#Instead of spending 3 years with the league of assassins after digging himself out of his grave

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 184

“Well damn.” 

Jason wrenched his gaze from the mess of red and green spattered across the room, searching for the source of the voice. His head hurt, he wanted his Dad. He wanted Bruce. He… his head hurt. His everything hurt. 

“Honestly, didn’t expect them to find another half-breed. Didn’t think there was another halfa out there…”  

He tore his gaze away from the floor- when had it gotten there- finally finding the other… person? The person giving him an empty smile through some sort of muzzle and missing an entire arm. Well, he couldn’t judge, he’d torn his nails off while digging out of his grave before… this. 

“Hey, kid, don’t sweat it, it’ll grow back,” the man apparently noticed where he was staring, shoulder twitching as he shrugged and more green pouring out. Jason couldn’t stop staring, eyes slipping from the growing pool to the rest of the chains apparently keeping the person on that side of the… room? Cage? Cell? 

“Shit, hey, kid, kid, don’t cry, uh, fuck, shh, kid don’t cry-” the person made a noise, some sort of hum or croon that caused him to relax. To his already brain-damaged confusion. “C’mere, away from the door now, shh…” 

Oh, when had he started to move? It was like he blinked and was stumbling away towards the chained person, practically tripping over a limb before the person managed to catch him. “Ope, oh you’re just a little baby-” a hand, clawed, carefully ran through his hair, tucking him against a rumbling chest that nearly made him tear up again. He wanted Bruce. 

“It’s alright kid, shh, they won’t get you,” the man rumbled, everything about him green to his rapidly closing eyes. Pale skin like a corpse, black scales like rot, hair white like snow, all stained green with blood.  “They’d have to kill me again for that.” 

[sohotthateveryonedied]

while were on the subject how long was jason dead for / how long before came back to gotham

Alrighty boys it's time for some MATH by a person who is very bad at math:

First things first, Jason died on April 27th at the age of fifteen. 

Batman: A Death in the Family

He remains dead and in the coffin for six months. (There is a comic that shows Jason in heaven, but this comic came out in 2001 which is long after Jason should have been up and about if we follow the timeline, but I’m chocking this up to Jason still being dead as far as the writers knew at the time.)

Green Arrow (2001) #7

Six months after Jason’s death, he is resurrected when Superboy-Prime punches reality in Infinite Crisis and unravels certain events in time, one of these events being Jason’s death. Instead of changing it so the death never happened, Jason’s decaying corpse is reanimated. 

Batman Annual #25

Jason wakes up in the coffin and digs himself out with a belt buckle from his funeral suit. 

Batman Annual #25

Jason still retains the injuries from the crowbar and explosion, so he suffers from some pretty intense brain damage which has him stumbling around Gotham for twelve and a half miles, completely catatonic. Some people find him and take him to the hospital where he falls into a coma. 

Batman Annual #25

Jason stays in the coma for a year before he wakes up. Still relatively brain-dead, his instincts kick in and he escapes from the hospital.

Batman Annual #25

Then Jason spends a year (or five months, if you prefer the timeline established in Red Hood: The Lost Days) on the streets, running entirely on instinct from both his Robin training and from the years he spent on the streets before being adopted by Bruce. 

Batman Annual #25

Talia al Ghul gets word of Jason being alive and has him taken to the League of Assassins compound. He stays there for another year, still catatonic and running solely on instinct. His body is in perfect fighting shape, but his mind is mush. 

Batman Annual #25

To restore his mind, Talia dunks Jason in the Lazarus Pit, healing all of his injuries (and erasing all of his scars, according to RHATO). 

Batman Annual #25

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016) #50

Jason spends further time with Talia, studying from a multitude of trainers Talia hires to prep Jason for when he confronts Bruce. We can assume this takes a year or so? It’s said that Jason spends more or less a month with each trainer, so I’m going with a year. Over this time, Jason hones his skills and stokes the fire of his resentment for Bruce not avenging him by killing Joker/replacing him with a new Robin. 

Red Hood: The Lost Days #2

Red Hood: The Lost Days #4

Then there’s that weird thing where Jason and Talia sleep together, but we’re ignoring that. Jason takes off for Gotham to go beat up his dad. He meets up with Hush and teams up with him in exchange for telling him Batman’s identity. This is a moment fans tend to get confused about: Jason was there for the 2003 Hush storyline. Yes, Clayface was pretending to be Jason, but only for the end of the fight with Bruce. Everything before that was all Jason. He kidnapped Tim, confronted and fought Bruce, and then fled, leaving Bruce to assume that the whole thing was a ruse and Jason was still dead. However, Bruce knew from this point on that Jason’s grave was empty and his body was missing. 

Batman #618

Jason lies low in Gotham for a bit before the Under the Hood storyline starts in 2004, which I assume is anywhere from six months to a year in canon? It’s unclear exactly how long the gap is, but Hush happened a year prior in real time, so I’m working around that. It’s finally revealed to everyone that Jason is back from the dead, he confronts Bruce, tries to kill the Joker, etc. And the rest is history. 

Batman #648

Taking all of this into account, we can determine that Jason regains consciousness roughly 3.5 years (or just 3 years if you go by the RH:LD timeline) after his death, he returns to Gotham 4.5 years after (or just 4 years), and Jason being alive is revealed to everyone around 5-5.5 years after his death, which would make him roughly 19-20 years old.