Batman gives each of his Robins a different code to use when they’re in trouble and need immediate extraction. He promises that when they call, he’ll drop everything just to get to them, come hell or high water.
Jason, during his time with the League, shares his code with Damian, to be used “only in the direst of circumstances, when you have exhausted all other options.” He doesn’t know if Bruce will answer, given how fractured their relationship was before he died, but it is better than nothing. Every tool counts when they live such dangerous lives.
Damian uses it exactly once, and Bruce, who still feels the loss of his son like a yawning chasm in his chest, responds to it even though he knows it can’t be Jason because Jason’s dead. What he finds, instead of Jason, is a boy in League garbs, drenched in blood from the tips of his midnight-black hair to his too-small feet, with a face that Bruce sees himself and Talia in, requesting asylum from a grandfather who wishes to possess his body. Bruce doesn’t question how this boy who is so clearly his son knew the code. Talia al Ghul is resourceful and places family above all; the code is not beyond her abilities to discover, and she is not above using Bruce’s desperate love for his dead son to ensure that hers does not meet the same fate.
Bruce takes Damian in, because of course he does, and since Jason is dead he allows Damian to keep using the code. After all, it’s not like Jason is alive to use it, right? If someone uses the code, there’s no one it could be but Damian, right?
The next time the code is used, Bruce traces the location to Gotham even though Damian was supposed to be in Bludhaven visiting Dick. But whatever happened that resulted in Damian being in Gotham can wait, because he has already failed one son and he will not fail another, his son is in trouble and he needs to get to him, he needs to—
What he finds, instead of Damian, is a boy (just eighteen, too young, but also too old, but also he will always be a boy to him) in League garbs, drenched in blood from the tips of his midnight-black hair to his too-large feet (when had he gotten so big), wearing the face of his dead son.
(Who, maybe, just maybe, may no longer be so dead.)
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*Talia visiting Damian*
Talia: Damian, how are you? *glares at Dick*
Damian: I am doing well mother
Dick: *from behind him* *mouthing: why the fuck are you here?*
Talia: oh that's great! I see you have a new pet? *Mouthing back: to see MY son*
Damian: this is Haley, Grayson's dog, she's staying with me while he goes on a mission.
Dick: *flipping Talia off where Damian can't see* yep, he's so good with animals
Talia: I'm aware *throws a knife at him*
Dick: *throws it back*
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something about Hephaestus saying "you're a good kid, Annabeth" really stands out to me. he didn't point out the very obvious about her, like her intellect and interest in his creations, or her hubris in thinking she could dismantle the chair. he said that she's a good kid. because Hephaestus was mistreated by the gods. because Annabeth was shunned by Athena. because he believes that gods shouldn't treat their own children like that and he wants to be better. because he knows how much it means to a little girl who's fought for approval from her own mother her whole life, whose father neglected her. because he wants to break the cycle. don't touch me
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Oscar Tully: “I see no reason to cast aside loyalty. No matter how loathsome I may find her representative, the Prince.”
New favorite character unlocked
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