"You used to be a hero. Someone everyone looked up to. But now? People look at you, and see death. They see an unstable, violent monster, wearing the husk of a dead man."
Jason clasped his hands over his ears harder, so hard they hurt. But he could still hear Crane's voice. He was already on his knees, mentally begging for this nightmare to be over, but it wasn't.
Because the voice wasn't coming from Crane.
The voice, that horrible, mocking tone…
The distant, echoing laughter…
He gasped and opened his eyes, rage filling him when he saw that… that monster, walking towards him. He moved slowly, but didn't even try to hide the fact that he was heading right for Jas- no.
No, he wasn't Jason right now.
He… he could feel the domino mask on his face. The heavy weight of his jacket. The familiar secureness of his holsters. He was Red Hood.
Scarecrow thought he'd won.
But he obviously didn't know who he was going up against.
With an enraged shout, Red Hood rose to his feet and lunged with all his might at the crook.
Jason wasn't one to down without a fight.
Jason didn't go down without fighting tooth, nail, and bloody fucking bone.
And even when he did go down?
Not even the afterlife had managed to contain him.
"You want to see a monster?!" He roared.
His fist hit air, and he stumbled.
Scarecrow had sidestepped.
But Jason apparently recovered faster than the villain had anticipated, as all he had to do was pivot and swing again.
Crane hit the ground, and Jason was on him in a second. He straddled him, pinning his arms to the concrete floor with his legs, and raised a fist, preparing to make Crane wish he'd never tried to go after him.
"You want to call me a monster? Huh? I'll-,"
He had come here with that voice.
"Red Robin." He whispered, looking around. Where was he? When had he disappeared?
Jason blinked hard, suddenly starting to wonder why his memories were so… fuzzy.
He didn't get the chance to wonder for long, because Scarecrow had decided to take his distraction as an opportunity to wrench one of his hands free.
He was too fast for Jason, successfully… hitting his own chest?
Jason didn't like the confidence that those words had been said with. He didn't know what Scarecrow was playing at, but he didn't like it.
Had Batman fallen to his toxin?
The hell kind of mind games was he…
"You're just trying to confuse me." He growled.
"N- Augh!" The protest was cut off with a shout of pain as Red Hood landed a solid blow to the side of his face.
Scarecrow was curled as much into the fetal position as he could get with the weight of a furious vigilante on top of him, holding his face with his one free hand. Just as Jason pulled back his arm to hit him again, a metal pole shot up from seemingly nowhere, catching him right in the chest.
He fell backwards, winded, while Scarecrow wrenched himself free and scrambled to his feet.
"Where the hell is Red? What are you doing with his staff?" His fists were raised and clenched, waiting for the attack.
Scarecrow kept his distance, staff at his side, ready to be put to use at a moment's notice. "Your helmet! You- you lost your helmet!"
Red Hood felt his lip curl up in a snarl. He didn't remember getting here, didn't remember much of anything, currently, but he knew when someone was trying to keep him distracted.
And if he was distracted, he was off guard.
"One last chance, and then I'll kill you." He dropped as much malice into his voice as he could. "Where. The FUCK. Is Red Robin?"
Jason blinked, head still feeling too fuzzy to think right. He… he heard his brother's voice again, but it was Scarecrow whose mouth was moving.
That bastard was using a voice modulator. He was disguising his voice to sound like Red's. But… Jason knew he had arrived with Red Robin. He was here somewhere.
"Oh, you're going to regret messing with him."
Scarecrow took half a step back. He raised a hand to his ear and spoke, keeping a close eye on Jason. "Hurry. Please- gah!"
Hood, realizing he was calling his minions for backup, had rushed him. He didn't have much time now. He had to beat Crane, find Red, and get the hell out before they were ambushed.
Red hit the ground and rolled- wait.
He was fighting Scarecrow.
Blinking and rubbing his eyes, Jason looked again.
Sure enough, Scarecrow pushed himself back to his feet. He looked unsteady, swaying a bit, but he still held Red's staff in his hands.
Jason grit his teeth and snarled again.
That was Tim's weapon, and this second-rate freak was waving it around like he owned it.
"Hood, please! We- we already beat Scarecrow! He's outside!"
"Stop it! Stop using his voice!" He huffed, reaching for… anything that made sense. This… this wasn't how Crane's attacks usually went.
Crane tended to rely more on his toxin-
For the first time, Jason looked down at his hands. Th- they were shaking. Why were his hands shaking-
His hands had felt his domino mask.
If his hands felt his mask… that meant he wasn't wearing his helmet.
His helmet had his respirator.
"Hood? Please… s-snap out of it."
If he hadn't been wearing his respirator-
"We… we took out Crane." He whispered, still staring at his hands. They wouldn't stop shaking.
"We took him and his goons out. Outside. An- and then we… what did we do? Why are we in here-," He gasped as the fog lifted, bit by bit. "We were doing a sweep of the warehouse. There was a… a trap. Tripwire. Some… some kinda gas. It hit me right in the face."
This time, he didn't hear a response. Slowly, he looked up, hoping with all he had that Scarecrow wasn't still standing in front of him.
Unfortunately, he hadn't been entirely a hallucination.
Red Robin was breathing heavily, leaning against his staff. His head was bent, so Jason couldn't see his face, but he could see the wet patch of hair, dripping red, that had plastered itself to the side of his face.
Jason was running as soon as he saw the state his brother was in, but he was too far away. Red Robin swayed, tried to take a step, and crumpled to the ground. He was out before Jason reached him.
Jason didn't know how long he had been sitting on the roof for, but he could tell by the light that it was now morning.
He hadn't seen the sunrise.
His forehead rested on his knees, while his fingers were laced together around his ankles. He didn't deserve to see the sunrise. Not… not after what he had done.
"Go away, Dick." He muttered. He didn't know if he had been loud enough for his brother to hear, but he didn't care.
"Jay, he's awake." Dick's words were soft, but Jason still felt like they were constricting his lungs.
He'd already given his report of the events. Already turned in the footage from both his damaged helmet outside, and his and Tim's dominos, but…
He had tried to kill him.
He had tried to kill Tim.
He knew that all the kid would have to say was that he didn't feel safe around Jason anymore.
And he couldn't argue, because he really was dangerous. He knew that.
He wouldn't argue, because he knew they were right. It had been a bad move, putting him back on the team. Back into the family.
Bruce might be sad to see him go. He might try to arrange some sort of weekly lunch meet up, just the two of them. Away from the others. He might agree.
He'd probably just try to avoid the man on his way out. That would be easiest for everyone. It wouldn't be hard. He'd been sneaking in and out of the manor for years, after all. And besides, he was already packed.
He felt a hand on his shoulder.
He felt Dick sit next to him and wrap his arms around him. "He's dizzy, Alfred says he's pretty sure he's got a concussion. But he's asking about you. He wants to know you're alright."
Jason sucked in a breath. "I- I'm fine. He's the one who-,"
"He says you were fighting it. You were trying to find him. You were trying to save him, even while under the effects of whatever Crane set out for you."
Jason felt the iron grip on his lungs dissipate, just a little. "H- he wants to see me? Even after… what I did?"
Dick shifted to rest his head against Jason's shoulder. "Jay, that wasn't you. He knows that."
"He… he didn't fight me. He just tried to avoid me. I… I just kept-,"
"Jay-bird, just come talk to him. He wants to see you. And, I think it'll help him. He keeps trying to get out of bed to track you down."
Jason lifted his head. "What?"
"He's worried about you. He wants to see for himself that you're safe."
Jason bit his lip. "He wants to… see me?"
He wasn't getting kicked out? And Tim wanted to see him? He actually wanted to see…
"Can… can I ask you something, Dick? And I want you to be… I need you to be completely honest. No fake reassurances or telling me what I want to hear. I need you to be dead serious."
Dick lifted his head. They made eye contact. "Jay?"
Dick sighed and moved back enough that they could talk.
"When you look at me… what do you see? Do you see… do you see the kid I used to be? Or," Jason sighed. "Do you just see some stranger, walking around wearing your dead brother's face?"
Dick looked almost horrified. "Jay, where is this-,"
"Dick. I'm serious. I… I need to know. I need to hear it."
Dick scooted a little closer and took Jason's hands in his own. "Jason, you never stopped being my little brother. You… you always will be. And, yeah sure. You might be different than you used to be, but you were a kid then. I've changed, too. But I look at you, I see how you interact with people, I see how you move and talk and act. How you react. You're still Jason. Dying and being brought back? I… Jay, I can't pretend to know how traumatic that was, but I look at you, and I still see family. I still see my little brother. Yeah, you've changed. But we all have. That's… that's life. You are not a stranger to me. And you're not a stranger to Tim. If you were, he wouldn't be asking about you now."
Jason didn't know how to respond. He… he had been so prepared to leave. To be told that he was no longer welcome at the manor. "He… he really wants to see me?"
Dick's lips curled upwards slightly. He stood with the ease and grace of an acrobat tugging Jason with him. "Let's go. Maybe you can talk him into staying in bed. When I left, Damien was already offering to tie him up."
They climbed back in through the window, and made it all of three feet before Jason stopped and wrapped his arms around Dick, pulling the smaller man tightly to his chest.
"Shut the fuck up, Dickface." He whispered into Dick's shoulder. "If you tell anyone I hugged you, I'll tell Al what you really think of his waffles."
Dick smiled and held still, letting Jason just cling to him until he was ready to head down to the med bay. He knew the rest of the family could handle Tim. And he could handle Jay.
He could handle his Little wing.
A minute later, the pair was on their way.
