Drowning in Hellfire
Really this was rather cliché if he thought about it. Once again, Tim had been kidnapped by Ra's Al Ghul. Honestly, the young detective wished that the immortal would get another fucking hobby. Though something about this attempt felt different then the others. Perhaps it was the fact that he was tied and shackled over the bubbling depths of a previously unknown Lazarus Pit. Or the fact he couldn't recall just how he had been captured in the first place?
Or maybe it was the fact that he knew with absolute certainty that no one was going to come for him?
No one was coming for him. Tim already knew this, after all he was estranged from the rest of the so-called Batfamily. Had been for a few years now. Since Bruce was lost in the time stream and the brat took his place. Even when he managed to find evidence and bring Bruce back, bring Batman home... He couldn't go back. Not when half of the family wanted him dead or nothing to do with him. The only one he had held on for was Bruce, but that changed when he had tried to kill Boomerang. Even though he had pulled back and stopped himself, the Bat couldn't forgive his perfect little soldier for slipping. No matter that Jason kills nearly every day.
Slowly, Red Robin had started distancing himself from everyone; the Bats, the Titans, His Team. Too many hurts, too many lies, too much miscommunication had broken the trust on both sides. Soon enough Red Robin disappeared from Gotham all together. Popping up now and then in other cities, under a new name with a new suit... but never staying long.
Never contacting anyone.
Which proved to be his downfall. Apparently Ra's was waiting for this to happen. After all, he was a centuries old leader of a league of ninja assassins. Ra's knows how to be patient, to bide his time, to watch from the shadows as his prey played right into his hand. He had experience with this after all.
No one was coming for him, the former Robin realized with a sense of dread that crawled slowly down his spine whilst realization of his coming demise tightened like a noose around his throat. If he had just kept contact, no matter the growing divide between him and his family, his friends, his Team. If he had just reached out instead of waiting/praying they would see just how much Tim was hurting. That they would see he was drowning under all that had happened.
He gulped, unable to speak due to Ra's hand clamped like a vice over his mouth, unable to pull away from the sword biting into his throat right on top of the scar that Jason had gifted him upon his Return. Tim wasn't able to talk himself out of this, couldn't play any of his cards and couldn't escape from the jaws of Death as they slowly drew closer.
This time Ra's had won.
And he knew it.
"I grow tired of waiting for you to come willingly to my side, Detective," Ra's sneered, pressing the sharp edge tighter against his throat, drawing a bright line of red to the surface as the scar reopened under the force. Tim felt his heart pounding in his ears, eyes widening further behind the whites of his lenses. Before he could protest, plead, retaliate... do anything to stop the inevitable, a spray of red arched into the air decorating the bubbling green below as it fell.
Ra's looked down at the young vigilante, unfeeling as some blood splashed onto him, dripping down slowly from where it landed, sliding easily down the edge of his sword and covering his hand. Tim struggled to breath against the rising red, bubbling and frothing in his throat, cutting off what little air he could get. The former bat could only lean weakly against his enemy as the life slowly drained from him as more red spilled down his chest painted the front of his uniform, in an almost mocking rendition of his once name. Could only gasp weakly behind Ra’s hand as his vision started to slowly dim around the edges, a chilling heaviness dripping into his bones with each struggling gasp.
“Perhaps now you will come around to my way of thinking, dear Timothy,” Ra’s purred, gently tipping the young man off of the ledge with a soft push of the hand that had once held him in place. A mocking gesture, Tim thought struggling to form even that coherent thought as the chains and shackles he was encased in dragged him ever closer to the bubbling waters below. The final nail in my coffin…
Tim could only scream in ragged breaths as he hit the burning green, frothing red mixing with bubbling green around him as the young detective sunk to the bottom of the cursed pool. It felt as if he was drowning in hellfire, the crushing green surrounding him whilst his screams only drug the green deeper within his being. His vision fading and flashing before he finally lost consciousness, body floating still at the bottom of the Pit.
It seemed like eternity as the bubbling waters slowly went still, no longer a murky mix as red stopped rising to the surface. The glowing depths calm now, eerily so.
At the bottom, hidden behind cracked white lenses, the young man’s eyes snapped open glowing the same bright green as the waters surrounding him. Burning with a cold hellfire as a primal scream ripped from the now unscarred throat swallowed by the green.
