#DAE SAYS KORIAND'R RIGHTS

[daemoninwhiteround2]

Does Zantana ever explain what happed in the magic mirror verse??? Or does only Jay know that he was erased? Is there any solution??

Now, Jason is the first person to admit that he's not the detective of the family, but he is able to put 'was hit with magic's together with 'family doesn't know me/appear to have been erased from history' and come up with 'it's probably the magic's fault'. Getting the Bats to call Zatanna is more difficult, but they give in easier when he's able to describe the fight they all just had nigh on perfectly. (Also lets him move 'teleported to a different dimension' much further down the probability list.)

Zatanna remembers him, which goes a long way to making the rest of the Bats relax. Bruce doesn't, of course--Jason can basically see his brain ticking over as he comes up with multiple reasons why this might have happened, Zatanna could be compromised, maybe it's not really Zatanna--but the others flip from being stand offish to curious. Zatanna grabs the stuff she needs to run some tests, hair, a bit of blood, that sort of thing, and retreats to the laboratory part of the Cave, leaving Jason at the questionable mercy of a group of notoriously paranoid individuals.

It's ... weird. Jason ... The last time Jason was the centre of everyone's focus like this was probably just after things were really popping off as Red Hood. But they're not ... They're all just curious. Damian offers to spar with him, and tuts irritability when Dick intervenes before Jason can accept. Cass gives him a once over--what she sees, Jason has no idea--smiles, pats him twice on the cheek and trots over to where Bruce hovers, clearly torn between which stranger-to-the-Cave he should be menacing. She pats Bruce twice on the cheek as well, and Jason does his best not to roll his eyes at how Bruce relaxes. Sure, his and Zatanna's word doesn't mean shit, but when Cass...

No, that's not fair to Cass. He's a stranger right now, and Zatanna is both magic and not tightly tied to the Bats, of course Bruce is edgy.

(And yeah, Bruce would also trust Cass over Jason even if he did remember Jason, but that's still on Bruce, not Cass.)

"So!" Dick chirps. "'Died on the job, got better'?"

Aww fuck, he really did lead with that, didn't he? "Uh, yeah, it was this whole..." he trails off, desperate to find some way to spin it, but, "thing," he finishes weakly.

Dick's eyes flick over his chest, his thighs, and Jason does his best not to bristle too obviously. They've gotten rid of his weapons, what more does he want?

"You a meta?"

"What? No, you know Bruce, he'd never let a meta be Robin."

"Uh-"

"Yeah yeah, I know about Duke, but that's now. He'd never let a meta be Robin back then."

It's not so much that Bruce has chilled in his old age as his orphan hording tendencies have gotten worse.

Dick scratches the back of his head and huffs a laugh. "Point."

There's a long beat of silence. Dick keeps on looking him over. Jason has no idea what he's trying to find.

Finally, Dick says, "So you were Robin after me?"

"Yup. You'd fucked off to the Titans like ... Six months beforehand, I wanna say? The Batmobile was parked in the Alley--it was, you know," he waves his hand in a circle, the way Dick grimaces lets him know that Dick knows why the Batmobile would be in Crime Alley, "anyway, I saw it there unguarded and thought, I could sell those tyres, so I-"

"You jacked the Batmobile?" Tim interrupts. He sounds utterly delighted. It's ... weird.

"Yeah. Well. Tried to. Batman came out of no where as I was working on the fourth. I hit him in the gut with my tyre iron and took off. He hunted me down, and to make a long story short, took me home."

It's so weird to tell them this story. Hell, Jason isn't sure he's ever told anyone this story. Superheroes just knew he was Robin, they either didn't need to know or didn't bother asking about the how and why. For obvious reasons, civilians couldn't be told that he met his new dad guardian while said guardian was dressed as a giant bat.

Jason's memory from that time isn't the best (getting hit in the head repeatedly by a crowbar and then blown up will give you traumatic brain injuries that affect your long term memory, who knew?) but he's relatively certain that he didn't tell Dick. He doesn't think he'd want to admit to it. That doesn't mean Dick didn't know, of course, but he didn't hear it from Jason. And, for even more obvious reasons, he never told any of the more recent additions.

Dick's head shoot up. His expression goes from realisation to mild apology as he says, "Oh, wait, is there someone we should call? Or, is there someone you want to call?"

Jason grunts, thinks. Zatanna remembers him, but the Bats don't. He and Zatanna don't exactly interact much, so it's a crap shot, but might as well try. "Yeah, thanks. Can I have my phone back?" He doesn't know if they'll remember him, but he doesn't want to leave them worried if they do.

Tim winces very slightly. "We, uh, while we were operating under the impression that you'd broken into the Cave, we might have taken apart your electronics so we could get at the tracker in them and disable it?"

Jason can feel the muscle above his eye spasm. "Of course." He turns to Dick. "Don't suppose I can borrow your phone?"

Dick hands over an unlocked burner phone without a word.

Jason takes a couple of paces back as he dials Roy's number from memory. Of all his outlaws, Roy's most likely to pick up.

"Yeah?" Roy answers. There's loud banging in the background, weird and echoy, and Bizarro's familiar voice.

"Hey, Roy, it's-"

"Jason! Holy shit, am I glad to hear from you!" Sounds go muffled and Jason can faintly hear Roy yelling, "it's Jason!" and the banging stops. His next words come through loud and clear. "You alright? The news showed you taking a blast to the gut."

Jason raises his eyebrows. "Really? Which channel?" If he can show the others a clip of them working together, a clip from an unbiased source, then maybe...

"Uh, can't remember--hey, Kori, what channel were we-"

He's cut off, sounds go distant again for a second, and then:

"Jason."

Pure warmth and gladness. No one says his name like Koriand'r does.

"Hey Kori. Sorry to worry you."

"We were not concerned until no one answered your phone."

"Sorry, yeah, magic did a number on the others, they don't remember me, and-"

Kori laughs. "I can guess what happened. We were on our way already, we will arrive in Gotham in three hours."

"Aww, Kori, no, you don't-"

"We do," she says simply, and really, that's that. Kori's an unstoppable force.

He cuts his losses. "Thanks, Kori. I'll see you soon."

"Goodbye Jason."

He hangs up and turns to face the Bats, who do their best to look like they haven't been listening in--hell, knowing Bruce, the cell was probably bugged.

"The Outlaws will be here in three hours."

"Good," Zatanna says before anyone else. She walks over and looks ... grim. Fuck. "We need to talk."