@chromium7sky, again a HUGE thanks to her for allowing me to use the Batlings for this story!
Spoilers for Hopes for a Bastard!
Doppelgängers Bewear!
Jason parked his bike, discarded his gear and pulled on his hoodie and sweats as he pulled on socks before jogging up the stairs of the Cave to the house.
“What do you think this is about?” Damian asked, scowling as Jason tugged off the forgotten domino mask. He got it, wearing them was habit.
“Well, it’s magic shit, we’ll find out when we get there,” Jason stated shoving Damian's head a side to push the brat away from him. They opened the clock and there was a squeal.
“JAY!” Terry ran at his legs.
“Duck,” he responded as he caught the kid with his foot, and Terry securely wrapped himself around. Jason walked with the little anchor there. “Oi, sunshine! Get your ass over here!” Jason shouted.
“JAY! Jay! Jay!” Lian chanted as he walked into the hall.
“Fuck!” he yelped as Ace knocked him off his feet in his flying leap of excitement. He hadn’t yet trained the dog not to leap at him, and the German Shepard was a growing giant to be.
“Jason!?” Raven rounded the corner with a floating Mar'i, a purple haired baby on her hip and Helena toddling at her legs. Suddenly all the kids were off him and shadows had everyone going calm.
“Useless,” Damian muttered kicking his shoulder.
“Back of demon brat,” Jason growled as he slowly got to his feet, feeling every ache. “And Rae, I know you’re not new to Earth so you do know it’s not customary to steal a baby that you want, right?”
“Don’t be an ass Jason, I didn’t steal him,” Raven sighed.
“Uh-huh,” he nodded scratching Ace’s ear as he walked towards Raven, shoving his hands in his hoodie’s pocket. The kid stared up at him with brillian, impossibly bright verdant eyes, and seemed to glare at him as he nuzzled Raven’s shoulder.
“Yeah, and it’s kind of the problem.”
“I do not like this,” Damian decided peering at the kid. The baby suddenly looked exceedingly smug and seemed to deliberately cling a bit more onto Raven. Raven looked a bit annoyed.
“You can stop that!” she snapped.
“I didn’t do anything!” Jason growled.
“Not you, Ingo. I’m not your mom!” she growled the warning at the baby who pouted then.
“Mama!” he squealed.
“That is enough Ingram,” a suave, smooth cultured voice stated icily, which had Jason’s head snapping up as he stared at the figure past Raven’s shoulder. Instinct had him pulling Raven behind him, because everything in Jason screamed that this man was a threat and an Assassin, and sunshine was good, but she stood no chance against an Assassin.
“And you must be the little bird’s problem,” Jason deduced, his eyes narrowing on the man.
The man was about Dick’s height; shorter than himself. Black hair, spiked, and the same icy combination of ice and emerald eyes, the hich cheek bones, narrow jawline, sharp nose, full lips, arched brows, and dangerous eyes that belonged to the kid were on the man. Just the features were older, and more… more cultured, they belonged now. Also, the same scar over the left eye was there.
~~~*~*~*~~~
Damian stared at this version of Todd, and almost sneered. But there was something about this version of his elder brother which had him carefully selecting where to move and what to do. There was a more lethal edge to this man, one he’d have associated with Cain or Shiva, not his brother.
Todd’s short hair was black, messy, with the red undertones there still, there was brush of freckles over his cheeks and nose, the same pouty mouth, scars and nicks speaking of this one’s missing time and battles. That was something his brother didn’t have, Pennyworth had seen to taking care of the scars. But there was something more interesting here, this Todd’s eyes. They were blue, with the ring of green from the Pit pulsing in them, illuminating them dangerously.
This Todd wasn’t just dangerous, he was lethal, and Damian could respect that.
Especially with how this Todd put himself between what he perceived as a threat and Raven and children.
“Ibn al Xu’ffach, but you may call me Damian Wayne,” he said primly as he bowed a bit towards his brother and watched Raven peek around Todd. She was so impossibly small here, his wife had never seemed small, but this Raven was small. “You have my son.”
“Uh-huh,” Todd growled, the German Shepard was following it’s master’s lead, fur bristling and teeth being bared, Damian sensed if he did not say something of value soon he’d be in for a hell of a fight. Even his brother was a challenging opponent, and this Jason Todd seemed more lethal, he was impressed.
“I am from a different universe.”
“He’s not lying Jason,” Raven’s smokey monotone stated as she sidestepped Todd. “In his universe he’s married to his Raven, they have a child, Ingo, who is, here,” she said gesturing to the baby.
“Ew,” a new small voice grimaced in distained.
“What?” Todd twisted around on that.
“I would NEVER Marry Raven,” the voice stated with disdain only an al Ghul could present and Damian found himself face to face with a younger version of himself. The child glowered at him with great disdain.
“My Raven is merely a year older than myself,” he chided. As opposed to the decade this Raven was to this version of himself.
“Raven would never marry you,” younger Damian snidely pointed out, then winced as Todd smacked him upside the back of the head. “What was that for!?”
“Sorry little bird, been working with on that,” Todd growled.
“He’ll grow out of it,” Raven merely sighed, and Damian did not understand this interaction. Merely that Todd and Raven looked annoyed.
“So what are we gonna do about grumps over there?”
“Well, I need to get him home,” Raven sighed.
“I got the kids,” Jason said shoving Raven’s shoulder lightly as he tossed McGinnis over his shoulder and caught Mar'i then took Ingo, Ingo screamed.
“Zip it, come on!” Todd snapped which had Ingo going quiet and solemn. His younger self scooped up Helena and Lian as he followed Todd and the dog.
Raven stared at him as they stood alone for the first time.
~~~*~*~*~~~
Damian scowled at the child as Jason dropped Terry and Mar'i on the couch with Ingo before falling onto it with a low groan. Setting Helena and Lian on the couch before grabbing a movie and popping it in. it was Incredibles 2, unsurprising as Terry squealed in delight. Lian clambered up to sit on Jason’s abdomen, and Damian sat on the ground when Titus padded in.
“What do you think this means?” Damian asked.
“I think it means the exact same thing it usually means, the multiverse is fucking me over; again,” Jason answered tiredly as he held Lian on his stomach and put his feet up on the coffee table.
“Jay!” Terry tapped Jason’s shoulder.
“Yeah,” he nodded as the movie started.
He didn’t like the information that he had married Raven, it was just disgusting to think that.
“I would never marry Raven, it’s wrong, and weird,” Damian cringed.
“Obviously a version of you thought she was hot,” Jason sniggered as he caught the purple haired baby.
“You and Raven belong together,” Damian stated.
“Not this shit again,” Jason groaned and Damian scowled at his big brother as Jason rubbed his eyes.
“She is your perfect match! You are an imbecile!”
“And I’m smart enough to know it’s a bad idea, come back an talk to me after you actually get a girlfriend pipsqueak.”
“You are an imbecile,” Damian muttered again as he scratched Titus’ ear as the Dane put his head in his lap. Damian knew that Jason was his dumbest brother; next to Drake, but he couldn’t figure out why it was something Jason was fighting so hard.
And all the bullshit reasoning from two Christmases ago was not a reason.
Jason was just ignoring the obvious that they all knew. Raven was meant for Jason and Jason was meant for Raven, it was that simple and obvious.
“I just think you are a coward,” Damian decided.
“Or I’m just older and wiser than you at this shit, and you need to stop presuming that you are all knowing. You’re twelve, talk to me when your twenty,” Jason warned sharply.
Damian scowled and accepted that as he caught his sister and pulled her onto his lap. Helena snuggled into him and smiled at him, her dual colored eyes bright as the pale blue and brilliant green stared at him.
~~~*~*~*~~~
“You and Todd?” Damian started.
“Don’t even go there or I’ll just send you to hell and bypass searching the multiverse,” Raven warned as she walked past him.
“It is nothing to be ashamed of, beloved,” he chuckled. This Raven did not look amused.
“What is it with everyone thinking I should date Jason?” she growled. “First Damian, now the Bats! What’s next!? The Outlaws!? No, we aren’t dating. Jason is my best friend, though I suppose that it’s different on your world.”
“Todd is tolerable on my world, and very good with children, but he and my wife are not friends,” he answered honestly.
“Well, here, he’s my best friend.”
“This universe seems very… different from my own. But same basics,” he admitted.
“That’s good.”
“What are you intending to do?” he asked her.
“I intend to get you home, and the kid, and hopefully we’ll never see each other again,” Raven offered him a smile.
“Beloved,” he scoffed, and saw her eye twitch. He was amused, this Raven’s apathetic façade was near perfect, but she had minor slips. His wife’s face was expressive, this one was not.
“I’m sorry, but I really have had enough trouble to last a life time with the Bats in my life, I don’t need multiverse issues as well,” she sighed.
“What is wrong with Bats?” he growled.
“Your entire family is a lightning rod for trouble.” Okay, he couldn’t argue with a true statement like that.
“Ingo is the most troublesome,” he admitted.
“He’s now a dimension hopper, if you give me permission, before you leave I’ll give you something that’ll seal that power away until he’s old enough to learn.”
“That is barbaric!” he snapped.
“Or you lose your baby in the infinity of the multiverse with no way to find him,” Raven countered.
“There is that possibility,” he sighed tiredly now that he saw the reality of what this Raven was saying.
“Children of demons, are tricky, highly intelligent, highly motivated, with powers manifesting young beyond their control. It’s like a Nephilim but worse because they’re honest children. Unlike Nephilim though demon children are often subjected to the darker impulses they possess because of where they are born, usually in Hell. Your child is lucky, Ingo has a home and family that loves him, it give him the chance to be more than the evil thing people will assume he is.”
“I have three others at home,” Damian admitted to her. “Casmir, Rayno, and Fawke.”
“Four horsemen,” Raven deduced.
“According to a prophecy they’re a seal on our Trigon, there’s three more parts to the Door to Hell we don’t know about.”
“Prophecies come to clarity in time, and do not define our Fates. The harder one works to avoid their fate the more they seal it. Answers will come, Damian, not immediately though,” Raven admitted.
“Thank you,” he nodded to her.
“Of course, now remove your hand from my person,” she growled and he noticed that he had a hand on the small of her back.
“Habit,” he said stepping away from him.
“Which is the only reason I don’t beat you to death with your arm.”
“You sound like Todd,” he grimaced.
~~~*~*~*~~~
“Sister!” he whined as he reached for the tear, seaking the power.
“Sister!” the brothers cooed as the slid through the portal and he stared at the dawning, grime filled sky as rain poured from above.
saw your idea on Ingo having a teen titans team, and I thought about him copying his father, and recruiting them the same way he did in the teen titans rebirth, where Damian kinda kidnaps them. Would Ingo do that too?
Lol amg 😂😂😂😂 he would do that but only Charles experience it, his significant friend. Then with Charles advice they simply went to the chosen titans like how prof Xavier and Erik in x men first class and lastly Meissa come up to them under a prophecy. 😁😁😁😁
