InsaneJournal

Who: Tim Drake-Wayne & Cassandra Sandsmark
What: A reunion
When: A few hours after this [backdated]
Where: A rooftop
Rating: PG-13
Status: Complete

Tim felt better after seeing Jason, having drank his entire body weight in coffee. He’d had a chance to pull his thoughts together, sort of. It was a lot, though, he’d just defeated Ra’s and had been about to address the board as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises (despite Damian complaining that Tim had ‘stolen his birthright’ never mind that Damian was eleven and a total demon-child and it had been Bruce that had arranged for Tim to take over, so Bruce still believe in him even if Dick didn’t) when he’d been pulled into Goodland.

His last face to face meeting with Cassie had been at Bruce’s grave where she, like everyone else, had told him to let go and move on and- And it smarted. He’d found the evidence though, if not Bruce and he was annoyed that he’d been pulled out of his world before he’d been able to make anyone else see.

At least the League had been defeated. Tim was still carrying some residual bruising from that and his splenectomy had been recent enough that none of the scars had healed. He was sure he still had stitches, but he hadn’t checked. No time, really.

He stretched his arms over his head as he landed on the roof, hearing the gravel crunching beneath his sneakers as he strolled towards where he was meeting Cassie. Rooftops made him feel safe, even if it was the early afternoon.

He lifted his hand to shield his eyes from the sun as a shadow fell over him and he turned his head to look at Cassie, backlit and haloed by the sun like the Amazonian she was.

“Hey.”

Cassie was still reeling mentally from what Tim had told her about Conner being alive, to the point that his news about Bruce barely even registered. Instead, her focus was on the main link between the two of them, and she was somewhat in shock over it. Still, that didn’t stop her from wanting to see Tim. After all, he was one of her best friends, and it mattered that he was there, and she was glad of that. Like she’d told Kori, at least they weren’t alone.

The news about Conner had sent her up into the air to give herself a little bit of time to process it, and also served the purpose of going as far up in the atmosphere as she could, testing the limits of Goodland’s borders. Finally, though, she knew she couldn’t stay up there forever, and the blonde superhero gently glided back down to make her way to the building they had agreed upon for their meeting.

In the seconds it took him to see her shadow, she studied her friend, searching for some difference between the Tim she knew and this one, who was from some point in the near future. He carried himself a little differently and he looked stronger, but before she could seek more physical differences, he was turning and greeting her. Cassie managed to squeeze out a small smile as her boots touched down on the rooftop, and without speaking she closed the distance between them to hug him tightly. It wasn’t as tight as she’d playfully threatened, but it was definitely not some weak, loose hug either.

“Hey,” she whispered against his shoulder as she closed her eyes.

“Hey,” Tim replied. It had taken him a moment to adjust; he still wasn’t used to being hugged. It had been a long time, travelling (mostly) alone and Tam didn’t count since he was pretty sure she hated him. He lifted his arms and looped them loosely around her waist, squeezing once but the hug was for her benefit not his. He remembered deleting the message she’d left without even checking it, the same way he had with everyone’s. Their conversation at Bruce’s grave - where she’d obviously left and called Dick to check in on him - was fresh enough, but so was how she’d agreed to come and help him with the League.

When the chips were down, whether she believed him or not that Bruce was alive, she’d still come when he called. They all had, not because he was trying to find Bruce but because he had needed them to save innocent people, needed them to save his family - what there was left of it. To save Bruce’s legacy and people respected that.

He didn’t pull away, though.

A part of Cassie didn’t want to let go anytime soon. She wished they could go back to their Young Justice days, when they were all so young and naive and children who’d been playing at being heroes, and they’d been more innocent. But those days were long gone for all of them, and that’s why after a few minutes, she took a deep breath, then raised her head and loosened her hold on him so that she could tip her head back and give him a warm smile.

“You got taller,” she said half-accusingly. “Who said you could do that?”

Tim snorted, glanced down at himself and then back at her. She was still taller than he was. “Still waiting on that proper growth spurt,” if it would ever come. Probably not, knowing his luck. In a few years, Damian would be taller than him and the hellspawn would have one more thing to lord over him. Ugh. As her hold loosened and she smiled at him, he slipped free, rubbing the back of his neck, a guilt rippling over him at having dropped a bombshell on her without realising she didn’t know.

He probably should have checked, first. Checked where in time she was from.

It was bad enough that he’d lost Bruce to the timestream, but his friends being pulled from different times, too, knowledge of the future which was always dangerous to have because by knowing it you changed it…

“I’m sorry, Cassie,” he said, looking at her for a moment before turning his head to brood over the landscape. It was always easier wearing a domino. “I should- I’m sorry.”

Cassie didn’t argue when he pulled away completely, but she did walk over to the edge of the rooftop so that she could sit, still facing him. She had no worry about falling, and if she did? Well, she could fly, so that wouldn’t be a problem either. “Wait - why? You have nothing to apologize for,” she replied.

Her smile this time was slightly more forced, but still genuine. “You gave me good news. Conner’s alive - which is amazing. I’m still processing it, but, honestly? That’s the best thing I’ve heard in months.”

Tim trailed after her. He was in jeans, a tee and a red hoodie. He didn’t have any equipment on him, but he still sat right on the edge of the building as if he would be able to catch himself with a grappling hook should he fall. Heights stopped bothering him a long time ago; couldn’t work with Batman and be afraid of falling.

Perched on the edge of the building and looking down at the ground below him, Tim offered Cassie a small smile, even if it wasn’t directed at her. “Yeah,” he said, “you guys are back with the Titans.” He’d thought hard about her comment about Bart, he’d second guessed himself at the time because he had definitely had a few moments where he’d thought he was hallucinating Conner but it had felt too real. “I’m pretty sure Bart’s with you too. I- I’m not.” Because he wasn’t Robin anymore and the Titans needed a Robin. Damian, probably. He got everything else, why not his Titans too.

He glanced at her. “Y’know, in the future.”

Cassie’s own gaze was focused on her friend as she listened to him, relieved to hear that Conner was with the team again. His next words had her blinking in surprise, though, and Cassie shook her head in wonder. “Bart too...that’s - incredible.” And it was just as good to hear that as it had been to hear about Conner, and she couldn’t help the bright smile she shot him one bit.

“I’m sorry you’re not,” she added. When he’d left, Cassie hadn’t known if, or when, he would come back - but that didn’t matter right this moment. “Sounds like there’s a lot of good in the future. And hey - you’re with me here. That counts, Tim.”

“I’m not Robin anymore,” Tim said with a shrug, brushing off her apology, wishing again for the domino he used to wear all the time around them because that would have hidden the slight wince when Cassie said that there was a lot of good in the future. There was, for her. He’d still lost everything, even if he’d managed to save Bruce’s legacy from Ra’s. “Robin belongs on the Titans. I’m pretty sure they put Damian on the team. So you guys still have a connection to Batman.”

He breathed out and picked at the seam on the inside sleeve of his hoodie. “Wherever ‘here’ is, Cass. God knows how long we’ll be here, or what’ll happen to us. It’s bad enough that the Entity, whoever it is, doesn’t seem to have much control over this place that it’s plucking people from different places in time from the same reality. It’s pulling people from different versions of our world too. The Bruce that’s here is alive but doesn’t- the Dick? He’s never met a version of me.”

Clearing his throat, Tim leaned back on his hands. “But it’s fine. You’re right. It could be worse. The League could be here. Or Grodd. Or Trigon. Man, I hate that guy.”

“You’re still Robin to me,” she said - and a part of it may have been out of loyalty, but it was also very true. He was her best friend these days, and one of the first people she’d ever fought beside. No matter who else took up the mantle, Tim would always be her Robin.

Cass stared at him for a moment when he finished, because he wasn’t always much of a talker and that was the most number of words she’d heard him string together at once. It was practically his version of babbling. Gently nudging his shoulder with her own, she held up her phone. “Well. I just found out Diana’s here, and it’s pretty obvious she’s never heard of me or Wonder Girl, so I get it.”

A tiny smile pulled at her lips when he started listing things. “Yeah, you know who else could be here? Lobo. Think what a nightmare that would be,” she pointed out.

“Might not have happened yet,” Tim pointed out, kindly. “These realities seem to be a little slower on the sidekick uptake than ours.” Which wasn’t a surprise, considering how quickly the Justice League cycled through sidekicks, both adult and teenage. It was a small wonder there weren’t more villains, or a league of villains made up of kicked out sidekicks with daddy issues.

He snorted again. “Hate that guy, too,” he agreed. “Though from what I’ve gathered so far, there’s a lot of metahumans here. He’d be wiped out in an hour.”

“It’s possible. God, can you imagine how they must be dealing with things without us?” The thought was both amusing and scary at once, but she was glad that he seemed to be relaxing now - for the moment anyway.

“See, now that almost makes me want him here. Still, I’d take Slobo over Lobo any day, if I had a choice.” While he still had the occasional psychopathic and terrorizing tendencies, Slobo had become something more of a friend than anything, and she held a certain fondness even for him. She did for anyone who’d ever been on a team with her, really, which Tim was no doubt familiar with.

“So what’s the plan here? Team up with others or...what?” Right now, Cassie couldn’t really think of anything else to do.

Tim felt his lips curl up into something like a smile. From what little he’d managed to gather, Bruce hadn’t gone darkside after Jason had died and Dick seemed to be doing alright, but then Jason wasn’t dead in his world so there was still time. Though it had been a while since he’d been on the team, it was reassuring that Cassie knew he’d have a plan.

He always had a plan, after all.

“Find a base location,” he started, back straightening. Plans were his comfort zone, he was always more comfortable when he was in control. “Somewhere we can set up and make a new base, where I can find a Perch. Understand what’s happening here; what this place is, who the Entity is, how people come and go. Also get back into a training routine so we can be prepared if there’s another invasion of… uh, bad guys. Jason said something about that.”

He cleared his throat, “Work out who else we can trust here, who we can pull in to work with us. Not replace your team, but make a temporary one for however long we’re here. That means if something happens we can give a coordinated response.”

Tilting his head at her, his lips twitched again, something like his Robin smile. “Thoughts?”

Encouraged by the faint smile coming from her friend, Cassie relaxed a little and waited for him to start laying things out. It was always nice to see him in his element listing out what to do step by step, and while she didn’t always fall in line, she usually tried to for the biggest part of his plans, at least while they continued to make sense.

From a pocket of her jeans, Cassie pulled out a piece of paper and held it out. “These are the addresses of a few of the places I checked out. I focused on warehouses after our last talk, so you can pick which you think would work best. As for the Entity, I’ll ask around.” Training would be natural for both of them, though it would be a little weird if it was just the two of them, and she tilted her head while studying him.

“Given how many metahumans and others there are here, that last part shouldn’t be too hard, but if most of them don’t know either of us we might run into trouble actually forming the team ourselves.”

“There’s enough people our age that need something to do,” Tim said confidently, taking the paper from her and putting it into his pocket, “that we’ll be able to at least get some people to work with us.” There were a lot of metahumans here, but from what he could tell there were just as many who were untrained or needed additional support and some who were flailing without a purpose.

That worked well for them. Besides, this kind of thing was what Tim was good at.

Of course, there was something hanging in the air between them and he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I- You’ll be good to know that I do call. When I need help.” Not when he was dying in the desert in Iraq, not when he was fighting the Council of Spiders alone, but he did call. When it mattered. “When it really mattered.”

Cassie nodded at that. “You’ve got a point there.” A part of why she’d posted what she had on the network had been her own way of seeing who was here and vetting people who might do well as a team - and to get her own understanding of exactly where they were and what might happen going forward. She and Tim just had different approaches - and since she was one of those ‘unmasked’ back home, it wasn’t too different here overall.

When he became a little uneasy, she tensed, not sure what was coming this time - until he spoke. For a long moment, her face unreadable, Cassie just stared at her best friend, before finally reaching out and slinging an arm around him, choosing to play this a little lighter at the moment, particularly since she didn’t know the situation.

“See? Knew you couldn’t avoid me forever.” And to further embarrass him, she leaned in and lightly kissed his cheek.

“C’mon Cass,” Tim complained, though he pushed at her shoulder it was hardly enough to even really tell her that he wanted her to let go. He didn’t relax under the touch, but he never did when there was physical contact involved that he hadn’t initiated, and the lingering injuries from his fight with Ra’s were well hidden. That old jerk had kicked him out a window. “I just needed some time. I had a league to take down.”

He shrugged again. “What did you find out?” he asked, “We should go somewhere and talk. Saw a Five Guys on the way here, doesn’t look familiar but it smelt good inside. Wanna try it out?”

She smirked at him and gave him one more quick squeeze, then let go and jumped to her feet. Cassie was already feeling a little restless, and sitting still wasn’t one of her favorite things to do, especially now that they had a plan going forward. “Food works. I could go for a burger or five,” she joked, before pulling out her cell phone and holding it up.

“Plus, I have pictures from Themyscira, and of my armor, if you want to see them.”

Tim chuckled, “If you wanna show me, of course I wanna see,” he said with a nod, tucking his hands into his pockets. “Meet you on the ground floor in five?” Because he could go for a burger too.

It was nice, though, seeing Cassie and knowing that he wasn’t alone here. Maybe, just maybe, he’d been on his own for long enough.