Talia was a wise woman. A great woman in fact. She healed Jason's mind and brought him to the all caste so he could heal his soul. Perhaps it was because she wanted to give him the chance to live a new life, far away from anything that could remind of the horrors from his past. That's what Jason thought at least. But truthfully, that wasn't the reason. She still remembered lowering Jason into the lazarus' waters. His brown eyes had faded to a milky blue after his death but once the waters engulfed him they turned an acidic green. His arm snapped to grab hers like he was being jerked about by puppet strings. He lacked any of the grace he had when fighting and any of the lifelessness he had whilst doing anything else. Suddenly, the green was spilling down his cheeks and green smoke came out of his eyes. The voice that spoke from his lips was not his. It was some sort of cacophony of what she could only assume were hundreds of spirits somehow possessing the poor boy.
"Betrayed and forgotten,
two sons rise again,
to destroy the pantheon,
to end their fathers' rein,
with blades of soul,
and control of the sky,
they've paid their toll,
their victory is nigh,
whose side are you on?
make your choice,
when the new king arrives,
the wise will rejoice."
After the last word was spoken, Jason's skin became agonisingly hot. Talia dropped him after she felt her fingers begin to blister and stared down into the pit. For a moment, time stood still. None of her guards dared to move and she continued to look, transfixed, into the waters. Suddenly, a hand burst through the surface and Jason emerged different. His eyes were a turquoise shade she'd only ever seen once and the white hair streak he gained only cemented her line of thought. Blades of soul? The turquoise of the All Acres' pools? The white hair of the All Caste? It was the only sensible conclusion.
When they arrived, they were greeted by Ducra who swiftly got Jason settled in a room that was clearly occupied by someone else too. "Your new roomate is up on the eagle if you want to meet him. Talia and I have some things to discuss so I'll leave you to it Man-child." Jason frowned at the name but decided not to argue. He looked over his roomates side of the room and figured he'd put his detective skills to use. The guy's belongings were organised militaristicly neat. His clothes were spotless and folded into perfect squares. The only other thing that hinted at a personality was a pile of sketchbooks. Jason grabbed the one on the top of the pile and flicked through the pages. Most of them were charcoal sketches but occasionally there would be a few watercolour paintings. The one that stood out to him most was a girl who's hair and clothes were drawn with charcoal. Her skin was left nearly completely white except for some cross hatching to show shadows. The part that caught his eye was the electric blue paint that filled her eyes and dripped down her cheeks in the shape of tears. Her expression seemed... like she'd found something she thought was lost forever. Perhaps a lost toy from her childhood. Maybe a lost piece of jewelry that she got from someone special. For some reason, the next idea Jason had was a lost hero.
He shook his head and placed the sketchbook back on the pile. There was nothing else he could learn about his roomate here so he started looking for the eagle. He wasn't sure what the eagle meant until he saw a massive statue of an eagle perched on the top of one of the mountains. There were a few floating islands that led like a path up to the eagle so Jason wasted no time and hopped across. They circled around one of the outstretched wings and Jason leaped onto it. All this jumping was reminding him of rushing over the roof tops as Robin. The memory briefly brought a smile to his face until he remembered what happened after that. A bitter taste filled his mouth so to distract himself, he kept looking for the mystery man.
A soft tune floated through the breeze from a top the eagles head. Jason climbed up to it with ease and found a blonde boy playing a flute. He seemed to be lost in the melody. His blonde hair gently swayed with the wind and Jason thought it was fitting since he was playing a wind instrument so beautifully. His eyes turned to the boys lips that were masterfully controlling the flute. He had a scar on his lip and Jason wondered how he got it. Probably in battle if he was being trained by the all caste. Jason patiently waited for the boy to stop playing before he cleared his throat. The boys eyes snapped open and Jason noted they were the same electric blue he used for the painting of that girl. A gust of wind snatched Jason into the air by the collar of his shirt before the boy realised he wasn't a threat. His eyebrows shot up and he quickly let Jason down.
"Oh my gods I'm so sorry." The other boy panickedly apologised. "It was just instict I didn't mean to-"
"Its fine." Jason reassured as his lips quirked up into a smirk. He suspected he was going to get along with his roomate just fine. "I get it. I've gone through shit too. If you ever catch me off guard, I can't promise I won't judo flip you."
"Just don't hit me with a brick and we'll be fine. Gods this is such a bad first impression for my new roomate." The boy seemed to relax and let out a chuckle. "How'd you know I've been through stuff?"
"Well you pack light so either you're really into minimalism or you're used to having to live on the move a lot and if you ended up here, I'm gonna guess that's not because you just love travelling. Also, you currently have great footing for if someone were to attack you and your muscles don't seem like they're there just for vanity. Oh and the whole wind powers thing."
"You're perceptive."
"Thanks?" Jason responded unsure how to take a compliment. Bruce and Alfred didn't compliment him much. They were more likely to compare him to Dick and tell him his faults than they were to tell him his strengths. He decided to think about that later or preferably never and push the conversation forward. "I'm Jason. What's your name?"
"Jason?"
"That's my name."
"No I mean I'm also called Jason."
"Oh."
"Maybe we should get nicknames or something so when other people refer to us we aren't confused."
"Good idea. Ducra called me man child but I'd prefer to go by something different."
"Lucky, she calls me zappy."
"Why?"
"I have lightning powers as well as wind stuff."
"Cool. I have no powers except for coming back from the dead randomly."
"No way. Me too!"
"Crazy. Well anyways, how about I be..." Jason thought for a moment. "I think I'll call myself tire iron or Iron for short."
"I asume there's a story behind that?"
"There is." Jason smiled remembering when he called batman a "big boob".
"A long time ago I had a coin called Ivlivs. It was gold and could turn into a sword or a spear. I think I'll call myself Gold."
"Yeah, you look like a Gold."
"And you have silver hair so I guess we chose well. By the way, how old are you? Sixty? "
"Ha ha." Jason playfully rolled his eyes. "Well I died a few months before I turned fifteen. When I crawled out my grave, my sixteenth brithday had passed. By the time my mind was restored my seventeenth birthday had already happened but mentally? Your guess is as good as mine."
Gold thought it over before asking. "What age do you want to be?"
"Seventeen feels too far away but fifteen was a literall life ago. So I think I want to be sixteen."
"That's funny because I died a bit before I turned sixteen but I've worked out that only considering the time I've been alive I'd be seventeen."
"What's funny about that?"
"Well, you know. You just look so old with your white hair." Gold joked and Silver pretended to sigh in exasperation.
"Careful, I might push you off this eagle."
"You could but I can fly so it wouldn't achieve much."
"How fast can you fly?" Jason asked glancing at the way he came up.
"Pretty fast. Why?"
"Okay then scratch my original idea. Race you to our room no flying?"
"You're on!"
And just like that they were off. Talia watched the two from afar and recounted to Ducra the prophecy she'd heard. "It seems these two have more in common than just their names and returns from the grave. They share a fate." Talia ruminated and Ducra nodded.
"It would seem so. Their victory is assured. Why do you worry for the man child?"
"I'm not worried for him... I'm worried for his father. I've had to choose between Bruce and my Father before and it killed me. I'm not sure who I should choose between Bruce and Jason."
"Isn't Bruce your beloved?" Ducra questioned.
"Yes but he should've protected Jason more. Even if Jason's death was part of his destiny, Bruce shouldn't have made him feel unwanted or badmouth him after his death."
For a moment, the only noises that reached their ears were the Jasons' distant laughter.
"Then it seems you know who you should choose."
Talia sighed and tried to forget the days when her beloved seemed like a pure, uncomplicated hero. "It seems so."
🎉🎉🎉
@perseus-jackass happy birthday! Here’s the boys!