Chapter Text
Steve hadn’t known when Vecna would strike next, or who would be his next victim.
He hadn’t been expecting Damian.
Steve’s hands shook as he looked at Damian, lying on the hospital bed with tubes sticking out of him and covered in bandages. “He’ll be fine,” Dick assured next to him. “Dami’s... He’s been through a lot worse.”
“That’s not as reassuring as you might think,” Steve snapped, his hands clenching.
After a moment, Dick whispered, “I know.”
Silence dominated the room after that. Steve buried his head in his hands, trying to ignore the way they were trembling. It was his fault, his fault. He had gotten complacent. He thought Vecna was gone. It was his fault that Damian was hurt.
Jason was pacing, his fists clenching and unclenching. “He’s dead,” he spat. “That asshole is dead.”
“Jason,” Bruce scolded from Damian’s bedside, his voice tired. His and Steve’s first meeting (as Steve and Bruce, not as Steve and Batman) wasn’t… under the best circumstances. Steve felt another flash of guilt for how melancholic his voice sounded.
“Fuck you, Bruce,” Jason snapped but he collapsed onto the chair next to Steve, crossing his arms.
Tim, sitting next to Bruce at Damian’s bedside, piped up. “We need to form a plan. You said Max was safe after Vecna was fatally injured, right?”
Steve nodded. “Yeah. She woke up after he was defeated.”
Tim nodded back. “Then we need to kill, or at least almost kill him, to save Damian.”
“Well, how do we do that? What are his weaknesses?” Dick asked, looking over from the hand he had buried in Damian’s hair.
Steve jerked slightly as he realized everyone was looking at him. He cleared his throat and took a breath. “I’m… not really sure, to be honest. I’ve always been kinda… excluded from the rest. But I do know El is stronger than him. Every time in the past, El has kinda been the one to defeat him.”
“Then we need to do something else,” Bruce decided. “That clearly doesn’t work.”
Steve had to agree. Surely there was a flaw in that plan if Vecna always comes back. So what else…
“We also need a way to lure him somewhere,” Jason added in a growl. “A trap.”
Steve sighed softly. “Yeah, I don’t know him well enough to make a successful trap. I can go get El and Will. They know the most about him.”
Bruce’s face pinched slightly but he nodded. “Get them, then.”
Steve sighed softly and stood. God, Vecna sucked.