#When the pits spit Jason out he's still feral and angry

[kalicofox]

The Semi-Soulmate AU That Nobody Asked For

Something nobody ever told Danny was that, well. He was the king. Everyone assumed that someone else had told him, and honestly, he was doing an alright job at the whole thing, so...

He had to know, right?

No.

No he did not.

Of course he didn't know! How could he have?

His first hint was when he woke up at the stroke of midnight on his twentieth birthday, falling apart.

He panicked, because of course he did. Panicking when you were dissolving into aether was something any sane person would do! But it didn't last, because then he was gone and there was only The Realms.

And it was beautiful.

You see, there are rules, and then there are rules.

And one of the rules was this: No King of the Realms can rule without knowing what, exactly, it is that they rule.

And so, typically, (typically, she says, when there's only been two Kings, and Pariah was anything but typical.) the newly crowned King would go on a tour of the realm. They would meet their subjects, and explore the far reaches, and, although it would take a while (ages, millennia, eons,) they would eventually return with at least partial knowledge of their domain.

Danny had done none of that.

Danny hadn't known, because no one had told him.

The Realms had waited. Patiently at first, and with slowly growing impatience.

One year.

Three.

Five years, and the new King gave no indication that he was even thinking about touring the Realms.

So the Realms took matters into its own hands.

And stole the king away.

He was everything. Everywhere. Everywhen, all at once. Forever and Always, all at once.

He could see everything.

Feel his subjects, going about their 'lives'. 'Living', and loving, and 'dying', and being reborn elsewhere in a cycle that took him eons (the blink of an eye, the beat of a heart) to comprehend.

Someone screaming caught his attention, such as it was.

One of his subject being dragged unwillingly into one of the 'living' worlds.

This wasn't too uncommon. It happened often enough, with the advances that the 'living' had made in medical technologies. But this one was different.

The portal was different.

Putrid and sickening, it was a blemish on Danny's The Realms' self.

He couldn't interfere. He tried. He tried to close the portal, to block it, to cut the summoning, but nothing worked.

Fate had her hand in this, and The Realms hated her.

He couldn't help. So he reached out, and embraced the subject, instead.

And for a moment, (an eternity of eternities), they were one.

Mixing, blending, learning, mourning,

and then the portal surged, and the other was gone.

And The Realms Danny mourned.

The Realms spat him back out onto his bed.

The room was still dark.

The clock read fifteen minutes after midnight.

His phone told him it was his twentieth birthday.

But he felt so, unbearably old.

[gothamincarnate]

REDBREAST: UTRH/HUSH AU

“Don’t mind that bird.  It just lays in the middle of my tunnel. The stupid thing is gone and dead!” exclaimed the mole. Thumbelina was filled with sadness at the sight of the beautiful ROBIN REDBREAST lying in the middle of the dirty tunnel. She covered the meek animal as much she could.

She wept quietly and hugged the bird.  Suddenly she could hear the bird’s heartbeat. Ba bump!  Ba buMP!  BA BUMP!  

It was a low, dull, quick sound –much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton.

Jason Todd has crawled from his grave in the back acre of Wayne Manor, there is no pit, no brain damage, he is simply alive.

And then I flew back home, but the window was barred, for my father had forgotten all about me, and there was another little boy sleeping in my bed!

His father didn’t learn from his mistakes, had brought one even younger than him to be hung by the bloodied yellow cape.

In panic and pain he recreates his death. A fake hostage with gory, visceral theater makeup mimicking his old wounds. The hostage taunts Batman, slipping out as the timer counts down on the dynamite. A father trapped inside, realizing he’s failed again.

Batman survives, somehow. Survives where Jason hadn’t. Maybe if Robin’s uniform had the same heavy kevlar, he could have. He hadn’t done enough to protect Jason, had he?

Well, Redbreast had planned for that. He is going up against Batman, he knew it would be a long game. Enjoys it, the panic he sees build as the weeks stretch on.

There’s whispers of a man named Redbreast working on uniting the rogues into something stronger, more unified and dangerous. But Bat’s efforts are met with red herrings and carefully written lines that the rogues spit back perfectly. Is Robin truly returned from the grave?

Phase two: Watch the bat soar around in circles, picking up breadcrumbs that have been left. Other rogues play their parts, tormenting him in whatever ways they feel fit.

Clayface plays the role of the second Robin, leading Bruce down alleyways, into the sewers past the Deacon’s old hideout, up to the streets, leading him to a fourth story balcony.

-Did he fall, or was he pushed?

-Guess I spooked him. He slipped.

Batman’s body is still and broken, replaying at least a fraction of the pain Jason had gone through. The ghost-Robin stays with Batman, talking to him as he comes in and out of consciousness. As reinforcements arrive, Robin runs. As Bruce is loaded in the Bat mobile, he tells Oracle that he’d seen Jason, he really had, it was him!

Bruce is taken to the hospital, patched up by a team of surgeons, including Dr. Elliot..

Then, bang, a loose end tied up, Hush has been quieted forever. Redbreast sets Joker lose, stages Dr. Elliot’s body nearby. If Batman won’t kill for Jason, for Barbara, for his children, maybe he’ll kill for his old childhood friend.

Jason watches nearby. Bruce is angry, nearly feral. He comes close. His gauntlets are bloodied and he’s angry and Jason feels something hopeful swell up in his chest. Joker’s going to die. Finally, it’ll be over.

Then Gordon intervenes, stopping Bruce. Damnit. Nearly isn’t good enough.

He’d had a different final act in mind. Simply showing up at the Manor and telling Bruce everything. Spoiling the mystery for the great detective. Ask to come home if Bruce had killed Joker. Ask Bruce to leave him the hell alone if the clown’s still alive.

Jason hadn’t wanted to get Tim involved. This wasn’t his fight. This was Bruce’s fault, for letting the kid think that Robin was safe. For continuing to think it was okay for a child to be in such violent situations without the proper protection, guidance, teamwork. Tim is just an idealistic kid, just like Jason was. Had been, once. Maybe he still was, but it was buried deep.

Bruce’s fault, for leaving the little bird alone. It had been simple to knock him out and nab him. See, he wasn’t trained well enough.

He held the kid hostage alongside Joker, though Joker was restrained enough Jason didn’t have to worry about a repeat.

Jason wasn’t going to hurt him. Not going to beat up a kid. But Batman didn’t know that. Tim didn’t know that. Well, not at first. Jason had tried to keep up the tough guy act, but then Tim had started freaking out, so Redbreast dialed back on the rage. He’d been an abused kid, he knew what it was like.

He lets Tim keep the communicator, destroys the tracker. Let Bruce hear the panic in the replacements voice, the Joker laughing in the background. Then Jason pulls his own mask off, keels down and tells Tim to deliver a message.

Tell Bruce the good news: His son’s back. And if Tim wants to keep breathing, Batman needs to come get him.

It takes a while, which is funny because they’re camped out in the old Todd residence, it shouldn’t have been that difficult. Jason Todd doesn’t touch a hair on Robin’s head. However, in his boredom he drags Joker to the former bedroom and beats the hell out of the clown.

“Maybe he’s abandoned you too, kid.” Maybe Redbreast is going to have a Robin of his own to look after, bring in from the cold. Not that he’s going to force the kid to join him, but where else is Robin going to go after being abandoned by the Bat? Who else would understand that ache but Redbreast?

Phase three: the final act. Redbreast abandons the domino mask, slipping a red hood on. His killer’s face, worn to taunt and ruin and upset his father. Look at what you’ve made me become.

Then Bruce trips a proximity alarm. Jason meets him a few blocks away. They fight, because Jason needs to show Bruce how strong he is after everything he’s suffered, how much Batman failed him as Robin. Bloody and bruised, he leads Batman back home, jumping through the window. By the time Bruce follows, Jason has unmasked himself. There’s a batarang held at Tim’s neck. Joker is tied to a chair.

Kill Joker, or kill Tim. And even if Bruce decides on Jason, he’d have to pray Jason goes down fast enough to keep from slitting the bird’s throat. It’s too risky, Jason knows it. Bruce knows it.

Of course Bruce is going to pick his new bird over Jason’s pain. He hasn’t killed Joker yet, but now he will. And that hurts, but the end result is the same. Joker’s still going to die.

He doesn’t give Bruce a gun. He gives him a crowbar and an explosive. He gives Bruce a choice, all these wonderful toys that had killed his son. With the state Joker’s in, it won’t take more than a few swings to finally finish him.

YOU HAVE TO DECIDE. YOU ALREADY LET ONE ROBIN DIE, YOU WANNA GO FOR TWO?

Bruce goes for the explosion, two charges planted on Joker. They’re small, one against his stomach and the other nestled against the atlas/axis vertebra.

There’s blood on Tim’s face, even as Redbreast had mercifully covered the boy’s eyes. The kid screams, Bruce is– utterly horrified. He drops the detonater and takes a step back.

Redbreast, true to his word, wipes the blood off Robin’s cheek with his glove and lets him go. Tim rushes to Batman, embracing him, half standing behind him. Redbreast stumbles back, and Bruce is saying something but he can’t hear it.

The explosion flashes in his vision and rings in his ears and, and oh man, he really didn’t think this through.

He’s not going to be allowed back home, he knows that. Sees it in the revulsion on his father’s face. He’d made him kill. Not just Batman, but Bruce. He’d broken him, taken his father and twisted him.

Jason turns and runs.