Work Text:
In..out..in..out...
The first of rising breaths dry and painful. Lungs long since expired, breathing for the first time in what felt like years. Then the blood rushing through veins that most would assume never to hold life again.
Next came the pain. The pain of breathing, the pain of muscles spasming and contracting, contorting around broken and fractured bone, skin softening from its cracked and dry state as blood flowed freely in cuts bruises long since dried. The pain of existing. Arms and legs reaching to get away, get away from this place, this darkness of where ever this was. Pitifully scratching and kicking as his body grew in strength he greeted the world with cries of fear and confusion.
Like death Jason Todd was greeted with pain in rebirth. Like a blow to the sternum, a kick to the head, a screeching laughter that encompassed all of him, surrounded his mind so that it was all he could hear. He never wanted any of this, expected any of this, all he wanted was to find his mother, a reconnection, another chance to have something good in his life after losing so much. But he let her down, let him down instead. Him like the trigger of a gun his mind flashed like the stars he used to see in the smoggy night skies of Gothem, rare and bright, precious things that should cherished.
The first birthday he remembered with his parents, together and happy, his first sucessful score on the streets and the pride he felt when he outran the GPD and got away, stealing the wheels of the Batman mobile and somehow becoming Robin, gaining an annoying older brother with a flair for the dramatic and a chip on his shoulder that Jason easily understood. Alfred's warm food and conversation that Jason never wanted to end, and the feel of Bruce's hand ruffling his hair and the affection in his voice when calling him son for the first time, then with age came the growing anger, the resentment and stubborness then hope with the revelation of his true birth mother was still out there somewhere, like a door not quite shut.
Then meeting her and she's everything he didn't know he needed, thoughts of the future shining bright like the two most important people in his life standing with him in the hot Ethiopian sun. If only thats how his story ended riding off into the sunset like some grand old adventure novel he would read in the library as Alfred sat beside him, but if Jasons experiences had shown him anything over the course of his life, his story was nothing but a tragedy. Because after the highes of hapiness always came the swift plummeting pain and despair, like the crowbar he took to his body after discovering his mother was in league with the Joker but even then Jason loved her and he knew Batman would come. Come to save them like he always did, like he always would .
There was no Batman without Robin, just like how he knew there was no Jason Todd without Bruce Wayne not anymore, never again. So as he used the last of his strength to free his mother, as his body failed him and the timer counted down, he knew Bruce would come for them, he always came, Batman would never let him down and with that final thought Jason Todd faded to black.
As if back in that place Jason smashed his bloody fists against the box he was placed in, screaming and shouting while tears flowed down his face or was it blood from his injuries Jason couldn't tell, his mind filled with one thought and only one thought, "he would come, he would come, he would come,he always comes", and with these thoughts Jason screamed out one word. "BATMAN!!??"