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redjaybathood · 5 years

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Amnesia should be a much bigger thing in RHATO/Jason Todd fandom. Because a) it’s an awesome trope and b) it was used in canon. I mean, so many awesome things you could do with it!

1) S’aru takes Jason’s memories before Ducra lets him out of the All-Acres because Jason fears he won’t be able to uphold All Caste philosophy when triggered.

He could go back to Talia because he knows she was the one who took him to Ducra, so he owes her, in a sense. And the whole point of his training was to guard the world against the Untitled. And what was the main goal of the Untitled? Destroy the well in League’s capital. Makes sense for him to be near it, wandering into the world only when he needed to check out possible Untitled sightings or breaking of All-Caste/Untitled covenant. He doesn’t go with Ben and others who were acting as soldiers of fortune in underdeveloped countries or anything. It is not his fight. The main thing Ducra taught him not how to kill but when not to.

That doesn’t leave him with much to do. So he trains with Lady Shiva, just to keep his form, and he trains Damian, by Talia’s personal demand. Hey, he owes her, and the kid is alright, for a child assassin. And when the time comes to get Damian the hell out of League, he obviously goes with him. Because he still doesn’t have much to do with his time and he still owes Talia.

So those two find themselves in Gotham, sooner or later. Find themselves at Waynes Manor. Cue drama.

Jason could leave the baby on the porch and get the hell out of there, so to speak, but he doesn’t trust Batman. He doesn’t know, exactly, why he asked S’ary to remove his memories of this place, of those people, and he doesn’t really want to know if it could compromise him. But it’s nothing good for sure. So how can he leave Damian here?

Bruce, on the other hand, doesn’t trust anything good that happens in his life, his life doesn’t work like that. So instead of being overjoyed that he has now two additional sons, one of them returned from the dead and the other he never knew he existed, even, he is hostile and paranoid. And it doesn’t help that his sons are not being a ray of sunshine themselves. Damian has troubles processing emotions and receiving affection, has violent urges and probably killed, and more than once, in his tender age of eight. Jason tries to appear easygoing, with a devil-may-care attitude, but is it even a real Jason? Maybe it’s a clone? It would answer the question why Jason doesn’t remember anything (Jason is not forthcoming about Untitled, seeing how they could take an appearance of pretty much anyone and prefer people in a position of power) and, c’mon, it’s the League of Shadows we’re talking about. It is exactly what they would do, to manipulate him for whatever end. And, it’s obvious that this Jason is a killer and not in any way conflicted about it. Though he swears he won’t do it, while under the Batman’s roof (because the chance of encountering an Untitled in Gotham? There’s, like, 20 of them in the whole world; and if they do come to Gotham, well. It’s a worry for another day).

Alfred - look, I know everyone loves Alfred and thinks about him as a level-headed and virtuous and loving man. But did he ever go against Bruce’s wishes? Openly? Truth to say, I don’t understand their dynamics so I would say he does his best to make his new charges feel themselves at home in the Manor. He likes talking with this more mature and level-headed Jason and too serious for his age Damian. His heart aches for them, the horrors they encountered. But he doesn’t try to influence his Master Bruce’s treatment of the kids.

Dick is pretty much like Bruce. He would probably build himself a relationship with Damian, yeah, but Jason stands on his way. Not on purpose. But with two older sons of his father and one younger, Damian trust the most the known quantity, and one who is more accepting of the ways Damian was brought up in. And, when the time comes, when Bruce ‘dies’, and Dick offers Damian to be a Robin to his Batman, Jason puts his foot down. He promised Talia that no harm comes to Damian under his care, right? And maybe he doesn’t remember, but Jason knows he died while being Robin. It is not a healthy way to bond with a family. It’s not a way to win their affection or respect - or at least it shouldn’t be.

Damian would not be amused if he knew Jason’s reasoning, though. He’s not a child! He’s the real son of Batman! He is more capable than any other pretenders! And so on. So Jason goes with another road. He asks, why do you want to do it? Your father’s legacy, yeah, I get it (he doesn’t really but he sorta empathizes with Damian, like he could get it, probably, and the pain and confusion and sort of need to connect to that person Damian wasn’t unable to establish real connection while he was alive to begin with - he feels it, when he looks at the kid). But. Robin is not really a Batman legacy, is it? It’s Dick’s, and Jason’s, and Tim’s. Robin’s job, mainly, to keep Batman safe, isn’t it? But the Batman keeps the whole city safe. That’s what his true legacy is about. But there is a Batman already, Dick, and no, you can’t fight him for the cowl, it’s not the sort of thing your father would have wanted you to do. I know, I know! How about... you figure your own secret identity? Take your time, it’s not the sort of thing you should rush or you will be stuck with some really unfortunate name and look. To get it right, figure out what do you care about. What types of crime do you want to stop the most? No, you can’t answer ‘all of them’ because it’s not realistic. And going at it at random is not so productive either. Batman does? Huh, indeed. But it’s not like he is very successful in it? Crime seems pretty much unstoppable at Gotham. Why it is so? What influences human behavior? How to negate this negative influence on a larger scale? And so on.

So Damian concentrates on reading books and studies on criminal law, psychology, sociology, poli-sci, history and other relevant things. He researches how vigilante justice influenced crime rates in major cities. What works, what doesn’t, why. Jason also makes him volunteer at soup kitchens, community centers and so on. Maybe he even helps to develop a fake identity to mix with people from Crime Alley so Damian would know the situations that drive people to crime better.

Sometimes Damian develops ideas of dealing with crime that are worthy of supervillains but he always talks to Jason first and Jason always talks him down.

Tim Drake. Obviously, Damian hates him. Jason is pretty much indifferent aside of ‘ouch Batman took a new sidekick after only six months after my death’, but he is not emotionally invested in Bruce Wayne, so it doesn’t hurt like it could have. Tim himself is a bright boy, he knows about Ra’s and what he’s capable of (nothing good), and Damian and Jason aren’t friendliest bunch, and Dick and Bruce both were pretty careful around them... So no love’s lost here. And then Bruce ‘dies’, Dick offers the Robin mantle to the demon child. It is a blow to Tim’s self-esteem. He talks or tries to talk to Jason about it, but Jason is, nah. I don’t hate Bruce for doing that thing. I was dead, you know? He moved on. Even marriages have ‘till the death does us part’ thing in the vows. And why do you even care about being Robin, anyway? You said Batman needed a Robin, that's why you became one. Because Bruce was going off his rails after losing Robin. So you became his emotional support dog. Yeah, yeah, don’t glare at me, you’re smart and an awesome fighter and all, you’re much more than it, but it was your primary function as you described it, wasn’t it? So here’s what I think 1) why do you want to play a second fiddle to someone who doesn’t take your emotional needs into consideration? and 2) Dick seems much more stable than Bruce, mentally. So do your own thing.

And Tim does, going off on his own to save Batman like in the canon.

Dick, without the backup, is well over his head. Damian and Jason help him out from time to time, but that’s what they are, they’re not his partners. So he decides to call up his friends to take residence in Gotham. One of those who replies is Roy Harper. Roy already met with Waylon, he doesn’t drink anymore. He’s not all that okay with Dick, but he needs stability and Gotham could provide him that.

The other one is Kory. Yeah, the break-up was bad. So bad she erased her own memories, much like Jason - Roy, after finding out about it, regrets he can’t do the same - but it’s like the ultimate fuck-you to the asshole ex, making him watch you thrive without him.

Kory and Roy hit it off. Dick deals with it.

Steph finds Damian super-cute angry baby. And Jason, well, he’s not as he was described. Dude is pretty chill, not at all a smol angry birb who’s gotten himself killed. He thinks she’s pretty cool, too. He trains her too. He respects her, after he finds out her history, even more. Because the thing is? He’s pretty sure his relationships with his father were shit, too, and his relationships with Bruce, his quasi-father, were not that much better, as far as he could discern. He and Steph both gotten into the vigilante business because of their fathers. The difference is, Steph found something else to fight for. She let go of her anger (when she didn’t kill her father when she could have) and Jason knows, deep down in his bones, that he never could have done it himself. He needed to literally pluck anything related to his fathers out of his head to be mentally stable, to forge new meaningful connections with new people, to walk the new, unrelated to Batman, path. Steph, in some ways, is much stronger than him.

Damian takes offense with him teaching her, though, and not trying to make her take off the cape. Jason explains that she’s older, now, and she knows what she fights for and what she fights, period, and making her stop also wouldn’t make her life safer, while she lives in the East End. Damian has much more superior training and natural fighting abilities, and he also has privileges she doesn’t have - money and a couple of ready available badass brothers, meaning Tim, Dick, and Jason himself. Does that mean you consider father your father, too - Damian asks him. Jason replies that no, but instead he considers Talia his mother. She gave him a new life when she took him to Ducra.

Long story short. Batman returns. Tim is now Red Robin.

And then Death of the Family storyline happens.

Jason finds out that removing memories of traumatic events doesn’t really remove triggers. He’s taken along with everyone else.

When they all are sitting around that table, when Joker gives his big speech... There’s something to be said about All-Blades, alright? You literally never disarmed, even when your adversary thinks so and feels pretty much relaxed. So instead of Bruce, it’s Jason who gets out of his ropes first, and he straight-up kills the Joker. After everything is settled, Bruce is like, no, what have you done, you broke your promise, you’re not welcome in Gotham anymore. Jason is pretty much ‘Are you kidding me? That dude was ready to kill every one of us, and also knew our identities, hell, he knew more about my past than I know myself! Even if I could apprehend him without killing, and I’m awesome like that, I probably could have, if I wasn’t drugged half out of my mind, and also recently having a panic attack, you know how dangerous it was to live him alive? Who knows what he would have done to your son the next time?’.

They come to blows. Damian tries to stop them, saying if Jason goes he goes. But Jason doesn’t really want him to lose a chance to connect with his father. Because while they still both alive, it is a real chance. So he says he will go. But if any situation arises, they need to contact him immediately.

Kory and Roy, as Dick is not Batman anymore, are not needed in Gotham, too, so those three go on RHATO adventures, though maybe not so outlandish. Space stuff? All that happens. Untitled arc? Happens, too. Terrorists and other ordinary Earth things? Depends on Roy, really.

And then Damian dies.

Because almost the second Jason got into the spaceship of Kory, Bruce went and made Damian Robin. Because Tim got his own thing with Titans, and Dick went to Bludhaven.

Jason is not really so understanding and comforting as he was in Batman and Robin #20. Because this time, he feels that it’s all Bruce’s fault, and a little bit of his own, because he left Damian. And of course, no one called him when the situation arose! He didn’t exactly leave on the best terms with Batman. Jason’s situation is pretty much like Dick’s was, when it was Jason who died, but worse.

But! Even after he finds out about Damian’s death, he can’t exactly go to Gotham and give the old man a piece of mind, because that’s when the Untitled arc is going in full swing. Jason is not kidnapped by League but instead, he goes to them himself, trying to find Ra’s who stole Damian’s body. Untitled chose that moment to approach Roy and Kori, feeding them lies about how Jason is to be executed for allowing his charge, Damian, to die. So now both Roy and Kori attack the League. It goes pretty much like in the comics. Oh, Jason’s restores his memories too. But after he stips the power from Ra’s, he makes him return the body of Damian. With Essence’s help, they use one of the Pits and restore Damian to life.

They return to Gotham. Damian is very unstable, mentally. He attacks Jason a couple of times because he hates him for leaving Damian. But Jason tries to teach him to meditate and curb the effects of the Pit. It works only so-so. So Jason needs to talk to Bruce, first, explain the situation. He can’t have Bruce freaking out on Damian, he need to prepare Bruce how to care for yet another resurrected son.

He also didn’t know that he would feel so freaking much when he would see Bruce again, with all the memories and emotions attached to them, returned. He, first of all, hugs Bruce. Smiles at him a little sadly. “Did you... Did you remember?” Bruce asks, with such hope in his voice! Jason doesn’t know why it feels so good to see it, to hear it. He is so into this moment, he still didn’t say anything about Damian being alive and, like, in another room. He just shrugs, well, yeah. Everything before death, everything after, not anything between though, he jokes.

And then Bruce asks him to go to Ethiopia with him.

Very unpleasant feeling hits Jason in the gut. It’s the moment when he knows he should tell Bruce about Damian but. “Why?” he asks. He really, really wants to know why. Because it doesn’t matter that Bruce didn’t kill Joker - Jason did it. It doesn’t matter that Tim replaced him - Tim and Jason talked it through, they’re cool. It doesn’t even matter that Bruce made Damian Robin and gotten him killed. Damian is alive again. Everything is good. But why Bruce wants to go with him to Ethiopia?

Bruce spews the same bullshit about mercenaries. Jason is, like, okay, but. You know I was triggered by Joker even when I didn’t remember him, or dying, or anything? Well, now I do remember everything and me going to Ethiopia is not a good idea.

Bruce then says that maybe it is a good idea. Jason doesn’t remember anything about what happened between his death and his resurrection, right? So what if going to Ethiopia will jog those memories? His speech then goes pretty much how it went in the canon, don’t be selfish, it’s the greatest gift you can give me, it’s your only chance to redeem yourself. “Fuck you,” Jason says, “I don’t need redemption. And I don’t need you, not anymore.” Bruce then hits him. Jason hits back. They fight, and that’s when Damian appears in the cave. Bruce is paralyzed for a moment, but then he hugs Damian. Jason is forgotten by him. “How?” Bruce asks again and again and then says how much he loves him and such. Damian is silent. Jason is openly crying. Damian gets out of Bruce’s embrace and goes to him. Tells him, “Let’s leave.” Jason is conflicted. “I can’t stay here. But how can I take you with me? He loves you so much. He loves you more than he could have ever loved me. This shit he pulled on me a minute ago? It’s because of how precious you are to him. How can I rob you from it? And how can I leave you to him? I left you once, I don’t think I can handle losing you the second time. And Essence’s destroying the Pits as we speak, anyway. No, I will stay with you, here.” And Damian says, “I would never ask you to.” But Jason says, “You don’t have to. What kind of brother do you think I am?”

Kori and Roy stay for a while, too. Roy yet again gets a job in R&D department of Wayne Industries, Kori works with Batman Inc. It’s all before the final arc of RHATO. Then, Kori goes back to Tamaran. Jason and Roy stay in Gotham. Jason goes to college because he can’t very well be an Outlaw when he needs to be near Damian and also to be a good example to him. Jason and Roy live together in the warehouse/lab. Roy is bread-winner, Jason takes care of accounts. They both cook for shit, though. Damian goes to school. He’s not Robin anymore. He regularly meets with Jason. Jason helps him with the Pit madness. He also personally vets his therapist.

Jason doesn’t talk to Bruce. Damian barely talks to Bruce, though with time and effort Bruce manages to build up their relationships with Damian again. Damian feels slightly guilty, but Jason tries to reassure him there’s no need. It is what it is.

Cass shows up. Jason thinks she’s cool, but Cass is wary of him, because of Bruce’s attitude and Jason’s own past with the League of Assassins. He was the head of the League too, for, like, a hot minute. But Steph seems to like him, so she’s willing to give him a chance. In theory. In practice, they don’t interact much.

There was a very awkward Christmass when Damian invited Jason and Roy, too, and not mentioned it to anyone except Alfred, because when he asked his father if he could invite anyone, Bruce said ‘family only’. And Damian decided not to risk it. “I consider Jason my mother’s son, too,” he explained himself when Bruce cornered him about it after Jason’s arrival. “And Roy’s my plus one,” Jason added because of course, he overheard. “Yeah?” Roy asked because of course, he overheard too. That’s when fake-dating trope takes it time to shine. They kiss, because mistletoe. They date for real, because they are basically married already.

Jason gets his English degree and writes books. Damian fast-tracking his studies and goes to college at 15. His focus is humanitarian studies and law. He’s an activist who fights for animal rights, mainly, because people, in theory, have the ability to fight for themselves, and animals don’t. He’s vegan, Jason’s not, and that’s a constant point of tension.

While he’s in college, Jason mixes up with Artemis and Bizarro. Roy is not amused, and he’s also more settled. He can’t take time off work and go with Jason to the other end of the world - and Jason doesn’t want him to, because he’s doing good at WE, and Jason doesn’t do much of anything.

Everything happens pretty much like in RHATO Rebirth, but Jason also introduces post-kryptonite exposure!Bizarro to Damian and they talk about getting rid of all crime in Gotham. Bizarro comes up with all the same ideas, basically. Only they work with Batman Inc. He also comes clean to Jason and Artemis about kryptonite, and they help him get some synthetic version of it, but after discovering the negative properties, they all go to Roy. Roy contacts Kory, they converse, and lo and behold, with samples of pure kryptonite Kori is able to produce, Roy manages to cook up a blue kryptonite for Biz. Like blue meth from breaking bad but useful and no more addictive than medication you need to take with chronic conditions.

Then Jason is contacted by Fay Gunn (the grand niece) and receives letters. He is able to talk to Artemis and Biz and even Roy about it. Artemis comes clean about her past and the role she played in his father death. Jason then doesn’t kill Penguin but instead vows to uncover what the hell happened on that island. Biz and Artemis vow help. Roy is more of moral support. Roy doesn’t go to the retreat from Heroes in Crisis! Roy doesn’t die!!!

Meanwhile, Dick Grayson was shot in the head and lost all his memories. For him, it’s all pretty much as in the canon, but then Jason shows up.

“Are you here for Dick Grayson, too?” Ric asks, bitterly.

“Nah,” Jason says. “I didn’t have all that much in common with him except a little brother. You, on the other hand?”

“What, are you experienced traumatic head injury and lost all your memories and everyone around look at you like they want who you were before back, and not who you are now?”

“Yep, that sums it up.”

Ric and Jason hit it off. Ric and Roy, surprisingly, too. Roy explains that Dick was a dick to him, even if they patched things up after Roy started seeing his ex-girlfriend, but Ric seems much cooler to him.

Jason personally research Ric’s therapist, too. And that’s howthey find out about Scarerow. Ric is frustrated. He’s not a vigilante anymore, he has no desire to go back. Jason says, no worries, I will take care of it. And he does. Ric is not so happy about the fact Jason killed him, for Ric. He doesn’t want this on his consience. But Jason says, no worries. It’s not really about you. But if Scarecrow deduced that you’re Nightwing, when all our identities are compromised. I was on this road before, with Joker, he kidnapped and tried to kill everyone who could be considered Batman’s family. Jason explains, that it’s not that he doesn’t want another Batman villain on his tail. It’s that Damian could be targeted too, and it’s not something he can stand for, ever.

Jason also invites four new Nightwings into Batman Inc. Biz sets up the monitoring system like he did for Gotham. Artemis trains them. Damian, getting one of his majors in psychology, works as a therapist.

Everything is alright but Batman deduces that Scarecrow was operating in Bludhaven and then stopped, permanently, and goes to Ric. Ric caves because of guilt and Batman saying that Jason is a cold-blooded killer who needs to be stopped, that it is a pattern, like with serial killers.

In the meantime, Artemis, Biz and Jason uncover the truth behind the Solitary. It shooks Jason hard. So when Batman comes knocking, and the smackdown from RHATO Rebirth #25 happens, Jason is off his game also.

Only now there’s Biz, Artemis, Roy, Ric and Damian to rescue him. When it seems like things start to turn really ugly, Ric says he lied, that it was him who killed Scarecrow. Jason says, it’s okay, you don’t have to lie about that. But Ric turns to Batman again. Arrest him, he says, and I will go to the police. It will be enough to create a reasonable doubt for the jury. But it also will make people ask, why Ric? Why he was targeted? And Ric is willing to tell the truth.

They are at impasse. Bruce can’t let Jason go. Bruce can’t take him into custody.

“I can’t let him kill,” Bruce tries to explain to Ric. “It would be no better if I killed them myself.”

“My whole purpose,” Jason says, “Is to restore balance between good and evil in this world. Me killing Joker, me killing Scarecrow, it’s all fits that goal but I didn’t do it because of that, not really - like I don’t kill every criminal I encounter. I did it to protect my family. I didn’t hear you complaining when I killed all Untitled. They were people, too. They could have been redeemed, too. I stripped them all of their powers. I could have let them go. Instead men and women under my command killed them all. But you didn’t say anything then. Because I got your son back, after that battle. Surely, you have to understand it. Why I did it.”

“Do you hear him talking?” Bruce asks Ric. “He’s not sorry. He will do it again.”

“Yeah,” Ric says. And then he drops the smoke pellet on the roof, Biz whoosh Jason to safety, and all of them are getting out of dodge, one way or another.

They are no longer a part of Batman Inc. Roy is fired. They are not welcome in Gotham. Batman goes to Gordon. Jason Todd aka Red Hood is now a known killer. All those on the roof who showed up to help him are accomplices. Even Damian. If he was under 18, Bruce could have tried to swing it as a kidnapping. But, alas.

Jason, Ric, Damian, Roy, Bizarro, Artemis are Outlaws. There is still matter with Solitary to figure out. Kate Kane at some point crosses paths with them, too, because her case is tied with theirs. She comes and goes. Renee Montoya makes an appearance too.

Jason tries to make Damian come clean, go back to college life. Roy, to take Ollie on his offer to provide best lawyers money could buy. Artemis and Biz, to go back to flying headquarters. Ric, to return to Bludhaven. No dice.

Sometimes, Tim visits the Manor. Sometimes, Barbara does. Stephanie doesn’t. Cass still stays there when she’s back in the States, but it’s rarer and rarer in between. Duke is welcome addition, thinks Alfred. He’s a good boy.

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