The Opportunity of Defeat
.:RR:.
I.
There was one plan for assured victory which Tim could never write down. The rest were stored safely on his computer, crosschecked and ready for foe or friend.
Tim updated his security protocols as often as he updated the files; the files could only be locally accessed and all backdoors had been written out of the system. Damian's poor hacking job had assured Tim of the need. While Tim had never forgotten what the brat's mother did with Bruce's files, he had forgotten that he'd made himself of interest lately. And with interest came consequences.
Barbara, Dick, and Tim had all experienced the fallout when Bruce's plans had been exposed -- guilty by association, Babs phrased it.
For a time, the JLA stopped calling Oracle for assistance. Tim suspected Babs' anger was connected to her ego. After all, she had been content to allow people to think she was a computer, and there was a limit to how much man could trust machine.
The Titans had long been concerned about Dick falling to the dark side of the Bat family. Still, once the initial question had been asked, if Nightwing kept files on the Titans, the strength of trust from the original Teen Titans was enough to settle the question for the others. Because Donna, Garth, Roy, and Wally remembered what first had drawn them together as a team. The Antithesis had taken over the JLA, and Dick's leadership allowed them to defeat their mentors long before anyone thought to make files and plans. As often as one of them was brainwashed, the team had learned to accept Dick's ability.
Young Justice hadn't been so forgiving to Robin. But Tim hadn't given them a reason to trust him. He was far more like Bruce in needing to plan and consider every possible angle. And they had every right to be suspicious.
When Damian had hacked into Tim's files, his older brother easily accepted their existence, even with the faces of his friends on the screen. Dick noticed his name wasn't in the file and read correctly that it was a sign of Tim's trust. A trust that Dick would never go rogue. Or a trust that Tim knew him so well Red Robin wouldn't need a file. But it was neither of those things.
Because Bruce had taught Tim to be thorough with his planning, to consider everyone a possible threat. And he had, which was why Dick's was the one file he couldn't write.
.:RR:.
Prompt: Tim Drake woke up from the Unternet... but not it's corrupting influence. The violent mood swings seem to strike out of nowhere... and don't care who they strike. by angel_gidget
II.
The Ünternet had connected the villains of the world, and in return the villains gave it life. It took a piece of each mind that touched it and returned a virus in exchange. No matter your intentions or personality -- eventually, you're going to get poisoned, Promise had said. But she had been fighting in the Ünternet for years and he was only there for a day; eventually had to be longer than one day.
The moods started when he let Robin gut the Calculator robot. Not that anyone noticed because it was Damian and Tim had stopped Wonder Girl from doing the same. Instead, the Teen Titans were so thrilled to have his leadership back, they didn't notice the pattern to the villains they fought. The Teen Titans had become more active than reactionary, more Red Robin and the Teen Outsiders. The plan Tim once created for Gotham was expanded to fit the world. Calculator was only the first to be hunted down, the word "apprehended" satisfyingly written across his picture. With the increased duties of the Teen Titans, Tim only found time to return to Gotham to update his files.
Working with the Teen Titans always gave Tim something to hit, an outlet for the mood swings which made them manageable. At least until a particularly slow week when Conner made another offhanded remark about Tim's pointed-nosed cowl on the wrong day. Tim was certain Superboy would stop making those comments after being pinned painfully to the ping pong table.
Raven teleported into the room and Tim forced himself to laugh it off and let Conner up. But the incident reminded him that the empath had been watching him far too closely. However, her fear of being overcome by her father's heritage made that easy enough to resolve. She had given each member of her Titans a talisman which could kill her. Fortunately, Roy had pawned his when he had needed a hit and his talisman hadn't burned in his house fire. Raven's death had the additional benefit of turning everyone's attention to Arsenal and Slade's Titans.
It hurt to see Dick falter back towards the same darkness that had consumed him when Donna died. His older brother always created intense ties with his family. Raven had once used her powers to convince Dick he loved her, to help Brother Blood control him, and to devastated his wedding. But despite everything, Dick always trusted her. Just as he always trusted Roy, even if Arsenal was self destructing. Because of that, Tim had to return to Gotham and use every logic trap to keep Dick from joining in the manhunt. If anyone would bring Roy in alive and follow the connection back to Tim, it was Dick.
If there was any sort of benevolent justice, Roy was with his daughter again.
Rose needed to be handled next. She had been with her father when he was building his society and might make the connections. Slade had followed much the same plan in manipulating the Outsiders to remove his competition. Tim had no problems convincing Wonder Girl to remove Rose from the mission because she was compromised. Rose's temper and Slade's sword did the rest; Slade could always be counted on to take care of his children.
More than anything, Tim wanted to be there for his older brother. Two of Dick's friends, as well as the teenage girl he had thrown himself into the abyss to save from her father, were dead. But being around Damian had always taxed Tim's patience and the need to slam the brat into any hard surface grew increasingly irresistible. Conveniently, when Batman, Robin, and Red Robin went patrolling and Damian's thugs were the least injured, Tim could blame his grief over Raven and Rose. Stephanie understood Tim's need for privacy and the excuse kept her away as well.
But the Titans had a long history of coping with loss. Tim returned to them after what he thought would be an appropriate time of mourning. The roster was shuffled again, tempers were high, but everyone became focused on the task. Tim should've realized sooner that death would make his plan to remove certain villains easier. That he had no reason to remove them was unimportant.
.:RR:.
III.
Batman was the first to notice. Tam had assisted with keeping Bruce away from Gotham, but when the daughter of Lucius Fox fell to a violent madness it was inevitable that Bruce would return. Bruce likely had his suspicions the moment he saw his family in such disarray. But his own nature prevented him from discussing his doubts with anyone, which left Tim plenty of time to prepare while Batman had to confirm his theory.
He drugged Dick first. With recovery time, Tim would have at least four weeks.
Batman, of course, had files on Red Robin, which made it a matter of who initiated their plan first. Bruce had many psychological triggers, from the death of his parents to his need to collect orphans and then push them away. But Tim knew of another trigger, one from Bane. There was a reason the suit was armored heavily at the spine. When his father had married Dana, Tim was taught several things about paraplegics, including information on spinal injuries.
He set his trap for Bruce Wayne, not Batman. Even though he could never truly surprise his mentor, the cameras and the bodyguards slowed Bruce just enough. Tim was sure Bruce wouldn't recover a second time.
As he walked away from the bunker and the broken boy, he almost felt bad for the demon spawn. Tim knew that Damian's mother was replacing him and would no longer glue her son back together. For his younger brother, Tim decided he'd target Ra's, Talia, and the clone after he had finished with Gotham.
His first priority was the rest of his family, starting with their communications. Tim had helped Oracle design most of her equipment at one stage or another and she was vulnerable to his kill switch. Her security measures should have allowed her to escape in time with her life. Steph would recuperate with time -- most street clothes should hide the scar. When Cassandra returned, she was too dangerous to be allowed to live.
Before he left for the desert, Tim took a walk through Arkham. He tied a bow around Croc's left hand for Aaron. The Sirens received a green scalp in the mail. The rest he left in pieces for Alyce Sinner, except for one. Tim avoided Jason's cell.
Tim wasn't certain how much material the pits needed to resurrect someone, so he left nothing which could be placed in the pit.
When he returned to the states, Tim faced them as they came: heroes, villains, or shady government agencies -- JLA, Fearsome Five, Checkmate, Secret Six, and all the letters of the alphabet between. He could see the looks of betrayal in his Teen Titans eyes, Cassie, Conner, and Bart. He let them live, but promised himself he couldn't do that twice.
Three weeks in Dick found him. His plan wasn't finished, but Tim was too lost in the corruption of the Ünternet to notice he neither had a purpose nor an endgame. His targets had only been those in front of him, no other reason to defeat them than he had devised a plan which could. Still, Tim would've liked to see the end of his scheme.
Dick came alone. There weren't many others left who could've come, but Tim was glad Dick had decided to keep it between their family. They had fought before, as Robin and Nightwing and as Red Robin and Batman, but Tim had always known Dick would hold himself back.
Dick wouldn't hold back this time, Tim made sure of that.
He had studied his older brother his whole life, knew every weakness, but Tim still never wrote a plan to exploit them. Unlike him, Dick didn't need plans, he was a reactionary thinker. He didn't spend his time thinking of every possibility, of every scenario which might turn his allies against him. Dick did his best thinking on his feet and would always persevere. But Tim couldn't operate that way; he needed his files and his plans to defeat someone of Dick's caliber.
There was one plan for assured victory which Tim could never write down. It was also his cruelest plan of all, not to write a file for Dick. He hoped one day his older brother could forgive him. Because Bruce had taught Tim to be thorough with his planning, to consider everyone a possible threat, including himself. And he had, which was why Dick was the one file he couldn't write for the one battle Tim couldn't allow himself to win.
.:RR:.
2011/04/05
Notes: I promised myself I wouldn't write anything else until I finished She's So Heavy. That didn't work out. After I threw up some old plot ideas I wasn't going to use onto sharp_teeth, I decided to check out the prompts and responses. Sadly no one else had written a DC prompt (though it was only the second evening) and I decided to try my hand at one.
The first prompt I picked was similar to an idea I had when I read Red Robin 14, that Tim would never write a file on Dick because he knew Dick so well he wouldn't need one. As I was writing I realized while that could be it, I had been wrong. I knew Tim had gone dark side in the story, had used him similarly in one of the futures of A Hero's Causatum, but I lacked any motivation for him to do so. Which is why I cheated and picked up the second prompt.
The title gave me trouble and I finally looked at The Art of War because it's the most famous book on strategy that I could think of. Desperation mostly. I wrote and edited this in about 24 hours, which amazes me to no end. I might be emo-artist about that later but we'll see.
I.
There was one plan for assured victory which Tim could never write down. The rest were stored safely on his computer, crosschecked and ready for foe or friend.
Tim updated his security protocols as often as he updated the files; the files could only be locally accessed and all backdoors had been written out of the system. Damian's poor hacking job had assured Tim of the need. While Tim had never forgotten what the brat's mother did with Bruce's files, he had forgotten that he'd made himself of interest lately. And with interest came consequences.
Barbara, Dick, and Tim had all experienced the fallout when Bruce's plans had been exposed -- guilty by association, Babs phrased it.
For a time, the JLA stopped calling Oracle for assistance. Tim suspected Babs' anger was connected to her ego. After all, she had been content to allow people to think she was a computer, and there was a limit to how much man could trust machine.
The Titans had long been concerned about Dick falling to the dark side of the Bat family. Still, once the initial question had been asked, if Nightwing kept files on the Titans, the strength of trust from the original Teen Titans was enough to settle the question for the others. Because Donna, Garth, Roy, and Wally remembered what first had drawn them together as a team. The Antithesis had taken over the JLA, and Dick's leadership allowed them to defeat their mentors long before anyone thought to make files and plans. As often as one of them was brainwashed, the team had learned to accept Dick's ability.
Young Justice hadn't been so forgiving to Robin. But Tim hadn't given them a reason to trust him. He was far more like Bruce in needing to plan and consider every possible angle. And they had every right to be suspicious.
When Damian had hacked into Tim's files, his older brother easily accepted their existence, even with the faces of his friends on the screen. Dick noticed his name wasn't in the file and read correctly that it was a sign of Tim's trust. A trust that Dick would never go rogue. Or a trust that Tim knew him so well Red Robin wouldn't need a file. But it was neither of those things.
Because Bruce had taught Tim to be thorough with his planning, to consider everyone a possible threat. And he had, which was why Dick's was the one file he couldn't write.
.:RR:.
Prompt: Tim Drake woke up from the Unternet... but not it's corrupting influence. The violent mood swings seem to strike out of nowhere... and don't care who they strike. by angel_gidget
II.
The Ünternet had connected the villains of the world, and in return the villains gave it life. It took a piece of each mind that touched it and returned a virus in exchange. No matter your intentions or personality -- eventually, you're going to get poisoned, Promise had said. But she had been fighting in the Ünternet for years and he was only there for a day; eventually had to be longer than one day.
The moods started when he let Robin gut the Calculator robot. Not that anyone noticed because it was Damian and Tim had stopped Wonder Girl from doing the same. Instead, the Teen Titans were so thrilled to have his leadership back, they didn't notice the pattern to the villains they fought. The Teen Titans had become more active than reactionary, more Red Robin and the Teen Outsiders. The plan Tim once created for Gotham was expanded to fit the world. Calculator was only the first to be hunted down, the word "apprehended" satisfyingly written across his picture. With the increased duties of the Teen Titans, Tim only found time to return to Gotham to update his files.
Working with the Teen Titans always gave Tim something to hit, an outlet for the mood swings which made them manageable. At least until a particularly slow week when Conner made another offhanded remark about Tim's pointed-nosed cowl on the wrong day. Tim was certain Superboy would stop making those comments after being pinned painfully to the ping pong table.
Raven teleported into the room and Tim forced himself to laugh it off and let Conner up. But the incident reminded him that the empath had been watching him far too closely. However, her fear of being overcome by her father's heritage made that easy enough to resolve. She had given each member of her Titans a talisman which could kill her. Fortunately, Roy had pawned his when he had needed a hit and his talisman hadn't burned in his house fire. Raven's death had the additional benefit of turning everyone's attention to Arsenal and Slade's Titans.
It hurt to see Dick falter back towards the same darkness that had consumed him when Donna died. His older brother always created intense ties with his family. Raven had once used her powers to convince Dick he loved her, to help Brother Blood control him, and to devastated his wedding. But despite everything, Dick always trusted her. Just as he always trusted Roy, even if Arsenal was self destructing. Because of that, Tim had to return to Gotham and use every logic trap to keep Dick from joining in the manhunt. If anyone would bring Roy in alive and follow the connection back to Tim, it was Dick.
If there was any sort of benevolent justice, Roy was with his daughter again.
Rose needed to be handled next. She had been with her father when he was building his society and might make the connections. Slade had followed much the same plan in manipulating the Outsiders to remove his competition. Tim had no problems convincing Wonder Girl to remove Rose from the mission because she was compromised. Rose's temper and Slade's sword did the rest; Slade could always be counted on to take care of his children.
More than anything, Tim wanted to be there for his older brother. Two of Dick's friends, as well as the teenage girl he had thrown himself into the abyss to save from her father, were dead. But being around Damian had always taxed Tim's patience and the need to slam the brat into any hard surface grew increasingly irresistible. Conveniently, when Batman, Robin, and Red Robin went patrolling and Damian's thugs were the least injured, Tim could blame his grief over Raven and Rose. Stephanie understood Tim's need for privacy and the excuse kept her away as well.
But the Titans had a long history of coping with loss. Tim returned to them after what he thought would be an appropriate time of mourning. The roster was shuffled again, tempers were high, but everyone became focused on the task. Tim should've realized sooner that death would make his plan to remove certain villains easier. That he had no reason to remove them was unimportant.
.:RR:.
III.
Batman was the first to notice. Tam had assisted with keeping Bruce away from Gotham, but when the daughter of Lucius Fox fell to a violent madness it was inevitable that Bruce would return. Bruce likely had his suspicions the moment he saw his family in such disarray. But his own nature prevented him from discussing his doubts with anyone, which left Tim plenty of time to prepare while Batman had to confirm his theory.
He drugged Dick first. With recovery time, Tim would have at least four weeks.
Batman, of course, had files on Red Robin, which made it a matter of who initiated their plan first. Bruce had many psychological triggers, from the death of his parents to his need to collect orphans and then push them away. But Tim knew of another trigger, one from Bane. There was a reason the suit was armored heavily at the spine. When his father had married Dana, Tim was taught several things about paraplegics, including information on spinal injuries.
He set his trap for Bruce Wayne, not Batman. Even though he could never truly surprise his mentor, the cameras and the bodyguards slowed Bruce just enough. Tim was sure Bruce wouldn't recover a second time.
As he walked away from the bunker and the broken boy, he almost felt bad for the demon spawn. Tim knew that Damian's mother was replacing him and would no longer glue her son back together. For his younger brother, Tim decided he'd target Ra's, Talia, and the clone after he had finished with Gotham.
His first priority was the rest of his family, starting with their communications. Tim had helped Oracle design most of her equipment at one stage or another and she was vulnerable to his kill switch. Her security measures should have allowed her to escape in time with her life. Steph would recuperate with time -- most street clothes should hide the scar. When Cassandra returned, she was too dangerous to be allowed to live.
Before he left for the desert, Tim took a walk through Arkham. He tied a bow around Croc's left hand for Aaron. The Sirens received a green scalp in the mail. The rest he left in pieces for Alyce Sinner, except for one. Tim avoided Jason's cell.
Tim wasn't certain how much material the pits needed to resurrect someone, so he left nothing which could be placed in the pit.
When he returned to the states, Tim faced them as they came: heroes, villains, or shady government agencies -- JLA, Fearsome Five, Checkmate, Secret Six, and all the letters of the alphabet between. He could see the looks of betrayal in his Teen Titans eyes, Cassie, Conner, and Bart. He let them live, but promised himself he couldn't do that twice.
Three weeks in Dick found him. His plan wasn't finished, but Tim was too lost in the corruption of the Ünternet to notice he neither had a purpose nor an endgame. His targets had only been those in front of him, no other reason to defeat them than he had devised a plan which could. Still, Tim would've liked to see the end of his scheme.
Dick came alone. There weren't many others left who could've come, but Tim was glad Dick had decided to keep it between their family. They had fought before, as Robin and Nightwing and as Red Robin and Batman, but Tim had always known Dick would hold himself back.
Dick wouldn't hold back this time, Tim made sure of that.
He had studied his older brother his whole life, knew every weakness, but Tim still never wrote a plan to exploit them. Unlike him, Dick didn't need plans, he was a reactionary thinker. He didn't spend his time thinking of every possibility, of every scenario which might turn his allies against him. Dick did his best thinking on his feet and would always persevere. But Tim couldn't operate that way; he needed his files and his plans to defeat someone of Dick's caliber.
There was one plan for assured victory which Tim could never write down. It was also his cruelest plan of all, not to write a file for Dick. He hoped one day his older brother could forgive him. Because Bruce had taught Tim to be thorough with his planning, to consider everyone a possible threat, including himself. And he had, which was why Dick was the one file he couldn't write for the one battle Tim couldn't allow himself to win.
.:RR:.
2011/04/05
Notes: I promised myself I wouldn't write anything else until I finished She's So Heavy. That didn't work out. After I threw up some old plot ideas I wasn't going to use onto sharp_teeth, I decided to check out the prompts and responses. Sadly no one else had written a DC prompt (though it was only the second evening) and I decided to try my hand at one.
The first prompt I picked was similar to an idea I had when I read Red Robin 14, that Tim would never write a file on Dick because he knew Dick so well he wouldn't need one. As I was writing I realized while that could be it, I had been wrong. I knew Tim had gone dark side in the story, had used him similarly in one of the futures of A Hero's Causatum, but I lacked any motivation for him to do so. Which is why I cheated and picked up the second prompt.
The title gave me trouble and I finally looked at The Art of War because it's the most famous book on strategy that I could think of. Desperation mostly. I wrote and edited this in about 24 hours, which amazes me to no end. I might be emo-artist about that later but we'll see.