A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out. Here's a 3000 word chapter to make up for it:
WARNING: angst, torture, murder, kidnapping... and major character death :)
Red Hood ditched his helmet, heavy pants coming from his mouth. He gasped for breath, he felt as if his chest were closing up on itself, betraying his own body. He looked around at the growing puddle of red, a lake of death. He gasped again, the bullet hole marking his shoulder, encasing it in red substance.
He looked around again. The world was fading, a whirl of blurry lights swarming his vision. He shivered at the tingles that went down his spine, as he nearly fell into unconsciousness grasp. Or death. One of the two.
He longed for a feeling in his hands, to feel something. He heard a pained cough from beside him, and his breath hitched.
"Ja-Jay?" a voice spoke softly. Jason cursed in his head.
"Timmy?" he slurred, and the body beside his tensed.
It was like a clock was ticking down until unconsciousness. A blackness overcome him for a second, before he desperately opened his heavy eyelids.
"It h-hurts Jay" Tim spoke again, a sore throat slightly preventing him from speaking. Jason tried to turn to face Tim, but a searing pain sore through his stomach as he moved. He bit his purpled lip. The dark room made it nearly impossible to see, but his eyes followed the source of sound.
He saw the figure of his brother. His face was beaten black and blue. His lips were swollen, a gradient of purple and blue. His eye was now an unhealthy purple and black colour. A deep cut of flesh ran jagged down his bloody cheek, surely leaving a scar chasing behind it. His hair was a bloodied mess, the red substance mixed in with the normally black hair. The Red Robin uniform was in shreds, discarded on the floor, his bare torso and chest showing scars upon scars, naked skin smudged red.
His memories came flooding back suddenly, a wave of glimpses from the past. His head ached, as he remembered the traumatic scenes of the past 2 weeks. He was alone for the first day, he remembered thinking that he was going to die alone. Again.
He then remembered the heart-wrenching sound of a body-like-figure snapping as they were thrown across the room. The Red Robin enigma scattering across the room, as his mouth grew dry, and his mind fuzzy. He had heard a broken whimper from the body, a sign that he had also been there for days, his body dishevelled.
He remembered the next day, the endless torture, suffering. The mixture of torture devices. Guns, knives, endless others... crowbars, physical and mental torture. Drugs, starvation. Sometimes he was a high as the stars, but still sober enough to remember. Remember. The almost life-ending swing of a bat, a croaked out 'no' from his brother, saving his life but at a sacrifice. The seconds that felt like hours when he waited for his brother in the decaying cell, his brother's punishment of torture when he had saved Jason's life with a single word. Tim had suffered endless hours of wounds, kick upon punch, snap upon crack, when the people had broken his body, bone by bone, rib by rib.
Jason had apologised profusely, as much as he could. His body ached. He couldn't imagine what Tim had gone through. For him. For Jason. Tim had shrugged best he could, his shoulders were snapped. He could only gasp for a pathetic attempt of breath.
His eyes suddenly became focused again, the Lazarus green returning to full glory. He looked at Tim's baby blues, they were glazed over, as he fought against his own body.
"It- It's okay Ti-Tim" he coughed; the floor now stained with red. Splatters of blood puddles remained everywhere in the cell.
"I d-don't think an-anyone's co-coming Jay" Tim whimpered, and both hearts shattered like glass, now shards all over the floor. He sounded broken. The darkness of the cell seemed suffocating now. Tim had given up. Jason had already.
