Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jason Todd was no stranger to Death. In fact, he was willing to bet he had died more than the average person. Granted, the average person only died once, so that was a low bar, but the point still stood. 

Jason had met Death at least eight times. Plus a whole lot more depending on how he counted. Death was never much of a talker, but Jason didn’t mind. Sometimes they’d sit quietly together until it was time for Jason to go back to the land of the living. Sometimes Jason would catch Death up on what he’d been doing. Death didn’t get many repeat customers, so she was usually pretty invested in Jason’s tales.

The first time he’d met Death had been stock standard as far as he knew. He’d been beaten to death by a clown and blown up. He'd been led away to Death’s realm, passed on to heaven, the whole nine yards. 

It hadn’t lasted though. He’d woken up in his grave roughly six months later.

The second time, he could tell that Death was surprised to see him again. Jason had been sheepish, clutching at where his throat had just been slit by a batarang. “Whoops, it’s me again,” he’d wanted to say, but he hadn’t been able to get the words out. Instead he’d sobbed in her arms for an irrelevant amount of time. 

Jason had made Bruce choose between him and the clown and Bruce had picked the clown. He shouldn’t have pushed Bruce. Jason had brought that one on himself. 

After his second death, he knew there was nothing left for him in the land of the living. 

He had ended up back there anyway.

Jason shouldn’t have been surprised when his next meeting with Death was also orchestrated by Bruce. This time it had been through angry fists rather than a batarang. This one hurt more somehow. Maybe because of all the words Bruce threw in between the punches. 

The craziest part? Bruce was angry at Jason for killing the Penguin, and the Penguin was still alive. Jason had never intended to kill the Penguin. He’d shot the Penguin with a blank. Bruce hadn’t asked though. 

But Jason had deliberately tried to trick people into thinking he was killing the Penguin, so he supposed that one was on him too.

Some time after that he’d been killed by a feral Deadshot while in Task Force Z. That was… yeah. He’d like to say that wasn’t Bruce’s fault, but he was only there at Bruce’s behest for an undercover mission so it kind of was his fault.

His next death was via Bruce again. Bruce had altered Jason’s brain to freak him out in times of stress. Then Bruce had fucked off. 

It was supposed to keep Jason in line. Keep him from going out and getting into fights. 

Jason had died of a heart attack almost immediately, because of course he had . 

Jason was more hazy on if he deserved that one, but apparently it had been Bruce’s self-inflicted alternate personality so maybe he couldn’t count it against Bruce? 

Jason had died of a few more heart attacks for the same reason, but he liked to count them all as one visit to Death, since they had the same cause. 

Also because he’d lost count around the eighth heart attack.

Shortly after returning from his chain of heart attacks, Jason had died again, flying a jet into a meteorite to save the city. Long story. He’d had a few more heart attacks after that, until the fear gas response was countered with Joker gas. The knowledge that a clown was fixing something his so-called father had done to him was violating, but it had worked. 

Then he’d drowned in Gotham Harbour after crashing a flaming blimp full of clown gas into the water. Another long story.

His most recent visit to Death’s realm involved Bruce again, but Bruce had let Jason volunteer this time. Or at least, he had made it seem like Jason was volunteering. Bruce had said he himself was going to be the one to die. It was a sacrificial play, but Bruce said he had a shot of Lazarus fluid to kick himself back to life. 

To say that the plan was risky was putting it mildly. And Jason knew that Bruce had gotten him alone and told him instead of anyone else for a reason. Jason knew what Bruce expected Jason to do, and so Jason had done what had been silently asked of him. Jason had known that he was the expendable one. So he’d volunteered to die in Bruce’s place. 

Jason had to wonder if Bruce knew about Jason’s visits with Death. 

Sometimes he liked to think Bruce did. He liked to think Bruce knew he could be a bit rougher with Jason because Jason would come back. Knew that it was fine for Jason to volunteer to be the sacrifice, because Jason would return even if the shit hit the fan. 

But that would mean Bruce had knowingly and willingly murdered him several times, because he’d decided murdering Jason didn’t count. 

So sometimes Jason liked to think that Bruce had no idea. That Bruce had never known he’d ever put Jason’s life in danger, much less killed him. That he’d never meant for the batarang to hit Jason’s neck and that he’d never meant to hit Jason so hard that Jason’s brain started bleeding. 

But that would mean Bruce had cared so little for Jason that he’d broken his sacred rule out of carelessness, and let Jason volunteer to die because he thought Jason was not good for much else. 

Jason wasn’t sure which option was worse, and most days he hated both options.

Or there was the third option. That Bruce had tried to kill him in earnest, repeatedly, and was confounded that he hadn’t succeeded yet. 

‘If you think one death is fine if it stops more death, then shouldn’t I kill you? ’ Bruce had demanded shortly before all the brain fuckery. Maybe he’d meant it.

But Jason knew that option couldn’t make sense. Bruce’s mind was certainly twisted, but even he wouldn’t try to break his one rule because Jason had done it first. Even Bruce wouldn’t make someone he claimed as his son the deliberate exception to the rule. That didn’t make any sense. 

It didn’t, right? 

Of course it didn’t.

Jason would never ask the Bats if they knew about his deaths beyond the first. Most days he’d rather not know what they truly thought of him. Most days he tried not to care what they thought. It was easier not to care. The problem was, Jason had always been bad at not caring.

Bruce would tell Jason he loved him one moment and attempt to permanently alter his brain chemistry the next. He’d tell Jason that Jason shouldn’t kill, even the Joker, and then slit Jason’s throat. Jason had given up expecting any consistency from Bruce. 

And yet, Jason couldn’t give up on the idea of Bruce being his father. Because Jason couldn’t forget the good years. The years when Jason had been Robin and he’d never felt so looked after. The years where Jason had truly had a father.

And Jason knew it was his fault that he didn’t have a father anymore. Jason had come back wrong. How could he expect Bruce to still love the monster he had become? He couldn’t even die right anymore.

But some moments Jason tried anyway. He tried so hard to be the son Bruce wanted. Sometimes he almost felt some affection from Bruce. Other times all he felt were Bruce’s fists.

And even if, for a moment, Jason wanted to forget about Bruce completely, he couldn’t. Bruce owned Gotham, and Gotham was Jason’s home. Bruce had power and influence that could get Jason locked up on a whim— something he often threatened to do. Bruce stood between Jason and the other Bats— people Jason had grown close to despite the ups and downs. 

Jason couldn’t afford to be on bad terms with Bruce. 

But he wasn’t sure how much more of his and Bruce’s bad days he could take before he was worn away entirely.

So Jason had learned to grin and bear Bruce’s presence. To tolerate and appease Bruce where he could. To graciously wave off Bruce’s meaningless apologies. To say whatever Jason needed to about family and forgiveness, not meaning a word. He couldn’t fight with Bruce anymore. He wouldn’t survive if he did, and not only because Bruce might kill him again.

It was the only way to keep his freedom and his sanity. 

It was the only way to keep his family, because no one would be choosing Jason over Bruce.

But sometimes it was hard to pretend all the effort was worth it. Times like today, when he hadn’t been invited to pick a room in the new family home. 

Bruce was happy to let Jason die for him, to call him his son and say he loved Jason when he needed Jason’s help, but when it came time to be a happy family, Jason wasn’t invited. 

And Jason couldn’t blame Bruce for that. Jason had done this to himself. Jason was the one who had bent their relationship until it broke.

So instead of storming over and starting a fight he wouldn’t win, Jason was lying on the floor of his safe house, scrolling through his family’s social media posts about the work they were doing on the new manor. He didn’t know why he was torturing himself like this. He didn’t know why he had to live in a world that revolved around Bruce Wayne. Why couldn’t he be in a world that didn’t?

Jason’s body spasmed and his phone clattered to the floor beside him. 

“Shit!” he gasped.

The floor disappeared beneath him as golden light obscured his vision. Then he was falling, but just for a moment, before his back met a new wooden surface.

“What the fuck?” he mumbled as he looked up at an unfamiliar ceiling.

“An apt sentiment,” a woman said to his left.

“Is that… me?” a man asked from the same direction.

Jason propped himself up on his elbows and took stock of his surroundings. He was in some kind of meeting room, lying on a boardroom table. The only other people in the room were an older woman and a young man. They appeared to be in the middle of a private business meeting. 

Jason recognised the people immediately. They were Martha Wayne and Jason Todd. A Martha Wayne who looked at least three decades older than she was when she got shot, and a Jason Todd who looked like he had grown all the way up without the intervention of an untimely death and a Lazurus pit.

“This definitely isn’t my universe,” Jason said blankly.

“What the fuck?” Alternate-Jason asked, his crassness clashing with his neat business attire. 

“Language, Jason,” Martha Wayne chided with a fond smile.

“Sorry, ma’am.”

Jason eased himself off the boardroom table, keeping Martha Wayne and Alternate-Jason well within his view. He was wearing ratty sweats and had been in his safe house, so he didn’t have a single weapon on him. Hell, he didn’t even have shoes on. Jason really hoped this wasn’t one of those universes where everyone was evil because, if so, he was going to have a rough time.

“Umm, hi,” Jason tried. “Sorry for umm… dropping in unannounced. I err… didn’t mean to.”

“It’s quite alright, dear,” Martha said, seeming remarkably unconcerned about the whole situation. “Are you injured at all?”

“No,” Jason said. “I’m fine.”

“That’s good to hear,” she said. “You mentioned this wasn’t your universe?”

“I… yeah. I think so. You’re extremely dead in my universe.”

Shit, that was probably rude of him to say. Alternate-Jason looked horrified by the idea of Martha being dead, but Martha seemed as unfazed as before.

“Umm, no offence,” Jason tacked on, just in case.

“And you said you didn’t mean to be here?” Martha asked, ignoring his comment about her being dead.

“Yeah. I was in my s— my apartment. Then I was here. No clue why.”

“But you don’t seem terribly alarmed to find yourself in another universe,” Martha said. “Is there a reason for that?”

“Yeah umm… I’m a… Well… Do you have Batman in this universe?”

“Bat-what?” Alternate-Jason asked.

“That’s a no,” Jason said. “What about the Justice League? Heroes? Vigilantes?”

“We have the Justice League and all it entails, yes,” Martha said. “I partially fund it.”

“Right, well, in my universe, I’m a… vigilante of sorts. I work with Batman, the vigilante of Gotham in my universe. This isn’t my first time visiting another universe.”

“I see,” Martha said. “Then you are from one of the universes where my son was the sole survivor of the shooting, rather than me, and grew up to become Batman. You were adopted as a Robin, correct?”

Jason blinked as he saw a spark of Bruce’s intellect in Martha Wayne’s eyes. “Yeah. You know about other universes?”

“As I help fund the Justice League, they send me reports of the missions they have undertaken. We have a hero called the Flash, who frequently travels the multiverse. He has written up several reports detailing the key differences between the universes he has visited. Bruce Wayne becoming Batman and joining the Justice League is common enough to be noteworthy. The various Robins are also common themes. I understand that me being the sole survivor is proportionately unusual within the multiverse.”

Jason nodded. “And your Gotham is alright… without a Batman?”

Alternate-Jason looked like he was wondering if he should be offended by that question.

“I like to think things are going well,” Martha said. “After my husband and son were killed, I dedicated all my time to stopping such events from happening again. I poured billions of dollars into improving Gotham’s infrastructure and reducing corruption, but no matter what I did, Gotham only seemed to be getting worse. After ten years of continuous effort, I realised the lack of improvement just didn’t make sense. I started hiring people who specialise in the more mystical side of things. Sorcerers. Wizards. The works. Turns out Gotham was layered with some very dark curses. I spent five million dollars on a team of curse breakers, and everything started improving from there. It’s not perfect, and the work never truly ends, but it’s certainly better.”

“Huh,” Jason said. “You got a Joker here? A Scarecrow? A Black Mask?”

“I’m not even sure what most of those are.”

“Then yeah, it sounds better than the Gotham in my universe.” Jason looked at Alternate-Jason. “It certainly looks like I lived a better life here. You ever been a homeless kid on the streets of Crime Alley?”

“Crime Alley?” Alternate-Jason asked. “Who would name a place that? I grew up in the Narrows. My parents aren’t exactly rolling in dough, but we’ve never been homeless.”

Jason froze, taking note of Alternate-Jason referring to his parents in the present tense. “Willis and Catherine are still alive here?” 

Alternate-Jason’s eyes widened slightly at the question. He nodded, looking grim at the prospect of his parents being gone. This must really be a better Gotham.

“Do you umm…?” Alternate-Jason began tentatively. “Do you want to see our parents?”

Jason flinched. 

“They’re your parents,” he choked out. “Not mine. My Willis and Catherine died a long time ago.”

“Yeah, but they’re still a version of your parents right? Don’t you want to see them again?”

“I… No, thank you. I… Just no.”

Alternate-Jason shrugged. “Just thought I’d offer.”

“Wait, so if your parents are still alive,” Jason said, “How do you know Martha Wayne?”

“I don’t know what those two things have to do with each other,” Alternate-Jason said, giving him a funny look, “but I work here, man.”

“Jason is the community outreach coordinator for the Wayne Foundation,” Martha clarified. “He’s one of my most cherished employees.”

Alternate-Jason blushed heavily at the praise.

“O-oh,” Jason managed, feeling oddly choked up by the idea. 

This was the kind of job Jason could have had in a better Gotham. It sounded nice.

Now he was trying really hard not to be jealous of Alternate-Jason.

All of sudden, Jason felt like he wanted to leave. He couldn’t stand being here in Better-Gotham with the happy Alternate-Jason working at a respectable civilian job and the surviving Wayne who figured out the best way to help. 

Jason wanted to go back to his shitty universe where he wouldn’t be bombarded by the good things he couldn’t have.

Then he was.

One moment he was in the boardroom, and one flash of golden light later he was back in his safe house. 

He found his phone on the floor where he’d dropped it.

Jason decided to pretend that whole thing had never happened, and have a nap before patrol instead of thinking about it.

Chapter Text

Jason did not want to dwell on his trip to Martha Wayne’s universe. However, another part of his brain seemed to disagree because, instead of sleeping like he wanted, he was currently lying awake thinking about his impromptu trip. 

He had wanted to be in a universe that didn’t revolve around Bruce, and then he was in one. 

He had wanted to go home, and then he was home. 

That couldn’t have been a coincidence. Did he have control over his movements through the multiverse? If he thought about going to a particular kind of alternate universe, would he go there?

He should be sleeping, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get to sleep before he tested his theory. 

With an unhappy grunt, he rolled out of bed. He thought about changing into his Red Hood gear, but honestly he couldn’t be bothered suiting up for a test that probably wasn’t going to work. Sweats were less conspicuous anyway, and the last thing he wanted to do in an alternate universe was draw the wrong kind of attention. So he simply put on some boots and hid a few knives on his person.

Then he considered what kind of universe he should aim for. After a moment he settled on going to a universe where he and Bruce had a good relationship. He certainly wanted to visit that kind of universe, just to see if such a place could exist.

In a flash of golden light, his surroundings changed.

He was now in the den of Wayne Manor, he could see another version of himself and one of Tim on the couch. It looked like they had been playing video games, but now they were staring at him, clearly alarmed by his appearance. The alternates looked almost the same as him and his Tim, except they looked healthier and well-rested.

“What the fuck?” Healthier-Jason said.

“Yeah, that’s what both of me said last time too,” Jason commented.

“Who are you?” Healthier-Tim asked, springing up like he expected a fight.

“I come in peace,” Jason said, holding his hands up in surrender. “I’m a Jason from an alternate universe. I’m just testing something.”

“What the fuck?” Healthier-Jason repeated.

“I was just seeing if I could travel to a universe where Bruce and I get along,” Jason told them. “So like, has your Bruce ever taken you to the place where you died and picked a fight with you?”

“What?! No!” Healthier-Jason yelled.

“Has he ever tried to alter your brain chemistry with fear gas to stop you being a vigilante?”

“No!”

“Has he ever beaten you to death?”

“Fucking hell, no ! Did your Bruce do all that to you?!”

“Sure did,” Jason said, shrugging. “Anyway, that was enough to confirm my theory. So I’ll be going now. Bye.”

“Wait—”

Jason thought about being back home and then he was.

So, alright, fuck. He could teleport around the multiverse for some reason. That was definitely up there with his weirder skills. Maybe above the mystical swords he had which were powered by his soul, but probably below his inexplicable immortality.

Two tests wasn’t enough though. Where else could he go to explore this theory? What other universe should he try if he could really go anywhere in the multiverse?

Then he realised it wasn’t about where he could go. It was about who he wanted to visit. He could potentially go to any person in the multiverse. All of a sudden the decision was easy. There was definitely someone trapped in a different plane of existence that Jason wanted to see. A brother in arms he had left behind.

So Jason wanted, then Jason was elsewhere. 

He looked around the actual hell-dimension he had appeared in. Hundreds of demons surrounded him, all bent into the same strange position.

“And other side,” a voice proclaimed, the sound booming through the open space.

All the demons shifted their position to mirror their last.

“And hold,” the voice continued.

And Jason realised it was a yoga class.

He walked forward, through the crowd of demons in the warrior two pose, until he reached the edge of the crowd. At the front was a grey-skinned being built like a van. He was demonstrating the positions with his back to the army of demons. Jason tried not to tear up at the sight of him.

Bizzaro.

Bizzaro had started out as a failed Superman clone, but he was so much more than that. He was one of Jason’s best friends. His family. A being made of pure heart.

Jason had been on a team with him and the Amazon Artemis for a while. All that had ended when they’d had to leave Bizzaro behind in this hell dimension in order to save the world. Bizzaro had defeated the former ruler of this dimension, King Trigon, and been named the new king by conquest. Bizzaro had chosen to stay behind and rule over the demons to stop them from breaching the realm. The gate to hell had been open and they’d needed the time to close it, but in doing so they had needed to seal Bizzaro inside.

The demons in the crowd started murmuring about Jason’s presence, and Bizzaro turned around as he noticed their distraction. The big guy’s eyes widened at the sight of Jason standing in front of him.

“Red Him!” Bizzaro exclaimed. “You visit!”

Biz thumped forward and swept Jason up into a bone crushing hug. 

“Hey, buddy,” Jason said, hugging back with all his strength. “It’s so good to see you.”

“Me am happy to see Red Him too,” Bizzaro said.

He set Jason back down, beaming at him. Jason was sure his grin was just as wide. God, it had been so long since he’d smiled like this and meant it. He hadn’t had a reason to smile like this in so long.

“I’m sorry we left you behind,” Jason said. “But I’m here now and I’m going to figure out how to get you home no matter what it takes.”

Alarm rippled through the crowd of demons.

“You will not take King Bizzaro,” one of them exclaimed. “We will tear you limb from limb for even suggesting it.”

The crowd yelled their agreement.

“Now, now,” Bizzaro said, holding up a hand. “What we say about violence?”

The demon who had spoken pouted. “That it is only the answer if talking first fails.”

Bizzaro smiled approvingly and nodded. “Good!”

The crowd of angry demons settled down into a sulk.

Bizzaro turned back to Jason. “Me am missed Red Him and Red Her. But me am home. Me am wanted here and me am happy here.”

“Oh,” Jason managed.

He wasn’t surprised that the demons all adored Bizzaro. It was hard not to adore Bizzaro. Jason also wasn’t surprised that Bizzaro had let all these demons into his heart and dedicated himself to caring for them. 

But Jason couldn’t help but be disappointed. Even though he wasn’t sure it was possible, he’d really hoped for a moment that he could take Biz back home with him. That he could start putting the Outlaws— his team— his family— back together.

Bizzaro seemed to sense his disappointment, because he grasped Jason comfortingly by the shoulder. Then he waved the crowd of demons away and started to walk Jason to a private room.

“How am Red Him been?” Bizzaro asked when they were finally alone.

If it was almost any other person asking, Jason would have lied. But it was Bizzaro. 

“Honestly, Biz, not too good. It… Things have been hard. I’ve missed you and Artemis a lot.”

“Red Her not with Red Him?” 

“No. It wouldn’t have been the same without you, and Artemis had her own stuff to deal with. She would never have been happy settling with me in Man’s World. We get in touch every so often but… well she’s busy. So am I. We’ve both been busy.”

“Bizzaro understand,” Biz said, nodding solemnly.

“No one—” Jason tried. “No one really… wants me around, I guess.”

It was the most honest thing Jason had said in a while.

“Me am doubt that. Me very doubt. Red Him am great around.”

Fuck, Jason was really going to cry. He’d managed to hold it together when he’d seen those two happier versions of himself, but this trip was really going to break him.

“I guess I just miss the Outlaws,” Jason said. “The Bats they… they only want me around when I’m being useful, and most of the time our opinions on what’s useful differ. It’s my own fault… but it still hurts.”

“Red Him… stay here?” Biz offered. “Give Red Him nice room in palace. Yoga every day. Fun games. Big family.”

Jason couldn’t bring himself to consider the idea much. Jason was no quitter. It didn’t matter that the Bats didn’t want Jason, he couldn’t give up on his family. Gotham would always be Jason’s home. Sure, he didn’t live there all the time, but he knew in his heart that he’d always come back to it. Even if he couldn’t have his family, Crime Alley was his to protect, and he would never abandon it.

“I don’t think I can,” Jason admitted to Biz. “You don’t need me here.”

“Red Him like be needed,” Biz agreed. “But am that what good for Red Him? Me not need Red Him. But me always welcome Red Him.”

Jason thought on what Bizzaro was saying for a moment. 

“I think it is good for me,” he decided. “Being needed. I’ve always been my best self when someone needed me—when you needed me, when Roy needed me, when Duela and those other wannabe villain kids needed me—those were the times I felt the most… good … since… my first death.”

Bizzaro nodded. “Then Red Him should go where he needed. But Red Him should also go where he wanted . Red Him should help Red Him-self.”

That statement sparked an idea in Jason. 

Jason could seemingly go anywhere in the multiverse. He had access to infinite versions of himself, and Jason knew that if anyone needed help, versions of him sure as hell did. It probably wasn’t what Biz had meant, but it would be helping himself, in a way. 

Jason could save versions of himself from living on the streets. He could save versions of himself from his worst mistakes. He could save versions of himself from the clown. Those Jasons needed him. It might have been too late for him, but the other Jasons could live better lives than he ever had. Jason could make that happen for them.

“I will help myself,” Jason told Biz.

Jason stuck around in Bizzaro’s hell-dimension for a couple of hours, letting Biz gleefully show him around and introduce him to various demons. He left with the promise that he’d visit often, which was a promise he fully intended to keep. Maybe he’d be able to bring Artemis as well. He still didn’t know if he could take other people with him on these strange multiversal trips. He supposed more tests were due. First he needed to patrol though.

Only his mind was currently being consumed by the idea he’d had while talking to Bizzaro. 

He probably shouldn’t wreak havoc across the multiverse… right?

As he set out as Red Hood, he tried to forget about the multiverse for a while.

It didn’t work, especially since patrol was uneventful. But he did manage to finish his route without spontaneously flashing to another universe. Then he turned in to finally get some sleep. It was always better to sleep on your craziest ideas. If he still wanted to go through with his stupid plan tomorrow… then he supposed he’d have to.

Chapter Text

Jason was going to do it. 

He probably shouldn’t do it, but that had never stopped him from doing anything before. 

He was going to go save his alternate selves. 

Because he could.

He double checked his Red Hood gear, making sure he had enough weaponry for whatever he was getting into. Then he did it again just to be safe. Finally, he pulled his hood over his head. 

Oh god, he was really doing this. 

He thought about where he wanted to go: a time and place where he could save himself from the clown.

Then he was zipping into another universe.

His feet hit the concrete floor of a warehouse, right next to the scene that had haunted his nightmares for years. He snapped a hand out, catching a crowbar just before it could connect with the little Robin on the ground. 

“Who—?” the Joker started, but Jason didn’t let him finish.

Without a thought, he ripped the crowbar free of Joker’s grip and turned it back around on him. He heard the Joker’s skull crack as the crowbar connected. The Joker hit the floor and Jason pulled out a gun, shooting Joker three times in the head.

“What the fuck?” Robin wheezed from the floor.

Jason looked over at him. The kid was definitely worse for wear, but Jason estimated that Joker only got a few good hits in before he arrived. Robin would live. Jason turned his attention to the rest of the room. Sheila Haywood and two of Joker’s goons were staring at him in shock.

“I suggest you run,” Jason told them.

They did.

Shitheads.

“Who are you?” Robin asked.

Jason bent down and helped Robin to his feet. “I’m Jason Todd.”

“What? No you’re not.”

“Yes, I am,” Jason said, smirking at Robin-Jason.

Robin seemed to finally catalogue his face. Jason had opted for just a domino mask, so it wasn’t hard for Robin to see that he was telling the truth.

“Are you me from the future?” Robin-Jason asked.

“Alternate universe,” Jason said. “Which is completely different from time travel, and hopefully not as dangerous…”

“ Hopefully? ” Robin-Jason repeated, raising his eyebrows.

Jason pulled Joker’s bomb out and started the countdown.

“Did you just arm a bomb?!”

“Yep. I don’t want to leave any part of Joker to recover.”

“Recover?! You shot him three times in the head!”

“I’m not taking any chances.”

“You’re insane.”

“Probably,” Jason said. “Now come on. We’ve got to get out of here before the bomb goes off.”

Jason led the limping Robin out of the warehouse and a good distance away. They settled down to watch the building.

“So you’re me, from an alternate universe,” Robin-Jason said. “And you came here to save me from the Joker. Because the same thing happened to you, right?”

“Yep.”

“Did another version of us save you? Is this like a pay-it-forward type situation?”

“Nope.”

“But obviously someone saved you since you’re here today. So why was it important for you to save me?”

“No one saved me, kid. I died.”

“Oh.”

That shut Robin up for a bit. 

Jason was happy to soak up the silence, feeling a firm sense of catharsis. 

Bizzaro had been right. Helping himself was important. This was like a new form of therapy that he’d just invented.  

The warehouse finally exploded.

“Jason!” Alternate-Batman screamed as he ran towards the burning warehouse.

Huh. Batman really had been right there. A few minutes earlier and he might have been able to save him. Jason didn’t know how to feel about that. Both Jason’s watched, shellshocked, as Alt-Batman tore through the rubble yelling Jason’s name.

“Batman!” Robin-Jason hollered. “I’m over here.”

Alt-Batman practically teleported across the distance between them, and Jason tried not to flinch at the Bat’s rapid approach. Batman running at him didn’t usually mean good things. But instead of a fist coming his way, Alt-Batman reached for Robin-Jason. It took all of Jason’s self-control to stop himself from intercepting it protectively, but he managed to hold himself still as Alt-Batman started frantically checking Robin-Jason over for injuries.

“Robin,” Batman breathed. “Report.”

“Sheila sold me out,” Robin-Jason reported, his voice cracking a little over the words. 

Batman’s fists clenched but he didn’t interrupt.

“I wanted to help her,” Robin-Jason continued. “The Joker was blackmailing her and I— I told her I was Robin and that I could help. She took me here. She said the Joker was gone but… She handed me right to him and he… Well he—”

Robin-Jason broke off.

“The clown started beating him with a crowbar. I intervened. You would have been too late.”

Alt-Batman finally put his full attention on Jason, eyes calculating. Then his expression broke as he seemed to understand just who Jason was.

“J-Jay?” Alt-Batman asked, reaching towards Jason.

Jason flinched away from Alt-Batman’s hand before he could stop himself. Shit.

Alt-Batman withdrew, brow furrowing. “Time travel?”

“Alternate universe,” Jason replied. 

“How did you know that I wouldn’t have made it in time? Why are you here?”

“Because Batman didn’t make it to me in time,” Jason said, answering both questions. “I died.”

Alt-Batman paled. 

Jason stepped away, ready to jump universes.

“Wait!” Alt-Batman said, seeming to sense that Jason was going to leave.

Jason paused.

“You— You flinched,” Alt-Batman blurted. “I reached for you and you flinched. You acted like… like I was going to hit you. Why?”

“Me and my Batman don’t always see eye to eye anymore,” Jason admitted. “I made some mistakes.”

“And he beat you for them?” Alt-Batman’s mouth was set into a firm line.

Jason’s eyes widened at the conclusions he could see Alt-Batman coming to. 

“I came back wrong,” Jason explained. “I broke his rules. I killed and I don’t regret it. You know what they say; you either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain. I did both.”

Alt-Batman’s mouth twitched downwards, which for Batman was basically a sob. “But…” 

Jason raised an eyebrow under his domino mask, ready for the argument he’d heard so many times. Ready for the condemnation.

“But I promised I’d never raise a hand against you outside of training,” Alt-Batman said. “I promised.”

Jason’s eyes widened. 

He’d forgotten about that. 

It had been in his first month at the manor, after Bruce had tried to ruffle Jason’s hair and he’d flinched away. Bruce had assured him that he would never hurt him like that. Jason hadn’t thought about that promise in years, maybe because it was meaningless now.

But… Alt-Batman wasn’t upset because Jason had killed, he was upset about Jason’s Batman breaking his promise?

“I guess that promise was conditional,” Jason managed.

“It wasn’t,” Alt-Batman said, tone leaving no room for argument.

Jason shook his head. 

“It’s not like how you’re thinking, okay? I gave as good as I got. I pushed him too far.”

“You think you deserved to be beaten?” Alt-Batman’s face was pale, and Jason could only assume he was seriously misunderstanding what Jason was trying to tell him.

“Look, you’re— You’re missing a lot of context, alright?”

“Fine,” Alt-Batman said. “Tell me the context then.”

So Jason did. 

He hopped into the Batplane with them and spent the whole flight back to Gotham telling Alt-Batman and Robin-Jason about everything that happened after his death. Alt-Batman stayed completely stone faced throughout, and Jason could only assume he was resolving to throw Jason in Arkham as soon as they got back. But for once Jason didn’t have to be afraid of that, because he could leave this universe in the blink of an eye and there was nothing Alt-Batman could do about it.

Jason wasn’t even done with his story by the time they got back, and he had to spend an extra hour finishing it up in the Batcave. When he was finally done, Alt-Batman pulled back his cowl and stared at him silently for a moment.

“It’s worse than I thought,” Alt-Bruce said. “So much worse.”

And yeah, that was about what Jason expected. Alt-Bruce understood now. He understood why Jason’s Bruce had condemned him. 

Jason tensed, getting ready to will himself away.

“He murdered you,” Alt-Bruce said. It came out angry, so Alt-Bruce took a deep breath and softened his tone. “He murdered you over a dozen times and then he asked you to die for him. And you think you deserved it.”

“I— It was my fault,” Jason said. “He didn’t mean to kill me. He lost control.” 

Because it was true . Jason had broken Bruce’s sacred rule while wearing the face of Bruce’s dead son. Of course Bruce had lost control.

“ What the fuck are you talking about?! ” Robin-Jason yelled. “That’s the biggest fucking bullshit I’ve ever heard. Your Bruce is a fucking psycho! Why are you still defending him?!”

Jason blinked at his alternate self in shock.

“ Lad ,” Alt-Bruce said to Robin-Jason, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. “This Jason has been through a lot. Yelling at him isn’t going to help him accept things he doesn’t want to accept.”

“I’m not in denial,” Jason said, recognising Alt-Bruce’s line of thinking. “I’m not a victim.”

“Of course,” Alt-Bruce lied, using his victim comforting voice. “But how about you stay for a while. You’ll be safe here.”

“I’m safe in my universe too,” Jason said, but even he knew that was a lie. “Or, well, as safe as someone like me can be.”

Alt-Bruce reached for him and Jason flinched away from it. Alt-Bruce immediately withdrew his hand. 

“Sorry,” Alt-Bruce said hurriedly. “You’re just… you’re still a version of my son, and I’m accustomed to—” Alt-Bruce gestured helplessly.

“You’re not better than my Bruce,” Jason blurted. “You still took in a kid to be a soldier in your never-ending war, then fired him when he got disobedient. Your Jason still ran away just like I did. He wouldn’t have done that if you were better than my Bruce. He knows you don’t want him. That’s why he was searching for a back-up parent.”

Robin-Jason averted his eyes as Alt-Bruce whipped his gaze to him.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Jason stepped between them. “Sorry, I didn’t mean— Don’t be angry with him, be angry with me.”

Alt-Bruce’s expression crumpled. “I’m not angry with either of you. I promise, I’m not. I should’ve— I’m not good at this— Talking. I— Just give me a minute to—” Alt-Bruce ran a hand down his face.

Robin-Jason peeked around where Jason was bodily shielding him. Then he stepped out to stand beside Jason.

Alt-Bruce looked back at them, then he slowly came to kneel in front of Robin-Jason.

“I didn’t take you in to be Robin,” Alt-Bruce said. 

He was focused on Robin-Jason, but he was also glancing at Jason as he spoke, trying to convey that he wanted both of them to understand this. 

“The truth is,” Alt-Bruce continued, “I took you in because I was lonely, and I didn’t know how to admit that to myself. I took you in as Robin because I couldn’t admit that to myself. Not at first. I regret that now. 

“Dick didn’t want to be my son, he wanted to be my partner. I thought you were the same. I thought you didn’t want to see me as a father, even while I saw you as a son. Robin was good for Dick. I thought Robin would be good for you. Or at least, I wanted that to be true. And when I wasn’t looking at you and seeing Dick, I was looking at you and seeing myself.

“But you aren’t Dick and you’re not me, and I never should have acted like you were. You’re Jason, and you’re my son, and I love you . No matter what you choose to do, that will never change. I’m sorry I never told you that before.”

Holy shit.

Robin-Jason dove into Alt-Bruce’s arms for a hug. 

Jason watched them, feeling hazy.

“I thought it was me,” Jason murmured. “I changed so much that I thought it had to be my fault. That he was acting different because I was different. But— But Bruce isn’t the father I remember. You are. I changed but… so did he. Tim was right, my death really did destroy him. And I’m not the only one who came back from it wrong.”

Jason ended up staying the night, and then for breakfast. They tried to convince him to stay longer, but Jason knew he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t just abandon everyone he knew in his universe. Crime Alley. The Outlaws. The younger Bats.

Beyond that, there was an infinite multiverse of Robins that Jason could still save from the clown.

So he did. Again. And again. And again. It became a cycle. He showed up in a new universe, saved Robin, stayed the night and had breakfast with the Bats of that universe, went home to keep up with his responsibilities in his own universe, then onto the next universe, rinse and repeat. 

It was different every time. Sometimes Sheila was there and sometimes she wasn’t. Sometimes Robin-Jason was tied to a chair and sometimes he was free on the floor. Sometimes Robin-Jason looked a little off, with different coloured hair or eyes. Sometimes there were goons and sometimes there weren’t. Sometimes he was in Ethiopia and sometimes he wasn’t. But there was always Robin-Jason, and there was always the clown, and Jason always killed him.

Again. And again. And again.

Chapter Text

Tim Drake tried not to fidget as he waited for Jason to show. Jason hadn’t said why he wanted to meet up, but he’d chosen a coffee shop as their meeting spot, so it probably wasn’t for help on a case. Not that Tim would need a specific reason to meet up with Jason, since they were kind of brothers, but Jason usually didn’t reach out without a reason. Sure, sometimes the reasons were clearly just excuses to check up on Tim, but Jason always gave a reason nonetheless. 

Tim’s relationship with Jason was weird. Jason had tried to kill him, sure, but over time they’d developed an understanding. Jason was hardly the only person Tim had forgiven for trying to kill him, and Jason had been going through a lot at the time. Jason had come a long way since then, and nowadays, Tim considered Jason a brother. He was willing to bet Jason felt the same.

Jason had been very absent lately. Tim hadn’t seen him since he’d died— the second time — for Bruce’s plan to stop Failsafe. Jason hadn’t even shown up to pick a room at the new manor, so Tim could only assume he was choosing to distance himself. 

Tim had been starting to worry that dying again had been more traumatising for Jason than any of them had realised. The first death had certainly been traumatising enough. Two was hardly going to improve things. 

He’d almost reached out to Jason once or twice, but Tim knew that when Jason wanted space, it was best to let him have it. Even with that knowledge, Tim had been close to asking for help on a case as an excuse to make contact.

Tim raised a hand to flag Jason down when he saw his brother enter the coffee shop. Jason nodded, then went over to the counter to order his drink. Part of Tim had been expecting Jason to look like a wreck, but he actually looked okay. Better than normal even. Freer maybe? Although it was difficult for Tim to put his finger on why that was.

“Hey, Timbo,” Jason greeted as he took a seat. 

“Hey.” He offered Jason a smile. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

Jason shrugged. “Been busy.”

“Yeah?” Tim prodded.

Jason just nodded, not offering any more information. 

Tim didn’t push. He’d look into Red Hood’s activity later.

There was a moment of awkward silence in which their drinks were set down by a waitress.

“I’ve got something of a hypothetical for you,” Jason said eventually. “Since you’re like the smartest guy I know.”

Asking about a hypothetical scenario was definitely one of the weaker excuses Jason had used to meet up with him. Either Jason had just wanted to see him, or whatever ‘hypothetical’ he was about to describe was not so hypothetical.

“Lay it on me,” Tim said.

“Right,” Jason said with a nod. “Say that you could travel to an alternate universe that was shifted so their present was your past. Would it be dangerous to change things with your future knowledge? Like, for example, if I saved my alternate self from being murdered by the Joker, would that fuck something up? ’Cause usually messing with the past is bad, right? But if it’s in another universe then it’s fine, isn’t it? Like, hypothetically.”

Tim studied Jason as he took in his questions. Jason looked shifty, but also, the scenario sounded too ridiculous to be real. How would Jason be travelling to an alternate universe? Even if he could, how would he be able to locate the specific type of universe he wanted? Tim didn’t know of anyone who had the technology to do that. So… probably just Jason making weird things up as an excuse to hang out. He could easily imagine Jason fantasising about saving himself from the Joker— Tim was willing to bet that every single Bat had at one time or another— so it wasn’t completely out of left field.

“Well,” Tim said, “I guess usually people worry about messing with the time stream because they don’t want to mess up the future or make themselves cease to exist. But none of that would apply to messing with an alternate universe, so there probably wouldn’t be any blowback on you. However, there could still be unintended consequences for the people in the alternate universe, right? Like with your example, if the Joker never kills your alternate self, then my alternate self would never follow in your footsteps, and we wouldn’t be brothers.”

Jason twitched, before his demeanour softened, as Jason always did when Tim called them brothers.

“You don’t think you’d have been better off if you stayed out of… the family?” Jason asked. “Even after everything?”

“No,” Tim answered definitively. “Before Robin I was just a kid alone in a big house with nothing to live for. Now I have friends and family I never would have had without Robin. Sure, sometimes things aren’t great— sometimes they’re pretty shit— but I’m not sure I would have found a reason to keep going when I was younger if it wasn’t for Robin. Even when things are shit, at least I have a reason to keep going now.”

That was perhaps more honest than Tim had intended to be. Tim always found it easiest to be honest with Jason. Maybe because Jason was an even bigger mess than he was.

Jason took a long sip of his drink rather than replying.

Tim thought he’d spooked Jason with the depth of his confession, but after a moment Jason spoke quietly. 

“I’m glad you found a reason to keep going.”

Tim was momentarily stunned. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Jason had grown to care about him, it was just rare for Jason to imply as much aloud. Not that Tim was one to talk. No one in their weird vigilante family was all that good at showing their appreciation for each other.

There was another awkward silence and they both seemed to mutually agree that they’d done enough feelings for the day.

“So how are you travelling to the alternate universe in this hypothetical scenario?” Tim asked to change the subject.

“Oh, err,” Jason said, “It just happens. I don’t know how. Hypothetically.”

“There must be a reason,” Tim said. “Alien tech? Future tech? Magic? Speed force?”

“Weird shit happens to me and I don’t question it. I come back to life and I don’t know how and that’s just how it is. That’s how I operate. Why do I have to come up with a how?”

Tim had to concede that Jason’s initial abrupt resurrection would always be a mystery. At least with Jason’s other death they knew that he’d been brought back by Lazarus Fluid.

“I can’t tell you everything would be hypothetically fine if I don’t know how your hypothetical self is doing it,” Tim joked.

That pulled Jason up short for some reason. He blinked as he processed Tim’s comment. “Yeah… Maybe you’re right. I should probably figure out the hypothetical how.”

Then before Tim could respond, Jason changed the subject.

Jason’s conversation with Tim had been enlightening. As a rule, Jason didn’t like looking into his own weirdness, but he probably should look into his universe hopping if he was going to make a habit of it. He didn’t want to, like, unravel the multiverse or something. 

There wouldn't be anything quite like destroying the multiverse to hammer home what a colossal fuck-up he was. 

So yeah, Jason was going to get onto figuring out the how. He even knew a good place to start, since this wasn’t his first experience with what could be magic, and not his first time inexplicably bouncing around the multiverse. However, his conversation with Tim had revealed something else he had to do first. 

There were a lot of alternate Tims in a lot of alternate universes that Jason had just accidentally screwed over. Sure, Jason could argue that Tim would be better off not being Robin, but it wasn’t up to Jason to decide that. It was up to Tim. Jason understood that now and he respected Tim enough to take him at his word.

So Jason started from the top, going back to the very first universe where he’d saved his own life.

In an instant, Jason appeared in the Batcave of that alternate universe, startling the shit out of both Robin-Jason and Alt-Batman.

“You’re back!” Robin-Jason exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Jason said. “I’ve come to tell you that…”

Jason trailed off as he spotted the kid peeking out from behind Robin-Jason.

“Is that the Jason from another universe?” the kid asked.

Alt-Batman gave a grunt of confirmation.

“Tim,” Jason said as he stared at the kid. “You’re here.”

The kid emerged from behind Robin-Jason. Jason dubbed him Baby-Tim in his head, because he was tiny. Jason knew Tim hadn’t been that young when Jason had beaten him up during his unhinged phase, but he felt a little nauseous anyway.

“I was coming to tell you to adopt Tim,” Jason said. “But it looks like you’ve got that covered already.”

Alt-Batman released some tension. Perhaps he thought Jason would be pissed they’d gone ahead and dragged Baby-Tim into the life.

“You mentioned a lot of people who we may encounter in our future when you described what had happened to you,” Alt-Batman explained. “I looked into them, and we discovered that Tim’s parents hadn’t been home for eight months. I’m fostering him for the moment. We’ve also been looking for the others you mentioned. I’ve set up an algorithm to search for Cassandra Cain, and I’ve gotten in contact with Talia about baby Damian being better off growing up with me. We’re still working out the kinks.”

“Oh,” Jason said. “Good. Adopt Tim.” He looked at Robin-Jason. “Be nice to your little brothers.”

Robin-Jason gave him a look clearly meant to communicate how unnecessary that request had been.

“I uhhh,” Jason said. “I guess that’s all then. I’ll be going now.”

“Wait,” Alt-Batman said. 

Just like last time.

And just like last time Jason waited.

“Have you… thought at all about staying here? I really think that—”

“Still, no,” Jason said, smiling slightly despite his rejection. It was nice to be wanted for once.

“ He doesn’t deserve you,” Alt-Batman said, real disgust in his voice as he spoke of Jason’s Bruce. “You don’t have to stay there. You have a place here if you want one. You always will.”

“I don’t stay there for Bruce ,” Jason said. “I know Bruce probably thinks I do. He probably thinks I came back just to harass him. That’s not true. I came back because Gotham is my home, probably even more than it is to some nearby rich boy who laid claim over it without having to live in it. I can’t abandon Gotham— my Gotham. Crime Alley— my people— they need me.”

Alt-Batman grunted, looking unhappy, but more about Jason’s refusal to stay than Jason’s potshot at his Bristol mansion lifestyle.

“He’s going to be brooding about this for ages,” Robin-Jason confided. “He wanted to go to your universe and steal you from your Bruce, but we didn’t know how to locate your universe. Also Superman told him he couldn’t because he was afraid Bruce would start an interdimensional war.”

“I wouldn’t,” Alt-Bruce protested, sounding like he’d already argued about this at length. “There’s no way the Justice League in your universe would stand behind someone like your Batman unless they were also morally corrupt.”

Jason blinked, bewildered. 

“Well I don’t think they know about most of the worst shit,” he said. “My Batman doesn’t like them coming into Gotham and getting involved in Gotham business. You probably don’t either.”

“So I should let my Justice League keep me in check more?” Alt-Bruce said contemplatively.

God, Jason must have really spooked Alt-Batman with the knowledge of how his own Batman turned out.

Alt-Batman focused back on the matter at hand. “You should tell your Justice League about your Batman’s actions. They deserve to know who they’re working with.”

“You want me to tattle on my Bruce to Clark and Diana?” Jason asked with an incredulous laugh.

“Yes.”

“He’s just hoping that if your Justice League abandons your Bruce, then our Superman will let him steal you,” Robin-Jason explained. “Ya know, after he figures out how to get to your universe and punches your Bruce in the face.”

Robin-Jason slammed his fist against his palm for emphasis.

Alt-Bruce shook his head. 

“After everything I learned about my alternate future self,” he said, “I think it’s best we try to move away from normalising violence in our interpersonal conflicts. Clearly that Bruce’s patterns of behavior started somewhere.”

God, he sounded like he’d swallowed a million self help books. What the fuck?

Robin-Jason pouted.

“But,” Alt-Bruce continued, “I will be making sure he suffers the consequences of his actions and I’m sure your Justice League will help me do that.”

Jason was glad he’d only taken the time to tell this one Alt-Bruce his entire backstory. He didn’t need a whole army of Alt-Bruces wanting to storm his universe and make trouble with his Batman.

“The Justice League won’t be on my side,” Jason said, shaking his head. “I’ve done a lot of shit they wouldn’t approve of, so… yeah.”

“That does not justify your Batman’s behaviour,” Alt-Bruce stated firmly. “And if he has hurt you so severely, he has probably harmed his other children too.”

“He wouldn’t,” Jason insisted. “It’s just me.”

There’s no way Bruce would be able to get away with hurting the other Bats, and they didn’t break his previous no killing rule, so he’d have no reason to.

Alt-Bruce shot him a disbelieving look. “Even if that were the case, him hurting you is reason enough. You must seek help from your Justice League.”

“I’ll think about it,” Jason lied, feeling uncomfortable. “Anyway, I’ve got to go. I have a lot of Batmans to tell about their Tims.”

“You came on too strong,” he heard Robin-Jason mutter, but he didn’t stick around to hear Alt-Bruce’s reply.

Chapter Text

Even after making sure every happy Batfam in all the universes he had visited adopted their Tims, Jason still couldn’t stop thinking about his little brother. Robin-Jasons weren’t the only Robins who needed saving. Tim may have said Red Hood visiting Titans Tower to beat him up was water under the bridge, but Jason still counted it as one of his biggest mistakes. And maybe Robin-Jasons weren’t the only Jasons who needed saving either. In hindsight, Jason had really needed help in those early Red Hood days. The kind of help he’d needed then was just different from the help he’d needed when the clown was murdering him.

So Jason decided to take a break from saving Robin-Jasons from clowns, and thought of a universe where a different moment in his past was about to occur.

As usual, Jason appears in front of a version of himself dressed as Robin, only this time the Robin suit was looking about three times more ridiculous than usual.

“I can’t believe I ever thought any of this was a good idea,” Jason sighed. “The outfit choice alone should have clued me in to the fact I was not in a good place mentally. Seriously, you look like an idiot.”

“What the fuck?” asked the alternate Jason, the Red Hood currently wearing a Robin costume.

“Yeah, hi, I’m you from another universe.” Jason glanced over his shoulder to get a look at Tim behind him. The kid looked unharmed. “Hey, Timbo.”

Robin-Tim blinked at him, trying to process this new turn of events. “Hey…?”

Red-Robin-Hood threw a punch at Jason, and Jason knocked it away with ease. The extra few years he had on his past self made all the difference in a fight. And with those extra few years, this Jason looked just as much like a lost kid as Robin-Jasons always did, despite the extra pounds. Jason was about 18 or 19 here, if he was counting correctly. And Tim, Tim was about 16. 

It was always jarring to remember that Tim was only two-ish years younger than him.

“Look,” Jason sighed to his alternate self, “You have a right to be angry. Bruce is a fucking asshole who will never stop taking in kids and then replacing them when shit gets real, but you’re taking your anger out on the wrong person. Tim is just another victim of Bruce’s bullshit, and he doesn’t deserve you coming after him over it. In a few years, you’re going to regret the hell out of all the times you hurt him, because, like it or not, he’s your little brother and you care about him a lot.”

“He’s not my brother ,” Red-Robin-Hood spat, “And if he’s going to be Robin then he needs to learn the consequences.”

“I get it, man,” Jason said. “You think you’re helping him learn. You think you’re helping him survive. But your way of doing it won’t help shit. He’s been Robin for years already, he’s no stranger to a psycho in a stupid outfit beating him up a little. You’re his Tuesday. Sure, this wouldn’t have been one of his top ten experiences, but you’re the person who’s going to look back on this day with horror, not him.”

Red-Robin-Hood took a step back and Jason took a step forward.

“Bruce isn’t going to pick you,” Jason said. “You know that. You’ve always known that. So save yourself the trouble and forget about Bruce entirely. He isn’t the man you remember anymore. He’s a violent asshole and you’re going to meet other people who are going to be much better family to you than he ever was. Tim is one of those people.”

Red-Robin-Hood shook his head. “I have to know.”

“Yeah,” Jason sighed. “But you know already, even if you don’t want to accept the truth.”

Red-Robin-Hood stared at him for a moment, processing Jason’s words. Then he was gone, darting away and melting into the shadows like only a trained assassin could. Jason hoped Red-Robin-Hood would think about what he said, but at least for the moment Tim wouldn’t get hurt.

Jason turned back to Robin-Tim, who he’d basically been ignoring, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed about all the mushy shit he’d said. 

Robin-Tim was giving him one of his patented analytical looks, probably cataloguing everything perceptible.

“You said we’re brothers?” Robin-Tim asked. “In your universe?”

“Yeah,” Jason said awkwardly. “I’m not saying you should trust your Jason yet, so don’t let your guard down, but he will get there.”

Robin-Tim nodded slowly. “But you still hate Bruce?”

Jason didn’t say anything for a long moment.

“I wish I did,” he admitted. “It would make things easier.”

He left before Robin-Tim could ask him more questions.

Jason went to a few other universes to save alternate Tims from getting their asses beat by Red Hoods before he decided to branch out. Why limit himself to that one scenario when there could be so many other Tims in peril? So Jason just started aiming for any universe where Tim needed help. He didn’t usually stick around for very long, often popping in and saving the alternate Tim from various villain-of-the-week situations and then popping out to the next one. 

He got used to the routine of it. Which is why it was incredibly jarring when he popped into a universe just in time to see an alternate version of Nightwing beating the ever loving shit out of a version of Tim while yelling, “ I am the lord of all vampires now. ” 

At this point, Jason trusted the process of this multiverse hopping shit, so he barely had to think before he was reacting. He summoned the All Blades, his pair of magical evil-slaying swords that he could materialise on the power of his soul, and stabbed Vampire-Nightwing right through the chest with them. It was a pretty safe course of action even if Jason was wildly misinterpreting the situation, because the All Blades couldn’t harm regular humans.

But yeah, Vampire-Nightwing screamed and disintegrated in a burst of fire so Jason was pretty sure he hadn’t misinterpreted the situation.

With the obvious threat to the Tim-In-Distress neutralised, Jason took stock of the room, seeing this universe’s Batman dead on the floor with their Damian and Alfred leaning over the body. There was a Vampire-Wonder-Woman fighting ferociously to escape from her lasso, which had her tied up. When he looked towards the entryway, he made eye contact with another version of himself who was just hurrying back into whatever building they were in.

“What the fuck?” Other-Jason asked.

“Yeah, hi, I’m you from another universe,” Jason said, well used to giving this brief by now. “Vampire-Nightwing was about to kill Tim so…” he gestured helplessly at the pile of Vampire-Nightwing dust with the All Blades. “Sorry.”

“Shit, why didn’t I try using the All Blades?” Other-Jason mumbled to himself.

“I don’t know, man. We seem to forget we have magic swords a lot.”

“Yeah…” Other-Jason agreed with a wince.

“Since when do you have magic swords ?!” Tim-In-Distress demanded from the floor.

Before Jason could answer with something snarky and unhelpful, Vampire-Wonder-Woman slipped free of her lasso and sped towards him. Jason caught her on the All Blades and she quickly joined Vampire-Nightwing as a pile of dust.

Jason bent down and helped Tim-In-Distress to his feet. He brushed some imaginary dust off his alternate brother then gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. “I don’t want to deal with the fallout of whatever the fuck is going on here, so I’m gonna bounce. Stay out of trouble.”

Jason left.

“This never gets old, you know?” Jason said as he shot the clown in the face. It turned out that saving Tim from the Joker was almost as cathartic as saving himself from the Joker. That was good to know.

He was definitely going to do it a few more times for good measure before he went back to seeking general Tims in peril.

Arriving to a Vampire-Nightwing beating Tim had been a shock. Arriving to an alternate version of Batman beating Tim was not. It probably should have been, but Jason was well acquainted with Bruce’s violent rages by now; he was just accustomed to them being directed at him rather than Tim. At least his Bruce had the decency to only beat Jason up.

Jason got between them quickly, shoving Violent-Bruce away and standing protectively in front of the alternate Tim. Violent-Bruce faltered at his sudden appearance. Jason took the opportunity to glance back at the other Tim and check on his wellbeing. This universe’s Tim stared up at him with wide eyes, and Jason finally noticed that he was wearing a red helmet. One of Jason’s helmets, although the face had been destroyed— probably by Bruce’s fists. 

Was Tim the Red Hood in this universe?

“Jay,” Hood-Tim gasped, spitting out a mouthful of blood afterwards.

Jason turned back to Bruce, not wanting to look away for more than a second. “What the fuck is going on here?”

“Hood,” Violent-Batman managed. He looked pale, like Jason’s appearance had spooked him. “You… died.”

Well, yeah. He’d died a lot. But by the looks of things, Jason hadn’t come back in this universe. Although why that would mean Tim was Red Hood, Jason didn’t know.

“ Died?! ” Hood-Tim spat. “You murdered him!”

This was also not outside the realm of Jason’s experiences, in fact, he rather needed things to be narrowed down.

“You beat him to death!” Hood-Tim continued yelling at Bruce, which actually did help a lot.

“After I shot the Penguin,” Jason stated, to make sure he was on the same page as the other two. 

“With a blank,” Hood-Tim exclaimed. “He beat you to death for breaking his rules and you didn’t even do it! The ‘ world’s greatest detective ’ couldn’t stop for two seconds to check the facts first. And everyone just let him get away with it! He scrubbed the footage and no one believed me when I told them he killed you.”

“So… after I died, you took up the Red Hood mantle,” Jason finished.

Huh.

So this was a universe where Jason didn’t come back after Bruce beat him to death. Or, this universe's Jason had decided to let everyone think he’d stayed dead and got the fuck out of dodge. Sometimes Jason wondered if he should have done that after the first few times Bruce killed him.

Hood-Tim finally focused on him, looking sheepish. “Sorry. I know you don’t like it when I replace you, but I thought you would have wanted Crime Alley to be protected.”

Tim sure did like stealing every one of Jason’s identities.

“No I— I mean, I’m sure your Jason would be touched,” Jason managed. “I’m not him though… I’m from another universe. I’m not your Jason.”

“Oh,” Hood-Tim said. 

Jason had barely noticed the spark of hope in Hood-Tim’s eyes before it was suddenly gone.

“Why are you here?” Violent-Batman asked, jaw clenched.

“I’m here because Tim needed help,” Jason said. He wanted to cross his arms, but he couldn't bring himself to move out of his combat-ready stance. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Did you get a taste for murdering your sons after you did your Jason in?”

“I won’t let people kill in my city,” Violent-Batman growled.

“But it’s fine when you do it, apparently,” Jason said.

“That was an accident.”

“You beat him so hard that he died by accident ?” Hood-Tim cut in. “And you think that makes it okay? You’re not who I thought you were, Bruce. Not anymore. You need to be stopped.”

“You’re the one who needs to stop, Tim,” Violent-Batman said. “I’ve tolerated this long enough. I didn’t mean to kill Hood, but I did intend to stop him, and I’ll stop you too if I need to.”

Violent-Batman took a step closer threateningly and Jason got ready for a fight. He couldn’t usually beat Batman, but he sure as hell wasn’t letting Hood-Tim face this alone.

“It’s too late for that now,” Hood-Tim said, a smirk on his damaged face. “You finally admitted it, and that was all I needed. This was streaming straight to Oracle. The others are already on their way, and they finally believe me, because you’ve shown your true colours today, Bruce. And this time everyone saw it. You’re done.”

Violent-Batman froze at the realisation. In an instant, this universe’s Superman and Nightwing showed up to subdue Violent-Batman. Hood-Tim limped closer to Jason, stopping in front of him.

“Thanks,” Hood-Tim said. “I think your appearance pushed him off balance enough for my plan to work.”

Mindful of Hood-Tim injuries, Jason pulled him into a gentle hug. “Thanks for caring, Timbo. Your Jason was lucky to have a brother like you.”

Hood-Tim hugged him back tightly. Then a sob reverberated through Hood-Tim’s body. “I thought I would feel better when I got him justice but I still…” He sobbed again.

Jason patted his back awkwardly. “You miss him.”

Hood-Tim pulled back, not even attempting to wipe at his eyes. “Yeah.”

Jason hesitated a moment. “You know he… Umm… Are you sure he’s dead?”

“We buried him.”

Jason winced at the thought. Roy must not have shown up to drag his body away in this universe. 

“And… did you ever go back to make sure he was still in his grave?”

“We put sensors in this time,” Hood-Tim said. “We’d know if he woke up again.”

“Not if he disabled them,” Jason said. “Not if he didn’t want you to know. There’s no guarantee that your Jason is like me but… I didn’t stay dead in my world. Might be worth getting a Super to check with X-ray vision. You know, in case he woke up and decided not to tell anyone. I certainly didn’t think anyone would ever pick me over Bruce. I think he’d want to know that you did.”

“I’ll check,” Hood-Tim agreed slowly.

Jason nodded and stepped away. 

He thought about other versions of Tim who may need his help.  

Jason had no idea what Tim had gotten up to in his initial days as Red Robin, but Jason knew it was some crazy shit. 

Maybe a version of Red Robin would need some help against Ra’s or something.

Tim rubbed at his eyes as he fumbled for his ringing phone. Why was Jason calling him at, he looked at the screen, nine in the flipping morning? That was basically 5am for a Bat. But if it was Jason, it was probably important, so he accepted the call.

“Jason, what—?”

“Do you have a spleen?” Jason asked, cutting him off.

“Um, no,” Tim mumbled, trying to wake up enough to understand what was going on.

Jason was silent on the other end for so long that for a second Tim thought he’d hung up.

“YOU DON’T HAVE A SPLEEN!”

“Yeah,” Tim said, thoroughly unimpressed that he was being yelled at after being woken up at ass crack o’clock. “Did you not know that? I know I never told anyone, but Alfred definitely knew because he always gave me the antibiotics I needed. I figured he’d added it to my file or something. I thought you’d all found out by now. Why are you freaking out?”

“Because you don’t have a spleen!”

Trust Jason to manifest his concern as anger.

“Oh, yeah. Well you don’t have a…” Tim had not woken up enough to think of a good comeback. “…brain,” he finished lamely.

Jason sighed. “Tim, are you sure the others know? Do you still get the antibiotics you need now that Alfred is…?”

‘ Dead ,’ Tim finished in his head.

“It’s fine. I have my own stash of antibiotics now.”

“Goddamnit, Tim. You should have told us. What if you get hurt and you’re not awake enough to tell us how to treat you?”

“I’m sure it’s in my file somewhere.”

Jason let out a frustrated grunt, then seemed to make a conscious effort to calm himself down. “I’ll let the rest of them know.”

Tim shrugged. “I’m sure they do already, but whatever.”

There was another long pause. 

Could Tim go back to sleep now?

“One more thing,” Jason said softly, so Tim supposed not. “Has Bruce ever… has he ever hit you? Not just that, I mean. Has he ever, like, hurt you? Physically or emotionally? You know what I mean. Has he?”

Tim suddenly felt a whole lot more awake. He pulled the phone back and stared blankly at it. Why was Jason asking him that? What should he say? 

Obviously Bruce hitting him in training didn’t count. And yeah, there had been that time Bruce had hit him for real, but Bruce had just lost Selina. He couldn’t tell Jason about that. Jason would just overreact. Besides, a lot of the other Bats were there, and they never said anything to Tim about Bruce punching him, so it must not have been a huge deal. And yeah, Bruce had done some shitty things to Tim’s emotional state, like the time he’d tricked him into thinking one of his friends would betray him on his sixteenth birthday, but that was also for training. He’d already established that training didn’t count, right? It would be pointless to tell Jason about any of that. It would just make Jason mad at Bruce again, and that was the last thing any of them wanted.

“Tim?” Jason prompted when Tim took too long to answer.

“No,” Tim lied. “Of course Bruce has never hurt me like that. Why are you asking?”

“No reason. Don’t worry about it. Um, bye.”

Jason hung up.

Tim shoved his phone away and fell back into his bed. Jason had been acting so freaking weird lately. Tim should probably… investigate that? You know, when he woke up again at a reasonable hour…

Chapter Text

Jason shifted awkwardly outside Isabel’s door. He hadn’t seen his flight attendant ex, Isabel, since she’d helped stop Trigon. Or, well, she’d helped by letting his other ex, Essence, have the driver’s seat in her body for the battle. He still felt bad for dragging Isabel into his crazy life. She’d been a normal civilian woman before they’d gone on their overly long first date that involved a trip to space, and now she was stuck sharing a body with a magical immortal. Essence had been in the All Caste with him, the secret magical sect where he’d learned to summon the All Blades, before she’d been cast out. But that hardly mattered now. The All Caste was gone.

Knowing that he couldn’t linger outside forever, Jason knocked on the door. He heard barking in response, and grinned at the evidence that Dog was doing well. He’d found Dog a while back, but had given her to Isabel since globe-trotting vigilante life didn’t mesh well with dog ownership.

The door opened and Dog came bounding out to greet him. 

“Jason,” Isabel said as she stared at him from the doorway.

“Hey, Is,” Jason greeted as he bent down to give Dog some enthusiastic pats. “Is it okay that I’m stopping by?”

“So long as you’re not dragging any villains behind you,” Isabel said with a wry smile.

“No villains, just me. Promise.”

She stepped aside and let him in, then she beckoned Dog in after, “Come on, Ruby.”

The dog padded in after them, wagging her tail happily.

“Ruby?” Jason said. “You changed her name?”

“You named her ‘Dog’,” Isabel said. “Of course I changed her name.”

Jason supposed that was fair enough. He was shit at naming things.

“So what brings you by?” Isabel asked. “I hope you know that you’re not getting the dog back. You can’t leave a dog with someone for over a year and still expect to get it back.”

“I know, don’t worry. I would never try to separate you two. She clearly likes you more than me.”

“Probably because I gave her an actual name.”

Jason laughed. God, Isabel was amazing. He was glad they could still be on friendly terms even after everything Jason’s crazy life had put her through.

Then Isabel tilted her head to the side like she was listening to something. She focused back on Jason with an amused smile. “Ess wants me to tell you that you’re not getting me back either.”

“I know when a person is better off without me,” Jason agreed. 

Isabel tilted her head again and then snorted. Jason supposed Essence had said something derogatory about him.

“You can communicate with Essence now?” he asked.

“Yeah we’ve learned how to spectate when the other is controlling my body,” Isabel replied. “It was weird at first but we’ve figured out how to make this work and started getting along.”

“My exes are friends. That’s not terrifying at all,” Jason joked.

“Well…” Isabel said, “We’re a bit more than friends actually.”

Isabel gave him a meaningful look as Jason processed what she had said.

“Huh,” Jason said. He had not expected that. “Good for you guys.”

Isabel smiled warmly at him. “But enough stalling. What do you need?”

“If I’m being honest,” Jason said. “I stopped by to talk to Essence. I need to ask her some questions about mystical-type stuff.”

“Ah,” Isabel said, with a nod. “Sure thing.”

There was a puff of smoke and Essence appeared in place of Isabel. Jason still had no idea how the fuck that worked. Essence was possessing Isabel, and yet their bodies switched out depending on who was in the driver’s seat. Just magical All-Caste bullshit, Jason supposed.

“Jason,” Essence greeted. “You appear… passably healthy.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Jason said with a fond smile. Essence could be pretty blunt. He was surprised she was even trying pleasantries. Isabel must be rubbing off on her. “Good to see you too. You look… happy.”

And she did. Much happier than Jason had ever seen her in the All Caste or following her departure. She seemed… relaxed. Like the weight of the world was off her shoulders and she’d found a place where she could just exist as she was. A place with love.

“I am,” she said, then after a moment of listening she corrected, “ We are.”

“I’m glad,” Jason said honestly.

They shared a soft moment of understanding. Essence wasn’t a soldier anymore. She got to live now. She deserved that.

“What questions do you have?” Essence asked, getting sick of the small talk and soft looks.

“Right,” Jason said, knowing he couldn’t put it off any longer, “Any chance travelling the multiverse is a latent part of the All Caste skill set?”

Essence stared at him blankly for a moment. “No,” she said flatly. “It is not.”

Well, shit.

“So there’s no chance that me slipping between universes could be related to my skill with the All Blades.”

“There is no chance.”

“Okay, right, well… do you have any idea why someone like me might start slipping between universes?”

She gave him a concerned look. “No, Jason, I do not. Has it been harming you?”

“I… don’t think so,” he said. “I was just really hoping you’d have some answers.”

“I’m sorry I cannot be of any help,” she said. “The Acres of All did sit outside of time and space, but beyond that I know nothing of the multiverse and the act of moving between universes. Furthermore, access to the Acres of All was only possible through the correct entrances. There was no ‘slipping’ into it as you describe.”

“Oh,” Jason sighed. 

Great. It looked like he’d have to chase down his other possible lead.

Kyle Rayner glanced at the text message again as he approached the meeting point. 

‘ Kyle Rayner. I know you’re a Green Lantern. Meet with me or else. Tell no one. ’

Then he re-read the second message with the time and place. A cafe of all things. A cafe he was currently standing in front of. 

Kyle tucked his phone away as he went inside. 

This was so clearly a trap. But he couldn’t exactly ignore it. So here he was.

His eyes did a sweep of the relatively busy cafe, and they quickly caught on someone he didn't expect to see.

“Donna?” he said as he approached the Amazon’s booth. “What are you doing here?”

“Kyle,” Donna exclaimed. 

She was clearly just as surprised to see him as he was to see her. Kyle sat beside her as she took out her phone to show him a message she had received. The message was almost identical to his own, except adjusted to threaten Donna.

“I got a similar text,” Kyle informed her.

She nodded grimly. 

Then, from seemingly out of nowhere, Jason Todd slid onto the bench across from them with a lazy, “Good. You’re here.”

Jason freaking Todd.

Kyle hadn’t seen him in… well it had been a long time. In fact the last time he had seen Jason Todd had been the first and only time they’d ever interacted. Of course, that ‘one’ interaction had spanned several weeks and several more alternate universes. It was also part of a timeline that didn’t exist anymore, so it was very possible that Jason didn’t even remember the many hours he’d spent driving Kyle up the wall. 

Kyle prided himself on being able to get along with almost anyone but something about Jason Todd had really gotten on his nerves.

Part of that had been an illogical rush of jealousy at the thought of the anti-hero and his ex-girlfriend, Donna. Kyle had matured a lot since then, and for all he knew Jason was a completely different person now. He was willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt despite their complicated past, especially since they seemed to be dealing with the same enemy.

“You’re being blackmailed too,” Kyle said.

“Oh,” Jason said, as if Kyle’s assumption surprised him. “No. Don’t worry about that. The blackmail was me. I just did that to get you here.”

“ What? ” Kyle hissed.

He took back everything he said about the benefit of the doubt. Jason Todd was still a major asshole.

“Would you have come if I had just asked?” Jason said with a casual shrug.

“Yes,” Donna said, sounding both exasperated and amused.

“No!” Kyle lied, very much not amused.

Jason smirked at him. “Exactly.”

Kyle wanted to punch his smirking face. 

Jason freaking Todd.

Kyle took a breath, trying to shake off his irritation. He wasn’t usually like this. He’d mastered the entire emotional spectrum for Ion’s sake. He was usually better than letting someone like Jason Todd wind him up. But there was just something about the guy. Something that made him so much harder to ignore than all the usual assholes Kyle dealt with. Even Kyle didn’t know what that something was.

“Why did you want us to meet you here?” Donna asked.

Jason finally lost the smirk on his face. He shifted forward to lean on the table between them.

“I want to talk about our travels with Bob,” Jason said.

Which, yeah, that made sense. Why else would the three of them be getting together if not to talk about the only other time they’d been together. ‘Bob’ was the nickname Jason had given the Monitor they’d travelled the multiverse with. Bob had ended up betraying them. Kyle very much doubted Jason was talking about a different Bob. 

So Jason did remember that particular adventure. Kyle glanced at Donna, and she didn’t seem at all confused so she must remember it too. Kyle saw Donna fairly regularly but they’d never taken the time to talk about their crazy travels with Jason Todd.

“What about them?” Donna asked curiously.

Jason paused. Kyle wondered if he was nervous. If Jason was anyone other than a Bat, then Kyle would probably have been able to get a better read on him.

“Have you… have you done much multiversal travel since?” Jason asked them.

Kyle frowned. He couldn’t think of many unconcerning reasons someone like Jason Todd would be asking about travelling the multiverse. 

“Not like we did, no,” Kyle said.

Donna nodded in agreement.

“So you haven’t…?” 

Kyle tried to keep his patience as Jason searched for the right words.

“You haven’t accidentally slipped into another universe or anything like that?” Jason finally asked.

Kyle’s eyebrows rose. What kind of weird question was that?

“No,” Donna answered. “Why? …Have you?”

This time Kyle could actually clock the visible hesitation on Jason’s face.

“I… yeah,” Jason said. “It felt kinda similar to when Bob was dragging us around, so I wondered if maybe… But I guess not. So this has nothing to do with you guys then.”

Jason went to stand, but Donna reached across the table to grab his arm and keep him from leaving.

“You’ve been accidentally slipping into other universes,” Donna repeated, a note of concern in her voice.

“Not always accidentally,” Jason admitted, looking like a cornered animal. “The first time was an accident. But after that I realised I could control where I went.”

“You can travel the multiverse at will?” Kyle repeated incredulously. 

Jason shot him an uneasy look, as if only then remembering Kyle’s hostile presence. 

“Don’t you dare tell anyone,” Jason growled.

“We won’t,” Donna promised easily for both of them. “Does it hurt when you travel? Do you think you’re in any danger?”

That question was enough to ease Kyle’s hostility a bit. He may have thought Jason Todd was an asshole, but he didn’t want him to get ripped apart by the forces of the multiverse or anything like that. Though that was assuming Jason was even telling the truth.

“I…” Jason hesitated again. “It doesn’t hurt. I’m just not sure if…”

Kyle saw Donna’s brow crease with worry. He glanced down at her hand still reaching across the table to rest on Jason’s forearm. His irritation flared.

“I don’t believe you,” Kyle said before his brain could catch up with his mouth. “You’re just making this up to mess with us. There’s no way you can actually travel to other universes like that.”

“Believe what you want, Space Cadet,” Jason said dismissively. “I don’t care.” 

The brush-off only made Kyle’s irritation worse. “No, you’re the one who got me here to tell me this stupid story. Prove you’re not just wasting my time. Take me somewhere. To another universe.”

“You know what?” Jason said, squaring his shoulders. “Fine. I don’t know if I can actually take people with me, but you’re as good a guinea pig as any. I’m not going to lose any sleep if I drop you between universes. Tell me what kind of universe you want to visit and I’ll see if I can bring you along for the ride.”

Kyle decided the asshole was probably bluffing so that Kyle would back down. Well jokes on him, Kyle was literally all about being strong willed. There was no way he was backing down before Jason freaking Todd.

He racked his brain, trying to think of a crazy alternate universe to request. Ideally a request that would piss Jason off. Good thing Kyle was nothing if not creative.

“Okay,” Kyle called his bluff. “Take me to a universe where you’re a fairy.”

Jason seemed to take a moment to process that. 

“I can’t tell if you’re being homophobic right now.”

“A magical fairy,” Kyle clarified hurriedly, incensed by the suggestion that he was a bigot. “With wings and a wand and all that stuff.”

Jason looked at him like he was a complete idiot, and Kyle tried not to flush as he realised how badly his attempt to embarrass Jason was going.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Donna intervened. “Jason said he’s never tried to take anyone with him and that it could be dangerous.”

“Anything could be dangerous,” Kyle countered. “We’re superheroes— Not you, Todd. You weren’t included in that we— We do danger every day.”

Kyle saw Jason rolling his eyes in his periphery. Donna looked like she was barely resisting the urge to do the same. Kyle felt a pang of embarrassment as he understood how he was behaving. He was acting like an idiot and it was all Jason’s fault. No one else could drive him to act like such a preschooler.

“Alright, Glow Stick,” Jason said, infuriating smirk back on his face.

Jason slid his arm out from Donna’s hand and removed himself from the booth. He dropped a few twenty dollar bills on the table, even though none of them had ended up ordering anything, then he strode out of the cafe. Donna and Kyle followed closely behind him. Jason led them into a nearby alley, glancing around for cameras and onlookers. When Jason was satisfied that no one was watching them, he grabbed hold of Kyle’s hand.

“What are you doing?” Kyle demanded, trying to pull away.

“Like I said, this is the first time I’ve attempted to bring anyone, but I’m gonna assume some physical contact is required.” 

Jason looked completely unruffled about them holding hands . Kyle felt his face getting warm as he stood there stiffly and tried to ignore the contact. He looked away from Jason, and accidentally met Donna’s eyes. She had a look on her face that he couldn’t decipher. It was like she was having some kind of earth shattering realisation.

“So are we going or not?” Kyle asked.

He made the mistake of looking back at Jason for a moment, who was smirking at him again. 

“Sure,” Jason said. “Let’s go.”

Then everything was enveloped in golden light.

Jason grinned as he watched Kyle fumble the landing. He used their clasped hands to prevent the idiot from falling on his ass. Kyle did not appreciate the assistance, ripping his hand free as soon as he was steady on his feet. Jason tried not to let his amusement show on his face. Something about Kyle made him so fun to rile up, and Jason barely even had to try to get a rise out of him.

They had appeared in a forest. It didn’t feel like a regular forest though. Something about it tugged at Jason’s awareness in a way that reminded him of the pull he felt when he summoned the All Blades. Not like he was sensing evil, but like he was immersed in something vaguely mystical. It felt… fun?

“What the fudgesickles?” a familiar voice exclaimed cheerfully.

There was another version of Jason beside them now, and Jason was very sure he hadn’t been there when Jason had done his initial sweep of their surroundings. Jason knew that he hadn’t missed his intended universe as he spotted the shimmering wings twitching excitedly behind the other Jason’s shirtless torso.

“You look like me,” Fairy-Jason said. 

“Sure do,” Jason agreed, bemused.

Fairy-Jason grinned brightly at them. It was Jason’s pure Robin grin. Jason wasn’t sure he knew how to grin like that anymore.

“I’m fitter though,” Fairy-Jason joked, flexing his biceps cheekily.

Kyle let out a choked sound, which made Jason want to escalate. So Jason casually lifted up his shirt a bit so that he and Fairy-Jason could directly compare abs. 

“I don’t know, man. I’m pretty fit.”

Another garbled sound left Kyle’s mouth. In the interest of keeping a straight face, Jason didn’t look at him.

“Wow, you are,” Fairy-Jason conceded. With a beat of his wings, Fairy-Jason hopped a bit closer. “What are you doing here?”

“We’re tourists,” Jason said.

Kyle grabbed onto Jason’s arm.

“Alright,” he said, voice strangled, “I believe you now. We can go.”

“You sure you don’t want to stick around a bit longer?” Jason asked to be an asshole. “Maybe there’s a fairy version of you around here we can meet.”

“Nope,” Kyle replied quickly. “We shouldn’t leave Donna waiting too long.”

“That’s true,” Jason said. He turned back to Fairy-Jason, enjoying unnerving Kyle with his friendly attitude. “It was great to meet you. We’re going to go now.”

“Okay! Bye!” Fairy-Jason said with a jaunty wave.

Jason made sure Kyle was still gripping his arm tightly, then thought about wanting to return. A moment later, they were back in the alley with Donna. 

Kyle dropped Jason’s arm like he was worried about catching a disease or something. 

Now that they were out of that magic forest, Jason got the sense that it had been pressing on his emotions slightly. Not in a bad way, but like it had made him happier and more relaxed. Jason certainly didn’t like flashing that much bare skin usually. He knew his scars were unpleasant to look at. But something about being in that forest had made him forget to worry about them.

“Well?” Donna prompted when neither of them said anything.

“He was telling the truth,” Kyle said, as if he wasn’t the only one who had doubted that.

“Did it seem dangerous?” Donna asked.

Kyle actually appeared to consider the question. “It felt alright,” he said. 

“I don’t think it’s hurting me,” Jason agreed. “I just don’t know why it’s happening.”

“Have you told anyone else about it?” she asked.

“Not properly,” Jason said.

“Maybe we should,” Donna said. “What if it is hurting you?”

Jason shook his head, trying not to feel warm at how Donna was acting like it was her problem too. “I don’t want this getting back to Batman.”

“Why?” Kyle demanded.

“None of your fucking business,” Jason said, maybe a bit too aggressively.

“We won’t tell anyone if you don’t want us to,” Donna said. She gave Kyle a firm look. “ Right, Kyle? ”

The two of them seemed to have a whole conversation with their eyes, in which Donna silently beat him into submission. 

“Fine,” Kyle said eventually.

“But,” Donna continued. “You should let us keep checking on you regularly. That way we can help if you start experiencing any negative effects.”

“Look, I’m fine, alright,” Jason protested. “I don’t need you checking up on me. I only told you guys because I thought maybe it was linked to our time with Bob. Clearly it isn’t, so you can just forget about this whole interaction, okay?”

To Jason’s surprise it was Kyle who vehemently disagreed. “Don’t be an idiot. You need someone to keep tabs on whatever weird thing is going on with you. For all we know, a supervillain has done something to you and you might not be able to notice anything is wrong without someone else to point it out. You could be possessed! If you’re about to go supernova and start destroying the multiverse then we need to know about it.”

“Aw, you do care,” Jason said, just to watch Kyle fume at the suggestion.

Donna snorted, and Kyle gave her a look that clearly said, ‘ Who’s side are you on?! ’

“We’ll meet back here every few weeks,” Donna decided for the group. “At least until we’re sure nothing bad is going to happen. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Kyle said.

They were right. Jason should have people in on everything in case things went sideways, and he didn’t have a team to turn to anymore. He trusted Donna. Hell, he even trusted Kyle. The Lantern clearly hated him, but he was also too honest of a guy to stab anyone in the back. Even someone like Jason. It wouldn’t hurt to meet up with them every so often to check in. Jason didn’t want to admit this to himself, but he might even like having people to lean on if the shit hit the fan. 

“Fine,” Jason agreed.

Chapter Text

Jason had never considered himself particularly lucky. Exactly the opposite actually. But today he was lucky, because he arrived back home from his latest multiversal jump just before Steph barged into his primary safe house through the window. The last thing he needed was Steph asking why he was appearing in a flash of golden light.

“You could knock, you know?” Jason said, crossing his arms and trying to act like he hadn’t just arrived from a different universe.

“You wouldn’t knock,” Steph countered.

“Excuse you, my manners are immaculate.”

Steph didn’t dignify that with a response. Instead she planted herself at his rickety kitchen table and pulled all sorts of college work out of her bag. 

She’d just started doing shit like that one day. Showing up in his space and expecting him to be alright with it. 

Reaching out.

He didn’t know why she bothered, but she always did. And she never gave up, even when he was being an asshole. Oh, she absolutely called him out on it, but she still stuck around.

Maybe if she were someone else— someone he had more baggage with, someone who didn’t understand a lot of what he’d been through on a personal level, someone who didn’t question Bruce at every opportunity— Jason would have found the way she inserted herself into his life annoying. But it was Steph, so he didn’t. He couldn’t.

“You’re going to help me with the essay I have to write for my literature course,” Steph told him. “Also, what’s for dinner? I’m hungry.”

Okay, so maybe he found her a little annoying sometimes, but just in all the regular pseudo-sibling ways.

“What’s the essay about?” he grunted.

As she explained the topic to him (possible queer representation in classic literature), he did a sweep of his kitchen for food he could cook. He hadn’t been home for any long stretch of time since he’d stumbled across the universe hopping shit, so he hadn’t been shopping in… too long, he decided as he looked at his pathetically empty fridge. Luckily he had some pasta and tinned tomatoes in the pantry. Pair that with some garlic and enough dried Italian herbs and it would be passable.

“We’re having pasta,” Jason told Steph.

“Your fridge is hella empty, dude,” Steph said, still pretending to focus on her essay. “Haven’t seen you around outside of your bare-minimum patrol schedule. Been up to anything interesting?”

“Nothing that would interest you,” Jason lied as he started chopping the garlic. And, hey, he’d even found an only-slightly-old onion in his cupboard so the pasta sauce might be half decent.

“Alright, keep your secrets,” Steph said as she flipped through the book she was thinking of writing the essay on. “But I hope you know I’m down to get into some trouble with you if you need.”

Jason couldn’t help but smile down at the onion he was chopping. He was facing away from her so he didn’t have to worry too much about her seeing his sappy expression.

“I know,” Jason said, not quite managing to keep the warmth out of his voice. “Blonde solidarity and all that.”

…Wait, what?

Steph laughed, probably thinking Jason was being his usual sarcastic self.

He hadn’t been. Jason had said it without even thinking, because for a split second he had thought his hair was blonde. That didn’t make any sense. Jason’s hair was black. It was about as far from blonde as you could get.  

“Hey, do you think it’s fair for me to argue that Jo from Little Woman is a lesbian?”

Jason put a lid on the uneasy feeling his slip up had caused and tried to forget about it. Sometimes brains glitched like that. It wasn’t a big deal, right?

“I can see Jo being a lesbian,” he said. “What evidence are you using?”

Jason had come to two decisions after finally chasing Steph out of his safe house. First, he needed to find a way to keep in contact with his home universe while he was visiting another. If someone broke into his safe house or tried to reach him over comms, then he had to know about it. The last thing he needed was Bruce realising that Jason was dipping in and out of their universe. Second, the Stephs of the multiverse could probably use some help too. 

Acting on his first decision was pretty simple. He jumped to a universe where Bizzaro was still in his genius phase, and asked his genius buddy to boost his phone to get signal across the multiverse. Not only could he maintain his connection with his home universe, he could start giving out his number (with a multiversal area code) to the people he met in other universes. Jason had forgotten how convenient having Genius-Bizzaro around was. Not that he didn’t love the regular Biz just as much.

Then he did a quick tour of the universes he’d already visited to drop his number to the least annoying people he’d met— only for emergencies. He didn’t want to be bombarded by stupid texts. 

Some of the nicer Bruces tried to convince him to stay again, but Jason was very good at brushing such things off by now. The Jasons and Tims seemed to be doing as well as they could be. Hood-Tim had even managed to find his not-actually-dead-anymore Jason, confirming that Jason wasn’t the only version of himself in the multiverse who was seemingly-immortal. Although he hadn’t heard word of any other Jasons who could travel through the multiverse at will.

Once Jason had gotten all that out of the way, he started aiming for Stephs-In-Distress. 

“You’re going to torture me with a power drill?” Steph-In-Distress was saying when Jason arrived. 

She was chained to a wall, with Black Mask standing in front of her. He had all his sick toys at the ready. Both of them looked over at Jason’s abrupt appearance.

“What new flavour of bat are you?” Black Mask asked incredulously.

Jason punched his lights out. 

Part of him wanted to reach for a gun and finish the job, but Jason knew Steph. He knew she wouldn’t appreciate having someone executed right in front of her. Even someone like Black Mask. So instead he secured Black Mask with some zip-ties to make sure he wouldn’t get any surprise attacks from behind.

“Hanging in there okay, Eggplant?” Jason asked as he frisked Black Mask for the keys to her cuffs.

“Ha ha,” she deadpanned, twisting her chained wrists to flip him off. “I’ve never seen you before. Are you here to save me or make my night worse?” 

“Not sure how it could have gotten much worse,” Jason commented as he finally found the keys. “But it’s your lucky day. I’m a friendly. Well… I’m friendly for you at least.”

He got her cuffs unlocked and gave her a once over. She had a shoulder wound but overall she wasn’t very injured. He’d gotten to her before any of the torture could start. 

“Need help getting somewhere safe?” he asked.

“I’m good,” she said, understandably unsure of him.

He shrugged. “Suit yourself, Blondie. See ya never again.”

He gave her a lazy wave and made to leave.

“Wait, that’s it? You come in here, save my ass, and now you’re just going to leave? Who even are you?”

Jason sighed. No one ever just let him leave. 

“Long story short, I’m a version of Jason Todd, the second Robin, from another universe. You know about the multiverse right?” 

She nodded, dumbfounded.

“Cool, so you get it.”

“What? No? Your story is ridiculous. Why would another version of the second Robin, who is dead , show up to save me ?”

“Because you deserve to be saved, Steph.”

Her eyes widened.

“Oh,” she managed.

Then she started to tear up.

“Fuck,” Jason said. 

He’d made her cry. Fuck, fuck, fuck, what should he say?

“I umm…” he tried. “I know people have been giving you a lot of shit lately, yeah? They think they know what you’re capable of and they think you can’t hack it. And yeah, you made some mistakes, but that doesn’t make them right. You are magnificent, Steph. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t hack it, because you know they’re wrong. So just umm… keep on keeping on. Alright?”

“This is the weirdest interaction I have ever had,” Steph-In-Distress said, wiping at her eyes.

“Yeah, that’s understandable.”

“But thanks, weird alternate universe version of my dead childhood hero,” she added, giving him a teary smile.

“Err… you’re welcome,” he said, awkwardly.

Jason was kind of a vigilante so people thanked him fairly often. He still wasn’t used to it. 

“Um,” he said as something occurred to him. He grabbed a pen and some paper and scribbled down his phone number. “For emergencies. I’m leaving this universe now but if you ever really need me then that number will connect you to my multiversal phone.”

“Every new phrase that comes out of your mouth gets more and more absurd. I hope you know that.”

He nodded, cracking a grin. Then he backed away a bit. 

“That’s that then,” he said. Yeah, Jason was kinda shit at goodbyes. “Call if you need me, make good choices, and when this universe’s version of me shows up back from the dead and supremely pissed off, don’t try to say hi until he’s calmed the fuck down. He’s gonna be a huge asshole for a while.”

“What the hell did you just say? Back from the dead?!”

“Okay, bye.”

Jason left.

He saved a lot of Stephs from Black Mask after that. Others he saved from Cluemaster. 

Everything was going about as he expected… until this universe.

He didn’t know what was wrong with it. Maybe some kind of zombie apocalypse? Everyone was dead-eyed and blank-faced. When he spoke to them, they did speak back, but in monotones. This universe’s version of Steph didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger either. No one was attacking her. No one was threatening her. Nothing dangerous was in the vicinity. She was just walking down the street, as blank-faced as everyone else.

“Steph,” he said, moving to block her path. “You okay?”

The Zombie-Steph stopped before she would crash into him. 

“You’re not from here,” she said, voice empty of tone.

“No, I’m not,” Jason agreed. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“You’re the one who is wrong,” Zombie-Steph said. 

Then she reached forward and slowly placed a hand on his head like she was going to ruffle his hair. Only she didn’t ruffle, her hand just stayed there, resting on his head.

“Uuuh, what are you doing?” Jason asked after almost a minute of her standing there with her hand on his head.

“You are wrong,” Zombie-Steph said. “Who are you? Why are you wrong?”

Jason took a few steps back, letting Zombie-Steph’s hand slide off his head and fall back to her side. 

“You know what?” Jason said, backing away. “I’m just gonna go.”

Then every person on the street stopped what they were doing and turned to face his direction.

“ Who are you? ” they all chorused with Zombie-Steph. “ Why are you wrong? ”

Every person in the area took a step towards Jason.

“ Who are you? Why are you wrong? ”

“Nope,” Jason decided.

He moved on to a Steph-In-Distress in a different universe. Whatever was going on in creepy-zombie-universe was above his pay-grade. They had their own heroes to figure it out, and it didn’t look like anyone was in any immediate danger. That wasn’t Jason’s problem.

Chapter Text

Jason fumbled for his ringing multiversal phone as he walked down the street. He was in New York, on his way to meet Donna and Kyle at their regular cafe. He checked the screen to find an incoming call from Alt-Bruce. The first Alt-Bruce he’d met when he’d gone to rescue Robin-Jason. Nice-Bruce, Jason decided. That’s what Jason would call him from now on.

“Are you actively dying?” Jason asked as he took the call.

“He— Oh, uh… No,” Nice-Bruce answered through the phone. “No, I’m not actively dying.”

Jason made it to the cafe and walked over to Donna and Kyle’s table as he kept talking.

“Okay,” Jason said. “Is Tim dying? Jay?”

“No.”

“Is someone else dying?”

“No, Jason,” Nice-Bruce said wearily. “No one is dying.”

Jason sat at the table, ignoring the people he was meeting in favour of finishing his conversation.

“Then why are you calling me with a number I gave you for emergencies ?” Jason asked pointedly, in his most condescending tone. “E-mer-gen-cies. Understand what that means?”

Nice-Bruce sighed. “I just wanted to check up on you, chum?”

Jason was kind of pleased to hear that, but he also didn’t want to encourage this kind of behaviour. Nor did he want to get attached to other versions of Bruce, whom he’d probably never see again, and who would only give him unrealistic expectations for his actual (much shittier) Bruce.

“I’m not your chum,” he said to Nice-Bruce. “I’m not your Jason. Go be a helicopter parent to your actual kids.”

He hung up and finally looked up at Donna and Kyle. 

“Who was that?” Donna asked.

“It was an alternate version of Bruce,” Jason explained. “Some of them got pretty attached to me when I was stopping by.”

“How is someone from another universe calling you?”

“I have a multiversal phone plan,” Jason deadpanned.

“Wait,” Kyle said. “Have you been actively travelling the multiverse this whole time? Not just a few slip ups?”

“Yeah,” Jason said.

“Why?” Kyle demanded. “What if it’s dangerous? What are you trying to do?”

“How am I going to find out if it’s dangerous if I don’t do it?” Jason said, hoping their outrage at his flippancy would help him dodge the second question.

Donna made a face at him, looking ready to lecture him about being an idiot.

Kyle spoke before she could, refusing to be distracted by Jason’s attempts at evasion. “What have you been doing in other universes?”

He was probably worried that Jason had some kind of dastardly plan brewing.

Jason sighed. He ran a hand through his hair, mentally debating if he could get away with not answering. Looking at Kyle’s stubborn expression, he thought not. 

“I’ve been saving people,” Jason admitted.

Kyle looked genuinely confused by his answer. “You’ve been what?”

“I’ve streamlined the vigilante process,” Jason said, trying to sound cheeky rather than defensive. “All I have to do is think about finding someone who needs my help and I am transported directly to someone in trouble in another universe. It’s a perfect system.”

Both Donna and Kyle stared at him blankly for a moment as they processed this.

“You…” Donna said. “You’ve been travelling to other universes to find people who need your help?”

“Yep,” Jason said. “I’ve saved some younger versions of myself from being murdered. I’ve helped out some other versions of the bats. I can think of a specific moment I want to intervene in, and I can change it without having to worry about the consequences of time travel, because I’m only messing with another universe. Or I can think of someone generally being in trouble and pop over to whatever situation needs me. You’re really telling me that if you had the chance to save the people no one else is going to save, you wouldn’t take it?”

“But…” Donna said. “But it’s Sisyphean.”

“It’s what?” Kyle asked.

Jason rolled his eyes. “Come on, man. Sisyphus? The guy who had to roll the boulder up the hill in the underworld for eternity. Ringing any bells? No?”

Kyle glared at him for his condescending tone. 

“It means a task that can never be completed,” Donna explained. “Jason can save as many other versions of himself as he likes, but the multiverse is infinite, so there will always be other versions of himself that need saving. Plus, saving these other versions of himself isn’t going to have any effect on his own history or trauma. What’s the point? You’re just going to run yourself ragged. This can’t be healthy.”

To Jason’s surprise it was Kyle who stepped in to refute Donna’s argument. 

“We can never save everyone,” Kyle reminded her. “That doesn’t mean we should stop trying.”

“Exactly,” Jason said, unable to stop himself from grinning at Kyle for actually getting him.

Kyle seemed more taken aback by Jason’s grin than he had been by any other part of their conversation. He was looking at Jason like he’d never seen him before. 

“Who cares if there are infinite versions of everyone I’ve saved,” Jason continued, ignoring whatever Kyle’s problem was. “It may not make a difference to the multiverse as a whole, but it sure as hell made a difference to the people I showed up to help.”

“You’re right,” Donna backtracked. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just worried you’re going to get carried away doing something with no clear stopping point. The situation is even worse if your multiversal travel does end up being dangerous.”

“If we find out it’s dangerous then I’ll stop,” Jason said, knowing that he was probably lying. “But until then, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with what I’m doing. Unless you wanna tell me you think I should stop helping people who are about to get hurt.”

He gave her an innocent look, daring her to tell him to stop.

She rolled her eyes at him. “I know you, Jason. You’re going to do what you want regardless of what I tell you. But I got attached to you while you were running around as the Boy Wonder and that hasn’t changed. Plus Artemis would kill me if I let anything happen to you. So I’m still going to be here to help when this inevitably blows up in your face.”

Sadly, that was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to Jason. He grinned. “Thanks, Wonder Girl.”

Kyle stared at him for a second then cleared his throat awkwardly. “Um, same,” he added. “I’ll be here too.”

“No one asked you,” Jason told him.

Kyle made a face that was a cross between a pout and a glare, and it was just as entertaining as Jason intended his reaction to be.

“You blackmailed me into being here,” Kyle reminded him.

“I did do that, didn’t I?” Jason recalled with a self-satisfied smirk.

Kyle looked like he wanted to punch him.

Fuck, talking to Donna and Kyle was fun . Jason couldn’t say that about many people.

Kyle took a breath and cleared his expression. He opened his mouth but seemed to hesitate on what he wanted to say. Jason watched in real time as Kyle gathered up his will power to banish his hesitation.

“How about you make up for the blackmail by doing me a favour,” Glow Stick suggested.

Jason braced his forearms against the table and leaned towards Kyle.

“I don’t owe you shit, Rayner,” he said. “But how about you ask for that favour and I’ll decide if you’ve earned it?”

Kyle scowled, but replied despite his obvious irritation. “There’s someone I want to save. Someone who deserved better. Take me to a universe where I can do that.”

Jason knew it must have been someone very important if Kyle was sucking up his pride to ask Jason for a favour like that. While Jason liked to make a big show of being an asshole, he was never going to say no to a request like that. Hell, he wasn’t even going to pretend he had to be convinced. There were a lot of people who deserved better out there, and Jason would always think it was worthwhile to help any of them.

“Sure,” Jason said easily. “You wanna go now?”

Donna didn’t look at all surprised by Jason’s quick agreement. 

Kyle looked the exact opposite of that.

“Just like that? What’s the catch?” Kyle asked.

“No catch,” Jason said. “No payment necessary. You wanna save someone. I’m in the business of saving people. The math checks out.”

Or maybe the payment was the hilariously unnerved look on Kyle’s face.

“Okay…?” Kyle said slowly. “Let’s… Let’s go now then?”

Kyle followed Jason out into the alley by the cafe again. Donna was close on their heels. Part of Kyle was still expecting Jason to go back on his word, but the vigilante seemed completely serious about helping Kyle.

“Who do you want to save?” Jason asked him when they were alone in the alleyway.

“Alexandra DeWitt,” Kyle replied. “She was murdered not long after I first became a Green Lantern… It was my fault.”

“Somehow I doubt you murdered some chick,” Jason said.

“I’m not the one who killed her.”

Kyle thought of Major Force, the hulking magenta and yellow man who had murdered her… all because he’d wanted to get at Kyle.

“Then it wasn’t your fault, idiot,” Jason said, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. “That’s on whatever asshole murdered her. I would know. I have both been murdered, and committed murder, a lot .”

A woman who had been meandering past the alley when Jason had spoken suddenly started walking a lot faster. Kyle found that relatable. If only Kyle could power walk away from Jason Todd as well. Although at the moment Kyle was more touched than annoyed, considering Jason was actually trying to help him.

“Err, thanks,” Kyle said. 

Sure, he wasn’t going to suddenly believe that Alex dying wasn’t his fault, but it was nice of Jason to say so.

Jason held a hand out towards Donna. “You coming too?”

Donna shook her head. “I have plans today. I can’t just swan off to another universe.”

“Alright, well see you later then.”

“Message me when you get back safe,” Donna said, looking between them.

“I will,” Kyle promised.

Jason grabbed Kyle’s hand.

How come Donna got a polite offer and Kyle just got grabbed?

Kyle tried not to focus on the feel of Jason’s slightly larger hand wrapped around his. It was difficult not to for some reason.

“Guess now we find out if I can go to the right universe for someone I’ve never met,” Jason commented.

Then they were elsewhere. 

Kyle landed in his old apartment with a stumble. Jason tugged his hand to keep him upright, and Kyle wondered if it would be less embarrassing if Jason just let him fall on his face. Then he couldn’t help but wonder why Jason wasn’t letting him fall on his face. 

“Stupid bat-balance,” Kyle grumbled to himself.

“That’s what happens when you grow up in a circus,” Jason responded.

Kyle couldn’t tell if he was being literal. He thought Nightwing was the one who grew up in a circus? Looking at Jason’s face, even Jason seemed confused about what he’d just said.

Kyle didn’t have time to dwell on Jason’s weird statement, because Major Force was right there, about to hurt Alex and like hell he was going to let that happen again. He dropped Jason’s hand and powered up into his Green Lantern gear. Then sent a giant elephant construct to knock Major Force away and through the wall. 

Oops. Well, better the wall than Alex.

“Kyle?” Alex asked. “Where did you come from?”

“Uhhh…” Kyle said, not even sure how to begin explaining.

“Incoming,” Jason warned him just before Major Force crashed back through the wall.

He smashed into Kyle and they grappled.

“Want help?” Jason asked.

He looked relaxed from where he was lazily leant against the wall, but Kyle noticed he had positioned himself between the fight and Alex, ready to intercept if necessary.

“I got it,” Kyle said.

Then he proceeded to kick Major Force’s ass. Kyle had come a long way since his first encounter with Major Force. He’d fought much stronger and scarier than Major Force in the years he’d been a Lantern. He’d trained and improved and honed his skills. This fight was a lot easier this time around.

Once Major Force was fully beaten and secured by Kyle’s constructs, Kyle approached Alex. He stared at her for a moment, not quite sure what to say.

“Hey,” he managed.

He very much wished he had said something better than ‘hey’.

“You look… older,” Alex pointed out.

Alex was sharp like that.

“Yeah,” Kyle agreed. “I’m not your Kyle. I’m a Kyle from another universe.”

Alex glanced back at where Kyle’s constructs had captured Major Force. “This wouldn’t have ended well for me, I’m guessing.”

“Yeah,” Kyle said again.

My god, could he please say something else.

“I…” Kyle tried. “In my world you were killed today, because of me.”

Oh god, why did he have to say that ?

Kyle wasn’t exactly sure how he was expecting Alex to react to that, but it wasn’t pulling him into a hug. That was what she did though.

“Guess being a hero isn’t all fun and games, huh?” she murmured to him.

“No,” Kyle said, his vision blurring with tears. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, idiot,” she said. “I understood what we were getting into. Probably better than you did.”

“Probably.”

She drew back, keeping hold of his shoulders. 

“Thanks for coming to save me,” she said, giving him a tentative smile.

Kyle nodded. He opened his mouth but paused as he tried to figure out what to say. “Stop hanging out with Green Lantern as a civilian,” he ended up blurting. “It puts you in danger. Just stay well away when your Kyle is suited up, or put on a mask to hide your identity.”

“I will,” she promised.

Kyle grabbed her for one last hug, savouring the feeling of a living, breathing Alex in his arms once more. He had changed so much since his Alex had died. He’d moved on in a way that Alex had never gotten to. But there was still something so healing about knowing that he had managed to save at least this Alex.

He let her go.

“I’ve err… got to go and deal with him,” he said, nodding towards Major Force. “Sorry about the wall.”

Chapter Text

Kyle, Jason and the subdued Major Force left Kyle’s old flat and found a more secluded spot. Kyle realised Jason had been respectfully silent while he was talking with Alex, and wasn’t that a surprise, but now that they were clear of Alex the grace period ended.

“You gonna kill him?” Jason asked, gesturing to Major Force. “He’ll only come back for Alex if we don’t finish the job, and anyone who would chop an innocent up and stuff them in the fridge deserves to be put down.”

Kyle twitched at the reminder of what had almost become of this Alex. So Jason had known what they were preventing this whole time. Or he’d figured it out along the way. Kyle knew word had gotten around in the caped community and the Bats were known for keeping track of what went on, so Kyle probably shouldn’t be surprised.

He contemplated Jason’s question as he looked at Major Force. The villain thrashed in the constructs holding him, but they didn’t give an inch. Kyle hated him. Of course he did. How could Kyle not hate him after what he did to Alex? But killing Major Force wasn’t really an option for Kyle. Luckily for Kyle, he was nothing if not creative, and he knew that with some thought he could find a solution that didn’t involve killing.

“We can’t kill him,” Kyle told Jason.

Jason nodded solemnly. Then, before Kyle could react, Jason pulled out a gun and shot Major Force through the eye. It startled Kyle enough to drop his constructs, although in retrospect he probably should have expected Jason’s actions. This entire trip Jason had been respectfully deferring to Kyle, and Kyle supposed he’d been lulled into forgetting what kind of person Jason was.

“I didn’t bring you here so we could do half the job,” Jason stated, looking at Kyle like he was ready for things to come to blows.

Kyle couldn’t help but snort out a laugh.

Jason tilted his head at him like a confused puppy. It was kind of cute. 

Holy shit, he did not just think Jason Todd was cute.

“You didn’t let me finish,” Kyle said, resolutely ignoring his traitorous thought. “We can’t kill him because he’s immortal . Trust me, I’ve tried. I cut off his head and threw it into space in a green energy bubble. He still came back.” Kyle kicked Major Force’s currently dead body. “This won’t keep him down for long.”

Jason was staring at him like he’d never seen him before.

“Oh,” he said. “…I thought you were supposed to be a goody two shoes. I thought you were going to start clutching your pearls about killing or some shit.”

The words were callous but Kyle could sense an underlying caution there. 

“I don’t like killing,” Kyle confirmed. “That’s not the kind of hero I want to be. That doesn’t mean I don’t understand how necessary killing can be sometimes.” 

Kyle offered him a smile before continuing, “I get that you want to protect Alex and anyone else who Major Force would have hurt. Even in the past when I did the heroic thing and chose not to kill Major Force, I understood why Guy chose to kill him instead. Or well, we thought Guy killed him. We didn’t know he was immortal back then. 

“Anyway, even then I didn’t think Guy was wrong to do it, just like I don’t think you’re wrong to want to do it now.  Something Guy said that day really stuck with me. He said, ‘ some of us were meant to be heroes and some of us were meant to be warriors ’. I don’t think killing means you can’t be a hero, but I like the sentiment of what he said. Just because we have different ideas about what a hero should do, it doesn’t mean either of us has to be wrong, you know?”

Jason stared at him for a moment, like he was carefully absorbing everything Kyle had said and reassessing him. Kyle tried not to fidget under Jason’s contemplative gaze.

“Huh,” Jason said eventually. “That’s actually very refreshing. Thanks.”

Kyle nodded, not really sure what else to say.

“So, he’s immortal, huh?” Jason asked, turning back to look at Major Force’s currently dead body.

“Yeah,” Kyle confirmed. “He’d probably reform even if we disintegrated him, although it might take a while.”

Jason seemed to contemplate this for a moment, then he shrugged and materialised two flaming swords out of thin air??

“What the—?!”

“These sometimes work on evil immortals,” Jason said. “I mean, they worked on vampires, so it’s worth a try.”

What?

Then Jason stabbed his swords into Major Force. 

They went through Major Force’s near-impenetrable skin like butter and Major Force’s body abruptly burnt out of existence.

What the fuck?

“Pretty sure he has no particles left to reform with,” Jason commented as he dispelled his magic swords???

“I thought the Bats didn’t mess with magic,” Kyle managed to splutter.

“Haven’t you heard? I’m the black sheep of the family.”

Jason grinned cheekily at him and Kyle felt his breath catch.

What the fuck? What the fuck? What the fuck?

“Do you…?” Jason began, still grinning, “…wanna go again? Save some more versions of Alex?”

“We can do that?” Kyle asked, finding himself slowly matching Jason’s grin.

“The multiverse is infinite, Space Cadet,” Jason reminded him. “Of course we can.”

And they did.

Kyle only just remembered to message Donna that he and Jason were back in their own universe as he got back to his flat. He didn’t even know how long he’d been away. It was hard to keep track of time when you were bouncing around the multiverse, and he and Jason had saved so many versions of Alex that Kyle had quickly lost track. 

Completely on autopilot, the first thing Kyle did when he got home was put on some music and grab his sketchbook. He felt almost buzzed with happiness as his hands started sketching before his brain could catch up. He was about a minute in before he finally took note of what he was drawing.

Jason.

He was drawing Jason.

He was drawing Jason mid breathtaking grin.

The realisation was enough to make Kyle pause, because Kyle had mastered the emotional spectrum and he knew what it meant when he was giddily drawing someone’s smile.

But no, that didn’t make any sense. First of all, Kyle wasn’t gay . Second, Kyle couldn’t like Jason Todd .

Sure, maybe bouncing around the multiverse with Jason had actually been fun this time. And yes, maybe Kyle had realised he’d misjudged Jason a little. Don’t get him wrong, Jason Todd was still an asshole, and morally dubious, but he was also— maybe— possibly— a genuinely good person who just wanted to help people. 

Kyle knew he would have vehemently denied the idea two years ago. Hell, he would have baulked at the idea two weeks ago. But, well, you could tell a lot about a person by what they did when unimaginable power fell into their lap. Jason Todd had been given the unimaginable power to travel anywhere in the multiverse, and the only thing he wanted to do with it was save people who weren’t going to be saved. That was Jason’s no holds barred power fantasy.

So yes, Kyle was beginning to think he’d sort of misjudged Jason on a fundamental level.

But even then, why was it so much easier to get along with Jason on their latest multiversal trip? 

Maybe it was just as Kyle thought when he’d first seen Jason at the cafe; both of them had changed since their first set of multiversal travels. Or maybe it was the absence of Donna that had made it easier for Kyle to get along with Jason. 

Except that would make Kyle a bit of an asshole if he’d been so blinded by jealousy that he hadn’t noticed Jason’s good qualities. 

Had Kyle been a jealous asshole? Even recently? Why?  

Kyle and Donna were long over. They were friends. Kyle liked being friends with Donna. He didn’t think of her as anything more than a friend and he hadn’t in a long time. So if the thought of Donna and Jason together was upsetting Kyle then… well… maybe it wasn’t the idea of Donna in a relationship that had made Kyle jealous. Which was just… what? Had that been the problem way back when he’d first met Jason too, or was this a recent development?

Except that Kyle wasn’t gay .

Kyle had always known he wasn’t gay. 

He liked women. He had always liked women. He had never thought about his sexuality further than that. 

Sure, he did on occasion pay attention to other men’s bodies, but that was because Kyle was an artist. Of course Kyle’s eyes had caught on Jason’s biceps, and his forearms, and his thighs, and… everything else. Well-defined muscles were great for anatomy practice and understanding anatomy was very important to being an artist. So Kyle had attributed all his lingering looks at Jason’s body, and any other man’s body, to being an artist and not dwelt on them. 

In fact, he had actively avoided dwelling on Jason’s body when they had first travelled the multiverse together all those years ago. He had been far too worked up by Jason to admit that it was anything but irritation, and he’d hardly had a second for self-reflection and a reassessment of his sexuality while they’d been trying to save the multiverse. 

But now Kyle had the maturity, emotional intelligence and time to actually consider the way Jason Todd made him feel.

And… wow.

Kyle knew he liked women, and therefore he wasn’t gay. But Kyle was beginning to wonder if he also liked men. And the more Kyle thought about it, the more he realised that his eyes had caught on any number of different people, of all genders, and even different alien species. Which… yeah.

So Kyle wasn’t gay , but maybe he wasn’t straight either. 

Maybe he was going to have to do some more research on what that could mean for him.

And, oh shit. Kyle was into Jason Todd.

Jason came back from his trip with Kyle feeling surprisingly good. Working with Kyle had actually been— dare he say it— pleasant. Like working with any of his Outlaws. A team up where he didn’t have to feel the judgement that came from other capes— the Bats mostly. There was always so much judgement from Bruce and most of the other Bats. 

So yeah, maybe Kyle wasn’t so bad actually. Not that Jason had held a particularly negative opinion about Kyle before. It was more that he’d dismissed him as another hero who thought Jason was nothing more than a reckless criminal with faulty morals. Or worse, one of the heroes who saw him as nothing more than the tragic remains of the second Robin. 

Sometimes it was nice to be wrong about someone.

Kyle was more open-minded than Jason had realised. He didn’t dislike Jason because he killed people. He disliked Jason for completely unrelated reasons. As Jason had said, it was refreshing.

Jason was torn from his thoughts by a call from Barbara. 

“What’s up?” Jason answered the call.

“What have you been doing?” Barbara asked bluntly.

“The usual,” Jason said.

He wasn’t even lying considering how often he traveled the multiverse now.

“Let me rephrase that,” Barbara said, sounding like she was absolutely not in the mood for his bullshit. “Why have your trackers been sporadically reading as off the grid for the last month? Not turned off. Not disconnected. Off the grid . And yet, there is no trace of you leaving Gotham. And yet , when someone tries to get in touch with you, you still answer. Explain.”

“Worried I’m up to no good?” Jason asked, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

“No,” she said neutrally. “That’s not why you have trackers. We both agreed that you would let me track you so that I can help you if you get in trouble. They are not there so I can keep tabs on you, and you know that. It’s why you accepted the trackers in the first place. It’s why you can turn the trackers off whenever you want. 

“But I get notified when the trackers go off the grid, because usually that could mean anything from you getting kidnapped by aliens to you slipping into a wormhole. Except you’ve been responding to comms while off the grid so clearly that isn’t the case. If the trackers are broken I need to know. Or if they’re not, then I need to know that I shouldn’t be worried about your disappearing acts. Not worried about what you’re up to. Worried about you .”

That pretty efficiently took the wind out of Jason’s sails, as Barbara tended to do. It was true that even when Jason had been at odds with the Bats in the year or so since he’d allowed the tracker, Babs had never used the tracker against him. Probably because she knew that if she did that even once, Jason would never let her track him again. 

But also, Babs was a professional. She could put her personal feelings aside when necessary. He knew she disapproved of his more violent actions, but he also knew she understood why he performed them in a way that a lot of the other bats didn’t. He knew she’d have his back if he really needed it. He knew she cared.

“I…” Jason said. “You don’t need to worry about the times I’m off the grid. It’s just… something that’s going to happen from now on… every so often.”

There was a pause as Barbara digested the lack of information. Jason knew that Babs hated not knowing.

“Not going to give me any details?” she said. “You know I’ll find out eventually anyway.”

“Maybe you will,” Jason said. A bit of fondness crept into his tone despite himself. “But in the meantime, I’m going to keep enjoying myself. Good luck. You’ll need it.”

He hung up.

Babs was going to cuss him out and then love the challenge.

And in the meantime, Jason now knew exactly what he’d aim to do for his next multiversal trip.

Chapter Text

Jason had botched this one. It was something he realised as he was bleeding out on an alternate version of Commissioner Gordon’s floor. He had shown up, hoping to save a version of Babs from getting shot by the Joker, and well… he had. Only he had saved her by showing up right in front of her as Joker was firing the gun and getting shot in her place. 

Whoops. 

On the bright side, he had shot the Joker in the head in retaliation. So yeah, Jason had saved Barbara and killed the Joker, but he was currently dying. Purely by a pros and cons tally, some might say this endeavour was a great success.

The Joker’s goons had fled after they’d realised their boss was dead. So it was just him, lying on the floor, the alternate Babs, putting pressure on his wound, and the alternate Commish, calling an ambulance.

“Jason? Not-Shot-Babs gasped as she got her bearings with his bizarre appearance and subsequent injury. “You’re— You’re older. You— Are you from the future? What—? Why are you—?”

And well, maybe it was because he was dying, or maybe it was because he couldn’t be assed explaining the whole multiversal travel thing for the bazillionth time, but Jason decided to just go with it.

“Yes, Babs,” he said, “I’m from the future. I came back to save you.” He laughed weakly. “I botched it a little… No regrets though.”

“Jason,” she sobbed. “You idiot. You—”

She broke off, at a loss as she stared at her bloody hands pressing on his bullet wound.

“It’s fine,” he tried to assure her. “Everything is going to be f-fine now.”

“It’s not fine,” she cried. “You dying instead of me is not fine!”

“Oh, you wouldn’t have died,” Jason corrected her weakly. “You became paraplegic. Or well, you were for a while. You stopped needing the wheelchair eventually. I actually… I’m not sure why you stopped needing it one day. No one ever explained that to me. One day just, poof… you could walk. Heh.”

Jason knew he wasn’t being particularly coherent, and he wasn’t entirely sure he could blame that on the blood loss.

“You’re dying just so that I won’t temporarily be in a wheelchair?!” she shrieked. “You time travelled for that?! Are you insane ?!” 

“It’s not—” He coughed, tasting blood. “It’s not about you being in a wheelchair. Even in a wheelchair you kicked ass. I just… I wanted to spare you the pain.”

“You’re dying! To spare me a little pain!”

“Well, to be honest, the dying part wasn’t intentional.”

“Goddamn it, Jason!”

Being the dramatic motherfucker that he was, Jason lifted a hand to her cheek and gave her a weak smile. “W-Worth it.”

She looked like she wanted to strangle him. Jason thought that was fair.

Jason was feeling especially faint and he knew he had to wrap this up quickly. He pushed a memory stick into her hand. It covered the major events in her future, including how important his Babs had been as Oracle. It also gave a quick explanation of Jason’s whole multiversal deal and how to get in touch with his multiversal phone. So yeah, Not-Shot-Babs would figure out Jason was full of shit after he was long gone.

“This’ll tell you what you n-need to know,” he said. “About the future.”

He tried to think about where he should go, but his brain was a little fuzzy. He considered home, but he should probably go somewhere with some medical care. Just because he could bounce back from death, didn’t mean he should stop trying to survive. So in the end, Jason tried to think of somewhere safe where he’d get the help he needed. He saw the familiar flash of golden light, but he lost consciousness before he could register where he’d ended up.

Jason knew he was in the Batcave before he opened his eyes. There was just something about the stale air and particular brand of ambient noise that made it very recognisable. What Jason didn’t know was why he was in the Batcave. Yes, there was medical care here, but Jason had been aiming for somewhere he felt safe. The Batcave hadn’t fit that description in a very long time.

“You’re awake,” he heard Bruce say.

He tensed before he could stop himself. Bruce knew he was awake, and he should open his eyes and face him, but Jason couldn’t quite bring himself to. Maybe if he pretended to still be unconscious, Bruce would get the hint and fuck off.

“It’s me,” Bruce said quickly. “I mean, not your Bruce.”

Jason’s eyes flew open and he snapped his head sideways to look at the Bruce by his bedside. Nice-Bruce, he realised. The Bruce from the universe where he’d first saved a Robin-Jason. Definitely way too young to be his Bruce. 

Yeah, that made more sense. He hadn’t paid attention to it before, but he supposed he did feel safe in Nice -Bruce’s Batcave.

“Hey,” he croaked.

Nice-Bruce handed him a glass of water and he took a few sizeable gulps.

“Thanks for saving me,” Jason continued, avoiding eye contact.

“I didn’t,” Nice-Bruce said, making Jason look back at him. Nice-Bruce’s face was grim. “You died. Again .”

Jason cringed as he finally registered how thoroughly stressed Nice-Bruce looked. Now that Jason’s mind was waking up a bit more, he did remember having another chat with Death in her realm. Jason sat up and swung his legs over the side of the medical bed.

“My bad,” Jason said. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologise,” Nice-Bruce said. “I’m glad you came to me for help.”

Jason didn’t know how to respond to the soft look on Nice-Bruce’s face.

“You’re such an asshole,” a woman spoke from nearby.

“Huh?” Jason said, turning to find Barbara standing off to the side.

That… what? The Barbara in this universe would be in a wheelchair, so why was she…? Oh. This was Not-Shot-Babs. The large splatter of Jason’s blood on her shirt was a pretty good clue. What was she doing in Nice-Bruce’s universe? Did Jason accidentally bring her along? They had been touching when he’d travelled, but he hadn’t intended to bring her. Did he bring anyone in contact with him regardless of what he wanted? He’d have to experiment with that.

“I thought you were actually dying,” Not-Shot-Babs continued.

“I was,” Jason said.

“Dying permanently , smartass.”

“In my defence,” Jason said. “There wasn’t enough time to explain all my experience with Death to you.”

“That’s a bad defence.”

She couldn’t have been that mad about it though, because she came over and gave him a tight hug.

“What you did was stupid,” she said into the hug. “But thank you.” She pulled back. “Now take me home. My dad is probably having a conniption.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Jason said. “I didn’t mean to bring you along.”

Happy with the excuse to escape Nice-Bruce’s soft look, Jason hopped off the bed, took Not-Shot-Babs’ arm, and gave Nice-Bruce a two fingered salute. 

“Got to go, old man,” he said.

“Come visit,” Nice-Bruce managed to blurt out before Jason was gone.

Jason dropped Not-Shot-Babs back in her universe, then set off to save more versions of Barbara from the Joker. Hopefully he’d avoid taking another bullet.

Jason must have saved at least a dozen more versions of Babs before he decided to take a break for a few days. He was feeling… weird. And it wasn’t even because of his recent trip to see Death.

The problem, as far as Jason could tell, was his memories. 

They were… jumbled up.

He probably should have noticed it sooner if he were being honest. He probably should have paid more attention to those little moments where he thought he was blonde or grew up in a circus or couldn’t remember how Babs got out of the wheelchair. Now it was like several different realities were swimming around in his brain. 

He remembered being a blonde circus boy.

He remembered being a dark haired street kid.

He remembered being a redheaded psychopath. 

He remembered Dick watching him fall to his death one moment, and Dick trying to adopt him in the next.

He remembered Catherine being his biological mother, and her being his step mother, and having an adoptive mother in a thief called Natalia Knight. Did Sheila exist? He thought she did? He thought she was his biological mother. But sometimes he could swear she wasn’t. Sometimes he could swear it was Catherine in that warehouse with him, which made even less sense given she was long dead before Jason had been blown up.

He remembered verbalising his distaste for villains trying to forcibly recruit heroes while he was talking to Onyx. He remembered threatening to blow up a high school to forcibly recruit the girl iteration of Speedy.

He remembered the version of Willis Todd who was both a criminal and a good father, and the version who had been a violent drunk.

He remembered the version of Bruce who’d dropped everything to try winning Jason in a custody battle against Natalia. He remembered the version of Bruce who brutally beat him into the ground for shooting the Penguin.

It was like half a dozen contradictory realities were colliding in his brain and Jason didn’t know what was real anymore. He didn’t know who he was anymore.

It wasn’t— It wasn’t natural and Jason would be an idiot if he didn’t connect his sudden mixed up mess of memories with his recent multiversal travel. Something was happening to Jason. He wasn’t sure what that something meant, but there was definitely something . The kind of something that Jason had maybe agreed to tell Donna and Kyle about.

But well, did he really want to do that? No doubt if he talked about this with Donna and Kyle, they’d tell him to stop travelling through the multiverse. 

Jason didn’t want to do that. Just because his memories were a little… blended up, it didn’t mean the multiversal travel was dangerous . He— he couldn’t just stop over something so inconsequential. It wasn’t like Jason hadn’t had some memory issues before. He’d wandered the streets of Gotham, fresh out of the grave, with all kinds of brain damage. A few extra memories were fine compared to that, right?

Everything was fine.

Maybe his memories would all settle if he gave himself a bit more time to adjust.

There was no reason to raise alarm bells with Donna and Kyle over something that might settle.

There wasn’t.

He just needed to focus on other things. He needed to… He needed to look into accidentally taking Not-Shot-Babs to another universe. Surely that called for some experimentation. He should test if he could solo-travel while touching someone else. The memory stuff could wait. The contact travelling stuff was an important thing he needed to investigate.

And Jason could think of just the guinea pig he could use for his experiments.

Chapter Text

Kyle wasn’t home right now. Jason knew that because he had broken into Kyle’s flat through the window. 

On a related note, Kyle really needed some better security. Jason would have to sort that out for him.

Jason did a casual sweep of the place, finding a half-way done painting and the end of an empty tube of paint that it looked like Kyle had been squeezing the last few drops out of. So Jason figured Kyle had popped out to get art supplies and would be back soon.

Content to wait for him, Jason grabbed Kyle’s sketchbook and started flipping through.

Huh. 

…There were a lot of drawings of Jason in it.

Jason knew that Kyle was just like that though. He’d found plenty of sketches of himself and Donna when the three of them had been travelling the multiverse. Even though Kyle couldn’t stand Jason, he’d still draw him just because he was there. Jason could only assume it was an artist thing.

Still, this time Jason couldn’t help but pause on some of the nicer drawings of himself. Jason… he didn’t think much of his looks. He knew that if things had worked out better for him— if he had less scars— he could have been considered attractive. But as he was now, with the evidence of his fights on his face and body, and no inclination to care about the way he styled himself, Jason didn’t consider himself especially handsome.

But in some of Kyle’s drawings, Jason could almost look at them and think he looked… beautiful. Jason didn’t understand how that could work. Kyle was still sketching in all his scars. The drawings still looked like Jason . They just… they made him look good somehow. He supposed that was why people paid Kyle to do all the artsy stuff.

When Kyle returned, Jason was staring at a particular drawing he’d been stuck on for a while. It was of Jason at the cafe they frequented. His head was thrown back in a laugh and beams of light were coming from a nearby window, adding some shine to his hair and scars. Jason didn’t understand how something that brought more attention to his scars could make him look so bright. Jason… hadn’t even realised he had laughed much around Kyle. He was only like that around people he was comfortable with. People he trusted. 

But yeah, he did trust Kyle and Donna. That was why he was in Kyle’s flat in the first place.

Jason heard Kyle entering his apartment, but Jason’s back was to the door.

“Gahh!” Kyle squawked, no doubt startled by Jason’s presence. “You Bats need to learn some boundaries.”

Jason turned around, holding up the drawing of himself laughing for Kyle to see. “Can I keep this?”

Jason observed with interest as Kyle’s entire face slowly turned red. Anger, Jason guessed.

“Don’t go through my stuff!” Kyle said.

He strode over and snatched the sketchbook out of Jason’s hands.

Jason allowed a slight pout to overtake his face. “…It’s a nice drawing.”

Kyle stared at Jason again, then seemed to deflate. 

“F-fine.” 

Kyle carefully removed the page from the sketchbook, rolled it up, and slapped an elastic band over the paper to keep it from unrolling. He handed the sketch to Jason, face still completely red. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Jason grinned and accepted the sketch.

Kyle’s face went redder somehow, and Jason could only assume being nice to him was giving Kyle hives.

“What—?” Kyle said, stopping to clear his throat. “What are you doing here?”

“I was hoping you could help me with something.”

Jason reached forward and grabbed Kyle by the hand.

Kyle dropped his shopping. “J—Jason?”

“Just a sec.”

Jason thought about Martha Wayne’s universe since that seemed like a safe destination and focused on trying to travel there by himself.

There was a flash of light, and Jason was there. His grip on Kyle’s hand remained, and Jason found that Kyle had gone with him. 

Huh. So he supposed he always travelled with the people touching him. That was good to know.

“Alternate universe version of me?” Martha-Jason (formerly referred to as Alternate-Jason) asked. “Dude, can I text you later? I have so much work to do today.”

Jason looked around at the small office he and Kyle had shown up in. Martha-Jason was sitting at a desk, stacks of paper neatly organised around him and nose in some kind of planning binder.

“We were just popping in and out,” Jason told him. 

“Jason, what the hell?” Kyle said, pulling his hand free. “A little warning would be nice.”

Martha-Jason glanced up again. “Is that Kyle ?”

“Um, yeah, hi,” Kyle said, offering Martha-Jason a wave. “And you’re ummm… also Jason, I guess?”

“This is actually perfect,” Martha-Jason said. He slid his wheelie chair over to them and shoved his binder at Kyle. “This is the poster the design department sent me for the book drive I’m organising. Something about it looks so off. Please lend me your artist-eyes. Oh, wait. You are still an artist in your universe right? Please say yes. I have like fifteen minutes to get this fixed.”

“Oh, um, yeah. I’m an artist.” 

Kyle took the binder and had a look at the poster. He walked over to Martha-Jason’s desk and set the binder down, leaning over it. Martha-Jason came to stand beside him. 

“I think the colour pallet is what is throwing you off,” Kyle said after a moment. “This shade of red isn’t really working with this gold. It looks kind of tacky. Maybe tell your art department to give you a few more colour options in place of the gold and see if that helps.” 

“Fuck, you’re so right,” Martha-Jason breathed as he took the binder back. “Thanks, Ky. You’re a lifesaver.”

“Ky?” Kyle repeated, looking startled.

Martha-Jason ignored him in favour of frantically typing out an email to his art people. 

Jason tried not to be jealous of how happy and normal Martha-Jason’s life seemed. 

Which reminded him, he really needed to see if he could get into contact with some curse breakers. If Martha’s Gotham was cursed, his probably was too. It couldn’t hurt to check.

“Alright,” Jason said. “We’re heading off now. Good luck with your book drive.”

Martha-Jason waved a hand at them in farewell, too interested in his work to look away from his computer. 

God, this alternate version of himself was reminding Jason eerily of Tim.

Jason debated politely asking for Kyle’s hand, but it was usually funnier when Kyle got mad at him for ‘porting away with no notice. So Jason grabbed Kyle’s hand and did just that. 

He was rewarded with the regular amount of grumbling from Kyle when they arrived.

“What was even the point of that?” Kyle asked him, wiping the hand Jason had touched on his shirt as if Jason had given him cooties.

Jason let slip an amused smile at the action. 

“I was seeing if I could travel without someone while I was touching them,” Jason explained. “I couldn’t.”

Kyle squinted at him, assessing his honesty. 

Jason tried to look sincere. It was a look he hadn’t had much reason to attempt since the Outlaws split up.

Speaking of the Outlaws, he’d been so wrapped up in all this alternate universe stuff that he hadn’t called Roy, Kori or Artemis in a while. He should at least let Artemis know that Biz was doing well. He resolved to call them as soon as possible.

Jason focused back on Kyle, and found that while the squint had melted off the other man’s face, he was still staring at Jason like he didn’t quite know what to make of him.

“Aaaaanyway,” Jason drawled, “That was all I wanted to test. So I’m gonna bounce.” Jason waved goodbye using the hand holding Kyle’s drawing. “Thanks for the art.”

“W-wait!” Kyle rushed out. “Don’t— Um— Don’t go yet. Do you— Um— Do you want some coffee or something?”

Jason raised an eyebrow. 

Was Kyle trying to be friendly ? 

To Jason ?

Why? 

He’d heard the guy was supposed to be nice, but he’d never seen much evidence of that for himself on account of Kyle hating his guts. Was Kyle finally warming up to him a little? Jason was oddly pleased by the idea. 

Or more realistically, Donna had browbeaten Kyle into being nicer to Jason. And yeah, looking at Kyle’s expression, he definitely looked like someone who thought he’d get his ass beaten if whatever he was trying to do didn’t work out.

“M-maybe tea?” Kyle stuttered when Jason spent too long considering the offer. “Umm, I think I have some hot chocolate powder somewhere. Or juice? It’s in boxes though. Do Crime Lords drink juice boxes? What the fuck am I even saying? ”

Jason was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to hear that last part. 

Looking at Kyle’s slightly panicky face made Jason want to throw him a bone.

“What kind of tea?” Jason asked.

“Umm, tea tea,” Kyle replied, looking lost at the question. “You know, tea . The normal kind.”

Alfred would have been quietly disgusted. Jason was only a step above disgusted himself, but Kyle looked so out of his element that Jason would feel bad giving him a hard time about it. Jason wasn’t that much of an asshole. He could educate Kyle on the basics of tea when the idiot didn’t look like he wanted to throw himself out a window. 

“Sure, I’ll have some tea tea,” Jason said, managing to only quirk a small mocking smile. “Do you mind if I make a few phone calls though?”

Kyle nodded so hard Jason thought his head would fly off, then hurried into the kitchen. The flat was small and open-plan, so going ‘into the kitchen’ was actually just stepping into a slightly different part of the room. Jason tried not to watch the other man fumble around with the kettle as he pulled out his phone.

Kyle didn’t know what he was doing. He probably shouldn’t have invited Jason to stay for a drink but the part of him with some sort of unfortunate crush was desperate to prolong the interaction. And well… Jason had agreed to stay. And the part of him with the crush was low-key thrilled about it. 

He snuck a glance at where Jason had made himself comfortable on his couch.

“How have you been?” Jason was saying into his phone. “The truth, Harper. None of your usual grin-and-bear-it bullshit.”

Jason cracked a smile at whatever Roy said next. Kyle assumed it was Roy, at least. He knew Jason and Roy Harper had been on a team together, and that they were good friends.

“Yeah, say hi to Lian for me,” Jason said. “… No, I’m over at Kyle’s … Kyle Rayner, one of the Green Lanterns …” His tone was light and playful as he answered, “What? I’m not allowed to know people who aren’t you? … Me, Donna and him bounced around the multiverse a few years back … Huh, yeah, I forgot you were on the Titans with them both. Honestly at this point I should just assume everyone under thirty has been a Titan with you.”

Kyle’s attention was wrenched away as the kettle finished boiling. He grabbed a mug, stuck a tea bag in and filled the cup with water. 

How long was a tea bag supposed to stay in? Not too long right? 

He fished the bag out with a spoon and threw it away. But looking back in the mug now, it didn’t look very colourful. Tea was supposed to be brown right? 

Kyle felt like usually he’d know how to make tea but it was like his brain was completely offline when Jason was in the room. 

He shoved two fresh teabags into the mug, gave them a stir, then fished them out again. There, the tea looked a bit darker now. Done. He’d made tea.

Kyle walked the mug over to Jason.

“Yeah, love you too, man,” Jason was saying to Roy.

It absolutely didn’t make Kyle irrationally jealous. It didn’t.

Jason hung up and accepted the mug from Kyle. “Thanks.” 

He didn’t even drink it though. He just placed it on the table in front of him. But yeah, Kyle realised that made sense because the tea was hot. 

Kyle stood there, unsure if he should join Jason on the couch or sit in the armchair or just continue to stand there. Nope, he probably shouldn’t just keep standing there. He sat on whatever was closest to him, and somehow that ended up being the coffee table.

Jason gave him an odd look, which Kyle knew he absolutely deserved. 

“Aren’t you going to make yourself a drink too?” Jason asked.

Kyle mentally thanked him for an excuse to spring to his feet and stop sitting on the coffee table . “Yep!”

He hurried back to the kitchen bench and fumbled around for another mug. There were no more clean ones left. If Kyle’s brain was working, he would have washed one, but Kyle’s Jason-is-in-my-flat brain just grabbed a bowl. So yeah, somehow he ended up walking back towards the couch with a bowl of tea for himself, even though he didn’t drink tea. But at least this time he managed to sit on the armchair instead of the coffee table.

Jason gave him another look as he wrapped up his third phone call with someone called Kori. Starfire, maybe? Another of Jason’s old teammates. It was sweet of Jason to check on them. Who knew the Red Hood was such a diligent friend? 

Jason may not seem like it, but he did care. That was part of why Kyle liked him. Part of why Kyle was tripping over himself to seem like a functional adult who regularly drank tea.

Speaking of, Jason finally hung up the phone again and took a sip of the tea Kyle had made him. 

Then he pulled a face. 

“This tastes shit,” Jason said.

It was amazing how Kyle could be rendered stupid by a crush on someone whom he still occasionally wanted to punch in the face.

“Um, do you want this one instead?” Kyle said, face flaming as he held out his bowl of tea towards Jason.

What was wrong with him right now?

Jason gave Kyle and his bowl of tea a long hard look before he put down his mug, leaned towards Kyle, and placed a hand on Kyle’s forehead. 

“Are you sick?” Jason asked. “Do you have a concussion?”

Kyle was both mortified and flattered by the concerned look on Jason’s face.

Mortified won though.

“I’m fine,” Kyle insisted. “I’m normal. You should go. Get out.”

Shit, that came out way too harsh and not at all like Kyle intended.

Jason shrugged, seeming oddly okay with the dismissal. Like he was used to having hospitality abruptly rescinded. 

“Alright, Space Cadet,” he said. “But I’m calling Donna to check on you because I’m genuinely worried you’re having a stroke.”

Then Jason was gone and Kyle was alone in his apartment again, clutching a bowl of tea (shit tea, apparently) and regretting every decision in his life that had led him to this moment.

Chapter Text

Jason left Donna a message on the way back to his flat, telling her to check on the Glow Stick. Clearly something was going on with him, although Jason couldn’t begin to guess what it was. 

Still Jason felt pretty light after their ridiculous interaction. There was just something about Kyle and all his ridiculousness that put Jason at ease these days.

When Jason reached his main safe house, the ease left him in one big rush. His security system had been disabled. That could mean anything from one of his enemies coming to murder him to one of his siblings coming to annoy him. Jason wasn’t sure which he’d prefer. He pulled out a gun, but kept the safety on, as he silently pushed the door open. He heard some shuffling from the kitchen area and moved further inside so he could get a look at the situation.

Jason sighed and put the gun away as he spotted Duke Thomas set up at the table with his homework. When it came to the Bats, Duke was in the same category as Stephanie. Their baggage with Jason was minimal and they’d smoothly pushed themselves into Jason’s life. One moment he was learning about their existence and the next they were inviting themselves over for waffles. 

With Steph it had been persistence on her part. She had come at him with a campaign of small kindnesses despite all Jason’s attempts to push her away. 

With Duke, Jason had put in a bit more effort. 

It had been easier with Duke because Duke didn’t know Jason from before. Not as a Robin. Not as a ghost. Not as a villain. To Duke, Jason had always been who he was now. 

When Duke came along, Jason had the rare opportunity for a clean slate— a brother he hadn’t already traumatised— and Jason hadn’t wanted to ruin it. He’d tried to be helpful, give advice, offer trust so it could be reciprocated, and, yeah, he and Duke had a comfortable brotherly thing going on now.

Sure, Jason was still the bad-example kind of older brother, but, in a way, Jason thought that suited him. Most importantly, when it came to Duke, Jason could be himself. Maybe even the best version of himself. No strings. No baggage. No complications. Or, well, less complications. They were still Bats. 

And it was even nicer to see Duke now, because even though Jason had a lot of different contradictory memories floating around in his brain, everything with Duke was fairly consistent. That was a rarity nowadays.

“I know I’m the one who showed you how to disarm the security system,” Jason sighed as he holstered the gun, “But that wasn’t an open invitation.”

“Yes it was,” Duke said. “From you that’s basically an invitation to cohabitate.”

Jason didn’t have a good comeback after being so thoroughly and accurately called out. “What are you doing here, squirt?” 

“Homework,” Duke deadpanned.

“You couldn’t do that at the new Manor?”

“I wanted to do it here.”

Jason walked further in and put on the kettle. Kyle’s attempt at tea had made Jason want the real thing. He got out two mugs, deciding to make Duke a hot chocolate since he knew the kid liked his sugar.  A few minutes later he set a mug in front of Duke and brought his own to the table. 

He looked over Duke’s shoulder to see what he was working on. Physics. Not really Jason’s subject. He’d forgotten almost all the shit like that he’d learned in high school. He tried not to think about all his lost potential.

“You look different, you know?” Duke said to Jason as he sat down.

“No, I don’t.” 

“You’ve always given off a bit of golden light,” Duke said. “Those swords you always have give off a bit too. But now it’s, like, stronger. I didn’t notice at first, because the change was gradual, but you’re really bright now. Like, really, really bright gold.”

Welp, Jason knew Duke could see things with his funky light powers that normal people couldn’t, but Duke had never mentioned he could see the All-Blades. That was interesting. And apparently now he could see Jason being contaminated by multiversal fuckery or whatever the hell it was.

“I’ve been branching out a bit,” Jason said. “Learning new tricks.” 

As if that could even begin to explain all the crazy stuff that had been going on. Crazy stuff was pretty standard for them anyway.

Duke shrugged, content to follow Jason’s lead and not make a big deal out of it. That was what Jason liked about Duke.

“Show me your ‘new tricks’ sometime, yeah?” Duke said.

“Yeah,” Jason agreed.

He still didn’t want his new weirdness to get back to Bruce, but Jason could agree to a noncommittal ‘sometime’. He doubted he could keep his secret forever. Bruce was invasive like that.

Jason’s phone rang, and he answered it when he saw it was Artemis.

“Hey,” Jason said. “What’s up?”

“What is ‘ up ’, is that you left me a very alarming voicemail.”

“It wasn’t alarming,” Jason protested, recalling the message he’d left her while he’d been watching Kyle bumble around the kitchen.

“ ‘Hey, it’s Jason,’ ” Artemis said in a terrible impression of his voice. “ ‘Just calling to see how you are. I stopped by Hell to see Bizzaro. He’s doing well. Okay, bye.’ ”

“Yeah, and? What’s alarming about that?”

“What does ‘I stopped by Hell’ even mean?? Did you die again ?”

“Okay, first of all, I think it’s rude of you to assume I go to Hell when I die,” Jason said, just to be contrary.

“ Jason, ” Artemis growled. “Explain.”

That was Artemis’ quit-your-bullshit voice. Jason took a moment to think about his next words, very cognisant of Duke sitting beside him, looking on with an overly innocent expression.

“I found a way to make a trip to visit Bizzaro,” Jason said. “You know how it is. Sometimes an opportunity presents itself. So I went to see him. He’s doing great. He’s got all the demons wrapped around his super strong fingers. He was happy. I offered to take him home with me and he wanted to stay.”

And Jason wasn’t salty about that. He wasn’t. At all.

Still, Artemis seemed to detect some sort of negative feeling from Jason. 

“I’m glad that he’s happy,” she said. “That’s all that we want for our friend, isn’t it? And him choosing to stay doesn’t mean he wouldn’t want the same for us.”

“Yeah,” Jason agreed.

Because he did agree. It just hurt still. But hey, Jason was always getting hurt, so that was fine.

“Anyway, I’m fine,” Jason said. “Everything is fine. I have to go though, because there’s a Bat in my kitchen.”

“Do you need help removing it?” Artemis asked severely. 

She wasn’t a fan of many Bats. He didn’t think she’d actually come all the way to Gotham to kick someone out of his house, but it was nice of her to suggest.

“No, it’s the yellow one.”

“Oh,” she said, sounding pleasantly surprised. “That is fine then. I shall talk to you again when you do not have company. Be well, Jason.”

“Yep, talk to you later.”

Jason hung up and put his attention back on Duke. “Alright, Narrows, what do you want for dinner?”

Jason wanted to help some alternate versions of Duke. He even knew exactly what Duke would want to change about his life. Duke would want to stop his parents from falling victim to Joker’s gas. The problem was, Jason didn’t know any details about the situation that led to Duke’s parents being distorted by the Joker. He sure as hell wasn’t going to ask Duke about what was probably one of his most traumatic experiences. Jason couldn’t even log onto the Batcomputer and read whatever impersonal report Bruce had written up about it, because Bruce had revoked his access a long time ago. If he was desperate, Tim and Babs were usually open to passing along files to him, but asking for files about Duke’s parents would drum up awkward questions that Jason didn’t want to answer.

Thus, Jason was kind of stuck. The only thing he knew about the situation with Duke’s parents was that it had been complicated, and the last thing Jason wanted to do was show up and make it worse somehow. Luckily, he didn’t need to. The Joker hurt Duke’s parents, among many others, and if there was one thing Jason loved doing, it was killing Jokers in alternate universes.

So Jason spent the next few hours travelling to universes where the Joker had just started down his path of death and destruction, then killing him. And yeah it was cathartic and indirectly helpful to alternate versions of Duke, Barbara and himself (at minimum), but it didn’t scratch the same itch as seeing alternate versions of Duke and ensuring they were okay. 

Which is why, after a while, Jason just started aiming for any Dukes in distress, as he had with Stephs and Tims in the past.

Jason dropped into an alley, looking around for the alternate version of Duke or whatever danger there was. He didn’t see anyone. 

It was night. Not a quiet night though. Gotham was never quiet. Still, Jason was able to hear shallow breathing to his right. 

With his assassin-trained speed, he stuck his hand into a pile of cardboard and pulled out a tween Duke by the hood of his hoodie. Tween-Duke glared at him, despite his shivering. Duke had always had the most audacity.

“I haven’t done nothing,” Tween-Duke said.

“You haven’t,” Jason agreed. “But it’s cold and this is a shit place to sleep. I would know.”

“I’m not going back to the foster home.”

“Fair enough,” Jason agreed. “You are coming with me though.”

Jason slung the skinny tween onto his back piggyback-style and started grappling through the seedy parts of Gotham. This universe felt like a branch off of his own, and if Duke was a tween in the foster system, then Jason could estimate that he was in his early Red Hood days. Probably before he’d even started hitting the streets, back when he was gathering intel and setting up shop. So Jason made a beeline for one of his earliest safe houses.

He broke in with Duke still clinging to his back voicing all sorts of protests. Jason’s alternate self came stumbling out of his bedroom a moment later, looking like he’d been sleeping.

“What the fuck?” the other Jason said as he got a good look at the slightly older version of himself and the disgruntled tween in his safe house.

“Hey,” Jason said. “How’s it going? Just kidding, I don’t care. I’m Jason. I’m you from the future or an alternate universe or however you want to think about it. This is Duke. He’s yours now.”

“No, I’m not!” Tween-Duke protested, scrambling off Jason’s back.

“He can help you find your parents,” Jason told Tween-Duke.

The kid immediately stopped protesting.

That allowed New-Dad-Jason to pick up where Tween-Duke left off. He pulled a gun from a nearby piece of furniture and levelled it at Jason.

“You better start making some fucking sense if you don’t want a new hole in your head,” New-Dad-Jason said.

Jason rolled his eyes. “No need to be so dramatic. I’m a future version of yourself from an alternate universe. This is the kid who was going to become your little brother in a couple of years. So now I’m giving you a head start. You’re welcome.”

“Prove it,” New-Dad-Jason said. “Prove you’re a version of me.”

“Alright,” Jason agreed, well used to these kinds of exchanges by now. “Remember that time when you were eleven, and you were so desperate for some food that you stole Old Lady Susanna’s antique walking stick, hoping you could sell it for a quick buck. Then you saw her trying to get to the corner store without it and you felt so guilty that you gave it back and said you found it down the street. Then she brought you a sandwich as a reward, and you felt so guilty about that that you helped her carry her shopping whenever you saw her for the next three months.”

New-Dad-Jason looked deeply embarrassed, but he did put the gun away. “Alright, maybe you are a version of me. But if you are, then you know that I can’t take a kid right now. I have… plans.”

“Yeah, and your plans are dumb. Bruce isn’t going to pick you. Deep down you know that.”

“He— He might.”

“He won’t.” Jason pulled down his collar to show New-Dad-Jason the scar on his neck.

New-Dad-Jason seemed to be trying to blink back his tears as the implications washed over him.

“You need someone to care about you,” Jason said bluntly. “Well so does he.” He pushed Tween-Duke forward. “Care about each other. You’ll both be happier for it. I promise.”

It took a bit more convincing, but after an hour of talking it through, Jason felt okay leaving Tween-Duke with New-Dad-Jason. Jason was always at his best when he had someone to look after and Duke needed someone to look after him. They would be good for each other. Jason still left them each with his multiversal phone number just in case. Then he bounced to the next Duke who needed help.

Jason hit up a few more universes, getting a few more Dukes out of trouble, before he hit upon something weird. It was another universe full of people going about their day blankly, just like the universe with Zombie-Steph. At first, Jason thought he was in the same universe as before, but some instinctual part of Jason that he couldn’t identify seemed to register that this was a different universe.

This time Jason tried to blend in a bit, making his face blank and wandering ‘aimlessly’ down the street.

But slowly, the people around him seemed to take note of him somehow.

“It’s you,” someone to his left said. 

“You’re not one of us,” someone to his right said.

“ Why are you wrong? ” they both asked together.

Jason made a run for it and everyone pursued. He needed to make it to a library. Somewhere he could access the local internet and find out what was going on. He fired his grapple and made it to the rooftops. He thought he’d be able to take a moment to catch his breath there. 

Then he was tackled by someone heavy .

“Shit,” Jason said as he managed to disengage and roll away.

He scrambled to his feet, spitting out some blood from when he’d bit his tongue on the way down. He’d definitely be feeling that tackle in his ribs for a few days. Jason took in the situation, finding a version of Batman across from him. In the distance, he could see some more Bats on the approach.

“What the hell was that for?” he asked.

It was more sarcastic than anything else. Bruce had already proven he was willing to knock Jason down for any perceived wrongdoing.

“You are not one of us.”

Oh. It was a Zombie-Batman.

Jason glanced around again, watching the other Bats closing in. The new knowledge that he couldn’t zip out of there while grappling with someone unless he wanted a hitchhiker made any potential escape more complicated. If he didn’t leave now, then it may not be as easy later. He didn’t want to accidentally bring zombie patient zero to his own universe.

Zombie-Batman started charging towards him as Zombie-Nightwing landed on the roof behind him.

Fuck that.

Jason left.

Chapter Text

Donna didn’t really know what to expect when she walked into Kyle’s apartment. It wasn’t every day she got a call from Jason asking her to check on Kyle . Actually, it was exclusively this day. But Jason hadn’t sounded especially worried on the phone. More bemused than worried actually. There must have been some worry at least, or he wouldn’t have called at all, but Kyle probably wasn’t dying or anything… She hoped.

“Kyle?” she called out as she let herself in.

What she heard in return was a loud pained groan. 

“Donna,” Kyle said weakly from where he was lying face down on the couch.

“Kyle!” She hurried over. “What’s wrong? Are you in pain? Are you hurt?”

“No,” Kyle whined into the couch. “No, it’s worse than that.”

She helped Kyle ease into a sitting position, partially supporting his weight.

“What is it??” 

“I… like Jason Todd .”

Oh.

She stood up, dropping him so he flopped back into the couch.

“You idiot,” she said. “I thought you had an actual problem.”

“This is an actual problem! Just kill me. It would be a mercy. He’ll probably kill me if he finds out anyway.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “Jason wouldn’t do that.”

“I knooow,” Kyle wailed. “Jason is such a caring asshole . He’ll probably just laugh his ass off then give me the gentlest rejection I’ve ever had. There’d probably be tea involved somehow. But good tea because he’d make it. The tea I make is shit. And I’m out of mugs.”

“Why has this become you lamenting about tea? You don’t even drink tea. Just, slow down. Start from the beginning. When did you realise that you liked Jason?”

“After he took me to save alternate versions of Alex,” Kyle answered promptly.

“That was over a week ago,” Donna said. “Why are you still having a meltdown about it?”

“Jason came over,” Kyle said. “He was in my flat. He was sitting on this very couch.” Then in a tone that was basically a screech, “He found my drawings of him!”

Donna tried not to roll her eyes. Her friend was in crisis and she needed to resist the urge.

“He already knew you like to draw him,” she said. “You used to draw us all the time when we were travelling the multiverse together.”

Kyle bolted upright into a sitting position. “I did?”

“You did.”

Then Kyle was rushing to his bookshelves and shuffling through his collection of used sketchbooks. He came upon whatever he was looking for and pulled it out. He started flipping through it. 

“Oh my god,” Kyle wined. “ I did . He saw these?!”

“We didn’t get much time apart on that trip, Kyle. We all saw you drawing those.”

“Even Bob?”

“Even Bob.”

Kyle face-planted back onto the couch, hugging the sketchbook to his chest. He said something, but it was too muffled by the couch cushions for Donna to make it out. Donna came to sit beside him and rubbed his back in what she hoped was a comforting gesture.

“You’re an artist,” she said. “None of us thought it was weird that you were drawing a lot. Honestly, we were all too stressed and busy to care about what you were drawing.”

That got Kyle to tentatively stop trying to suffocate himself in the couch. “Really?”

“Really.”

Kyle sat back up, looking a bit calmer. Then something seemed to occur to him and he turned to face her sharply.

“Do you know how Jason feels about me? Do you think I have a shot?”

“Honestly, the guy is impossible to read when it comes to stuff like that,” Donna admitted. “I have no idea.”

“Right,” Kyle said, deflating slightly.

Poor thing. She felt bad just leaving it there.

“Well, what happened with Jason today?” she asked. “Why did he think I should check on you?”

Kyle groaned and made another dive for the cushions. Donna stuck an arm out to stop him, and Kyle was forced to abort the movement.

“I made a complete idiot of myself,” Kyle said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s like my brain doesn’t work at all when he’s around. I sat on the coffee table. I offered him tea in a bowl. Then I kicked him out for no reason.”

Donna shrugged. “You did stupider with me when we were dating.”

“Don’t remind me of that!”

“Look, it’s fine. Jason might be a jerk sometimes, but he’s actually one of the least judgemental people I know. He’s not going to hold any of that against you.”

They sat in a peaceful silence for a bit as Kyle mulled her words over and seemed to accept them as truth.

“You…” Kyle said slowly, “…don’t seem surprised about this. About me liking Jason. Or about me… not being straight.”

“You know I wouldn’t care about how straight you are. And well… I’ve never seen anyone wind you up the way Jason does. I figured there was more going on than just dislike. Plus, you did make a comment about him being irresistible while we were travelling the multiverse, although I think you were trying to insult him?”

Kyle’s eyes widened. “Oh god. Am I that obvious? Does Jason know?”

Donna couldn’t help the long and loud laugh that spilled out of her. 

“No,” she managed as she got a hold of herself. “No, if anyone is more clueless than you about this kind of thing, it’s Jason Todd. Nothing short of whacking him over the head with your feelings will make him take notice.”

“Oh.”

Donna patted him on the head. “So are we done having a crisis now?”

“Of course not. I like Jason Todd . What am I supposed to do?”

“Ask him on a date?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Donna sighed. This was clearly a lost cause. These idiots (affectionate) were going to have to figure things out on their own. She got to her feet.

“Alright,” she said. “Well I have to go. So call me when you figure out how you’re going to deal.”

“Wait!” Kyle said, grabbing her arm before she could walk off.

Donna geared up for more stupidity about his crush on Jason, but then Kyle surprised her.

“When… When Jason took me to see Alex— to save Alex— it was… It was actually really helpful. It was like closure, you know? A really crazy weird form of closure, but still closure. Jason has access to the whole entire multiverse. Infinite universes where things can be fixed like they couldn’t be in our own, or we can see different possibilities— what could have been. And yeah, it’s not healthy to dwell on the possibilities too much, but it can be comforting to know that they’re out there. To see them. So I just mean…  I know there’s… stuff you never got over— stuff you won’t ever get over— so… maybe talk to Jason about taking a trip… It might help you like it helped me.”

Donna was speechless as she stared at him. She… she knew exactly what Kyle wasn’t saying. They both knew which loss stuck in her mind. Which loss would be a gnawing pit inside her for the rest of time. Her head spun with what Kyle was suggesting.

“Just think about it, okay?” Kyle said. 

Donna couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat, but she nodded.

Kyle slid his hand down her arm to give her hand a comforting squeeze before letting her go.

As she left Kyle’s flat, Donna gave his words some thought.

It took a lot to freak Jason out. He’d been a street kid in Crime Alley, died, travelled the multiverse, died some more, fought with a race of pure evil immortal demons, and he was a vigilante based in Gotham . The point was, Jason Todd had seen some shit. 

But, well, Jason was kind of freaked out. 

The first universe full of zombies had been creepy, but Jason had figured someone who belonged there would fix it, or some universes were just duds and there was nothing he could do about it. But the second universe full of those weird zombies… that had upped the creep factor to a point where he was freaked out. 

He didn’t even know why he was freaked out. In an infinite number of universes, of course there would be multiple universes that had been hit with the same weird zombie apocalypse. They were probably branches of each other. 

Except… the zombie in the second universe had said, ‘ It’s you.’

They’d recognised him.

But, you know, maybe they were just recognising him as a Jason Todd. Not him specifically, but the Jason of that universe. That would make sense.

Except… the Bats being zombies didn’t bode well for that universe. If there was a Zombie-Batman then there could be a Zombie Justice League. Then who was going to fix things in that universe? 

Jason certainly didn’t know what he could do about it. He probably couldn’t do anything. 

It still bothered him. He tried not to be bothered by it. As he’d thought earlier, there were bound to be a bunch of dud apocalyptic universes that couldn’t be helped. That shouldn’t bother him. He shouldn’t let it bother him. Still… still it was bothering him.

Jason’s ruminating was interrupted by his phone ringing. 

Donna was calling.

“Hey,” Jason answered. “What’s up?”

“Are you free right now?” she asked. “Can I come over?”

She sounded a little off, although Jason couldn’t put his finger on how. Was something actually wrong with Kyle? She’d gone to check on him right?

“Yeah,” Jason said, instead of asking any of the questions pressing on him. “I’ll text you the address.”

When Donna arrived a little later, Jason could tell that she was nervous about something. It was rare for Donna to be nervous, but Jason’s mind did jump to the last time he’d seen her like this. It had been one of his first missions with the Titans. Dick hadn’t been there and Donna had been in charge. Only she’d kept trying to push leadership onto him, an objectively crazy thing to do considering he was the youngest and least experienced of them all at the time. Jason remembered giving her a pep-talk and helping her step up.

Did that… Did that actually happen? Was that part of reality, or was it one of those new memories that Jason was still trying to get a handle on? 

He… he wasn’t even sure. 

That was probably bad, right?

He didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t.

Was none of it real? Was all of it? 

Jason shook those thoughts from his head and focused back on the present moment. Something was clearly bothering Donna, and she had come to him of all people, so he needed to pay attention. Following what he’d learned from Alfred, Jason led her to his ratty couch and made her some calming tea.

When they were both settled with their cups of tea, Jason waited patiently for Donna to talk.

When they ran out of tea, and it became clear that Donna wasn’t going to talk, Jason took the initiative.

“Is everything alright?” he asked. “Kyle wasn’t actually having a stroke, was he?”

“What?” she asked, seemingly startled out of her thoughts. “No, no, Kyle is fine. Just his usual dramatic self.”

“Good,” Jason said. Then, because Jason had never been great at the gentle approach, “What’s the matter then?”

Donna hugged her empty mug to her chest, giving Jason a hesitant smile. 

The wavering was so unlike her that Jason found himself inching closer, unconsciously offering whatever comfort he could. He knew Artemis liked to touch shoulders or arms when she needed a little comfort, and he figured Donna may be the same.

“I need a favour,” she said, although somehow it sounded like a question.

“What do you need?”

“I need…” she tried. “I want … to see Robert. My son. I want you to take me to a universe where he got to grow up safe and happy. Just to see. Just once. Please.”

Ah.

Jason had never met Donna’s kid, but he knew Robert had died in a car crash a long time ago. The kid had been very young. Jason had been dead or training with the League when it had happened, but he didn’t have to see it to guess that it had wrecked Donna.

“Of course,” Jason said. “Do you want to go now?”

Donna nodded, and Jason carefully pried the empty mug from her and placed it on the coffee table. He offered her his hand. She took it, and Jason pulled her to her feet. He took her other hand so that they were standing face to face in a tiny circle. It was more for comfort than anything else.

“Ready?” he asked.

She met his eyes, looking confident for the first time since her arrival.

“Ready.”

Jason thought about a universe where Donna’s kid was older, happy and thriving. In a flash, they were somewhere else. He had a moment to take in that they’d arrived in the middle of New York before he registered the bus flying right for them. 

“Oh shit.”

He braced himself, ready to grab Donna and roll out of the way, but then someone dropped down in front of them and caught the bus. It was a young man with curly blond hair, dressed like he could have stepped out of a movie about Sparta. The man set the bus down gently, then started turning towards them. 

Donna gasped and darted behind Jason, hiding her face from view but keeping a tight grip on one of his hands. 

“Sorry, I didn’t see you—” the bus catcher said, only to cut himself off when he got a good look at Jason’s face. The hero grinned brightly at him. “Uncle Jay? I thought you were in space this week.”

Donna’s grip tightened further. He swore he felt the bones in his hand crack. Bloody Amazons. 

Jason opened his mouth, not really sure what was going to fall out of it, but he was interrupted by another young hero with dark hair calling, “Wondrous, stop conversing with civilians and start assisting me!”

That was— Was that an older version of Damian ??

The blonde hero, Wondrous, smiled sheepishly at him and sped away. 

Jason and Donna watched from the sidelines as Wondrous’ team took down some supervillain that Jason didn’t recognise. They worked well together, and more than that, they looked like they were having fun working together. Even Damian. 

Donna tugged on his arm to get his attention. Jason couldn’t help but startle when he saw the tears streaming down her face. Jason figured he should try to comfort her but he didn’t know what to do.

“We should probably go before they wrap this up,” she said before he could make an attempt.

Jason nodded and transported them back to his safe house in their own universe. 

As soon as they were back, Donna stepped into his arms, resting her wet face on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her, hoping he was helping. She hugged him back tightly. 

“You okay?” Jason murmured after a while.

“Yeah,” she said, voice hoarse. She pulled back from the hug and gave him a shaky smile. “Thank you for bringing me there. I’m really glad I got to see that.”

Oh, thank fuck. He thought he’d made everything worse. 

“Anytime, Wonder Girl,” he said. “Want to try another universe?”

She shook her head. “No. No, I think that one trip was exactly what I needed.”

Donna gave him one more quick hug before they said their goodbyes.

Chapter Text

Jason could admit that he may have been stretching himself too thin as of late. Between all the multiversal travel and trying to keep up some semblance of a patrol schedule, he hadn’t had much time for things like… sleeping. Not to mention all the extra memories encroaching on the few peaceful moments he had. He’d gotten back into meditating lately, something he’d been made to do a lot in the All Caste, hoping it would help sort through all the noise. It was probably helping, but there was so much noise that it was hard to notice a difference.

He stood in his flat in all his gear, considering if he should go out to patrol today. On the one hand, he hadn’t gone the last three days, and there were only so many times he could not make an appearance before the bad guys got cocky. Not to mention the Bats would start sniffing around if he disrupted his usual behaviour too much. On the other hand, he felt tired and off balance, and patrolling like that was never wise.

“Hood,” Oracle said over comms. “Black Bat needs some assistance near your territory.”

“And there’s no one else in the area,” Jason finished. 

He doubted he would have been Oracle’s first choice.

“You’re the closest,” Oracle said practically.

“I have better things to do,” Jason lied. “I’m sure she’ll be fine without me.”

If he could avoid getting anywhere near Black Bat, that was always his preference. He didn’t know much about her— they’d barely interacted— but he knew that her distaste for killing rivalled Bruce’s, and that she could and would beat him up. The last thing he needed was another person he cared about who would not hesitate to take him off the board when he did something they didn’t approve of. So yeah, Jason tended to stay as far away as possible from his creepy ‘sister’. Being attached to Bruce was bad enough, he didn’t want to get attached to the girl version of Bruce as well.

Of course, that was easier said than done. Jason tended to care about people even when he had no clear reason to. Someone could do something vaguely kind in his direction and he’d be ready to bend over backwards to help them, for better or worse. It was the part of himself he kept as close to his chest as possible. It was why he often tried to avoid spending too much time with people he didn’t trust. It took scarily little for Jason to be willing to get hurt for someone else.

“I’d feel better if she had backup,” Oracle told him firmly. “She’s not replying to comms.”

Jason sighed. 

“Alright,” he said, knowing he was going to regret this. “Send me her location.”

Cassandra Cain was surrounded. Usually that would be fine. Usually she could take this many people down. But she had been hit with something early in the fight and it was making her movements sluggish. Some kind of drug was in her system. It wasn’t just affecting her body either. Her mind was fuzzy too. 

She could hear the bad men talking but she was bad at language on a good day and this was not a good day. 

She could hear Oracle in her ear too. Oracle’s tone was questioning and urgent but Cass could not process what she was asking. She could not reply. Not with her brain like this. Words took focus. Focus she did not currently have.

Everything faded to a buzz as Cass ripped into the men. She had to put them to sleep. She had to, or they would do worse to her.

She was slow though. So slow.

She gasped as a bullet tore through her left thigh.

Too slow.

She fell to one knee.

Too slow.

The men closed in.

Then a larger man crashed into them. Red. Large red man. 

Red Hood. 

Family. Safe. Brother. Jason

Time passed in a blur. 

All the bad men were out. Jason was in front of her. He was speaking to her and she could not understand. Jason’s words were often harder to understand than the other’s. His and Damian’s. They used more words she did not know. But this time she did not catch any of the words and it was not because of Jason.

Jason said something, tone more gentle, and cradled her face in his hands. He shone a light in her eyes. Then he was angry. Not at her. He wrapped something around her bleeding thigh. He relayed something to Oracle over the comms. He was probably reporting on her condition.

She shivered. She was cold. Jason dropped his jacket around her. Then he picked her up. Gentle.

Jason was always the hardest for her to understand. She knew he was afraid of her. She knew he kept his distance. Many people were afraid of Cass. She often made people uncomfortable or scared. But Jason’s fear was different. He wasn’t afraid of how she could hurt him physically. Not entirely. He was afraid of what she thought of him and what he thought of her. She did not understand it.

She knew that he did not like her. Or that he tried not to like her. But still, now he was kind. He was gentle with her when she was weak. He came to help her. He always came to help any of them. Even when he was fighting them, he would save them. Jason did not like her but he was safe.

Cass wanted to be safe for him too, but she knew that few of the Bats were. Jason was on edge in the cave. He was on edge when Bruce was there, or mentioned. He was on edge with Dick, although Dick often made him soften during their interactions. He was less on edge with Tim and the others, but even then Jason did not relax around them. He did not feel that they were safe. It often put Cass on edge in return. 

She knew that Jason killed. She knew it made Bruce rage. She did not like killing, but she could see in every line of Jason’s body that he killed from a place of care. It was another way that Jason confused her. So much of Jason was beyond her understanding. He didn’t fit with what she thought she understood about herself and the world. It made her head hurt. That was why she usually let him avoid her.

She tried to say something to him. Tried to find the words to thank him for his gentle care. She took the time to focus for something to say. 

“Jason safe,” was what she ended up mumbling.

He went rigid with surprise. He murmured something back to her but she could not understand it.

Cass did not feel like she could stay awake any longer. In Jason’s arms, she knew she didn’t need to.

Fuck. 

Fuck, why was Jason like this?

Cass had said two nice words to him while drugged out of her mind and it had hit him right in the heart. This was why he needed to avoid the Bats. One second it was a carrot and the next it was a stick. 

So why did he still go for the carrot?

He was stupid, he supposed.

Jason hadn’t stuck around after getting Cass to the Batmobile, but Oracle had kept him updated on her condition. He was right, Cass had been drugged. She’d also been shot, but she was doing okay now. The drugs had been flushed out of her system and she’d already woken up. She was fine.

He didn’t want to care about that, but he did.

Why was he like this?

Fuck, he needed to think about something else. 

At this point the only thing he could think about was helping other versions of Cass. So that’s what he did. 

He thought about saving Cass from her shitty upbringing and the next thing he knew, he was in a shack with a crying baby.

Jason edged closer to the baby. The signs of neglect were obvious. She was covered in filth and left alone in a ratty cot. Jason reached in and lifted Baby-Cass into his arms, cradling her carefully.

Baby-Cass immediately stopped crying, instead looking up at him with wide curious eyes.

She was adorable.

Since there was no one in the room to witness it, Jason cooed at her.

Baby-Cass giggled.

What the fuck was Jason supposed to do with a baby?

The Jason in this universe would also be a baby at this time, if he was even born yet. Obviously he couldn’t give her to Bruce. That wasn’t exactly the road to a good childhood. Jason would know. Dick would be a child so he was out.

Jason had not thought this through.

The door to the shack opened and in walked an alternate version of David Cain, ruthless assassin and Baby-Cass’s father.

Shit, Jason really hadn’t thought this through.

They stared at each other as Jason slowly lowered Baby-Cass back into her cot. She started crying again as Jason let her go.

As soon as Baby-Cass was set down, Alt-Cain lunged at him.

Quite honestly, Jason wasn’t sure if he could take a world renowned assassin. He had some memories of going toe to toe with much scarier people. But he also had memories of being bodied by people he should have reasonably been able to cream. His disjointed amalgamation of memories was incredibly inconsistent. 

As he and Alt-Cain exchanged blows, Jason’s confidence increased.

He found that having those alternate memories only added to his skillset in a fight. He now had years more gymnastics training under his belt due to that version of him that grew up in the circus. Although he’d gotten too big to pull off all the moves he remembered. 

Then there was his training with Bruce, Dick, the League of Assassins, the solo teachers Talia got him, and the All Caste. The All Caste existed outside of time so who knew how long he even trained while he was there. 

Like, with all that training why didn’t Jason win more fights? He was basically one of the most well trained humans of all time. Plus he was a crazy fast learner.

Fighting Alt-Cain wasn’t exactly easy, but Jason was hardly struggling either.

Alt-Cain seemed to realise this too, as he changed tactics. Evidently hedging the idea that Jason didn’t want Baby-Cass to get hurt, the scum-bag kicked out at the cot instead of Jason. As Alt-Cain predicted, Jason intervened, catching the cot and setting it right before Baby-Cass could get hurt. Alt-Cain took advantage of Jason’s distraction and levelled a gun at Jason’s head.

Jason looked up from saving the cot just in time to anticipate a bullet to the face.

A bullet to the face is not what happened. As the bullet hit him, Jason seemed to glitch like tv static and the bullet went right through him like he didn’t exist.

Jason and Alt-Cain stared at each other, equally shocked.

“Why are you surprised?” Alt-Cain demanded.

“I don’t know what that was,” Jason said. “Usually I just get shot and die.”

“ What? ”  

Jason used Alt-Cain’s moment of confusion to kick the gun out of his hand, pull out his own and reverse their fates. Only when Alt-Cain had a bullet fired at his head, he did the reasonable thing and died.

With that problem solved, Jason picked Baby-Cass back up and continued contemplating what to do with her. Part of him just wanted to say ‘fuck it’ and take her home with him, but he knew he couldn’t. 

First of all, if he let himself start taking babies from alternate universes home, he was going to end up with a literal army of children and a lot of them would be Cass. He doubts any kid wants to be raised by one shitty dad next to three dozen almost identical kids. Plus, they’d all have very similar— or exactly the same— genetic code, and no one was going to believe that Jason got a woman pregnant with whatever the thirty-person equivalent of octuplets was. Although, that would be a good excuse for the mother not being around. No woman would live through that kind of birthing nightmare.

Secondly, Jason had never permanently removed someone from their universe before. There could be consequences for Baby-Cass or her universe that he couldn’t anticipate. Jason was happy to risk himself by messing around with the multiverse, but risking innocent people was not an option. He didn’t know how any of this worked and he didn’t have time to have another hypothetical conversation with Tim about the potential dangers of multiversal travel. He had a baby in his arms now and he needed to figure out what to do with her.

He considered going door knocking at the houses of various superheroes he knew, but the main point of this was to keep Baby-Cass out of that world and let her have a proper childhood.

In the end, Jason hacked into some adoption databases and found some couples looking to get a baby. He spend a few hours scouting them out and identifying the best normal civilian parents, then he forged some paperwork for Baby-Cass. 

As he dropped her off at her new home, Jason felt inexplicably sad to part with her, but he knew he was giving her the best shot he could. 

Just in case, he left his multiversal phone number with Baby-Cass’ new parents.

Then he went on to the next Cass.

Chapter Text

“Do you think adopting babies from alternate universes could have unforeseen consequences?” Jason said in place of a hello as he joined Donna and Kyle at their usual cafe table.

“Jason,” Donna sighed. “Please tell me you didn’t steal a baby from another universe.”

“I didn’t,” Jason said, acting affronted. “I only considered taking the babies with me.”

“Then what did you do with the babies?” Kyle asked, sounding mildly accusatory.

“I found the babies good homes,” Jason said. “ Obviously . I’m not a monster.”

“N-no,” Kyle spluttered, face turning red. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Donna patted Kyle on the back comfortingly like he was the one who’d just been insulted. Blatant favouritism.

“Anything new?” Donna asked Jason.

Jason wanted to say no, since he’d been juggling false memories for weeks, so that wasn’t new, even if it had been steadily getting worse. However, he’d glitched through a bullet the other day, and that was pretty new.

Donna seemed to sense his hesitation. 

“These meet-ups are pointless if you’re not honest with us about what’s been going on,” she reminded him.

“Yeah,” Jason sighed. “Yeah, I may have been experiencing some… stuff. But I’m hardly sure it’s because of the multiversal travel. Like, there’s always been weird stuff, what with the whole coming back to life and all that.”

“Tell us,” Donna ordered flatly.

Jason ran a hand through his hair. He supposed it would be nice to get a sanity check. His brain had been so muddled lately, he hardly knew what was real anymore.

“I’ve been having some memory problems,” Jason admitted.

Kyle lent forward, his brow furrowing in concern. “You’re forgetting stuff?”

“No,” Jason said. “The opposite, actually.”

“Huh?”

Donna raised an eyebrow at him.

“Okay so,” Jason sighed, “For the last few weeks, I’ve been remembering all this stuff that didn’t happen. At least, I don’t think it happened. Or maybe it did? It’s getting difficult for me to keep it straight. I… there’s just so much of it and it’s all so contradictory.”

“Can you give us some examples?” Donna asked.

“Like… Like I’m not even sure what colour my hair is supposed to be some days. Am I a natural blonde? A redhead? Like, I’m pretty sure my hair is black, and it theoretically has been my entire life, but I’m also pretty sure I’m blonde.”

Donna and Kyle blinked at him, clearly having not expected that.

“You… what?” Kyle asked.

But Jason had been holding this craziness in for ages and it felt so good to get it off his chest, so he kept going. 

“I look back on my past,” Jason continued, “and I sometimes remember that I was an adorable sunshine Robin who was like seventy-percent cape and spoke only in puns. But sometimes I think that I was an angry Robin who was overly violent. And yeah, maybe I was both but… ya know, it’s weird. Or, or— Donna! Remember that time I was on a mission with the Titans and you almost flew the plane into the World Trade Center?! Except, how could that make any sense because 9/11 happened long before I was Robin. Or as Red Hood, sometimes I’m a tactical genius who can out manoeuvre Batman and sometimes I’m an actual reckless idiot. 

“How can I be both?? Why am I basically eight different people? Why do I not know what year I was born? Why does it feel like Tim has been seventeen for half a decade ?! Like, I swear I’m only supposed to be a few years older than Tim. Am I nineteen ?! Still?! ”

“God, I fucking hope not,” Kyle choked.

“It’s like…” Jason continued. “It’s like our entire reality is completely fluid. It just… doesn’t make any fucking sense! Is it just me? Is my brain just broken from that time Bruce modified it with fear toxin to get me to retire and then the Joker gave me his own gas to cancel it out? Shit … My brain is just broken, isn’t it?”

Jason took a breath, trying to calm down. He was freaking out. This was embarrassing.

“Hold up,” Donna said, lifting a hand in a stopping motion, “Bruce did fucking what ?”

Kyle nodded aggressively in support of Donna’s question.

“Honestly, that’s not even in the top three worst things Bruce has ever done to me. Can we get back on topic please? Is my brain broken or not?”

Donna shook her head as if to clear it. “We’re gonna circle back to the Bruce stuff, but fine. We’ve confirmed that you can actually travel the multiverse, and this memory stuff is probably related to that, so I doubt it means your ‘brain is broken’.”

Jason nodded, reverently accepting the reassurance.

Kyle seemed to gather himself next. “I also want to circle back to the Bruce stuff later, but with the alternate memories, I think I know what that is.”

“You do?” Jason asked urgently.

“Yeah, because it’s not like hundreds of different versions of you, right?” Kyle asked. “It’s just a few alternate histories? And you started remembering all the different versions at the same time right? It’s not like more and more are being added?”

Jason nodded slowly, focusing completely on Kyle with an embarrassing amount of desperation.

Kyle cleared his throat.

“I’m not sure how much you know about this,” Kyle began, “but I’ve been… well… god-adjacent a couple of times. I’ve even been past the Source Wall. I— I don’t really remember everything about those experiences. When I went back to being a simple Green Lantern, my brain couldn’t hold onto a lot of the details or I would have gone insane. But , what I do know is that our reality is a painting…”

“We get it, you’re a sensitive artist,” Jason scoffed. He didn’t need vague metaphors right now. He needed actual information. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Like layers of paint,” Kyle clarified, running a hand through his hair and looking harassed. “You know about the reality shifts, right? Hell, we were all involved in one of those reality altering events personally. Every time one of those happens it’s like reality gets a new coat of paint. Theoretically, some of us know that another coat of paint has been added, but that doesn’t mean we can see what was underneath it. 

“And it’s not just the obvious new patches of colour either. It’s not just the big reality shifting events we all know happened. It’s like, sometimes different people are just picking up the brush and adding their own personal touches ‘cause they can. And the painting is never finished.

“Most people— they can only see the top layers. They don’t know what the painting looked like a few layers ago. They’re not supposed to . But I think you do. You’re not crazy, Jason, you’re just seeing all the layers of paint. You’re remembering all the realities that came before the one we currently have.”

Jason let what Kyle was saying wash over him.

It was certainly a better explanation than being certifiably insane.

But… “Why is this happening to me? Any of this? Ever since I came back it’s like I’m not even human anymore. I haven’t been able to stay dead. I can travel through the multiverse. I can see through reality. Shit, an assassin tried to kill me and the bullet went right through me like I didn’t even exist. Like I’m just the eldritch abomination that clawed its way out of Jason Todd’s grave.”

“When was an assassin trying to kill you?” Kyle asked, alarmed.

“When isn’t an assassin trying to kill me? You’re really missing the point here. I’m not a person, I’m a fucking ghost.”

“Wait,” Donna said. “You said ever since you ‘ came back’ you can’t stay dead. Like you’ve died more than once. Since when?”

Jason froze. He’d said much more than he’d meant to say. His chats with Death had always been something he kept to himself. He knew Roy and Artemis suspected there was some fuckery going on, but even they hadn’t been able to drag any sort of confirmation out of Jason.

Jason couldn’t tell people about all his deaths. That meant telling people about all the times Bruce had killed him. It meant Bruce would find out. It meant they’d have to talk about it. It meant Jason would find out for sure whether Bruce really thought Jason should die. 

And if everyone else agreed with him.

A few years ago, Jason would have wanted to know one way or the other. He would have pushed the issue. But Jason had learned the hard way what happened when he tried to get people to choose him. He didn’t want to make that mistake again. What he had now wasn’t perfect, but at least it wasn’t total destruction.

He trusted Donna and Kyle, but his relationship with Death was a grave that was better left undisturbed.

“I’m not talking about that,” Jason told them.

He got to his feet, ready to bolt out of there, but an Amazonian grip on his arm kept him from leaving.

“Don’t go,” Donna told him, gentle despite her strong grip. “We want to help you. If you don’t want to tell us something, that’s fine, but don’t just walk away.”

Jason sat back down, a little dumbfounded by how much he believed what she was saying. That she and Kyle weren’t going to relentlessly interrogate him until they had every detail of what Jason wanted to keep from them. That they did just genuinely want to help him.

Why?

What had he done to earn that kind of care?

“I get what it’s like to not feel human,” Kyle said. “When you have that much power at your fingertips it can be hard to stay grounded. And sometimes it’s hard to feel like yourself.”

He was meeting Jason’s eyes with the most earnest expression Jason had ever received from him. Kyle had spent so long acting like an idiot around Jason, that sometimes Jason forgot that Kyle was the real deal; a brilliant, genuine hero. The kind that even Jason didn’t want to scoff at.

“But being human isn’t about the powers you have or what you are,” Kyle continued. “It’s about who you are.”

“I don’t think I know who I am anymore,” Jason found himself admitting.

Shit, how was Kyle of all people dragging so much honesty out of Jason. 

Still, Jason couldn’t seem to shut up.

“Some of the memories I have— Some of the shit I remember doing— It was bad . Was that really me? I don’t want to have done those things. But I remember doing them. I remember so many versions of me now, I don’t even know who I am anymore. I’m not sure I can even find a common theme between all the versions I remember. Which version is the correct version? Who is Jason Todd? How does he behave? Is he a villain? Is he a hero? Something in between? I should… I should know that, shouldn’t I?”

Kyle reached across the table and grabbed Jason’s hand. 

“Breathe,” Kyle said. “Just breathe.”

And Jason sucked in a breath, focusing on the feel of Kyle’s hand squeezing his own.

“There is no correct version,” Kyle said, eyes still earnestly boring into him. “Who cares if there are a dozen different iterations of Jason Todd. You’re Jason Todd. You get to choose who you are. You can consider as much or as little of those other versions as you want. They’re not you anymore. Not unless you want them to be.”

Jason nodded slowly. It was hard to disagree with Kyle when he was looking at him like that. Like he really believed Jason could be anyone he wanted, and that the person Jason wanted to be would be good . He let his eyes fall to their hands, where Kyle was still latched onto him.

Huh.

“Thanks, Glow Stick.”

Kyle let go of him abruptly, looking flustered. Any traces of the self-assured wisdom Kyle had been flashing around earlier seemed to retreat back into whatever corner of his mind Kyle imprisoned it.

“Yeah, I think Kyle really said it all,” Donna said with a smirk.

Kyle startled slightly and Jason could relate. He’d almost forgotten she was there. 

“Although,” Donna continued. “I do think we should talk to Zatanna or Constantine about what’s going on with you, Jason.”

Jason was glad for the change of topic, and the three of them fell back into the familiar argument about Jason not wanting to tell another soul. 

Kyle couldn’t get Jason out of his head. Not in the usual way either. He couldn't stop thinking about the things Jason hadn’t meant to admit today. That and the way Jason had gone as white as a sheet after realising what he’d let slip.

Jason had said Bruce had done worse than brainwash him and that he’d died multiple times. For the rest of their meetup, Jason had been especially tight lipped about those particular topics. It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together. Which is good because a genius Kyle was not. But even he could figure out that it wasn’t them knowing his secrets that Jason was afraid of. Jason was afraid of Bruce fucking Wayne. 

Kyle was now realising that he knew frighteningly little about what had been happening between Jason and the other Bats. No one in the hero community knew what the Bats got up to. They were a particularly private bunch.

All Kyle knew was that he didn’t know anything, so he called Roy.

That hadn’t been very helpful. Roy had been even more tight lipped than Jason. He hadn’t cleared Bruce, but he’d also refused to outright confirm anything. Kyle could understand that. Roy hadn’t seen him in years and if Kyle’s suspicions were right, Jason had been hurt a lot. It made sense that Roy was protective. It made sense that he wouldn’t talk behind Jason’s back about things Jason didn’t want Kyle to know. Still, it was frustrating.

Kyle didn’t know what to do.

So he called Guy.

“You were a councillor, right,” Kyle said.

“Hello to you too,” Guy replied.

“Sorry, hi. But you were, right? So you know what to do when…”

“When what?”

“When someone’s being hurt by their dad.”

Guy was silent for a moment. 

“Is there a way to remove the child from the situation? Someone else they could live with?”

“It’s… It’s not a child. He just… I don’t know why he always goes back if… I don’t think he wants to admit that he’s being hurt that badly.”

“You’re going to have to give me a bit more context than that, kid.”

“I don’t know if I can. I’m sorry… But it’s bad, Guy. Like chemical brainwashing and murder levels of bad. At least, that’s what it seems like. He won’t talk about it at all. And even if he wanted to do something about it, his dad is powerful. Like, really powerful. I’m not sure he could get away from him if he tried.”

“You make friends with some villain’s kid, Kyle?”

Kyle laughed darkly at the irony of it all. 

“I didn’t know it at the time, but yeah… Maybe I did… But, Guy… I don’t know how to help him.”

Guy let out a sigh. “Look, kid. You can’t help people who don’t want to be helped. You especially can’t help people who won’t admit there’s even a problem. What you can do is stick by them until they’re ready. Show them that the help will be there when they want it. That you’re a safe person. 

“In the meantime, write down everything you find out about the situation. Gather whatever evidence you can in case your friend needs to prove what’s happening later down the line. Or if you need to prove what’s happening to your friend.

“If it gets really bad and you think your friend is in immediate danger, then you might need to pull out the evidence even if they’re not ready for it. Try to get them as far away from their father as possible. But… these kinds of abusive relationships— the ones where the victim has the power to walk away— they only work because the victim cares deeply about their abuser. If you decide to get in the middle of it, then you’ve got to be ready for your friend to hate you for it. 

“Even if you’re saving his life, he might not see it that way.”

Chapter Text

Being summoned to the Batcave rarely meant good things for Jason. It didn’t matter that the Batcave was a thing of the past, being in one of the smaller bases that Bruce had set up across the city still put Jason on edge. He stood off to the side, having placed himself close to the exit, but leant against the wall in an effort to look casual.

Bruce hadn’t said what he’d wanted Jason to come for. It seemed to be a family affair though, as Dick, Tim, Damian and Cass were also loitering around the base as they waited for Bruce to get to the point. So far the Big Bat had just been looming and posturing, going into ridiculous detail about some gang members getting iced without explaining why he’d called them here.

Jason’s phone buzzed. Having heard nothing of value that required his attention thus far, he pulled it out to see the message. It was from Roy.

‘ Kyle Rayner called me up to ask about you and Bruce.’

Fuck. Why the hell would Kyle be asking about that?

‘ What did you tell him? ’ Jason sent back.

‘ Nothing concrete. Just that whatever he was thinking was probably right.’

What did that even mean?

“Hood,” Bruce interrupted his thoughts.

Jason barely held back a flinch at the direct address. He tried to relax his body language as he looked up from his phone to meet Bruce’s gaze.

“Yeah, old man?”

“You’re not paying attention.” 

Bruce’s voice was firm and Jason immediately registered his words as a reprimand.

Jason didn’t bristle. He knew where that led. If he didn’t stay collected then Bruce wouldn’t. When Jason was friendly and calm, Bruce was more likely to hold himself back in return. When Bruce didn’t hold himself back, Jason had a bad time.

“I’m multitasking,” Jason returned, keeping his tone light.

“This isn’t a game, Hood. If we’re going to keep working together then I need you to start caring about the people in this city.”

Jason couldn’t even be surprised by the shit Bruce was saying at this point. It was nothing he hadn’t heard before. He knew what Bruce thought of him, and it wasn’t like Jason was trying to advertise how much he cared, so he supposed Bruce’s assumptions were fair. Still, it was another comment that added to the hurt Jason constantly tried to keep a lid on.

“Jason cares,” Cass said abruptly. “A lot.”

Jason tried not to visibly startle. No one ever intervened when Bruce was being an asshole. Cass certainly hadn’t before, although Jason supposed she wasn’t usually there when Bruce went off at him.

“We’re getting off topic,” Bruce said, easily brushing off Cass’ comment. “This case is important, Hood. You need to pay attention to the brief… Unless you already know more about this case than you’re letting on.”

And, oh, Jason understood what he was doing here now. This wasn’t a team-up, this was an ambush. Some people with bad rap sheets had been killed and now Bruce was jumping to his favourite conclusion. It was nothing Bruce hadn’t done before, but Jason wasn’t sure if the others were in on it this time.

Jason tried to stay calm. He shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You’ve been patrolling much less recently,” Bruce said, still tiptoeing around an outright accusation.

“I’ve been busy.” 

Jason knew that wouldn’t go over well but what else could he say? Certainly not the truth.

“Doing what?” Bruce demanded.

Jason forced a friendly laugh, but he couldn’t help voicing his genuine thoughts on the matter, “Come on, B. You still don’t trust me? Haven’t I earned a little faith by now? I died for you and everything.”

Bruce got tenser, and Jason knew he wasn’t winning any points with that reminder.

“We’ve all died, Todd,” Damian snarled, “You’re not special.”

Jason laughed. 

It wasn’t forced or friendly this time. He just couldn’t help himself. He was laughing and he couldn’t stop. He really couldn’t stop. Everyone was staring at him, varying expressions of discomfort on their faces, and Jason was laughing so hard his eyes were starting to water.

We’ve all died.

Ha!

Not like Jason, they hadn’t.

Not by Bruce’s hand.

Not so many times.

Not even close.

None of them had come back like him either.

None of them had stumbled through Gotham like a mindless zombie.

None of them had been comatose and forgotten in a hospital bed.

None of them had clawed their way out of a grave.

Life and death meant something entirely different to Jason now.

Some part of him wanted to pull out a gun and shoot himself in the head right then and there just to prove a point.

He wouldn’t though, and not just because he didn’t risk packing any heat when he was going to see Bruce. The last thing Jason needed was everyone finding out about whatever weirdness was going on with him. 

Most of all, Jason knew that enough people liked to hurt him and he didn’t want to do himself the disservice of being one of those people. 

Not on purpose. 

Not anymore.

Those thoughts managed to sober him up enough that he could reign in his laughter. The damage was already done though. Everyone was looking at him like he was a fucking nutcase. Jason found that response reasonable, and now he didn’t want to stick around to deal with the fallout.

That was when life decided to smile upon him. His multiversal phone rang, breaking through the awkward silence and giving him a good excuse to ignore what had just happened. He flashed the phone around with the words, “I’ve got to take this.”

“Who’s ‘ Nice Bruce ’?” Timmy asked as he read the contact name.

“He’s the nicest Bruce I know,” Jason said as he walked out. “Don’t wait up. This could take a while.”

He wasn’t even lying. Nice-Bruce always tried to keep Jason on the phone for as long as possible when he checked up on Jason. Not that Jason usually stayed on the line for more than a moment, but the potential was there.

“We’re not done here, Hood,” Bruce protested.

“I am,” Jason said.

He didn’t mean it, but sometimes he wished he did. That he could be done with Bruce for good. He couldn’t though. If he wanted his family then Bruce was part of the package. But for the moment, he could walk away. He had to. If he stayed in that room for one more second, he was going to do something he’d regret. Or more accurately, he was going to piss off Bruce to the point where Bruce would do something Jason regretted.

Jason answered the phone to firmly signal that he was done talking to them, then let the door shut behind him.

“What do you want?” he asked, because if he gave Nice-Bruce any leeway at all then the man would redouble his adoption efforts.

“Just checking in,” Nice-Bruce said, as he always did. “How are you doing?”

“My Bruce is being an asshole again,” Jason admitted as he got up to street level and started walking home.

Who else was Jason going to complain to? Nice-Bruce and his Robin-Jason were maybe the only people who knew the entire situation between him and Bruce.

“Did he hurt you?” Nice-Bruce asked urgently.

“No,” Jason said. “Nothing like that. He just did the thing where he accuses me of murdering someone when literally none of the evidence points to me.”

Nice-Bruce let out a displeased grunt.

“Then Damian was being a snarky little shit,” Jason continued, “as usual. Then I may have freaked everyone out with some inappropriately timed laughter. In my defence… No, I don’t have a defence. I don’t know why I said that. Anyway, I was laughing about the irony of Damian saying we’ve all died and I’m not special.”

“Your Damian… doesn’t care that you died ?” Nice-Bruce asked slowly.

“Well, no, not like that,” Jason said, sensing a little horror in Nice-Bruce’s tone. “He probably cares if I live or die. I think. Maybe. But basically he was just saying that most of us have died so I shouldn’t milk my deaths, not that he knows I’ve died more than twice.”

“Twice is already too many times.”

“Pfft, rookie numbers,” Jason said, trying to act casual in the face of his recent psychotic episode.

A weary sigh came through the phone. Nice-Bruce was probably sensing that he wasn’t going to get a genuine emotion out of Jason about his deaths today.

“Do you and your Damian not get along?” Nice-Bruce asked.

“Oh, yeah, the kid totally hates my guts,” Jason said. “He thinks I’m an unstable failure ready to fly off the handle at any moment. He takes after his dad that way. In his defence, I did beat him up once. In my defence, he came at me first and I was showing him that you shouldn’t start fights you can’t win. Plus, one time he totally electrocuted me by bait and switching me with a hug, so in terms of shitty things done unto each other, we’re probably even.”

“You said he hates you,” Nice-Bruce pointed out. “But you didn’t say you hate him .”

Jason did not appreciate being called out like that.

“Damian’s a brat but… I can’t hate him. He’s just a kid who never got to be a kid. His life has been pretty fucked up. Maybe more fucked up than mine. He had the empathy tortured out of him, but he’s actually… he’s actually pretty soft hearted when he lets himself be. He just doesn’t know how to process me. I’m the family fuck up, and he knows that Bruce doesn’t trust me, and he knows that if he’s not careful he could end up just like me… It scares him, so he hates me.”

“You’re not a fuck up, Jason,” Nice-Bruce said.

As always, Nice-Bruce was focused on entirely the wrong points. 

“Do you…?” Nice-Bruce said in his awkward way. “The Damian in my universe has recently come to live with me. He’s only a toddler but… would you like to come and meet him?”

Jason hated that he did. He couldn’t even articulate why exactly, but the idea of a baby Damian who was safe and not fated to grow up in the League of Assassins… Yeah, he wanted to meet him.

“Does now work?” Jason asked.

“O-oh,” Nice-Bruce stuttered, clearly surprised that Jason was agreeing. “Yes, now would be great.”

This was going to make Nice-Bruce like five times clingier, Jason just knew it.

Jason ended up spending a few hours in Nice-Bruce’s universe reading to Baby-Damian. He tried to ignore Nice-Bruce watching on with a fond smile the entire time. That fucking sap.

Then Jason did the only natural thing and bounced around the universe kidnapping other baby versions of Damian from the League and dropping them off with their respective Bruce’s. He picked up the freshly resurrected versions of himself while he was at it, he was already in the area after all. My god, escaping from the League of Assassins was so much easier when he could just zap himself and the kids he was kidnapping out of there.

Hold on. Could he teleport around within his own universe?? He never really— He could teleport between universes and he’d just been teleporting within alternate universes without giving it a thought. Has he just been able to teleport around this entire time??? Why the fuck has he been walking and driving everywhere? Holy shit.

Note to self, try teleporting when he got home.

Fucking hell.

He was a bit distracted by those thoughts as he arrived in the next universe. Rather than coming upon a baby version of Damian this time, Jason was dropped right into the middle of a brutal fight in an atrium. Damian as Robin vs Heretic, the older clone of Damian.

This was where Damian died. 

Jason moved before his brain had even caught up to the situation, diving into the fight and pulling Young-Damian out of harm’s way.

“ Wingman? ” Young-Damian asked, clearly confused by his appearance.

Jason had been acting as Wingman in this time and he was definitely not dressed for that now. But he was also not dressed like the Red Hood used to dress, so Young-Damian had no idea what to make of him.

“Something like that,” Jason managed as he blocked a hit from Heretic. 

He regretted blocking rather than dodging immediately. The clone was huge and he hit hard .

Jason didn’t have time to falter at the pain, leaping to the side to dodge a barrage of arrows from the second floor balcony.

“That’s not very sporting,” he grunted.

Fuck it, he may as well use his own unsporting advantages too. 

He teleported up to the balcony, taking the archers by surprise and knocking them out— or off the balcony, he wasn’t picky— with a few well placed hits.

He appeared back on the ground to knock Heretic’s sword out of his hands as the clone made another swipe at Young-Damian.

Young-Damian cursed in Arabic, as he backed away a few steps.

“Since when can you teleport?” the brat demanded.

“Long story,” Jason managed as he fended off another attack.

Then Young-Damian seemed to shake off whatever shock he was feeling, picked up Heretic’s sword, and went on the attack. Jason and him worked seamlessly together, coming at Heretic from both sides to throw him off. When Heretic made a swipe at Young-Damian, Jason was there to block it. And when Jason was being overwhelmed by Heretic’s heavy hits, Young-Damian darted in to give Jason the respite he needed.

Jason made a motion to Young-Damian, and the kid understood, seamlessly handing Heretic’s sword off to Jason. The kid knocked Heretic off balance with a kick to the back and Jason went in for the kill. He stabbed the sword through Heretic’s chest in a mirror of what would have happened to Young-Damian if Jason hadn’t shown up.

The clone went down.

With Heretic dead, the assassins started fleeing. The fight was over.

“Good job, kid,” Jason panted. 

He risked ruffling Young-Damian’s hair, and the kid seemed too shocked by the action to consider stabbing him until it was too late.

“What are you doing here, Todd?” Young-Damian demanded, pushing his chest out for his usual posturing.

It didn’t stop Jason from seeing the slight tremble in the boy’s clenched fists. Young-Damian knew how close he had come to death. He could guess what would have happened if Jason hadn’t shown up when he did.

But Young-Damian would hate it if Jason acted like he was the scared little kid that he was.

“Try a ‘thank you’, brat,” he said. “It won’t kill you.”

To Jason’s surprise, Young-Damian did grit his teeth and mutter, “Thank you.”

Jason found himself softening. “I know you don’t think much of me, Robin, but I think a lot of you. You’re a good kid, deep down. Don’t forget that.” 

Jason would try not to forget it either next time his Damian was being a little shit.

He held out a memory stick and the kid took it, his face blank as he processed Jason’s words.

“Here,” Jason said. “This will explain some stuff. Call me if you ever need anything.” 

This universe’s Batman arrived on the scene as this universe’s Nightwing groaned and started to push himself up.

Jason ignored the Batman in favour of addressing the Nightwing. “Take care of your kid. You’re the best he’s got.”

Then Jason left.

Chapter Text

It was usually Jason who was running late for their cafe meetups, but this time it was Kyle. He would never admit this to anyone, but Kyle had been delayed trying to choose his outfit. Jason was making Kyle overthink everything and Kyle hated him for that. Except he didn’t hate him and that was exactly the problem.

Kyle hurried into their usual cafe. He caught sight of Donna and Jason already occupying a table. 

Jason spotted him first, offering Kyle a wave and a grin.

Ugh, Jason’s grin was breathtaking. 

And Jason was grinning like that because Kyle had shown up.

That grin was for Kyle.

Kyle walked face-first into a support pillar.

“Owww,” Kyle groaned to himself, holding a hand to his throbbing nose.

At least it wasn’t bleeding.

He could hear Donna and Jason laughing at him from the table. Donna was at least trying to snicker quietly but Jason’s loud cackle could probably be heard from outside. 

Why did he like this asshole again?

Suddenly Jason was in front of him, moving Kyle’s hand away so he could get a good look at the damage. 

“You alright, Space Cadet?” Jason asked, gently poking at his nose to make sure it wasn’t broken.

He had an amused smile on his face, but he was also carefully assessing Kyle for damage despite his outward mocking. His face drew very close to Kyle’s as he checked him over, and Kyle had the sudden urge to smash his own face into more than just a pillar. Mouth first this time.

“I’m good,” Kyle sighed. 

It came out a lot dreamier than he’d intended.

Yeah, Kyle was totally gone for this asshole.

Jason led Kyle over to the table when he became satisfied that the only thing hurt was Kyle’s pride. They’d already ordered him his usual drink, and something about that made Kyle feel warm.

Kyle resolutely avoided eye contact with Donna as he sat, confident that her mere expression would be some sort of teasing commentary on what had just happened. There was no way Donna didn’t catch why Kyle had just walked into a pillar.

“So what’s new?” Kyle asked in an attempt to move on from his embarrassing display.

“Apparently I can teleport,” Jason announced as if that were news.

This was finally enough to make Kyle look at Donna, so that they could exchange baffled looks.

“Yes??” Donna said, voicing both their thoughts. “You can will yourself between universes. You teleport all the time.”

“No but like, I can also just teleport around in this universe too.” 

Donna straightened up in her seat as if she were physically preparing herself for the coming stupidity.

“Let me get this straight…” she said. “You thought you could teleport between universes, but not within universes??”

“Uhhhh… Yeah?”

“That makes no sense,” Donna exclaimed. “Even if there was a limitation like that, you could have just used another universe as an intermediate spot to get to where you actually wanted to go.” 

“Oh my god I’m an idiot,” Jason muttered, eyes wide. “In my defence, I’m not used to having superpowers… Well I mean, I didn’t have any for the first fifteen years of my life.”

“Dude,” Kyle said, unable to hide his amusement. “I became a Green Lantern in my twenties.”

“Yeah, well, shut up.” 

Jason was pouting. 

It was adorable.

Now that Kyle knew Jason better, he was so much easier to read. Kyle wasn’t sure if that was because Kyle was better at recognising his expressions, or because Jason trusted him enough not to hide them. Probably a bit of both.

“Any updates on the memory issues?” Donna asked.

Jason rubbed the back of his neck. “Not especially, but there was something… Well… I’d like some advice.”

“Go on,” Donna encouraged.

“With all these alternate realities I’m remembering, there’s also… people I’m remembering. People who I was close to in my memories, but who I don’t think I know in the current reality. Do you think… do you think I should try to get in touch with them? No. No, that’s weird, right? They don’t know who I am. And even if they did, they’re different people now. That was stupid. Forget I said anything.”

“People like who?” Donna prodded, ignoring Jason’s attempt to take back his question.

“Well…” Jason visibly hesitated. “Back when I was a blonde kid I had an adoptive mother, Natalia Knight. She was a thief who adopted me to extort Bruce into marrying her. It was a whole thing. But by the end… I think we really were family, you know. She was a good mother to me. Then she got stabbed and floated away in a hot air balloon into some kind of multiversal storm and I never saw her again.”

“That um, that sucks,” Kyle said, wishing he could think of something better to say.

“Is there a version of her in this reality?” Donna asked.

Jason shrugged. “Not sure. I don’t know if I want to open that can of worms.”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Kyle asked. “You might be able to see her again.”

“Last time I tried to track down a long-lost mother,” Jason said, “she sold me out to the Joker and watched as he tortured me. Then, you know, I got murdered.”

Kyle winced. He hadn’t known that part of the story. His own mother had handed him to Joker? That was… Shit, Kyle couldn’t even describe how grim that was.

“And I’m not exactly doing well when it comes to my other mother figures either,” Jason continued as if he hadn’t just said something completely horrifying. “One of them chose drugs over me. The other had sex with me, like, as soon as I turned eighteen. At least, I hope I was eighteen. I think I was? Fuck, I hope that’s not part of the current reality anymore.”

Oh my god it got worse.

Kyle felt a little nauseous. 

Donna looked like she felt the same.

“They weren’t all bad,” Jason rambled on, uncaring about the bombs he was dropping. “My circus reality mum was good, I think. You know, before she was murdered. And Catherine was good when the drugs weren’t winning. But anyway, what I’m trying to say is, I’m not sure tracking down Natalia is worth the risk even if she is alive somewhere. What would I even say anyway? ‘ Hi, you were my mum a few realities ago and I’d like to reconnect ’? She’d probably think I was insane.”

“Well, you don’t have to lead with that,” Kyle said, trying to lighten the mood after the thoroughly depressing rundown of Jason’s mother figures.

“It’s not just Natalia though,” Jason sighed. “There was also a girl.”

“Oh?” Kyle said, trying not to be bummed out. He hadn’t accounted for past-reality girlfriends when he’d tried to find out if Jason was single. “You loved this girl?”

“Yeah…” Jason said. “Yeah, I really did.”

He looked deep in thought as he remembered his lost love.

Kyle wasn’t jealous, because that would be dumb.

“Scarlet,” Jason continued. “She was like a daughter to me. She was the only good part about that version of my life.”

Oh thank god. Kyle had totally been jealous. 

“Look, Jason,” Donna said. “If you really cared about these people then it probably is worth it to look them up. You may not be able to have the same relationships you had with them before, but at least you won’t be left wondering.”

“And if you’re feeling nervous about it, I could go with you to find them,” Kyle offered. “You know, so you have some moral support… Or physical support if someone tries to kill you again.”

Jason looked visibly sceptical about Kyle’s ability to act as either moral or physical support. 

Kyle tried not to be offended by that.

“I’ll think about it,” Jason said.

Then Jason froze like he was having an intense realisation. 

“Holy shit,” Jason said. “I can teleport.”

“Yes, we did this already,” Donna said, exasperated.

“Yeah, but the implications of that just sunk in properly. Give me five seconds. I need to go break someone out of jail.”

“What?” Kyle asked.

But Jason was already rushing out the door.

Then, about ten seconds later, Jason came back in with Rose Wilson at his side. She was very clearly wearing a prison jumpsuit, but the two of them ignored the stares and slid into the other side of the booth like nothing was amiss.

“You guys know Rose, right?” Jason said. “I owed her one.”

“Fuck yeah he did,” Rose said, shaking her head. “I had to fish him out of Gotham Harbour and that water is real nasty .”

Jason shrugged apologetically. “You’re a true friend.”

“I am,” Rose agreed. “You should show me how much you appreciate me by taking me back to the alley we passed and fucking my brains out.”

Kyle choked on his drink, but Jason just rolled his eyes like this was a standard interaction for them.

“I showed you my appreciation by busting you out of prison,” Jason replied neutrally.

“Then how about I show you my appreciation for that by fucking your brains out?” Rose said, not faltering in the slightest.

Kyle didn’t choke on his drink this time, but he did feel the pressing urge to encase Rose in a bubble-construct and fly her back to prison. He looked at Donna, expecting her to share his disgust, but she just looked quietly amused. Traitor.

Again, Jason acted like Rose was throwing out completely normal requests. He simply gestured at Kyle and Donna. “It would be rude to just leave.”

Rose pouted at him, but turned her attention to Kyle and Donna. “What is this anyway? Did you make some friends while I was in the slammer?”

“Is that so hard to believe?” Jason returned.

She looked him up and down suggestively. “I suppose you’re not entirely unappealing.”

Kyle couldn’t help the glare he levelled at Rose, which she immediately clocked. She raised an eyebrow at him, then her face melted into understanding. She shot him a downright sadistic look, and Kyle knew this interaction was only going to get worse.

“Gee, thanks,” Jason replied sarcastically, as if he hadn’t even noticed how aggressively this woman was throwing herself at him.

Rose slid a bit closer to Jason, pressing herself up against him. Like seriously, personal space much?

“So how’d you pull off that heroic rescue anyway?” she said, laying the flattery on far too thick. “Last I checked you couldn’t teleport.”

“I know, right!” Jason said. “Isn’t it weird?”

That finally pulled Rose up short. “I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to think it’s weird. Where did the ability come from?”

Jason shrugged. “Just woke up one day being able to teleport through the multiverse.”

Rose paused. “Well alright,” she said eventually. “That’s hot.”

And, okay, apparently Jason’s stubborn insistence that they not tell a soul about his multiversal travel didn’t extend to his lady love Rose Wilson.

Bitter?

Kyle?

No, not at all.

“Does that mean you can go anywhere?” Rose asked.

“I think so,” Jasons said. “I’ve been to a bunch of alternate universes and I even visited Bizzaro in a hell dimension, so probably.”

It was like someone had suddenly poured ice water down Rose’s back. She stopped rubbing herself against Jason like a cat in heat and sat up, a serious look on her face.

“You visited a hell dimension?” she repeated. “Can you take people with you?”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “Why?”

“I… someone I know…” she said softly. “He’s trapped in a hell dimension. Could you save him?”

“I’m not sure I can just pluck dead people from Hell?” Jason said carefully.

“It’s not like that,” Rose said, a note of desperation in her voice. It was like she was a completely different person. “Eddie’s not properly dead. He was killed at Sanctuary, and they tried to bring him back with the others, but Neron managed to nab him in the process. It’s not… he shouldn’t be there. It’s not fair.”

“Wait,” Jason said, “Are you talking about Eddie Bloomberg ? He’s stuck in Hell? I assumed he came back with the others.”

Rose shook her head. “No. He didn’t.” 

Her voice broke on the last word and Kyle found his jealousy melting away in the face of this other side to her. Clearly what she had with Jason wasn’t as romantic as what she had with this Eddie person. 

Jason also looked gutted by the news that Eddie was in hell. Did he know Eddie too?

“I’ll go get him,” Jason resolved. “Or at least, I’ll try.”

“You will?” Rose asked, her voice thick with emotion.

Jason squeezed her hand. “I will.”

Then he was getting to his feet and sliding out of the booth again.

“Hold on,” Donna said. “Breaking someone out of prison is one thing, but can you really just break someone out of Hell?”

“I’m about to find out,” Jason said.

And again, Jason walked out of the cafe with determination in his stride.

“That idiot better not die,” Donna sighed.

Rose gnawed at her nails anxiously. “If he dies then I’ll fucking kill him.”

“He won’t,” Kyle said, feeling oddly certain. “If anyone can waltz in and out of Hell to pick up a friend, it’s Jason Todd.”

He’d seen Jason do crazier, both in the last few months and in their initial adventure. Jason approached situations with a kind of single-minded determination that couldn’t be stopped. God, it was attractive. Stupid, attractive Jason Todd.

“So you and Jason, huh?” Rose said.

“What?” Kyle said, jerking out of his thoughts.

“You like him,” Rose said.

Donna cracked up. “Oh Zeus, she clocked you immediately!”

Kyle pouted, but couldn’t bring himself to deny it. He was past the denial stage and he didn’t want to go back… Even though he was in the pathetic stage at the moment.

Rose just gave him a knowing look when he didn’t answer. 

“No shame, dude,” she said. “Jason is hot and so good with his hands… and his mouth. Shoot your shot.”

The visuals that Rose’s words triggered were too much for Kyle’s already frazzled mind. His brain basically short circuited. 

Still he needed to know… “Aren’t you guys like… together?”

Rose laughed. 

“Nah,” she said. “We were, in the distant past, but we’re friends now. One of the few friends I have so I can’t afford to fuck it up. I like to try for benefits, but Jason’s a total romantic. He hasn’t taken me up on anything since we broke up. A damn shame.”

Since everyone already knew how pathetic he was, Kyle didn’t even try to hide his relief that Jason and Rose were just friends. At least from Rose’s point of view. Did Jason think that too?

Rose smirked at him, gearing up to say something else, but then her eyes caught on the cafe entrance and her face went slack.

Kyle turned to see Jason walking back in with an actual devil beside him. For a moment Kyle thought Jason had accidentally grabbed a demon instead of whoever Eddie was, but then he finally remembered that Eddie Bloomberg was Red Devil . And yeah, Red Devil did just look like the name implied.

The pair got some very wary looks from the other cafe patrons, but surprisingly, no one freaked out. Kyle supposed you got used to odd looking people when you lived in New York.

Jason and Eddie looked friendly with each other. They chatted as they walked in, big smiles on their faces. Eddie had his arm slung around Jason’s shoulder and Jason’s head was thrown back in a laugh.

“Honestly, dying is no excuse,” Eddie was saying. “What kind of pen pal stops replying to letters?”

“I’m sorry, man,” Jason said. “The mail delivery in the afterlife was pretty shit considering I got into Heaven. You’d think they’d have better infrastructure up there.”

“You were in Heaven? No fair. Can’t believe they stuck me in Hell. I guess that’s the price of selling your soul.”

“Could be.”

Then Eddie stopped in his tracks as he spotted Rose. The two of them locked eyes, each regarding the other with wonder.

Jason smirked, forcibly steering Eddie closer. “You know Rose, right?”

“I… yeah,” Eddie said, sounding awed. “Shit, this is a trick isn't it? It’s too good to be true. I’m totally being tortured, aren’t I?”

“It’s real,” Jason assured, giving his shoulder a squeeze.

Then Rose pounced. Eddie caught her waist as she wrapped her legs around him, grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him hard. Eddie responded with equal enthusiasm.

Kyle looked away, feeling kinda awkward to be watching the display— and Jesus, Rose’s hand was already slipping down Eddie’s pants.

That was finally the last straw for the poor cafe employees and they were all politely kicked out.

Rose and Eddie immediately left so they could go at it like rabbits or something like that.

Donna politely excused herself, shooting Kyle a look that told him she was giving him an opportunity to make a move.

“So…” Kyle tried, before Jason could go back to doing whatever it was Jason did. “So… You and Rose, huh?”

Kyle mentally facepalmed.

Jason just shot him a confused look. Then realisation seemed to dawn on him and he rolled his eyes.

“Every time I speak to a woman, you think I’m trying to hit on them,” Jason complained. “Seriously, have you never had a female friend?”

And yes, maybe Kyle had in the past made such baseless assumptions about Jason and Donna, but he felt like his question was pretty fair this time.

“She literally asked you to go out back and have sex with her,” Kyle pointed out.

“She’s joking,” Jason said, waving him off. “Rose is just like that.”

She hadn’t been joking. She definitely hadn’t been joking. But Kyle decided there was no need to explain that to Jason.

“So all the women you know are just your friends?” Kyle asked. “And Roy too? He’s just your friend?”

Shit, that wasn’t subtle at all. He sounded like a jealous boyfriend. There’s no way Jason wouldn’t notice.

“Yes,” Jason said, looking to the heavens for patience. “They are my friends. Don’t ask me to set you up with any of them though. They could do better.”

Yeah, okay, Jason had no idea.

Kyle didn’t know whether to be relieved or frustrated.

“Hey, I’m a total catch,” Kyle said, rising to Jason’s teasing. “I could charm any of your friends.”

Jason gave him a devastating look of doubt.

“I could!”

“I’ve seen you around Donna.”

“Okay, yes, maybe I act kinda stupid when I have a crush on someone,” Kyle admitted. “But I’m a good, romantic boyfriend at the end of it all.”

“You always act stupid,” Jason said, smirking.

He looked pleased with himself for his jab, and Kyle was almost amazed at whatever mental barriers were stopping Jason from putting two and two together. 

Yes, Kyle did always act stupid… around Jason.

And no part of Jason seemed inclined to think about what that could mean for more than a second.

Again, Kyle was unsure whether to be relieved or frustrated.

Before Kyle could decide, or even think about inviting Jason to hang around with him a little longer, Jason was stepping away.

“Anyway,” Jason said. “I’ve got shit to do. I’ll see you when I see you.”

Kyle watched him go for far longer than socially acceptable.

Shit.

Chapter Text

This time when Jason climbed in through Kyle’s window, Kyle was actually home. He was curled up on his couch sketching. 

It looked cosy. 

Kyle slammed the sketch book shut as soon as he spotted Jason coming in. 

“Jesus— You scared the crap out of me!” Kyle exclaimed.

“If you don’t want me climbing through your window then don’t make it so easy,” Jason said. “Which reminds me, I’m gonna have to stop by and upgrade your security.”

“My security is fine,” Kyle protested.

“Your security is a lock on the front door,” Jason pointed out.

“Yes and it’s fine,” Kyle doubled down. 

“Then don’t complain about me breaking in,” Jason said, a smirk climbing onto his face.

“No— Shut up,” Kyle said, scowling at Jason. “What are you doing here anyway?”

“You said you’d be my moral support,” Jason reminded him. “Duty calls.”

He pulled out two files and dropped them on Kyle’s coffee table. It was a print out of everything Babs had given him when he’d requested info on Natalia and Scarlet. He hadn’t worked up the nerve to look at the files yet. In fact he’d been in a safe house, staring at the closed files for forty minutes before he’d decided to bother Kyle about it.

“O-oh,” Kyle said. “Yeah, right, oh. How— Umm— How can I help?”

Jason shrugged, trying to look unbothered. He planted himself on Kyle’s couch and leant forward to rest his forearms on his knees, staring at the files.

“That’s the info I was given,” Jason explained. “Read it for me.”

“Uh, sure.”

Jason watched as Kyle grabbed the file on top. It was Natalia’s.

“Do you want me to read it to you?” Kyle asked as he opened the file. “Or just, like, summarise it for you?”

“I don’t know,” Jason said, bouncing his knee aggressively. “Whatever you want.” 

Kyle looked at the file.

Jason’s eyes bored into the side of his head. 

A literal second later Jason decided the waiting was agonising.

He jumped to his feet.

“I’m making tea,” Jason announced as he strode into the kitchen area.

Jason made two mugs of Kyle’s ‘tea tea’, letting them steep for a few minutes then helping himself to Kyle’s milk. He made sure to smell it first. You never knew with people like Kyle. There was also a bit of honey in the pantry so Jason added a dash to each cup. He came back with the mugs and set one in front of Kyle.

He stared at Kyle as the man puzzled over the file.

“Fuck, just tell me. What’s in the file? Why do you read so slow ?”

“I read at a normal speed,” Kyle protested. “And I’m taking so long because I’m trying to figure out a nice way to tell you that this mum is also a dud.”

Jason stared at him for a moment. “That was not a nice way.”

“Yeah… sorry.”

Jason grabbed the file off him and started skimming in.

Kyle awkwardly took a sip of his tea while he waited.

“Oh,” Kyle said.

Jason glanced up, finding Kyle staring at the mug intently.

“ This is why people like tea,” Kyle said. “I kind of get it now.”

Jason rolled his eyes and went back to reading.

Fuck.

Kyle was right.

This one was a dud.

From what the file said, the current reality’s Natalia was nothing like the one he remembered. The similarities seemed to start and end at her being a thief called Nocturna. For one thing Current-Natalia was a freaking vampire . She hypnotised Batwoman into being in a relationship with her, which was wrong on so many levels. And she tried to get Batwoman to murder her own sister. The Natalia he remembered would never do that. She would be disgusted by the idea of it. She hated senseless murder.

He just— There was no way to equate Current-Natalia with Jason’s adoptive mother. Jason didn’t want to count them as the same person. It felt like a disservice to His-Natalia to do so. 

And he didn’t even want to touch on the Crime Syndicate version of Nocturna from an alternate universe that had apparently been running around with the Suicide Squad.

So yeah, these Natalias were not his mother. Jason refused to associate them with her. Which meant that His-Natalia was truly dead. Nothing but a memory lost in the layers of reality.

That was… It hurt.

He almost didn’t want to look at Scarlet’s file.

He did though. He owed it to Scarlet to look. Plus, he wasn’t wasting his time trying to get Kyle to read stuff for him again. 

Jason grabbed Scarlet’s file and absorbed its contents as fast as possible.

What he found wasn’t any better than Natalia’s situation. Actually, it was probably worse.

Sasha did not exist anymore. There wasn’t even a wrong version running around like there was of Natalia. She was no one. Sasha’s villain father had no children in this reality. There was just nothing where Sasha once was.

Jason threw both files at the wall.

“They don’t exist.”

His anger died out a second later though. He missed the days when his anger burned bright and strong for months. When he could hide behind it and pretend it wasn’t a cover for invasive and persistent grief.

Jason bent to rest his head in his hands, clenching his fists around his hair. He tried to count his breaths to keep them strong and steady. Results varied.

It was cruel of the world to do this. It was cruel that two brilliant, caring people no longer existed. The people who cared about him. Just like how the Bruce who cared about him no longer existed either.

He heard Kyle shifting to join him on the couch and felt a hesitant hand rest on his shoulder.

“They don’t exist here ,” Kyle said firmly.

“Yeah, thanks for rubbing it in.”

“No— Just— Shut up, okay. I… My Alex doesn’t exist here either. She’s dead. But I know that somewhere out there she is living a good and happy life. Donna’s son is dead here. But she knows that somewhere out there he’s a hero, on a great team, with a whole army of honorary uncles and aunts. 

“We know that because of you , Jason. You showed us that. We know that our lost loved ones are out there in the multiverse, happy , because of you. And yeah, it sucks that we can’t have them here with us now, but we’re always going to have them in our memories . ”

Jason straightened up, nodding shakily. 

God, he always did the most embarrassing shit around Kyle.

But well, Kyle was scary good at cheering Jason up, and the list of people who would even try to cheer him up was scary short.

“And hey,” Kyle continued, “if you miss them, you are one of the few people in the whole entire multiverse that can do something about it. If you want to see your lost loved ones, go see them.”

Jason had spent the next few days stopping Mum-Natalias from bleeding out in hot air balloons, and saving Baby-Scarlets from their twisted fathers. He never stuck around to talk. His-Natalia was staunchly against killing and wouldn’t like what he’d become any more than Bruce did, and he wasn’t going to stick around to chat with a baby. Still, just like Kyle said, it was nice being able to see them again and know they’d be okay somewhere.

He had just finished placing a Baby-Scarlet with her new adoptive parents in Canada, when his multiversal phone started buzzing with an alert. Someone was breaking into one of his safe houses back home. That was his family’s favourite way to get his attention, so it was probably just one of his siblings.

Jason zapped himself back to his bedroom and walked out into the living area like he’d been there all along. He was just in time to see Nightwing enter through a window. Jason’s hand went to rest on his weaponry before he consciously moved them away. He crossed his arms over his chest. 

Dick wasn’t usually one of the siblings who visited Jason like this. Plus, he and Dick were on very bad terms in some of the past realities. Yes, the bad terms had been mostly Jason’s fault, as he’d been pretty psychotic in those realities, but it was still throwing him off now. 

“Oh good, you’re home,” Dick said.

In some versions of reality, Jason may have held Dick at gunpoint and told him to fuck off, but they were more like brothers in the current reality than they’d been in the previous ones. Jason liked it, honestly. They often clashed about their different moral codes, but Jason felt a lot safer arguing with Dick about it than with Bruce. Jason wasn’t as close with Dick as he was with some of the other Bat siblings, but he knew that Dick gave at least a few shits about him.

“Just got home,” Jason said. “What’s up, Dickhead?”

“Oh, nothing much,” Dick said as he flounced onto Jason’s couch. “Just paying you a visit.”

“That’s… not something you do.”

Dick winced. “I know,” he admitted. “I guess I… I want it to be something I do.”

Jason stared at him. Yeah, Dick had been trying a little harder with Jason ever since Bruce had made his brainwashing attempt, but he’d never gone this far with it. They weren’t on bad terms, but they weren’t all that close either.

“This is about what happened with Bruce the other day,” Jason stated.

“Yeah,” Dick sighed. “He shouldn’t have accused you like that. He had no reason to think you had done it.”

“Good of you to say that now while he’s not here.”

“That’s… that’s fair. In my defence, I was caught off guard by the whole thing and you were leaving before I’d wrapped my head around what was going on.”

Jason softened a bit. “Alright. Want some tea?”

Dick smiled, knowing that offering tea was Jason’s way of saying they were good.

“I can’t stick around for long,” Dick said, gesturing to his Nightwing suit. “But I did also want to ask… Or well umm… What have you been up to lately?”

Jason tensed and Dick must have noticed because he hurried to keep talking.

“I’m not saying I think you’re doing anything bad,” he said. “You’re just not around. You haven’t even… you still haven’t come to pick a room out at the new manor.”

“I wasn’t invited to,” Jason said.

Dick’s eyes widened. “Bruce didn’t…?”

Jason wordlessly shook his head. He felt a little bit better knowing that Dick had assumed Bruce would offer him a room. Maybe some of his other siblings had thought that too. Maybe they weren’t excluding him the way Bruce was. They probably thought Jason had been invited and then told Bruce to fuck off.

Dick’s surprise was washed away by anger. “He didn’t…?! After you fucking DIED for him!”

That was the thing about Dick, despite what people thought, he was the angry one. Jason on the other hand, he was tired of being angry. Now he just felt numb.

“It’s fine,” Jason said. “I get it. I’m not… I’m…”

“Jason, you are,” Dick said, eyes sad. “You’re family. Alfred would have wanted you to have a room.”

Jason shrugged. “Well Bruce didn’t.”

“Look, I’m sure it’s not that. He probably just didn’t know how to bring it up after… everything. I’m sure he wants you there.”

That was the other thing about Dick, even when he thought Bruce was in the wrong, he was always ready to make excuses for Bruce’s shitty behaviour.

“Right,” Jason said, not hiding his doubt.

“Well, is that… Is that why you haven’t been around lately? And why when you are around, you’ve seemed… off? Like, the way you laughed at what Damian said. When he said… you know. What was that about?”

Jason sighed heavily. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.”

“I asked because I want to know,” Dick said, firmly. “I’m worried about you, Jason. We’re all worried about you. Tell me why you reacted like that. What’s going on with you?”

Jason felt a flare of irritation at Dick’s innocent act.

“You want to know?” Jason repeated. “You’re saying you don’t know already? You don’t know about any of the incidents? When he chose the Joker? After the Penguin? Deadshot? The heart attacks? The meteorite? Drowning in the harbour? You’re really going to stand there saying you have no idea and that you want to know. Dick, if you haven’t figured it out already then it’s because you don’t want to know. Now, get the fuck out of my safe house.”

Jason went back to his room, slamming the door so Dick would get the message and fuck off. 

He did. Jason heard him leaving out the window a minute later. And with him gone, Jason’s frustration quickly turned into regret. It wasn’t Dick’s fault that Jason and Bruce didn’t get along. Of course Dick would pick his dad over his fuck up replacement. He understood why Dick wanted to look the other way. He just wished Dick wouldn’t pretend to be on his side while he did it. 

But really… Dick had always been decent to Jason. Even in the realities where Jason was doing everything wrong, Dick had still extended a hand to him. It had usually been Jason who’d let the jealousy and resentment sour their relationship. And yeah, Dick hadn’t been the best brother— he hadn’t always liked or trusted Jason— but Jason had rarely made it easy for him. What mattered was, in the most recent iterations of reality, they’d been there for each other when they could be.

And Jason had just been kind of an asshole to Dick for no reason.

He considered finding Dick to apologise. 

But ultimately he didn’t want to, and he knew if he tried to have an open and honest conversation with his brother, he’d reveal much more than he’d mean to. 

Also apologising just wasn’t something they did. None of the Bats did it really.

So Jason did the only thing that felt right in the moment and teleported to another universe to start helping alternate versions of his older brother.

Chapter Text

Bruce Wayne shouldn’t be here. He should be out patrolling and he still wasn’t entirely sure how Alfred had convinced him to take a night off at the circus instead. Bruce couldn’t blame Alfred for thinking the break would do him good, and Bruce would be lying if he said he was having a terrible time, but that didn’t change the fact that he had more important things he should be doing. 

Still, Bruce was in public and he had a reputation to maintain, so he tried to look outwardly excited as the Flying Graysons were introduced. The awe was only fake for a moment, as even Bruce could appreciate the skill and discipline required to glide through the air as they were. Before he knew it he was paying close attention to their techniques. Maybe he could incorporate some of the less flashy movements into his grappling. 

Then a rope snapped. 

Bruce’s instincts sent him to his feet before his brain could really process that there was nothing he could do. Those people were falling to their deaths and Bruce could only watch. 

A flash of golden light disrupted his vision and a man in red appeared mid-air. The man grabbed the two trapezists, and then he was gone again. Another flash of light later and all three of them were safely on the ground. 

Bruce realised his mouth was hanging open and quickly closed it. 

The youngest Grayson slid down the ladder and threw himself at his parents. The couple gently comforted their son as the teleporting man stood beside them awkwardly. The Graysons turned back to the teleporter and they exchanged words that Bruce could not hear. 

Bruce found himself pushing through the crowd to get closer. The man in red had started talking to the child now. Bruce could just make out the man handing him something that looked like a business card, but he still couldn’t hear what they were saying to each other over the crowd.

The man looked up, eyes somehow landing directly on Bruce. 

The man flipped him off with both hands.

Bruce was baffled.

Before he could get any closer the man was gone.

Jason was actually having a lot of fun swooping in and saving versions of Dick’s parents from their untimely demise. It was nice seeing versions of Dick when they were still untouched by life’s bullshit. It was even nicer to know that Dick would get to grow up happy with his parents and far away from Bruce. Even better, with no original Robin, the child sidekick trend might never begin and all those traumatised hero-kids could just get to be traumatised regular-kids— other versions of himself included.

But eventually Jason did grow bored of that one event. 

Jason couldn’t imagine a scenario where golden child Dick Grayson would need his help, but it was the infinite multiverse, so he tried for one anyway.

Jason found himself on a rooftop in the pouring rain. This universe’s Nightwing was nearby, half lying on the ground. A woman in an orange costume was straddling him.

“Everything’s alright, baby, it’s all okay,” the woman was saying as she pushed Rooftop-Dick’s shoulders down until he was flat on his back.

“Don’t… touch me,” Rooftop-Dick was saying weakly.

It took a split second for Jason to register the situation and then he was ripping the woman off of Rooftop-Dick. He may have accidentally thrown the woman off the side of the building, but he wasn’t sparing that a thought right now. He was too focused on Rooftop-Dick, who was clearly in the midst of some kind of mental breakdown.

“I’m sorry,” Rooftop-Dick mumbled. “Bruce. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Bruce, I’m sorry. I failed you. I’m sorry.”

Jason removed his mask and crouched in front of Rooftop-Dick.

“Nightwing?” he said tentatively. 

Rooftop-Dick was looking right at him, but he didn’t seem to be seeing him. Was he drugged? Was that what this was?

“Dick?” Jason tried. “Do you know where you are?”

“I killed. I’m poison.”

That was enough of a clue for Jason to figure out the context. He’d heard about Blockbuster. Dick turning himself in for the murder had been all over the news. He knew that Dick hadn’t actually killed him, and now he finally remembered who the woman in orange was; Tarantula, the actual killer.

Jason wanted to ground Rooftop-Dick with some touch, but after a rape attempt that would probably be triggering. So instead Jason positioned himself directly in Dick’s eye-line.

“Look at me, Dick,” he said in his best Batman voice. “Focus on me.”

Jason hated how much he sounded like Bruce. He hated that it worked even more.

Rooftop-Dick’s eyes cleared and started tracing over Jason’s face.

“You didn’t kill anyone, Dick. You were pushed to your breaking point and you stood aside. Maybe you regret it, but when someone starts brutally murdering literally every person you know, standing aside does not make you a killer. It makes you desperate. Both Blockbuster and Tarantula took advantage of that desperation and that is not your fault. You are not responsible for their actions. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

Rooftop-Dick teared up. 

“My Jason hallucinations aren’t usually this nice to me.”

What?

“I’m not a hallucination, Dickie.”

Rooftop-Dick choked out a broken laugh.

“You’re dead, Jason. Of course you are.”

Jason shook his head and reached out a hand, stopping just short of making contact with Rooftop-Dick’s shoulder.

“I’m not a hallucination. Can I prove it?”

Something in Rooftop-Dick’s expression cracked. A fissure equal parts broken and hopeful. He bypassed Jason’s gentle offer, hands darting forward to grab Jason’s shoulders. Rooftop-Dick squeezed so tight that it was almost painful.

“J-Jay? You—? Please don’t let this be fake. I can’t— Jay?”

Jason felt a stab of guilt in his chest as he nodded slowly. Rooftop-Dick’s sanity was clearly hanging by a thread. It was not the time to explain that Jason wasn’t actually his Jason.

“It’s me,” Jason lied. “I’m alive.”

He’d fix it later.

Rooftop-Dick dove at him, wrapping them into a wet hug. Jason hugged back, trying to push away the guilt. It would be fine. He’d make this work somehow. He had to.

Jason let Rooftop-Dick have his hug for a moment, feeling even guiltier over how comforting he found it, then he pulled away. Gently, he coaxed Rooftop-Dick to one of his safe houses, then carefully helped him get ready for bed. Rooftop-Dick was still a bit out of it, which made it easy for Jason to manoeuvre him, and Jason felt very sick thinking about what had happened to his Dick while he’d been in this state.

As Jason finished tucking him into bed, Rooftop-Dick snatched Jason’s hand in a tight grip.

“Will you…?” Rooftop-Dick mumbled. “Will you still be here when I wake up? I… I don’t want this to be a dream.”

“I promise your brother will be here when you wake up,” Jason said firmly.

Once Rooftop-Dick had drifted off to sleep, Jason pried his hand free and got to work. He was very good at talking his volatile past selves into seeing reason by now. He’d had ample practice making them focus on the people who would actually give a shit about them rather than hedging their best on versions of Bruce. Rooftop-Dick was going to wake up to a real alive brother who was ready to emotionally reconnect. Jason would make sure of it.

And step one was always Jason’s favourite part of getting other versions of himself on more sensible paths, because step one was almost always killing the Joker for them.

Jason darted through more and more universes, pulling versions of Dick out of all sorts of bad situations. He’d run into a few more of those zombie-filled universes, but Jason had gotten into the habit of bouncing out of those immediately, since there was nothing he could do and he didn’t want to spread any sort of zombie virus between universes. 

There were still plenty of other Dicks to help. Sometimes Dick was Robin. Sometimes Dick was Nightwing. A few times he’d been Slade’s apprentice or a Talon for the Court of Owls. It turned out that the Golden Boy needed help a lot , and Jason felt pretty stupid for ever thinking otherwise. 

Yeah, Dick had always projected strength and competence— he’d always pretended he was fine— but Jason had known that Dick was full of shit. He should have realised that Dick pretended about a lot more than just his short temper. 

What else was Dick hiding?

Maybe Jason shouldn’t have been wondering that when he moved to the next universe. Because here he was in a universe where a Dick was beaten bloody and the person throwing the punches was a Batman. And yeah, this wasn’t the first universe where Jason had needed to save Dick from an angry Bruce— Jason would be thinking about one particular universe where Dick had killed the Joker and Bruce had thrown him in Arkham for a long time— but this was the first universe where the scene hit scarily close to home.

“How can you do this to me?” Injured-Dick asked as Brutal-Batman continued to punch and punch.

“We need a man on the inside,” Brutal-Batman said. 

And Brutal-Bruce just kept going. They kept fighting and arguing as Brutal-Batman tried to beat Injured-Dick into submission. Tried to beat him into doing something he didn’t want to do. Saying it was okay for Brutal-Bruce to hurt Injured-Dick because it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. 

Like beating up his son was a noble fucking sacrifice .

And Jason was hit with the horrifying realisation that this wasn’t an alternate universe specific thing. Because of course Dick hadn’t faked his death and gone undercover because he’d wanted to. Bruce had beaten the shit out of a recently tortured, recently dead , Dick until he’d agreed to go. It made such sickening sense. 

This must have happened in his universe.

The icy clarity was finally enough to break Jason from his shock and spur him into action. He made his presence known by pulling out his gun and shooting just past Brutal-Bruce’s head. Both Brutal-Bruce and Injured-Dick froze as they noticed his presence. Jason kept his gun trained on this version of Bruce, ready to do more than fire a warning shot.

“ What ,” Jason seethed, “the fuck are you doing?”

“Stay out of this, Hood,” Brutal-Bruce said, clearly missing the fact that he wasn’t talking to his own Jason.

“Stay out of this ,” Jason mocked. “That’s all you have to say? After I caught you beating Dick into the ground while everyone else is mourning his death . You’re going to tell me to stay out of it?”

“We’re sparring,” Brutal-Bruce said.

Jason barked out a furious laugh. 

“Is that what sparring looks like now? Beating the shit out of your son?”

“Jason,” Injured-Dick cut in. “It’s fine.”

And yeah, that sounded about right. The pretender Dick Grayson was pretending to be fine. Pretending that Jason couldn’t see him clench his fists to stop his hands shaking.

“It’s not fine,” Jason told him, “And it doesn’t have to be. Let’s go. You don’t deserve this, Dick. You never did.”

Injured-Dick’s expression broke, like it always did when Jason told a version of Dick that he didn’t deserve whatever abuse was being heaped on.

Brutal-Bruce took a step forward and Jason fired off another shot, making sure this time Brutal-Bruce would feel the heat of the bullet as it passed him by.

“The next one goes through you,” Jason told him, not taking his eyes off Injured-Dick. “Stay the fuck where you are.”

“You don’t understand,” Brutal-Bruce said. “This has to be done and Dick needs to do it.”

“ Fuck off ,” Jason said emphatically. Then to Injured-Dick, going straight for the metaphorical jugular, “Come on, Dickie, if we act like Bruce can do this shit to you, then it’s only a matter of time before he does the same to the others. This isn’t fine, and if we pretend it is, who knows which one of the baby bats will be next.”

Just like Jason knew it would, that was the reasoning that finally got through to Injured-Dick. He knew it would because it was already getting to Jason. Now that Jason knew Bruce’s violence wasn’t just pointed his own way, he was stuck contemplating what the rest of his siblings had already endured without his knowledge. Tim had said Bruce had never hurt him, but he was sure Dick would have said the exact same thing, and Tim was also a lying liar who lied. Jason should never have taken Tim’s word at face value, he’d just been so sure that… Jason had been so convinced that Bruce only hit him because he deserved it… That Bruce would have no reason to hit the others, because they hadn’t done anything wrong…

Fuck.

Nice-Bruce had been right. It wasn’t about Jason, it was about Bruce. It had always been about Bruce. None of them deserved it.

Injured-Dick took a step towards him. Brutal-Bruce made a move to stop Injured-Dick’s escape and Jason made good on his word. He shot Brutal-Bruce through the shoulder.

“Next one goes through the brain. You know I’m not kidding around.”

Brutal-Bruce stayed put, jaw clenched hard and hand putting pressure on his bullet wound. 

Injured-Dick and Jason left the Batcave. They almost immediately ran into a teary-eyed Alfred.

“Master Dick,” Teary-Alfred gasped. “You’re alive.”

Injured-Dick opened his mouth but couldn’t seem to manage a sentence.

“Barely,” Jason answered for him. “I think he’s ready for a bit of your medical attention, Alfie.” 

Teary-Alfred blinked at him. “You… You’re not… Who are you?”

Injured-Dick whipped his head between them. “That’s Jason.”

“Master Jason is in the sitting room with the others,” Teary-Alfred corrected.

And oops yeah, Jason had come to the manor for confirmation when he’d heard Dick was dead. Honestly, that time was a bit of a blur. Jason would have never admitted it back then, but he’d been numb with shock and grief.

Jason smiled sheepishly at Injured-Dick and Teary-Alfred. 

“Yeah, I’m not your Jason,” he admitted. “I am a Jason though. Multiverse, et cetera, et cetera. This will explain.” He tossed a memory stick at them. “Don’t forget what I told you, Dick. I may not be your Jason but every word was still true.”

Then he bounced.

Chapter Text

Dick Grayson needed information. Jason had made it clear in their conversation that Dick had missed something big. Something he should be able to find out with a little effort. Dick wanted to put in that effort. He wanted to be a better brother to Jason. He’d been trying but… maybe he hadn’t been trying hard enough.

The first thing Dick did was write down all the ‘incidents’ Jason had mentioned.

1. When he chose the Joker. 
2. After the Penguin.
3. Deadshot.
4. The heart attacks.
5. The meteorite.
6. Drowning in the harbour.

Now he just needed to figure out what the incidents were and what they all meant.

He started with number two, after the penguin, because he was almost certain he knew what that one meant. Jason and Bruce had definitely fought after Jason had shot the Penguin. Dick knew that much. Jason and Bruce had gotten into many fights over the years. Hell, Dick and Jason had gotten into a fair number of fights too. But Jason had all but yelled to Dick that there was more going on with that particular fight than Dick had assumed. He needed to find out more. Now.

He made his way to Babs’ place and they puzzled through it together. She found footage of Jason and Bruce’s fight, and Dick realised it couldn’t really be called a fight when Jason wasn’t fighting back. No, it wasn’t a fight. It was a beating. Not just with hands, but also with words.

Dick knew that Bruce could be violent and mean when he was angry but… he’d never seen Bruce go this far.

And when Jason went down and Bruce started dragging him away by the helmet and Jason was completely limp, Dick could swear that Jason wasn’t breathing .

‘ We’ve all died, Todd ,’ Damian had said.

And Jason had laughed.

He’d laughed like he knew something they all didn’t.

Something he thought that Dick didn’t want to know .

Dick looked at Babs, saw the cold fury on her face, and knew she was coming to the same conclusions.

Number five, the meteorite. Dick could guess what that meant now. He knew Jason had flown into a meteorite to reduce the damage it would do to Gotham. They’d all been under the impression that Jason had ejected before the plane had collided with it. Now Dick wasn’t so sure.

Number six, drowning in the harbour. Babs had footage of Jason crashing a blimp into it, again to save the city. She had footage of Rose Wilson dragging Jason’s unresponsive body out of the harbour half an hour later. That was… too long to be underwater.

Number three, Deadshot. Dick was pretty sure the only time they’d been around each other was when Jason had been on Task Force Z. Anything could have happened to him while he was there. Babs hacked into the government files for the taskforce and found a description of Jason dying on an operating table after being shot.

Number four, the heart attacks. Jason appeared to have listed all the ‘incidents’ in order, so they knew this had happened before the meteorite and after the taskforce. Jason had also implied that Dick should be aware of the incidents. It took him a moment but he put it together. 

Bruce had messed with Jason’s fear and adrenaline responses. They all knew that people under Scarecrow’s toxins sometimes suffered heart attacks. It made too much sense. 

Now that she knew the situation, Babs found the footage of when Jason had been left alone with the Batplane. They both watched Jason slowly and painfully dying of a heart attack. Then he popped back up a moment later, only to die again when something else triggered him. And again. And again. It was horrifying to watch.

Number one, when he chose the Joker. This was the hardest one. Dick knew that Jason and Bruce had had a conversation over killing the Joker during his initial return, but Bruce had always refused to talk about it. In fact, he’d never told him Red Hood was Jason in the first place. Dick had found out the gist from Tim and Babs. 

Babs tried to find footage of the incident but the fight had happened in a rundown building so there was nothing to find. All they had was outside footage of the building blowing up. Dick supposed that was enough to confirm that Jason had probably died in there.

Jason had died. 

Dick had thought he’d known that but he hadn’t. Not really.

Jason had died, yes, but then he’d never stopped dying.

Dick had lost his little brother more times than he would ever know.

And yet, somehow, Jason wasn’t dead .

“I…” Dick tried, not even sure what he wanted to say. “He never said but…”

“We should have known,” Babs said, sounding haunted as she voiced Dick’s thoughts.

Dick’s head was spinning. He scrambled for Babs’ waste paper basket and promptly vomited into it. 

Distantly, he felt Babs rubbing his back. 

‘ I know he doesn’t know how to show it, but Bruce loves you, Jay. ’

‘Maybe if you met him in the middle a little... ’

‘ He’s trying, even though you don’t make it easy for him. ’

Every time he had brushed off Jason’s anger rattled around in Dick’s head. Every time he’d made excuses for Bruce. Every time he’d told Jason to let things go and forgive. 

All those times where Dick had basically told Jason to get over himself, and forgive the father who had beaten him to death , so that things would be a little easier for Dick. 

“I need to talk to him,” Dick said, wiping the vomit from around his mouth.

“You won’t have much luck now,” Babs said, absently. “He’s off grid again.”

“What do you mean ‘off grid’? I saw him just last night.”

“I wish I knew what it meant. For the last few months his tracker has been disappearing off the grid and reappearing seemingly at random. He wouldn’t tell me how when I asked, but he did say it was nothing to worry about.”

A little ding sounded from Babs’ computer.

“You’re in luck,” Babs said. “He just got back.”

“Where is he?” 

“I don’t know,” Babs said. “I only check the location in emergencies.”

“Check it now,” Dick said. “I need to talk to him.”

“I promised Jason that I would only look at his location if I thought he might be dying. I’m not breaking that promise.”

“He has been dying,” Dick exclaimed.

Babs gave him a flat look.

“I just want to help him,” he said.

“I’m sure Bruce would say the same thing.”

Dick flinched a little. After everything they’d just found out, the comparison made Dick want to vomit again . Especially since Babs had a point.

“If you want to know where Jason is,” Babs continued. “Then call him and ask.”

After Jason had realised Bruce was the problem, Jason had gone back to his own universe. He needed to talk to Dick. Luck seemed to be on his side though, because the Big Bird called him almost immediately and basically demanded they meet up somewhere. Jason was letting Dick back into his safe house like ten minutes later.

“Hey,” Jason greeted awkwardly. 

He cringed, remembering how he had freaked out yesterday and told Dick to leave.

Dick didn’t seem to care though. He darted forward and pulled Jason into a crushing hug, like he thought Jason would shoot him if he didn’t get a good hold quick enough. Maybe some version of Jason would have. After all the messed up shit done to Dick that this Jason had seen in the other universes, he allowed it. He even hugged back. Unfortunately, that only made Dick hug harder, and if it wasn’t for all that practice hugging Bizzaro, Jason might have instinctually tried to stab him to break free.

The hug broke and they both shuffled back as if neither knew what to do with themselves after what had just happened.

“Tea?” Jason asked, falling back on Alfred’s example.

Jason took his time making the tea and gathering his thoughts, but all too soon he and Dick were sitting together at the kitchen table with their drinks. He still didn’t know how he was supposed to start this conversation. Judging by Dick’s silence, he was having similar trouble with whatever had brought him here.

“I looked into what you said,” Dick blurted eventually. “The ‘incidents’.”

Jason froze.

No.

There was no way Dick knew. Was there? Had Jason really let that much slip. Enough for Dick to figure it all out?

“I think…” Dick continued, meeting his eyes. “I think I know what the ‘incidents’ were— why you brought them up. If I… If I ask you about it, is that okay? Can we talk about it?”

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Jason had fucked up. He’d fucked up.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck— No. No . This wasn’t a bad thing . 

Jason clamped down on his panic. This could be good. If Jason wanted to have an honest conversation with his brother about the things Bruce had done to Dick, then it needed to go both ways. Dick wasn’t going to admit shit if Jason didn’t give him a reason to.

“We can,” Jason said.

Dick’s mouth actually fell open, like he’d expected Jason to tell him to get the fuck out of his house again.

That was a fair concern.

“ But ,” Jason stressed, “If I’m gonna be honest with you about all my shit, then I need the same in return. A question for a question. No bullshit. Do we have a deal?”

Dick furrowed his brow, clearly confused. “Of course.”

Jason was too uncomfortable with where he knew the conversation would go to smirk— he had, after all, just promised to answer all Dick’s questions about things he had been trying desperately to keep under wraps— but Dick had no idea what he had just promised and Jason couldn’t help feeling rather proud of himself.

“Okay,” Jason said. “I’ll let you go first. Ask away?”

Jason had to answer first, because Dick needed to be locked into the deal before he realised where Jason wanted to go with his questions. Otherwise he’d try to weasel his way out of it.

“O-okay,” Dick said, looking almost flustered at how agreeable Jason was being. 

Dick sat straighter, visibly hyping himself up. He looked at Jason, dead serious.

“Those incidents you mentioned,” Dick said. “When he chose the Joker. After the Penguin. Deadshot. The heart attacks. The meteorite. Drowning in the harbour. Those were… times you’ve died , weren't they?”

Jason closed his eyes for a moment. He’d never really… Apart from Donna and Kyle finding out, Jason had never deliberately told anyone about this. To be honest, telling Donna and Kyle hadn’t been especially premeditated either. 

He took a deep breath.

Was it too late for him to weasel his way out?

Fuck. No. He had to do this. They needed to have this conversation. They needed to talk about what Bruce had done to them. If not for them, then for the safety of the younger Bats.

Jason opened his eyes and met Dick’s serious face with one of his own.

“Yes. Those incidents were times I have died.”

Dick sucked in a sharp breath at the confirmation. “You—?”

“My turn,” Jason interrupted.

Dick’s mouth snapped shut and his leg started bouncing impatiently. He looked like he was going to vibrate right out of his skin. But he nodded, acknowledging the deal they had made.

“When you faked your death and went undercover, was that something you wanted to do?” Jason said. 

He didn’t want to spook Dick by asking too much too quickly.

“I— What?”

“Did you want to fake your death and go undercover? It’s a simple question.”

“No,” Dick said, “I didn’t want to. I had to.”

Jason nodded. He could see that his question had unbalanced Dick. Put him on edge. Confused him. But Dick wasn’t defensive yet. He still didn’t know where Jason was going with it.

“My turn,” Dick said. “If all those incidents… If you died that many times, then how are you alive right now?”

“That’s an easy one,” Jason said. “I genuinely don’t know.”

“ Jason .”

“It’s true. I die, I stop by Death’s realm for a chat, and then I get dragged back to the land of the living. I don’t know why.”

“But—”

“My turn,” Jason said. “These are simple rules, Dickie. You’ve got to respect them.”

Dick frowned but nodded.

Jason tried to loosen up. Talking about his trips to see Death was making him defensive. He was being an asshole. If he wanted this conversation to go well then he needed to stop slipping into defensive asshole mode.

“Sorry,” Jason bit out. “Sorry, I just need to ask my questions too.”

Dick softened. “You’re right. We had a deal. Ask.”

“You said you didn’t want to go undercover, but you had to. Is that because Bruce wouldn’t stop hitting you until you agreed to go?”

Dick shot to his feet.

Jason raised an eyebrow at him.

Dick sat back down. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to act like he wasn’t freaking out. 

“That’s not why,” Dick denied.

Yeah, that’s pretty much what Jason thought he would say. A denial without a lie. He didn’t say that Bruce hadn’t done what Jason had described, he just claimed that wasn’t why he had gone. Dick probably thought that was the truth. Jason just nodded, biding his time. He waited for Dick to ask his next question.

Dick just stared at him for a moment, like he was trying to figure out what Jason’s angle was. Then he shook his head and came back around to why he had shown up in the first place.

“How many times have you died?” he asked Jason.

“I lost count somewhere around the eighth heart attack,” Jason said honestly.

Dick looked pained by his answer. “Estimate it then.”

Jason sighed, but looked down at his hands and started counting on his fingers. He couldn’t do this if he had to see Dick watching him. 

“Blown up by the Joker to hurt Bruce. Throat slit by Bruce —”

“ What? ”

“One question at a time, Dickie. Where was I… Three, beaten to death by Bruce. Shot by feral Deadshot while undercover for Bruce. The heart attacks after Bruce messed with my adrenaline responses… hmmm, that was maybe around ten to twenty deaths. Let’s add fifteen. You know, split the difference. Damn, I’m definitely out of fingers now… I’ll add the heart attacks at the end. 

“Anyway, then there was flying Bruce’s plane into a meteorite. Plus more heart attacks after that, so I’ll add another fifteen. Drowning in the harbour after the knockoff-Joker had to fix what Bruce deliberately broke. Dying for Bruce’s shitty plan to stop his split personality. I got shot again. That one wasn’t actually Bruce’s fault so that was nice. Anyway, I’m not going to count the deaths I’m pretty sure are from other versions of reality, so that makes… thirty eight. Yeah, thirty eight, give or take a dozen or so.” 

Jason finally looked up to gauge Dick’s reaction. Dick’s face was deliberately blank, which usually meant he was seething. Who Dick was angry at, Jason didn’t know? He hoped… he hoped it was Bruce . He hoped Dick wasn’t mad at him. Maybe Dick thought he was lying.

No, no, don’t think about that. It was his turn.

“You said Bruce hitting you is not why you went undercover,” Jason said. “But can you honestly tell me that you would have gone undercover if Bruce hadn’t convinced you with his fists?”

Dick, still visibly distracted by Jason’s answer, was completely taken off guard by the question. 

“I— No, I can’t. I— But it wasn’t like that. It— How do you even—? Why are you asking me that?”

“Is that your question?” Jason asked.

“Is that yours?”

“Touché,” Jason said. 

He ran a hand through his hair and thought about everything he had learned in the multiverse. Everything he had seen. Everything Nice-Bruce had taught him.

“Dickie, I’m asking because Bruce beat you bloody, to make you go on a mission you didn’t want to go on, completely cut off from all your friends and family, with no safety net when shit hit the fan, and I want us to have an honest conversation about how abusive Bruce has been towards you.”

“I— No. This isn’t about me. This is about you , Jason.”

“No shit, this is about me,” Jason agreed. “Bruce has literally killed me so many times I lost count . But it’s not just about me. It’s about both of us. It’s about all of us. It’s about being honest with each other. It’s about comparing notes so we can stop letting Bruce’s abuse slide. It’s about protecting our siblings. Because they don’t deserve it. And neither do we.”

“Fuck,” Dick swore. “Fuck, this is… It’s not… It’s… Bruce… He…”

“Dick, please . You know I’m right. I know you do.”

Dick folded in on himself, clamping a hand over his mouth and squeezing his eyes shut.

Then he nodded. He opened his eyes. He removed the hand.

“Yeah. Alright, Jay. Let’s compare notes.”

Chapter Text

Dick had understood that Jason had died more times than any of them knew. The information he and Babs had turned up had been fairly conclusive and difficult to interpret any other way.

He’d already known that Jason had likely died at least half a dozen times.

He’d already known that Bruce had been directly or indirectly responsible for most of those deaths.

He’d already known that Bruce had actually killed Jason with his bare hands at least once.

So why did Jason’s confirmation still feel like getting electrocuted with his own Escrima Sticks?

He’d known. He’d already know. 

So why did hearing Jason count out all his deaths feel like being stabbed, repeatedly, with a rusty knife?

Jason had been dead , gone , lost , more times than even Jason knew, and he was only alive to be sitting in front of Dick now because… Because who the fuck knew ? Because Jason might be some flavour of immortal? Because some higher power was having a jolly good time fucking around with his brother’s life ?

And while Dick was still coming to terms with all of Jason’s trauma, Jason had decided to throw Dick’s trauma back in retaliation. Trauma that Dick had never told anyone about.

And Dick couldn’t even be mad at Jason for doing it, because Jason was right about Bruce. If Bruce had really killed someone he claimed to love like a son, and Dick knew that he had, then none of the kids were safe. Dick had known Bruce and Jason got into fights but… but not like that. He knew that Bruce could be brutal, but he’d always thought he was only like that with Dick, because Dick was the oldest and more like an equal than a son. And now Dick felt like an idiot because he should have noticed . Jason had been right to be mad at Dick for not knowing. How could he not have known ?

Not just about what Bruce had done to Jason either, because right now Jason was forcing Dick to re-contextualise everything Bruce had done to himself. Every time Bruce had kicked him out. Every time Bruce had hit him out of anger. Every time Bruce had hit him to get his way. Literally; Jason was making him list all the incidents out and ruthlessly identifying all the ways the behaviour was abusive. Dick couldn’t even argue with him about it because they had been trained in how to identify abuse, by Bruce , and everything Jason was saying was true.

And then it was Jason’s turn, and he was telling Dick all sorts of horrifying things that Dick should have already known . Like the time Bruce had accused Jason of killing someone while he was Robin and wouldn’t believe Jason when he denied it. Like the time Bruce had ambushed him, accused him of being a serial killer with no evidence, and tried to arrest him. Like the time Bruce had taken Jason to the place he had been murdered and deliberately picked a fight to trigger Jason’s PTSD. Like the way Bruce would claim to love Jason even after— and during — all the awful things he had done to him.

And then Jason had finally told Dick what he’d meant when he’d said Bruce had slit his throat.

That was when Dick’s temper finally boiled over.

“You told him you were going to kill the Joker and he believed so strongly in not killing that he decided to KILL YOU INSTEAD?! THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY FUCKING SENSE!”

“I know, Dickie,” Jason sighed, calm in the face of Dick’s rage. It was the tone of a man who’d already given up on being angry about it. “If it helps, I don’t think he intended to kill me.”

“HE THREW A KNIFE AT YOUR NECK AND LEFT YOU TO BLEED OUT IN A BUILDING RIGGED TO EXPLODE! HE PULLED THE JOKER OUT OF THE RUBBLE BUT DIDN’T GO BACK FOR YOU! WHERE IS THE PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY? I DON’T SEE IT ANYWHERE!”

“Dick, please, I have neighbours. Stop yelling.”

Dick took a breath and tried to calm down. It was no good yelling at Jason about it when he was the victim in all this. In fact, it was the last thing Jason deserved.

When Dick realised he had sprung to his feet in his anger, he picked his chair up off the floor and sat back down. He shut his eyes. He counted to ten in his head. Then backwards. Then to twenty. When he finally thought he could talk without yelling, he opened his eyes.

“You good now?” Jason asked.

Dick nodded.

Jason probably didn’t believe him because he let Dick breathe in silence for a little while longer.

“I would have chosen you,” Dick said softly into the silence.

“What?” Jason asked.

“I would have chosen you,” Dick repeated. “If you’d asked me you or the Joker, I would have chosen you.”

“Bullshit,” Jason declared. “You probably think killing the Joker would be ‘letting him win’ or all that other garbage Bruce spouts.”

And Dick couldn’t stop the scowl that overtook his face at the thought. “‘Letting the Joker win’ implies I’m already playing his game. I’m not .”

“You had a breakdown when Tarantula shot Blockbuster,” Jason argued. “You’re really trying to say that you would have been cool with me shooting the Joker?”

Where was Jason getting his information? Because Dick had no idea how Jason had found out about that. Or any of the other stuff either. What else did Jason know about?

“I did have a breakdown,” Dick admitted, “and I wish it was because I felt responsible for killing someone. The truth is, I think I was more afraid of what Bruce would think of me— what he would do to me— when he found out. And I’m not just saying I would have let you shoot the Joker, I’m saying that if you had asked me to kill him for you, I would have done it.”

Jason gaped at him. “You can’t just say shit like that, Dick. I know it’s not true. You don’t kill.”

It was almost funny how much Jason was doubting him, because Dick didn’t have an ounce of doubt himself. He knew, he knew , on a fundamental level, that if Jason had presented him with the choice instead of Bruce, he would have chosen differently.

“I don’t want to be a killer,” Dick said, “When it comes to killing I agree with a lot of Bruce’s points—  and I have my own philosophies and reasons too— but if you had come to me and told me I had to kill the Joker, a mass murderer who has caused more pain and suffering than most people can even fathom, or I would lose my little brother forever, again , then the Joker would be dead. I know that for certain, because I’ve already killed the Joker for you, Jason.”

“No you haven’t. What does that even mean?”

“It means what I said. Once, before you came back, the Joker nabbed Tim. He told me he’d killed him. Then he talked about you and I… I just lost it. I hit him until his heart stopped beating and then I kept going . Tim had to pull me off his body. He was dead and I was happy about it. Then Bruce resuscitated him.”

And Jason just stared at him. Dick couldn’t even guess what he was thinking.

“Prove it,” Jason said.

“W-what?”

“I’m sick of this shit. I’m sick of people telling me that they care about me, that they love me and that they’d do shit for me, and then not following through . You can’t just say you’d kill the Joker for me. The fucker is alive. He’s alive right fucking now. If you really want to say you’d kill the Joker then go fucking kill him .”

Dick… He probably should have seen that one coming.

But you know what, Jason made a fair point. Dick had just promised he’d kill the Joker for Jason, that he would have sacrificed his moral code and his relationship with Bruce to get his little brother back, and an empty promise wouldn’t do Jason any good. Dick didn’t want to be a killer, but if anyone fucking deserved it, if anyone could be the exception to the rule, then it was the Joker. As for Bruce… fuck him. Just for this one time, for his brother who had been taken from him, for all the Joker’s past and future victims, Dick could do it.

“Okay,” he told Jason.

He stood up.

He was going to have to plan this carefully. He didn’t want it to be traced back to him. He never thought he’d use any of the skills that Deathstroke forcibly taught him, but they were about to come in very handy…

He turned to leave, already ironing out the details in his mind.

“What the fuck, Dick?!” Jason yelled, grabbing Dick by the shoulders and turning him back to face him. “You were actually going to fucking do it!”

Dick was a little confused. “Yeah? I said I would. Of course I was going to do it.”

“What the fuck ?”

“You asked me to, Jason,” Dick said, starting to get frustrated. “So I’m going to do it for you.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am.”

He tried to pull out of Jason’s grip but Jason wouldn’t let go. This whole thing was Jason’s idea. Why was he being difficult now?

“No,” Jason insisted. “It’s fine, okay? I can see that you would have done it, but… don’t . I still want him dead, but I care about you more than I care about that shit stain. I don’t want you to torture yourself over it, okay? It’s enough for me that you would. I swear.”

Dick saw the truth of Jason’s words on his face, and Dick was equal parts relieved and disappointed. He wasn’t sure which of those emotions he should be ashamed of feeling.

“Okay, if you’re sure.”

“I’m sure,” Jason hurried to say. “Jesus, Dickie, who knew you were so murder happy?”

Dick let himself relax at Jason’s attempt to cut the tension.

They took a break from their heavy conversation so Jason could make them more tea. Then they decided to drop their talk for now and watch a movie. They could worry about Bruce’s abuse tomorrow. For now they could enjoy being brothers.

So yeah, Tim had totally lied about Bruce never hurting him. Babs cleared that one up for Jason and Dick rather quickly. And she was happy to offer them more. The way Bruce had been moulding Cass in his own image and labelling her a dangerous weapon. The way he dismissed Steph. The way he blamed Damian for Alfred’s death and constantly pushed his vulnerable son away. Babs had it all ready to go, along with footage of Bruce’s physical violence towards Dick and Tim.

She had started searching for it all as soon as Dick had left to talk to Jason. After she knew to look.

And so much was there. 

Bruce got almost every point in abusive parent bingo. He was physically violent. He was constantly critical of them. He rejected and abandoned them repeatedly. He dismissed their feelings. He publicly shamed them. He talked down to them. He got angry with them often and unpredictably. He intimidated and scared them. He gave them the silent treatment. He tried to control their behaviour. He coerced, manipulated and gaslit in spades. He pit them against each other.

He dangled the promise of love over them all but never truly delivered.

And now Dick, Jason and Babs were left with a problem. 

What the hell were they going to do with all this evidence? 

Should they tell the Justice League? For what? So Clark and Diana could give Bruce a stern talking to then send him on his way? Batman was instrumental to the operation of the League. He was their main source of funding and their primary strategist. Would they really care what Bruce got up to with his family if it meant losing Batman?

Jason knew that Nice-Bruce was convinced that Clark and Diana would forsake Bruce if they learned the truth, but Jason knew it wasn’t that simple. Nice-Bruce liked to believe the best in people and Jason wasn’t so sure it would go the way he thought.

They could talk to the police and tell them Bruce Wayne was abusive and… just kidding, of course that wasn’t a real option. Bruce was way too rich for consequences and all their evidence involved Batman anyway.

They could launch a smear campaign against Batman for abusing his Robins, but between Batman and Brucie Wayne, Bruce basically owned Gotham. What could the people do even if they did want Batman to go?

Then there was the question of if they should talk to the other Bats about it. Were the kids ready to confront how Bruce had been treating them? Damian was bound to lash out and defend his father. Tim had already flat out denied that anything was wrong. Cass idolised Bruce. Steph… Steph would probably be fine. Duke too. But yeah, getting the others to accept that Bruce’s behaviour wasn’t okay was probably going to be difficult.

Dick was firmly on team Tell Clark and Diana Immediatel y, Babs was on team We Can’t Tell the Justice League Before Breaking Things Gently to the Kids , and Jason was on team Fuck, I Don’t Know; There Are No Good Options .

So yeah, they were at an impasse.

Jason had little patience for arguing in circles, and decided he needed a break after the first hour of endless indecision. He needed… God, he didn’t even know what he needed. He needed someone who knew Bruce inside and out. Someone who could act as a higher authority. Someone they could trust to care about them.

They… They needed Alfred.

And Alfred was dead.

Chapter Text

Alfred felt a presence enter the kitchen as he kneaded his dough. He paused, dusting off his hands and turning to greet whomever had entered.

“Master Jason,” he said, keeping his surprise out of his voice.

It was rare to see Master Jason in the manor, despite Jason and Bruce acting as allies once again. As such, Alfred had hardly been able to speak with him since his return. It was most unfortunate.

“Hey, Alfie,” Jason sighed. “It’s good to see you.”

The boy sounded worn.

“Shall I put on some tea?” Alfred asked.

Jason’s eyes welled with tears and Alfred took a step closer, alarmed.

“My dear boy, what is the matter?”

“I…” Jason said. “I just missed you, is all.”

“I’ve missed you too,” Alfred assured. 

Alfred took another step closer, but Master Jason held up a hand to stop him.

“Wait,” he said. “I need to get some admin out of the way first. I’m not your Jason. I’m a Jason from another universe which is basically exactly the same except a little bit ahead in time. You’re dead in my universe but I wanted to talk to you. So here I am… Hi.”

“I see,” Alfred said, even though he very much did not see.

However, Alfred prided himself on his ability to adapt to any situation, and he was no stranger to oddities such as this.

“How can I help?” he asked the Jason before him.

Jason hesitated, so Alfred gave him time to gather his thoughts by making the offered tea.

Eventually, Alfred joined Jason at the table with a cup of tea for each of them, and they both enjoyed it in silence for a moment.

“Do you think Bruce sees me as a son?”

Alfred set his teacup down and took in the uncertainty on Jason’s face.

“I do,” Alfred answered. “I think he loves you deeply, as he does all of his children.”

Strangely, Alfred’s confident answer did not seem to put the Jason before him at ease.

“I don’t think he treats us like his children,” Jason said, and Alfred could see that he meant it.

It hurt Alfred to know that Jason believed that.

“Master Bruce has been through a substantial amount of hardship,” Alfred said. “That trauma has made it difficult for him—”

“You always make excuses for him,” Jason interrupted.

Alfred frowned disapprovingly.

“Sorry for interrupting,” Jason tacked on. “But it’s true. Are you saying it’s okay for Bruce to take in kids and then kick them out or hit them when they don’t agree with him because of his trauma?”

“I do not appreciate you putting words in my mouth, Master Jason,” Alfred said, calmly. “And Bruce may not be the most emotionally available, but to say he simply ‘hits’ you when you disagree with him is deeply unfair.”

“Is it unfair?” Jason asked. “He’s certainly hit me plenty.”

“Often these are fights that you have started, Master Jason,” Alfred said, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Okay, so it’s fine if he hits me because I bring it on myself,” Jason summaries, even though that was not at all what Alfred had said, “but then what about Dick and Tim? He’s hit them. Did they ask for it too?”

“I am not arguing that Master Bruce’s behaviour is excusable—”

“But you do excuse it, because there are never any consequences.”

“Master Bruce is a grown man and I am in his employ. I do not know what kind of consequences you think I am capable of enacting—”

“Don’t give me that rubbish. You raised Bruce. What if I gave you a memory file of evidence right now? A file with all the incidents that show Bruce using excessive force against ‘his children’. What would you do with it?”

And Alfred didn’t know what to say to that. He’d like to say that such a file wouldn’t exist, but he knew that Bruce had occasionally acted inappropriately in extenuating circumstances. He had been present to watch Bruce hitting Tim. He knew that Bruce’s response to Jason had sometimes been disproportionate. He knew that Bruce and Dick’s fights sometimes came to blows. He knew that it was wrong of Bruce, and he knew it would look bad to an outside observer, but Bruce was Batman and his children were vigilantes. They communicated in an entirely different language, a physical language, and couldn’t be held to civilian standards. Passing the kind of footage that Jason was describing onto an outsider would be highly inappropriate.

“You’d destroy it,” Jason said, reading the truth off Alfred’s face. “You would shield Bruce from the consequences because even though you care about me and Dick and Tim and the others, you care about Bruce more.”

Alfred couldn’t deny it.

“And you don’t just excuse it,” Jason continued. “You encourage it.”

That Alfred could deny. 

“I most certainly do not,” Alfred said. “I have tried to make Bruce stop his crusade but he is immovable.”

“I’m not talking about that,” Jason said. “I’m talking about things like… the memorial you put up for me! You wrote ‘ A Good Soldier ’ on my memorial, and I know you meant it in a good way. I know for a military man like you, you meant it as an honour. But I wasn’t a Soldier. I was a kid . I was Bruce’s kid. 

“And then you’d tell Bruce it was my fault that I died, because I was reckless and stupid. Is that really what you think? Or would you just have said anything to make Bruce feel better about getting his kid killed.

“You know what, Alfred, if you really cared about Bruce then you would have made him go to therapy. You were his legal guardian. When he was a kid, you should have helped him work through his trauma instead of letting him stew in it. You should have been a parent and not a butler , and if you couldn’t do that then you should have found someone else who could have.”

Tears were running down the boy’s face as he finished speaking.

Alfred did not know what to say. Jason was hitting upon some of Alfred’s biggest regrets when it came to raising Bruce. Alfred had often struggled with trying to act out the role of both parent and butler. Perhaps Jason was right and he shouldn’t have tried to do both. He had simply not wanted to disrespect Thomas and Martha by becoming Bruce’s father.

“Sorry,” Master Jason mumbled, wiping at his face. “I’m sorry. This isn’t going how I… I didn’t come here to argue. I… I wanted your advice. But… this was stupid. I’m sorry. I’ll just go.”

This Jason stood up.

“Please, Master Jason,” Alfred said. “Hold on.”

Jason didn’t sit back down, but he didn’t push away from the table either. He focused his gaze on Alfred and waited.

“I cannot advise you to do anything that would harm Master Bruce,” Alfred said. “As you have acknowledged, I am emotionally compromised. But you were also right to say that I care about you and the other children. If you believe the children are not safe around Bruce, and I understand why you may think that— especially given your history— then your priority should be getting the children away from Master Bruce. That is my advice.”

Jason nodded solemnly. 

“Thank you, Alfie.”

Then the boy was gone.

And Alfred… Alfred was left wondering if getting the children away from Bruce was best for his universe’s children too.

Talking to Alfred had been bittersweet for Jason. On the one hand, Alfred’s advice was helpful. Who they decided to tell wasn’t as important as making sure the kids were safe from Bruce. On the other hand, it was difficult for him, realising that Alfred wasn’t as perfect as he had liked to think. 

So many of Alfred’s mistakes had often been confused with other people’s. Making sure Bruce worked past his trauma was hardly the responsibility of Bruce when he had been a child. The memorial that Jason had liked to blame Bruce for not taking down was Alfred’s. Tim becoming Robin had been at Alfred’s encouragement. Taking Robin from Tim and giving it to Damian had also been Alfred, but it had soured Tim’s relationship with Dick rather than Alfred. 

All the ways that Alfred enabled Bruce’s abusive and harmful behaviours were often overlooked.

Seeing Alfred was supposed to make Jason feel better, but it had done the opposite.

So instead of going home, Jason hopped to another universe, still searching for comfort in the deceased.

Catherine turned from the stove and her heart jumped. 

“God, Willis, you scared me,” she gasped. “I thought you were at work.”

“Willis probably is at work,” he said.

Catherine’s eyes widened as she got a better look at his face.

This man was not Willis.

They looked similar but… no, the face wasn’t quite right, but as she looked at the man’s curls and his eyes she realised… But that was impossible. Her little Jason was seven years old and sleeping in the other room. This wasn’t… But still she…

“Jason?”

“I… yeah,” the man said.

He offered her a sheepish smile, the same smile her Jason always gave her when he wanted to check out too many books from the library, and she knew that it was the truth.

“I don’t understand,” she admitted.

“Just think of me as… a visitor from another time and place. I just… wanted to see you.”

Catherine nodded slowly, taking in every detail of this older Jason. She stepped closer before she could think better of it, walking right up to her boy and reaching up to cradle his face. She traced her thumb along a scar that marked his jaw. This Jason… he didn’t seem like he had lived an easy life.

“Just look at you,” Catherine said, wonder in her voice. “You’re so big. My beautiful boy.” 

She wiped away his tears with her thumbs.

Then his eyes caught on her arm. He reached out and took it, turning her arm so he could see her inner elbow. They both stared at her track marks for a moment and Catherine’s shame ate at her.

“They kill you, ya know?” Jason said. “The drugs. A few years from now.”

Catherine wished she could be surprised, but she already knew that she was weak. She wished she could afford rehab or proper medicine or a doctor, but that was impossible. She wished she could be strong enough to quit on her own power. She wished she’d never started on the drugs for pain relief in the first place.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry for failing you.”

“You didn’t,” Jason said.

He stepped closer and kissed her forehead.

“The world failed you,” he finished.

Then he was gone.

But when she turned back to the kitchen counter, she found a debit card with instructions to access a bank account, a pile of pamphlets for different rehab programs, a list of recommended doctors, and a note: ‘ I know you can do it ’.

Natalia lay still in the hot air balloon. Every movement— every breath— was agony. It was agony until she stopped feeling anything altogether. That’s when she became certain that she wouldn’t survive. So she relaxed into the wicker against her back and watched the red storm as she drifted closer, waiting for it to consume her.

There was a flash of light, and a figure was there. She tried to look towards it, but the world was a blur. Jason , some part of her said. But big. Big Jason. Nothing made sense. Then strong hands started to lift her up, and she couldn’t even muster the energy to worry that they intended her harm. She just drifted, in and out, in and out, barely registering as her surroundings changed.

Everything was white.

She heard voices and rushing.

Someone put something over her nose and mouth and breathing became easier.

The next thing she knew she was coming to herself in a bed.

Then there were doctors and nurses and no sign of the blurry figure who she was somehow sure was Jason. The doctors tried to keep her still, checking her over with lights and instruments, and when they finished, they tried to explain things to her. That she had been dropped off here by a man. That he had left her a note.

And she read the note.

And all it said was, ‘ Thank you for being my mother ’.

And it felt like treasure and it felt like loss and it felt like second chances.

And she thought she’d never truly understand what had happened.

Then days later, she woke up to someone holding her hand.

“You’re back,” she said as she set her eyes on her saviour once again. 

She hadn’t imagined it. He really was her Jason all grown.

“I wanted to talk,” Jason said.

“Speak into the night, so we both may listen.”

“Would you still want to listen if I had sullied the night with death?” Jason asked her.

Natalia would never stand for people disgracing the night, but she could not imagine her Jason doing so.

“Would the death be righteous?” she asked.

“I would think so.”

“I trust that you understand the night, Jason. If you say the death would be righteous then the night would not be sullied, it would be invigorated.”

Jason’s mouth twitched up into a warm smile. 

“I love you, mum.”

“I love you too, young moonbeam. But moonbeams are fleeting, and I suspect you will not be here when day breaks.”

“I don’t belong here,” he agreed. “But I will return if you need me. I’m just one call away.”

He pressed a piece of paper with a phone number into her hand.

“So you will only grace my skies when the night is dark?”

He shook his head. 

“I don’t usually say this,” he said conspiratorially, “but for you I think I’ll make an exception. Feel free to call me just to chat. I’d be happy to hear from you.”

Natalia smiled at him, reaching up to stroke his head.

“But,” he continued, “I’m not who you need to concern yourself with. Your Jason is going to be different now but… he’ll still need you. Maybe even more than he did before.”

She nodded. “The moon may change shape but we recognise and love it all the same. I will find my Jason again.”

Her saviour kissed her hand and disappeared into the night.

Chapter Text

Jason got back to his universe feeling hardly better than when he left. His interactions with his mums had been cursed by the same problem as his interaction with Alfred: bittersweetness. It didn’t matter how well the interactions had gone, because in the end, he couldn’t fill the voids in his universe with substitutes. They all had their own Jasons to look after. He needed someone who could be his . Someone here .

Sitting alone in his safe house, Jason realised that the person he really wanted to talk to— the person who always helped and made him feel better— was Kyle .

When did that happen?

But Jason had already bugged Kyle enough. Kyle had barely stopped hating him and, if Jason pushed, Kyle would probably tell him to never come back. He couldn’t keep showing up and demanding advice and attention without offering anything in return.

Kyle paused as he got to his front door. Something didn’t smell right. Literally.

Something smelled… amazing.

Like someone had broken into his flat and started… cooking?

Which was a ridiculous thought. He doubted any of his usual villains could cook.

Shrugging Kyle walked in, ready to call on his Green Lantern suit if the situation demanded it.

Nope.

It was Jason freaking Todd.

Jason freaking Todd had broken into his flat and started cooking.

It was too domestic. Kyle was going to pass out. If it wasn’t for Jason still wearing clothes under the apron, then Kyle would mistake this for a dream.

“Oh, hey,” Jason said, glancing at Kyle over his shoulder. “You like pasta, right?”

Kyle could only nod. If he opened his mouth then he wasn’t sure what would come out.

“Cool ‘cause pasta is what you’re getting.”

Kyle looked away, anywhere but at the Adonis currently making him dinner. His eyes snagged on a keypad by the door.

“What is that?” he asked, very sure he had never seen it before and happy for the distraction.

“I told you I was gonna get you better security,” Jason answered, not bothering to look away from his cooking this time. “I left some instructions on the table for how to set the alarm code. You should do that now.”

There were a million different things Kyle could have said about why he didn’t need an alarm system.

What came out was, “But how are you going to break in if I have a security system?”

Jason seemed to think Kyle was joking because he laughed super hard. Kyle committed the sight to memory.

“It’s cute that you think any security system could stop me,” Jason said.

Omg, Jason just called him cute. Sort of.

But yeah, that made sense. Jason could literally teleport now.

“Also,” Jason continued, “I already put a code for myself in your system.”

“You know, you could just call ahead instead of breaking into my flat.”

“I know.”

‘ But I won’t ,’ Kyle finished in his head.

Freaking Bats.

Jason set two plates of spaghetti on Kyle’s table.

It smelled amazing and god, “I could get used to this.”

Oh, he’d said that out loud.

Jason snorted. “Try it before you say shit like that.”

So Kyle sat down and shoved some of the heavenly smelling pasta into his mouth.

Fuck it was so good.

“I could get used to this,” he repeated around his second mouthful, practically moaning.

“You’re disgusting.”

The pleased flush that overtook Jason’s face somewhat undercut his criticism.

Kyle’s stomach lit up with renewed butterflies as he took in Jason’s adorable expression, but even that queasy feeling couldn’t turn him off Jason’s amazing cooking.

How was Kyle falling even harder? Yesterday he hadn’t thought that was possible.

It was official, this was the most pathetic crush Kyle had ever had. If he could still call it a mere crush…

Jason sat with him and dug into his own portion with slightly less enthusiasm. He pushed around his food a little between bites, looking hesitant. Something was definitely on his mind.

Kyle made himself eat a little slower so he could get some words out without renewing Jason’s ‘disgust’.

“So how are things going?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

“I err... I don’t know.”

“Wanna talk about it?” Kyle asked lightly.

“Well you are good at the talking and shit,” Jason said.

“Alas, I’m being used for my emotional intelligence,” Kyle teased.

Jason’s ears turned red, and he looked down at his food. Kyle thought maybe there was some truth to his statement. 

“We don’t have to talk about it,” Jason mumbled.

“You made me dinner,” Kyle said, “you can use me however you want.”

Oops, there was a bit too much genuine feeling in that comment.

Luckily Jason didn’t seem to notice.

“The dinner wasn’t conditional or anything,” he said, still caught up on the idea that Kyle thought he was using him.

“I know, Jason,” Kyle said.

The warmth in Kyle’s voice made Jason look back up at him and they locked eyes. Jason studied him for a moment, then seemed to realise that Kyle was being genuine. His mouth twitched into the smallest smile before it flickered away. He looked back down at his food.

“Okay so…” Jason said. “Okay. Let’s say, hypothetically , that a very well known hero, famously against killing, has killed his adult son a few times… And also hits his other children sometimes.”

Was Kyle really supposed to pretend he had no idea who Jason was talking about in this very non-hypothetical situation?

“Sure,” Kyle said. “Go on.”

“Right, well, his kids can’t exactly go to the cops, yeah? Because the hero has a lot of influence. And they can’t go to the Justice League because he owns the Justice League. And also no one is going to believe them probably…”

“I believe you,” Kyle said.

Jason shot him a panicked look.

“Er, I mean, I would believe these hypothetical people with a shitty dad,” Kyle corrected.

Jason relaxed.

This was ridiculous. Bats really were out there thinking that regular folk couldn’t put two and two together just because they weren’t trained detectives.

But Kyle was too relieved that Jason was finally opening up about Bruce to care.

“So in this hypothetical situation,” Jason continued, “what should they do?"

“Well the sensible thing to do would be to gather as much evidence as possible,” Kyle said, really proud of himself for studying ahead with Guy. 

“Oh no, that’s unnecessary, we— they already have so much evidence. Like so many of the beatings and kills were caught on video and their family friend gathered it all up. You know, hypothetically.”

“Oh,” Kyle said. 

So all the stuff Kyle had been trying to write down as evidence was completely useless. That was fine. That was cool. Thanks, Guy . 

“Obviously the hypothetical kids should be kept away from the hero,” Jason said. “But some of them are young and don’t know any better. How do you tell a kid whose entire life has been people hitting him for ‘training’ that parents shouldn’t hit their kids? He’s so protective of his dad, even though his dad treats him like shit, because his dad still treats him marginally better than the cult he grew up in. 

“Hell, most of the kids had even shittier parents before the hero. They don’t have a healthy point of comparison. They don’t know what’s normal. And some of the kids haven’t seen that side of the hero. Some of the kids haven’t experienced the violence, so in their eyes we’d just be taking them away from their perfectly good father figure. I just…”

Jason broke off with a frustrated sigh and ran a hand through his hair.

Once again, Kyle was brought back to what Guy had told him.

“Yeah,” Kyle said. “Those kids might hate whoever takes them away from their dad, but if they’re in danger, then whoever wants to help will have to accept the risk of being hated. Then hopefully the kids will come to understand the truth with time. Sometimes helping people doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t get you any immediate thanks. It doesn’t endear you to people who aren’t ready for, or don’t want, the help you’re offering. As Red Hood, I’m sure you already know that.”

Jason absorbed the words for a moment.

“Yeah,” Jason breathed. “Yeah, you’re right…”

They were both silent as they polished off the last few bites of their dinner.

“You know,” Kyle said as they finished eating, “if the situation you described wasn’t ‘hypothetical’, I’d totally have your back, okay?”

Jason softened and shot him a smile. 

“I know,” he said.

Then his eyes widened as if he was surprised by his own certainty.

“And ya know,” Jason added, “if you ever need help with anything, I’d have your back too, yeah?”

Kyle grinned at him. “Yeah. I know.”

They stayed like that for a moment, just smiling at each other.

Then Jason seemed to catch himself and he looked away, smile dropping.

“Right,” Jason said gruffly.

He stood up and started clearing the plates from the table.

“Actually,” Kyle said, wanting to shake Jason out of whatever anxieties were eating at him. “There is something I really need your help with. You see, I have this terrible problem where I’ve tasted your cooking now and don’t know how I could ever be deprived of it again. Surely you’re going to help me while I’m in need?”

He batted his eyelashes at Jason for maximum effect.

Jason fidgeted at the praise, another flush climbing up his neck.

“You’re an idiot,” Jason told him, but he did relax a little.

“That wasn’t a no.”

“It wasn’t a yes either.”

“And that, tellingly, still wasn’t a no.”

Jason elected to ignore him, turning to the sink and starting to wash the dishes.

“You can just leave that you know,” Kyle said as he walked over. “You already cooked. I can clean up later.”

“You can ,” Jason agreed, “but would you?”

“Hey! I’m not a total slob. I do clean.”

Kyle playfully glared up at Jason.

…God, Jason was so tall. 

But… not this tall?

Kyle looked down and realised that Jason’s feet weren’t touching the floor. In fact they were floating a good few inches above the floor. What the heck?

“Umm,” Kyle said. “I don’t mean to alarm you, but you’re doing gravity wrong.”

“What?” Jason asked, glancing over to give him a baffled look.

Kyle pointed towards the ground.

Jason looked down.

“ What the fuck? ”

Then Jason abruptly dropped, landing back on his feet with a small thump. They both stared at Jason’s feet for a while, waiting for something to happen, but the appendages remained firmly planted on the ground. 

Eventually Jason shrugged and went back to the dishes. “Weird.”

“ Weird ,” Kyle repeated incredulously, “That’s all you’re gonna say?”

“No,” Jason corrected carelessly. “I also said ‘what the fuck’.”

“You do not get to be casual about this!” Kyle said. “This is the last straw. We’ve let this go on long enough. Put down the dishes, you are going to come with me to see someone magical right freaking now and we are going to find out what is going on.”

“I don’t know why you’re getting so caught up over some minor floating,” Jason said. “You hover around all the time.”

And Kyle knew that Jason was just deflecting, but Jason’s flippancy about his own wellbeing was still getting Kyle worked up.

“Because I’m a Green Lantern! You’re just supposed to be a dude with too many weapons!”

“Should I be offended by that?”

“Jason, I’m serious. You can’t keep ignoring the things that are happening to you. We need to ask someone. I’m… worried about you. Please. Don’t you want to know?”

Jason stared at Kyle’s strained face for a moment.

He sighed.

“…Fine. But we’re not going to anyone who’ll tell the Bat.”

“Deal.”

Chapter Text

“John Constantine,” Jason groaned. “The person you think can help me is John Constantine .”

He’d never met Constantine but he knew the man was something of a con artist. How had Kyle convinced him to do this again? Yes, he should probably get himself checked out, but he could have very easily done nothing until it blew up in his face. Why did no one else consider that an option? It was completely valid.

“Yes, my contact is Constantine, now come on,” Kyle said, leading Jason deeper into the bar.

Jason sighed, but he did follow Kyle to Constantine’s table.

“Hey, kid,” Constantine greeted Kyle as they sat down. He nodded to Jason, “This must be the magically unwell friend.”

Kyle considered them friends? Jason felt oddly pleased.

He still gave Kyle a judgy look. “‘ Magically unwell ’? Really?”

“I didn’t know how to describe your whole weird thing,” Kyle defended.

Jason sighed and looked back at Constantine. “So how’s this gonna work?”

“I’ll have a look at you and then we can talk about what we can do for each other,” Constantine said.

He took a swig of beer as he stared at Jason, and Jason got the impression he was looking with more than just his physical eyes.

Constantine choked on his beer, dropping his glass on the table unceremoniously.

“Are those the sodding All Blades ?” Constantine coughed. “Who the hell are you?”

“The last remaining member of the All Caste,” Jason said with a shrug.

It was probably better that Constantine didn’t know he was a Bat. Then he’d hardly know to tattle to Batman.

Constantine shook off his surprise and got back to business. “Well you don’t look cursed or anything. Although there’s definitely something… off about you. Tell me what the problem is.”

“Errr, right,” Jason mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well… I can’t die. Or, I mean, I can die. I just don’t stay dead. And I can travel between universes at will. And I remember all the different iterations of reality. And sometimes bullets go through me or I float above the ground.”

“None of those sound like problems,” Constantine said flatly.

“But I’m just a regular human,” Jason explained. “None of this should be happening. And it keeps getting worse.”

“A regular human member of the All Caste,” Constantine scoffed. “Sure, mate.”

“Look,” Kyle cut in. “We just want to know if you can figure out why he’s able to do these things, and make sure whatever’s happening isn’t dangerous to him.”

Constantine seemed to think it over for a moment. 

“Alright,” he said, “but first you’ve got to do something for me.”

Which yeah, that was about what Jason expected from someone like John Constantine.

“What?” Jason asked.

“There’s a demon who’s been eating kids around this neighbourhood. I was going to do a taxing bit of magic to send him home, but the All Blades would do a much cleaner job than me, and I wouldn’t have to expend the effort. What do you say?”

Jason would have done that for free but there was no point telling Constantine that.

“Yeah, I can kill a demon for you. If you think the All Blades would work?”

Constantine snorted. “Oh they’ll work alright. You clearly have no idea what kind of power you’re wielding.”

Jason shrugged. “The people who trained me were very focused on a specific group of evil immortals. So I’ve been figuring out what else they work on through trial and error. Anything inhuman, immortal and evil right?”

Constantine made a face like that was very wrong, but he also couldn’t be bothered explaining the truth. “Close enough.”

Jason rolled out of the way as the big fuck off demon tried to smash him with his giant hammer again.

“So, like, are you not going to help?” he asked.

Constantine shrugged from where he was smoking against a tree. “That kind of ruins the point of getting you to do the work for me.”

“I am helping,” Kyle insisted from the demon’s other side.

The Green Lantern had been forming constructs that the demon promptly smashed with his hammer. At best Kyle was a colourful distraction. At worst he was actively getting in Jason’s way by putting ill-timed constructs in Jason’s path.

“Agree to disagree,” Jason grunted as he flipped over the hammer that had just smashed into the ground at his feet.

He landed on top of the hammer and dashed up the handle, then the demon’s arm.

“Try stabbing him now!” Kyle said as he formed a construct around the head of the hammer, pinning it to the ground.

“What the fuck do you think I’m trying to do?”

Jason dodged the demon trying to grab him with his other hand and drove the All Blades into the demon’s neck. The demon shrieked as the All Blades started devouring it. Feral with panic, the demon managed to fling Jason off, sending him flying.

“I’ve got you!” Kyle yelled.

Jason expected to land in a pile of green pillows, but instead his back smashed into Kyle’s chest as the idiot tried to physically catch him. They hit the ground hard in a tangle of limbs. The wind was likely knocked out of both of them, but they weren’t injured and the demon had been destroyed.

He found himself sprawled over Kyle’s lap. The lantern was half sitting, half lying on the ground, a low groan emanating from him. Jason had a comment about Kyle’s shitty catch on the tip of his tongue, but then Kyle leant forward to block Jason’s view with his face. Jason’s words left his mind. 

The idiot just looked so proud of himself for ‘catching’ Jason and, for once, Jason didn’t want to ruin it.

“Thanks,” he grunted instead.

He supposed the landing might have hurt more if Kyle hadn’t broken his fall.

Kyle beamed down at him and Jason felt like he’d made the right choice.

“Oh so you two are those kinds of friends, huh?” Constantine commented from the sidelines. “Let me know if you ever want a third.”

Jason sat up off Kyle’s lap and looked at Constantine, not sure what he meant. “A third what?”

Constantine snorted. “Ask your friend .”

Jason looked at Kyle whose face had reddened. Was he pissed off again? Had Constantine said something offensive?

When Kyle didn’t say anything, Jason shook off his thoughts and got to his feet. He strode over to Constantine and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Alright, we helped,” he said to the Brit. “Now tell me what is happening to me.”

“Oh, I have no idea, mate,” Constantine replied easily.

“You mother fu—”

“Steady on,” Constantine interrupted. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t help. Just because I don’t know, doesn't mean I can’t get you someone who will.”

Kyle walked over to join them as Constantine rummaged around in his coat. Eventually Constantine pulled out some kind of crystal with a noise of triumph. He carelessly dropped the crystal at their feet and did some kind of spell. 

The crystal pulsed and a woman appeared, floating above it like a hologram. No matter how Jason looked at her, he couldn’t seem to pick out any distinct features. It was like she was everyone and no one all at the same time. Jason tried not to think about it too long, lest he get a headache. 

The woman regarded the three of them indifferently.

“This is one of those higher power, angel or minor goddess types,” Constantine said. “Whatever you want to call them. She’s pretty clued into multiversal stuff. Sometimes she’s willing to answer a question or two.”

“John Constantine,” the woman said blandly. “What answers do you seek?”

“Not me,” Constantine said, nodding his head in Jason’s direction. “Him.”

The goddess tilted her head as she studied Jason.

“You are impossible,” the goddess said.

Her tone was strangely neutral, given what she was saying.

“Gee, thanks,” Jason managed, even as his stomach clenched with uncertainty.

The woman’s mouth twitched up. “Death always did like the sarcastic ones.” 

“You know Death?” Jason asked.

The woman shrugged. “Don’t we all?”

Jason hoped that exchange wasn’t setting the tone for the conversation. He had little patience for cryptic higher powers.

“What did you mean I’m ‘impossible’?” Jason asked.

“You are both out of place and right at home,” the goddess said. “A friend of Death who will not stay with her. Unbounded but not free. You have slipped through the cracks of the universe— no, not slipped— You have been punched out of the universe. Reality shook and you were dislodged. The laws of the multiverse could not keep hold, and the more you escaped their grip, the less they tried. You are a fluke, an error, a multiversal glitch, and if you do not reign yourself in, your connection to What Should Be will only grow weaker.”

“And… is that bad?” Jason ventured.

“I do not know what you perceive as ‘good’ or ‘bad’,” the goddess replied. “Would you consider ascending to a higher plane of being, and dispersing amongst the multiverse to become one with existence, ‘bad’?”

“Um, yes?”

“Hmmm, then perhaps it would be ‘bad’.”

“Okay,” Jason said, trying to remain calm, “Then how do I ‘reign myself in’?”

The goddess gave him a long look. “I don’t think you could if you tried.”

Rude. There was no need to get personal.

“Humour me,” Jason requested. “What would I need to do?”

“I should think that would be obvious,” the goddess said. “If you want to stop yourself from drifting further outside of the multiverse’s governance, then stop breaking its rules.”

Okay, yeah, maybe Jason could understand why the goddess had doubted his ability to comply.

“Right,” Jason said, “so say I’ve already died like… ballpark figure, thirty eight times, and made maybe like… a couple thousand jumps through the multiverse, and… seen through all of reality, and maybe… ignored gravity and skipped being corporeal for a second or two. How much more of that kind of stuff can I do before I ‘ascend’ and shit?”

Constantine whistled. “Well, mate, you’re fucked.”

The goddess ignored him and Jason followed her lead. 

“I do not know,” she told Jason. "As I said, you are not beholden to the laws of the multiverse that I am familiar with. I can neither understand nor predict how long your current form will hold.”

Great. That was great. Very fucking helpful.

The goddess raised an eyebrow at him, like she could read his thoughts and was unimpressed with his attitude.

“I can and I am,” the goddess said.

Oh. Whoops. 

“Sorry. You’ve been very helpful. It’s good to know that I’m a huge cosmic mistake.”

“No,” the goddess corrected. “The Cosmos are another matter entirely. Just because you have fallen outside of my understanding, it does not mean you are not meant to be. Perhaps you have been set free to reign something else in. Everything has purpose.”

“What if I don’t want to follow ‘the Great Plan’ or whatever?” Jason griped.

“Your human understanding is backwards,” she said with a small smile. “Purpose is not a plan or an instruction, it is whatever you happen to make of your existence. All is always as it should be, for there is no other way to exist than as what you are.”

The crystal pulsed again and the goddess was gone.

The three of them stared at the crystal for a moment. 

Eventually Constantine patted Jason awkwardly on the shoulder.

“That was rough, kid,” he said. “Want a drink?”

Jason raised a disbelieving eyebrow at him.

“What? I like to be nice to people who are on their way to godhood or self destruction.”

“You meet a lot of people like that?”

“More than you’d think. So… pub?”

Jason glanced at Kyle, who seemed a little horrified by the answers they’d gotten. He didn’t look like he was up for a trip to the pub. Jason should probably help the idiot home.

“Hm, better not,” Jason replied for both of them. Then he remembered there was another niggling question that needed answering. “I did want to ask though, do you think Gotham might be cursed?”

Constantine laughed until it devolved into a coughing fit. “Yeah, no shit. You think I haven’t tried to tell the Bat that? He just tells me to stay out of his city.”

Jason nodded. That sounded about right.

Chapter Text

Jason and Kyle had said basically nothing to each other after their meeting with Constantine, and the revelation that Jason was maybe not going to be okay at some point in the future. They were both too busy digesting what they had learned to talk about it, but once Jason had seen Kyle back to his flat, Kyle stopped him as he was leaving.

“What are you going to do?” Kyle asked.

“I don’t know,” Jason replied honestly.

Then Jason left. He made his way back to his main safe house in Gotham and stared at the wall for an hour. Then he decided to push the problem of his shaky relationship with humanity aside for a moment and focus on what he could change. 

He went to Dick and Babs and they resumed their conversation about next steps regarding Bruce’s abuse. They reached an agreement. Getting the kids away from Bruce should be their priority. They weren’t going to confront Bruce yet, as it was too risky, and they weren’t going to make Damian and Cass confront the abuse because it would probably be too hard for them to understand right now. But they gathered Tim, Steph and Duke for the difficult conversation.

“What’s this about?” Tim asked, speaking for the three teens.

They were in Babs’ flat, with the teens sitting on one couch and Dick and Babs on the other. Jason had placed himself in another room, figuring he wouldn’t be much help in a delicate conversation like this. He’d been almost antagonistic when he’d tried to confront Dick about everything and that was the last thing the kids needed.

“We want to talk about Bruce,” Dick told the teens.

There was a long pause, in which Tim was no doubt analysing Dick and Babs for any clues.

“Okay,” Tim said slowly. “What about Bruce?”

“He…” Dick tried. “He…”

“He’s too unstable,” Babs filled in analytically. “He’s dangerous to be around and we want you to minimise contact with him going forward.”

There was another long pause.

“What did B do this time?” Steph asked, somehow casual in the face of Babs’ words. Still Jason could hear a subtle tension in her voice.

Dick sighed. “Too much. Too much to keep ignoring.”

“You guys are being vague,” Duke pointed out.

Dick winced. “Sorry I… It’s just difficult okay.”

“How about we start with something most of us witnessed,” Babs said. “Tim, Bruce punched you. Unprovoked. Violently.”

“That was ages ago,” Tim said. “And he wasn’t in a good state of mind.”

“Is he ever?” Dick commented bitterly. “Babs showed me the footage of that punch, Tim. It wasn’t okay. There is no reasoning that would make it okay.”

“This is stupid,” Tim said, frustration seeping into his voice. Maybe defensiveness. “Why is it only a problem now? Babs, Duke, you guys saw him punch me. So did Alfred and Cass and Damian. No one said anything to me about it afterwards. No one thought it was a huge problem then.”

“And that was wrong of us,” Babs said. “We brushed it off because of the circumstances and we shouldn’t have. We thought it was the exception. Now we know it’s the rule.”

“We’ve been looking at the incidents individually,” Dick continued for her. “I’m sure we can all name a few that sit wrong. Things Bruce has done that we brushed off because we considered them few . Or we considered them a result of unique circumstances. We’ve been explaining away individual incidents and ignoring the larger pattern. That stops now. For all our sakes. Bruce has consistently exhibited abusive behaviours to people he claims to love and care for. He isn’t safe to be around. Not for any of us. I’m sorry it took me so long to realise that, but I’m paying attention now.”

“Look,” Tim said, “None of us have ever considered Bruce the picture of stability— he is what he is— but we can’t just walk away. He needs us. We keep him grounded, and Gotham needs him . Yes, he can be difficult, but he’s not actively dangerous . Don’t you think you guys are overreacting? What’s changed?”

“He killed Jason!”

Another long silence followed Dick’s outburst. 

Jason quietly put his hand over his face. Way to ease the kids into it, Dick.

“Jason is dead?” Tim asked. His voice had lost all intonation, like he was a machine on the verge of shutting off.

“Bruce killed him?” Steph asked shakily.

And even though Jason knew that he wasn’t currently dead, he couldn’t help but remember what that goddess had said about him semi-imminently ceasing to exist. He hadn’t really considered how that was going to hurt the people around him. Truthfully, he hadn’t thought it would. Not until now. 

But that was a thought for later, so he shook it off and walked into the room.

“Jesus Christ, Dick,” Jason grumbled, “You’re just traumatising them more.”

The teens on the couch all took in Jason’s very alive presence and visibly relaxed.

“What the hell, Dick?” Tim ground out. “Why would you say that?”

“Because it’s true,” Dick said.

Tim wordlessly gestured to Jason’s living and breathing form.

“I don’t stay dead,” Jason explained shortly. “He’s killed me a bunch.”

Steph was staring at them like she was trying to figure out what the joke was, but didn’t want to commit to laughing in case she was wrong about it being a joke.

Duke was processing.

Tim’s face was blank.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Tim said. “Why would Bruce kill you when he won’t even kill the Joker?”

“I don’t think he’s ever done it on purpose,” Jason said with a shrug. “But I’ve also never asked him, so I can’t be sure. I’m not sure he even knows he’s killed me.”

“How could he have killed you, multiple times , and not even know?” Tim asked.

“Wilful ignorance,” Jason snapped impatiently. “I don’t know. The ‘Bruce killing me’ part isn’t up for debate, okay. Babs literally has footage of him beating me to death. I’m not lying.”

And yep, he was getting defensive again. That was why Jason had tried to sit this conversation out. He took a breath, trying to relax. None of this was Tim’s fault. Of course Tim was going to ask questions about what he didn’t know.

“It’s not— I don’t think you’re lying,” Tim backtracked hurriedly. “I just thought… It just… I don’t understand it at all…”

“The point is that we shouldn’t understand it,” Dick cut in. “Abuse doesn’t have to make sense. It often doesn’t. We shouldn’t be trying to rationalise Bruce’s actions. For all that Bruce tries to pretend he is the pinnacle of rationality, all his decisions are tainted by grief, denial and rage . They have been since his parents died.”

“Look,” Steph said, “Bruce being a massive asshole isn’t news, okay? I know that. I just didn’t expect… this. I feel like I shouldn’t be surprised but…”

“But you are,” Duke said in agreement. “Yeah, I’m feeling that too. And disappointed… because he’s Batman and that’s… that’s supposed to mean something. Something in opposition to… all of this.”

“But…” Tim tried. He trailed off, looking unsure.

“Tim,” Jason broke in. “I get it, okay? You want to look at the evidence. You want to analyse and research and process. That’s okay. You’ll have the opportunity to do that as much as you like over the next few weeks. We just want you to promise that you’ll stay away from Bruce until you’re done. After you’ve looked it all over and considered the facts, we can talk about it again.”

“No,” Tim said, “—I mean, yes, I want to look at the evidence— but no, I do believe you. I just…”

Jason looked at his face for a moment trying to understand.

“Oh,” Jason said, as he finally got it. “The problem isn’t that you don’t want to accept Bruce is abusive. The problem is that you’ve already accepted it. 

"You may not have known the extent of the abuse, but you’re smart, you know the signs, and you had experienced enough from Bruce first hand to see it for what it was. You understood that Bruce was abusive and then you decided to tolerate it. You weighed the benefits and costs and decided it was better for us to be around supporting Batman. That the abuse was something you needed to endure because Batman is just that important. That it was fine if it was you. That it made sense because you weren’t one of his ‘real’ sons. 

“That’s it, isn’t it? I’m right, aren’t I?”

Tim looked away, and Jason knew he’d nailed it.

“I thought something similar,” Jason shared. “I thought that the way Bruce treated me was fine. That it made sense. That I deserved it because I brought it on myself. Because I couldn’t follow his one rule. Because I wasn’t the son he lost, just the thing that crawled its way out of Jason Todd’s grave— Stop looking so horrified. I don’t think that anymore. Not all the time at least— But the point is, I’m sure Dick had similar thoughts as well. That it was fine if it was just him, because he’s an adult and Bruce was his ‘partner’, not his actual father, and Dick always called him out when they disagreed, so naturally Bruce retaliated.”

Dick nodded stiffly. 

“Well we all have more information now,” Jason continued, “and it’s time for us to reassess. We all thought that we were the exceptions. That the problem was us. Well it isn’t. The problem is Bruce. The problem has always been Bruce.”

And, eyes a little teary, Tim finally nodded.

The conversation went much smoother from that point on. Slowly and gently, Babs, Dick and Jason talked the teens through the evidence, showing them the most relevant clips. Jason suspected they’d all want to go back and analyse it in their own time, but this was a start, and it got them all on the same page. 

They all agreed to avoid Bruce and not confront him directly until they have a plan.

“But I live at the manor,” Duke pointed out. “So does Damian. Cass too. And why aren’t they here? Shouldn’t they be part of this conversation.”

“Do you want to be the one who tries explaining to Damian and Cass that their beloved father is textbook abusive?” Jason asked sardonically.

“We’re going to ease them into it,” Dick corrected. “As for living at the manor, you won’t be. We’re going to try getting Damian living with me and Cass living with Babs. It should be easy enough to convince everyone for the short term without raising any red flags. We’ll have to figure something permanent out later. We won’t be able to avoid confronting Bruce forever. Duke, we thought you should live with Jason.”

“But I get it if you’d rather live with Dick or Babs,” Jason said, trying not to sound as nervous as he felt. “Or whoever else.”

Duke blinked at him. “Er, yeah, I’m happy to go with Jason.”

“Alright. Cool. Good. Cool.”

He felt strangely anxious about this, but Dick and Babs had assured him that he’d be a good guardian for Duke. He didn’t understand where they’d gotten that idea.

“Anyway,” Dick said. “Jason, Babs, and I came up with some rules to keep everyone safe. First of all, do not be alone with Bruce. If he approaches you, signal for backup then try to leave as quickly as possible without tipping him off. Second, if you see that Cass or Damian may be alone with Bruce, intercept or chaperone and call for backup. Third, if you can’t avoid Bruce, try to act normal. We need to be careful about how we approach this situation and we don’t want Bruce to think that we’re acting against him. Finally, but most importantly, Bruce is dangerous and secrecy is not the priority, you are. If you feel like you’re in danger, then do whatever you can to get away and forget about trying to act normal. Does that sound good to all of you?”

The teens nodded their agreement.

“Good,” Dick breathed. “Okay, we’re really doing this. Good.”

Chapter Text

For the next few days Jason managed to resist travelling the multiverse while he got Duke settled in at his place. Duke was pretty chill about the whole thing, but Jason supposed he was nervous enough for the both of them. He just… he really didn’t want to fuck this up. Duke deserved a stable home environment, and apparently Jason was the one who needed to give him that.

“Don’t forget your lunch,” Jason told Duke, handing Duke the sandwiches he had made and wrapped for him.

“Thanks, Jay,” Duke said as he accepted it and shoved it in his backpack.

“And good luck with your History presentation,” Jason said.

He’d watched Duke rehearse it for an hour last night. He was invested now.

Duke saluted him and walked out the door to catch the bus to school. Jason had offered to drive him so many times, but Duke had been insistent that he wanted to bus with his friends. The door shut behind Duke, and Jason was left alone again.

It was hard to know what to do with himself now. He’d gotten so used to bouncing around the multiverse in his free time and now… He knew he really shouldn’t. The goddess had been clear about the risks.

And Jason… He knew that he could never save everyone in the multiverse. He knew that. But every moment Jason didn’t try to be out there helping was a moment when someone wouldn’t be saved. Was this how Superman felt? Knowing that every time he went to sleep, people would die because he wasn’t awake to hear their calls for help.

This guilty indecision was why he’d been screening Kyle’s calls. He knew what the other man would say if he found out Jason was still weighing the pros and cons. Because for some reason, Kyle seemed to care about him, and he probably wouldn’t want Jason risking himself. And yes, Jason hadn’t bounced to another universe yet— he’d managed to hold himself back so far— but… Jason wasn’t sure how long he could keep that up. Probably not very.

As if fate was laughing at him, Jason’s multiversal phone started ringing. 

It was probably just Nice-Bruce checking in, and Jason did suppose he owed Nice-Bruce a thank you so he should probably answer it. 

But when he went to pick it up, he saw it was an unknown number. That wasn’t too weird, Jason had handed his number to a lot of people throughout the multiverse without getting their numbers in return. What was weird, was that instead of a phone number he didn’t recognise coming up on the screen, there was a series of archaic symbols in a language Jason did not know. 

He squinted at them for a moment, confused, before answering the phone. “Hello?”

“O, Knight of the Multiverse,” the person on the other end intoned. Was that Dick ? “Can you hear me?”

He wasn’t sure who the Knight of the Multiverse was but this was his phone so…

“Um, yes?”

“Thank the gods! It really worked. Please, Knight of the Multiverse. We need your help. The fate of the world depends on it. You’re our only hope.”

And Jason knew he shouldn’t. He knew that travelling the multiverse would only pull him closer and closer to nonexistence. But… But someone was asking for his help, desperately , and Jason wouldn’t… He couldn’t say no. Not when he knew what it was like to need help and be left without. Not when he knew what it was like to not be saved.

“I’m coming,” he told the voice on the other end of the phone.

He focused on where he wanted to be, and a moment later he was standing before a figure in a blue accented cloak in a dimly lit room. There were a number of other cloaked figures with him, all with different coloured accents. It looked like he was standing in some sort of summoning circle.

“You are the Knight of the Multiverse?” the Blue Accented Cloak asked, sounding an awful lot like his eldest brother.

“Um, probably?” Jason replied. “You’re the ones who called me . So I would hope so.”

The Blue Accented Cloak shrugged. “When we asked the gods for help, the spirits told us to summon the Knight of the Multiverse using this arithmancy,” he said, holding up a slab of stone with Jason’s phone number carved into it.

Sure. Why not?

“Then yeah,” Jason said. “I guess I’m your guy.”

“Hold on,” the Gold Accented Cloak said, and Jason was pretty sure it was some version of Tim. “Is that Jason ?”

The room suddenly lit up a lot brighter, so the cloaked figures could get a clear look at him.

“What the frankincense?” the Red Accented Cloak asked. 

That was for sure this universe’s Jason.

“Yes, I am a Jason Todd from another universe,” Jason agreed. “Now what is this world ending emergency you ‘summoned’ me for?”

The Magic Bats spent the next few minutes giving Jason the rundown. Jason gathered that this was some kind of fully magic world with nothing in the way of technology. Which was why an invasion of technologically advanced aliens had been so difficult for them to counter. Apparently this world’s magic didn’t mix well with technology. The aliens had been delivering bombs to their major population centres, and trying to get rid of the bombs with magic only made them explode faster.

It was a fairly simple problem for Jason to fix. He had them teleport him around to the bombs and started disarming them the old fashioned way, even talking some of them through the process so they’d be able to do it in future. Then he talked them through building some EMPs to take out the alien technology. That quickly started turning the tide of the war.

All in all, Jason only had to stick around for a couple of hours before the Magic Bats were seeing him off.

“We shall tell everyone of your great deeds!” Magic-Dick said.

“Please don’t.”

Jason returned home.

After that it seemed like the floodgates had opened. Jason got more and more calls from people in other universes asking for his help. Apparently going to over a thousand alternate universes and passing out his number had made him fairly well-known. There were a few different names for him, but people in other universes had mostly taken to calling him Multiversal Jason Todd. 

Rather than sticking to similar universes as Jason had been, he ended up bouncing around a pretty wide variety while Duke was at school or on patrol. Some of them were just… weird. Like the one where there’d been a bunch of French superheroes with tiny gods in their pockets. Or the one where everyone was Lego and Batman was in a situationship with the Joker. Or the one where every hero he knew was somehow going to high school together and Amanda Waller was the principal. Or the one where Jason was a priest .

Jason knew he should stop. He knew it wasn’t good for him. Sometimes he could almost feel himself shifting further away from humanity. 

But… well… How could he not answer the calls? How could he not help? What was the point of him existing if he wasn’t helping? Sure some of his siblings might be a little bummed if he ceased to exist but they’d get over it eventually. They’d gotten along without him before. Duke had plenty of older siblings he could crash with. His friends would probably miss him, but friends died all the time. That was just the nature of the life they lived. They were used to it. They’d be fine.

So yeah, Jason was content to keep bouncing around and helping until his body gave out on him. 

But then Kyle had to go and ruin it.

He showed up at Jason’s house one morning, just after Duke had left for school.

“What are you doing here?” Jason asked him.

Kyle just grinned at him, and Jason was struck by how much he’d missed the goofball. Kyle shouldered his way inside and Jason let him, too startled to put up much of a fight.

“I’m here to visit you of course,” Kyle replied as he planted himself on Jason’s couch. “God knows you break into my house enough. At least I had the decency to knock on the door.”

“You could have called ahead,” Jason said, hypocritically.

“I tried,” Kyle said, innocently. “I guess my calls aren’t coming through for some reason. Weird that.”

Jason avoided eye contact. It had been easier to ignore all the problems with his actions when the only other person who knew what Jason was risking wasn’t around.

“How do you even know where I live?” Jason grumbled.

“I asked Roy,” Kyle said.

That surprised Jason enough that he looked back at Kyle. “And he told you?”

“Eventually,” Kyle said, “After I told him that you were probably being self-destructive and I needed to snap you out of it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jason lied.

“Right,” Kyle hummed. “So you haven’t been to any other universes lately?”

Jason considered lying, but he doubted Kyle would believe him anyway. “Only when people have asked for my help.”

Kyle’s mouth twitched down, but instead of getting angry, Kyle looked sad. “ Why , Jason? Why would you do that to yourself.”

“I’m fine,” Jason argued. “Look.” He held out his arms and spun around slowly. “Completely normal and existing.”

“For now,” Kyle said. “Why would you risk it?”

“You know why,” Jason said. “If people need my help, I can’t just—”

“Yes, you can,” Kyle interrupted. “How are you going to help people if you evaporate into stardust or whatever? Why doesn’t the idea of that matter to you? Don’t you care at all?”

“I care,” Jason defended weakly. “But if I go out helping people then it’s worth it, isn’t it?”

“No,” Kyle said firmly. “It isn’t. Donna was right, Jason. This is an unending task. There are always going to be people in the multiverse who need your help. I agreed that it was harmless to help who you could when we thought this wasn’t hurting you, but we know better now. You need to stop. Please.”

“I— I just—”

Jason was interrupted by his multiversal phone ringing. Which was good because he had no idea what he was going to say.

“Don’t answer that,” Kyle said, a tinge of desperation in his tone.

“I have to,” Jason said back.

He answered the phone.

“Is this Multiversal Jason Todd?” asked a familiar voice.

“Yeah,” Jason replied. “That’s me.”

Kyle moved closer, jaw clenched, and for a moment Jason thought he was going to try snatching the phone. Kyle didn’t though. He just stood there, listening to the conversation.

“I really need your help,” the person on the phone said. “Please. My Jason is missing and I can’t find him. I should be able to sense him but I can’t. I— Please.”

Jason and Kyle stared at each other, arguing with their eyes.

“I’m on my way,” Jason said.

He teleported, and Kyle latched on as he went, getting dragged along for the ride.

“What the hell?” Jason asked.

“We’re not done talking about this,” Kyle said.

Someone cleared their throat, and the two turned to find themselves face to face with the person who had called for help. Jason had been right to think he recognised the voice, it was another version of Kyle, in White Lantern form.

White-Kyle— Nope, not that umm… Other-Kyle? The name could be a work in progress. Anyway, Other-Kyle looked between the two of them with a perplexed look. He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

“Sorry for interrupting,” he said. “But I need your help.”

“Right,” Jason said. “You said your Jason was missing. Like, your version of me? Or another person called Jason.”

“My version of you,” Other-Kyle confirmed. “I should be able to sense him with my Star Sapphire power but I can’t and I… I’m really worried.”

“That’s the pink one right? Why would that help you find him?”

Other-Kyle gave him a confused look. 

“I can tether to people I love when they’re in trouble,” he explained. “And he can tether to me since he’s a Star Sapphire himself. I know that you’re not a Lantern but hasn’t your Kyle explained that to you or…” he looked at Kyle and backtracked. “Oh, sorry. You’re a Green Lantern at the moment so I guess it hasn’t come up.”

“Love?” Jason repeated dumbfounded. “You and your Jason?”

Other-Kyle nodded easily, like it made perfect sense. “Of course. Are you guys not together?”

Jason glanced at Kyle, who looked panicked at the mere idea of it.

“No,” Jason replied for both of them. “We’re not.”

“But—” Other-Kyle started, only to cut himself off when Kyle glared at him. “Um, alright well, can you help me find my Jason? I heard that you can teleport to whoever you want. Something is blocking our Lantern power, but I hoped you could still find him.”

“Yeah, should be able to,” Jason said. “I’m operating a bit outside of the universe’s usual rules. Gimme a second. I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t leave m—” Kyle protested, reaching for him.

The rest of his sentence was cut off by Jason arriving at a new location. He was in some sort of jail cell. The missing version of himself was chained to the wall, looking a little battered but otherwise unharmed. Somehow Jason thought a version of himself who was a Star Sapphire and in love with Kyle would look different. He didn’t. He looked the same. He wasn’t even in a Star Sapphire uniform, just in regular vigilante armour, and Jason supposed whoever had captured him had taken his ring.

“What the fuck?” Lantern-Jason groaned as he noticed Jason. “What kind of weird mind trick is this. Jokes on you, aliens, I’m perfectly willing to punch myself in the face if the need arises.”

Jason smirked, amused. “Not a trick. Your boyfriend called me to come rescue you.”

Lantern-Jason’s brow furrowed. “Are you Multiversal Jason?”

“Yep,” he said, popping the ‘p’. “You gonna attack if I go over there to help you down?”

He knew that if his arms were chained to the wall, he wouldn’t be above trying to choke someone out with his legs.

Lantern-Jason eyed him. “Probably not.”

“Good enough,” Jason shrugged.

He got closer and inspected the cuffs. There was no lock to pick, which was probably why Lantern-Jason hadn’t gotten himself out already. He put his hand around Lantern-Jason’s arm, and teleported them a foot to the left, leaving the chains where they were and freeing Lantern-Jason. 

Huh, it actually worked. Cool.

“They have my ring and my weapons,” Lantern-Jason said. “We can’t leave without them. They also invented a field that messes with Lantern powers. We need to smash it on our way out.”

Jason shrugged in agreement and teleported them to wherever Lantern-Jason’s stuff was.

Unfortunately, that happened to be in a control room full of aliens. On the bright side, the stuff they needed to smash was also there. Two birds with one stone.

Lantern-Jason held out a hand and the Star Sapphire ring flew towards him. There was a flash of pink light and Lantern-Jason reappeared in an outfit tight and revealing enough to be worthy of Nightwing. The two Jasons started ripping through the aliens with feral grins on their faces.

Chapter Text

Kyle huffed out a frustrated breath as Jason left him alone with this other version of himself. They exchanged awkward looks.

“So you haven’t told him, huh?” the White Lantern asked.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

His other self raised an eyebrow at him and Kyle felt incredibly judged.

“I can sense your feelings for him through the Violet Light,” the White Lantern pointed out.

And yeah, that was something Kyle had been able to do when he had the White Ring. He felt his face warming with embarrassment.

“Just don’t say anything to him, okay?” Kyle demanded.

“Why not?” the White Lantern asked. “It worked out for me.”

“You actually told your Jason that you loved him?”

The other Kyle finally looked a bit less smug. “Not really. He could sense my feelings for him, since he’s a Star Sapphire. He knew before I did. He was incredibly annoying about it too.”

“Sounds like Jason,” Kyle said, a little fondness creeping into his voice.

The White Lantern smirked at him a little. “You’re in the walking into walls phase aren't you? God that’s nostalgic.”

“I only did that the one time,” Kyle defended. 

He got enough teasing from Donna, he didn’t need other versions of himself doing it too. 

Then he realised something. 

“Just now…” he said, “did you sense any feelings on Jason’s end? Feelings for me?”

The other Kyle shifted awkwardly. “He definitely cares about you a lot.”

Kyle felt his heart sink. “But he doesn’t love me,” he finished.

“He does love you,” the other Kyle corrected. “Jason loves deeply and fiercely. But…”

“Not in a romantic way,” Kyle filled in. “Not in the way I love him.”

“Look it’s…” the White Lantern sighed. “It’s not like that. Jason is just… He doesn’t really think about these things unprompted. You need to make the first move. Give him the opportunity to think of you as a romantic option. Otherwise he’s just going to keep thinking of you as a friend.”

Kyle nodded, not sure he could bring himself to risk it. Jason needed him right now. He needed someone to stop him from self-destructing. Kyle couldn’t risk disrupting their friendship, or he could lose Jason forever, and not just in the normal way.

The other Kyle seemed to sense that they were done talking about Jason. 

“You’re a Green Lantern,” he said. “But you’ve been the White Lantern before haven't you.”

Kyle nodded, not really sure this was a better topic of conversation. 

“I tried to do too much,” Kyle admitted. “The White Lantern ring shattered and all the rings except my green ring scattered.”

“When you tried to resurrect the Blue Corps,” the White Lantern said with a nod. “The same happened to me.”

“But you got the rings back?” Kyle asked.

“The world was going to end. The White Lantern was needed and I called the rings back to me. I guess I could have done it the whole time, I just didn’t realise. You probably can too.” 

Kyle stared at the other version of himself, frozen at the realisation. “I can?”

“You’re the White Lantern,” his other self said. “If you need your rings, they’ll come.” 

“I…” Kyle mumbled. “I wish you hadn’t told me that.”

The other Kyle gave him a sympathetic look. “I understand. But I needed to tell you.”

Kyle nodded, knowing his other self was right. Being the White Lantern was Kyle’s responsibility. The period of normalcy he’d gotten had been nice, but he couldn’t ignore the truth forever. Sooner or later, the universe would need the White Lantern again. And he’d have to accept the isolation that came with the power once more.

The other Kyle opened his mouth, probably to say something comforting, but a flash of light brought Jason back before he could say anything. Another Jason was with him, looking similar to how Kyle had when he’d been a Star Sapphire. 

Except instead of pants he was wearing the smallest pair of booty shorts that Kyle had ever seen and it was doing things to Kyle. Damn did this Jason wear those shorts well. 

…He bet his Jason would look even hotter as a Star Sapphire. His mouth went a little dry at the thought of it.

The Star Sapphire’s eyes flashed violet and he smirked. “You brought your Kyle too?” he asked Jason. “I suppose this is where they try talking us into a foursome.”

Jason gave his other self a startled look.

Oh god, Kyle needed to stop thinking about having a Jason on either side of him right now or he was going to have a problem.

The Star Sapphire took in Jason’s reaction. His eyes sparked violet again as he got a read on Jason’s feelings. 

“Oh,” the Sapphire said. “You guys aren’t together. My bad.”

Then the other version of Jason walked over to his Kyle and they shared a deep kiss in greeting.

“You better not do that to me again, you asshole,” the other Kyle said. “I was worried.”

“You know I can’t promise that, Ky,” the other Jason said, knocking their foreheads together gently. “Sorry I worried you though.”

Jason shifted awkwardly at their open affection. “We should probably head off now,” he said.

“Right,” the other Jason agreed.

He came over to Jason and slung an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close so he could say something to him. Kyle didn’t hear what he said, but Jason shot him a confused look. Then the other Jason released him and they all said their goodbyes. 

A second later, they were back in their own universe, standing in Jason’s flat. 

As soon as they arrived, Jason walked into his kitchen and started making two cups of tea. He looked deep in thought, completely ignoring Kyle’s existence as he mindlessly stared at the heating water. Kyle decided not to disturb him for the moment, secure in the knowledge that he was going to have tea with Jason, rather than getting kicked out immediately.

Jason came to join him on the couch a few minutes later. He placed the tea in front of them on the coffee table. He didn’t look at Kyle, still lost in his thoughts. Instead he stared at the cups of tea like he was trying to keep them warm with his mind.

“Jason,” Kyle said gently. “I understand that you want to help the people in the other universes— I really do— but you can’t keep going like this. Your body can’t take it.”

Jason looked at him. He took a moment to answer, like he had forgotten about the conversation they’d been having before they left.

“How can you say that after what you just saw?” Jason said. “What would have happened to that Jason and Kyle if I hadn’t shown up to help?”

“But what’s going to happen to us if you keep doing this?” Kyle said.

“You’ll be fine,” Jason pointed out.

“No, Jason,” Kyle said angrily. “I will not be fine, because you will be gone, and it’s going to hurt me . But you’re right, this isn’t about me, or anyone else. This is about you . You’re so much more than how you can help other people. You have so much life to live. Don’t you think your life is worth living?”

“That’s not the point,” Jason said.

“It is!” Kyle insisted. “It is the point. You can still save people in this universe. You might even save more people in this universe by living longer than you would on however many finite multiversal trips you have left. So why are you so determined to eviscerate yourself over every call for help? Why, Jason? Why don’t you care about your life outside of helping people?”

“Because I don’t have one!” Jason burst out. “My life is helping people. I died, Kyle. I died when I was a teenager. I didn’t finish high school. I can’t go to college. All I know how to do is this . I fucked up every good thing I ever had and I’ll keep fucking it all up, one way or another. My life is disposable.” He ripped his wallet out of his pocket and threw a bunch of fake IDs on the table, tears caught in his eyes. “Look at this. Jay Peters. Jason Head. Todd Peterson. None of it is real. I barely fucking exist, and no one is going to notice if I disappear.”

Kyle grabbed Jason’s face between his hands and Jason froze in his ranting. He moved Jason’s head until they were staring into each other’s eyes. 

“That’s not true,” Kyle said firmly. “You know that’s not true. I’d notice. Donna would notice. Your brothers and sisters, they’re all going to notice. Roy. Kori. The other Outlaws. The people of Crime Alley. Just because you can’t help everyone in the multiverse, doesn’t mean you won’t be helping here. 

"But Jason, you’re in your what, early twenties? You could get a GED if you wanted. You could go to college. You can learn to do other things. You’re brilliant and a fast learner. You have so much potential. You should know that after all the versions of yourself you’ve met. 

“And you’re not going to fuck everything up. For as long as I’ve been reacquainted with you, I’ve only seen you make everything better .”

Kyle could see Jason’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed heavily, a few tears slipping free, and Kyle realised his own eyes were teary as well.

“Why do you have to throw your entire existence away just to have more reach,” Kyle continued, voice soft. “Other superheroes exist. Why does it have to be you?”

And Kyle realised this wasn’t just about Jason, he was thinking about himself too. He was thinking about becoming the White Lantern again, because that’s what he was supposed to do.

He let go of Jason’s face, leaning back a bit.

“If I had to be the White Lantern again,” Kyle murmured, “so I could help more people in the far reaches of space, would I have to do it? Even if it meant I had to disappear from earth forever and go into hiding until I was needed. Even if it meant I couldn’t have a life. Because it wouldn’t be safe for that kind of power to be out in the open. Would I have to do that? Would you want that for me?”

Jason’s eyes widened. 

“No,” Jason admitted. “I wouldn’t.”

Some part of Kyle’s being eased. He’d really needed that. He’d really needed to put it all out in the open and not be called selfish or irresponsible. Of course he’d become the White Lantern if the world urgently needed him, but… until then, Kyle just wanted to be a person. Didn’t he deserve that? Didn’t everyone deserve to just live their life for as long as they could? Even people like them.

“Please don’t travel the multiverse anymore,” Kyle said. “Please stop teleporting. Please try not to die.”

And slowly, Jason nodded. 

“Alright. I’ll stop. If someone calls me again I’ll… I’ll call someone else in the multiverse and tell them to pay it forward. I promise.”

“Thank you,” Kyle breathed. 

Jason felt a little shaken after Kyle left. This day had been… a lot. So many words were running through his head. Other people’s words. 

Other-Kyle telling him he needed his help. 

His Kyle telling him that he could do anything with his life. 

Lantern-Jason telling him, just as they were about to leave, that Kyle Rayner was hopelessly in love with him.

He didn’t know what to believe anymore.

Kyle, in love with him? That didn’t make any sense. Did it? No, it didn’t. Did it?

He thought about Kyle and their interactions. It just— He just— He needed a second opinion.

Jason called Donna.

“Hey,” she answered. “What’s up?”

“I…” he said. “I know this is gonna sound crazy but hear me out. I think that… and I know this is kinda out there but… I think maybe Rayner might be into me. Like… romantically.” 

There was a long silence in which Jason heard some suspicious puffs of air, as if Donna was holding in laughter. And yeah, she probably was. Of course the idea of Kyle having a crush on him was laughable. 

“You think so?” Donna finally replied, her voice strained with suppressed laughter. “What gave you that idea?” 

“You can laugh if you want, Donna. I know it’s ridiculous. I thought so too but… I swear the more I think about it the more it seems true.” 

“I don’t— I don’t want to laugh,” she lied. “Please carry on.” 

Jason decided to keep going despite Donna’s clear amusement. Who else could he talk to about this? No one else had seen him and Kyle interacting as much as Donna. 

“Okay, so I noticed he draws me a lot. And at first I was like, he’s an artist, of course he draws, but like, he doesn’t seem to draw everyone else as much as he draws me. But then I thought it was just because my muscle definition was good for anatomy practice, except we know so many buff superheroes. I may be jacked but I’m no Superman. And it’s not like he only draws me shirtless— although he does that a lot— he also just draws my face a lot, or me smiling or laughing or reading. There’s also a lot of me making tea for some reason. I only made him tea like twice, I swear.” 

“R-right. Right. What else?” 

“Sometimes he just stares at me for ages. Also he says stuff like ‘use me however you want’ or ‘you make everything better’, but like, not sarcastic. Like he actually means it. And he’s always helping me with my emotional drama when he doesn’t have to. …And also a version of myself from another universe, who was a Star Sapphire and could read people’s feelings, told me that Kyle is in love with me.”

“Oh so that’s what it was,” Donna gasped, a giggle slipping through by mistake.

“But I know it’s absurd, right? Like, Kyle may not completely hate me anymore but… There’s just no way, right?”

“Well um…” she said carefully, “I think the most important question here is do you want Kyle to have a crush on you?”

“…What?”

“Jason,” she sighed. “How do you feel about Kyle ?”

“Like romantically?” Jason asked. “I’ve never really thought about it, honestly.”

Donna muttered something that sounded like, “Oof, poor Kyle.”

“I’m just…” Jason tried to clarify, “I’m not very good at all that stuff.”

“What do you mean you’re not good at it?”

“I just… I’ve always had other priorities. I was too dead to date as a teenager and then I was being trained as an assassin. Yeah, I’ve dated before, and sex feels okay and everything, but I don’t get what the big deal is. I don’t need it like other people seem to, you know? And I don’t just… meet people and care about stuff like that. I don’t think about it unless someone else brings it up first. I’m not… normal.”

“There’s nothing wrong with any of that,” Donna corrected. “Everyone experiences love and attraction differently. If you don’t want to be in a relationship then you don’t have to be. Kyle isn’t going to pressure you. You can tell him you’re not interested and he’ll get over it and move on. You guys can still be friends.”

Jason’s heart suddenly plummeted at the thought of Kyle moving on.

“Well, it’s not that exactly,” Jason said slowly. “I think I… I think I do want a relationship. I do like people sometimes, romantically. It’s just— It’s rare and I need to know I’m supposed to be considering it before I can really… before I start thinking about it. It doesn’t… I don’t just fall for people like I’m supposed to.”

“So have you been thinking about Kyle then?”

“I… well now I have. The last few hours.”

“And what do you think?”

And Jason thought about that idiot, Kyle. He thought about how Kyle fumbled making tea and couldn’t find a mug in his own flat. He thought about the way Kyle was a real genuine hero, who didn’t judge him for his different morals. He thought about the way Kyle would talk things through with him, and act like Jason deserved to exist, not to help people, but just to live .

“I, well, he’s great.” Jason choked out a laugh, remembering when he had uttered the same words with heavy sarcasm back on their first adventure together. So he finished the quote, finding that he meant it this time. “He’s dreamy.”

Donna squealed.

“What the hell?” Jason gasped, pulling the phone away from his ear.

“Sorry, sorry,” Donna laughed. “I just… you have no idea how long I’ve had to watch you both be idiots. This is just… I’m excited, okay! Now go tell Kyle that you think he’s dreamy.”

“You really think I should? You think he actually likes me?”

“Yes, by Aphrodite, yes! You guys are such morons. Go find Kyle and kiss him on his big dumb mouth as soon as humanly possible.”

Jason stared at the phone for a moment, letting their whole conversation really sink in.

“Errr. Alright. I guess I’ll go and do that then.”

Chapter Text

Kyle had hated leaving Jason after their emotional conversation, but he was also very worried about overstaying his welcome. If Jason let him, Kyle would happily never leave, so he needed to be strict with himself or he was going to end up hanging around so much that Jason would get sick of him. Kyle was already pushing Jason by barging in to talk while Jason had clearly been trying to avoid him. But, well, he’d been desperate to nudge Jason away from certain destruction. He hadn’t cared how much he was pissing Jason off, so long as the man would be okay.

Now that he’d got a tentative no-travel agreement from Jason, Kyle didn’t want to risk jeopardising that in any way. He had to be careful around Jason. He had to control himself.

So it was very confusing for Kyle when he awoke the next morning, got up to use the bathroom, and found Jason in his house making them breakfast. Everything from ‘ did I accidentally fall asleep at Jason’s place ’ to ‘am I still sleeping ’ ran through his head. Then he mentally confirmed that yes, he was definitely in his house and no, he wasn’t sleeping, and yes, Jason really had broken in at who knows what time to make him breakfast. 

How was Kyle supposed to control himself around someone like this?

Kyle stood in the doorway for a moment, coming to terms with the fact that Jason was making him breakfast while Kyle was standing there in his boxers, with major bedhead, staring like someone who’d never seen another person in their entire life.

“Hey, Space Man,” Jason said, glancing over and offering him a grin. “Are pancakes good?”

What was happening??

Kyle nodded dumbly.

Then he considered his attire again. “I’m just… I’m just gonna go put some clothes on.”

Jason nodded and went back to his cooking like he couldn’t care less how half-naked Kyle was.

Kyle tried not to read too much into Jason’s indifference. He knew he wasn’t as jacked as Jason but he was still semi-jacked. His body was fine. Jason just wasn’t interested in him and that was okay. Kyle wasn’t going to be an asshole about it. Not anymore. He was a mature adult and he could deal with being just friends with the most attractive man he had ever seen. He could deal.

As Kyle brushed his teeth, went to the toilet and threw on some sweats, he got a good mental grip on himself.

“You’re going to be so normal about this,” he told the mirror quietly. “You are so normal about Jason Todd.”

Yeah, he knew he was a liar, shut up.

He headed back out there to face the music.

“So what brings you by?” Kyle asked as he tried to lean against the wall.

Then he decided that looked stupid and tried to choose a seat. He was seconds away from sitting on the table before his brain screamed at him loud enough to stop him. Mechanically, he managed to pull out a chair and seat himself at the table like a normal human.

“I wanted to see you,” Jason said, completely oblivious to the way it made Kyle’s stomach flip. “Is that okay?”

“Uhh…uh-huh,” Kyle managed. “Th-that’s cool.”

Jason placed the pancakes on the table and sat with him. They dug into their food. 

Goddamn, the pancakes basically melted in Kyle’s mouth. They were so fluffy. This was so unfair.

The heavenly food lulled Kyle into a false sense of calm, so he was completely off guard when Jason picked the conversation back up.

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Yeah, of course,” Kyle replied.

Like an idiot , completely unprepared for what would come next.

“Do you like me romantically?” Jason asked between bites.

Kyle blue-screened.

If he’d been taking a bite at that moment he would have choked.

“I… what?”

Jason shifted awkwardly. “Do you like me romantically?” He repeated.

Kyle stared at him as his brain tried and failed to reboot.

And he stared some more.

And stared.

Head empty, no thoughts, just panic.

“Uh, never mind,” Jason backtracked when Kyle gave him dead silence. “I don’t know why I… never mind.”

Seeing his hesitance jumpstarted Kyle’s brain a little. Jason and him had been friends for a while now, and Kyle had gotten pretty good at reading him. He knew what Jason looked like when he was questioning his worth. He didn’t understand what that had to do with whether Kyle had a crush on him, but Kyle did know that he didn’t want to be the reason Jason looked like that. He didn’t want to lie to Jason either. 

So Kyle took a breath and gathered his substantial will power.

“I do,” he admitted. “I do like you romantically.”

Jason paused in his eating, and gave Kyle a completely new expression.

Was he… was Jason Todd blushing ?

“O-oh,” Jason said. “Oh, okay.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

When Jason didn’t say anything else, Kyle had to ask, “…Is that okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” Jason said, looking startled. “It’s… yeah.”

What did that mean???

Was it okay? Was their friendship over? Was Jason disgusted?

Kyle was losing his goddamn mind over here and Jason was just over there eating his pancakes. If it wasn’t for the palpable awkwardness and the heavy blush still on Jason’s face, Kyle would think he was completely unaffected.

“Sorry,” Kyle blurted. “I know I’ve made things awkward. But we can still be friends right? You being my pan-awakening doesn’t have to be a big deal. I mean, wait, shut up. Not you, me shut up. Shit…”

Jason snorted and shook his head.

“I can’t believe I’m into an idiot like you,” he said with a grin that stopped Kyle’s heart.

It took a second for the words to really sink in.

“Wait…?” Kyle spluttered. “…Me? …You? … Me ?”

“Yes, Kyle. You, me, you .”

That sarcastic asshole. 

Kyle kissed him.

He’d had to push the pancakes aside and half-climb onto the table to do it— his hand might actually be planted in a pancake right now— but that hardly even registered.

It took a second for Jason to kiss back, tentatively at first, but more firmly as Jason grew more comfortable. Kyle leaned in further as Jason brought a hand up to cup his jaw and deepen the kiss. He almost pitched forward from his awkward position on the table, so he shifted, sitting himself up more securely and freeing up his hands. He moved them into Jason’s hair, running his fingers through Jason’s sticky locks. 

Wait, sticky?

Jason pulled back slightly. “You just got maple syrup in my hair.”

“You can use my shower. Shut up.”

Kyle slammed their lips back together, tugging on Jason’s hair to bring him in at just the right angle. Jason made a noise that Kyle would be replaying in his head for days .

His mind got lost after that, completely absorbed in the feel of Jason against him.

The kiss broke some time later. Kyle couldn’t even guess how long. It was then that Kyle was able to confirm that he did indeed get maple syrup in Jason’s hair… and on Jason’s face… and a little on Jason’s shirt. He was pretty sure he could feel a patch going crusty on his own face too.

No regrets. Definitely worth it.

“So…” Jason mumbled. “Are we like… you know? Together?”

“I hope so,” Kyle breathed.

And Jason offered him a smile bright enough to melt glass.

“Cool.”

‘ I’ve missed you, Dames ,’ Richard had said. ‘ Just stay with me for a few weeks. It’ll be fun. ’

Damian hadn’t thought much of it at first. Richard was prone to such sentimental ideas.

In fact, and he would never admit this to anyone, he’d enjoyed the time with Richard. He… he felt comfortable with Richard in a way he didn’t with anyone else. He knew that no matter what he did or how he acted, Richard would eventually default back to his open affection. Everyone else had rules and lines that he should not cross. Lines he knew would mean being discarded. 

There were no such lines with Richard.

It allowed Damian to… relax.

Part of him almost dreaded going back to Father. Things were never as easy with Father. Never as secure. 

Father did not tolerate his children crossing his lines. 

Damian had seen that time and time again in the way Todd would be beaten, chemically altered and sacrificed. Damian was not slow and he had understood the unspoken warning from the beginning. Todd was Father’s example. During Damian’s time in the League, Grandfather had shown him the lines in the same way, using whatever people or animals were on hand as such examples. Recognising those warnings was baked into Damian’s bones.

People did not usually just tell Damian the rules.

He had to figure them out through observation.

And the most important rule he had gleaned from observing Father, was not to be like Jason Todd.

It was a rule that had always troubled Damian. As reticent as he was about it, Damian knew there were similarities between him and Todd. The way Todd handled things made sense to Damian in a way he knew it should not. The way Todd would deny his care and fight with him, but dive between him and any danger was something that Damian intrinsically understood. He knew, undoubtedly, that Todd would kill for him, and it reminded Damian of Mother when she’d been at her best. It felt like home and safety, in the same way that Richard did, and Damian knew it wasn’t supposed to.

So Damian buried those feelings deep. Damian was not allowed to show any fondness for Todd. Father had shown time and time again that Todd was to be treated with vitriol. So Damian did so, because he understood consequences and he knew that he could not for a second let Father think that he sympathised with Todd. He could not show his similarities to Todd. He could not show any trust or care in Todd’s direction.

Even as his relationship with Drake improved, Damian knew that he could not allow his relationship with Todd to do the same.

Then Richard had told him that he wanted Damian to stay with him forever. That he didn’t want Damian to go back to Father.

And Damian was frustrated and angry and confused.

He had worked hard to carve out his place by Father’s side, because that was Damian’s legacy and his birthright. 

Now Richard was trying to take that away after everything Damian had sacrificed to hold his place.

“The way Bruce treats us is not okay,” Richard said. “The… the things he’s done to Jason…”

“Todd brings that on himself,” Damian replied, because this was what he understood. “If Todd followed Father’s rules then Father would not have to show him the consequences.”

“That’s… No, Dami. That’s not right. It’s…”

And then Richard showed him something.

A video of himself and Father.

And Father was hurting Richard.

And it didn’t make sense, because Richard was not like Todd. Richard followed the rules.

And if this was a new example… If Damian was supposed to not be like Richard then… Damian couldn’t see how that made sense. 

Richard was safety and goodness. He was the hero of heroes. Richard should not be the bad example.

Which meant that Father’s standards didn’t make sense to Damian anymore. Just like Ra’s standards had stopped making sense after he had brought Damian a bird and told him to kill it. Just like Mother’s had stopped making sense after he understood that eliminating Drake would not earn him his place.

Which meant Damian didn’t have anyone’s rules to follow anymore, because Richard didn’t have any unspoken rules that could not be broken. Richard always told him what his rules were, and the rules he did have were not ones that Damian wanted to break.

That meant Damian could behave however he wanted without being discarded. He didn’t have to fight for his place or step carefully within the unspoken boundaries that those in charge had set.

Damian had never experienced such a thing before.

Richard reached forward wiping the tears that Damian had unknowingly let slip.

And Damian accepted the comfort, because he wanted it, and because he didn’t have to heed the League or Father’s dislike of outward emotions anymore. He stepped into Richard’s arms and openly sobbed, something like relief settling over him.

“I’ve got you,” Richard murmured. “Everything is going to be okay now. It’s going to be okay.”

And from that point on, it had been.

Cass knew something wasn’t right from the beginning. She saw it in Barbara’s body when Barbara invited her to stay over for a week. Barbara was hiding something.

She saw the lie in Barbara’s invite and she saw that Barbara knew she saw.

But she also knew that Barbara would not hide something bad, so Cass agreed to stay.

At dinner, when Cass brought up Bruce, Barbara’s body had rippled with fury, fear, and harsh disappointment. So much disappointment both at Bruce and at herself. That told Cass that whatever Barbara was hiding had something to do with Bruce. When Jason had come up, Barbara had felt guilt, guilt, guilt. Same with Dick. And Tim. And Damian. But the guilt was strongest for Jason. There was anger too. Such anger. Not at Cass’ brothers though. Not at herself either. Cass thought maybe at Bruce.

“Why?” Cass asked eventually. “Why these feelings?”

And Barbara had sat Cass down and told her that Bruce was wrong. That Bruce had been hurting all of them, especially her brothers, and that it was wrong.

And Cass didn’t understand at first.

Because Bruce loved them. He loved all of them. Cass could see it in the way Bruce focused on them. She had always been able to see Bruce’s love, even though Bruce rarely expressed it. The love was often mixed with pain or frustration or anger or disappointment, especially towards Jason, but there was always love.

Cass thought that was okay.

Love often hurt.

That was normal.

Sometimes love made people hurt each other.

She had seen it time and time again.

That was humanity.

She expressed as much to Barbara.

“It’s…” Barbara had said, thinking carefully about her words. “No, you’re right. Love does often hurt. It often hurts the person who loves and the person who is loved. But… But when the hurt is more than the love, or when the hurt is… so much that…” 

Barbara shook her head and thought again before continuing. 

“When the love is not shown in actions— when the person receiving the love cannot feel the love— when one person is causing the other person frequent pain and showing infrequent love— then that love is unhealthy. Then the love is less important than being free of the pain.”

Cass struggled with this. She had not known there was an amount of pain that made love unimportant. She had always thought love was one of the most important things. Barbara could not explain how much pain— what amount— it took to cancel out the love. She could just say that Bruce caused too much pain. It was confusing.

But Cass could acknowledge that Bruce had caused Jason a lot of pain, even though they both felt love for each other. But Bruce also felt a lot of pain because of Jason, so why was Bruce the one who was wrong? They both felt love and they both felt pain.

It was not that she thought Barbara was misleading her. She just did not yet understand what Barbara was trying to teach her and she did not understand why she could not see Bruce anymore.

Barbara showed her footage of many things that Bruce had done and Cass could see the pain he inflicted, but she also saw the pain in Bruce as he did so. There was always pain on both sides.

Cass was trying to understand it.

She didn’t.

Not until she saw Damian again.

Damian had been with Dick instead of Bruce for two weeks and… there was a very visible change in him.

Before Damian had been defensive, uncertain, afraid. 

Now Damian was content, nervous, safe.

Damian had always been protective of his place and careful of his family.

Now he was secure. Not nervous because he was afraid, but nervous because he wanted them to like him. Not because he was afraid of losing his place, but because he liked them and wanted the same in return.

It was then that Cass understood the damage Bruce’s love inflicted on Damian. She understood that people who loved each other should sometimes be apart. She understood that the amount of pain inflicted was not what made one person more wrong, but rather the amount of control each person held. 

Damian was not the one who could stop the pain in his and Bruce’s love.

But Bruce could have. 

Bruce was the one who chose the pain. He was the one who made Damian feel insecure and unwanted.

All her brothers’ pain had been chosen for them by Bruce.

And that was why it was Bruce who was wrong.

And as Cass thought about it more, she realised that Bruce had chosen pain for her too.

Bruce loved Cass, but he also did not trust her and that caused them both pain. And Cass realised there was nothing Cass could do to make Bruce trust her. It was not Cass’ fault that Bruce would not trust. The pain had not been her choice.

But realising that gave her the choice back. Because now she could choose to let go of the love that caused too much pain, and focus on the love that Barbara would call healthy. The love that she had with her siblings and her friends.