#have i metioned here that im on a school board now

[cdelphiki]

I'm very curious to know whether the present Batfamily noticed that Jason has gone missing? I just fonished your time travelling fic the Time Before and I have so many questions! Is that something you'd even want to focus on? Mayby little Jay should stay in the past? Third time is the charm right???? But worried Bruce is soo juicy! Maybe the past and present Bruce can have an adoption war? I cant decide how I'd like this story to go haha

Ahhhhh I really need to finish that story. I actually know the answer to everything, since I had the whole thingy planned out before I started (or at least I knew the end game and had the final scene already drafted out)

I am going to happily answer everything, but I"ll put it under a break because its SPOILERS FOR THE TIME BEFORE!!!!! for chapters that will come out I have no idea how long from now. I hope soon, but I don't see any real time on my schedule for at least the next month. 😭

Seriously, this is major Spoilers don't look if you hate spoilers.

So Jason staying in the past would be super interesting just in him getting to have a second go at it and this time not die, etc, but I feel like I'd have to have him slowly lose his memory, idk. I just feel it would be weird and difficult for a self-sufficient adult (even if hes only 19 and is a certified Baby because of that, he does support himself and is completely on his own) to have to redo childhood, and be so dependent. At least he’s 9 and not like 2, but yeah. That would be hard. But the angst potential there 🥺 BUT alas, that is not the plan.

Jason is going to end up back in his 19-year-old body. The time travel body switcher device only throws a consciousness back in time for a set amount of time, and they'll know here soon the exact amount of time it is. Hal or whoever it was Bruce asked for advice is gonna be like 'oh yeah i just dealt with that stupid thing a couple months ago' and tell them it's harmless and Jason's consciousness (and Black Mask's) will go back to their original time and bodies in like 3 days or something. Or maybe I'll pick some really random number, like 62.43 hours, because "well it was programmed on [some random planet] and is going off how they measure time!"

I MENTIONED SPOILERS RIGHT, because I'm legit just gonna tell yall everything here.

So there will be a bit of angst because Hal will say something like 'well as long as their future selves are still alive they'll pop back no problem. The catch is, the future self is basically uninhabited (meaning very vulnerable). There's not baby jason suddenly up in the future. Since Jason got shot at the start of the fic, it makes Jason just think he's either gonna pop back to nothing and be dead or just never return, and he's quite upset about it but trying to hide it. He doesn't let himself go back to sleep again the whole time he's in the past.

BUT, back up in the future, a certain Batman gets a weird reading on his computer coming from Black Mask's place, and goes to investigate and finds Red Hood bleeding out and an unconscious Black Mask. He quickly takes Red Hood to the cave for treatment and gets GCPD to pick up Black Mask. He probably did something wrong. They'll find something to charge him with, even if its just shooting Red hood.

So Bruce and Alfred have Jason's body and they take good care of it and get him on the mend, but hes nOT WAKING UP!!! It's very concerning. Bruce is haggard. Idk if he finds the device black mask had or not, and if he does, he gets the same info from Hal past bruce got, too. So maybe he knows Jason is coming back, maybe he doesn't. But he keeps vigil at Jason's bedside, because despite what Jason thinks, Bruce loves him dearly. Unless im specifically writing an abusive!bruce AU, my Bruce always loves Jason dearly. It's just Jason who might not believe or understand that.

Anyway. Theres lots of tears in the past the closer to Jason's return gets, won't go into detail, but then he pops back up into the future. It just felt like he fell asleep, so he wakes up kinda groggy and feels the pain in his stomach and is like oh. so im just gonna die now. but NOPE. HE ISN'T Because Bruce is sitting right there at his bedside and they have a heart to heart 🥺 Jason is kinda forced into the conversation because obviously being a teenager he wants to jump right back to his angry i-hate-you-dad attitude but Past Bruce is still so fresh in his mind and all the good warm feelings he had he breaks pretty fast.

Then I'll bounce back to the past for like an epilogue or something and show little Jason waking back up in himself and he's being carried to bed by Bruce or something and FREAKS OUT. Absolutely goes mental. But future Jason had already told Bruce how to win Jason over by getting him books and food and talking about going to Gotham Academy so he gets won over very fast. (I think they're just gonna act like he got there and he had amnesia but social services dropped him off and does he not remember that? but he remembers everything else now??? and go from there. BbJason will see his bear and his picture and everything in his bedroom and kind of relax and think maybe they're truthful. He can at least give this home a try. They haven't hit him yet.)

And thats basically it. Everyone lives happily ever after. Baby Jason grows up to not die at 15, and big Jason moves back in with Bruce and, like, goes to college or something. Thank you Black Mask for trying to kill him, he saved everyone.