Got Your Back, Always

III.XXIX

Cassie pulled her bike in and tossed it aside when she saw a body on the ground. "Gray!"

She bolted towards him, she collapsed next to him. He was still bleeding out, but not responding. She ripped off her jacket and put pressure on the wound, and checked his pulse.

Nothing.

"No, no, no." She started doing chest compressions, trying to keep her panic down.

Gar shouts out, "Dick!"

Him and Rachel run towards the two.

"No!" Rachel shouts.

She collapses by his side, breathing heavily, watching as Cassie continues to do chest compressions.

"Rach, is there anything you can do?" Gar asks.

Cassie stops, and lets Rachel try.

Rachel summons some of her power and tries, she sobs when nothing works, "Dick! No. It's too late."

"No, I refuse. It's not too late," Cassie shakes her head and tries again, pressing harder this time. Tears falling down her face without her knowing.

Gar screams out. Bats begin to fly around them. Gar starts to turn green, and into a bat.

"Gar?" Rachel asks.

The bats all swirl around Dick, and pick him up. Gar leads the way and they take him to the lazarus pit, Cassie is right behind them. Rachel runs after them too.

"Gar now!" Rachel shouts.

The bats lower him into the pit.

Gar turns back into himself, "Rachel? Is he gonna make it?"

"I don't know."

Cassie collapses on the edge, "He fucking better. He promised."

The pit starts to bubble.

Dick hears Cassie, Gar, and Rachel's voices. And then Crane's.

"In the beginning, there was fear."

"Where am I?"

"Eternity. Your story begins the night your parents died. When Mommy and Daddy died, a door in you closed. You closed it in an attempt to avoid further pain. Didn't quite work though, did it?"

"What are you talking about?"

"When a parent dies, it's like the ground beneath you suddenly gives way. You trust nothing good again, not fully. You live in fear. But Bruce Wayne, he showed you how to live with that fear. Punish it, strike first. And then that's all you had. Fear and rage. You felt fear, and dealt rage. Don't you get it? The battle for your soul... is over. You lost."

"Dick..." Rachel's voice can be heard.

"You chose the path..."

"Talk to me..."

"Of Bruce Wayne. But he was not your father. You are the son of John Grayson. And he would be so disappointed with the man that you've become. You're failing him. Just like you failed everyone. Jason. He never stood chance too. You always wanted him dead."

"No."

"So you killed him."

"No, it was the Joker."

"The Joker was just a weapon in your hands. You always wanted Jason gone. So you abandoned him. You hated him. You wanted to be the Detective's only son. And then Jason came and he took your place. He took your home... he took your father. You holding a gun to his head tonight, that was as predictable as the sun rising."