A/N: Hawkeye from Marvel once shot an arrow into another arrow right as a young avenger actually quoted the fact that Mythbusters proved it impossible, so I felt obligated for Roy to call bs on all of Green Arrow's trick arrows, because, really, c'mon. That punching glove arrow.

Also. Haha. Hi. It's uh. It's been awhile. I may have fallen out of the batman fandom for a while, so I'm a bit out of touch with all that useless trivia and research I had gathered about all these characters. Also, I completely forgot where I was headed with this story. Fortunately, I left myself some notes in case of this problem. Unfortunately, they were fueled more on feelings than concrete ideas and written as such, so I barely understand them. It will take sometime to decipher them, and then actually work out how I want it written out. So as a peace offering, I give you an admittedly short chapter and no promises for anything because I know I'll break them.

As usual, un-beta'd, and done at 4 am. Mistake probably exist, my bad if you notice them, feel free to point them my way so I can fix them later.

Chapter Eighteen - Magic Trick

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

-Confucius

Because Dick is a trained professional, falling through the air doesn't fill him with a paralyzing terror.

Unfortunately, because Dick is a trained professional, in both falling and tragedies, he knows a bad ending when he sees it. Particularly when it's a hard pavement, rushing up to meet him in unpleasant manner.

Jason is - somewhere, there's too much to take in, too much to see in the free fall, the lights, the city, the hard lines of architecture, broken homes and broken dreams, but Jason's swearing is loud enough that half of Gotham could probably hear him.

Dick is - Dick is confused, primarily. That's all he can sort out, all he can functionally understand. Because he can't actually understand how he got there.

Or, how he can suddenly go from sudden vertical descent to a horizontal one, with a painful impact switching his world around and stealing his breath.

It's hard to breathe, he thinks.

His arrow missed.

"Shit," Roy says, whispers, shouts. "Never trusting trains again, don't even care, Gotham is one giant explosive and Dick where the hell did you go?"

He was right there, for a second, for a minute, but something… tackled him and then suddenly there was the space where Dick was, the space where he should've been, and both were empty save for one, useless, empty, arrow-net that Green Arrow funds and makes because they are absolute bullshit and Roy told Ollie so once, but Ollie and experience told him that bullshit or not, they worked, despite everything else in the world saying they shouldn't.

Just like how Jason was perfectly safe, struggling and cussing up a storm in his own safety net arrow thing, pinned tightly to the only pillar of cement that wasn't crumbling and dropping huge chunks of rock onto people, but Dick, who should have been in a similar situation to Jason's, was not.

His arrow… Roy looks at Jason and looks at the trajectory, the angles and numbers, that translate so effortlessly in his head, and he knows.

His arrow didn't miss.

Something else interfered.

Something orange and black.

Tim doesn't take the news well.

He's breathing heavily, having clearly run all the way to Gotham City Station, and while Roy is sure rooftop running is a great way to get in shape, it's probably not easy on the body as a result. Tim doesn't even look at Jason, who's halfway through cutting himself out of his net, cursing Roy's name with every slash. Tim's focused on Roy.

Roy tries his best to be reasonable.

"What do you mean he disappeared?" Tim says, once he has air in his lungs. "One job, Roy. You had one job. And your excuse for failing that job is that Dick pulled the world's most dramatic magic trick?"

"Yeah well, if he actually was behind that I'd say he earned the title of world's best magician, Zatanna can step down, her truest rival has just left the area" Roy snaps back. "I'm not saying I blinked and whoops, Dick went poof, I'm say he's gone, because something else pulled him out of the hat before I could - can we drop this magic metaphor now, I think Jason's coming this way."

He was. And he looked murderous, particularly without any mask or helmet to hide his face, but under careful observation and from what Dick has told him, that may also just be his default expression. Roy's not too sure, until Jason throws back an empty arrow at him with a little too much force.

"What the fuck Arrow." Jason says. "I totally had that. And this shitty arrow gimmick? Fucking not helpful."

"Ah, yes," Roy says, "Now that I think about it, you screaming and flailing about were definite signs you had this thing in the bag. My bad."

"Stop," Tim interjects when Jason is about to say more. It doesn't stop Jason from still saying more, but Tim talks over his grumbling anyway. "Focus. We have to get a handle on the situation here - there are still civilians on that train, and now this mess with where Dick went. We'll have to split up."

"I'll find the golden child," Jason says, "Like hell am I getting stuck playing rescue on that goddamn train again."

Tim's face twists a bit, like the idea sits as well with him as moldy sandwich. Roy guesses he's not a supporter of any idea that lets Jason go off on his own.

"Alone?" Tim folds his arms. "Where are you going to start? What even happened?"

"Someone tackled him mid-air," Jason turns, looking back up at the last spot Roy had a clear view of his friend. "Doubt Arrow could've seen it well, couple pillars in the way, but I definitely heard a grappling hook and saw something blur past. It was headed east, I think."

"You think."

"Why don't you handle the civvies," Jason sneers. "You're more of do-gooder than I am, aren't you, Replacement?"

"I can take care of people," Roy charitably offers, if only because he doesn't really want to deal with the griping of either of these two right now. "If more fall, which they probably will - let's face it this is Gotham, if you haven't nearly died from falling yet you haven't been here long enough - I can get them."

"You realize Batman will be here shortly, right?" Tim says, "He's going to survey the damage, help with the people in immediate danger, then prioritize what's best for Gotham after that. You're not going to rank very high on that list."

"Is it too late to switch to Team Dick?" Roy asks, and gets his answer when he turns around and there's no one else there anymore.

"Damnit."