All of them are gone?”
“As far as we know” Nightwing doesn’t sound quite as sure as he would have liked.
Donna’s eyes almost glow. “Nightwing. If they – even one of them – if you find out even one of them survived, if they ever surface. Call me. Call us.”
“Donna…”
“Sorry, not up to debate.”
“Yep” Roy declares. “Believe me, we can all use some catharsis if those psychos ever show up again.”