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River Runs Dry (AO3, tag)
A FF7 time travel fix-it fic where Cloud time travels from the end of AC to pre-CC era Midgar, appearing in an explosion with the remnants just after he defeated Sephiroth (Yazoo and Loz attacked him before Kadaj disappeared into the lifestream).
Chapter 3 is now posted! I have one more chapter planned and will finish it eventually o swear. I have more scene ideas and an ending planned out but nothing concrete connecting it all, so I will probably be calling it after the 4th chapter and just posting everything else I had for the remainder of the long fic cuz I will not be finishing that anytime soon.
For All the Miles On the Clock (tag)
Yet another FF7 time travel fix-it, this time with WEAPON Cloud! This Cloud comes from essentially the same bad end timeline as my other WEAPON Cloud aus, but this one progressed quicker than most of the others and thus the world ended several years sooner. In going back, however, he ends up in a world slightly to the left of the one he lived in, a world where Cloud wakes up from his mako coma slightly earlier and saves Zack's life, taking the killing blow himself and dying. It starts from approximately OG timeline, incorporates aspects of remake, and goes off the rails from there. Also, Cloud has wings!
I'm working my way through the first chapter now, but I'm probably gonna try and get a good chunk written before I post any of it.
we'll pull the stars down to us (AO3, tag)
An utrh au where, instead of forcing Bruce to stay and finish their confrontation, he lets Bruce choose to go to Bludhaven when they see it go up in nuclear fire. This results in Jason killing the Joker and doubling down on his crime lord/gang stuff and things continue to diverge from there.
Chapter 1 is up on AO3! I have a couple more planned out already but this one is just kinda going where it wants to ngl. Expect sporadic updates.
Undying AU (tag)
UTRH AU with an Immortal!Jason who quite literally cannot die. Darker themes in this one, with Jason undergoing horrors including medical torture and graphic injury due to his body's strange inability to kick the bucket. Planning on showing his time spent with the League and some of the events in UTRH before things veer of the rails even more
Planning on 3 parts rn and I've started on the first already!
I do feel like a disconnect in the "were Jason's methods effective" argument is that many people don't know how addiction actually works! They don't know that quitting cold turkey can kill you! They don't know that organized crimes default business model is selling and recruiting to young people so they'll have repeat customers for life! And, importantly. This one is really important. I need everyone to listen to this above all else. People have the right to do drugs. Adults with their own income can choose what they do with their body, even if it is bad for them. It's their choice. Taking the choice away from them is 1. Not possible (Think of Prohibition, when people turned to shadier means of getting alcohol when it was legally banned) and 2. Will inevitably lead into taking other choices away from them (who gets to decide what's bad for your body? If you give that power to the law, they WILL abuse it. Every time).
Which brings us back to Jason's set up! In Lost Days he kills a dealer, not for dealing drugs, but because those drugs are laced. If people have the right to choose to take drugs, then they also deserve clean drugs, clean needles, easily accessed narcan, medical attention that doesn't lead to punishment by law enforcement. In UTH, obviously he has his no selling to kids rule, but he's also still enforcing clean drugs, which is better for existing addicts than simply killing all the drug dealers in Gotham and taking away access to the drugs. People will still find a way to get drugs. Criminalizing something has never stopped it from happening. If Jason did, somehow, shut down the drug trade completely it would just lead to more desperate, dying, people and where there are desperate people, there are the groups and policies that take advantage of them - especially in a place like Gotham. Jason is REGULATING the industry, instead of punishing its existence, like say, the prison industrial system would.
I also HATE when people bring up the Catherine of it all because it's always the most ignorant, uneducated, unresearched take I've ever seen. "Jason sells drugs!! Like the thing that KILLED his MOM and Jason HATES addicts!! LIKE HIS MOM!!" What are you talking about. In his original Robin run Cathy was self medicating a terminal illness. She was dying anyway. Her addiction wasn't a moral failure because there is no morality to addiction. It's another form of mental illness. It literally reconfigures your brain. The only failure that led to her addiction is the failure of the medical system.
And this is a reality for many addicts! When mental Healthcare isn't readily available/being too honest leads to police intervention or forced hospitalization, when Healthcare is too expensive for most people to be able to pay for out of pocket and insurance companies put you through 80 hoops and deliberately prey on the less educated and informed, people are going to turn to self-medicating. In Catherine's case, her addiction was a form of assisted suicide kind of. Taking away access to drugs wouldn't have saved her! She just would have died slower and in more pain! Why would Jason want that for her? He loves his mother he's never resented or blamed any of them!! Even in the fuckin N52 she is shown to be deliberately preyed upon by men that know she's vulnerable and not in a position to, say, vet where they're getting their stuff from or the quality of it! And in Rebirth, Willis tells us when he met her as a teenager, she was already a user! Jason's policies WOULD have helped her!!
And of course when we're talking about harm reduction we have to talk about rehabilitation. People deserve, and need, access to things like homeless shelters that don't call the cops or kick you out for being high, rehabs with the resources and manpower to actually make a difference, ect. Ect. And it would be ideal if Jason had been working on that too WHILE regulating the drug industry.
But 1. The comic is not from Jason's perspective, and it doesn't focus on everything he does. We are for the most part limited by what Bruce knows, and what Bruce knows is, by his own admission, not a whole lot. Not enough. Even when people do point out to him that Jason's methods are working, Bruce gets pissy and locks in on all the bad. So it's entirely likely that if Jason was funding those things, Bruce wouldn't even be looking for it, if he could trace them back to Jason's operation at all.
2. Jason was not operating very long!! He was only a crime lord for a few months, maybe, before the confrontation with Bruce!! He had the takeover planned, clearly, and he executed it quickly, but harm reduction facilities like that take time if you want them to be legit and they require people's trust. And in Jasons case it would be very important for him to make them unable to be traced back to him (by Batman or rivals) which would take even more time. And also Jason really wanted to kill himself which really put him on a time crunch.
Wingfic au, before Jason dies, he has black wings like a crow and that’s normal. Plenty of people have wings like his and he loves them. They make him feel like he belongs. Like he’s just another kid from Crime Alley.
But when he comes back, his wings have changed. They’re still black, but now they’re streaked with red. He hates them.
Dual toned wings are rare and even with all the travelling he had done for his training, he never sees another one like him. Jason doesn’t want rare. He doesn’t want special. He doesn’t want to stand out like some strange thing people can’t look away from.
Jason just wants his old wings back. The same black wings his parents had, Catherine’s and Willis’s. Sheila doesn’t have black wings; she has brown ones, and Jason’s feelings about her are complicated. It’s okay though. For him, his parents are Catherine and Willis first. Also, black wings are really common for the people of Gotham. And he wants that. He wants to have wings like his people of Gotham, of Crime Alley.
people still having a decades old debate about whether Jason has a right to be angry at Bruce for not killing Joker is proof yall don't actually care about victims
I think it comes down to what people want to accept as a victim. Jason isn’t the victim they want so he isn’t a victim.
But Jason has every fucking right to be angry. He is not unreasonable. He’s not unhinged or out of control. He’s actually well composed and methodical for most of the UTRH run. He is not just killing random people, he isn’t consumed with rage.
He is angry that absolutely no justice was served. He died and it was for nothing. That’s the truth of it. Because nothing fundamentally changed. The Joker is still running around every other week and there’s still a Robin, one that is everything he never could be.
Jason does not need to be reasonable about his own death. He died! At fifteen!
Bruce’s grief is not his responsibility and it does not change anything because Bruce never did anything to make any real change. He didn’t stop the Robin mantel from being passed on. (Which, I know Alfred gave Tim the suit but you’re trying to say Batman, who you all hold in such high esteem, couldn’t keep a child from fighting crime at night if he really fucking wanted to? Be so fr)
Jason believed he would be the last victim of the Joker. For all rights he should’ve been. This doesn’t mean the Joker needed to die necessarily (though I think he should), but take the steps to have him permanently restrained. Put him in the Phantom Zone, have him locked in an off-world prison, idk. Make a new prison to hold him. There were so many things Bruce could’ve done that weren’t killing the Joker that would’ve solved so much of the issue. He shouldn’t have revived the Joker when Dick killed him.
The problem with Bruce isn’t that he won’t kill the Joker, but that he won’t let the Joker die.
Jason had every fucking right to be as angry as he was and even more so. It wasn’t manipulation from Talia or some twisted plot where Bruce is the victim and he just loved his son.
Love is not enough, not nearly. If he truly loved Jason at all, he would’ve fought day and night for justice. He would’ve made a world where kids like Jason would no longer be victims. But he didn’t do that, he instead went and beat the shit out of people that grew up the same way Jason did. He left crime alley to rot. He did nothing for Jason’s memory, not in any significant sort of way.
To the point that in universe people don’t realise there was a Robin between Dick and Tim. And if they do know, his actual time as Robin is completely misconstrued. No one actually remembers Jason’s Robin as he really was.
Jason wanting the Joker dead is Justice.
And at some point, it has to be acknowledged, that every death by the Joker falls on Bruce’s shoulders due to his refusal to fix the fucking problem.
i dont really like it in fics when jason will snark at bruce and like four characters will get all awkward and quiet and let him know how much bruce was losing it after his death. i get it as an argument out of world, but in their universe and from their pov that kinda has nothing to do with jason currently. not saying we should dismiss bruce's grief, but bruce wasn't the victim of jasons death. why do they always try and make jason sympathize with bruces pain when, to jason, bruce erased his existence entirely. idk it feels like theyre saying, yeah, dude, your death was really hard for him, be gentle, he's fragile. and then theyre also unintentionally putting all of bruces actions done through grief on jasons shoulders. like what does that have to do with jasons anger today
Do you think Jason hates himself every time he lets someone live that he doesn't believe deserves it? He's sacrificing victims' peace of mind and allowing offenders room to re-offend when he could have stopped them—all for scraps of familial affection from people that will never accept him fully ever again. Every time he spares someone to avoid isolation and his father's fists does it chip away at him? Does he think about all of the victims that wake up every morning, just like he does, with the knowledge that the monster that hurt them can do it again? Is he selfish for coveting some amount of happiness however insignificant it may be? Whenever someone praises his "growth" and "redemption" does he see the body count cost behind it, and does it make him sick?
If asking someone you love to sacrifice their beliefs for you is cruel, why is it only seen that way when it's Bruce asked to make concessions but not Jason?
Recently saw the question posed "does Jason care that Bruce killing the Joker proves Joker right philosophically?" To put it simply: No, and it shouldn't even have to enter his thought process on the subject.
He was the murder victim of a mass murdering domestic and international terrorist. The philosophical debate doesn't enter the conversation because it doesn’t matter. It shouldn't matter. Especially to his victims. People shouldn't be forced to die and suffer for the sake of Bruce's ego or mental state. Joker should be stopped from killing permanently, and Jason isn't wrong for asking for that.
Who cares if Joker thinks he's right?
What actually matters is that he doesn't kill any more people. Jason thought he would be the last victim because his father and mentor (who is one of the richest most powerful/influential people on the planet) has the means to end Joker. Batman even has nonlethal options to do so, but he doesn't use them. Jason isn't insensitive for not caring about the reason behind Bruce's inaction; he was the one that was murdered.
(Also, quick reminder that Jason didn't ask Bruce to kill Joker outright. He informed Bruce of his intent to kill Joker and gave him a gun, saying "the only way to stop me is to kill me or kill him first". That is an important distinction here because he doesn't want Bruce to be a killer necessarily. He wants the mass murderer that killed him to be forced to stop and this is the best way he can see how, while also proving to himself whether Bruce cares about him and other victims or not. Not to mention the obvious implication that he doesn't want to live in a world where the cycle is allowed to continue, but I digress. )
This conversation is always wild to me, because, without fail, people always bring in separate topics.
Like, you start talking about threat management and how, if containment has proved ineffective then new means of keeping the threat from hurting people need to be considered. And then people pull the idea of redemption in and start talking about how killing is not justice and all that shit. It's like "wow, thanks for ignoring my argument entriely!"
Whether or not you believe in redemption and killing as justice should not enter the equation until you can safely isolate the threat. If joker was sitting in a hole somewhere and hadn't killed anyone in years and hadn't been able to break out in longer then yes, we can start talking about that. However, he's not doing that. He's breaking out of Arkham like once every few months or something and killing people every time. The threat is not contained. You can't really weigh one life against another, but when it's one vs the hundreds someone has taken and would take again if given the opportunity, then you absolutely can take the one life.
Especially if the one life is the one tying people to the tracks.
Here's chapter 2! It is bare minimum edited and I don't know if anything makes sense, but here we go!
Read on AO3
Summary: Jason is aware that Dick's persistence is an issue. He wasn't aware that it was this urgent of an issue, however.
Word Count: 5,748
Chapter 2: what's done is done
~~~~~~
Jason's neck hurts.
It's really not the most important thing at all, especially with everything happening right now, but it's the only thing keeping him grounded. The pain originates from his mating gland, right in the crook of the junction between his neck and shoulder. It radiates out from there, zipping up his neck and into his head to aggravate his headache as well as out to his shoulder proper to crawl down his back and arm. The bite wound itself is already healing beneath its bandage; the pit hard at work with how riled up Jason is at the moment. It's honestly a miracle his eyes have stopped glowing. His Omega is still howling in rage at the sheer audacity of the offending Alpha to try and mate him when he's done nothing to prove his worth.
He can hardly believe it himself, if it weren't for the bite and his neighbors he can hear loitering in the lobby of the police station. (They insisted on following to give their statements about the incident in hopes of building a case. He sort of feels like he should be offended, but them being there is the one thing his Omega is happy about. It's preening about how good a choice of den location they'd made, to have such a show of support in light of their brother pack-mate stalker trying to force him into a bond.)
Jason rolls his shoulders again, the injured one lagging behind just a bit and tries to refocus on his immediate surroundings. The remnants of heat still cling to him, boosting his already-heightened senses even further. It's making it hard to ignore the scents of the various officers moving around outside the holding room, the sounds of people going about their business, and the feeling of the tag he keeps meaning to cut out of these pants scratching at him.
He smothers down a growl and checks his scent control again. He can't allow himself to come across as aggressive at all. He's huge, tall and heavy and if it weren't for his scent and his extra fangs, no one would clock him as an Omega. If the cops see him as anything other than a perfect — albeit traumatized — victim they'll dismiss him as just another crazy Alley O attacking their courting Alpha for no reason in heat.
(Ignoring that, if they actually bothered to learn anything real about Omegas, they'd know that they don't attack their courting Alphas for no reason. Heat assaults are almost always Omegas defending themselves from hostile Alphas, from having their boundaries violated. Their conscious mind takes a back-seat and the only thing that matters is the amount of trust that's managed to work its way instinct-deep. If there's not enough trust there to make the Omega feel safe with someone else during heat? Then it's not their fault when they defend themselves from an idiot who thinks heat is a great time to push boundaries. After all, only idiots think Omegas are defenseless during heat.)
He's got a paper trail, thank God (and Ms. Tersa, from 2D), that proves that this isn't the first time Dick has broken in. His neighbors are here and will definitely show up if they get called as witnesses. They've got records of when Tim showed up at the Clinic and tried to force him to leave with him in his car. He has his phone records that show he's changed his number 6 times in 6 months and that the Waynes have found it and texted him unprompted every time.
He's got everything he needs to open a case against Dick Grayson and the Waynes for stalking, harassment, and attempted force-bonding. All he needs to do right now is refuse to answer anything until his lawyer shows up and then survives the questioning.
He can do this.
-_-_-_-
Jason can't do this.
"Can you tell us why you didn't accept Mr. Grayson's courtship?" Officer Fuckface asks.
Of course, his name isn't actually "Officer Fuckface", Jason just hasn't bothered to remember the guy's name because he somehow mispronounced Jason's when he got in and then proceeded to either outright ignore or dismiss Jason's testimony. Jeanine Kelly, his lawyer and current favorite person on the planet, just clicks her tongue dismissively.
"You don't have to answer that, Mr. Emerson," she says. "It's on record that you did not accept and you are not legally required to give reason."
Officer Hearst, a stout Beta woman who clearly wants to be here less than Jason does, closes her eyes in an expression Jason recognizes as asking a higher power for patience. "Yes, it's been established, could we please proceed to the actual incident that brings us here tonight."
The start of a growl escapes Fuckface before he cuts it off. The man's as stereotypical male Alpha cop as you can get: middle-aged, beer gut, big shoulders, and an over-powering pepper-and-chili scent that he hasn't bothered to even attempt to control.
"Must have been a good reason, is all I'm saying," he sneers, his eyes tracking up and down Jason's figure. "It's not like an Omega like you has many suitors to begin with. I'd think you'd be thankful for any kind of attention."
This fucking guy.
Jeanine cuts in before Jason can tear him a new asshole. "I would ask that you don't speak that way to my client, Officer Burton. We are here to discuss Mr. Grayson breaking into Mr. Emerson's residence and attempting to force-mate him, both being criminal offenses."
"And yet your client is here and the guy you're claiming assaulted him is in the hospital right now."
"Self-defense covers everyone, Chuck, even Omegas," Hearst chides. She then tries to share a commiserating look with the two of them.
Jason just stares at her and knows Jeanine is mirroring him. The Beta's expression locks down when she realizes her "good cop" routine isn't going to get her anywhere.
She clears her throat. "Mr. Emerson, if you please."
Jason takes as deep a breath as he can with Fuckface's scent still burning his nose before he starts.
"Well, it's not the first time he's broken in."
"What do you mean 'not the first time'?" Burton interrupts, nose wrinkling like Jason's perfectly managed scent has somehow managed to offend him.
Jeanine answers for him. "He's reported Mr. Grayson following him to and from his place of work to the GCPD six times in the last three months, and has reported him breaking in twice. The stalking reports were filed with no action taken and only the first break and enter report garnered police action. Would you like to see the paperwork?"
He risks a glance over to her. Her own Alpha fangs are bared in a vicious smile that only idiots would pretend isn't a threat. He finds his own expression shifting to mirror. Burton's lip lifts slightly in a responsive snarl before Hearst bumps his shoulder. The man takes a clear breath before replying.
"We can come back to that," he grits out through his teeth. "Proceed, Mr. Emerson."
Jason takes another breath and walks everyone through what happened, talking about the increased security Dick had somehow been able to get through, how he ignored several verbal warnings and entered not only the Heart of his Den, but tried to enter his nest without express permission. He talks about how Dick managed to actually bite him before Jason reacted in self-defense and gave him a rejection bite before dragging him out of the apartment and into the hallway where he remained until paramedics and the authorities arrived.
"You did this while in heat?" Hearst asks, sounding thoughtful as she takes notes.
"I was almost out of it. If Dick had shown up 5 hours later I wouldn't have been in my nest at all and would have been able to throw him out before it got to this."
"You would have 'thrown him out'?" That's Fuckface this time, and Jason has to suppress a snarl and fight to keep his scent from spiking in anger.
"Yes. Because he was invading the Den of an Omega who had repeatedly told him 'no' and ignored all verbal warnings."
There's silence for a moment before Hearst breaks it. "So, he actually bit you?"
Jason carefully peels back the bandage on his neck to show the wound. It still pulses faintly in pain despite the ibuprofen Jeanine had bullied him into taking earlier.
"Why aren't you mated, then?"
"Because he can't actually force me into mating him."
Both officers make a face at that.
"What the fuck does that mean?"
Jeanine sets aside her notepad and opens the folder in front of her. She pulls out a thin packet of papers and passes it over to the officers.
"My client is a sub-type of Omega called a 'Primal'. This means that his biology does not allow for any kind of non-consensual bonding and renders him immune to alpha commands from those he does not trust implicitly."
The officers blink down at the paperwork for a second before Burton scoffs loudly.
"What kind of bullshit is that? I've never heard of any 'mega who can shrug off commands."
"I assure you, Officer Burton, that it is perfectly real and is recognized by medical professionals on a global scale. Mr. Emerson's full designation has been listed in his medical files as well as on his legal ID for years. We are not tricking you."
Burton frowns down at the papers in front of him before Hearst picks them up to start leafing through. She looks back up at the two of them before asking, "And was Mr. Grayson aware of the peculiarities of your designation?"
Jason answers this question. "He better have been, considering I reminded him almost every damn time he talked to me."
The Beta nods and makes some more notes. Burton shifts and clears his throat.
"And I suppose we're taking your word on this?"
"No, I've got records," Jason answers, shaking his head. "After the second break-in the supervisor contacted the owner of the building and we had more security put in all the units, as well as cameras on the entrances, inside and out."
"Elaborate."
Hearst's face twitches at the Alpha's tone. Jason shifts in his seat a bit and catches Jeanine looking at him out of the corner of his eye.
"The windows and doors have sensors on them that send an alert to the main panel in the security office on the ground floor if the code isn't put into the pad within a minute of the sensor being set off."
Hearst is nodding and taking notes, but Burton is just staring at him. Jason has to fight to keep his eyes somewhere in-between the two officers, every instinct telling him to meet the challenging Alpha head-on.
"When the alert goes out, a microphone turns on and starts recording, so we do have an audio recording of this break-in."
"Why just audio?"
"Because most people don't like having cameras that they don't have access to in their homes?" Jason sneers, showing a hint of fang to the asshole.
Burton snarls back at him, scent flaring once again. Jason wrinkles his nose and doesn't fight the look of disgust this time.
"So, you do have a recording of last night's break-in?" Hearst asked, cutting in to break the tension.
"We do." Jeanine is the one who answers, kicking Jason's ankle to remind him to try his best not to antagonize the police when they still need them. "We also can get footage of the entrances and inner-entryways from the previous attempts Mr. Grayson made to break into my client's building."
Hearst is nodding along. "That will be very helpful, thank you." She looks at both of them, then at Burton, then checks her watch. "Alright, if there isn't anything else, we have to check in. We'll be right back, just wait here a little longer please."
She smiles as she stands up. Burton just grunts as he heaves himself out of his chair and leaves without bothering to hold the door for the other officer. Hearst manages to catch it before it closes and gives the two of them a small, closed-lipped smile before she pulls the door closed behind her.
Jason finally lets his face twist into disgust and brings his hand up to try and block out the offending scent; the room is so saturated in Burton's scent even with the man gone that his sinuses are burning. He's been here for almost 4 hours now. His head still hurts — the fluorescent lights buzzing away above him sure aren't helping — his throat is desert dry, and he's had to pee for at least 30 minutes.
"How are you holding up, Boss?" Jeanine asks, everything about her softening slightly. Jason sighs heavily and slumps over a bit to brush his shoulder against hers.
Jeanine has been his criminal defense lawyer on retainer for a couple years now. She inherited her firm — located in the heart of the Alley proper — from her father and proceeded to assemble a collection of lawyers capable of covering almost any issue an Alley resident could have.
People call the firm "The Menagerie".
The Red Hood has been paying them to defend his employees as well as fight on the behalf of residents unable to pay for good legal representation since he came back to Gotham the first time. He's only introduced himself as "Jacob" since his return post-banishment, but her and her team have been incredible assets to have when the entire city seems determined to tear down anything the Alley manages to build for themselves. Most of them even know that he's Hood, but it's not like he's doing much to hide his secret ID outside of some carefully-constructed plausible deniability these days. Jeanine has personally represented him several times on various petty criminal charges, and her scent and presence feels warm and comfortable.
"As well as I can be, I suppose," he responds, keeping his voice level to hide how he's doing box breathing to try and keep himself from getting too nauseous.
She smiles slightly, and the ghost of her petrichor-lime-cardamom scent wraps itself around him. It helps steady him a bit. "I'd be worried if you weren't, to be honest. Even people as unflappable as you have to hit a breaking point sometime."
Jason lets out a long breath and hunches over, staring at his clasped hands where they rest in his lap. There's still blood under his nails and in the creases of his palms.
"Didn't think I'd ever personally need you for this, though. I still can't-"
He's still processing what Dick had done. He knew that the Alpha had issues ignoring boundaries and didn't seem to realize that breaking and entering was actually a criminal offense, but he never would have guessed that Dick would be the type to try and mate anyone against his will, let alone Jason. It makes him anxious, turning over "what ifs" in his head over and over again until he feels like he's going to throw up again.
(He's so thankful to be a Primal, right now. He keeps reexamining the moment when Dick bit him, looking for openings, for the actions he could have taken to save himself had his very being not been uncontainable. That Dick — or, more likely, his Alpha — felt strongly enough about Jason not being Pack Omega to even consider this, that Dick's Alpha didn't think Jason was a pack-brother and thus able to be mated in the first place, it all keeps getting tangled inside of him. He's happy with the confirmation that the elder Waynes clearly don't see him as the cub who died but almost sick with the knowledge that they believe they own him to the point that Bruce would allow Dick to chain him like that. He doesn't know what to think, but he has to figure himself out before they get to court or everything falls apart.)
Jeanine reaches over and lets her hand hover over his until he unclasps them and offers his left hand for her to hold. She grasps it and gives a comforting squeeze.
"From what you've told me, no one expected him to do something like that. And no one expects you to just bounce back, either." She sighs heavily and sifts through her folder with her free hand. "I'm not going to lie to you. The fact that this is out of character isn't going to make things easier for you."
"I know," Jason answers, clenching his jaw and allowing a bit of his scent — buring-steel-they-won't-break-me — to unfurl. "But he doesn't get to avoid consequences just because he's been a good boy. I'm done with letting things slide with them."
Jeanine smiles at him.
"What?"
"Confidence is a good look on you, Boss. It's been a while since you've been anything other than spitting mad, apathetic about them. I've missed you and your steel spine."
Jason squeezes her hand back and bares his teeth in a vicious grin.
"I got tired of bending," he says with a slight growl in his voice. "And they'll have to try harder than this to break me."
-_-_-_-
The beeping is the first thing Dick is aware of.
(Well, it's more the specific type of beeping. He's woken up to many different types of beeping, after all, but heart monitor beeps will always be among the worst. It means that he got hurt badly enough that Bruce will be absolutely insufferable and go all Pack Alpha on him to try and get him to spend recovery in the Manor. It means that Damian is probably around here somewhere, ready to be prickly and annoying to disguise how worried he's been, and Tim will be hovering around the edges not quite wanting to get close enough to be in Damian's splash zone.)
The second, of course, is an all-consuming searing pain that's dancing over his mental landscape. His walls are fractured and buckling, but have managed to keep it all contained so as to not expose his pack to whatever the fuck hurt him so bad. It feels kind of like an open wound across his psyche, leaking thought and energy into the void, like a bond that had been worked into the center of his very being has been torn out by the roots. The rest of his bonds feel a little wiggly and very muted, like they aren't properly anchored anymore. He hasn't felt anything like this since his parents died.
The thought has him wide awake in an instant and rapidly checking all his bonds. He starts with Bruce and gets back here-coming-don't-panic through the older Alpha's ever-present walls. Damian sends back a barely-discernible confirmation of his status as "alive and annoyed" but nothing else. Tim is asleep.
He goes through the rest of his extended-pack bonds carefully, but each confirmation just makes his anxiety build and grow. Each of them is just as weirdly loose and dampened as the last, but he can't find the missing one. Someone is dead, someone has to be. A bond has broken and it's gutted him down to the center of himself and he needs to figure out who.
In his panic, he manages to remember to figure out where he's ended up, in case that gives him any clues as to what's gone so wrong. He opens his eyes to what looks like a generic hospital room. A glance out the window confirms that he hasn't left Gotham. If only he could remember what happened.
He's worked himself up quite nicely by the time Bruce opens the door to his room. His training is the only thing that allows him to observe his Pack Alpha through his panic. The bags under his eyes are worse than Dick's seen in a while, dark enough that it's probably been at least 48 hours since he's had the chance to get any sleep. His hair is crusted with old product and an absolute rats nest, and the stubble has long since graduated from 5 o'clock shadow. Dick opens his mouth before Bruce is fully in the room.
"What happened? Who's de-"
Dick is violently cut off by an intense spike of pain in the left side of his neck. It doesn't stay there, either. It sparks out, lighting every nerve above and below and leaves him gasping for air.
"-ethe, Dick. Breathe through it. You're okay. No one's dead. Just take some deep breaths for me. Can you do that?"
As the fiery pain slowly trickles back down to a particularly stubborn ache, Bruce's voice filters in. Dick blinks a couple times and realizes that his eyes are wet. He can also feel lumpy bandages under his right hand — along with another hand wrapped around his wrist — and looks down to discover that he'd been trying to claw at a bandaged wound at the junction between his neck and shoulder. He tracks the hand to an arm and then up to Bruce, who's leaning over him and giving him wide, worried eyes.
"I'm good now, I think," Dick says, wincing as the movement in his jaw sends little bursts of pain down his neck and into his chest. His voice is raspy and his throat is dry enough that it's only adding to his overall discomfort.
Bruce nods and lets go, his eyes roving up and down Dick's body and cataloging whatever he can find. It's at this moment that Dick registers his pounding headache and several smaller aches all over his back. Once again, Dick finds himself clawing for any clue about what happened that landed him in the hospital as a civilian.
"What happened?" he rasps out.
Bruce ignores him, instead going to a side table Dick hadn't noticed until now and picking up a cup. He hands it to Dick, who looks inside and finds it full of ice chips. He tosses a couple into his mouth and starts crunching on them before turning to look at Bruce again. They just stare at each other for a long second before Dick repeats his last question.
Bruce grimaces. "What do you remember?"
"Not a lot of anything, really, which is why I'm asking you, Bruce."
There's silence for a few good seconds before Dick raises an eyebrow and Bruce deflates a bit and sinks into one of the two chairs in the room. He runs a hand over his face. It's an action that has Dick mentally bracing. Bruce usually only lets his body language get this loose when he's been dealing with something bigger than he knows how to deal with and doing it alone. Finally, he takes a deep breath and looks Dick in the eyes.
"You tried to force a mate-bond on Jason after breaking into his apartment. He rejected you. Violently."
And, that-
That doesn't make any kind of sense.
"What?" Dick asks, voice wobbling. "What are you talking about? Jason? Bruce, you're not making any sense."
"At approximately 10:43pm three days ago, you broke into an apartment leased to 'Jacob Emerson'. You were in pre-rut. There you found the resident coming out of his heat and attempted to force a mating-bond with him. You succeeded in-" Bruce stops, forcing another steadying breath before he can continue. Dick feels like the world stopped making sense three sentences ago.
"You succeeded in biting him, but, as he is a 'Primal Omega' and did not want to be your mate, the bite didn't take on his end. In retaliation, he bit you back, tore out your mating gland, and then dragged you out of his apartment and left you in the hallway for paramedics to find."
Dick just stares at Bruce, uncomprehending. After a few more seconds of silence, Bruce apparently decides that he's just waiting for more details because he starts talking again.
"Currently, you're facing charges for stalking, multiple charges for breaking and entering, and the attempt at a forced mating. I'm trying my best to get him to settle outside of court, but I'm not sure what will happen at this stage."
"Bruce, what? I don't-" He takes a breath, trying to organize his thoughts. "I wouldn't. You know I wouldn't. I wouldn't do that to anyone, let alone Jason. We're trying to get him to let us talk to him again so we can pack-court him, right?"
Bruce stares at him, the hints of vulnerability disappearing behind his usual stony expression. "I don't know, Dick."
Usually, that tone and zero-emotion expression would be enough to get his Alpha writhing in the back of his head. It's never taken Bruce's criticism well and always wakes up at the slightest hint that his Pack Alpha isn't happy with their actions. Only, it doesn't stir. Dick blinks in realization that he isn't putting off any scent at all, that his Alpha hasn't once shifted in displeasure at their location or their pain.
Something is wrong.
Bruce doesn't seem to notice Dick's internal turbulence. "All I know is that Jason has a fresh bite wound on his mating gland that he got checked out by paramedics last night. I know that his building has a security system that you didn't disarm when you got in through the window-" Bruce is growling now, a great rumbling noise that fills the room just as easily as it fills lesser criminals with terror. "-and got a nice audio recording of you insisting that Jason was your mate and refusing to listen when he told you 'No'."
His Pack Alpha is looming over him now, his scent no longer carefully controlled and instead radiating the putrid-burning-rubber of rage that's so much more common now than it used to be. His bond is walled off and cold, and with the weird way it's muted, it might as well not exist at all.
"I know that there are filed police reports of you camping out at his place of work, at his shelters and community centers and following him home! There are logged statements his neighbors and coworkers have given of you calling him your 'future mate' both behind his back and to his face no matter how many times he asks you to leave or has people physically remove you!"
He's almost shouting now, and Dick finds himself showing his throat in submission, cowering in an attempt to appease his furious Pack Alpha. His breathing is picking up and he keeps waiting for his own Alpha to react or do anything, really, in response to his father.
"What I want to know, Richard John Grayson, is an explanation as to why you took my permission to try and wear Jason down to be more amiable to our pack-courting as permission to mate him!"
There's a ringing silence for a few seconds as Bruce stares down at him, clearly waiting for his requested explanation. His words are registering with Dick now, though, and things are starting to come back.
He had been pretty insistent on following Jason around, now that he's thinking about it. Making sure he was staying safe and getting enough rest and checking in on his apartment to make sure he was keeping himself fed and watered. Along with that, though, come memories of seeing him with those people. Seeing him checking in with the various street-workers and watching as he accepted hugs and hand shakes and shoulder claps like he hadn't shied away from every touch Dick had tried to give him in the last year and a half. Seeing him nesting with the street pups, scenting and play-fighting with them like Dick hadn't seen since before he died.
Dick remembers his Alpha howling in his head about their Pack Omega, and how unfair it was that other people got to touch him, to scent him, to nest with him. It had whined in betrayal and growled in anger and crowed in abandonment, because how dare other people who weren't pack get to do that when he can't do the same?
Jason was his Omega. And Dick had agreed with his Alpha that they should be doing everything they could to make sure that he never left them ever again.
(Because, Jason had spent years doing everything he could except what they actually wanted and needed him to do to get back into the pack. One bad heat and then learning that, yes, it was important for him to rebuild trust and have healthy relationships with his future pack members in order for his Omega to let them be pack again shouldn't have mattered, really. Especially since everyone had jumped at the opportunity to start properly pack-courting him!
But no, instead, Jason got more distant and started actually shooting them again when they entered his territory in costume. And then he'd essentially put them all on the "no-fly" list as civilians so they couldn't even visit him then! His Alpha had been in such a state, being forced to sneak around and wear disguises just to see their wayward pack-mate who was acting like there was nothing between them.
It really hadn't made sense until he remembered that Jason likes being sure of things. He liked testing people, putting them in situations just to see how they'd react and if they'd keep their word. To him, actions always spoke louder than words. So, of course, he'd try to test their resolve! He just wanted to make sure that they really did want him as pack!
But then, one day when Dick had accidentally scared a pup when he broke into Jay's shelter of the day to bring him lunch, Jason had snapped at him. He'd shouted about boundaries and Dick refusing to listen to him and how it was way too late to fix anything and that he was happier now than he'd been in years and, finally, that he'd never want to be pack again. His scent, his body, his very being had absolutely screamed his honesty. And Dick was suddenly left with the very real possibility of losing Jason again, but worse this time.
Because it wouldn't be to death, to something permanent that put an impossible barrier between them. No, it would simply be physical distance. It would be a cold shoulder and silence and being hurt again and again. It would be torture, to know his Little Wing was out there but wanted nothing to do with him.
That couldn't happen. He wouldn't let it. He would not lose Jason again. His Alpha would not lose his Omega ever again, no matter what he had to do to force him to stay.)
Dick shifts his head, no longer showing Bruce his throat. It makes something in him tense, that he's no longer letting his incredibly angry Pack Alpha know that he is very sorry, but he's Nightwing. He can do this.
He starts to explain, to talk about how nothing was working, how Jason was just cutting him off at every turn and how his Alpha just refused to accept it, but something is wrong. He keeps trying to draw on his instincts, on his Alpha, to get at that primitive part of him deep inside that explains why things just had to happen that way, but it's not there. For the first time in a year — since Jason almost ripped Tim's arm off when he accidentally showed up at the safe-house Jason was using to ride out his heat — he can think without his Alpha drowning everything out with screaming of their missing Omega and incomplete pack. It feels empty, barren, and Dick starts to worry a bit about how he possibly can recover from something that tore his mental landscape apart enough for his Alpha to effectively dissipate.
Bruce hasn't really reacted to him as he's been talking, just staring him down, judging. Dick can tell he's unsatisfied with the explanation, eyes cold and icy. Dick allows himself to trail off, hand coming up to prod at where Jason apparently tore out his mating gland.
"I don't think you understand the trouble you've gotten us into, Dick," Bruce says, sitting back down. His anger starts to leak out of him. "Everything I've done to help Omegas is going to be in question. They're going to ask me how I could allow my son to do this and 'I didn't know' is not going to be good enough. Because I did know that you were spending time there and people know that I knew that. And there is no reason that doesn't put out identities at risk for the Waynes to be pack-courting and then ignoring the consent of an Alley Omega the cops suspect is deeply connected with the Red Hood."
"I'm sorry, Bruce, I don't…" Dick sniffs, and he is suddenly aware that he's started crying for some reason. "I'll try and figure something out."
Bruce just stares at him, his scent back under his impeccable control.
"Yes, you will. Preferably before the GCPD arrives to question you." His Pack Alpha stands up again and rolls his neck. "Now, your… improvisational operation will have many long-term side effects, some of which I'm sure you're feeling already. A doctor should be here shortly to go over everything with you, and to talk about short-term and long-term treatment options."
He hasn't even acknowledged that Dick's crying. He hasn't scented him, hasn't done anything to express his worry over Dick's apparently very long recovery. He hasn't said anything about how the rest of the pack is dealing with things or if any of them will be by to see him. Dick's throat is tight and his vocal chords feel too thick to move.
Bruce starts to leave, walking towards the door.
"Wait," Dick croaks, reaching out. "I'm sorry Bruce. I wasn't thinking, really, I just wanted to bring Jason home and I know how much it meant to you to have him back and I'm sorry I messed it up so bad."
He's crying in earnest now, tears streaming down his face and his breaths starting to hitch. Bruce stops and looks at him over his shoulder.
"I know you are, Dick. But I think this is beyond your ability to fix now."
With that, Bruce leaves, closing the door behind him.
Just a thought, but hey, people on the internet, if you wanna pointlessly bash a fictional character by making them a bigot, for the love of God don't change their ethnicity to white and then make them racist, it's not a good look.
And if you're gonna do it anyways, don't be a coward and post anonymously, say it with your chest
Realized it was Omega Jason Todd week when scrolling recent posted/updated fics and then promptly made myself upset when I saw several fics featuring Dick and/or Tim dub-conning Jason into mating to bring him back into the pack. I'm not really a fan of Omega!Jason ships with the other bats, anyways, due to them being possessive assholes and jumping over boundaries like their hurdles and not walls, so my brain latched onto this and was like "What if we flipped this and also set it in the larger Primal Omega!Jason AU we're building?". And now we're here.
Read on AO3
Summary:
Jason has had it up to here with Dick.
Ever since the Waynes discovered that Jason was an Omega, they've been trying to find a way to force him back into the pack. Dick trying to court and mate him against his will is the latest in these attempts.
When Jason goes into heat and Dick makes his move, Jason's done giving warnings. The Wayne's are going to respect his choices whether they like it or not.
Word Count: 3,094
Chapter 1: a starving beast
~~~~~~~~
Jason’s about had it with Dick.
It would be one thing if all this was due to genuine worry over Jason’s well-being or a want to reconnect with him to start pack courting. It would be one thing if Jason was actually interested in pursuing a relationship with anyone, let alone an alpha at this point in time. But no, Dick Grayson, “Alpha extraordinaire” found out that Jason was an Omega and just can’t deal with the fact that Jason doesn’t want anything to do with them.
Apparently, they’re all idiots and thought he was a beta - or even an alpha - and that’s why Dick and Bruce have been all flaky about whether or not they consider him pack. Because it’s totally fine to treat someone like that so long as they aren’t their so-called “pack omega”. And because Jason has made it more than clear by now that he will not come back to the pack by choice (the time he almost took Tim’s arm off when the idiot broke into his apartment during one of his past heats comes to mind) Dick has apparently taken it upon himself to force Jason back in via mating him.
Yeah, like that’ll work out.
Jason explained the situation to them when they all confronted him about “hiding his dynamic”. He’s not a typical O, thank God; he’s a Primal. Which means that his biology doesn’t allow for instant or forced bonds of any kind and he will not submit or obey Alpha commands from an Alpha he doesn't trust instinct-deep. It shouldn’t need to be explained that the Bats at large haven’t had that trust since he died, but even more so since Bruce decided that risking Jason bleeding out to save the Joker was an acceptable compromise. Even if he did accept a pack-bond, he’d be the one giving the orders, not the other way around.
Still, this hasn’t stopped Dick from trying. He mostly approached in-costume at first, but Jason has long since moved back to lead bullets and he’s not afraid to shoot. Once it was clear that Nightwing wasn’t going to be able to get close, Dick Grayson started showing up whenever he was out in civvies.
Jason never bothered to hide himself - not since he came back to Gotham full time and gave up on trying to make peace with the Bats - just wore scent blockers on patrol because it was safer for him and his neighbors if people didn’t know the Red Hood’s scent. So his people, the community of the Alley at large, know him, know who he is. And when he blew up at Dick in public, accused him of stalking him and ignoring consent, his people rallied behind him. And now it’s come to this: Dick breaking into his apartment and cleaning and cooking for him like they’ve been formally courting for months instead of this asshole not knowing the meaning of the word “no”.
He was just gonna move discretely and leave behind some nasty traps to express his displeasure, but his neighbors, especially Ms. Tersa from 2D, told him to call the police about it.
“I’m not calling the police on Dickhead,” he says, frowning into his curry. “It’s not like they’re going to actually do anything about him, not when he’s got Wayne backing him.”
The building is gathered on the roof for one of their monthly pot-lucks and the Mahji matriarch has truly outdone herself with this month’s Saag. His neighbors don’t seem to share his current interest in the food, however.
“Of course they’re not going to do anything, Jay,” Ms. Tersa (from 2D) responds, patting him on the arm, “The point is getting it on record that there’s been a reoccurring problem. That way when the bastard tries something worse and you rip out his throat you can claim self-defense.”
Jason sighs and takes another bite, thinking it over. It would be nice to have that safety net. He really doesn’t want to move again because the Bats won’t leave him alone.
“I’m surprised Ol’ Brucie hasn’t done anything to try and curb this,” says Jenkins, surfacing from their phone for the first time since they sat down. “He doesn’t strike me as the type to let his kid get away with this.”
Jason snorts a bit, rolling his eyes. “We’ve talked about this. The old man’s convinced I’m somehow his long-dead kid or something. You saw what happened a few months back.”
The incident Jason is referring to is, in fact, the last time Bruce was within 3 blocks of the larger Alley borough. He’d shown up at the community center Jason spent the majority of his time at. The Alpha had made a huge deal about praising Jason for his efforts and saying how proud he was that “his boy” had grown into such a kind and hard-working omega. Of course, no one knew what he was talking about because Jason wasn’t “Jason Todd-Wayne” for them, he was Jacob Emerson, a petty criminal who was definitely not high up in Hood’s gang who spent his days off trying to give back to his community. His people had told Brucie that he was mistaken, that Jacob was not, in fact, the son who’d been dead for 8 years and asked him to leave. When he didn’t and instead buckled down and tried to scent Jason, they’d gotten a bit rowdy and the Merries who’d been on duty had to come escort him from the premises and basically threaten him into not coming anywhere near the Alley or else.
(Jason really only had a passing resemblance to himself at 15, anyway. The pit had allowed him to actually grow into himself, leaving him 6’5” and built like a refrigerator, but it also had changed his eye color and physically aged him a bit. So, to his people, there really was no way that “Jacob Emerson” was actually a resurrected “Jason Todd-Wayne”.)
“Yeah, but there’s a difference between being delusional and harassing someone in public about it and letting your kid break into someone’s apartment and try to force them into mating,” they replied.
Jason gave a heavy sigh and put his food down, not really hungry anymore. “It’s not the first time the Waynes have approached me, Jenks, and I figure Brucie’s waiting to see how successful Dickhead is before he tries something else.”
Everyone goes quiet, somber, before Paula smacks the table, causing the whole thing to shake. “You’re one of us, Jay,” she says, earnest in a way that makes Jason’s heart squeeze. “There’s no way some Bristol bitch is gonna steal you away. I’ll talk to the others, see if there’s a way to organize some kind of watch to see him coming and warn him off.”
He feels warm with the reminder that these people care about him. He’s pretty sure most of them know that he’s the Red Hood, and they’re still ready to fight some rich boy off for him. The smiles that break out around him remind him that he’s not wearing blockers and they can smell how warm-safe-pleased he is, but knowing they know how he’s feeling doesn’t fill him with dread like it did a year ago when he first moved in and decided to give being a part of the community a try.
“Thanks Paula,” he says, adding a bit of purr to his words to express his satisfaction. “I think I will see about getting some of this documented, just for posterity's sake.” He then turns to look at the others in their little circle. “So long as all of you are willing to act as witnesses, of course.”
The unanimous “of course!” warms him even more and he can’t hold his purr in for the life of him. This is what he was missing constantly trying to fight his instincts and hold onto the crumbled remains of his place in the Wayne pack. Now that he’s got it again, he’s never letting it go. Not for anything.
-_-_-_-
The security’s been upgraded again.
Dick smiles to himself as he works on disarming the genius little mechanism that would administer a big enough shock to stop his heart. His omega is so smart! The challenges his Little Wing has put forth for him to conquer have been perfect for Dick to use to prove his worthiness to his future mate. He rumbles and hums in delight, his pleased pre-rut scent curling around him in the night air.
It’d been a real challenge to get to his window undetected this time, too. Jay’s neighbors have really jumped at the chance to provide obstacles for Dick to navigate; cameras and lookouts all to keep his mate safe. He almost hadn’t noticed the pup keeping watch on his mate’s window from inside the neighboring apartment building! They clearly care about Jay sooo much to help him prepare courting trials!
Dick gets through the last lock and is quick to shove the window up, haul himself through the gap, then pull it down behind him before the automated sensors have the chance to cycle back on. Inside, Jay’s den is just as homey as he remembers, but this time the tantalizing scent of heat fills the space.
Dick inhales, savoring how heat has softened Jason’s typical sharp citrus-and-ginger to something more closely resembling a spice cake. The slight acidic burning notes that the pit left are almost gone as well, he realizes with a happy rumble; at least, for the duration of their shared cycle, he won’t have his heart break a bit with every inhale reminding him of lost time and everything his Little Wing has suffered.
He carefully makes his way around the main room of the apartment, doing a security check. Jay has done an exemplary job preparing for his heat and Dick’s happy rumbles grow in volume. His omega is so good at taking care of himself, keeping himself safe while he waits for his alpha to arrive! When he gets back to the window he entered from, he carefully re-arms the traps and notices a blinking light on one of the two pads next to the window. He doesn’t remember there being two pads last time, but the light is still green and he can’t hear any buzzing that would indicate a silent alarm, so he leaves it be.
Finished with his perimeter check, Dick turns to his true goal: the heart of his mate’s den. He approached the bedroom slowly, crooning and rumbling and projecting his scent so his omega knows his alpha is here. As he arrives at the closed door, he can hear his mate growling from in their nest. It’s a warning growl, a get-out-of-my-den-before-I-rip-your-throat-out growl. It’s a growl that omegas make when there’s an intruder in their den and they’re telling them to go away.
There’s an intruder in his mate’s nest room!
Dick bursts through the door in less than a second, a growl of his own tearing out of his throat. It’s also a warning growl, a get-away-from-my-mate growl so deep that the vibrations fill his entire chest.
“Dick? What the fuck are you doing here! I’m in heat!” His mate snarls, his sweet heat scent starting to sour with tinges of intruder-alpha-leave-my-den.
Dick ignores his mate for the moment, too busy checking the room for the intruder. Finding no one other than him and his omega, his growl dies down and he lets out a confused chirrup. Where is the strange alpha his mate is growling at?
“I’m serious Dickhead, you need to leave. I don’t care what fucked up shit is in your head but I will actually tear your arm off if you don’t fuck off. We’re not pack and I am not your mate.”
Satisfied that there’s no one here and that his mate is just being dramatic, Dick turns back to his mate. “Omega! You don’t have to worry, your mate is here now.”
Jason’s scent sours even more and begins and burn with confused-leave-me-alone anger. His growl continues, promising death. “Are you fucking deaf? I told you to leave. We are not mates and I don’t want you here.”
There goes his mate again, being silly and still giving him trials. Doesn’t he see that they’ve finished courting? Dick has completed all his trials and proved himself and now he’s going into rut and his mate is in heat and it’s finally time for him to sink himself into his mate and tie themselves together body and soul.
He chuffs at his mate and approaches his nest, trying to twist his scent into something calming for his omega. The growl gets louder and he stumbles back a bit at the noise, confused again. He lets a whine rise from his throat. Why doesn’t omega want him in the nest?
“Last warning, Dick. You don’t fuck off I will make you.”
Dick is tired of these games. Omega postures and growls and makes a show over not wanting to be pack again when Dick knows that he does! What else does he have to do to prove himself! He tracked down omega’s den, proving that he will always be able to find omega if anything happens to him. He cooked and cleaned for omega, showing that he can take care of their home. He’s jumped into fights with omega, proving that he can protect him and won’t prevent him from doing his work!
His confused-upset-why-mate-not-happy scent is pouring out of him and Omega’s scent starts to turn bitter-burning-get-away.
“Fuck, you’re going into rut, aren’t you?”
His omega starts to get out of the nest, and Dick lunges at him. No! What is his omega doing! He needs to stay in the nest so they can mate-bond and enjoy their cycles together!
Dick hits omega, causing his mate to fall back into the nest under him.
“Get the fuck off me Dick!” his omega snarls, his growl even louder now, pure omega aggression pouring out of him, saying I-will-kill-you.
Oh! Omega wants to wrestle! Dick can do that. One last trial to prove that Dick is a good enough Alpha to overpower and pin him, to make him submit so omega will let alpha bite him. He snarls at his mate, playful, and puts his flexibility to good use. His omega is so big and strong and his scent, despite the sour-burning-anger and bitter-betrayal, is so good, still sweetened with heat. Dick feels himself slipping into true rut, his cock starting to fill out. Omega freezes for a microsecond as the scent of arousal starts to fill the air and that’s all Alpha needs for him to get Omega pinned. Before his mate has a chance to wrench himself free, Alpha is lunging forward, bearing his protracted fangs and sinking them into Omega’s mating gland.
There’s a full second where Alpha waits for the mating bond to latch, for Omega to go limp in submission and for their minds to connect soul-deep.
Nothing happens.
Alpha is confused and pulls back to check to make sure the bite actually hit the gland and suddenly Omega is lurching into motion. His vision twists and pure, burning, feral omega rage fills his senses and suddenly Alpha is the one being pinned under Omega.
Alpha looks up and sees his Omega above him, eyes glowing yellow-orange like burning coals and then Omega is sinking his teeth into Alpha’s own mating gland and then tearing.
Pain explodes from where his mating gland is supposed to be, radiating out and pouring through his veins like acid. Dick lets out a howl of agony and he can feel it echoing down all his pack bonds despite the blocks he’d put in place. His vision spins and he realizes he’s being hauled up and dragged.
Where- who-
Tim and Damian are wildly scratching at the bond block, trying and failing to get through and figure out what’s happening. Bruce is actually making progress in chipping away at it and Dick locks it down. He doesn’t know why, but something is screaming at him that letting his pack know where he is right now would be a very bad idea.
His world is dark and smeared grey and black except for two points of glowing embers. The growl of an enraged omega fills his ears. His neck hurts on one side and as he lifts a hand to it he realizes that he’s bleeding.
Oh. He’s bleeding a lot actually. That’s really concerning. Why is he bleeding?
Something wrenches his arm and he realizes he’s still being dragged. He blinks, trying to clear his vision and he realizes he knows where he is. Why is he hurt in Jay’s apartment? His nose burns with the scent of enraged omega.
There’s a ruckus going on outside the door, a lot of voices all clamoring over each other. They’re getting louder, actually, and Dick realizes that he’s getting dragged closer. He looks up and recognizes the towering bulk of Jason, his eyes glowing with Lazarus remnants.
They reach the door and Jason hauls him up, throwing him over his shoulder. His vision darkens for a moment and blood continues to pour from the wound at the junction of his neck and shoulder. There’s multiple clicks and then light spills into the dark apartment. Dick’s world suddenly lurches again and he barely has the chance to realize that he’s been thrown before he collides with something hard and vertical. His head slams into what he's realizing is the wall in the hallway outside the apartment and then he's falling to the ground. He lands badly on his arm, and his trick shoulder pops out of the socket.
He's vaguely aware that there's a crowd, that he's somehow managed to make a scene, but now his ears are still ringing with his head's impact against the wall and he's starting to feel woozy from the blood-loss and the overload of scents in his rut-sensitive nose.
There's voices all around him and he brings his good arm up to the wound still bleeding profusely to put pressure on it as he tries his best to sort out the conversation.
"-told you he would-"
"-absolute disgrace of an Alpha-"
"-the cops and an ambulance, Jay."
That's right, Jay's supposed to be here, isn't he?
"Jay?" he slurs out, rapidly blinking and trying to clear his vision.
"Goodnight, Dick," he vaguely hears, his senses starting to cut out. "I'll see you in court."
Titan’s Tower wasn’t about Jason being upset that he got replaced, Titans Tower was Jason trying to get it through Tim’s thick skull that his terror management coping mechanism is wrong and there is actually nothing preventing him from suffering the same fate as Jason. If Tim has to jump in front of a bomb guess what his bones will break just the same.
I actually don’t think Jason would be built like a body builder. I think he’d have obvious muscles but the look of them wouldn’t be hinged upon aesthetic. He certainly builds muscle to be strong even if it doesn’t appear this way. His stomach would be smooth, maybe no super obvious abs unless he flexes. His chest broad but not overbearing. You think oh he’s just a regular dude. Then he is seen dead lifting Batman like a feather and it’s like OH SHIET
