#tim finds jason as he crawls out of his grave that

[magnoliasandarson]

ice and stone, deadweight redux

In an odd sort of self-punishing way, Jason Todd liked to visit his own grave.

When he first "came back" he had half-crawled back to the unforgiving stone and thrown up, hysterically panicking when his mind told him it was dirt leaving his lips. He had wept and screamed until his voice gave out, trapped in a hellish loop of warring phantom sensations. One second, he was burning alive- the next, suffocating on icy mud.

But that was then, and this is now.

Now, he had once again been unable to keep his cool at a Wayne family function. Now, he had shattered an expensive-looking crystal glass in his fist and stormed out of the formal dining room. Now, he was a monster to them again. Merry-fuckin-Christmas.

So, here he sat, perched six feet over where his corpse once lay, and mourned the boy that should exist instead of him.

It was oddly festive in the cemetery. Blood-red poinsettias and fragrant garlands adorned every other monument, with little LED candles glimmering here and there. The rubble of Sheila Haywood's marble gravestone sparkled in the reflection of bright city lights—like twinkling stars shining accusingly over at him. Sue him, but Jason had taken a crowbar to her marker almost immediately after arriving in Gotham.

He stared at the epitaph: Rest in Peace. There was crystal from his glass still embedded in his hand, glittering like diamonds amidst the rivulets of blood leaving his palm. His eyes followed the journey of the shimmering scarlet over his thigh and down to the powdery snow under him.

He didn't really remember crawling out. The pits had taken away the brunt of the scars, but there were still white lines traced into the tan skin of his hands. He didn't care to think about how deep the scarring must have been for it to stay.

Jason found himself trapped, staring at the red flowers blooming beneath him. Some part of him wondered if the blood would find its way to the wreckage of his casket, to the gore he'd left in his wake so long ago. Logically, he figured Dick would wander over soon, once he got done yelling at Bruce and arguing with Damian.

He never guessed it would be Tim.

"Hey," Jason would never in a million years admit it, but he was privately a little pleased that Tim had come looking for him. He had fucked up so spectacularly with his brother, had given him every reason to despise him- to want him dead, and yet, here Tim was. Awkwardly standing just on the other side of Jason's headstone, face pinched like he'd eaten an especially sour lemon.

Jason tilted his head up, something in his neck cracking as his chin left his sternum, "Sup, Timbit."

Tim looked genuinely pained as he stepped around the grave and lowered himself to sit a few feet away on the snow, "Y'know, just seeing the sights, festive lights, my brother bleeding out in snow- the holiday favorites."

Jason barked a laugh as something in his shoulders loosened, the kid was a bit of a bastard but he was funny, "You get forced to check on the charity case?"

"Drew the short straw, yeah," Tim's face was pale, save for the red coloring his nose, "do you need a med kit?"

Jason Peter Todd; Beloved Son and Friend. Jason's lips half formed the words as he read them over again; when the blood started roaring in his ears, he clenched his fist around the shards- the fresh wave of pain grounding him, "This won't kill me."

"That's not what I asked," the vehemence in Tim's words snapped Jason out of his half-daze, electric teal eyes landing on furrowed eyebrows and a stormy gaze, "Jason, are you okay?"

Jason huffed a weak imitation of a laugh, "Is anyone in this family?"

"This isn't about them," Tim immediately countered, a line on his forehead forming. Jason hated himself for it, for making Tim look like that. This was his little brother, a kid, really, and he looked twice his age because he was forced to babysit the family basketcase.

Jason used his non-gory hand to reach into his jacket pocket and take out a cigarette. "Just tired, Tim," he tucked the unlit cigarette between his lips, lighting it up as he muttered, "That's all—just tired."

Tim's face blurred behind a cloud of smoke, for a moment erasing the unlived age from his features, "You should get more sleep."

"Hypocrite," Jason snapped back with no real heat. It was true; he should have been the one telling Tim to sleep.

The smoke cleared between them as Jason took a long, deep drag. Tim looked half apologetic as he almost whispered, "This family's specialty."

Jason scoffed, unable to stop himself from nearly shouting, "You don't need to tell me that," he pointed his cigarette to the ice-glazed stone before them, "I'm not even a Wayne, Mr. CEO Drake-Wayne." It was cruel, it was mean, but Jason couldn't force himself to care.

Tim's face contorted again, coloring up to his ears with old anger and bitterness. Some cruel part of Jason's mind cheered. Finally, the kid was going to be honest. Go on, yell at the boogeyman who hurt you, tell him to go to Hell. Really end the holiday with a bang. The kid took a long, controlled breath, and evenly asked, "Are you okay, Jason?"

Jason grimaced at the bullshit question, pressing his bloody palm into the scarlet snow as he stood, flicking his spent cigarette at Sheila, "Just dead weight, Tim,"

He turned his back to the boy shivering on the snow, "That's all I ever was."

[girlwonderous]

so many fix-it aus for jason's homecoming but where are the fix-it aus where someone in bruce's life punts him across the room for talking crazy about a 15 year old boy that was beaten to death while being in bruce's care

[llillilholillill]

i want to read about jason todd of the arrowverse. I want to read about him crawling out of his grave to the world where batman, bruce, his dad, is not going to be in soon.

i want him waking up after the dip in a lazarus pit, feeling bloodlust[in arrowverse it is canon, thank you very much], meeting ra’s and nyssa and then talia. still getting trained by terrible monsters, people, who enjoy sufferings of others too much.

i want him to finish his training with all-caste, only to realize league is in shambles, some al sah-him and then al sa-her calling themselves next ra’s al ghul, with talia being banished.

i want to read about jason todd finding out his dad at whom he was so so pissed is missing. have been missing for almost two years.

seasons: 1 and ongoing

and gotham.

gotham is in fucking ruins, because there's no batman, there's no robin. there’s no alfred.

now there’s only him and barely there rumours of nightwing, protecting new york.

jason takes up the mantle. he takes up the legacy. and he hates bruce for it. but gotham and her streets are his home. even if he has to fight bloodlust tooth and nail. because he can’t. he can’t simply make another bloodbath. gotham’s streets are already soaked in too much red. and there’s still a difference for him between killing joker and killing black mask.

he tries to look for bruce, managing one crazy case after another, almost drowning in the filth that flooded the streets when no one had been looking. he tries to look for dick. for brother that hated him at the beginning yet started looking out for him at the end. but he finds a teen instead. genius teen who has so much photos of him as robin, of bruce as batman, of dick as robin and nightwing. of him as red bat.

his name is tim drake, he’s skinny and has no self-preservation skills, his parents are neglectful jerks that still love their son somehow. he becomes jason’s robin. red robin. light in the dark alleyways. hope in the hearts of gothamites. torn in rogues’ plans. safe haven in jason’s life that calms his bloodlust.

batman needs robin.

red bat, too, needs one.

even if stories about them are a hoax as far as everyone believes.

they hear from nightwing. or well more like jason gets jumped and almost electrocuted by him. thank fuck for red robin, his birdarangs and bright yellow cape. dick doesn’t trust him until he sees empty coffin and dna test. jason really can’t blame him.

year after kate kane finds the cave.

now there’s batwoman. more freaks. and more whispered rumours about existence of bats and birds.

then there’re arrow and flash in his city with flying alien in blue and red with ‘s’ on her chest.

and jason realises shit is going to go down, because it’s just a begining. there's no ending in sight, no bruce in sight.

only him, dick, tim, kate. and other vigilantes who know nothing about how gotham works so they really should get the fuck out of here right this second.

[ghost-bxrd]

OK, so you have implied in your previous Fae Dick posts that animals and trees can communicate with him in some fashion. Does that mean that Fae Dick could somehow get a heads up that Jason is crawling out of his grave? Could Fae Dick get to a resurrected Jason faster then the league would?

Ooo, good point!

I’d go with yes, yes Dick would notice. Also I don’t think he’d allow Bruce to bury Jason anywhere but the manor grounds, so that would help.

When Jason wakes up in his grave the entirety of the Wayne estate would startle out of its grief stricken slumber, as imbued as it is with Dick’s fae magic. As such, I think the soil and the roots would also aid Jason in breaking free of his grave, severely reducing whatever brain damage he may suffer from a lack of oxygen.

Meanwhile Dick, who’s out in the streets as Nightwing, would definitely feel a sense of alarm and urgency from his home and immediately turn around to check it out.

And this find Jason right as he pulls himself from the ground.

(Dick doesn’t question it. He’s fae. And questioning miracles is the best way to unmake them and he’d rather sleep in an iron bed than give Jason up again.)

Tim and Bruce would probably suspect that Dick dabbled in some kind of necromancy for a while. Not that Dick does anything to dissuade them of that notion, he’s too busy hissing and spitting at anybody stupid enough to approach Jason without his express permission and feeding him healing plants and roots the forest readily offers to him. 🌳✨

(The manor grounds love Jason ok)

[sunkillerlovechild]

its 3am and im currently plague by the thought of what would the most generally accepted headcanon if dc never revived jason

cause like we know the fandom is not just letting him stay dead, thats really not even an option, but what would be the general consensus

like they aint no way that we would go to be crawls out of his grave, talia snatches him and dips him in the pit

like the pit would definitely be one of the techniques used but i dont think it would be the most generally accepted one

also who would the people make jason be as a person, like would he just kind of keep his personality from before, would he still come back with major anger issues and the need for blood??

some of my theories as to what might have been headcanoned:

- bruce consumed by grief goes a bit tim drake on this one and tries to clone jason, succeeds but its not really his jason, so it probably just fucks him up even more and everyone around him with him

jason becomes and unfortunate casualty of this situation, he just wants the man that made him to love him, but he will never actually be his dead son

this whole thing probably leads to clone jason becoming a genuine villain not just an anti hero like canon red hood

- flashpoint, barry comes back and suddenly jason is alive again

this can either go the nice route where he tells them about how it was before, they are grateful that is not their reality and steal tim because hes not here now that jason never died

or the fucked up route where ha jason is alive excellent, barry thinks, until he finds out that dick is dead or tim, maybe even bruce

this can lead to either him telling them how it use to be and jason suffering from massive survivors guilt or i guess he never tells them and they are just fucked up in a different way this time

- last theory that i think could be a popular headcanon is dick literally learning magic to bring his brother back

like he has to do some fucked up shit, maybe even use the pits in this a little but he actually manages it

now i dont know how jason would come back because honestly its kind of hard for my brain to think of him coming back not angry, like bro died and his dad didnt make it in time and didnt save him

maybe he comes back not mad but like really depressed and now great dick got his brother back but now he has to help him actually want to stay alive

anyways, thats all these are my fun 3am thoughts

[brucewaynehater101]

Major Angst AU

Tw: death, implied suicide

Jason dies.

Bruce is close enough to get thrown by the explosion, but he isn't close enough to save his son.

He flies through the air and hits the ground knowing there's no way his son survived that.

He still digs through the rubble.

Even with sturdy gloves to protect his hands, his fingers bleed with the effort to find his boy. He claws at pieces of cement and rebar until he can see Jason's hand.

There's no pulse.

He carefully brushes debris from his son's body until he can cradle the fifteen year old in his lap. Tears blur his vision as he begs Jason to just open his eyes.

Let his son snark him one more time.

Let him take one more breath.

Only the sound of fire crackling greets Batman.

In this universe, Tim Drake doesn't exist.

Bruce Wayne cruelly pushes Dick away, doesn't listen to the pleas of his father, and steadily becomes worse.

It's not long until GCPD has to revoke their support of Batman.

Soon after, Bruce Wayne is buried next to his son.

Jason crawls himself out of his grave and pleads for his father. The only words he can utter are "Bruce" and "dad."

After the LoA dunks him inside the Lazarus Pit, Jason comes to learn about the fate of his father.

He's not angry he was never avenged. He's not upset about being replaced (since he never was). He mourns his father.

He returns to Gotham and finds Alfred to be a shell of a man. Dick is not much better.

Six months after Bruce dies, Jason waits on top of the man's grave. He waits all day and all night.

The earth remains still.

Jason came back.

Bruce didn't.

[galaxymagitech]

Skyglow

Summary: Jason wakes up in a coffin for the second time, the feeling of satin brushing against his fingers and the thick scent of dirt filling his nostrils. He should probably start digging. But he doesn't.

Characters: Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Bruce Wayne

Warnings: Suicidal thoughts, possibly something that counts as a suicide attempt (not sure), a character claws at their skin.

It’s a dark, clear night in Gotham, and if you squint hard enough, you can almost see the stars.

Jason sits at the edge of the roof, staring into the sky and pretending like he’s finding meaning there. There’s the sound of soft footsteps behind him. Out of the corner of his eye, Jason sees Nightwing hang his legs off the roof’s edge a few feet away.

“When I was little,” Jason says, “I used to think they made the stars up.”

Dick hums.

“Bruce took me on a business trip in Metropolis, one day. We wanted to be there before sundown, but we ended up getting delayed. Don’t remember why. And so we were driving on the interstate and I looked up from my book and just—there were stars. Everywhere. And I was just like, oh, I guess stars aren’t just a metaphor. Can you believe that? I was twelve when I learned that stars were real.”

Dick shifts a little. “I never thought of that.”

“What, that a stupid little kid wouldn’t believe in stars?”

“That some people in Gotham haven’t ever seen a star. That’s just…” They sit in silence, for a bit. “Why are we here?” Dick asks, eventually.

Jason shrugs. “I dunno why you followed me.” That’s not entirely true. He’d be willing to bet that Tim snitched. But he doesn’t know why Tim decided his concerns were important enough to bother Nightwing about. Or why Dick decided to actually be concerned.

Dick sighs. “You know what I’m asking. Why are you here?”

Jason doesn’t know. He’s been hanging out on a lot of rooftops, lately. Maybe if he sits on enough ledges, he’ll decide if it’s actually worth it to jump, instead of just slowly sliding off. 

Unlike the stars, that’s a metaphor; Jason wouldn’t jump. A fall isn’t clean enough. Too much of a chance that the universe will fuck him over again. No, if he dies, he wants to stay dead.

“I don’t know what brought me back,” Jason says, well aware that Dick meant here on the rooftop, not here as in alive. “But dead screw-ups don’t come back to life. That’s for…Superman. The forces of evil. Hell, I’d buy it if Batman came back. But me? No fucking way was I supposed to get a second shot.”

“You did, Jason,” Dick says. “You’re alive. I don’t care if we don’t know how, you’re alive.”

But Jason just plows right past. “I figured, if I didn’t deserve a second shot, then I must’ve been brought back for a reason. ‘cause there was something I needed to do.” He frowns. “Do you know the first words I heard once I came back to myself?” Dick shakes his head. “Yeah, why would you? I didn’t say. But. Talia said, ‘you remain unavenged.’ That’s what she told me.”

“Jason—”

 “So I figured it had to be revenge, right? Only, I haven’t been able to kill the Joker. And then I figured, maybe I needed to prove Batman wrong. But he’s still doing the same thing he always did, letting the Joker live, not fixing anything. And then I figured, it was up to me, and my job was to fix things. But I’m not killing right now, I’m following the rules, and I’m a fucking joke, Dick. Everyone knows it. So there isn’t really a point to me after all.”

“Don’t say that.”

Jason shrugs. “It’s true. There isn’t. It would’ve been better if I hadn’t crawled my way out of that grave.”

---

Jason wakes up gasping for air and rolls over, fumbling for the switch of the lamp beside his bed. Instead, his fingers brush against cushioned satin.

Groggily, he opens his eyes, only to see complete darkness. No light filters through the curtains or leaks underneath the door. It’s unnatural. It’s wrong. He reaches up an arm, only to hit the ceiling a couple inches above his face. That’s when the panic sets in.

Jason loses himself to the shocks of fear pulsing through his system, pumped by his pounding heart. For a long time, he can’t think at all. He can only drown in the darkness and terror. When he regains awareness, his breaths are shallow and he can feel strips of satin beneath his fingers, torn from the roof of—

What is the last thing you remember? Jason blinks, but his memories swim. He doesn’t know. There are glimpses, lines thrown out into the water, but as soon as he reaches for them, they’re gone. He leans over Tim’s shoulder in the Batcave, examining a color-coded spreadsheet. He stands in front of Bruce, helmet on, as they brief on top of a rooftop. He sits at the kitchen table of Safehouse 4, the oldest of the safehouses he hasn’t burnt yet, with Around the World in 80 Days propped open as he picks at an omelet. All of the memories feel old. None of them explain where he is now.

His neck is itching, Jason realizes. He reaches up instinctively to loosen his tie. That’s when he realizes that he is, in fact, wearing a tie. These days, Jason only wears one of those for infiltration. Was he on an infiltration mission? He brushes a hand against his face. There doesn’t seem to be any make-up there, not even concealer for his scars.

The realization comes to him dully, this time.

He’s in a suit, surrounded by satin, in a small, enclosed space, and it’s dark. Jason’s been here before.

---

Jason stands across from Bruce, no, Batman. At the man’s side is Robin, arms slightly raised and fists tightly clenched. It’s milliseconds away from a defensive position. Jason should probably feel bad about that, but he doesn’t.

When he speaks, he aims to hurt. “You have no idea what it was like,” Jason says. “I crawled my way out of my own grave.”

This should not be news to anyone, but Bruce still flinches.

Jason grins, all teeth. “I remember it, sometimes. It took hours. I was screaming the whole time. I tore off all my fingernails, you know. Even when I was Robin, the most any torturer got to was four. But I lost ten, and I kept digging.” The Replacement looks like he’s going to be sick. Good. “Up and up and up. I knew I wasn’t gonna make it, you see. You can’t force your way out of your own grave. Mythbusters did an episode on it, yeah? So I had to scoop the dirt away, but I knew I wasn’t gonna have enough air for that. But I kept digging, because I thought—I thought maybe someone would find me, and if I made it just a little bit easier for them—”

“I’m sorry,” Batman says roughly. “Jason, I’m so sorr—"

Jason ignores him. It feels good to ignore an apology from Batman, instead of being grateful for whatever scraps of contrition the man can manage. “I don’t know how I did it. It should’ve been impossible. I think maybe I suffocated, and just came back to life and kept digging again, and suffocated again, and—”

“Stop,” Batman orders.

“Things are fuzzier, after I made it out. But I remember I was cold. So, so cold. It was raining. And I felt like I was as cold as a corpse, like life hadn’t properly warmed me up yet. And I didn’t know where I was going. I couldn’t walk, so I just crawled. I just crawled, Bruce, and then I stood up, and then I walked. A few hours before, I was being beaten to death with a crowbar. I thought someone would find me then. No one did. And I was still stupid enough to think someone would find me that second time.”

Robin’s right hand drifts toward Batman, like he’s going to try to cling to his mentor’s cape, before he clearly thinks better of it and withdraws his hand as if burnt. Batman growls. He doesn’t sound entirely human.

“You know nothing, Bruce,” Jason spits. “Nothing.”

---

Jason is in a coffin. He can smell the dirt around him, and he’s too lucid for that to be entirely an olfactory hallucination. He’s in a coffin, and he’s buried underground.

Although Jason wouldn’t put it past certain Rogues and crime families to bury someone alive, he’s in a suit and he isn’t wearing anything to disguise his identity. He has to face the facts.

Jason can feel phantom pains in his fingers, his lungs burning for oxygen before he’s even begun to truly run out of air.

Jason should probably start digging. But he doesn’t.

It’s quiet, in this coffin, just the sounds of his own ragged breaths. Jason knows that the first time around, he screamed. And when he couldn’t scream anymore, he cried, and when he couldn’t cry, he pleaded in hoarse whispers for someone, anyone, Bruce, Dick, Dad, please, please—

Jason realizes he isn’t breathing anymore and forces himself to inhale, wheezing like a dying man. Hah. He already died. At least twice. Probably—probably more. If he came back this time, how many times in the past have his “brushes with death” in fact taken him past its threshold?

But in the past, he seized his chance at life with both hands. This time…this time…

The universe brought him back for a reason. But it isn’t the Joker, and it isn’t Batman, and it isn’t Gotham. And Jason—Jason had been glad to fulfill it, whatever it was. He’d taken his second chance and used it, used himself as kindling to start whatever fire the universe desired. But he’s fucking tired of being burnt. Speaking of burning—

No one told Jason to write a will. He knows Dick has one and Bruce, of course, has one. Alfred has one, Barbara has one, even Cassandra Cain has one, although she has little to her name. Jason knows it’s standard vigilante/superhero procedure to have your affairs in order. But no one could work up the willpower—heh, willpower—to approach Jason and ask that he prepare for a second death.

Jason wrote a will anyway. Legally, he doesn’t exist. He has a small amount of money in various fake identities, but most of his funds aren’t exactly something he can distribute in a will. But he doesn’t much care what happens to them after his death. No, he wrote the will after one too many nightmares about his resurrection. That night, he picked up a pen and scribbled feverishly in his notebook that he wanted to be cremated. And Jason woke up in the morning and looked at it and thought, yeah, that’s fair. So he made it about as official as it could get.

Right now, it’s really fucking clear that he hasn’t been cremated.

Jason should start digging. But he doesn’t.

Death was supposed to mean that he was done. Cremation was supposed to ensure that. Jason just wants to be done. He thinks he deserves that much, at least. 

Jason thinks, what if I just lay here? Last time, he took his chance to live. What good did that do him? He didn’t get revenge, he didn’t get proof that Bruce cared, hell, he didn’t even properly protect Crime Alley. His dad always told Jason that he had to grow up to be something, “not like your old man.” But one time when he was drunk, Willis looked straight at Jason and said, “you’re never gonna amount to anything” and Jason had never figured out if his father had been talking to Jason or himself. Jason had thought, with Robin, that he mattered. But he was replaced as easy as can be. He never mattered. He squandered his first life, and he failed at his second, and really, Jason thinks, what’s the point of a third?

Jason wonders what will happen if he just stays here. Good corpses stay still. Good corpses don’t dig their way out of graves. Jason’s been dead twice now. He should be a pro at being a corpse.

It’s always been hard to do nothing. The same impulse that urged Jason to take his tire iron to the Batmobile makes his hands twitch to start digging. He’s wasting valuable time. Jason’s always been a do-er, and now he needs to not do anything. He’s always been a survivor, and now he has to lay down and die.

Jason should really start digging. But he doesn’t.

He is done being a zombie, a revenant, a walking memorial. He shouldn’t have come back that first time. The universe put things right and now Jason has to prevent her from having second thoughts.

---

“What the hell was that?” The Replacement shouts, one hand tight around his bo staff and the other clenched into a fist.

“I don’t answer to you,” Jason sneers. He folds his arms across his chest. Fuck it. This is a waste of time. He leans down to snap a ziptie over wrists of one of the less injured traffickers. The sooner he cleans up, the sooner he can get out of this warehouse.

“This is my route, so according to protocol, you do,” Tim insists.

“Yeah, I don’t follow protocol.” Jason gestures at the criminals bleeding all over the warehouse floor. None of them are dead. Probably.

“Clearly, or else you wouldn’t have engaged!”

“I made an informed decision.”

“No, you didn’t. You entered the middle of a freaking firefight, Hood, without your helmet, and you didn’t know you had backup.”

“It was fine.”

“Because I was there! Which you didn’t know, because you refuse to be on our comms.”

“I don’t need you.”

“Hood, do you not see how insane what you just did was? Or do you just not care?”

Jason bristles. “What, concerned about the poor widdle traffickers?”

Tim throws his hands into the air, like Jason’s the one being difficult. “That’s not what I’m talking about! I don’t care about them!”

Jason feels his lips twitch into a smirk, and before he knows it, he’s drawn a gun from its holster and trained it on the goon at his feet. His smirk widens into a grin at Tim’s flinch. “Oh, really? Guess I’ll just take out some trash then.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Tim says, voice carefully measured. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

Well, that’s one way to ensure that Tim never gets to his actual point. Jason flicks the safety off. The click echoes through the warehouse.

“Stop it,” the kid tries to order. Jason’s finger twitches on the trigger. “Please, Hood. Don’t do this.”

Jason shrugs and clicks the safety on, as if it doesn’t physically pain him to leave this scum alive. He knew he wasn’t going to kill anyone the second he dropped down from the rafters, and unlike what Batman thinks, he has self-control.

The Replacement tries to hide his relief, but he does a piss-poor job of it. “That was reckless,” Tim says. “Really, really reckless, and you know it.”

Jason turns around without a word. He doesn’t have to deal with this shit.

“I’ll have to tell B.”

Jason really doesn’t need a lecture from Bruce, but he can just avoid the cave until Bruce gets distracted by something equally reckless Tim does. Or, well, probably not equally reckless—Jason’s well-aware that what he did is pretty close to the edge of the ‘reckless’ spectrum, straddling the line between ‘reckless’ and, well, ‘suicidal.’ But equally stupid, at least. The Replacement seems like a dumb kid.

“I’ll tell Nightwing,” Tim tries desperately, and that makes Jason spin around. Because shit, Nightwing would hunt him down and not be satisfied just giving a lecture. He’d want to talk about feelings.

“Fine,” Jason huffs. “What do you want? A safehouse? Files? Me off this case?”

“I want you to stay alive, because believe it or not, I’d like Batman to not have another mental breakdown.”

Yeah, right. Like that would happen. Batman would still have his precious display case, and he cares far more about the dead kid than the Red Hood.

“Bruce can’t lose his son again,” Tim says, and Jason just—he can’t do this. His vision whites out. He has to leave. So he leaves.

When Jason finally registers the thuds of his boots, he’s three long blocks away from the warehouse. Whatever. The Replacement’s not going to go crying to Nightwing about Hood being a little reckless. If anything, he’ll be pleased.

---

Jason swallows. If he’s going to die, he might as well use up his air faster. Less time to wait. “It is a truth universally acknowledged…”

He recites the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice. Darkness by Lord Byron. Sings You Are My Sunshine five times. Waiting to die is a slow, slow thing, and every second, his entire body is screaming dig, save yourself, survive!

There’s a sound above him, strange thumping. Maybe, Jason thinks, it’s raining. That would be…not ironic, but there’s a strange sort of circle to it, isn’t there? He was born on a rainy day, and Catherine arrived at the hospital soaked. He was reborn in the rain. If he had dug up, he would have been born yet again in the rain. The opposite of a phoenix.

Bruce should have cremated him. Jason doesn’t even know that he won’t just suffocate and then wake up again, but this time with no air. An endless loop of suffocation. The thought sends a thrill of terror through Jason. He regrets not digging.

But if he wakes up again, Jason supposes, then he’ll make his way out. It’ll hurt, but he can take his time. And then after, after, he’ll find a fire. And then he won’t have to remember how much it hurt.

The thought should be comforting, but Jason just feels terrified, and afraid, and alone. He wonders where they buried him this time. Last time, he’d been next to Sheila. But he’d screamed at Bruce for it, so maybe, maybe this time it’s somewhere else. Next to his mom, his real mom, even. Not that Bruce seemed to particularly care about Jason’s wishes, when he was actually real and not just a memorial caged within rose-tinted glass. After all, he’d asked to be cremated.

Jason closes his eyes. Everything feels detached, out of phase. He isn’t sure if it’s oxygen deprivation setting in or a side-effect of his resurrection, or just the strangeness of the scenario. He’s tired. That could be any one of the three as well.

How did I die? Jason wonders. He strains for his memories. The taste of rocky road ice cream from his favorite ice cream shop. Tim laughing. Flashes of blinding light. None of it is an answer. None of it explains what happened.

The thuds are getting louder. Jason wonders if it’s hail. Last he remembers, it was June. If it’s winter now, he supposes six months have passed. Maybe more. Maybe he’s been dead for years.

“I’m tired,” Jason whispers. “I’m so tired.” He blinks. His vision tilts. Definitely oxygen deprivation.

It’s almost over.

And then Jason hears—Jason hears voices and there’s a light, but it’s dim, and there are shadows falling on him. Jason lies there. He wonders if this is what he saw right before he died the second time. The first time, he just saw flames, seared across his eyelids.

“Jason,” someone says. They sound horrified.

That’s his name. Jason doesn’t respond. What’s the point?

“Hold on.”

This dream doesn’t make much sense. Jason hopes it’ll be over soon.

Something grasps his arms and pulls. No. No, Jason has to stay. Corpses have to stay in their graves. If he doesn’t stay, then he’ll have to come back, and he’ll just ruin it again. He has to stay. “No,” Jason can hear himself babbling. “No, let me go, let me—no. I have to. I have to go back.”

“Jason, calm down.”

“No!” Jason shouts, desperately. He throws out a kick and dives forwards, eyes closed. Strong arms catch him around the waist and hold him close, pulling him against someone’s chest. “No, I have to go back! Please!”

“Jason, open your eyes!”

Jason’s eyes snap open and he sees—

Batman. Nightwing. Robin. It’s all wrong.

Jason doubles over. “Please,” he sobs. “I have to go back. You need to let me go back.”

“You’re okay, Jason,” Batman says in his ear, but his voice is all Bruce. “You’re alive.”

“Yeah, that’s the fucking problem.” Dick startles. Jason must’ve said that out loud. “Please,” he whispers.

The first time he dug himself out of his own grave, Jason’s voice was gone by the time he made it to the surface. This time, someone else dug him out, but no one will listen when he speaks.

Jason slumps in Bruce’s hold, and they just…stand there. Eventually, Bruce slowly sets Jason on the ground and kneels down in front of him. 

Jason’s heartbeat pounds in his ear. It’s wrong. His heart shouldn’t be beating. It’s wrongwrongwrongwrong. Desperately, Jason claws at his wrists, trying to dig the heartbeat out. It has to go away. Someone tugs at his hand and Jason snatches it away and cradles his hand against his chest. His pulse continues to tear him apart.

“Jason,” Bruce says. “Do you know where you are right now?”

“A fucking graveyard, right?” Jason says. His eyes burn. He refuses to wipe at them. He can feel the hard, rocky dirt beneath him. He wants to be numb again. He shouldn’t be here. He should be underground.

There’s a sharp silence. “We’re not in a graveyard, Little Wing,” Dick says, eventually.

Jason looks around slowly. His vision feels disconnected, and it takes several moments for each image to register. But there are no gravestones around, just trees, trees and sky. It’s dark out. He thinks, when he looks up, he can almost see the stars. He doesn’t understand. “Then why am I in a suit?”

“Do you remember the gala?” Tim asks, so quietly that Jason almost doesn’t hear him. In fact, it sounds more like “…oo…ber…gala?” with the rest being lost underneath the Replacement’s breath, but Jason figures that’s what he’s saying. Jason shakes his head. 

Dick takes a step closer. “The paparazzi saw us out in Gotham four days ago. With you. You…there was a gala tonight. Bruce convinced you to go with us. And then you went missing. We thought you walked out early. But then…well, Tim was working on a case, and…well…”

“A weird cult thought you were a zombie,” Tim says, when it becomes clear that Dick’s not going to explain anything properly. “So they knocked you out, did a ritual, and re-buried you.”

This is real, Jason thinks suddenly, and then he’s doubled over, retching. Nothing comes out except spit. He can feel grass beneath his hands. When he curls his fingers, he scrapes up dirt. “This is real,” Jason says aloud. “This is real. This is real.”

“This is real,” Dick confirms. Jason retches again.

This is real. Jason doesn’t know what to say.

Tim sighs. “We need to take you to the police.”

Bruce shakes his head. “We need to talk.” His voice is dark. Jason shudders.

“Not like this, Bruce,” Dick says. “Not with the cowl on. Jason, are you good to deal with questions right now?”

“I don’t remember much.” Jason tugs at his tie in the stifling heat. Across the room, Tim is talking to a group of teenage boys and making large, animated gestures. Jason stumbles, catching himself on a nearby table.

“That’s fine, Jay,” Dick says. “We recovered security footage and we have confessions. We’ll be there in civies as soon as we can, okay?”

Jason shrugs. Someone helps him to his feet.

---

On the rooftop, Dick places a hand over Jason’s. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true,” Jason says quietly. “I shouldn’t have come back.”

“You’re wrong,” Dick says. He sounds so sure. But that’s the first Robin. He’s sure about everything. Jason could never measure up.

“Jason Todd was better off without me insulting his memory.”

“Who cares about a memory?” Dick scoffs. “You’re alive.”

“Tell that to Bruce.”

“Tell that to yourself,” Dick says. “You’re alive, Jason. You’re alive. Don’t you see how amazing that is? All of us—me, Bruce, Tim, Alfred—we’re so happy that you’re alive.”

“I don’t believe you,” Jason says. He believes that Dick believes it. He believes that Dick has to believe it, that Dick won’t admit to himself that he wishes Jason was still dead. Dick will always ignore his darker thoughts. But Jason knows. Jason knows Dick would be happier if Jason never came back. And Bruce? The man doesn’t even think that Jason counts as Jason anymore. Alfred no doubt can see that something in Jason is deeply, deeply wrong—sociopathic tendencies, Talia had theorized, although Jason suspects he’s far beyond tendencies. And Tim has no reason to wish his murderous predecessor well, not after the Tower. So, no, Jason doesn’t believe Dick.

“You will,” Dick says. “I promise.”

Jason stares into the sky. He thinks maybe, just maybe, he can see a star.

[propheticpanickingnerd]

Tim!!! The silly :)

Explanation and a little fic under the cut ⬇

So, initially, i was thinking of this as Tim in a casket of his making, him thinking even if he died no one would be there for the funeral and therefore it would be his responsibility to lay himself down on his bed of roses, attend his funeral, live as lonely as he thought he was. And so, dying alone.

But!! I actually really like the Immortal!Tim Aus so it could also be that.

Imagine this: [Death and apathy to death TW]

Tim discovered he was immortal at a younger age than most, neglected toddlers have a high death rate, so he died as a baby. He doesnt remember much, if not for the one and only scar on his neck, easily hidden by his hair. He assumes he broke his neck, falling out of something, but no one was there to tell him how he died, so he will never know. With that, started the deaths. Never any scarring from them, if not for the first one, but he died a lot.

When he turned into Robin, he didn't think to hide that. Sure, Batman has a "no metas" rule, but he has no activated meta gene. He is not a meta. He is just... unusual. So he died. A lot. He always came back, but he thought at least someone noticed it. If only for a bit, anyone noticed his heartbeat stopping.

If he had asked any of the supers he met, they would've told him his heart stopped all the time and they thought he had a mechanism for that, to throw them off his tail, like Batman did. He didn't though, never thought to ask, and so it happened.

The Incident, so to speak. It was another patrol day, going to the docks to bust a drug smuggling, meeting up with Nightwing for some paired patrol for a few hours and go back home. However, they got caught in an ambush, close to the last hours of patrol, just some goons. But, Tim hadn't died in a couple weeks, as he hadn't slept for the same time. And, usually, death takes the same effect as sleeping, if less peaceful. He thought of resting after his shift, actually.

So, really, when the goon, gun in hand, positioned himself to shoot Tim in the head, he didn't think to dodge. His only thought was "Huh, that's an easier way". So he got shot. In front of Nightwing.

But, at the time, he still thought they knew. They knew he died and came back, that the "Dead Robins Club" that he was not invited to was a joke, because they could count the amount of times they died and Tim couldn't. That they knew him.

He wakes up gasping. Not an unusual reaction. Whats unusual about this is that it's dark and he can feel petals beneath him. And that there is little oxygen and he just wasted most by gasping for air.

His next few deaths are asphyxiation. His next many deaths are asphyxiation too, this time with lungs full of dirt.

He doesnt know how much time he spends alive, nor how much time he spends dead. He just knows, far too many deaths passed when he gets out of his grave. So many deaths in fact, he learns a new thing about this ability of his. Dying repeatedly for a long time makes his healing factor only heal the cause of his death. He notes that as he finds his fingertips and fingernails bleeding. He will have to fix that in his next death.

He guesses he can finally join the Dead Robins Club. Having to crawl out of his own grave seems like a good enough reason. Still, his clothes are soiled and torn and he bets the autopsy scars have faded by now. So, all he has to do is fix his grave and prepare a new identity. After that, he can go look for another name Jason used before for him to steal into his new persona.

Would he tell the others he was alive? Maybe eventually, not in the same way Jason did though. But he does feel a bit of joy just thinking ways he could mess with them. It's their fault anyway, for thinking he could stay dead.

[halfagone]

Hi Halfa! How would you do Reverse Robins in dcxdp?

I did mention this is another post, which you can find here, but there are a number of ways we could definitely play with Reverse Robins. Demon Twins is a very beloved trope in the DPxDC crossover. It would be very interesting to see an older Damian who's estranged from his twin brother, especially if he's fairly close to his younger siblings. I can even imagine a baby Jason and Dick trying to help Damian reconnect with his brother, because surely Danny would want to meet this Damian, the one that loves and cares for them just as much as Bruce does, right?

You could also play around more with Tim's Red Hood arc. If Tim crawls out of his grave in this world too, you can have Danny meet him that way. I know I've written a story with a similar premise, except with Jason. You can lean more into the Joker Jr. aspect of the Reverse Robins storyline.

There's also Dick's story with the Talons. Imagine if Danny had been recruited (perhaps forcibly) into the Court of Owls- maybe his parents owed them something, and after they passed and Danny inherited all their work, they strong-armed him into joining. He could be doing undercover work, or trying to sabotage them, when Dick is brought in after his parents' murders and Danny finally breaks out the ghost powers to flee, taking Dick with him.

In one continuity Jason had an older brother named Danny, you could insert our Danny in there too. Maybe that's what compels Jason to be a hero in this universe/timeline.

There's definitely a lot you can play around with, depending on what you want the story to look like. There's also romantic entanglements, instead of complicated family mess, but that's a little more difficult to tie into the AU, if you want to focus more so on how flipping the ages affects the family dynamics. It's not impossible, and I can even imagine- say- having Danny date Damian and then find out he comes with a bunch of extra siblings. There are plenty of soft moments possible there too.

How it goes depends on how angsty you want it to be, honestly. And you know me... I like that angsty heartbreak. >:3

[heroicheroes]

Amnesia

Just have an idea and I want to throw some of what I've already gotten done out here. No idea how long it'll take between additions from me, but anyone who wants to add or continue to what I already have, feel free.

Basic Summary: Tim Drake finds Jason Todd after he crawls out of his own grave but before the League of Assassins and decides to take Jason home to Drake Manor. (Title may change)

~~~

Prologue

Tim never thought he would ever actually be scared of Batman. But as he looked down on the alley below, Tim was terrified.

Batman was in a rage and he had been ever since he had come back from Ethiopia three weeks ago. Ever since he had come back alone.

It wasn't very hard for Tim to realize that Robin was dead. His Robin was gone. 

Tim pushed down the realization and bile it brought up as he dialed for emergency services. The criminal being beaten into the pavement below had only robbed a Walmart when he’d been discovered by Batman. Now he would be leaving in an ambulance. Tim only hoped that the sirens would be enough warning for Batman to get away.

Even as he waited, watching in horror, Tim began to think about how to save him. Bruce was a good man, damn it, and he was too lost in his own grief to realize how dangerous he had become. Batman needed a Robin. So Tim would find a Robin for him.

The ambulance arrived and Batman heard it just soon enough to disappear onto the gloomy fire escape above the alley. His form was nothing but a darker patch of shadow, but Tim had been following Gotham’s protectors long enough to recognize the tension in his gaze, the shaking of his shoulders. Batman was crying. 

His Hero… 

And then he was gone. 

Tim needed to get to work.

[liverobinreaction]

Do you have any good Jason fic recs that don’t have pit madness in them? I really hate that fanon trope in particular and it’s almost never tagged so I would appreciate it! You seem to know where the good stuff is lol

Yes! I'm less well-versed with Jason fics, so a lot of these don't have him as the main character, but they do focus on him and don't have pit madness!

The Flightless Birds series by Ionaperidot - Alt!Bruce meets a Bruce with kids, and starts picking them up from different dimensions. Includes catatonic!Jason, JJ!Tim, Talon!Dick, assassin!Damian and assassin!Cass. It's really beautifully written and a good long read!

Hey there ghosts, it's me, ya Robin by SummerBummin - Tim can see ghosts. Jason is dead. Cue Jason bothering Tim and trying to help his dad from self-destructing.

Say Uncle by @megaerakles - Tim needs a fake uncle and chooses Jason as the best option. I don't remember this having Lazarus Pit Madness, but if it does show up, then I apologise! EDIT: the author reblogged this and wrote in the tags that there isn’t any Pit Madness, apart from some lines that could be interpreted that way, but it wasn’t written to purposefully suggest it. Thank you so much for the info! (and for writing the fic!!!)

Now you will not swell the rout/Of lads that wore their honours out by SonoSvegliato - Tim needs to learn how to fight properly, but Bruce refuses to let him learn properly. Cue him getting into street fights, where a mysterious stranger gives tips and heckles him.

Like the fucking chipmunk? by Sunpops1 - Before Ethopia, Jason receives a strange package warning him not to trust Sheila. The weirdness of it keeps him in Gotham to investigate who their stalker may be.

Game Over [Would you like to reload from your last checkpoint?] by tyrianzzz - The batsons get tossed through time and find themselves back as their younger selves. I can't remember if Jason had Lazarus Pit Madness, but his old body doesn't, so it hasn't really shown up iirc.

The Power of Family and This Stalker I Found by JackHawksmoor - Bruce finds Jason after he crawls out of the grave, and looks at how Tim might have joined the BatFamily anyway.

As always, if people have other suggestions, let me know/put it in the comments or reblogs!!

[iriswords]

Febuwhump Day 28 - “You’re safe now”

You can also read this on ao3 and find the rest of my febuwhump fics here  

tw: graphic depiction of violence, mentions of death (and subsequent undeath)

Fandom: Batman (reverse robins au)

Words: 2135

Damian’s first reaction is to disbelieve his mother. It is a sign of how shocked he is because he trusts his mother with his whole heart. They’ve had disagreements in the past, but he now knows for certain that she loves him unconditionally. She would not lie about something so big. Not even if she were forced to.

That means Timothy is alive.

--

Damian’s first reaction is to disbelieve his mother. It is a sign of how shocked he is because he trusts his mother with his whole heart. They’ve had disagreements in the past, but he now knows for certain that she loves him unconditionally. She would not lie about something so big. Not even if she were forced to. 

And yet, the first words that come out of his mouth are, “You’re lying.” His hand is white from how hard he grips his phone but he does not care. His mother has to be lying. There is no way what she is saying is true. 

“I am not,” says Talia softly. “Timothy is alive, Damian. Some assassins spotted him in Gotham a couple of weeks ago, and Ra’s went to retrieve him. I called you as soon as I could.”

Timothy, alive. Damian didn’t attend the funeral. He hadn’t had the strength, as hypocritical as it had been of him. He spent so long hating this bright boy who had stolen his suit and his place in the family, and it took his death for Damian to realize that Timothy had not stolen anything at all. But at the time, Damian was blinded by jealousy and by anger coming from his stranded ties with his father. 

Damian mourned Timothy from a distance. He didn’t know the boy all that well and wasn’t attached to him. The most they ever talked was when they argued and threw poisoned words at each other. To Damian, Timothy’s death rang more like a failure than like a wound. 

It is over time that Damian learned to truly mourn him. After he reconciled with Bruce, Damian learned more about Tim than he ever had while the boy still lived. Damian got to know his brother through the memories of others and the pain in his father’s and grandfather’s eyes. After Jason came to live in the Manor, Damian took his role as an older brother seriously. Through it, he learned everything he had missed with Timothy. 

“How is it possible?” asks Damian. The world spins around him and his mind reels from all the harm Timothy could be exposed to. A strangely protective feeling develops in his chest, one he has felt countless times toward Jason but never toward Timothy. 

“I do not know,” answers his mother. “We have looked into his tomb. Everything indicates he crawled out of it.” Damian’s stomach churns. Timothy was long dead when they buried him. That can only mean that, for some reason, he woke up in his coffin. That he had to dig himself out. Damian cannot stop himself from imagining the scene. From the splinters embedding themselves in Timothy’s fingers to the dirt choking him. From his terror to his utter loneliness. 

Damian wishes, suddenly, that he had gone to the grave in the past two weeks. He would have noticed, then, its desolated state. But would he have concluded that his brother woke up or would he have assumed someone stole his corpse?

“Ra’s forced him into the Lazarus Pit,” continues Talia. “His injuries are fully healed and he came out of his catatonic state this morning. He answered all my questions and I am fairly certain it is him and not a clone.” 

“You want me to come and retrieve him.” Damian isn’t certain he is the best person for this role. Timothy would not be relieved at seeing him. 

“Ra’s means to train him. You know how harsh this training is. Timothy may be healed and responsive, but he is no less a traumatized and lost child. Do you really want to leave him in the League? I will respect your choice if that is what you want, Habibi, but I know you.” 

Damian knows she is right. He would never wish anyone to undergo League training. It is efficient, but it is also deeply traumatizing, and though Damian does not regret his origins and his upbringing, he knows how harmful it will be to Timothy. Bright, brilliant Timothy, so compassionate and insecure. Neglected by his parents and unloved by his only brother. Cunning and determined, too; he will survive Ra’s, Damian does not doubt it. But it will come at a price, and that price will be his innocence. His brightness. His love for the world, already so damaged by everyone who failed to love him properly. 

“I’ll come,” he says. 

 Damian goes alone. He does not tell his father that Tim is alive. He does not tell anyone. He still has doubts about the reality of this coming back to life, no matter how much he trusts his mother, and he does not want to shatter his father. One death was enough. 

He leaves under the pretense of paying a visit to his mother. It is not entirely false, and the event is not uncommon; over the years, as Damian’s relationship with his mother strengthened, he visited her several times, usually out of Nanda Parbat. 

His mother waits for him at Nanda Parbat’s entrance. Damian hasn’t come back to the city in many years. It has been even longer since he saw his grandfather in person. In dreams, the man often haunts him. Some days, he even whispers in Damian’s ear. But the two have not met since Damian left the League at age ten. 

Anxiety curls in Damian’s stomach at the thought of seeing his grandfather again but he ignores it. Ra’s is a threat and so are the rest of the assassins residing in the League’s stronghold at the moment. But Damian can best every single one of them individually and he knows many will obey him and his mother rather than Ra’s. Damian may not want anything to do with the League, but in the minds of many, he remains the Heir. With Ra’s reign wearing out, the assassins growing more and more tired of his endless cruelty and uncertainty it brings, Damian knows he is not in much danger in the League stronghold. 

Talia and Damian, mother and son, slip into the stronghold silently, like old times. The building is achingly familiar to Damian, a remnant of his childhood he will never be able to let go of. Assassins bow their head as they pass Talia and Damian, their eyes trailing them with unmasked curiosity or riveted to the ground in learned respect. 

“He’s in the training room,” whispers an assassin to Talia as they pass by her. 

Damian’s mother thanks them with a nod, and the two of them turn to the next corner. They do not talk as they walk ever nearer to the training room. Whatever happens today, Damian knows his mother will bear the consequences. He does not dare ask her if she has planned to leave the League, too, too afraid of her answer. He wants to tell her she is always welcome in Gotham, but he doubts she wants to live there. 

The training room’s door has been left open. Damian remembers from his childhood how Ra’s loved to offer a show to all the passersby whenever Damian was getting punished or when Ra’s knew Damian would fail to beat his opponent. The open door does not bode well for what is happening or going to happen. 

Damian and Talia stop at the threshold. Ra’s turns his back to them, blissfully unaware of their presence. Timothy kneels before him, his head bowed and his shirt off. His back is marred with bloodied cane marks. 

Anger swells in Damian but he reigns it in. Not yet. Not yet but soon, he promises himself and Timothy. 

Around Timothy and Ra’s stands a circle of assassins, all of them masked and wearing similarly neutral expressions. Talia walks into the room first. Ra’s does not acknowledge her until she stops beside her. 

“Ah, wonderful of you to join us, my daughter,” says Ra’s. “You’ll be Timothy’s first opponent. 

Damian watches, his sword drawn and ready to use, as his mother bows her head in seeming agreement. The next second, she explodes in movement and goes for the nearest assassin. Damian immediately follows her and joins the fight. The assassins are skilled, but half of them fold to their knees in surrender before Damian even reaches them and the other half is no match for Talia’s and Damian’s abilities.

Throughout it all, Ra’s does not move. Damian can feel his grandfather’s eyes on him but, as always, he is more content with observing than with fighting himself. He much prefers to kill his enemies slowly, while looking them in the eyes once they’ve thought they won. But Damian knows he will win today.

Finally, when the assassins are either kneeling in surrender and acceptance of Damian’s authority or dead on the floor, Damian turns to his grandfather. Timothy kneels between the two of them, tense as a wire and shaking. 

“Grandfather,” Damian greets coolly. His mother comes to stand by his side, and Ra’s lips pull into a derisive snarl. “How nice of you to inform me you recovered my brother,” continues Damian. He does not miss the way Tim’s head perks up slightly at the word.

“Your brother, you say? My informants must have been mistaken, then, for I thought you did not care for this boy. None of them saw you at his funeral.” 

“That does not change anything to the fact that Timothy is family and I will never allow the League to touch my family.” 

Ra’s takes a threatening step toward Tim, his hand going for the dagger at his hip. “And yet I am the one who found him and healed him. If you do not want me to touch him, then I will have to restore him to his original state.” 

Damian does not hesitate. He leaps before he can think, stepping aside Timothy and lunging at his grandfather. Ra’s is strong and skilled. He has been training for lifetimes, whereas Damian is only in his twenties. But it does not matter. Ra’s is too arrogant, and he too often underestimates his opponent. Damian is no exception to that rule. 

They fight, dirty and bloody. Damian drops his sword and favors his dagger, and he draws as much blood from his grandfather as his grandfather draws from him. He lunges, leaps, dodges, blocks, and parries with all the strength and skill he has honed over the years. He musters all his cleverness and all his desperation, his desire to bring Timothy back home. When Ra’s disarms him, Damian effortlessly picks up his dropped sword and keeps going. 

They dance around Timothy, Talia, and the assassins for a while, neither managing to overpower the other. Finally, Damian presses the tip of his sword to his grandfather’s throat. His arm quivers slightly from exhaustion, but he keeps his grip firm. 

“Give me one reason not to kill you today,” he tells his grandfather. Before today with the assassins, Damian had not killed in years. For his brother, he would put aside all and any rule concluded with his father. 

Ra’s smiles ruefully. “I have none to give,” he says, and he probably thinks Damian will spare him, or that he will be transported to the Pit in time. But Damian is tired of the threat his grandfather constantly poses to Damian’s loved ones. He is keenly aware of Timothy still kneeling behind him, hurt and trembling. Vivid cane marks flash before Damian’s eyes, and he draws back his sword to swing it.

Warm blood splashes against Damian’s face and he watches with dispassionate eyes as his grandfather crumples to the ground, choking on the blood oozing out of his slit throat. A high-pitched keen rises in the air from behind Damian. 

Damian whirls around to face Timothy and drops his sword when his brother violently flinches back. He crouches down in front of his brother and looks at his brother’s face for the first time in more than a year. Timothy has not aged. He is skinnier, and his eyes bear the haunted shadows of trauma, but he still looks just as young as he did before he died. 

“Damian?” he asks in a tiny voice, and Damian recognizes in that voice the boy who constantly doubted his place in the world. 

“It’s me,” answers Damian. “You’re safe now. Ra’s won’t hurt you anymore, I promise you.” 

Timothy’s eyes frantically searched his face. “And the Joker?”

“Dead,” replies Damian grimly. Father didn’t know before the act was done, and he barely disapproved when he learned of it.

Timothy’s face crumples at Damian’s answer, and he throws himself at his brother. Damian catches him in a firm grip. It is the first time he hugs Timothy.

“It’s okay,” he repeats. “It’s alright. You’re safe, now, and I’m bringing you home.” 

@febuwhump

[aliteralchicken]

Me and @zahri-melitor have been waiting all week for these results

as everything with comics, especially timelines the answer is…it’s complicated! there’s usually comic time, IRL time, flashbacks and retcons, its always a bit of a mess

But if you went for Jason or Bernard then congratulations! 🎉🎉🎉

short version: it’s Bernard (yay for gay rights)

Medium version: Jason and Tim either met in September 2003 or December 2005 (depending on who you ask) and Bernard and Tim met December 2003

Long version:

Tim met Jason in batman 617 which has a cover date of September 2003, you’ve probably seen this image:

However! The very next issue we find out that it wasn’t actually Jason, it was clay face (well one of them) and Bruce talks about how he knew it couldn’t have been Jason

It’s a gotcha! This Jason is an imposter! Tim has not met Jason after all, Jason is still dead as a dodo as far as anyone knows

But well as the saying went no one stays dead in comics except Bucky Barnes, Jason Todd, and uncle Ben well…you probably know how well that goes now, I don’t read Spider-Man but I don’t trust Zeb Wells not to make it a 3/3

Jason gets resurrected by Superboy prime punching the universe related shenanigans and crawls out of his grave, Tim and Jason’s first official meeting would be the ‘titans tower fight’ which was in teen titans issue 29, december 2005:

which should be the end of it….but

In batman annual 25, which came out in 2006, we get a rundown of how red hood Jason came to be and it’s retconned that Jason was in fact there for the clayface fight, he just switched out at the last minute

some people count this retcon, others don’t, the fact it’s an annual makes the choice even harder, good thing about DC comics is there’s so much canon you can pick and chose!

Now for something simple, my main man Bernard, thank you civilians for keeping it real

easy as hell, this man made his very iconic first appearance in Robin 121 released December 2003, no retcons, no clay face disguise, no nothing, plain and simple introduction where he flirts with Tim and lays the groundwork for fanboys crying many years later, what an icon

To TLDR: Tim probably considers his first meeting to be with Bernard, IRL time wise its Bernard, but whether or not that’s true comic time wise relies on if you consider batman annual 25 to be canon or not

and as for Kate and Damian, they themselves didn’t get introduced until 2006, which takes them both out of the running even before they can meet Tim, it’s surprising how recent all four of them were (re)introduced especially how prominent Jason and Damian have become

wait I’m curious, this isn’t a trick question I just wanna know about your timelines:

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

The Graveyard Shift

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/Q1qYLSw by Shaylinne The Joker thought that if he burned fire with fire, it would get rid of the problem. He thought that it would snuff out Gotham’s favourite son. Unfortunately, just like how Gotham draws you in and refuses to give you up: refuses to straighten out lives and let you leave town; how you leave only to find yourself standing back at the door, swearing it’ll be the last time. Unfortunately, despite all of the Joker’s intentions: the hair just grew back thicker. Gotham wouldn’t stand for what happened to Jason Todd. Jason Todd wakes up gasping for breath in a plush coffin. But in this life, Gotham doesn’t stand for the desertion and desolation of Her favourite son: in this life, she gives Her un-knighted protector a second chance some would argue he does not deserve. In this life, the people of Gotham notice when a boy crawls from the grave even if it’s a stormy night. Even if it’s Gotham, where weird shit goes to mingle.   Or: the citizens of Gotham actually notice a boy breaking out the grave and do their very best to get Jason back to his dad, who’s very determined to love Jason like never before. Words: 1457, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/M, Multi, Other Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Dick Grayson, Gotham City Residents, Tim Drake Relationships: Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Alfred Pennyworth & Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Alfred Pennyworth, Tim Drake & Alfred Pennyworth Additional Tags: Resurrected Jason Todd, Hurt Jason Todd, Jason Todd Deserves Better, so let's give him better, Bruce Wayne is Good With Kids, Jason Todd and Bruce Wayne Have a Good Relationship, Jason Todd comes home, Jason Todd-centric, Jason Todd Calls Bruce Wayne "Dad", Bruce Wayne is a Good Dad, POV Bruce Wayne, POV Alfred Pennyworth, POV Dick Grayson, POV Tim Drake, POV Outsider, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Other Additional Tags to Be Added read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/Q1qYLSw

[ghost-bxrd]

For your court family au , how would the family react to the fact that jason had clawed himself out of grave ? Maybe pre reconciliation of UTRH arc?

Bruce would straight up have a meltdown.

For one, it’s not enough that he had to stop his family from resurrecting Jason, no, that decision even comes back to bite him in the ass when he finds out his son had to literally claw his way out. The sheer amount of guilt Bruce is feeling at that would render him completely useless for a day at least (before he’d scramble to try and fix this.)

Cobb… wouldn’t have too many feelings about this, actually. He’s a bit desensitized to horrible things, and he’d care more about the fact that Jason is alive than the hows and whys. Of course he’d realize what an emotional toll that experience has had on Jason and act accordingly, but over all he’s more prone to hunting down whoever was responsible for the grave and didn’t think to tell anybody that it had been disturbed.

Dick would have a similar reaction as Bruce. He’d be horrified by the implications of Jason having to dig his way out, maybe even rage at Bruce a little for not— putting a cellphone or an alarm on the casket, anything, really. (Even though coming back from the dead isn’t exactly a contingency you would have, to be fair). But ultimately he’d join Cobb in hunting down whoever kept this a secret from them.

Tim would panic. Nothing for it, he doesn’t consider himself a true part of the family. Just a poor substitute for the real thing. And now that Jason is back— well, there’s nothing stopping Cobb from making true on his threat to gut Tim and everyone he loves. So yeah, not a fun time for poor Timmy. He’d be too busy making arrangements to care much for the whole “undead-crawled-out-of-grave” thing 😰🪙 🦉

[brucewaynehater101]

Okay, this is random as hell but I just thought of a weird au where Tim, after failing to get an adult to help with Batman and his increasingly violent methods of grieving, resorts to trying magic. Cue Tim attempting to revive Jason using necromancy so that Bruce will finally calm down because, he's like this because he lost Jason, so surely bringing Jason back will fix things, right? So yeah, he tries necromancy, maybe tries using one of the artifacts that his parents brought home from a dig cuz it's cursed or smth, but ultimately "fail" for whatever reason.

Tim, now at his wits end and finding no other solution to the problem, becomes Robin just like in canon. Expect, the magic did work, it was just delayed. Cue the whole "Jason digging out of his grave, getting snatched by Talia, and trained in the LoA" thing.

Idk how the rest of the AU would unfold since I thought of this in the middle of doing stretches and I forgot the rest of the concept bcuz I decided to finish stretching before sending an ask, but I do have a very vague mental image of Tim, after being attacked by Jason in the tower, right before he goes unconscious, just muttering a soft "It worked, it actually worked, I brought him back" and Jason hearing this and having a mental breakdown about trying to understand what the heck Tim was taking about and re-evaluating everything he currently knows about Tim.

Yes! I will add onto your specific AU in a minute, but first some fic recs!

"equivalent exchange" by scribblemetimbers I can not recommend enough. It's about Tim making a deal with a demon (similar setup to Supernatural's demons) where they bring back Jason Todd in exchange for Tim's soul. This is set at the beginning of Tim's Robin run. He believes that, because Dick and Bruce appear to not want him, that Tim won't be like other pact holders who try to escape their end of the bargain (which leads to Constantine needing to get involved to clean up the collateral). Lots of angst and the ending is so fucking good. I can't wait for the sequel.

I can't remember the name, but there's a fic where Tim sets up cloning pods and magic in his house to try to "revive" Jason.

There's also one where Tim makes a deal with a creature, but ends up not having to pay his end when Jason crawls out of his grave before the creature manages to revive him.

However, I like your AU for how it makes Jason instantly realize the sacrifices Tim enacted to bring Jason back (and let that man have complicated feelings about that). The real angsty part is Jason finding out about what Tim has done after Jason has already hurt the kid :(

Jason fucked up, lmao.

Anyways, this cues Jason feeling conflicted when it comes to Tim. The older one feels that he came back *wrong* and kind of wants to blame Tim for that. Yet, he is just a kid. Yet, him being a kid wasn't enough of an excuse to stop Jason from beating him up.

Then, did Tim bring Jason back as a dedication of love towards Jason or for Bruce? Does Tim even care that it's Jason that's returned, or does it matter more that the role of Bruce's dead son came back to life?

Poor Jason is going to have the mental breakdown of the century :)