T: I love you. And it was never my intention to screw things up so bad.
***
The Bat vigilantes had almost got fried in the blast that happened in the East End but managed to escape at the last moment. However, Luthor and his army hadn't been so lucky as they got caught up in the fire which they had set off themselves.
The mission had been accomplished and they were all safely back in the Batcave, though it resulted in quite a number of casualties just like Tim had warned them earlier. But there was nothing much they could do; it was either getting rid of the criminals or threatening the safety of the whole of Gotham.
But Tim himself was stuck in a dilemma. He had tried his level best to warn Irina before all that final episode with Luthor happened and even tried to prevent Lex from meeting such a gruesome end but at last he had had to put justice first, just like Batman had taught him to.
Yet he knew that it would have a terrible effect on Irina. Even though Lex had never really cared for her before, he had started to change towards her and even she had begun to soften towards her father eventually. And now that the two had finally sorted out their differences, Lex had gotten himself killed.
By then, the whole media was portraying the Bat vigilantes as the heroes who saved Gotham from Luthor's disastrous new invention that would have caused nothing but chaos, but the media wasn't aware of what had truly happened.
Even though in the press the whole event was being shown as if the Bat vigilantes were responsible for Lex's death but in reality, it had been his own techno-suit that had malfunctioned and turned against him.
Tim knew well that back at home, Irina would have seen the news by then and she would definitely not have any idea about how Lex actually died.
Then as expected, she would blame the Bat vigilantes.
Knowing her, he was well aware that she would strike for revenge and that was exactly why he had taken Richard and Jay aside, in order to inform them of what he intended to do next. They hadn't yet changed out of their vigilante suits and were rather battered up from the fight already. But Tim felt as if he didn't have even a moment to lose.
He had to act fast or else everything would crumble right in front of him and he would probably lose Irina forever.
"But there has to be another way. You have to tell Batman," Richard spoke up, no doubt getting anxious about the whole scenario.
Bruce didn't know yet that Irina Luthor was actually the masked vigilante that patrolled Gotham other than them but the Wayne boys knew it. And that was why Tim had decided to keep it a secret from Bruce just so he wouldn't suspect her.
"I don't have to tell him because I have to deal with her first. If I don't hold her back now, she will be an even greater threat than Luthor," Tim spoke up, " you both have to trust me on this one. Let me handle her right now. All by myself."
"Look here, Babybird, I can't let you go out to face her on your own," Jason placed his hand on his shoulder and spoke, voice reverberating as he was still wearing his helmet, "let me come with you."
He shook his head because he had decided, "no. I started it and I'll be the one to finish it."
"I have a very bad feeling about this, kiddo," Richard remarked and though his eyes were hidden by the Nightwing mask, Tim knew he was quite concerned, "Hood's right, you have to let us accompany you."
"No," he was adamant as he fastened his utility belt and secured his bow staff, taking out his own grapple gun, "if any of you follows me, I swear I will do something which all of us might regret later. Do not cone after me. Please."
He glanced at his phone which was continuously blinking from messages sent by Irina. The last one was a threat and he knew very well that she had found out about Lex by then. Taking in a deep breath, he typed out a text: I love you. And it was never my intention to screw things up so bad.
And just as the message got sent, he shut his phone off handing it to Richard, "keep this while I'm gone. And if I'm not back within two hours, then you may tell Bruce."
"Red Robin, stop!"
But he had left already. He knew where she would go and had to follow her lest she caused any damage. So using the grapple gun, he left for the same place where Lex had been vanquished.
***
The fire hadn't been fully put out yet when she reached East End. She was burning in fury as a dangerous sort of anger seemed to vibrate off her. Rushing into the crime scene because the police hadn't yet arrived, she looked among the debris for her father.
The whole building had collapsed and there was a lot of mess and ashes due to the fire but she pulled away the concrete blocks and other piles of material that had destructed in the fire and kept looking for Lex until she found him at last.
Buried deep under a heavy concrete slab was Lex's dead body, entangled in the remains of his techno-suit. Since the suit had malfunctioned and along with the fire to accelerate it all, his body had been ruined and mangled horribly. It was even harder to recognize him since his skin had charred and not much was left of him either.
Horrified by his pitiful state, she stumbled back, hands reaching up to her mouth in order to stop the scream that was about to rip apart from her. Nevertheless, a cry of distress escaped her for she had truly never thought that she would one day see her father reduced to such a terrible state.
And the fact that he was dead with no hope of being brought back tore at her heart.
He had just started to care for her, he was beginning to accept her after so long but all of a sudden things had taken such a drastic turn that she lost her father again. Only difference was that unlike before, it was forever.
She stumbled again as she backed off not being able to look at him any longer and almost lost her balance, but was steadied by firm hands that gripped her from the back. Tim's scent settled around her and she turned immediately but instead of seeing Tim, she came face to face with Red Robin.
Her mouth parted as if to say something but no words came out as the anger inside her was building up akin to a violent hurricane. Her tears had dried up from the fire that was burning in her eyes at seeing him.
She pushed him away from her and took out her pair of escrima sticks which had been a new addition to her suit as he had never seen her use them before. But he could see now that she was armed enough to hurt him fatally.
"I do not intend to fight," he remarked as he backed off but held his bo staff at the ready, "I just want you to listen me."
"You all... You... You killed him!" She accused, the electric current threateningly blazing among her escrima sticks, "and you will pay."
With a swift movement, she had climbed off the debris and attacked him. He blocked her attacks by his bo staff but she was extremely aggressive, attacking from all sides, giving him a really hard time in defending himself.
"We did not kill him," he had managed to hold her back deflecting each blow of her escrima sticks, "there has been a huge misunderstanding."
"Liar!"
"Irina, trust me..."
But before he could complete the sentence, she had taken advantage of his slight distraction and inflicted a jolt of electricity on him.
The shock intensity was rather high as he was blasted far away from her, hitting his head on a fallen stone pillar. The cowl had protected his head from being severely injured but he could sense that the hit must have left a bruise.
She didn't even give him time to recover as she landed another blow. His whole body twitched from the shock and blood started to trickle down his nose.
It was then she stopped and held back her sticks, knowing that it wasn't the time to go for the final blow yet, "how the fuck do you know about me? And who the fuck are you?"
Her voice was threatening as the electric bolts on her sticks had gotten recharged and were flickering as well.
He coughed and spat out the blood filling up in his mouth, the back of his palm wiping off the blood trickling down from his nose.
As the electric current had been of a high intensity, darkness came in front of his eyes for some time as well and he blinked twice trying to readjust his vision. He could not afford to pass out at that moment. So he struggled to keep himself conscious.
Knowing that she would strike again, Tim rolled over, blocking her blow by throwing her off him. He had managed to slacken her hold on her sticks and succeeded in throwing her weapons away from her.
Still she advanced towards him and held on to his bo staff instead, attempting to snatch it away from him as well.
Tim was going through a lot of stress at that moment because he didn't want to hurt her in the least but she wasn't leaving him any choice.
It was either he managed to keep her off him or get killed at her hands.
Amid the tug of war with the bo staff, he stepped on the escrima sticks knowing exactly what part to crush to render them useless and shortly after the current died down as he had damaged the weapon entirely.
"How dare you!"
She picked up a steel bar from the debris using it as a weapon instead and in his attempt to hold her off, he couldn't help it as she split apart his staff with one swift blow striking it right in the middle.
"Irina, listen to me please," he gave it one more try but she was in no mood to stop, "your father died by himself."
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. A life for a life and a death for a death."
She had quoted Hammurabi's law code and by the way she was battling ferociously indicated that she wasn't going to stop until she got rid of him.
He knew he had to get that steel bar out of her hands or else she could cause a lot of damage to him and he would totally be at a disadvantage in that situation.
And it was then that he begun to realize that over the months she had further perfected her training. She was a lethal force to be reckoned with, much more dangerous than when he had last seen her fight at the Bowery.
He grabbed on to the steel bar as well, wrestling it out of her hold. He had no intention of telling her who he was even then because he feared that everything he had had with Irina would end if he did so.
In the struggle to throw off the steel bar Tim succeeded, but she landed a sharp kick in his stomach sending him spiraling backwards. He steadied himself just in time as she pounced on him, pinning him to the ground.
A sharp surge of pain shot up his leg and he realized that she had used one of the fifteen knives that she had kept hidden in her suit.
Despite himself, a short cry of pain escaped him as he felt another knife puncture through his ribs and managed barely to roll away from her lest she plunged any more knives inside his body.
"Fuck, at this rate... You'd really kill me."
"I made my intentions very clear," she had straddled him underneath her and picked up a rock from the ground, lifting her hands as if aiming to crush his head with it.
But mustering all his remaining strength he grabbed on to her wrists and held her hands away from him, getting out of the way just in time before the rock dropped on the ground.
A sickening crack resonated within his head as the rock had missed him just by a few centimeters.
He was still holding on to her wrists tightly and she struggled against his grip but using that to his advantage, he flipped her over so that she was underneath him instead.
"I don't want to hurt you," he hissed, holding her down.
"If you value your life then you'll have to fight back," she muttered darkly, bringing her knee up hitting his abdomen and throwing him off herself.
He doubled over in pain as his ribs had already been damaged before and the sharp blow made it even more painful.
He was starting to lose his strength and knew that it wouldn't be long before he'll meet his end at her hands.
But knowing that she would never be able to forgive herself if that happened, he finally decided to tell her the truth, since nothing else could stop her from killing him then.
So before she could pounce on him again, he slipped back the cowl from his face, bending over as he coughed up blood.
She grabbed him by the neck spinning him around to face her but when she saw him, her mouth dropped open in shock.
She dropped him immediately as an intense wave of fear struck her upon realizing that it was Tim under the cowl.
He had been beaten up so badly that blood was smeared on his face and the only feature of his that was recognizable were the clear blue eyes looking up at her.
Since she had dropped him, his head hit the ground as he had no strength left in him to support himself any further.
"Maybe this time... You won't save... Your damsel in distress," he spoke in broken tones with his eyes dropping close.
She took a step back in alarm not wanting to believe her eyes as she cried out in shock, "Tim...?"
His eyes rolled back in his head as he lost consciousness and she dropped down to her knees beside him, hands trembling as she reached out to touch his face as if trying to make sure that she wasn't hallucinating, "what the fuck have I done... Tim!"
Her eyes had welled up with tears so much that she couldn't see with her mask anymore. So she peeled off her mask and threw it away, tears pouring down her cheeks ceaselessly.
Seeing him covered in blood and unconscious in front of her harrowed up her soul. "Wake up... Please wake up..."
Her hands held on to his shoulders, and her tears fell down on him as she shook him cautiously, "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."
And then her gaze fell on her hands that were stained with his blood and the horror on her face was evident.
She had always vowed to protect him, he called her his guardian angel, yet now she was the reason that he was lying almost dead on the ground.
"What the fuck have I done..." She dropped her head on to his shoulder shaking from the sobs that she was holding inside, "why did you not tell me it was you earlier... Why?"
Someone roughly jerked her away from Tim and she looked up to see Robin standing there. He was looking down at his brother laying almost lifeless and covered in blood and the rage building inside him was intense.
"Luthor... How dare you!"
But before Damian could do anything Richard, or rather Nightwing, held him away from her, "stop it, Robin."
He broke free from Nightwing's grip and bent down beside Red Robin, checking his pulse and estimating how much damage had been caused.
While Irina was sitting there as if totally torn, looking up at them blankly but the tears hadn't stopped streaking down her face yet.
"He's alive," Robin gave the verdict, "he's got a concussion, a few broken ribs and has probably been electrocuted as well." He was glaring threateningly at Irina, hate lacing his voice as he spoke, "all thanks to his own girlfriend!"
Richard had probably rebuked him for saying that in front of her, knowing that she was not in the position to handle it. But she had not seemed to hear anything at all.
There was only one thought resonating in her brain: she had failed to save her damsel in distress. In fact that once she had herself been the cause of distress.
She didn't even realize that she was being supported by someone as Red Hood helped her up to her feet, securely holding her so that she wouldn't collapse.
Her eyes were transfixed on Tim as Nightwing and Robin lifted him up and carried him away. Terror stricken green irises followed them until they disappeared from her sight and a choked sob passed her lips, heart aching in intense pain.
"What the fuck have I done..." Her voice was muted yet horrified and she had started to tremble violently, "I hurt him... I... How could I..."
Jason realized that she was extremely unstable at the moment so he simply held her close, being aware that she would collapse if he didn't.
"Irina, it's not your fault," he spoke up at last, trying to be as gentle as possible with her.
But it seemed as if she couldn't hear him for her eyes were fixed on her bloodstained hands and her face was a mask of pure terror, with her voice dimming but repeating the same words over and over again, "I hurt him... I hurt him... I hurt him..."
He was getting extremely worried for her since her breathing had turned erratic as well. "Irina, calm down!" Jason came in panic at seeing her like that, "he'll be fine. I promise."
"I hurt him..." Her voice dimmed to an inaudible whisper but her eyes were still wide in shock, her lips moving as if saying the words again and again but no sound escaped her mouth. And then just as her voice had dimmed into nothing, her eyes dropped shut too and she fell limp in his arms as her senses extinguished. Still somewhere in her brain, the painful words were resonating even then: I hurt him... I hurt him... I hurt him...
***