Lost Ones

Summary: Gwen loses Kevin when he heroically sacrifices himself to save her. Trying her best to cope, she tries to move on, but finds it nearly impossible. A badly damaged young man is brought into her life, but will she move on? Batman Crossover AU.

R.I.P Dwayne McDuffie, it's not fair you died because of complications from a surgery. All your fans will miss you. I started writing this on Tuesday, the day after he died, and I didn't even know he died, so this is very strange for me.

Since everyone's complaining that Kevin's death scene is too short, I've made it longer and added some scenes before it.

Deaths

Sarajevo, Bosnia

Jason Todd groaned in agony. The pain was overwhelming. He wanted to pass out, to not feel anything anymore. He hit the floor again as the crowbar slammed into his face. His hands were tied and he couldn't move.

"Wow, that looked like it really hurt," Joker smirked, grinning evilly. He struck him over and over.

Whoa, hang on, that looked like it hurt a lot more," Joker tapped the crowbar in his hand. "So, let's try and clear this up, okay pumpkin? What hurts more, A?" Another strike. "Or B? Forehand, or backhand?"

Joker continued to relish this moment, he was actually going to be able to kill that arrogant little brat. The inhumanly brutal beating continued.

Jason lay on his back, his face down in his own blood on the concrete floor. His Robin uniform was torn and shredded and he was breathing hard.

Rolling over onto his side, he tried to say something, but his collapsed lung kept the words from getting out.

Joker maliciously mocked his attempts to speak, wheezing in a labored breath. "A little louder, lamb chop. I think you may have a collapsed lung. That always impedes the oratory."

Joker mockingly pulled Jason's head up a little so he could look at him. The Boy Wonder spat blood in his face. The murderous Clown Prince of Crime slammed his face back into the concrete.

"Now that was rude," Joker commented, removing a handkerchief and wiping the blood off his face. "At least the first boy blunder had some manners."

Jason managed to give him an evil, mocking grin.

"I suppose I'm going to have to teach you a lesson so you can better follow in his footsteps," Joker was thoughtful. "Nah, I'm gonna just keep hitting you with this crowbar."

Joker began crushing Jason's head with his foot as he raised the crowbar once again as he let loose a maniacal laugh. Jason shut his eyes and braced himself for the pain.

He didn't know how long it had been, but the beating stopped.

"Okay kiddo, I've gotta go. It's been fun though, right? Well, maybe a smidge more fun for me than you. I'm just guessing, since you're being awful quiet.

"Anyway, be a good boy. Finish your homework and be in bed by nine," Joker smirked. "And hey…please tell the big man I said, "Hello"." Joker pulled the hood up over his face and started laughing as he shut the door.

Jason opened his one good eye, the other was swollen shut. Blood dripped from his mouth and eyes. He managed to roll over onto his back and flip himself around so that he could get his cuffed wrists over his knees.

Somehow he managed to stand to his feet. He took a step forward and began to crawl to the door, desperately trying to escape. He knew Bruce would be there and open that door and take him to safety.

Jason grasped vainly at the door handle and tried to open it, only to discover it was locked.

He leaned back against the door hopelessly. He could only sit and watch the timer wind down and wait for the end.

Bellwood, United States

"Kevin? Kevin?" Gwen's beautiful voice asked him. The young Osmosian smiled and craned his head.

"What is it Gwen?" he asked.

"Are you all right?"

"Of course I am; why wouldn't I be?"

"You seem to be distracted," Gwen chided him, laughing. "Aren't you going to finish your birthday cake?"

"Yeah," Kevin replied, munching on the cake.

"Happy birthday," Gwen finished her own piece of cake and put the dish in the sink.

"Thanks."

"Gwen, if anything ever happens to me, I don't want you to be too sad about it, I want you to move on with your life and be happy without me."

"Why would you say something like that, on today of all times?" Gwen had to wonder what he meant. "Nothing bad is going to happen to you."

"It's getting worse Gwen, you may not see it, but it is, the Forever Knights aren't just trafficking in alien tech and weapons, they shipping drugs, and starting to kill Plumbers who come after them."

"Isn't that what they've always done?"

"No, they're really trying hard. They've even started using I.E.D.s*. It used to be so simple, but the world's become darker, and any of us could die any day on this job."

"I know that, it's why I try my best to protect you," Gwen told him.

Their Plumber's badges started to go off.

"It's the Forever Knights," Ben Tennyson explained. "I'll send you both the coordinates."

The fight would be the same, the Forever Knights would come out guns blazing. Ben would use his alien transformations to defeat them. Everything would end with the bad guys defeated.

Maybe on other days but not today. The enemy had brought greater numbers and heavier weaponry.

Kevin and Gwen were running toward them. She was behind him and he was in front of her. It was in the blink of an eye, but he felt something sink down into the ground. He looked down and for a second, he thought he saw something. It was an improvised explosive device. He saw it too late.

"Gwen, get back!" Kevin screamed a warning as he pushed her aside from an oncoming blast. Agony ripped through him as fire coursed through his body.

The improvised explosive device had gone off and there was a horrible ringing in his ears. His head pounded and he was shocked he was still conscious, he felt the blood on his hands and saw that he was badly hurt.

The pain was unbearable, but she was safe and that was all that mattered. Ben was running toward him. Gwen scrambled to her feet and held him in her arms.

He coughed up blood, he tried to speak. Ben was at his side, encouraging him, trying to tell him he'd be okay.

"Ben, take care of Gwen…you have to promise me," he wheezed.

"I will," Ben told him.

"Kevin, you can't die! I won't let you die!" Gwen tried to heal him, desperately trying to keep him here with them. With her. They'd always known that what they did was dangerous. They always knew there was a chance they could die, but she never thought it'd be like this.

"Gwen…Gwen…" he tried to tell her goodbye, tried to get everything he wanted to say out, but he couldn't find the voice. The light was fading, it was time to go.

"Kevin! Kevin!" Gwen burst into tears and began screaming.

Ben wept too. It wasn't fair. Kevin had become a better person, a hero. He was his best friend, and now he was gone, they'd never see each other again.

They told Kevin's mother, and they all cried together. They had his funeral. They tried to cope and move on.

It had been six months since Kevin had died. Six months of being without him. Ben and Gwen resumed their "Normal" lives of school and missions, but every time they expected him to be there. Gwen would swear she heard his car driving by her house and pulling up into her driveway.

Ben half expected Kevin to make a snide remark or walk into his old garage to fix his car. It seemed unreal that he was gone and it seemed like he would come back.

Grandpa Max told the family he was going to Gotham City on business. He was meeting with the Plumbers in that city and despite its reputation for having a vigilante crime fighter and supervillains; he'd never seen any of it, thankfully.

He was driving down the highway just outside the Gotham Cemetery when he saw a figure wandering down the road.

"Oh my!" Max Tennyson shouted, slamming on the brakes of his RV, he stopped and got out of the van, he ran to the young man's side.

"Easy kid, what happened to you? What's your name?"

"Jason…" The boy answered.

"Jason, don't worry, you're going to be fine," Max reassured him.

"Bruce, where's Bruce?"

"Is that your dad kid? We'll get you some help soon." He called 911 and the EMTs came to get him. They were just as surprised as Max was.

You're one lucky kid," an EMT said as he loaded Jason onto a stretcher.

Jason felt consciousness leaving him, he heard a voice, was that Bruce? Had he come to save him after all? "Bruce… Bruce… Bruce… Bruce…" he whispered, then the world became dark and he knew no more.

They took him to a hospital and put him on life support. The doctors were startled at his injuries, how could a kid survive like this? "He's in a coma?" a doctor asked. "I thought he found him on foot."

"A fractured skull. It caused a brain bleed or some damn thing. They're not even sure if he's brain dead or not," another doctor replied.

"What's this about flash burns?"

"It looks like he was in some explosion or—"

"—And then what? They dressed him in a suit and buried him someplace?" the man asked. This was all very hard to believe. He was surprised they hadn't declared their nameless John Doe dead already. He was practically dead.

"And he dug himself out. Apparently through dirt and wood. I wanted to run the wood slivers but we lost anything usable when they were working on him."

"So the kid was beaten with some kind of metal pipe, cracked his skull, shattered his sternum, collapsed a lung…about forty other fractures."

"Blown up, then buried?" the other man asked.

"Yeah. And he's still alive."

"God Almighty, like freakin' Rasputin," the man exclaimed.

"More like Lazarus," the other said. "He kept asking for "Bruce." He say who it was?"

"Yeah, just before he went under. He said it was his father."

"What's going to happen to the boy?" Max asked, he'd overheard the conversation and since he was the one who brought him in he wanted to help.

"We were going to put him into a convalescent home," the doctor told him.

"I'll take him back with me, my home town has some excellent medical facilities, hopefully, they'll be able to help him."

"All right, don't worry about a thing Jason, I'll help you somehow."

Max Tennyson pulled up to the house, he was going to take Jason to the Bellwood hospital, but perhaps Gwen could help him, she could read auras and maybe she could figure out what happened to him.

"Grandpa you're home!" Gwen exclaimed running to him.

"Hey Pumpkin, so happy to see you!" Max smiled giving her a hug. He saw her smile, it was a surprise.

"Listen, I need you guys to help me with something," he said, Ben ran up to them and he hugged his grandson, he led them to the trailer.

"I found him wandering in the middle of the road. He was half dead. They said he was beaten with some kind of metal pipe and in some kind of explosion."

"Grandpa, no one would be able to survive that," Ben stated.

"Gwen, do you think there's anything you can do for him?" Max asked.

"What is his name?" she looked over at the figure in the RV.

"Before he lost consciousness, he said his name was Jason."

Max gasped, the boy had woken up. His eyes shifted from Max to Ben to Gwen. Jason looked at her blankly. His eyes seemed empty, but she knew there were some signs of life in him.

It was strange; he couldn't have been more than sixteen. She wondered what could have happened to him and how he'd gotten hurt so bad. She wanted to help him; Jason also resembled Kevin with his dark hair and build. But his eyes were different; instead of being obsidian like Kevin's his eyes were a lighter shade of green than her own. He seemed like the athletic type, and he seemed to be the type who could take care of himself but who could have beaten him so bad he had brain damage?

She quietly took his hand in hers, he gave it a squeeze. She smiled.

"You're going to be okay, Jason. I'm going to fix you. You'll be all right, I promise. I'll get you back the way you were. We'll all help you, I'm sure once you get better and you can talk, we'll be able to get you back to your family.

Gwen reached out with her sixth sense, she could sense that his mental state as that of a catatonic person. He might have been awake, but his mind and emotions weren't very responsive. But by no means was he stupid, he could understand her and even though he didn't exude emotions, he was still there.

It broke her heart that he couldn't speak, that he couldn't talk to her and that he had emotions that he couldn't express. Her heart was moved with pity. He was too much like her Kevin and yet he was not.

She decided she would get started right away, she hoped to restore him to a normal life. He gave her something to live for outside of saving the world and helping her cousin. If Kevin were here, he'd want to help him too.

"I'll have to search through my spellbooks, but maybe I'll be able to help him come back."

Gwen didn't know that it would take her three years to restore Jason's mind.

Author's Note: I wrote this because Kevin reminds me of a tame version of Jason Todd. He's Jason if he had friends and didn't kill. I love Gwevin and all but this idea just fascinates me for some reason.

* Improvised Explosive Device. I know about those, and it's very, very bad.