« chapter xxi: THE SECOND COMING »
"I hate you."
"Red Wing."
"I really fucking hate you right now." Tim was staring out across the cityscape. A portion of Gotham was already under siege. Dabria had started fires all across the city, slowly making her way towards Wayne Manor and relishing in the destruction and mayhem she was causing as emergency service workers tried to be in two places at once.
"You can't talk to him like that." Damian said with a sigh.
"The thing is... I fucking can." Tim said.
"I know you're angry with me but..."
"But nothing! We're supposed to help people Batman. What the fuck happened back there? Why didn't we go in sooner. Why didn't we try to stop this?"
"I needed more information and I thought..." Bruce sighed. "I really thought she would be strong enough to fight back against Malum."
"She wasn't. I told you she wasn't and you didn't listen to me." Tim said through his teeth. "We're supposed to be your partners. You're supposed to listen to us."
"I know." Tim ground his teeth and said nothing for a bit.
"Now what?"
"Now we stop Malum."
"How?" Damian asked.
"I have a plan but... We'd have to get close enough to her to do it."
"What's the plan?" Tim demanded. Bruce said nothing. "I'm not going to like it am I."
"No, you won't. I'm sorry." Tim swallowed hard and listened to Bruce's plan.
⊱ ────── {⋅. ✯ .⋅} ────── ⊰
Tim was riding his motorcycle through the city streets, feeling the heavy weight of the artifact Bruce had given him in his pocket. There really was no other way... Was there? If they didn't stop Dabria here and now... She could go on to destroy the whole world, kill every single living thing. The only way to stop her, according to Constantine was by using the Binding Stone. It would apparently force Dabria to hell with Malum trapped inside of her. Tim tried to swallow the lump in his throat. Trapping someone in hell seemed like a worse fate than death. Tim asked what would happen to Dabria but Bruce didn't say. Tim got the picture though. Malum would probably torture her for eternity and Dabria would be left screaming in pain and calling for help.
Tim shook the image away and pushed his bike to go faster. The sooner he got to Dabria, the less he had to think about all of this.
Tim thought Bruce wanted him to be the distraction but as it turns out, Damian and him would be the distraction. Bruce felt that Dabria might only let Tim get close enough. "Malum wants Dabria to watch him kill you with her bare hands." Bruce said. "I think you have a better shot than the two of us to get within range of her."
"I can't do this." Tim had said, staring at the ominously glowing stone.
"You have to." Bruce said. Tim swallowed hard and like the dutiful hero he was, Tim picked up the stone and put it into his utility belt.
Tim could hear Dabria laughing over the sound of his engine.
The city was a literal hellscape. Everything that wasn't on fire was broken beyond repair and there were these demon-like creatures all roaming around, never directly in your sight. They clung to the shadows to do their misdeeds. Tim wondered if Dabria had summoned the creatures straight out of hell to do her bidding.
When Tim reached the center of Gotham, he found Dabria in the middle of decapitating a police officer. She looked... Different. It had only been ten maybe fifteen minutes tops since Tim last saw her but Malum must have done something to change her appearance. Dabria looked older, taller and she was wearing a low cut black suit that was very different from her Phantom garb. This one was made of leather and probably would have made Dabria uncomfortable with how tightly it hugged her skin. She had a purple, blood soaked cloak around her shoulders and her hair was longer, almost to the center of her back and wrapped in fire. There was a dark crown on her forehead that was wreathed with flames. "Malum, stop!" Tim shouted just as she raised her blood soaked sword.
Malum paused and slowly turned to look at Tim Drake who had his helmet in his hands, staring at her appalled. Malum slowly smiled and dropped the man who was in such a shock that he didn't even try to escape. Malum pushed some of her hair back and began to walk towards Tim slowly. Inside her own head, Dabria screamed at Tim to run away. But he couldn't hear her.
I'm going to enjoy killing him.
Came Malum's thoughts, rushing towards Dabria.
No! Dabria screamed.
"Have you come to join me Timothy." Dabria said, holding her hand out to Tim. Tim's heart was beating fast in his chest. Dabria always had this air of confidence around her but Tim always felt that it was a bit forced. But right now, Dabria was confident and menacing. "We'll have so much fun together."
"Please leave Dabria." Tim said, hoping his voice didn't wobble. Dabria laughed.
"I am Dabria. Dabria is me. Now join, or die."
"Even if I said yes you would still kill me Malum." Dabria lowered her hand and shook out her long dark hair. Tim swallowed hard, wondering if the demon in Dabria's body was purposefully trying to seduce him.
"Smart boy."
"Just let Dabria go, please." Tim begged again. Dabria smiled and started to walk towards him slowly.
"It's nice hearing you beg boy but why should I do anything you say? I hold all the power here." Dabria held up her arms, palms to the sky as they became wrapped in flames. As she walked, flames even rose up from the leather boots she was wearing.
"You don't." Tim said. Dabria laughed again. "You just think that you do." Dabria couldn't be more than ten feet from him now. He needed to get close enough to her to shove the Binding Stone into her mouth. It wouldn't be enough to just toss it at her or hold it against her arm. Constantine said the stone had to be physically inside of her, one way or the other. That either meant turning it into a projectile and shooting it at her or simply forcing it into her mouth or... "Other places" as Constantine put it. "Dabria, if you can hear me, I'm sorry." Tim said softly. Dabria was smirking at him. She was close enough to reach out and touch his face.
"Sorry for what Batboy?" Tim tried to move quickly but Malum was just as fast. As soon as Tim opened the pouch that contained the Binding Stone, Malum could feel it's energy pulling at his demonic soul. Dabria screeched and leaped way from him as Tim pulled it out.
"You get that thing away from me!" Dabria screamed. "You'd send your little girlfriend to hell just to get rid of me!" Malum's voice was a roar, echoing off of... Everything. Tim winced.
"It's what she would want. She would rather rot in hell than let you roam the Earth." Dabria smiled coyly.
"Well why don't we fucking ask her?" Dabria's appearance shifted. Tim didn't know what he was looking at. One moment Dabria looked twenty-four, maybe twenty-five and then suddenly she was eighteen again, wearing her Phantom suit instead of a rather revealing cat-suit. Dabria gasped dramatically and stumbled towards Tim who hesitated to get closer to her.
"Tim please don't do this!" Dabria said, her eyes watering and beginning to fill with tears. "I don't want to go to hell. I don't want to be trapped with him forever!" Tim swallowed hard. It actually sounded like her but if Tim knew anything about demons and dark magic, this wasn't really Dabria talking to him. It was just a trick Malum was playing.
"Stop it." Tim snapped at her. Dabria started to cry.
"No! Tim, please. Don't hurt me. You said you would help me! I need you to help me."
"I'm not helping you Malum!" Tim shouted. "I'm sending you back to hell!" Dabria's demeanor shifted immediately and she stopped crying. Dabria's form shifted again and she scowled at him.
"So be it." Dabria pulled her katana seemingly out of mid-air and moved to attack Tim but Damian, who also appeared out of nowhere quickly swooped in and stopped Dabria from nearly decapitating his stupid older brother.
"If you would stop flirting with your girlfriend..." Damian shouted at Tim, struggling to push back against Dabria who was a hell of a lot stronger than him now.
"I wasn't flirting." Tim said as he fumbled with the stone in his pouch again, clutching it in his fist. Dabria pushed Damian back and the younger boy nearly fell to the ground as Dabria moved to slice at Tim again. He dodged her once, twice, but he knew it wouldn't last forever. As expected, Dabria nicked his arm with her katana and made him bleed as Batman appeared.
"Tim just focus on the stone." Bruce said fluidly dodging Dabria's movements as Damian jumped back into the fight. Tim nodded, breathing hard and waiting for an opening. Dabria, although she wasn't landing any hits on Bruce or Damian was hardly breaking a sweat as she attacked them. She even looked like she was enjoying herself, laughing as she nearly cut one of Damian's legs off.
Bruce knocked the sword out of her hands and grabbed her arm, pinning it behind her back. "Red!" Bruce shouted. Tim was already moving though. He rushed forward as Damian grabbed her other arm and held onto it fiercely, even as she began to burn with fire. Tim grabbed her jaw and was seconds away from shoving the Binding Stone into her mouth when Dabria broke free of the three of them all at once, sending Bruce and Damian flying into nearby piles of rubble. Tim stumbled to the ground, the stone knocked out of his hand. He was breathing hard, eyeing Dabria and then the stone. He lunged for it and just as he did, Dabria called her katana back to her and stabbed straight down through Tim's back.
Dabria's scream echoed off the crumbling, burning walls of Gotham.
Bruce sat up slowly, wincing as he stared in horror at Tim's body lying face down in the ground, a katana sticking straight out of his back. He was motionless. Dabria was screaming at herself. "No! No! No! You did this!"
Dabria was crying, fighting for control of her body as she watched blood began to pool around Tim's body. What had she done? What had Malum made her do? He was useless.
"Fuck you! I don't want this. I don't want you!" Damian stared at Dabria dazed. Her form kept shifting from that weird older version of herself back to the Dabria he knew and thought was a complete dork.
You are mine. You were born to serve me.
"I serve no one but myself!" Dabria said, her whole body shaking with concentration.
I own you.
"You don't own shit." Dabria hissed as she fell to her knees next to Tim. She spied the stone out of the corner of her eye. Tim was still reaching for it. Dabria crawled forward.
Stop.
"I'll see you in hell Malum." Dabria's arm fought against her as she picked up the stone and put it into her mouth. The moment it touched her tongue, Dabria fainted dead away.
A/N: The reason Dabria looked 24/25 to Tim is because, I read once and idk if it's really true, but at 25 is the age where the human body starts to decline. The amount of cells that start aging/dying increases while the production of new cells decreases. So Malum essentially transformed her to her peak human self.