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Tim flipped his bo staff between his fingers and hands as he fought back the seemingly never ending amount of drug smugglers. It had been nearly half an hour since they started fighting. Tim was started to get worn out.
He looked toward Red Hood, he was still on his feet and fighting with all his might. Hood shot in all directions, not to kill, but to get the smugglers off himself.
There was three left for each of them. Tim swings his staff around, hit all three of them at once, sending them to the floor. Tim turns to Red Hood. He shoots the last smuggle in the leg before pistol whipping him across the face.
“Are you good?” Despite having his mask on, Tim can see Jason nod to him. Tim swings his staff as it shrinks to his utility belt. “Let’s get these guys tied up for the cops.”
Together, they zip tie each of the smugglers legs and wrists together. Tim had grown used to the silence Red Hood gives those he works with. They had just started getting along and Tim didn’t want to screw that up.
Just as they had finished tieing the smugglers up, Tim had felt a sharp stab to his neck. He reached his hand up, thinking it was a bug bite or something, but his blood ran cold as he pulled out a large needle with a vial of fear toxin attached to it.
Tim drops the vial, catching Hood’s attention. He spins to see what Tim dropped and curses under his breath.
“Red, you got a dose of the antidote on you?” As Tim looks at Jason — well, his helmet — Jason can tell the toxin is already in his system. Tim’s breathing picks up tenfold as he slowly backs away from the older man.
Tim knew it was the fear toxin in his system, but right now his instincts were going haywire and telling him to turn and run. In front of him was the Red Hood, crow bar in hand, and he was back in the Titan’s Tower again.
“Red, talk to me. Please.” Jason stops approaching Tim, but Tim doesn’t stop backing away. Tim trips on a sewer grate behind him and lands on his backside with a thump.
“No. Please. You can have Robin back. I-” Tim scrambles away from Jason as the horror of what Tim thinks he is seeing dawns on him.
“Oh God.” Jason slowly reaches up as Tim gets further away from him and takes his helmet off in the hopes that it would help Tim calm down. Instead, it just seemed to make things worse.
Tim watched as the Red Hood took his helmet off, his outfit washing away into his old Robin uniform. The man had stopped in place but was laughing at him. Tim could hear Batman’s voice around him, telling him he is a failure and that he would never live up to Jason Todd.
Jason reaches into his utility belt slowly and pulls out an injector with the antidote in it. Tim was clearly completely out of it and completely drawn in by whatever the fear toxin was showing him.
“Red, I am going to give you the antidote. Okay?” Jason honestly couldn’t tell if his words were registering at all with the kid, but he needed to give him the antidote.
Jason crouched in front of Tim, trying to make himself look smaller in the hopes that it would make him less of a danger in Tim’s mind. He slowly shuffles his way toward him, not caring about the inevitable scuff marks that will appear on his pants and boots.
Tim watched as the ex-Robin dragged the large crow bar toward him with malice on his face. Tim decided he had had enough for one lifetime and gathered the resolve to grab his bõ staff again. He swung it at Jason with intent. He was not going to go down easy.
Jason barely moved out the way in time for Tim’s staff to miss his head. He was really regretting having taken his helmet off now.
“Jesus-” Jason was now pretty much on his back, the antidote still in hand. Tim jumped to his feet faster than Jason had ever seen the kid move before, and Jason did the same, mainly out of concern for his own safety. “Red. C’mon man. I don’t want to fight you.”
Tim prepared himself. Despite the size difference between himself and Jason, he was determined to make his mark on the older man the same way Jason had done to him. Not quite to the same level of violence Jason had wrought on him, but he wanted to show him he was a good Robin.
Jason was a tank of a man, but the problem with being Jason’s size is that it can slow you down. Especially when you are up against someone who is small and scrawny but can hit you with a bõ staff like no one else can.
Jason dunked and dodged the staff where he could, but some hit where unavoidable.
“Red! Stop! I’m trying-” Another near miss to his temple. “I’m trying to help you!” Jason groaned and rolled his eyes as Tim didn’t stop coming at him. “Sorry, baby bird, but you bought this on yourself.”
Tim saw something change in Jason’s face as he bought his arm up, the crow bar reaching far above both of their heads. Tim threw his staff up in defence as Jason’s arm came down.
Jason tried just going for it and hoping he could get Tim in the arm with the antidote, but the kid was blocking him every which way. Jason knew it was going to take physically restraining Tim to get the antidote in him.
Tim was exhausted already, but he couldn’t give in. Jason was undoubtedly going to kill him this time. He still had to prove that he was a good Robin by putting up a half decent fight back against him. He could still hear the disappointment in Bruce’s voice around him.
Jason let Tim get in close, having to have a few hits of the staff land as he did. He just needed to get the kid in a headlock to get the staff away from him. Luckily for Jason, Tim was throwing hard hits with the staff, but he wasn’t really coordinated. He was throwing blind hits in the hope of hitting Jason. Jason waited until Tim was within two feet of him before he grabbed him by his head.
“Sorry.” Jason pulled Tim’s head down to meet his knee with a sickening crunch. Jason hadn’t meant to break his nose, he swears, but he forgot his own strength sometimes. Tim was thrown all balance, dropping the staff as he did.
“This’ll help. I swear.” Jason all but pounced at the opportunity and stuck the needle into Tim’s neck.
Tim watched as the crow bar was lifted above his head, Jason had a sickening smirk on his face as he spoke.
“I can make it all better.” Tim braced himself for the painful hit, closing his eyes and whimpering, but instead all he got was a sharp scratch to the neck. When he opened his eyes, the illusion melted away.
In front of him was Jason, his helmet off, hands out in front of him in submission and looking Tim straight in the eyes.
“You back with me, Red?” Tim took a few deep breaths through his mouth before swallowing hard. He pulled a face at the sour, metallic taste. He reached his hand to his face.
“Did-did you break my nose, Hood?” Jason chuckled for a second.
“You did hit me repeatedly with your staff whilst under fear toxin, but I didn’t mean to break it, I swear.” Tim couldn’t help but smile back at him.
“C’mon, let's get out of here. We need to get your nose reset-” As Jason got to his feet and extended his hand to Tim, he grimaced and clutched his ribs. “— and maybe a couple of my ribs. How the hell do you have so much power behind that staff? You’re tiny.” Tim chuckled now as he took Jason’s hand to stand.
“I don’t know. Practice I guess.”