Part 4 - Show me those issues
Dp x DC AU: Regent!Jazz & Vigilante!Jazz
Masterlist Part 3
"Show me those issues, how you've been misused. Yeah girl, I'm with you." -Train Wreck by Divide the Day.
Previously on The Regent:
It wasn’t as if the Pit Madness could just be gone, right?
Right? (Jason Todd was no fool, the Madness was still there.)
(Just… sedated. Like it didn’t need to boil to the surface anymore where it concerned his murderer.)
And for the first time in a very long while, Jason felt like himself again.
Until the agony began.
In a strange synchronized motion, both Jazz and Danny twisted their bodies towards the spirits who began screeching in the air between the two, ghost speak intertwined with screams of the damned, demanding the Regent and the Prince help the Robin.
“Broken Robin, bloody bird, help, help, help. Agony, pain, corruption”
Danny didn’t hesitate for a moment to transform into Phantom, calling over his shoulder for Jazz to bring her last few pure ecto vials along as he phased out of the apartment.
Jazz sighed heavily as she unlocked the safe in her bedroom, three vials remaining within. All the supply the Regent had left for the month, until Wulf was able to deliver more.
In any other circumstance, Jazz would have refused to hand over something so vital to her health- escpecially since she was burning through her ecto-levels acting as a vigilante and a Regent, with frequent travels to the Infinite Realms to work on paperwork and attend Council meetings.
However, Jazz felt the tugging in her chest, the instinct that she had to give up her ectoplasm for the agonized Robin. And she was not one to ignore such strong instincts.
Vials tucked safely into her bra, Jazz summoned her ecto-sword with only a thought and cut into the air, opening a portal in the between to take her to where the spirits demanded she go.
Jazz stepped through after a heavy sigh, bones feeling as if they were filled with cement.
No rest for the wicked after all.
Danny had already arrived ahead of her by the time Jazz stepped through her portal, fussing over what seemed to be the local unfriendly neighborhood vigilante, Red Hood, without his signature helmet and sweating green droplets profusely.
Oh.
So that’s how she’d been sensing him. He’s got ectoplasm in him and (by the rancid scent lingering in the air) corrupted at that.
“Did he go swimming in the Realms sewer?” Jazz asked, half-seriously as she willed the portal closed behind her and leaned her sword against a wall before pulling out the vials of pure ecto.
Danny struggled to laugh at her attempt at humor however, chirping and warbling at Red Hood’s prone form. Jazz offered the vials to her little brother, “Will these flush out the corrupted ecto?”
He didn’t answer her, poking at Hood’s chest plate, a warble of worry-horror filling the air.
“Danny.”
Jazz reached for her proto-core (tucked behind her heart) and chirped back with concern-worry-resignation.
Which worked to get Danny’s attention and he snapped his focus to her, “Jazz, give him the pure stuff! He’s starving!”
Oh again.
In Hood’s current state, could he swallow it on his own?
No, he couldn't. He'd likely choke on it or spit it back out on reflex. One of them would have to administer it by mouth.
Jazz sighed heavily before she uncapped the first vial and tipped its contents into her mouth. The familiar battery-acid taste was heavy on her tongue as she tried not to reflexively swallow it in her hunger.
(She tried to ignore how her heart raced.)
Jazz leaned over Red Hood's prone body, gently carded one hand into his hair, and set the other onto his throat before she pressed her lips onto his own.
To stay in my shadows you must aid my Knight, Regent.
Of course, My Lady.
I speak of the one born in my streets and unburied in my soil, hidden under Red.
The Red Hood?
The Once Bright Light of Gotham, unavenged. Care for him and he will care for you.
Frostbite had been quite shocked at their sudden arrival to the Far Frozen with Red Hood in tow. Jazz’s sword made quite an entrance after all, and Danny’s choice to drop hood’s sweating and shivering body into the Yeti’s arm was enough to get him into motion.
“Great One, Regent.” The Tribal Leader greeted them as he turned on his heel with his cargo firm in his grasp.
“Hey Frosty. Gotta doozy for ya.” Danny quipped with some warmth. Being in Realms again seemed to cheer him up ever since the move to Gotham, even if it wasn’t a common occurrence anymore.
(Jazz kept him far away from the Observants since taking the crown.)
(Nosey one-eyed bastards.)
“Hi Frostbite.” Jazz offered her own greeting as they followed behind the Yeti into the tribe proper.
It had been some time since Jazz had been into the Healing tents, but Danny had always enjoyed Frostbite’s company so he easily maneuvered his way around the equipment and tables towards the sectioned off beds in the back, which were Yeti sized and easily dwarved Hood’s own six foot brick house frame.
Frostbite hummed as he examined his new patient, having heard Danny explain their treatment thus far of Hood.
“Great One, you were correct in this regard. Red Hood was dying of Corruption due to ectoplasm.”
“But?” Jazz proded.
“His proto-core has accepted the pure ecto and has begun to stabilize.”
Both siblings breathed a sigh of relief. That was good news, especially to hear of a new Liminal that could survive Gotham- means Hood was a survivor in more than one regard.
“However, there is something more concerning…” The Yeti trailed off, a soft growl left in the wake of his words.
“Frosty?”
“Pardon me, Great One. It seems that Red Hood’s proto-core isn’t ice-based, it needs warmth.”
Danny, despite the seriousness of the situation, laughed at Jazz’s resulting blush at Frostbite's words.
(Oh I can keep him warm.)
Not to mention how she they had gotten the pure Ectoplasm down his throat to begin with
“Regent?”
Jazz sighed and answered the Yeti, “I can offer him my warmth until he can be returned.”
Frostbite pondered for a moment, “Ah, yes, the Regent has a Fire-based Proto-core. That should do well.”
(Danny had laughed himself sick when it had come to light that Jazz was his opposite in core too.)
(Fire and Ice)
(Hero and Villain)
With a passive glare at her now-chuckling little brother, Jazz approached Hood’s bed and carefully climbed in alongside him.
(She did her best to block out how her body wanted to curl into him, grasp onto him and never let go.)
Turned onto her side away from him, back pressed to his form, Jazz forced her body to relax and let her natural warmth seep out from her core into the vigilante at her back.
(Little did Jazz know that she would cuddle him in her sleep.)
(And that a pesky younger sibling would coo and take a few pictures to save as blackmail.)
Jason dreamed.
He dreamed of his mother, the good days when she would read to him softly and wrap him in her arms.
He dreamed of late night patrols with his dad, tucked under his cape when he wanted to feel safe.
He dreamed of a red haired woman who kissed him softly, held him gently, and… chased the cold away.
Why had he been so cold?
Why was his heart aching?
It wasn’t supposed to ache.
He wanted his dad.
He wanted his books.
He wanted his dream woman to kiss him again and tell him her name, just so he’d have something to hold onto when he woke up.
(If he woke up.)
A/N:
Alright, part four! With a glimpse into Jason and Jazz's natural bond as, well, maybe... soulmates? Who knows. I'm a sucker for that trope.
If you want a spoiler for what's happening to Jason, check out the original prompt!
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