It Comes With the Cape

Nightmares

As requested by Tim in The Fangirls Rise.

You might find yourself asking, What does this have to do with anything? And why would Tim request such a thing?

Hold your horses. I'll get to it.

Probably.

xXx

Scarecrow cackled, dancing around the four brothers as they tried to focus on him and avoid the falling debris at the same time.

"Why would he blow up his own lab?" Jason asked as he narrowly avoided being impaled by a ceiling beam.

"I don't think this is his real lab!" Tim yelled from the other side of a huge pile of rubble. "It was just a ruse to get us over here!"

Dick leaped over a huge chunk of ceiling and ran after Scarecrow. "I think it worked!"

"If he was trying to kill us, it isn't working." Damian was standing stock-still with his arms crossed, apparently out of the way of the cascade of falling building for now.

"That's why I'm starting to think that's not his plan. Now we-- GAH!" Tim staggered back from the jet of gas that suddenly billowed around him. "Well, this isn't... good," he managed before he collapsed.

Everyone stared at his unconscious body. "I don't think that was fear gas," Dick announced as another cloud enveloped him. He stumbled away, then fell, unconscious.

Damian looked around, on the alert for a similar cloud to envelop him. When nothing happened, he stepped toward Scarecrow. At that moment, a loud hiss signaled the release of more gas, and he fell over with a quiet clatter of the rubble under him.

Jason wasn't particularly concerned for his own welfare; his mask had air filters built in. However, he was obviously somewhat worried for his brothers.

He turned to face Scarecrow, but the villain was no longer there. "Where are you, you straw-filled creep?" he yelled.

"You really ought to keep better track of your surroundings," a voice behind him whispered harshly.

Jason whirled around, but Scarecrow struck him under his chin, knocking his helmet off-kilter and sending him stumbling back. Before he could fix his helmet, he heard a loud hiss and could feel the toxin filling his nostrils and lungs, sucking his consciousness away like water down a storm drain.

<><><><>

"I can't believe you."

Damian struggled to hold back his sobs. "Father--"

Bruce didn't even look over his shoulder. "No. You failed. There is no excuse."

A gleaming apparition shimmered into existence beside him. "Damian, how could you? You let us all--"

"NO! No, I didn't! I swear, I--"

Dick's ghost shook its head. "You failed."

Damian collapsed to the ground, trembling with silent tears. "I didn't. I swear."

<><><><>

Tim kept running, even though he was absolutely breathless. "Time's up!" the ominous voice announced.

"NO!" Tim screamed. "No! That's-- You didn't--" He was almost there-- he could still reach it-- if he could just run faster--

"And now, he dies!"

Jason yelled in defiance. Then the invisible apparatus suspending him in midair released him.

His fall was short. The agony of the pool of acid he fell into wasn't.