FIC (DCFFA): Converse in Emnity
Title: Converse in Emnity
Author: angel_gidget
Claim: Tim Drake/Cassie Sandsmark
Characters/Pairing: Tim/Cassie
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,278
Prompt: #30. Garrote
Summary: AU. She means to go easy on him, but he won't have it.
Disclaimer: Me no own.
Author's Notes/Warnings: Done for dcu_freeforall. Table found here.
A/N #2:: Christmas present for geministar01 So sorry for the lateness! Figured I'd try to get it to you by New Year's at least. Enjoy. *hugs*
Such a prominent daughter of Themyscira should not walk the streets of Gotham alone. The Amazon armies are mighty and strong, and have already conquered so much of man's world, but some cities still defy the will of the gods. Gotham is one such place. The Batman has devised many a weapon and machine that can still harm the mightiest of their warriors, and no one, save Diana herself, is permitted to enter apart from a full company.
But Cassandra's mission is one of stealth... and personal redemption. She had trusted the Kryptonian girl. Thought that Kara Zor-El could be one of them. Now, the purple healing ray the traitor stole lies in the enemy's cave. Cassandra's chances of sneaking into the sanctum have never been better. The enemy's oracle--a name chosen to insult the Amazons, no doubt--is weak, fallen ill from her incessant work. And the silent one, the Batgirl, is injured. Her snapped ankle from the Gotham Heights skirmish will hinder her rounds for days, knowing the Bat's aversion to actually using Theymsciran technology such as the ray.
That takes two of Gotham's most perceptive agents out of commission. The time for spy work is now. And if Cassandra's own spy is telling the truth...
"Hey! Get down! There are cameras on that ledge!"
Spoiler, her informant, is late... but her warning comes just in time. That was too close.
"Thanks. It looks like I don't have this part of the city's layout quite memorized yet."
"Don't assume you will, girl. Big, dark, and scary likes to change things up a lot. Keeps all of us on our toes."
Enough small talk. Stephanie Brown believes that man's time in man's world is over. That's what they have in common. That's all they have in common.
"What do you have for me?"
"Sheesh. Always business with you. Do you every take time at the office to just trade jokes? Okay... kidding. Sorry. Um, anyway. The ray isn't at the main cave. It's in one of the safe-house caves on Kane Lane. Daddy Bats has his numbers stretched kinda thin right now--making it especially hard to get away tonight might I add--so he only has one cape to patrol and guard the area. Um..."
Her pause is unsettling.
"Anything else?"
"Er--you should be able to get in and get out without even running into him if you make your run at about eleven-fifteen. That would be... that would be good."
"I'm sure I can handle him."
"It would be better if you didn't have to--"
"Spit it out, Steph."
"Don't hurt him?"
Spoiler's voice is small--guilty.
"Why not?"
"He... he's just a kid. Like me."
"I thought you were 'a woman who can make her own decisions'. At least, that's what you told Donna."
Anger. Defensiveness.
"I am. It's just... he's not bad. You don't need to hurt him, okay? I'm just saying..."
Cassandra feels a headache coming on. She doesn't trust Spoiler entirely, but she needs to be able to trust her to some degree. She hopes this compromise isn't the first of many.
"I'll make the run at eleven-fifteen."
Steph nods and is gone... like all of Gotham's knights.
* * * *
Eleven-fifteen. Cassandra smirks. Between avoiding some after-curfew delinquents, and avoiding the crushers--vicious anti-meta machines--punctuality was harder than most might realize. But she did it.
The ray should be in the fourth room. She's already gotten past the first. She just needs to cross the old training chamber to get to---
TWACK!
She hears the step a millisecond before the blow connects. It saves her from the worst of it, though she can't escape the hit entirely. It hurts and sends her down.
"Get up."
She raises her head first. Immediately, Cassandra suspects that Spoiler deceived her. It isn't 'just a kid'. It's Robin. One of Batman's right hands, and a very angry one at that. He twirls his bo staff twice before gripping it in both hands.
"Didn't you hear me? Get up!"
She's only too glad to oblige. The next moment, she's up and clashing her sword with his weapon. He meets her and bends back, not contesting her strength, but reaching for the better leverage. He moves fast, delivering twin bruises to her shoulders before leaping onto the heating unit, taking higher ground.
She takes the moment to analyze. She's blessed by the gods. He's not. She could try avoiding confrontation, fly past him and take the ray. She should be able to avoid this battle if she's really trying to, but--
Her pause costs her, giving him a moment to remove the smoke pellets from his belt. In an instant, she's choking on smoke and can't see a thing. Then the strikes come. Top of the head, small of the back, back of the knees. She goes down again.
"Don't try to run. Fight me."
She does. But she's surprised. For all their cunning and tech, the guardians of Gotham are still mortal. This isn't how they fight. It's always quick strikes, always in a hurry, trying to gain the victory before their own human fatigue can catch up with them. Robin intends to draw this out. He wants it. Cassandra raises her sword. Already, this feels like it's taking too long.
"I'm here for the ray. I'm going to take it. This doesn't have to involve you getting hurt. It wasn't supposed to."
He doesn't come in close this time, but mid-way. Parry and thrust. He's good. Admirably good.
"What is that supposed to mean? You think I don't know who you are? You're with Donna. You're always with Donna."
He says her sister's name with so much venom that she's taken aback. He makes it sound so personal... Donna... Donna killed Nightwing. Of course. He and Robin... they would have been brothers. Like Donna and her. Sisters. That's why... This can't end cleanly now. If he hurts her, he hurts Donna. If he kills her...
"You're after revenge? Is that it?"
"Justice."
"You sure about that?"
If she can make him second-guess himself, she can get in a kick. One distraction. One kick. That's all she needs. She's still stronger than him, and one kick will be enough to break him if she does it right.
"I'm sure. I have to be."
The second part seems to be more to himself than to her. And it makes her feel... something.
"He's just a kid. Like me."
No. She thinks. Not like you, Steph. Nothing like you.
He's unpredictable. He uses the environment around him. One moment, she's cut him and maneuvered the staff out of his hands, thinking she has him trapped in a corner. The next, he's ripped the phone jack out of the wall and has it around her neck like a garrote.
He tightens the cord in a silent promise. The promise is a lie and it makes her angry. She reaches up, not for her neck, but for his hand. She bends at the bone until it...
Crack.
His scream is muffled, partly controlled. He treasures self-control, she can tell. It makes his silent promise of death all the more insulting. She reverses the hold, flipping him beneath her, weapons forgotten.
"You won't kill me. Why are you acting like you will?"
She hadn't intended for it to come out as a question. She meant to demand. She doesn't know why it came out that way, asking with real curiosity.
"Are you so sure I won't?" A challenge.
"Yes. It's not you."
Not that he couldn't. That he wouldn't. The fact that she admits his skill seems to take him by surprise.
But he really won't kill her. It's something she never understood about the Bats...that for some reason, Diana always admired. They just don't kill. Sometimes they let die, let rot... but life is sacred in Gotham. In dark, dank, sleazy, corrupted, man's world Gotham... the best of them will not take a life. Robin is one of the best.
"Okay. I'll bite. What is me, then?"
She trusts her military intelligence. That their information is good. And nothing should unsettle a Bat more than knowing that his enemy knows too much...
"You're Robin. Tim Drake. You're seventeen years old and a warrior. But you're not a killer."
He's calmer than he should be. Damn. He knew she knew. Score one more for the Dark Knight's cray system. The look on his face tells her he's about to drive the point home further.
"Cassie Sandsmark. Also seventeen. Daughter of Ms. Helen Sandsmark and Mr. Zeus of Olympia."
The last is an insult, disrespecting the gods to anger her. But she's too taken aback by the the description he chose. Cassandra hasn't been "Cassie" in a long time. And it's been so long since she's heard her mother's--her birth mother's--name. She's Queen Hypolita's adopted youngest. And the queen doesn't dwell on the past, or let others do so in her presence. She tries to snap back.
"Answer my question. Why are you pretending you have what it takes to kill me? What was your plan?"
"What did you mean about me and not getting hurt?"
She should either refuse to play his game or answer his question with another question, but he's moving in rapid fire, and the lenses on his mask are flipped up. She can see his eyes and she's becoming caught up in watching them widen, dilate, and otherwise react as she attempts to take him by surprise.
"Spoiler told me. You were supposed to be gone by eleven-fifteen."
"You hurt her?!" She hears the fury in his voice.
She's only beginning to understand what is going on as she answers:
"She told me willingly."
Those eyes she's been watching narrow with disbelief. And then widen as they discern her honesty.
"No... NO! She wouldn't! She... I... no..."
His eyes close, and she feels the news ripple through him under her as he cracks the back of his head against the concrete floor.
It dawns on her then: Lovers. Steph has betrayed him more than Batman or Gotham all together. And it makes more sense now. Earlier...
"Don't hurt him?"
But she just has. Far more than she even intended to.
There's a blush at the edge of his mask, just where if fails to cover his face. He's ashamed that she can see him like this. His voice is hoarse with anger and withheld tears.
"They ray is gone. Change in the schedule. It's already been moved to another location. You won't get it out of me."
She won't try. And now she's embarrassed. All this for nothing. She pulls away from him, leaving them both laying side by side on the floor.
They stopped fighting... a while ago. Without realizing. Trading in blunt blows for sharp words. Realizing now, she doesn't feel like going back to blows. She feels tired and drained, like a mortal. For the first time in years, she feels like Cassie, not Cassandra.
"And... the plan?" she asks.
"There was no plan," he confesses. "I didn't think beyond you, me, and a drag-out fight. I just... didn't think. There was no plan. You were right. I don't have what it takes."
She understands. For the first time in years, he's being Tim and not Robin.
They stay like that a while. Just frozen. Tired. He won't treat his wounds while she's there. Won't show how much she's hurt him, even though she knows. He breathes. She... takes in the silence. It's a luxury, unpredictable silence. After so much training, drilling, planning, fighting. She hasn't had this since... since before Donna changed. Since before both her sisters were consumed by war, giving up on their diplomatic aspirations.
Would he believe her if she told him that she lost her sister when he lost his brother?
She doesn't think so, and she's surprised at the desire to tell him.
They both flinch when his communicator beeps.
The Amazon in her jolts awake. What is she doing?! Just... lying there, lingering behind enemy lines with... with...
"R to B. Re... report situation normal. Slight skirmish on west side street. Wounds... minor. All's quiet here."
He looks at her then, lips silently forming the words to send her to her feet:
"Go."
She goes. Mind reeling as her body tries to be careful. Catch no cameras, trigger no alarms. She'll have to explain why she was out past the designated time. And Steph... she'll have to relocate Steph. Spoiler won't even be safe in Gotham anymore, much less an effective spy after tonight.
She almost contemplates trying to sneak in, but that would be childish. So, she strides in and answers all their questions. Her reason for leaving, her failed mission.
But as far as they know, she fought as hard as she could. She doesn't tell them about the moment of quiet. The moment of quiet that lasted eight ridiculous minutes. She acts as if her return must have taken longer than she thought.
She goes to bed, determined to sleep. She's wasted enough time fretting over her own behavior in the last half hour. She trusts her subconscious to sort things out over the course of the night.
It fails her.
She dreams of him. Tactical fast moves and frustrated sighs. Expressive blue eyes that can't hide anything though his mouth reveals nothing that could be used against him. His pain that feels like an integral part of him, like the news of betrayal wasn't quite the surprise it should have been...
Cassie awakens to a disturbing clarity.
She wants him.
F.I.N.
Author: angel_gidget
Claim: Tim Drake/Cassie Sandsmark
Characters/Pairing: Tim/Cassie
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,278
Prompt: #30. Garrote
Summary: AU. She means to go easy on him, but he won't have it.
Disclaimer: Me no own.
Author's Notes/Warnings: Done for dcu_freeforall. Table found here.
A/N #2:: Christmas present for geministar01 So sorry for the lateness! Figured I'd try to get it to you by New Year's at least. Enjoy. *hugs*
Such a prominent daughter of Themyscira should not walk the streets of Gotham alone. The Amazon armies are mighty and strong, and have already conquered so much of man's world, but some cities still defy the will of the gods. Gotham is one such place. The Batman has devised many a weapon and machine that can still harm the mightiest of their warriors, and no one, save Diana herself, is permitted to enter apart from a full company.
But Cassandra's mission is one of stealth... and personal redemption. She had trusted the Kryptonian girl. Thought that Kara Zor-El could be one of them. Now, the purple healing ray the traitor stole lies in the enemy's cave. Cassandra's chances of sneaking into the sanctum have never been better. The enemy's oracle--a name chosen to insult the Amazons, no doubt--is weak, fallen ill from her incessant work. And the silent one, the Batgirl, is injured. Her snapped ankle from the Gotham Heights skirmish will hinder her rounds for days, knowing the Bat's aversion to actually using Theymsciran technology such as the ray.
That takes two of Gotham's most perceptive agents out of commission. The time for spy work is now. And if Cassandra's own spy is telling the truth...
"Hey! Get down! There are cameras on that ledge!"
Spoiler, her informant, is late... but her warning comes just in time. That was too close.
"Thanks. It looks like I don't have this part of the city's layout quite memorized yet."
"Don't assume you will, girl. Big, dark, and scary likes to change things up a lot. Keeps all of us on our toes."
Enough small talk. Stephanie Brown believes that man's time in man's world is over. That's what they have in common. That's all they have in common.
"What do you have for me?"
"Sheesh. Always business with you. Do you every take time at the office to just trade jokes? Okay... kidding. Sorry. Um, anyway. The ray isn't at the main cave. It's in one of the safe-house caves on Kane Lane. Daddy Bats has his numbers stretched kinda thin right now--making it especially hard to get away tonight might I add--so he only has one cape to patrol and guard the area. Um..."
Her pause is unsettling.
"Anything else?"
"Er--you should be able to get in and get out without even running into him if you make your run at about eleven-fifteen. That would be... that would be good."
"I'm sure I can handle him."
"It would be better if you didn't have to--"
"Spit it out, Steph."
"Don't hurt him?"
Spoiler's voice is small--guilty.
"Why not?"
"He... he's just a kid. Like me."
"I thought you were 'a woman who can make her own decisions'. At least, that's what you told Donna."
Anger. Defensiveness.
"I am. It's just... he's not bad. You don't need to hurt him, okay? I'm just saying..."
Cassandra feels a headache coming on. She doesn't trust Spoiler entirely, but she needs to be able to trust her to some degree. She hopes this compromise isn't the first of many.
"I'll make the run at eleven-fifteen."
Steph nods and is gone... like all of Gotham's knights.
* * * *
Eleven-fifteen. Cassandra smirks. Between avoiding some after-curfew delinquents, and avoiding the crushers--vicious anti-meta machines--punctuality was harder than most might realize. But she did it.
The ray should be in the fourth room. She's already gotten past the first. She just needs to cross the old training chamber to get to---
TWACK!
She hears the step a millisecond before the blow connects. It saves her from the worst of it, though she can't escape the hit entirely. It hurts and sends her down.
"Get up."
She raises her head first. Immediately, Cassandra suspects that Spoiler deceived her. It isn't 'just a kid'. It's Robin. One of Batman's right hands, and a very angry one at that. He twirls his bo staff twice before gripping it in both hands.
"Didn't you hear me? Get up!"
She's only too glad to oblige. The next moment, she's up and clashing her sword with his weapon. He meets her and bends back, not contesting her strength, but reaching for the better leverage. He moves fast, delivering twin bruises to her shoulders before leaping onto the heating unit, taking higher ground.
She takes the moment to analyze. She's blessed by the gods. He's not. She could try avoiding confrontation, fly past him and take the ray. She should be able to avoid this battle if she's really trying to, but--
Her pause costs her, giving him a moment to remove the smoke pellets from his belt. In an instant, she's choking on smoke and can't see a thing. Then the strikes come. Top of the head, small of the back, back of the knees. She goes down again.
"Don't try to run. Fight me."
She does. But she's surprised. For all their cunning and tech, the guardians of Gotham are still mortal. This isn't how they fight. It's always quick strikes, always in a hurry, trying to gain the victory before their own human fatigue can catch up with them. Robin intends to draw this out. He wants it. Cassandra raises her sword. Already, this feels like it's taking too long.
"I'm here for the ray. I'm going to take it. This doesn't have to involve you getting hurt. It wasn't supposed to."
He doesn't come in close this time, but mid-way. Parry and thrust. He's good. Admirably good.
"What is that supposed to mean? You think I don't know who you are? You're with Donna. You're always with Donna."
He says her sister's name with so much venom that she's taken aback. He makes it sound so personal... Donna... Donna killed Nightwing. Of course. He and Robin... they would have been brothers. Like Donna and her. Sisters. That's why... This can't end cleanly now. If he hurts her, he hurts Donna. If he kills her...
"You're after revenge? Is that it?"
"Justice."
"You sure about that?"
If she can make him second-guess himself, she can get in a kick. One distraction. One kick. That's all she needs. She's still stronger than him, and one kick will be enough to break him if she does it right.
"I'm sure. I have to be."
The second part seems to be more to himself than to her. And it makes her feel... something.
"He's just a kid. Like me."
No. She thinks. Not like you, Steph. Nothing like you.
He's unpredictable. He uses the environment around him. One moment, she's cut him and maneuvered the staff out of his hands, thinking she has him trapped in a corner. The next, he's ripped the phone jack out of the wall and has it around her neck like a garrote.
He tightens the cord in a silent promise. The promise is a lie and it makes her angry. She reaches up, not for her neck, but for his hand. She bends at the bone until it...
Crack.
His scream is muffled, partly controlled. He treasures self-control, she can tell. It makes his silent promise of death all the more insulting. She reverses the hold, flipping him beneath her, weapons forgotten.
"You won't kill me. Why are you acting like you will?"
She hadn't intended for it to come out as a question. She meant to demand. She doesn't know why it came out that way, asking with real curiosity.
"Are you so sure I won't?" A challenge.
"Yes. It's not you."
Not that he couldn't. That he wouldn't. The fact that she admits his skill seems to take him by surprise.
But he really won't kill her. It's something she never understood about the Bats...that for some reason, Diana always admired. They just don't kill. Sometimes they let die, let rot... but life is sacred in Gotham. In dark, dank, sleazy, corrupted, man's world Gotham... the best of them will not take a life. Robin is one of the best.
"Okay. I'll bite. What is me, then?"
She trusts her military intelligence. That their information is good. And nothing should unsettle a Bat more than knowing that his enemy knows too much...
"You're Robin. Tim Drake. You're seventeen years old and a warrior. But you're not a killer."
He's calmer than he should be. Damn. He knew she knew. Score one more for the Dark Knight's cray system. The look on his face tells her he's about to drive the point home further.
"Cassie Sandsmark. Also seventeen. Daughter of Ms. Helen Sandsmark and Mr. Zeus of Olympia."
The last is an insult, disrespecting the gods to anger her. But she's too taken aback by the the description he chose. Cassandra hasn't been "Cassie" in a long time. And it's been so long since she's heard her mother's--her birth mother's--name. She's Queen Hypolita's adopted youngest. And the queen doesn't dwell on the past, or let others do so in her presence. She tries to snap back.
"Answer my question. Why are you pretending you have what it takes to kill me? What was your plan?"
"What did you mean about me and not getting hurt?"
She should either refuse to play his game or answer his question with another question, but he's moving in rapid fire, and the lenses on his mask are flipped up. She can see his eyes and she's becoming caught up in watching them widen, dilate, and otherwise react as she attempts to take him by surprise.
"Spoiler told me. You were supposed to be gone by eleven-fifteen."
"You hurt her?!" She hears the fury in his voice.
She's only beginning to understand what is going on as she answers:
"She told me willingly."
Those eyes she's been watching narrow with disbelief. And then widen as they discern her honesty.
"No... NO! She wouldn't! She... I... no..."
His eyes close, and she feels the news ripple through him under her as he cracks the back of his head against the concrete floor.
It dawns on her then: Lovers. Steph has betrayed him more than Batman or Gotham all together. And it makes more sense now. Earlier...
"Don't hurt him?"
But she just has. Far more than she even intended to.
There's a blush at the edge of his mask, just where if fails to cover his face. He's ashamed that she can see him like this. His voice is hoarse with anger and withheld tears.
"They ray is gone. Change in the schedule. It's already been moved to another location. You won't get it out of me."
She won't try. And now she's embarrassed. All this for nothing. She pulls away from him, leaving them both laying side by side on the floor.
They stopped fighting... a while ago. Without realizing. Trading in blunt blows for sharp words. Realizing now, she doesn't feel like going back to blows. She feels tired and drained, like a mortal. For the first time in years, she feels like Cassie, not Cassandra.
"And... the plan?" she asks.
"There was no plan," he confesses. "I didn't think beyond you, me, and a drag-out fight. I just... didn't think. There was no plan. You were right. I don't have what it takes."
She understands. For the first time in years, he's being Tim and not Robin.
They stay like that a while. Just frozen. Tired. He won't treat his wounds while she's there. Won't show how much she's hurt him, even though she knows. He breathes. She... takes in the silence. It's a luxury, unpredictable silence. After so much training, drilling, planning, fighting. She hasn't had this since... since before Donna changed. Since before both her sisters were consumed by war, giving up on their diplomatic aspirations.
Would he believe her if she told him that she lost her sister when he lost his brother?
She doesn't think so, and she's surprised at the desire to tell him.
They both flinch when his communicator beeps.
The Amazon in her jolts awake. What is she doing?! Just... lying there, lingering behind enemy lines with... with...
"R to B. Re... report situation normal. Slight skirmish on west side street. Wounds... minor. All's quiet here."
He looks at her then, lips silently forming the words to send her to her feet:
"Go."
She goes. Mind reeling as her body tries to be careful. Catch no cameras, trigger no alarms. She'll have to explain why she was out past the designated time. And Steph... she'll have to relocate Steph. Spoiler won't even be safe in Gotham anymore, much less an effective spy after tonight.
She almost contemplates trying to sneak in, but that would be childish. So, she strides in and answers all their questions. Her reason for leaving, her failed mission.
But as far as they know, she fought as hard as she could. She doesn't tell them about the moment of quiet. The moment of quiet that lasted eight ridiculous minutes. She acts as if her return must have taken longer than she thought.
She goes to bed, determined to sleep. She's wasted enough time fretting over her own behavior in the last half hour. She trusts her subconscious to sort things out over the course of the night.
It fails her.
She dreams of him. Tactical fast moves and frustrated sighs. Expressive blue eyes that can't hide anything though his mouth reveals nothing that could be used against him. His pain that feels like an integral part of him, like the news of betrayal wasn't quite the surprise it should have been...
Cassie awakens to a disturbing clarity.
She wants him.
F.I.N.