#after lilith and donna died--tim asked dick what they should do now

[hood-ex]

I once read a book where a character who had just one of everything - one fork, one plate, etc. - because he considered more than that just pointless stuff he'd eventually have to move told another that she made him want to have two plates, and that might be the most Dick and Donna vibes I've ever gotten out of anything not actually about Dick and Donna.

Well now I'm thinking about Dick buying two mugs and keeping one for himself and giving the other to Donna as a gift, but Dick's mug eventually burns along with the rest of Dick's apartment during the Blockbuster fiasco, so then after Donna dies and there's a funeral reception at her apartment, Dick finds the twin mug in Donna's kitchen, and he takes it up to the roof with him and cries.

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files

[ragingbookdragon]

I'm Only A Crack In This Castle Of Glass (Hardly Anything Else I Need To Be) PT. 3

Batfamily x Batsis Story!

Word Count: 2.1K Warnings: Explicit Language, Angst! Tags!: @itsnottilly @cloudyskylines

Author's Note: DUN DUN DUN!!!! Y'all enjoy this now, because it's only gonna get so much more angstier soon. -Thorne

Set Three Months After PT. 2:

She didn’t have to look up to know who entered the shop, because his voice carried over the air. “Melisandre!”

Humming, she immediately plated a pastry and a hot coffee, sliding it on the counter just as he sat down. “Good morning, Wally,” she greeted, watching him take a bite. “Right on time, as always.”

He smiled, cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk. “Morming Merisamdmur,” he replied, and she rolled her eyes with a snort.

“Jeez Wally, didn’t your mom teach you to not talk with your mouth full?”

Shrugging, he swallowed and said, “I was trying to be polite.”

“I think it’s more polite to chew with your mouth closed and speak after you swallow.”

They glared at each other before one of them cracked a smile and they fell into laughter. She tossed a napkin his way. “How’s your day going so far?”

Wally groaned and laid his head on the cool marble countertop. “I’ve got so much to do today, it’s not even funny.”

“Well, well, Wally the procrastinator is finally feeling his toes at the fire, huh?” She ignored his glare. “What do you have to do?”

“Barry needs my help with my cousins and my friends are coming over today to hangout and I haven’t bought any food or drinks for that and I have yet to even start cleaning my house.”

She giggled and reached over, patting his head sympathetically. “There, there, Wally. Everything will be alright. Why don’t you just bring your cousins over to your house and watch them while you hang out with your friends?”

“Because my cousins are annoying and I’m not subjecting my friends to that,” he countered and propped his chin on his palm. “Unless…”

She cocked a brow and waited for him to continue and he offered, “You come over with my cousins and help me watch them?”

“No.”

“What! Why?”

“Well for starters, I don’t know your friends and it would be weird for me to just show up.” She countered.

“They’ll like you though!” he cried, and his hand shot out, wrapping around hers. “Please, Melisandre!”

“Wally, I’ll just watch your cousins at my apartment and Iris can just come get them later, that’ll be easier and won’t force me to sit in a group of people who don’t know me.” He tried to speak but she tossed another napkin, hitting him in the face. “I’m watching Dawn and Don so you and your friends can hang out without being bothered, and that’s final.”

His face pinched. “You sure you can keep up with them?”

Something passed between them and she quirked a brow. “I can keep up with you, can’t I, Wally?”

Wally chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, that’s a fair point.” He glanced at her. “They would like you though.”

She ignored the comment in favor of, “Tell me about them. What are they like?”

He inhaled sharply and took a moment to think. “Donna’s strong willed, Roy’s loud, Lilith likes to get in your head, Garth is easy to annoy, and Dick’s kinda the glue that keeps us together.”

“Dick? He get that from Richard by asking nicely?”

Wally barked a laugh. “Oh, I’m definitely gonna tell him you said that.” He nodded. “But yeah, his name is Richard Grayson, but he goes by Dick.”

Her eyes almost bulged out of her head and she was lucky that Wally was looking at his watch then.

Don’t ask. Don’t do it. Leave it alone.

But she couldn’t stop herself.

“Richard Grayson?” she feigned. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

Wally met her eyes. “Bruce Wayne.”

She snapped her fingers. “Right! The ward.” Wiping the counter, she added, “I heard they added a new addition to that family too. A daughter, right? Cassie? Cassidy?”

“Cassandra,” Wally corrected. “Yeah, that’s Dick’s new sister.” He put his elbows on the counter. “She’s nice, doesn’t talk a lot though.”

“The quiet one, then?”

He laughed. “Of them all.”

Don’t dig any deeper, (Y/N). Keep your fucking mouth shut and let it go.

“I always wondered what happened to that other daughter he had,” she murmured, and Wally’s face blanched like he’d witnessed a murder.

“What?”

She met his gaze. “He had another daughter. I think her name was (Y/N).”

He swallowed thickly. “He does.”

“Does? She’s still around?”

“Yeah, she’s in some Italian villa.”

“Wait really? I thought she died or something?”

“What? No! She left—” Wally snapped his mouth shut like he was about to reveal a secret, but she knew anyways. “She left and went to Europe for a mental retreat.” He finalized and she wondered if that was the story Dick told him to say if anyone asked. Or maybe it was Bruce.

“It’s been like three years now, right? You’d think she’d post something on social media.”

“The whole point of a mental retreat, Melisandre, is to get away from social media.”

Oh please, I know plenty of elite who do that shit and still post crap on their socials.

“There’s no way that girl hasn’t.”

“Why do you say that?”

She scoffed. “Oh please, she’s the daughter of a multi-billionaire. There’s no way a girl that wears Gucci belts and carries Prada purses keeps herself off social media.”

Wally’s eyes narrowed like he was thinking hard about something and she internally cursed.

Oh, smooth move you dumbass.

She coughed and waved a hand. “Well, it’s all theory anyway.”

After a moment, he nodded. “Yeah…theory.” Wally got to his feet and handed her the empty plate. “I should go ahead and get back to my place and clean up before they get here.”

“Have fun,” she smiled, and he grabbed her arm.

“Take a pic with me.”

“What? Why?”

“So, I can tell my friends about you and prove I’m not lying.” He pouted. “Pretty please, Melisandre?”

Don’t do it. Dick will know. You know he’ll know.

She smiled despite her internal thoughts. “Sure.”

Wally grinned and raised the camera where she was in the background. She threw up a peace sign and gave a cheesy grin, momentarily blinded by the flash of the camera.

She spun and filled a bag with pastries then handed it to him. “Here, so you can give even more proof.”

Wally took the bag and hopped onto the counter, leaning down to press a kiss to her cheek. “Thanks Melisandre!” And he was dashing out the door.

You’ve ruined it all. This is going to come back to bite you in the ass. And it’s going to come quicker than you think.

She frowned and wiped down the counter again, trying to ignore her thoughts. Maybe. Just maybe, it wouldn’t.

***

Waving Barry and Iris off, she smiled as the twins climbed into the backseat of their car and the taillights signaled their departure. She closed the door behind her and glanced at the mess the two tornadoes had left. Even for the little she had in her apartment, they sure did know how to make a mess.

She sighed as she bent over to pick up one of the cushions when her doorbell rang and she stood up, confusion coming over her as she made her way to the door.

“Hello?” she asked, and a muffled voice echoed from the other side.

“Melisandre, it’s me, Wally. Can I come in?”

She opened the door, surprised to see him. “Wally? What are you doing here? I thought you were with your friends?”

“Yeah, I told them I had to do something really quickly,” he said as entered her apartment. He took a moment to examine her living room. “Man, Dawn and Don did a number here, didn’t they?”

She chuckled. “We had fun building forts.” Nudging him in the side, she added, “I don’t mind the mess.” She looked at him. “Do your friends know? About you being…you know?”

He nodded. “We’re all special in some way.”

Understatement there, Wally.

“So, why tell them you need to do something then come to me? Is everything alright?”

Busying herself with the couch cushions, she waited for him to explain, but nothing could’ve prepared her for his words.

“It will be once I get to the bottom of it…(Y/N).” She froze for a split second, but it was all he needed. “It really is you, isn’t it?”

(Y/N) stood upright and gazed at him. “When did you know?” Her voice was a lot colder than she meant for it to be.

“I had suspicion for a while, but when I showed the picture to everyone, Dick said it looked like you.”

“Really?” she laughed. “I thought I did a good job changing my appearance from three years ago.”

Wally didn’t laugh, he merely gaped at her. “Why?”

“Why what?” (Y/N) knew what he was referring to.

“Why’d you just leave?” He took a step towards her. “Do you have any idea what your family has gone through since you disappeared on them? The grief? The shame?”

She shrugged. “I explained everything in the letter I wrote my dad, Wally. There’s no reason why they should still be concerned with me.”

“They love you!” he shouted, taking her by surprise. “They love and miss you so much!”

“My family ignored me for eighteen years straight, Wally!” She yelled right back. “What was I supposed to do? Sit and pretend being forgotten was all normal?!” (Y/N) couldn’t help but shove at his chest. “I chose to leave because my next choice was taking a swan dive off Wayne Enterprises!”

His eyes went wide, and she shook her head. “I left because the only person who cared about me, was me.” She turned and fixed the final couch cushion while he watched her do so.

“They’re still looking for you, you know. Dick is always staring at his phone hoping there’s a text from Jason or Tim that they’ve found a sign of you.”

(Y/N) sighed. “If you’re trying to guilt trip me, Wally, it’s not going to work.” She shot him a glare. “I got over the fucking guilt the second the flight to Central took off. I got over the fucking guilt the night I laid in a hotel room bed curled into a ball where I cried myself to sleep. I got over the fucking guilt the moment I realized I’ve done so much better on my own than when I was there.”

She marched up to him and got in his face. “I got over the fucking guilt when I realized Barry and Iris Allen were more of a family than four brothers and dad ever were.”

They glared at each other and finally, she let out a sigh. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve already started a new life here and I have no plans of ever going back.”

“At a college that doesn’t have a real name. You know that’s illegal, right?”

(Y/N) scoffed. “What’re you gonna do, Wally? March into four-C and tell them Bruce Wayne’s daughter is going to school under a false name? We both know you wouldn’t.”

“I’ll tell Dick,” he suddenly shot back, and she went rigid.

“You wouldn’t dare,” (Y/N) threatened and he took a step towards her, getting nose to nose with her.

“Try me.”

They stared one another down and she said, “I think you need to leave, Wally West.”

His eyes narrowed. “Yeah, I guess I should.” He spun on his heel and marched to the door, but stopped when she questioned,

“Are you really going to tell him?”

Wally gazed at the ground for a moment then he murmured, “…No…it’s not my place to.”

(Y/N) swallowed and nodded. “Thank yo—”

“Don’t thank me, (Y/N). I’m lying to my best friend about knowing the real location of his baby sister he misses dearly.”

She looked away. “Cassandra is his baby sister now. He should focus on her.”

“You really have no idea about what they feel for you, do you, (Y/N)?” He asked, and she grunted.

“Get out, Wally.”

“Don’t worry, I’m gone,” he spat, slamming the door behind him, hard enough that it shook the walls that held the doorframe.

(Y/N) stared at the door for a few moments then cursed sharply and collapsed onto her couch, eyes directed to the ceiling. Three years down the drain in one conversation.

Way to go, (Y/N). You did a spectacular job of keeping it all under wraps.

She groaned and picked herself off the couch, not caring about the mess as she headed to bed. She’d deal with it all in the morning.

[danny-chase]

Do you think that Tim saved Dick in a way? Because we see Dick getting better as he gets closer to Tim and healing and getting back into the family, and ig it’s Tim who initiated that.

I literally don't have a yes or no answer for this... like most things in the Batfam - it's complicated. (Following answer is informed by 90s-00s comics, i can't really speak for new52 because it just... has so many issues one of which being erasing the relationship between Dick and Tim for *checks note* no discernable reason other than possibly *checks note* Didio hates legacy characters and wants only bad things for them so he could have excuses to kill them off or cancel their comics... idk just a guess)

Warnings: for Bruce stans - just look away i'm about to bring up bits of canon you most likely don't like, for Dick stans - Devin Grayson's run is mentioned, for the lovely anon - i wrote an essay, hope you are prepared

Tim coming into the family gave Dick a reason to occasionally hang around Bruce and i'm not sure if this is an exaggeration or not but he did sort of save that relationship - but whether that was a good or bad thing at the time, i can't really say. For sure - it starts off good, Bruce is actually trying to be a good dad (he comes down to Blud to check on Dick, adopts him, trusts him with his own city, calls him for backup, etc.). But we also see throughout Bruce Wayne: Fugitive/Murderer how unhealthy the relationship between the two can be. Dick built his core values around Bruce - if Bruce had actually killed here it would have been devastating for Dick (he was pretty much on the verge of a mental breakdown simply because they couldn't find proof Bruce wasn't guilty). The two literally got in a fist fight during the arc because Bruce was being uncommunicative and Dick couldn't take it anymore, snapped, and punched him when Bruce said "Bruce Wayne is dead only Batman now" - this tied into Dick finally having the relief and validation of being adopted and he couldn't handle Bruce stripping himself (and by extension, his fatherhood of Dick) away. In this era of comics Bruce had gotten physical with Dick before (here's me venting like an annoyed loser), and here's a clip from Bruce Wayne Fugitive that i just, *sigh*, canon Bruce, my detested.

Now on the other hand - getting Dick involved in the batfam more doesn't just mean he was hanging out with Bruce. His relationship with Tim is pretty great and I can definitely see where it was healing for a while - but also - to give credit where credit is due, the healing he goes through during this era of comics can also be attributed to Barbara and the Titans (the fab five specifically). Wally literally joins the Titans to give Dick a "social life" (me - it's because he's gay and wants to spend more time with Dick, actually, screw you DC you know i'm right). Donna plays a major part in keeping Dick's emotional well being in check. So like everything was going fine - Dick was healing, spending more time with friends, spending a lot of time with people he loved, like Tim, except he was neglecting his health and not sleeping - but overall he was in fact, managing, and moving past the deaths of Jason and some of the other Titans. With the current Titans - he was a hardass (which like ~trauma~ so I understand), but like things were going relatively okay.

And then Donna and Lilith died. And hooof Donna dying was like really really bad for his mental health.

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files (2003) #1

[Image ID: Dick sits in a room staring at a photo, the phone rings in the background, and he doesn't even acknowledge it, the voice mail plays: "I'm not here. Leave a message after the beep." The photo is shown closer in the next frame, it's of the five original Teen Titans - Roy kisses Donna on the cheek, tipping his hat his other hand making the okay sign, Donna has an arm around Roy, the other hand on Dick's shoulder, Garth proudly stands beaming with his hands on his hips, and Dick has both his arms around Wally's neck. Everyone is smiling in the photo. A voice plays over the answering machine: "Dick, it's Roy - pick up the phone... c'mon... please... I know you're there... just pick up. Dick, we need to talk... you can't just... please..." End ID]

For context - the previous page noted that this is Dick SIX WEEKS after Donna died. Usually Dick's the one who moves on quickly, but Donna dying broke him in a way nothing else had before - and that could be partly because he was still recovering from everyone else's death.

Up to this point, Dick had been healing and Tim was definitely a part of that, but then DC decided to throw the absolute book, bookshelf, and library at him. Reading Outsiders (2003) it's very clear he's very traumatized, and around the same time, Devin is literally whumping him like it's the whump Olympics, breaking him and Babs up, burning down his childhood home, blowing up his apartment complex (killing all but like two of his neighbors), he's literally sleeping on fire escapes using newspapers as covering because he has nothing, and the bad thing i don't like to think about (i'll let you know if you ask but that one needs lots of tw, but if you know where i'm going you know what it is already), Blockbuster is killed and he blames himself - and loses it over breaking Bruce's one rule, Bludhaven is nuked, and he pretty much tries to kill himself.

So basically, he was on the path to healing (with Tim as part of that) before he got absolutely destroyed (and almost killed off by Didio in one of the crisis). Tim in his own right, was also going through a lot in the meantime, his dad died, Steph died, Kon and Bart died, i don't remember what else happened and i haven't read that era of Robin yet. Things were good until they weren't anymore, and sometimes i think Dick would regret ever exposing Tim to the life they live, and questions whether he should have just sent Tim packing x2. They do get to spend a year together on a mental health cruise, but then Damian comes into the picture, Battle for the Cowl happens, and they have their falling out. But whatever happened on that cruise must have been really healing for Dick because he actually kind of rocks it in this era - he keeps things light with Damian, Alfred notes at one point how he makes things easy because he has lightness in him, and he patches things up with Tim - catching him in that panel of Red Robin - from there they kind of go back to normal, there's a lightness to the way they banter with each other (also here) and Tim returns the favor (from the Red Robin incident) by pulling Dick out of the water.

They've saved each other multiple times over (physically), and in both in the Black Mirror and Gates of Gotham, Tim helps out in a period where Dick is starting to fall apart from the pressure of holding things together for so long (something Tim might feel guilty for, because he did run away from Gotham on a wild goose chase for Bruce). In that period, it's really clear that Dick saves Tim (he reminds him in RR, that someone does actually care for him) and then Tim saves Dick from being torn apart by Gotham.

I should point out - Damian, while starting off as kind of a hinderance, does eventually start helping Dick as well. By the end of their relationship (before the New52 destroys everything i love), Dick has helped Damian grow emotionally, and through that process Dick probably finds meaning and value in their time together, probably a lot like he used to feel with Tim. And of course, physically, they've both saved each other multiple times by the end of the run.

So yeah. I think Dick finds meaning in growth in mentoring his younger brothers, and it's likely a healing process, that healing just has some twists and turns along the way, and sometimes, on bad days, he probably feels like maybe he shouldn't have intervened at all, but i think on most days, he's proud of what Tim's become.

...I hope this is coherent lmao

[bigskydreaming]

Pssst. If your frigid Arctic take is that everything with Blockbuster and Tarantula could have been avoided if Dick had swallowed his pride and asked for help, this is literal victim blaming. As usual.

First off, pride wasn’t the reason Dick didn’t ask for help, trauma was. Blockbuster was systematically killing everyone associated with Dick and weirdly, the guy with a massive guilt complex about people dying because of him didn’t want to put more people he loved in the crosshairs.

Second, most of the people Dick would normally turn to for help were unavailable anyway. Donna and Lilith were literally dead. Wally, Garth and Roy had pretty consuming storylines of their own at that time and/or kids to worry about, like you think DICK GRAYSON in his frame of mind wasn’t thinking “if I call Roy for help and he dies, Lian will be left without her father”? Tim wasn’t even Robin at the time as he was ‘retired’ for the time being due to his attempts to abide by his dad’s wishes and build a relationship with Jack.

Third, Dick literally DID turn to people. The night Firefly burned down his circus, he went to Babs and she let him stay but told him he had to go the next morning because they’d just broken up and she wanted to be there for him but she couldn’t, not right now.

The last time before Blockbuster that Dick was in major trouble in Bludhaven, he was framed for murder and arrested, and Bruce came down to Bludhaven...solely to tell him he couldn’t be Nightwing while trying to clear his name in case the investigation into Dick Grayson led the police to his secret identity and from there to the rest of the Bats. And then Bruce just up and left, not even because Dick asked him to or said he could handle it on his own, he just...that was all he was there to say and then bye, so combine that with the fact that Dick and Bruce had barely even talked since Last Laugh when Dick killed the Joker and Bruce left saying he had to figure out how to deal with what he’d done on his own and gosh, I can’t think of any reason Dick might not have thought he couldn’t turn to Bruce right then, yup must have just been his pride.

Fourth, almost immediately after the crap with Blockbuster, Dick went to Gotham WITH Tarantula to help in the gang war there, and despite the fact that everyone noticed he was out of sorts and the fact that he was clearly not comfortable around this companion of his aka his rapist, the world’s greatest detective and his super observant ex girlfriend had too many other priorities to even try and do something about the fact that he was clearly not okay, even though they at the very least knew about everything that had happened to his circus, apartment building, all the people who had died around him recently, etc. Super fascinating how the go to is ALWAYS what Dick SHOULD have done versus what literally ANY of the other people in his life should have done or taken notice of or shifted priorities to help him from like....the second they noticed he was very visibly being targeted down in Bludhaven and every aspect of his life was being systematically attacked.

Fifth, it’s literal victim blaming and just freaking don’t do it? You guys are livid at the very suggestion anything is ever most of the other Batfam’s faults, but time and time and time again, you look at Dick’s traumas and always manage to find SOME angle by which gosh, all of that nastiness could have been avoided by him if he just wasn’t so prideful. Or stubborn. Or promiscuous. Or flighty. Or angry. Or any of the other several dozen normal human traits everyone displays at some point or another but you just can’t seem to help from linking up HERE, with this character specifically, as the root causes of all his own traumas and tragedies. They’re never external, never just the result of people doing fucked up things to him, they’re always always always....something Dick could have avoided if he’d just used his gosh darn brain for once and put his ego on hold.

It’s groooooooooss.

[chronicbatfictioner]

A Real Boy - Chapter 11

Conner was killed two weeks later.

They didn't get to have another meeting by the next week. Tim's dad had demanded that he should come and visit him in Central City. The visit itself was... angering Tim so much. Dad wanted him to move his college transcripts to Central City University. If it was not for his new wife, Dana, who explained that CCU didn't have the studies Tim was taking for his Microbiology degree, he might have had a hard time to tell his dad 'no'. Even with Jason by his side.

The only good thing that came out of the two-day visit was that Dana, dad's new wife, was impressed at Jason and right away demanded that Jason "take care of Tim." She might have thought that Jason was Tim's boyfriend, and neither of them corrected her. Even Tim was slowly realizing that Jason's demeanor toward him - as was his toward Jason - could definitely be seen as a closer relationship than 'buddy'-hood; or housemates.

With the success of determining Szazs' next victim, and consequently preventing a murder from being committed and presenting enough evidence for Bruce's team and the GCPD in arresting Victor Szazs; Tim was given another task by Bruce on Monday. The task was to find evidence that Lex Luthor has created another life effigy. One that is less Clark and more... something else; using the same materials and methods that had created Conner.

On Tuesday, Tim had found the evidence and told Bruce; and then he'd told Conner over a video call. Conner had laughed and told him that it would be funny if he'd have to fight his own face.

Tim was glad he had the video call recorded out of habit. 

On Wednesday, Tim found himself running through a pile of debris, courtesy of the fight between Conner and his clone in Metropolis City. Toward Cassie, who was kneeling and cradling Conner in her arms; Bart, barely clinging to life after dragging the clone through the speedforce realm with his cousin, Wally West; Rachel trying to hold Bart's life together; and Conner. Lifeless, bloodied, beaten, and broken.

Tim never wailed. Tears might have streamed freely from his eyes as he slumped right next to Cassie, watching the lifeless body of one of his best friends. Cassie sobbed openly, and Bart and Rachel managed to reach over and held Cassie's shoulder.

But the battle raged on, and there were others who were fighting for their lives around him. The clone that Luthor had made might have been the strongest there was. It had incapacitated Clark, who was secretly flown out to the Wayne Manor. Diana, Donna, Bruce, Dick, and many others were still trying to... well, not get dead, mostly.

He slowly stood up and looked at Wally. "I'm not gonna ask Bart just yet. Wally, can you make an amplifying tornado?" he asked.

"What are you gonna do?" Wally asked back, a little trepidation in his voice. Apparently Wally might have heard some things that Bart had done with said 'amplifying tornado', because he added, "You can't..."

"Just do it, please. Now. Bruce, if you can hear me. Tell every Kryptonian to get out of the range. Make them go to the moon, if necessary." Tim gritted, hoping that his commlinks still worked. "Jason." he called, knowing that he didn't even have to speak his command to Jason.

Jason exhaled slowly. "Wally, just do as he said..." Jason said quietly. "We need this to stop at all cost, before it cost us all."

He could see Wally gulped, but he nodded. "Just tell me when." he said, raising his hand to make the small, targeted tornadoes that would amplify whatever spell Tim would make.

And this one would target Conner's Kryptonian blood that's heavily smeared on Tim's hands. Clark Kent's DNA.

A red-and-blue blur landed behind him. "Hold on a second," a voice said. "I'm getting us out of here. I'm sorry, Cassie..." Kara, Clark's cousin - technically Conner's, too - said, as she wrapped her cape around Conner's body and flew away.

"Cassie," Tim started. Cassie's eyes were red and hard, tears still streaming down from them.

"Do it, Tim. Destroy them." she commanded.

Tim nodded. He could feel the anger building up within him, added with Jason's boost, and building, and building; he barely managed to tell Wally "now," before a burst of energy zapped out of his palm into Wally's tornadoes. His anger twisted every bit of the copies of Conner's DNA out of the clones and they screamed. He could hear them scream in pain and would have prolonged the screams, if only to let them know of the pain Conner had; make Conner's DNA pushed themselves out of the clones through every vein and orifice - if Jason hadn't pushed and boosted his energy more.

They blew up right where they stood, scattered all over their surrounding area and opponents. The world felt quiet for a good second, and Tim didn't even realize that Wally had stopped the tornadoes while his own energy still spritzing out of his fingers. He snapped out of his reverie only when a hand landed on his wrist and Bruce's voice said, "it's enough, Tim..." softly.

He blinked owlishly. He'd thought of targeting the other set of DNA that would have destroyed Lex Luthor as well; and it was only a split-second decision - and the realization that there could also be another human being or some innocent relatives of Lex's who could be destroyed along - that made him decide on Conner's less-common Kryptonian DNA, instead.

"I didn't kill any humans." Tim said, almost defensively.

"No, you didn't." Bruce acknowledged. "Rachel, please help with the clouding; Wally, take Bart out of here; Cassie, if you're up for it, please help Donna and Diana with the cleanup and checkup, see if there is any bystanders were harmed." he commanded, gently, but authoritatively. Everyone around them promptly left, leaving Tim standing there just with Bruce and Jason. "Jason, can you carry us both back home?"

"Approximate home, only, man. Your house is more protected than the Presidential Palace, remember?" Jason replied, one of his arms already wrapped around Tim's shoulder, practically supporting him.

"Front yard would be just divine, lad," Bruce replied.

By the time Tim managed to croak, "Conner..." Jason had already teleported them into the Wayne Manor's front gate. Alfred stood there, right next to a golf cart, as he opened a small door on the massive gate.

"...Conner is being... cared for by Kara, Tim." Bruce said, obviously choosing his words carefully. "I'm... sorry."

"I should've done the spell sooner." Tim concluded. "I'm sorry... I didn't think of it before."

"You do the spell sooner, you'd have decimated Conner as well." Jason reminded.

Tim blinked. "I could have just..." he started, and then drew a blank. There was no other option. To destroy the clones, he'd needed Conner's blood. Conner's DNA. To get Conner's DNA, Conner would have to bleed. And died.

He sobbed, ignoring the fact that they have reached the Manor's front door; or that Clark was limping out of the door with questions in his eyes. Tim just sobbed and wept, leaning heavily on Jason. He didn't care that Jason had lifted him out of the cart and carried him into the Manor like a baby. He didn't care for Clark's questions, or that Bruce had pulled Clark to the side to make way for Jason. He just closed his eyes and wept.

By the afternoon, it was clear that the clones have made a lot more damage than anyone could ever see. Dick reported that two of his teammates were killed, too, Lilith Clay and Don Hall - both were much, much more powerful in their magick than Conner. Lilith was a pure homo-magi and telepath; Don Hall was a mortal granted the powers of Terataya, a cosmic God of Order.

Hank Hall, Don's brother and the opposite of Don as he was granted powers by T'Charr, god of Chaos; was on screen, demanding why the clones were destroyed because he'd wanted to singlehandedly destroy them all. It was anger speaking, Tim could tell, because Hank was looking worse for wear himself - both hands shattered, leg was nearly cut right off, a lot of ribs broken. Plus he wasn't exactly invulnerable, and Conner was.

Or so they all believed.; Tim thought bitterly. But hey, then again, even Clark was looking worse for wear. Tim has gotten away with a few bruises, because Jason had taken the brunt of the magickal attacks. Jason looked peachy, but Tim could tell that his energy was pretty much bruised and battered. He knew, he could feel it. Alfred was busy tending to the lot of people under this roof; and on the other side of the country, at the JL's headquarter - where Hank showed through the videocall he was making to Bruce - there were people tending to each other. Tim could see Zatanna Zatara, the most powerful magi of all time, hunched over a stove; definitely creating massive amount of concoction to heal people.

He looked around, found Cassie and Rachel, Bart, and Wally at one end of the living room. Wally was moving around, helping Alfred. Cassie was glaring angrily at a wall a few feet off the big videocall screen, and Rachel tried to just be there for her, not moving, but not holding her, either. Bart was surprisingly still, and quiet.

Before he could finish the thought of whether or not he should approach them, Bart zipped up to his side and hugged him tight. It took Tim a few heartbeats to realize that Bart was crying, and for him to hug back.

So he did. Cassie eventually got to them and wrapped her arms around the two of them. Rachel approached them timidly, and Tim waved her in. "Just let us cry a while, Rach..." he warned, because Rachel has the ability to 'cleanse' emotions - not just physical pains - and he didn't want that. Not yet. Not now.

Right now, Tim knew that they all needed a good, long cry. For Conner.