Being Titans II | Teen Titans [7]

Everything Has A Price

03
Everything Has A Price

EARTH-9
PRESENT DAY
Gotham City

"Every time I come to this place I always think to myself: 'How many secret bases does Batman need'?" Tulip thought out loud. She emerged from the elevator, her chain-links rattled as she trotted down the shadowy hall.

She plucked her gloves off, grateful for the pristine heaters in the building. "You'd think he'd put heaters in the train cars, too. I was freezing my ass off down there."

The light at the open end of the hall spilled over the shadows in technicolor. Her brow rose when Tim didn't make his usual retort. "Did you hear me Bird-Boy? I was just shit-talking your idol, where's that—"

Her words fell back into her throat as she entered the main lobby of the Belfry. Tim had all but implied he remodeled the place by himself. "With the Tower in mind," for what's left of the Teen Titans. Something her father never identified as.

Yet, his gear was proudly staged in a display case installed beneath the grand, old, bell. It left her frozen. Her eyes travelled from the platform up. She could almost hear the clink and shutter of his armor as he put it on. If she focused hard enough, she could hear his classic grunt that came with sliding on his helmet.

"What is this?" She asked, her voice trembled where her body couldn't. "Tim, why is this here?" She asked again. She could hear the creak of her stiff bones as she turned her neck to find signs of her friend within the headquarters.

She laid eyes on him in little to no time. His hair, which he'd cut to his classic box-shape, was as drenched as his Robin suit. Despite the perpetual snow storm raging outside, Tulip knew it wasn't the snow. It was clay. He'd been spending absurd amounts of time in the Mud Room--something he built himself using what was left of Clayface to simulate his enemies. Old and New.

His ears were covered by studio headphones, his eyes long-glazed with gloss from staring at the viewing panels that reached from the floor to the ceiling. His gloved hands were clenched to fists upon the motherboard.

Her eyes lifted from Tim and she anchored them on the screens instead. "Snow," She whispered as the feed from the fall of Titans Tower played. A frown settled on her lips. It'd been a month to the day and not a single day had gone by where Tim didn't scrutinize every frame of the footage.

The footage switched to a birds-eye view. Cerulean meteors rained from the sky, battering the structure beyond recompense. Despite the cosmic fires, the blinding orb around Abel, and the primordial evil possessing someone he called a friend, Snow remained standing... Until Mordru bested him with his magical claws.

She could hear Snow's cry of agony from where she stood. She squeezed her eyes shut, fists even tighter, as she fought to rid her mind of the echo. When she opened them, it seemed as if hours had passed. The viewing panels had faded to black, and Tim's chair was empty.

He'd crossed room and sank into his chair at the Gotham Knights roundtable. Deflated, and dejected. His head fell into his hands.

"Okay, you're giving me some serious 'I need a session with Jai' vibes right now." She said as she sank into the chair beside him. She was sure to choose the seat that restricted her view of her father's gear.

Tim huffed. "Yeah, maybe I need twenty." He retorted.

"Trust me Bird Boy, twenty sessions wouldn't be enough to cover half the shit wrong with you," She teased, a gentle push on his shoulder.