category: Gen
fandom: Batfamily
characters and relationships: Juni Drake (OC)
warnings/additional tags: Some violence, blood, swearing, mentions of past Joker Junior torture times, DID/Disassociative Identity Disorder, alters, blink-and-you-miss-it mention of self-harm scars, claustrophobia, cloth gag, restraints, mild self-inflicted injuries in panic, Joker Junior (sorta)
word count: 1206
Summary:
@ailesswhumptober Day 8: Hit and run | Adrenaline | “I can’t stop!”
Day 17: Drug side effects | Desperation | "It's fine, I can walk it off."
Day 23: Restraints | Obsession | “Aren’t you feisty?”
Day 30: Cleaning injuries | Labored breathing | “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”
Juni Drake is settling into his new life as one of the Wayne Family, but it comes with new perils and threats to navigate.
notes: in this AU, the Batfam rescued Tim after the Joker Junior era and managed to remove a mind control chip that let Joker control him, but slowly come to realise that Joker Junior never really went away, but remains as an alter. Free from Joker’s control, Junior’s job is to protect Tim from anyone who would seek to hurt him again, so he appears whenever Tim is in dire straits, and will resort to any means to get them out of it. He’s later revealed to the Batfam after almost dying, and eventually Bruce adopts him as well and he takes the name Juni to separate himself from Joker in every way.
i do not have DID so apologies and please do let me know if anything is inaccurate/offensive so i can work on changing it!
-------
He didn’t remember what Tim had been thinking before the intruders burst in, or what papers he’d opened the briefcase to take out. All Juni did know was that the knife the leading man had been holding was very sharp as it sliced across his arm when he blocked, and that the gun the man at the back had been holding was very loaded as it sent a bullet thudding into the wall of Tim’s WE office as a warning. (Rude. They’d just gotten it replaced.)
Juni fought to get away from the knife man, throwing his dignity to the wind and biting and scratching and trying to get the knife. But then the gun was pressed to the side of his head, and in that one crucial moment he froze, they grabbed him and pinned both his arms and legs, and now he was being dragged across the floor by three of them.
They opened the connecting door to Bruce’s office, and for a moment Juni felt confused relief, but it turned into stabbing dread when he realised the office was empty. “Wait- Wha- OW!” Someone yanked back hard on his hair, and he kicked out, to his satisfaction, hearing a muffled grunt of pain. “Let me go- Uuf-” Whoever had made it slammed a fist into his stomach, and he gasped for air.
There was the faraway rustling of paper, and he caught a glimpse of one of the men grabbing some of the paperwork from Tim’s briefcase. “Hey- Those aren’t yours!” He was ignored as they dragged him across the floor.
He wanted to shout for help, but Tam would be the first one to run in, and if she witnessed the crime, he would have no way to stop them from disposing of her. No one within earshot would be armed to combat the invaders; Bruce kept a plethora of Bat gadgets in his desk, but nobody would be able to reach them before them or Juni, or both, were promptly shot by the gun man. So he simply struggled frantically like armed mercs would expect a terrified Tim Drake to struggle, pushing uselessly against the grips on his arms and legs.
“Please- We can talk about this. If it’s money you want-”
“We’ve already got what we want, Drake. Thanks for opening that briefcase for us.”
Juni hid his internal frown at that. They must have been following Tim, then. If only he’d gotten a good look at those papers he’d been holding-
He was shoved to the ground roughly, and they pulled his feet together and tied them with a length of rough rope. “Quick, put him inside before someone comes in.” Then they pushed and pulled him into the side room just off Bruce’s office. He’d been in here a few times, the first time when Tim had let him explore the building and he’d taken stock of the rooms so he knew where he was if he needed to fight their way out.
The difference between then and now was that, in the middle of the room, there now stood a large metal box. It looked like a tiny closet, unpolished and lightly rusted near the bottom, but with a gigantic padlock on the door. Dread sank cold claws into his gut, and Juni fought harder to get out of the holds on his limbs. “Wait- Stop, please-” The desperation in his voice was becoming shamefully real as he thrashed in a blind panic.
“Hurry.” They lifted him off the ground, and he tried to scream, all thoughts of strategy and caution flying out of his mind, but one of the men grabbed him by the jaw and shoved a rag into his mouth. “There we go. Hush now.”
Juni let out a muffled cry as they opened the box and shoved him in, then wrapped two leather straps around his torso, fastening them like a belt and pinning him to the back of the box. He reached out to grab something, anything, but they slashed at his hands with the knife until he withdrew them, and finally slammed the door closed. He felt around frantically, searching for a seam or hinges that he could pick. But there was nothing, just a cushy seal around the opening – shitshitshittrappedagainI’mgoingtosuffocateI’mgoingtodieinheretrappedandeveryone’sgoingtomournTimtrappedanditwillbemyfault – and he pushed as hard as he could, but the huge padlock snapped shut, and he heard faint laughter as the thugs left.
Nononononono- He shook his head wildly and managed to spit out the rag. “WAIT!!! Come back- LET ME OUT!” he screamed, hammering on the iron door with his quickly bruising fists. “WAIT!!” His breathing was heavy and frantic as he searched his pockets for anything he could use to get out, but there were only a few Batarangs, one hair tie, and a half-empty bottle of meds that he promptly dropped on the floor and swore when he realised he couldn’t bend to pick it up.
“Come on, Tim. It’s- everything’s safe. No one’s- No one’s trying to kill us. Now. Just… come on.” He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes and tried desperately to steady his breathing. If he calmed enough, maybe Tim would wake up and take control and find a way to get them out of here. And he wouldn’t have a panic attack from simply being locked in a box.
Juni squeezed his eyes shut with barely any visible difference in the pitch black, and opened his eyes, hoping to find they were back at the Manor. But only darkness greeted him, and he let out a strangled whine. “No, no, no no no-”
He blinked, and he was there again, lightning arcing through his body and that mad cackle echoing off the stone walls as he screamed and writhed in the metal restraints holding him to the table- His breathing stuttered, and he struggled (and mostly failed) to even it. “Can’t go back- I won’t go back- Please-” He didn’t even know who he was talking to anymore, himself or Tim or him or-
He slammed himself against the door as hard and as many times as he could, until his hands and head and knees were scraped and stinging. He screamed until his throat ached and his chest hurt from alternately calling for help and crying. He tried every single thing his panic-addled brain could think of until the adrenaline faded and even his frantic energy gave out, leaving him drained and weak. If he could, he would have crumpled to the floor of the box, but he found that even if he went completely limp, the straps around his body would dig painfully into his skin and keep him standing more or less upright. Eventually they did, when his legs finally gave up and refused to support him any longer. The blood from the knife cuts on his arms partly soaked into his long sleeves, trickled past the scars on his wrists, then dripped slowly off his fingers to his feet and the bottom of the box.
“Please,” he whispered hoarsely, letting his head thump limply onto the door. “Please…”
But there was no reply, and silence sat heavy on his shoulders for a very long time.