Comments | goldeneyedflash: Big Damn Item Post

goldeneyedflash

Big Damn Item Post

Dec 18, 2008 14:29

Christmas morning was one of the few days they really couldn't afford to sleep in. No training, but for some reason, any day the rest of the world was celebrated tended to make the psychos come out in force. He tried not to think about it too much, because if he did, he'd end up brooding about who wasn't around to share the holiday smackdown with ( Read more... )

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Comments 64

cantstopmoving December 19 2008, 03:23:38 UTC

It's been more than two years since the day Kon died saving he and Cassie and the rest of the Earth. They'd only been close in the too-short hours before it happened, bonded in a desperate fight to save everyone they loved. He'd lived to enjoy the victory. So had Cassie, even though she'd gone...wrong...since, and Dick is determined to see that the things that had broken her at home didn't get to her here.

He's paid his respects, held his quiet vigils the way Bats do. He's over it, as much as it's possible to be over the death of a friend, family member, who shouldn't have had to die. Maybe it's that it's Christmas or that Tim doesn't need this, or Bart doesn't, or maybe it's just been a really long two months, but the sight of the statue and Bart crumpled beneath it, on his way home from an early morning get-a-jump-on-the-psychos patrol pulls a startled sob from him, too.

Dick pushes a gauntleted hand through his hair and sucks in a slow breath. "Fuck, Kon. You were way too young to die. No matter how cool it was."

goldeneyedflash December 19 2008, 03:31:34 UTC

Bart hadn't actually heard Nightwing approach, hadn't been listening to anything but the pounding of the blood in his ears, the sure knowledge that Kon was gone because, once again, he'd screwed up. That had motivated him to lie to his friends, his family, about his powers being gone, pretending for a year that he was just like other people. It had cost too much. He'd never wanted to make a sacrifice like that.

Dick's words cut through him as he struggled to pull himself together, numb inside and out. When he spoke, his voice wasn't quite even, didn't quite hide the edge of grief and anger that this reminder pulled back to the surface, just as strong as the day it happened. "He shouldn't have had to. I should have been faster."

cantstopmoving December 19 2008, 04:21:40 UTC

"You weren't there," Dick says sharply, a little too sharply, but Bart's constant bemoaning not having done enough while sitting at the base of this statue of a hero grates on him. His arms come up across his chest, Bat-style, but his voice softens. He understands it hurts. "You couldn't have stopped him even if you were. He'd have done exactly what he did. What he was born to do."

goldeneyedflash December 19 2008, 04:32:19 UTC

"No, I wasn't. Because I spent four years trying to keep Prime under wraps with Wally and Grandpa and Max..." Bart hated how his voice caught at the memories, how much he'd given up, and then Kon died anyway. "You don't understand, 'Wing. Every detail's the same as the day it happened. Except for what happened after I went into the Speed Force with Wally and Jay with Superboy-Prime, before I came back, my memories are always like that. I can't let go, the reminders are there, and it's like it's happening again.

"Maybe I couldn't have stopped him, but he would have had backup. More than he had."

Thread 9

kaleidoscopeyed December 20 2008, 01:19:25 UTC

Karolina is wandering far, a lot further out than she usual goes from the compound or the treehouse. She's been walking for awhile, entranced by the beauty of the untrodden snow all over again. The paths are all muddied now, and it's refreshing to see untouched snow.

She sees the tracks first, so out of place in all the whiteness, and then she hears a keening sound floating toward her. She picks up her pace and then sees Bart and the statue. Her eyes didn't linger on that too long, because the sound was coming from Bart. It was coming from her friend.

She runs the last few feet and falls to her knees next to him, hesitating to touch him. She does though, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Bart? Honey?"

goldeneyedflash December 20 2008, 01:24:54 UTC

Bart didn't mean to flinch at her touch, but he wasn't really in control anymore. Absently scrubbing at his face with the back of one gloved hand, he tried to pull himself together, to not be the wreck he felt like. It wasn't fair, because what he really wanted to do was find whoever thought this was a joke and hand them their ass.

"First Spoiler, now this," he said, softly.

kaleidoscopeyed December 20 2008, 01:54:43 UTC

Karolina pulls her hand back sharply as he flinches. Even so, she doesn't take it personally. Her hand hovers over his shoulder for another moment before she draws it back into her lap. She glances up at the statue and then back at Bart, making the connection that anyone would have made. Still she has to ask. "I don't understand. What happened? What's wrong?" She hates how that question comes out of her mouth, dry, cliched, and trite, but it's the heart of the matter. At least she hadn't asked are you okay?

goldeneyedflash December 20 2008, 06:23:06 UTC

"His name's Superboy. He was my best friend. I wasn't fast enough to save him, and there wasn't anyone else who could even try," Bart said, not meeting her eyes. She didn't mean anything by the questions, because she couldn't possibly know.

"This stood next to the statue Metropolis put up when Superman was killed by Doomsday. SB first showed up not long after that, along with some other people who weren't the original S, but tried anyways. Kon, er, Kon-el was the Kryptonian name Superman gave him. Didn't stay dead, seems like some people don't. But Kon was cloned from a sample of Superman and mixed with human DNA. A refugee from the future, a not-quite-successful duplicate, and Robin. That was where we started. Didn't take long before Wonder Girl and some others joined us, but in the beginning,there were three.

"And the one who never had any powers to begin with is the one still standing."

Thread 19

thethirdwonder December 20 2008, 07:19:59 UTC

Cassie had been both too excited about Christmas and too homesick for her mother to sleep much, so she woke up early and decided to take a quick walk outside to start off the morning. The snow was exhilarating as she'd walked through it, happily humming Christmas carols under her breath and mentally planning the rest of her day ( ... )

goldeneyedflash December 20 2008, 07:52:32 UTC

Bart was still trying to gain control of his own rampaging emotions when he noticed Cassie. He started to get up, wincing as his bad knee felt almost like it was grinding in the cold. It wasn't, really, but the phantom pain of the endoprosthesis was another reminder of how much this Cassie hadn't lived yet, how young she was.

"Grife, Cass, I'm so sorry," he told her, pulling her close for a hug.

thethirdwonder December 22 2008, 01:31:04 UTC

Cassie stood stiffly, letting Bart hug her but not reciprocating. It was just all too much for her at the moment.

"What happened?" She asked in soft and flat voice.

goldeneyedflash December 22 2008, 01:34:07 UTC

Bart looked up at Kon, trying to be strong for her, to not fall apart like he wanted to. "He saved the world."

Thread 11

needsarobin December 21 2008, 04:18:51 UTC

Dick found Tim practicing katas by himself in a quiet clearing. His news had sent Tim running back through snow, occasionally using the trees when it was faster. His heart was racing far beyond the physical exertion of it.

He flipped out of the trees and landed with a spray of snow. The sight of the statue hit him hard as a sledgehammer in his chest. It didn't slow him in the least and he crossed the last few meters in a sprint, stopping himself by falling to his knees and wrapping his arms around Bart.

goldeneyedflash December 21 2008, 04:25:12 UTC

Bart didn't even think about what he was doing as he turned, burying his face in Tim's shoulder. Hot tears ran down his cheeks, feeling like the only part of him that wasn't cold, numb. One word tore free from his throat, the only one he had left, coming out like a sob.

"Why?"

needsarobin December 21 2008, 04:31:14 UTC

"I don't know. I wish I knew but I don't." Tim clutched him tightly, putting his head on Bart's. If he held on tight enough, if he was strong enough...he still didn't know. It wouldn't change that Kon wasn't here. That Stephanie was gone. That Bart had been hurt, twisted, forced into the worst circumstances that could be imagined.

goldeneyedflash December 21 2008, 04:46:12 UTC

It still seemed right, leaning on Tim for strength neither of them had to give. He just wanted to stay there, and cry until there weren't any more tears. Dick's voice repeating Kon's last words only twisted the knife in deeper, because it wasn't at all 'cool.' The only part of death that could be considered such was a technical description of a body achieving ambient temperature.

He was shivering in his best friends arms, from the sobs that wanted to fight their way out of him and the cold that had been seeping in. Everything hurt, everything burned, and he wanted to do something about it, strike out, but there wasn't anything there. Just ghosts and memories, like when the damned island brought forth Inertia from his nightmares.

"I failed him. You. Everyone."

Thread 25