#Spiral! Jason

[autisticrosewilson]

An Excerpt from my TMA Au

Ft. Archivist! Dick, Spiral! Jason and Steph, and Stranger/Beholding Cass! TW for broken bones and horror themes, canon typical esoterica @perseus-jackass thought you'd like this!

"WHAT IS GOING ON!" Dick trips through the winding halls of the Head Institute, skidding to a halt in front the heap of limbs sprawled on the ground, bent in weird positions even by his standards.

Jason wriggles around on rubbery bones while Steph laughs at him, hanging upside down from her trapdoor in the ceiling.

"Humans are so...fleshy." he complains. "They break too easily." He wriggles his awkwardly bent limbs, and Dick can hear the broken bones grinding together under the skin. He tried to breathe through the nausea.

"Are you...okay?" It's a nasty break, multiple even, but Jason doesn't seem pained, and he's still not-human enough that his patron might lend a hand.

Cass, whose crouched oddly on top of a nearby table stares with wide unblinking eyes, studying the state of him. "Looks fine." The canned audio of the radio she's using as voice box crackles and cuts abruptly.

That's not reassuring, Cass's limbs look like a poly-jointed dolls on the best of days. "Steph, can you, um, help with this?" He looks to the blonde whose moved onto positioning Jason's limbs into increasingly strange positions.

"Why would I do that?" She seems occupied trying to...spell Jason's name with his limbs? What the fuck.

He doesn't get paid enough for this. Actually now that he thinks about it, Ra's doesn't pay him at all these days. No point paying an employee who can't quit and already lives with you.

[feyburner]

Guess who got hit with a de-aging beam 👍🏻

Page one text:

Dick: Let’s see, you’ve met ✨me✨, Duke, Dami, Al… who else is around…

Dick: Oh hey! It’s Jason!

Jason: Uh.

Timmy: Jason………. Todd?

Dick: That’s right!! (Wow, good memory!)

Jason: Hi.

Dick: T-TIM?!

*

Bonus:

[ofswordsandpens]

its funny because Percy has been spiraling ever since pjo and whenever he has a particularly bad episode you have other characters actively worried about it and you think to yourself surely they're going to intervene, surely someone is going to talk to him about it, and then like no one ever does lol

[succo-al-limone]

DC doodles for funzies

[kittykatninja321]

There are vast amounts of people on the good batdad/ bad batdad debate completely lacking nuance because no one seems able to grasp the idea that a parent can be loving and protective of their children and still do other shit that is questionable or straight up unacceptable. On one half you have like tiktokkers or whatever who take “bad dad Bruce” and run with it and act like he’s the devil incarnate and make up scenarios where he’s like selling Tim to one direction or some shit. And then on the other half you have people who see that and go “no you’re wrong he’s a great dad” and show a panel of him being nice one time as if that negates all of the numerous canon instances of Bruce’s being certifiably insane to kids. He isn’t awful all the time but that doesn’t mean he’s never been awful. Another thing this conversation neglects to take into account is that they don’t all get the same dad. Dick’s experience is different from Jason’s/Tim’s/Cass’s/Damian’s. Bruce has never hit Damian because comic book writers think it’s only acceptable for him to hit his adult sons!!

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

When Jason wakes up in the Pit and finds out about what happened while he was essentially brain dead it’s not Bruce his ire falls upon, but Dick.

Dick, who never accepted him and had to be coerced into spending any amount of time with him but is now regularly seen patrolling with the Replacement. Dick, who had an open ear for everyone but Jason. Dick, who never put in any kind of effort with Jason but has an entire Wikipedia article dedicated to his wholesome bond with the Drake heir.

Dick, who couldn’t even be bothered to attend his funeral but never missed a single of the Replacement’s photography exhibitions.

So when Jason first dons the helmet and begins his stakeout to start planning his big debut he doesn’t only do it in Gotham, he branches out to Blüdhaven.

But when he first get to Blüd it’s to the tail end of Blockbuster having been murdered.

And when he finds Nightwing it’s to the sight of a woman stalking towards where the vigilante is sprawled on a deserted rooftop, unresponsive.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 217

Babies can die if they don’t have enough physical contact. This is something that is known, but Talia does not have time to spend with her twins, and it’s not like she carried them thanks to the false Lazarus womb, so she didn’t even have that excuse to use. 

What she did have, was a near braindead teen who could be taught things through muscle memory. 

Which is how Jason ended up caring for a pair of toddlers between any training, even after his dip in the Pit. Well, he cared for them until he left for Gotham, to enact his plans, even if he continued to call them every week. 

But that wasn’t enough for little Damian and Danyal.

Where had their caretaker gone? Away from them? Where is Baba? Across the sea? Unacceptable. They will not stand for this! 

Which in turn, is how Jason discovers his the twins outside his safehouse window, having somehow made it to Gotham on their own- what the fuck, kids!?

[ew-selfish-art]

DP x DC AU: Danny desperately wants to find the explosion guy. Tim is really good at covering his tracks... he didn't account for ghosts.

The explosions make it onto TV as purported terror activity and most people haven't heard of that part of the world much less ever given a second thought to care about it. The only real reason it gets reported on has something to do with the Justice League and... Danny knows too much.

He's been in training for Clockwork's court (which he's suspicious of- feels like kingly duty bullshit- but Danny is playing along out of curiosity for now) and he's learned a lot about how the living and non-living worlds collide. That means learning about CW's usual suspects- one of which just happened to have a ton of bases around the area Danny was seeing on the news.

It didn't take long for Danny to try to piece together that whoever blew up Nanda Parbat was trying to fuck with the League of Shadows, and was doing it successfully. Less green portals in the world the better, same goes for assassins. But it gets Danny thinking... Maybe he can employ similar tactics on the GIW Bases that keep spawning on the edges of Amity Park. It would at least set them back while he and his friends navigated the help line desk to request Justice League intervention. None of them can leave Amity Park, so outreach is going to have to be creative.

So Danny figures he'll just find the guy. Call up some ghosts who were there, or er, came from there and get a profile and track him down. But the ghosts keep saying it was The Detective. Annoying!

Danny goes full conspiracy theory, gets Tucker and Sam involved, and begrudgingly asks Wes Weston his thoughts.

He hadn't expected Wes to garble out a thirty minute presentation (that had 100 more slides left to go before he cut it off) about how Batman totally trained with a cult and so did his kids. Danny kind of rolled his eyes but... hey, new avenue of searching in the Infinite Realms at least.

The ghosts confirm that Bombs is for sure not Batman's MO- But maybe his second kid would know? The second kid was already brought back to life though, so no way to easily reach him... Danny starts to realize that this might be the work of a Robin now. Wasn't the red one known for solving cold cases? (Sam provides this information- its a social faux pas to not know hero gossip at Gotham Galas- everything she's learned is against her will).

It all comes to a head when Danny goes about the hard task of opening a portal for the guy to come through at just the right time, explain the infinite realms so he doesn't panic and then describe what the fuck was going on with the GIW. It takes months, just over a full year, of random (educated guesses) portal generating- Finally, Red Robin drops into the land of the dead.

"So, you're the guy I've got to talk to about explosions right?" Danny enthusiastically asks.

Tim thinks he's died and landed in the after life following 56 hours of being awake and plummeting off the side of a building into a Lazarus pool. Nothing makes sense about the kid in front of him.

"Yeah, I got a guy for munitions." Tim answers cooly.

"How do you feel about secretly sanctioned government operations that violate protected rights?"

"Gotta get rid of 'em some how. Need me to point you in the right direction?" This might as well be happening.

[danny-chase]

I feel like people understand that Dick changed while Jason was gone, but where it goes wrong half the time is people assume that Dick "growing up" meant that Dick was irresponsible around the time he and Jason interacted/was mean and unable to conceal his jealousy well, which he then evolved from due to Jason's death and was able to build a loving big brother relationship with Tim and Damian and fix his relationship with Bruce.

Meanwhile canon is like:

>Be me, Dick Grayson, esteemed and respected leader of the Teen Titans

> Your younger brother dies

> Fire the youngest member of the Titans because it happened because you had a crisis of responsibility about child vigilantism

> Get punched by your not-official dad

> Help mentor new younger brother because you can't stop him and Bruce from the path they're on, and like hell is another kid going to die

> Kid dies. Not that one. The ex-member of the Titans died disobeying your orders and saving the world in a heroic sacrifice you didn't want him to make, this is exactly what you tried to avoid

> So did two of your friends and one of their moms

> Failed marriage, and a whole lot of relationship stuff you don't want to talk about

> Dad didn't ask you to surpass him in the roll he trained you for since you were 8, gives it to a guy who goes of the rails and starts trying to kill ppl

> Dad asks you to take the roll because he literally has 0 other options and wants to take a vacation

> Bond with younger brother II more, will kill everyone in this room and yourself if anything happens to him

> Move to a new awful city that's often compared to hell

> Having nothing to lose makes it kind of nice here

> Younger brother II gets killed by the same guy who killed younger brother I

> Kill the guy

> Younger brother II wasn't actually dead

> Dad used CPR, so neither is the guy who killed them

> Angst over not being a good enough person not to kill your brother's murderer

> Things start to become okay again

> Best friend dies

> Get shot in the shoulder and fired from your job

> Childhood home gets burned down, 20+ people die

> Apartment building blows up, 22 of your friends and acquaintances die

> Find out it's because someone was specifically targeting you

> Person dies for talking to you

> Choose to step aside and let the guy targetting you die

> Run home because dad needs help

> Get shot in the leg, while passed out another kid hero dies

> Quit being a hero

> Join the mob

> Things start to get better

> Help dad out with some case about this guy named the Red Hood

> City gets nuked because you live there

> Get radiation burns and pass out while saving people, content that you died doing something good

> Dad saved you

> You're still alive :/

> Propose to your ex-girlfriend (not the one from the last marriage)

> Crisis event happens, take a laser beam meant for your father

> Coma for 3 weeks

> She says no (for good reasons)

> You're still alive :/

~and around here is where Dick finds out Jason's alive~

Anyways Dick was not more well adjusted by the time Jason came back from the dead, his life was a constant series of L's, and he got worse 😎

[demigod-shenanigans]

Thinking about the lost trio’s mortal parents

Thinking about Esperanza and Beryl both being clear-sighted (it’s said that Beryl knew who Zeus was, both times, and Esperanza specifically talked to Leo about his powers and seemed to know who Hera was).

Thinking about Beryl, who was famous and had so much and who did everything to stay in the public eye. Who would have given it all, including sacrificing her own kids, to get Zeus’ attention back. Who only ever wanted Zeus for herself and never for her children. Who named Jason to placate Juno’s anger and ultimately gave up Jason to her. Who even in death remained bitter and blamed Thalia running away for her own choices and her death, saying she left when Beryl needed her the most, despite the fact that Thalia was nine and severely neglected and thought Beryl had killed her brother and an adult’s choices should never have been her responsibility to begin with. Beryl blamed it all on Olympus and showed no regret for her actions. Who thought she could just neglect both of her children and abandon her two year old with no consequences and that Jason would still join her. Who only cared about Jason once he was a hero and a warrior, and even then only cared for him as a tool of revenge she could use against the gods.

Thinking about Esperanza, who had nothing. Who was smart and skilled and barely scraping by despite her degree. Who would have given everything to keep her son safe. Who had a son prophecied to be a hero and tried to look the Fates in the eye and say no, because he was her son first and destined for bigger things second. Who banned Hera, the queen of the gods, from their apartment because the gods couldn’t have Leo, not yet, not when he was still so young. Who still tried to prepare Leo, with everything she had, because she knew she couldn’t keep him from his fate in the long run, but also knew there were at least tools she could give him that would help. Who, despite knowing that a god had once loved her, only wanted Hephaestus as a father for Leo, never as a partner for herself. Who only ever worried about the ways she could fail Leo, never about him failing her. Who was happiest around her son and loved him more than her own life. Who, even in death, never could have blamed Leo.

Thinking about Tristan, who is in some ways a mirror to both Beryl and Esperanza. Tristan grew up with nothing and eventually, as an adult, he suddenly had everything, except the things that really mattered to him. He couldn’t keep Aphrodite and never fell in love again after her. Tristan can’t see through the Mist, but he had his heart shattered by the mythological world anyway, even without seeing. He couldn’t save his father because at the time he didn’t have the money to pay for the treatment, he only became famous after.

His relationship with his daughter is really strained. He’s probably terrified of losing Piper like he lost his dad and Piper’s mom. Tristan works and works and works because he thinks if they just have enough he can keep Piper safe (because even if he couldn’t have kept her mom that way, enough money absolutely could have saved his dad), but that makes him unable to give Piper his attention, which is what she needs the most. Hell, he thinks he’s protecting her by keeping her away from his celebrity nonsense, and in a way he sort of is, but it’s not what Piper wants.

Thinking about Tristan seeing through the Mist in TLH and breaking. Thinking about Tristan finally seeing Piper, and her having to give up the one thing she’s wanted all this time and make him look away again because it shatters him.

Esperanza and Beryl could both see their children for who they were, one for the better, the other for the worse. Tristan can never see Piper for who she truly is. We’ve seen how it would destroy him if he did.

Thinking about Tristan losing everything until the only thing he has left to give Piper is his attention—and that’s enough. (I still wish that had been a choice on his part after realizing that’s what Piper wants and needs instead of being forced on him, but I digress.)

Tristan could have been more like Beryl. Their stories are decently similar. But even though he can never fully see Piper for who she is, and even though it took him longer than it should have, when his daughter needed him most, he turned around and learned to be more like Esperanza.

[necrotic-nephilim]

I am always thinking TimJay thoughts related to the fact that they have matching scars from getting their throats slit, and not only that, but Jason slit Tim's throat first in an attempt to threaten Bruce, where Tim was nothing more than a pawn for Jason to use to emotionally manipulate Bruce.

batman (1940) #618

And then, just a little while later when Jason is trying to confront Bruce and do his whole dramatic moment with Joker in UTRH, and Bruce slits Jason's throat to stop Jason from killing the Joker.

batman (1940) #650

It makes me so Unwell. They have literal matching scars. When do you think Jason realizes it? When do you think, while running his fingers over the scar he has to always remind himself that Bruce was willing to jeopardize Jason's own life just to save the Joker, Jason realized it was the same scar *he* gave Tim? And does it click for him too, that he and Tim are a lot alike? Being used as pawns in Bruce's game? And for the first time he maybe understands Tim Drake, just another kid trying to get Bruce's attention and approval? And Jason did to Tim exactly what Bruce did to Jason? And that's part of what spurns on Jason's obsession with Tim, trying to "save" Tim from Bruce's ideology?

When they finally get together does it make Jason even more possessive? He put that mark on Tim and now he has his own to match. It's the closest to being understood and loved he's ever felt when Tim runs his fingers over Jason's scar at the same time Jason touches Tim's. Mirrors of each other, in a fun, fucked up little way.

[autisticrosewilson]

Spiral! Jason origin ficlet! @perseus-jackass this is the one I was talking about, part of it at least.

Characters: Bruce Wayne(?), Spiral! Joker, and little! Jason

Tags: Jason has a no good very bad time, Spiral-typical nonsense, hints of body horror at the end, blood and injury, Bruce may or may not actually be Bruce but Jason believes he is

The snow that isn’t there crunches under his boots as he follows Bruce into the land that Isn’t. Sannikov Land doesn’t exist, but it is beautiful. It’s terrifying. It’s impossible. It shifts and bends and melts and reforms. Staircases to nowhere claw themselves from the ground and doors open and close and beckon with bright colors and glimpses of hallways. 

How would a melody describe itself if asked? How does Jason describe everything he sees, everything he hears? The cold seeps into his bones, warms his marrow, generates static at his fingertips that makes his hair stand on end. He has to drag his eyes away from the neverending, shifting spirals that threaten to enclose him, and his gaze lands on the snow. It’s too bright, dull gray. It’s pale and has the opalescent sheen of an oil spill in sunlight. It shifts beneath him more like sand and pulls his boots down like soft clay. The footprints they left behind disappear, erasing the only proof that they are here, not covered by new snow but simply fading from existence. You can not tread on land that isn’t. 

The snow falls, disappears before it hits the ground, shifts colors mid-air, flickering like an idle TV. It bounces off his cheeks and curls and sends static up his spine, then the feeling settles like bursts of hot oil, like sticking his hand too close to boiling water.

Bruce tells him to keep pace, voice tight and eyes straight ahead. He doesn’t seem surprised about any of this, there is no fear, or surprise, or awe, not even the cutting, distant curiosity that usually lingers in his eyes. His face is blank and he will not look at Jason. 

Jason follows dutifully.

Jason is lost. He knows exactly where he is. The map he was given does not make sense. He follows it anyway. He thinks he’s been here a few days, maybe a week. There is no day or night in the endless hallways, his watch is different every time he looks at it. 

Had Bruce known it would be like this? Would he have asked Jason to go inside if he did? Jason would have, if Bruce had told him. He justs wants to help. He keeps following the map.

He can't tell up from down, he doesn't even remember lefts from rights but he stumbles through the disjointed halls anyway, trying to keep to the overlapping scribble of lines that wind around and through each other in a somehow boxy circle.

The laughter starts following him.

The sound will not stop. The hideous laughter keeps pace with him, distorted and sharp and ringing and blurring the edges of his vision with kaleidoscope colors. The floor shifts below him, wood slipping from beneath his feet as he’s thrown bodily on concrete, the floor-ceiling spinning around him, like he’s in a drying machine. He hates the warehouses more than the hallways, the boxes of things that sing awful, luring songs and the unbreakable windows that tease glimpses of the world outside. 

And of course, there’s the host. The thing with the long sharp fingers and the face that blurs and twists, it’s body moves like a centipede and then melts into greasy puddles before reforming into dense fog, too many mouths and they are all laughing. It does not kill him, but Jason wishes it would. He does not heal but he cannot die, the pain lingers and burns but he cannot rest, so he keeps walking, looking for the door-window-mirror that will let him go back to the never ending maze, to start the chase again.

He thinks it’s been a month now. He hasn’t slept in a while. The hunger gnaws at his gangly body as he drags it forward. He will not succumb to it. He wishes he would.

He is in a hospital, the fluorescents are too bright and the buzz is too loud and there has been no respite from the piercing laughter, an overplayed laugh track that gets more unrecognizable every minute. The smell of disinfectant makes his headache worse. He’s always hated hospitals. There’s a winding trail of red dragging through the center of the floor, dipping under the out of place doors in shakey, dissimilar lines. It would be more normal if it were blood, but it’s dry and smooth and not the right shade. He shambles through the unending halls towards the sound of cries he’ll never reach, eyes tracking the world's worst paint job and he leaves his own trail of red. 

The blood that pools behind him dries up as quickly as it hits the floor, the ground seeming to suck it in hungrily.

His socks are dampening from the moist brown carpet, his shoes having long fallen apart. He’s been walking for daysmonthsyears and he hasn’t slept for longer. He has a map, it does not make sense but he has nothing else to do but follow it. Why is he here? Where is he? He doesn’t remember anything but static in his veins and grating laughter that only got louder when his ears started bleeding. He keeps walking and the pictures on the walls change. Are they mirrors? They all show the same hallway from different angles, he is in all of them but he can’t see his face. He doesn’t remember what color his eyes are. Blue or green or purple. Can eyes be purple? It doesn’t seem…right but the thought drifts away as soon as he gets it, slipping through his fingers like snow.

Breaking up the maddening yellow wall-paper is a heavy metal door proclaiming EXIT in big red letters. It is lying. He keeps walking and ignores the scratching from the other side.

The hallway with the green striped walls has no right turns. Left after left after left and there are no doors, or mirrors, or pictures. He doesn’t know what the map is trying to tell him anymore. He starts scratching at the walls when he hears something moving on the other side. His nails are longer now. Or maybe just his fingers? They are sharp at the ends and the walls shudder when he drags his hand down through the rotted wood and plaster. There’s a scream from the other side, panicked and human. His stomach growls. He breaks through into another hallway, with tan walls and patterned brown carpet, lined on either side by rows of doors he knows are locked. He tries them all anyway. The numbers are out of order. The door at the very end of the hall has RUN etched crudely into the door instead of a room number. The handle gives when he tries it.

[bookishjules]

i have a theory that demigod genes are kinda like autism in that they trickle down to younger siblings (like it's more likely for the younger siblings of an autistic kid to be on the spectrum than those who were born before). i'm not saying younger, mortal siblings of demigods could become demigods themselves, of course, but more that there's some sort of tie or pull there to that godly side, despite having no real connection to the god who gave their sibling half their genetic code

exhibit a: jason feels tied to the greeks to the point of an identity crisis

exhibit b: estelle's poseidon eyes.

[confused-wanderer]

Jason meeting Dick for the first time after his resurrection.

Stepping over the mountains of trash, case files and other smells of rotten food just to see Nightwing hunched over the balcony’s railing which looks like it’s going to fall off at any moment, while said vigilante is eating a box of pizza and staring at Red Hood.

The Pit Madness dies down at this shocked sight and Jason scrunches his nose in disgust at the revolting sight.

Jason: What is wrong with you

Nightwing *munching on pizza*

Nightwing: How much time you got?

[asolareclipses]

Previous Part

As the large school loomed ominously above him, Nico rethought all of his previous decisions that led him to this point. The building seemed to emanate pure death, but something wasn’t adding up. And the longer Nico stood there motionless, the worse this feeling became.

“So…do we go in or?” Leo said, completely unaware of Nico’s hesitance.

“Yeah…” Nico took a deep breath before pushing open the large castle like doors. He expected to immediately be met with death or something horrifying, instead what lay before him was nothing but empty abandoned halls.

“Wow, this place needs some TLC,” Leo commented as he walked forward, his head swiveling around to take in the large building.

“I guess they abandoned the school.” Nico replied, he couldn’t decide if that was upsetting or not. On one hand, it had been one of the last times he’d really been with Bianca, but on the other it held so much darkness and pain within its walls.

“Any idea where we go from here?” Leo asked, his hands were now blazing with a soft light that illuminated the dark hallways.

Nico paused, trying to determine where the source of his dread was coming from, but it felt all surrounding. “No clue,” He sighed.

“Okay well maybe-“ Suddenly the fire lit in Leo’s hand extinguished into nothing and the room was thrust into darkness.

Nico felt his heart drop, something was here, but unlike that sense of overpowering darkness Nyx emitted, it was something different. Rather than darkness it was more heavy, more emotional.

Suddenly the room brightened, a blueish green haze illuminating what looked to be trees, but Nico knew better.

“We need to get out of here right now,” Nico said as he felt his chest tighten.

Before Leo could speak a dark figure appeared, followed by several more of the same shape. “Oh but it is too late young one, we have already come to play.” The figure spoke as its features became clear. While it resembled a fury with sharp talons and wings, Nico knew better. Once before he faced monsters like this, and now it was too late as he and Leo were surrounded.

“What is that?” Leo asked, his hands bursting into flames once more.

“They’re arai,” Nico glanced nervously at Leo’s flames, “Leo if you attack them they’ll-”

Clearly the arai didn’t like what Nico was about to say as one dashed towards Leo and was greeted by a ball of fire. As the monster exploded into dust Leo yelled out, clutching his chest as he fell to the ground.

“Leo!” Nico called out as he rushed to his side.

“Holy hades what was that,” Leo said as he shakily tried to stand, his hair was sticking up as if he had been electrocuted.

“I tried to tell you, when you kill an arai they release a curse that someone or something has sent towards you.”

“A curse? What would’ve-“ Leo cut himself off as his eyes widened. “Oh. Those gods damned Eidolons! I fried them so of course they wanted to fry me too.”

Nico pretended he understood what that meant, before turning back to the arai who seemed to be eyeing them like prey. “We have to run, we can’t fight.” He forced his voice to remain steady.

“Where do we run?” Leo asked.

Nico looked around, they were surrounded by misty trees and the swampy fog. There was nowhere to run. “I don’t…” Panic filled his chest as he realized the lack of options.

“Your only choice is to fight, or you could let us kill you?” The arai spoke in a low gravely voice.

“Yeah right.” Leo snapped, his hands alight once more.

Nico had no real weapon (no the hatchet thing doesn’t count), no place to run, but the fear within him ran deeper than that. He wondered how many curses had been spoke against him, how many old wounds were about to be ripped open. Still, he had no choice. He had to fight.

And so fight he did.

The first arai swooped forward, its talons and wings moving swiftly. It dove downwards, but Nico had anticipated that and quickly rolled out of the way, bringing the hatchet down on the arias feathered back. Immediately Nico was met with a searing pain in his arm. Gashes resembling claws had appeared etched into his skin, similar to the scar that lay beneath them. Lycaon. It was no surprise the werewolf was a sore loser.

Next to Nico Leo gasped at the site of the wound, before promptly dodging an arai attack.

Nico tried to shrug it off, it was a familiar pain, he could manage. He readied the hatchet, ignoring the fact that he now had to fight with both of his arms injured. Another flash of black and Nico ducked, rolling against the ground while narrowly missing the sharp talons brought against him. He tried to go on the defense like Leo, but without fire it was nearly impossible.

The harsh sounds of wings roared behind him and he spun around almost too late, his hatchet swung and all he saw was a rain shower of dust. In that moment something shifted, everything seemed to go quiet as the hatchet dropped to the ground with the hollow echo of metal.

Leo turned, his fire flickering as his eyes widened in pure horror.

When Nico looked down, his hands were nothing but smoke, swirling around in the familiar way he’d seen many times from spirit roaming the underworld. Finally, one of his darkest moments had come back around to face him. The name, that face burned into Nico’s memory forever. Bryce Lawrence.

A guy who deserved nothing but death, yet every time Nico looked back at what he’d done he was consumed with guilt. Now it was his turn, to be erased into nothing.

Leo seemed to panic, the arai now uninterested with Nico. He called out but the words seemed to pass over Nico as if he weren’t really there.

Nico didn’t feel any pain anymore, he felt nothing. He saw Bryce’s face, over and over, until it slowly became his own. Then the sound of a scream pulled him away from being swallowed whole by the memories.

Leo had fallen to the ground again, his arms shaking in pain. The scattered remains of dust revealed he’d been met with another curse.

Nico wanted to cry, his body was worthless in that he couldn’t fight. He could only stand in watch. The sense of helplessness flooded through his veins as another arai rushed towards Leo.

But it never reached him, instead the ground rumbled and each arai was frozen in place. Somehow Nico stepped forward, his feet solid as black smoke curled off of his body.

“This is over.” He said, his form flickering in and out of a spirit like state. The arai began to back away. “You come from darkness right?” His fists clenched as shadows began to surround the arai, “Looks like it’s time to go back.”

A tidal wave of darkness washed over the arai as they screeched, their voices worse than nails against a chalkboard. Slowly they faded into nothingness and the wave washed away, revealing once more the dusty halls of west over.

Nico stood there emotionless for a moment, until a bout of pain racked his body. He felt like he was swimming in the phlegethon, it was as if pure lava were coursing through his veins,

Once again he heard Nyx’s taunting voice whisper to him, “Strike two.”

—

Watching Nico absolutely obliterate the arai was nothing short of impressive, however the immediate consequences were not. Whatever curses the arai bestowed had seemed to dissolve, but still something remained with Nico.

The previous cursed claw marks had only half healed, seeming to fight back against whatever was healing them. Along with that Nico’s other arm still bared the mark of his previous scorpion battle, now it had bled through its fourth round of bandages. His body was refusing to heal itself, and now that he’d used all of his energy to banish the arai, the pain had completely taken over.

The old wooden floor around Nico cracked and steamed as he fell to his knees. The room seemed to darken as the shadows reacted to his pain, swirling in harsh patterns. Leo practically sprinted to Nico side, knowing of how little he could do to help.

“Nico, oh gods. What do I do?” Leo’s voice cracked as he watched Nicos body shudder in pain.

“I’m..” Nico winced, taking a shaky breath, “I’m fine.” He clenched his hands against the ground, his face had gone so pale it reminded Leo of the time he’d first seen him. That memory only made Leo feel worse, he’d never gotten over the guilt he carried from how he had first treated Nico.

“You’re not fine,” Leo choked out as he scoured his brain for something, anything, to he could do to help.

Nico’s breathing only became more unsteady, “Leo, I’m sorry. You should go back to camp.” His voice was quiet and raspy as he spoke, “I shouldn’t have tried to go on my own, you were right. I’m sorry.”

Leo felt tears build up in his eyes, “Shut up. It’s okay and you’re okay.” His hands began to shake as the panic grew from deep within, he couldn’t lose another friend.

Nico opened his mouth to speak but it was as if a switch were flipped, and he suddenly collapsed to the ground. Smoke curling from his arms as he lay there motionless.

Leo froze for a moment, he felt like his heart had stopped beating. “Nico?” His voice echoed through the empty halls. Quickly Leo checked his pulse, receiving the faintest of heartbeats, “Nico. Wake up dude, please.” His voice sounded like a child’s ringing in his ears, scared and alone.

The dark empty halls only seemed to stretch farther and wider as Leo sat there helplessly. Seconds or maybe minutes had passed before a scuffling sound began to fill the silence. Leo shot up, his hands bursting into flames as he stood defensively in front of Nico’s almost lifeless body. Despite their shakiness, the flames burned bright in his hands.

Whatever the sound was it only grew closer, Leo feared the worst. Perhaps the arai had come back, or a worse monster was there to greet him. A cold rush of wind extinguished his flames as a soft haunting voice bounced off the walls around him. “How sad.” The voice spoke, it was the voice of a woman but it sounded empty and full of despair. “How miserable.”

“Who are you?!” Leo yelled out into the darkness, his flames flickering back to life.

“Your misery is charming young one, such sadness and pain. The loss of another friend would break your heart, how wonderful.” The voice seemed to hesitate, “It’s unfortunate to lose this soul though. His misery was so perfect, never have I met a more tortured child.”

Leo wanted to set whatever this thing was on fire, “WHO ARE YOU?!”

“I fear it is not my place to say,” The voice sounded almost happy with their ambiguousness. “I shall leave you to the darkness, there’s not much I can do here after all.” As she spoke the last word the halls went quiet for a moment, then a louder scuffling sound rung out from behind Leo.

He snapped towards the sound, a harsh flame burnt into his palm. He was ready to turn whatever was approaching into ash, when he was met with a familiar face. A guy with short blond hair, and a small scar that lightly grazed his lip.

“Jason?”

Part Eight

[minty364]

DPXDC Prompt #70

Danny and Damian are twins and they are unfortunately forced to fight each other for title of heir at the age of 5. Danny dies after losing and Talia desperately throws him into the lazurus pits. He doesn’t come back out.

5 years later they throw a one Jason Todd into the pit and he also doesn’t come back. But Danny does now 10 years old but he has white hair and glowing green eyes. Oh wait it’s back to normal black hair and blue eyes now. Talia is majorly confused and she grabs both of her sons to take them to live with their Father and gives Damian the order to protect Danny from harm.

Jason wakes up in front of two kids one wearing a red cap and the other was goth as fuck. What the hell happened and how was he here?

I was basically wondering what would happen if Jason and Danny where thrown into the pits and turned on the portal at the same time and what if they swapped places.