#and we’re still waiting for the right wing death squads we were promised eight years ago

[the-based-brit]

Had me in the first half, I’m ngl.

Don't kill yourself.

Stay alive out of spite. Don't let them kill you.

Stay alive out of defiance. Don't let them kill you.

Stay alive out of rebellion. Don't let them kill you.

We've endured Hell before. We've endured the orange Hell before. We've endured fascism before.

We will continue to endure.

Please, do not kill yourself.

Out live his rule.

Out live him.

Protest.

Rebel.

Stay alive.

Please. Don't let them kill you.

[summahsunlight]

We Belong to the Stars, CH.10

Word Count: 1826

Pairings: Poe/Evelyn (OC)

A/N: I’m so sorry that I didn’t get this posted the other day like promised! Links are provided below in case you need to catch up :)

Chapter One / Chapter Two / Chapter Three / Chapter Four / Chapter Five/ Chapter Six / Chapter Seven / Chapter Eight / Chapter Nine / AO3

Unknown Regions

Black Squadron pulled out of hyperspace at the last known coordinates for Agent Lothor. They had left early that morning, not to rouse suspicion among their fellow Resistance fighters. Poe glanced out the cockpit of his Starfighter at the barren looking planet below them. "Hey, Beebee-ate, start scanning for any signs of life down there."

BB-8 warbled a response and Poe frowned. "Yeah, you're right," he said, "it doesn't look like it could support life, but this is where the Resistance tracked Lothor too, so start looking. With any luck we'll be out of here before the First Order even realizes we're around." 

"Don't see what the First Order would want with this planet," Snap's voice said over the comm line. 

"Kyber," Evelyn replied. "This planet was supposedly rich in it a long time ago. Looks like it's been mined to dust."

Poe took a deep breath and flipped a few switches on his control panel.  "Snap, Pava, you patrol the orbit; Evelyn you're with me."

Evelyn didn't respond for a moment, and then asked, "And where are we going, exactly?" 

He guided his fighter towards the atmosphere of the planet, ordering her to follow his lead.  Poe noticed on his scopes that she did so.  "We're going to go check out that planet, see if we can find Agent Lothor.  I mean, isn't that why your aunt sent us here?"

She sighed, incredulously. "Yes, it is why she sent us. I just... I don't know, Poe.  None of this feels right." 

"Come on, Evie, let's have a little optimism here."

"Fine. Some of this doesn't feel right."

Poe chuckled as he started his landing sequence.  The two T-70's descended down through the sulfuric clouds, heading towards hills of jagged rocks.  Poe frowned; Evelyn was right, the planet had been mined to dust.  He briefly wondered what this place had looked like before the vultures had gotten their hands on it.  "BeeBee, can we breath the atmosphere here?"

BB-8 chirped an affirmative and then found a spot that the two Starfighters could land safely.  Poe entered the coordinates and proceeded to land his fighter.  Running through the post flight procedures, he quickly assessed the situation, just in case they had to make a run for it.  Opening the hatch of the X-wing, Poe released his harness, and climbed out onto the wing. He left is flight helmet on the seat, and then edging his way to the end of the wing before jumping down. 

Evelyn was waiting for him.  Pieces of her hair had come loose from her bun and were blowing in the cold breeze. She pointed over shoulder, alerting him to the settlement.  Both pilots were concerned that neither of their droids had detected any life, even though the settlement looked well taken care of.

"Is it possible they left in a hurry?" Poe questioned.

"CeeBee says that there are still several ships parked in the hanger," Evelyn replied.

Poe looked towards the settlement. Now he was getting bad feelings.  "Let's go," he said, gesturing in the direction of the settlement.  Pulling his blaster from the holster strapped to his thigh, the commander led the way over the rocks towards their destination. `It wasn't easy going, they had to climb over rock formations, the droids had to use gripping extensions from their bodies to keep up with their masters. Poe almost wished he had just asked the two droids to stay behind with the ships, but he knew that BB-8 would not have been happy about that. Besides, they might need them to help with locating Agent Lothor.

Evelyn still didn't like the impression this place gave off.  It was too quiet. There was no sound of wildlife, no birds, nothing, and she supposed that was the case because of the extensive mining that took place that destroyed the planet, but still, she'd been on rocks like this before and never felt so on edge.  Even though she was shut off from the Force she could still feel the tingles of the dark side. 

At the entrance was the first sign that something terrible had happened; bodies laid smoldering. Poe clutched his blaster, tightly.  "No wonder no one answered our communications. Everyone is dead."

CB-2 rolled behind Evelyn's legs.  BB-8 was a bit braver and rolled forward, his photoreceptor peering into the destruction of the outpost.  He turned towards Poe for a moment, as if he was asking permission to proceed further. 

"Do you think if you access the main computer, BeeBee, you can see if Agent Lothor sent any transmissions?" Poe inquired. BB-8 beeped an affirmative. "Okay, let's do this...quickly."

"Quickly, I like the sound of that," Evelyn murmured as they stepped further into the destruction of the outpost. 

Panels flickered, smoke lingered in the air, mixing with pungent smell of burnt bodies.  Poe grimaced as the fresh air grew thinner and thinner the further they got into the compound. He covered his nose with his hand, following BB-8 as they made their way through the carnage.

BB-8 slithered into a large open room, Poe, Evelyn and CB-2 behind him.  A large communication console stood before them and at the base the body of their missing agent. Poe let out a heavy sigh before ordering his droid to hook up to the panel and see if anything had been transmitted.  If Lothor had managed to get his reports out before the First Order killed him, well, the Resistance still had a chance of recovering them.

Evelyn stared at the wounds on the man's body. Lightsaber. Kylo Ren.  She tried to keep the tears out of her eyes but it was impossible; memories from another night, another massacre surfaced and she could not push them away.  To this day she still could not understand how someone she had trusted, had loved, had turned against them all so quickly and violently. 

Poe watched her as the emotions played out across her face. While BB-8 worked, he reached out and placed a hand over one of hers as it gripped the console. Truth was, he would never understand how Kylo had betrayed those he supposedly loved and cared for. Her tear-filled eyes rose to his and his heart broke. So many years of pain, and he'd contributed to a lot of that pain.  "You couldn't have stopped him; he was corrupted, Evie, coerced by the First Order."

"Knowing that doesn't make it less painful," Evelyn whispered with a shake of her head. 

"No, I suppose not," Poe whispered back. 

BB-8 became panicked.  He swiveled his head around, shrilly addressing Poe.  

Poe's brow furrowed in concern. "What do you mean a super laser?"

Evelyn felt her breath hitch. "Like the Death Star?"

The little droid's only response was that the Agent Lothor had transmitted data and plans about a base, a base that had the potential to move from system to system and the power to destroy the sun.  Poe and Evelyn exchange worried glances.  "Download everything you can, Beebee, we need to get this all back to General Organa," Poe ordered his droid. It felt like ages for BB-8 to complete his work and detach from the console, but in reality, it was probably only five minutes.  Poe wanted to investigate more, but he got the feeling that their actions on this outpost were not going to go unnoticed by the First Order.  It was time to go.

Poe, Evelyn, and the two droids went back the way they came, through the death, flickering lights, back to the murky skies of the planet.  Halfway back to their ships, Poe’s comm went off and Snap’s voice shouted, “Commander, we have company!”

“Damn it!” Poe cursed, just as several TIE-fighters swooped down through the clouds. “Evie! Run!”

“How did they know we were here?” Evelyn cried, as they scrambled over the rocky terrain towards their fighters.

“My guess, they’ve been monitoring this system, waiting for us to show up.  Snap! We need cover, now!”

“We’re on our way, Poe!”

On cue, two x-wings swooped low, providing cover fire so Poe and Evelyn could make it to their ships.  Snap and Jess cleared out the first wave of TIEs with no problem.  Poe knew, after what happened with the Hervuion Grace, that these things were never simple. More enemy fighters would be coming.  First sign of trouble, you get out of there.   Leia had admonished him, instilled him that they could not afford any losses… in hindsight perhaps the first sign of trouble was the dead bodies.   There was no time to dwell on that now.  He needed to get his squad home.

Poe powered his x-wing up; immediately his panel was lighting up and screaming alerts.  The TIEs had damaged his hyperdrive.  Poe cursed and ordered BB-8 to get working on repairing it. Out of the corner of his eye, as he lifted his fighter into the air and sped towards space, he saw the TIEs closing in on them.  “Get out of here!” he ordered his pilots.  “As soon as you’ve made the calculations for lightspeed, make the jump!”

“What are you going to do, Commander?” Pava asked, a little uncertain.

“I’m going to try to get some of these TIEs off your tails,” Poe said, turning his fighter away from the rest of his squad.

“Liar. You’re hyperdrive is down.”

“Fine. You caught me, Pava. Now, make the jump. I’ll see you back at base. I can handle myself.”

“You stay behind you’ll be killed,” Evelyn snapped.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this! Now, get out of here!” Poe shouted.

“I’m not leaving you!”

“Lieutenant, I’m giving you a direct order! Make the jump!”

BB-8 reported that Snap and Jess had made the jump back to D’Qar, but Evelyn was still sticking with him.  Poe grumbled to himself as he maneuvered out of the way of the latest onslaught of TIE fighters. “How much longer until the hyperdrive is ready, buddy?” he asked the droid.  Poe felt a little panicked when BB-8 replied it was going to take another minute.  One more minute could mean life or death for them. Poe glared at his scopes as Evelyn refused to leave him. When we get back to D’Qar she’s getting a piece of my mind…

Evelyn gasped over the commlink.  Poe snapped his head about, shouting her name. “I’m fine,” she responded, tensely, “one of my engines just flamed out. CeeBee’s on it.”

Poe ground his teeth. “Evie. Jump. NOW!”

“Not until you tell me that you’re ready to make the jump yourself.”

“Fine. But don’t think for one second that I’m forgetting this, Evelyn!”

Her response was to fire at a TIE that was closing on him rapidly, that he was unable to shake… Poe clenched his jaw, knowing that she had just possible saved his life.  BB-8 screeched that the hyperdrive was ready.  “Set the course, buddy!  Evelyn, punch it! I’m right behind you!”

[renaroo]

Promises (9/30)

Disclaimer: Batman and associated characters are the creative property of DC Comics. Warnings: One Year Later/Evil Cass allusions Rating: T Synopsis: For an entire year after the Crisis which threatened to wipe everything they knew and loved off the Earth, after so many hardships and loved ones lost, Cass and Tim find themselves battling on different sides of the globe not only for the fate of what’s left of the world, but for the sake of once again feeling purpose. [A One Year Later fixer upper]

A/N: Once again I’m apologizing for a long wait and thanking you all for the support and patience! We’ve got a Tim chapter but I think everyone’s in for a surprise with the directions it will go ;  ) 

Special thanks to @gordon88, @mitchthebat, @secretlystephaniebrown,  @chimaerakitten, @the-gible-squad and Kiyomisa on tumblr, ffnet, and AO3 for the feedback and support!

The Desert of Fools

At some point in his life, Tim had stopped asking what his destination was when he got on airplanes with certain people. He accepted his ticket, got on the WE private jet, followed Bruce and Dick down the halls of international airports, and took his ticket for the next connecting flight as they got on smaller and smaller passenger planes.

He only read what their next point was when he got the ticket in his hands.

When he was younger and he still lived in a world where Jack and Janet were Dad and Mom still, the idea of how they could go weeks or even months without stopping their travels, even if it was for work, was utterly baffling to Tim. He was young, and he could not imagine wanting so badly to be away from home and from Gotham that he wouldn’t even register how long it had been since he saw his family.

A part of him, leaning against the smallest passenger plane’s window, looking out into the night sky, couldn’t help but wonder whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that he felt closer to his parents in death than he ever had in life.

He wasn’t paying attention when Dick’s elbow nudged his arm, drawing Tim’s attention from the window at last and instead to the magazine that Dick was holding up to Tim’s face. It was such an unexpected interaction that Tim could only blink a few times at his mentor and brother.

“You look like you could use some reading to put you to sleep,” Dick explained, handing the magazine over.

“Reading doesn’t make me sleepy,” Tim informed him, looking to the page Dick had left the magazine turned to all the same. He paused and looked suspiciously at the former Boy Wonder. “Why do you want me to see an advertisement from Lex Corp that they’re artificially giving people super powers?” he asked.

“Is that the page I left it on?” Dick hummed, leaning back and closing his eyes. “Hm, dunno. Quite a mystery to keep us preoccupied with, though, isn’t it?”

“It’ll end in disaster, what’s the mystery about it?” Tim asked, eyebrow raised as he looked the page over. “Everything Lex Luthor touches is warped and doomed.”

That got a laugh out of Dick, though he didn’t open his eyes.

Tim was filled with relief that the other vigilante hadn’t looked at him, else he might have seen the full body flinch Tim said after the words left his mouth. Everything he touches is warped and doomed.

For the first time in his life, Tim felt like he had something in common with the world’s greatest criminal mastermind.

The last place in the world they probably should have been was Morocco. There were tensions heating up around Biyala and Black Adam had taken over Khandaq as well as made a family to match Captain Marvel’s. And that was just what Tim could gleam from his broken broken French and the headlines on a magazine stand.

“Has Bruce said why we’re here yet?” Tim asked Dick without really turning away from the newspapers. “He’s not really the type for spontaneity. Usually.”

Everything about the trip, about the location, about them was obscenely off and Tim didn’t know how he felt about any of it. In truth, he probably should have felt a touch worse about the circumstances.

Should have. Would have.

Cassandra had been left alone with Alfred in Gotham, and really not given a proper reasoning for it. Yet Tim continued to feel the twist and turns of his stomach wishing desperately why couldn’t that have been him.

He heard a noise like something ruffling from a nearby stand and he turned enough to see a floor-to-ceiling high bird cage made of wood, filled to the brim with exotic birds, all clamoring and fighting each other.

There were too many of them.

He focused on the red breasted bird with black wings and knew, somewhere deep down, that the answer as to why it was Cassandra in Gotham and not him was because if he was alone, if they let him be, he could go back.

He was at the point where it was still a possibility. Without Kon without Steph without his father or anyone else in the entire damn world, the question became a matter of when he would quit and not would.

Tim, the boy who asked to be Robin, who begged to be Robin, to bring his hero from the brink of the darkness he had sunk into over the desert fields that were only part of a continent away from them right there and then. And he couldn’t remember why he would put on the cape without Batman’s urgings.

The joy was gone. Tim’s joy was gone.

And he couldn’t understand how anyone else around him could still have their own.

After a few long moments of waiting for an answer that didn’t come, Tim turned around finally and looked for Dick and his signature blue cast and arm sling. Dick was also looking at something — or, rather, someone. That someone being Bruce on the other side of the market. Tim walked up to Dick’s side and looked at him for a moment before tilting his head and squinting. “Did you hear me?”

“Hm?” Dick asked, looking down to Tim. “Sorry, Li’l Bro. I was just… well, looking out for Bruce. He’s off his game.”

Leveling an even glare at Dick, Tim waited for the irony to watch up with him. It never did and he sighed, crossing his arms. “Really? Hadn’t noticed…”

“Really?” Dick asked back. When he finally looked directly at Tim, Dick furrowed his brows and looked rather displeased.

The concentration on him made Tim feel a weird itch through his body and he rubbed at his neck awkwardly. “What?”

“Are you feeling okay?” Dick asked seriously. “You’re not acting yourself either. And… I guess the funeral wasn’t that long ago and…”

Before Tim could filter his own mouth he glanced back to the newspaper stand. “Which funeral?”

There was a heavy silence for a moment then Tim looked back to Dick, regretting his gruff commentary.

“Tim…” Dick said, voice haunted with concern.

“Please. Just… Can we please not do this right here right now?” Tim all but begged.

“Do what?” Dick asked critically. “Tell you I”m worried? Tell you I’m—“

“Yes. This. Whatever this is,” Tim snapped back.

“When then?” Dick asked. “You were a complete shut in back in Gotham, you ignored Bruce and me on the flights.”

“Dick,” Tim began in exasperation, running his hands down the sides of his face. “I cannot begin to express how much this can’t happen right now.”

“That’s the problem, you can’t express. You can’t express anything,” Dick retorted, waggling a finger in his face.

“You’re making a scene,” Tim fought back.

“Someone has to,” Dick snapped.

“Then go try to make Bruce express himself,” Tim growled.

Dick shook his head. “Sorry, but I’m well aware of lost causes, believe it or not. I’ve been working on cracking that nut for the last, what, almost twenty years now? I make progress with Bruce. You? You I’m making preventive measures.”

“Yeah, those would have been helpful before this last year,” Tim responded coldly.

He immediately regretted the words as they escaped his mouth, but at the same time, the flicker of guilt and plain hurt that shone in Dick’s eyes for a moment when he heard that response almost made Tim want to savor it all.

They stood together awkwardly, looking at each other with a loss for how the conversation could possibly continue when they were saved by the most unexpected of things.

Bruce.

“Dick,” Bruce called in his very Broosiest voice, carrying it over the crowds in the bizarre. He even gave a dramatic arm wave as if they weren’t all incredibly aware of each other’s positions at all times. “Come over here and tell me what you think of this rug! I think it’s authentic!”

“What the hell?” Tim asked, squinting his eyes. “That’s… weird.”

“Very,” Dick agreed. “Stand around here a bit, there must be a reason he wants us canvased.”

“Sure,” Tim replied as Dick walked away. There was some disappointment in Tim’s chest, realizing they weren’t going to come anywhere close to finishing that conversation — that whatever genuine emoting Dick was giving him in that moment could drop the second Bruce needed something even it was a nut he’d been trying to crack sine he was eight years old.

Tim also wished his emotions could straighten themselves out enough to at least be consistent.

Instead he pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. He had to center himself. Or something like that. Something basic that would put the whole world back into order.

He just had forgotten whatever that basic thing was.

After he gathered enough of his senses, Tim looked to Bruce and Dick again. They were huddled over the rugs that Bruce had mentioned but Tim knew better than to believe that they were talking about thread count while basically over top one another. There must have been something that got Bruce’s attention.

Maybe it was the reason they were there.

The times were hard, difficult even. And more than a little crazy. And Tim was considering what an awful time it was for the most visible heroes in the world — Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman — to all be unseen after such a Crisis, after so much death and destruction. It was hard to consider who the normal people were supposed to look up to in the times.

Which was why Lex Luthors were making headlines about creating new superheroes and Black Adams were being hailed as saviors instead of tyrants.

When he looked back to the newspapers almost subconsciously, Tim noticed a figure slip behind the cage of exotic birds in a rather quick and intentional fashion. If it was meant to not draw his attention, it desperately failed.

Tim studiously looked at the newspapers in French and Arabic, but his attention was on his peripheral vision and the man standing just on the other side of the birdcage watching him. And he was definitely watching Tim.

Trying his best to look the part of the bored, jaded modern teenager, Tim adjusted his baseball cap and reached into his pocket to pull out his cellphone. He made it seem as though he was scrolling through his options, but in reality he was setting up a secure connection to Bruce and Dick’s similarly supped up cells. He would be quick to tip them off to the fact that someone was scoping them out when he slowly stopped.

Staring at his phone, Tim almost could hear a ringing in his ears as he put the pieces together, painfully slow. Then he looked toward Bruce and Dick and how they were looking his way but not at him as they talked.

They knew. Somehow they — or at least Bruce — had spotted their tagalong before Tim. And beyond that, they had gone away from him to discuss what to do about it. Away from Tim. But why?

He struggled with the full picture until someone bumped against his back and rather than move away immediately stood there. Tim’s skin crawled at his space being so closely invade and he couldn’t help but tense and try to lean forward, away from the person, but a thin hand with ornate, painted nails held onto his shoulder. Unlike most women in the bizarre, however, there were no rings or bangles.

“Easy, little Robin,” a familiar voice said softly.

Talia al Ghul.

“Okay,” Tim said softly in return.

“My beloved and I cannot be seen together in public. Not here where the eyes of the serpents come from any separate heads. Some my father’s. Many not,” she informed him in hushed tones. “So please let him know, I will be where the moon touches the dunes at midnight, in the same tent where we spoke eternal vows.”

Tim absorbed the information. “So you’re still not with your father?” he asked.

“Things have not changed between any of us since last we met,” she answered. “You have protective instincts. That is admirable for a man your age. It will keep you alive.”

“Guess we’ll find out,” Tim replied, glancing over his shoulder the moment Talia released his shoulder. He watched her, in full dress, disappear into the crowds. His eyes only narrowed as he strung things more and more together.

Bruce and Dick moved quickly to rejoin him after that but Tim was beginning to feel himself boil.

“Thank you, Tim,” Bruce said in hushed tones. “Dick and Talia do not have the fondest history with each other.”

“In so many terms,” Dick muttered sourly.

Tim looked at both of them for a long moment then pulled down his cap to hide his eyes from him. He could feel the quiver in his lips about to give too much of what he was feeling. “I want to be notified the next time I’m used as bait,” Tim said darkly. “It’s the least you can do.”

“Tim, if we thought there was danger,” Dick began, but Bruce stopped him.

“It was a split second calculation, Tim. It won’t happen again,” Bruce promised.

Tim nodded, but inside his blood continued to boil.

It was going to happen again. It happened all the time. And he was tired of it. As tired as he was of everything that had to do with his double life anymore.

It shouldn’t have surprised Tim that what they found in the desert was a fight. And yet he was taken aback.

Reaching the exact spot where the moon touches the dunes at midnight was apparently a cryptic way of leading them to the center of a desert with only the supplies that they could carry with them. Which was suspicious itself before Bruce raised one arm and halted Tim and Dick behind him.

Tim struggled a bit with his camel, but with a single pet from Dick, the animal finally obeyed and left them both standing side by side on the edge of a dune as Bruce dismounted and walked to the center of a suspicious looking plain of sand.

Barely containing himself, Tim kept from mentioning that it wasn’t a good idea for Bruce to walk where his feet sunk into the sand halfway up his shins. It was something he shouldn’t have had to tell the Batman — about how sand traps and even quick sand worked. Especially at night where what water was in the desert would collect in its barren lands. He shouldn’t have to. But lately…

Both Tim and Dick jerked back in surprise when Bruce dropped to his knees, digging through the sand, as if he knew exactly what to expect. Then, he let out a grunt of satisfaction, slowly getting back to his feet with a scimitar in hand.

“Oh, of course. Of course there would be a sword hidden in the sand in the middle of the desert. How could we not see that coming,” Dick muttered sarcastically. He took pause and glanced around. “Wait… I remember this place. This is where—“

They emerged so suddenly that Tim had hardly turned from looking in Dick’s direction to see how they came out of the sand. There was half a dozen of them, cloaked from head to toe in rags, their hands extended toward Bruce showing off the eyeballs which stared at him from their finger tips.

“What the hell?” Tim asked out loud.

“For what it’s worth, I didn’t get it when I was Robin either,” Dick offered.

“No, that’s not worth much, because this is weird,” Tim argued just before the men began fighting Bruce. “Talia set us up! We’ve got to help him—“

Before Tim could do anything drastic, Dick grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back. “Talia doesn’t work that way, loathe as I am to say it. And if Bruce came all this way… well, he came for something and we’re not ones to tell him what he does or doesn’t need.”

With only a moment’s hesitation, Tim jerked his shoulders back away from Dick, shaking his head. “You’re wrong. Robin’s whole job is to tell Batman when he’s gone the wrong way. It’s our job to set him right when he’s wrong. The light to Batman’s darkness— that’s what you called Robin, remember?”

Dick seemed unsurprised and rather impressed. “And as a Robin it’s your job, then,” he said, not questioned. “And you have to have faith he won’t let you down either. Sometimes you have to have faith that he’s already doing the right thing.”

“i can’t,” Tim said simply. “I don’t have that faith. I’ve been let down.”

A pained expression crossed Dick’s face as he heard Tim’s response. “Oh, Tim,” he said with such weight and gravity.

It was all for nothing, though, because Tim turned in time to see Bruce’s devastating victory against the strange, ten-eyed men. He was breathing hard, but for the first time in months, Tim could see a smile on Bruce’s face as he dropped down to his knees and leaned his head back to face the cloudless sky. “The darkness is gone,” he said, voice level and normal despite his words being something that Tim would have pegged on hysteria. “I am reborn.”

Tim looked to Dick who was also raising a brow at the statement before snapping his head to look across the dunes. When Tim followed the look, he saw Talia and her guards as well, on horses, watching over Bruce.

“I must know, Beloved,” Talia called down to him as she steadied her steed. “Was the man or the bat reborn? And are either the keeper of my heart?”

Bruce looked in her direction but said nothing.

Dick sighed and rubbed his face with his good hand. “Just say yes, Bruce. Don’t drag us all the way into the middle of a desert for a fight with the League of Assassins.”

Tim tried to have faith that that was not going to happen, but it was as difficult as what Dick had asked of him before.

And if Bruce was reborn as someone even more unfamiliar to Tim than the Bruce of the last year, well, that was a whole new set of issues.