Chapter Text
Jason Todd died when his mother had given him over to the Joker. Robin died when the bomb had gone off, obliterating everything in and around it. Batman was too late and his son and sidekick was dead.
But then he wasn't.
Suddenly Jason was awake, throat drier than ever before as if he had run a marathon in the desert. Instinctively, he shot his hands out his fingers bending back painfully when they hit the hard wood of his coffin lid. It took a bit of exploring to realise where he was or rather what he was was in. When he knew, his hysteria came back worse, his breath quickening as panic settled over him like a blanket.
"BATMAN!! BATMAN! HELP ME! BATMAN!!" Jason yelled, banging the lid above him. He stilled when he suddenly thought of something. How much oxygen did he have? He forced himself to be calm, believing a coffin had oxygen for an hour or two. Once the scared boy got his breath back, a hard accomplishment, he took the time to remember everything Bruce had told him about being buried. With panic, he realised he couldn't recall much, too confident in thinking he would ever need the skills.
Jason unbuckled his belt and set it aside, planning to use it to make a hole in the lid above him. Before he did though, he pulled his shirt off and covered his face to keep the soil off it. He hoped it wasn't raining, rainwater made the soil heavier. Maybe heavy enough to damage the coffin lid. Jason quickly dismissed the thought, only cheap coffins would be destroyed by the weight of the soil above. Bruce was a billionaire, he'd have paid for the most expensive coffin for the son he loved so dearly. Although, he didn't seem to be coming to Jason's help. Jason shoved that thought as far down as possibe and concentrated on getting out.
The teen jammed his knees into the lid to see if he could break the lid, hoping to make a hole or break the hinges keeping the lid shut. When it didn't budge, Jason got his belt buckle and began scraping the surface above him, the wood slowly wearing away. Dirt fell into his face, his shirt the only thing stopping it going into his mouth. Once he made a hole, he shoved the mud to his feet. The trapped male worked to sit up, shovelling the dirt to the side, beneath and behind him.
When the male finally crawled out of his grave over an hour later his fingernails were torn off and there was blood all over his fingers. The recently resurrected teen sat next to the grave he had just crawled out, panting hard, his body shaking from fatigue. Jason took deep, heaving breaths, the cold rainwater cleaning his face. He let it trickle into his mouth, his need to quench his thirst overpowering everything else. The boy's right eye was swollen shut and the vision in his left eye was getting progressively worse.
Somehow, with sheer will, he pulled himself up and staggered out of the graveyard. Every part of his body protested at the action, from his broken bones to his empty stomach. He ignored everything, stumbling onwards, one foot in front of the other. Jason didn't know it but he walked twelve and a half miles before coming into contact with civilians. And by that, he was run over by two lost people. The car headlights dimly reminded him of the explosion in the warehouse. It was his last thought for quite a while.
He spent a year on the streets, living much like he had when he been a child. He survived though and became infamous among the other street rats he lived with. They saw his talents, from stealing to beating people up and flocked to him to stay safe from gangs and to be fed. He didn't, couldn't, speak to them but they didn't care, they didn't judge him yet kept their distance from him out of respect.
What little stability he had built was destroyed when a guy began to beat him up, saying Jason was in his spot. Jason fought him and won, all his training from before he died kicking in to protect him whilst his eyes stayed blank and unfocused. As he fought, another street rat saw him, watching him move like Batman's Robin. Before the fight was even over, she was rushing to a payphone to call a person she thought would want to know about what she had just seen. They called another person, who called another person, who called another person and within a week, Talia was standing in front of Jason, sweeping him off the streets just like Bruce had once done before.
"Look at him, father, he has grown strong," Talia told her father, pointing at the one-way window that showed Jason fighting a group of ninjas.
"He has grown strong because we have fed him," Ra's retorted. "It has been a year and we are still no closer to finding out how he came back. Nor has his mental state improved. Talia, enough is enough, he must go. I will make sure he is protected and sheltered. Out of respect to his mentor ... and his present caretaker."
"Father! Please, we're close, I know it! He isn't a shell of a boy. He understands the things that go around him, he never raises a hand to me, no matter how I strike him. Surely that must count for something?" Talia was desperate, something she rarely felt. She struggled to keep her composure, not wanting her hard work to be in vain.
"You wish for something that will never happen to this boy, who isn't even a blood relative. Your maternal instincts have controlled you for too long." If it had been anyone else, Talia would have killed them for saying that. She glared at her father instead.
"Don't tell me that, when you too have wanted something from him."
"I will be honest, when I first found out about his inability to feel emotions I thought it would make him an excellent assassin, one who wouldn't feel remorse or guilt and would kill anyone. But this-" he flung his arm in Jason's direction. "- this is not fighting. This is him surviving off muscle memory and basic instincts. An assassin fights offensively not the defensive style the boy utilises. He only attacks after he has been hit." Ra's began to walk towards the exit. "He will not love you anymore for what you are doing. Say your goodbyes to the boy."
Talia scowled at her father. What she was doing for Jason wasn't out of love for Bruce. The slender woman sighed and turned to the control panel, pressing a button and spoke into the microphone. "Session is over." The few ninjas standing stopped, bowed at the black panel and walked off. Several of them had to pick up the ninjas that were laying knocked out on the floor. She entered the training room and walked up to the boy that stood in the middle, looking at the ground. She knelt in front of him, running a hand through his hair to tip his head back so she could look him in his blank eyes.
"You were destined for more than this." She spoke the words that his adoptive mother had told him years ago. Talia hadn't been there at the time but with the amount of digging she had done to find a reason as to why he had returned- if it was genetic or an event that had happened in his childhood-she had uncovered a video from a shop camera, Catherine whispering the words fervently to the little boy who was scowling in front of her, in a similar pose to what they were in now. Talia's skills in lip reading were more than enough to make out the words.
"Let's go." She steered the boy to her own quarters, tucking the boy close to her side. He seemed to melt into her side. "Leave us," she commanded the guards stationed at her doorway. They bowed and left her. Talia walked in, heading towards the window, smiling at her son as she passed him. He cooed at her and waved the throwing star around, the blade slightly blunted so he wouldn't seriously hurt himself. Jason ambled slowly in after her and Damian's attention shifted onto him. He gurgled at him, smiling and lifting his arms up telling Jason he wanted to be lifted up. Jason walked over to him, bending at the waist to pick him up. Talia didn't even look as the zombie boy picked up her son, knowing Jason wouldn't hurt him. Damian giggled in delight and slapped Jason's shoulders.
"Damian," Talia scolded. "Don't hurt Jason." His injuries still pained him months after he got them. He couldn't tell her but she knew from the way he moved. She had instructed her assassins to not injure certain parts of his body whilst they were sparring.
"Sowwy Jayjay," Damian apologised. Jason nodded and bounced Damian, his way of showing Damian he was forgiven. Damian shrieked in delight, throwing his chubby baby arms around Jason's neck. Talia smiled at the sight reflected in the window, her smile quickly fading as her green eyes focused on the scenery outside rather than the reflection in the glass. Her sharp, calculated gaze swept the courtyards. All the assassins were in different places from normal and there were much more than normal. Her eyes widened, her head jerking up, as she realised her father was going to bathe in the Lazarus Pit, the reason for the increase in security and a plan began to form in her mind. She turned, plucking Damian out of Jason's hands. Damian made a noise of protest.
"Hush, my son, Mother is going righten this horrendous wrong." Damian quietened and she put him back in his cot. She rushed to her wardrobe, wrapping a green robe over Jason's shoulder and grabbed his hand dragging him out of the room as Jason's hand reached out towards Damian due to the toddler making another noise of protest. Jason kept his eyes in the direction of her room, turning his head and keeping it in awkward angles so he could remain staring in Damian's direction. Several times, Talia took a longer route, the detour allowing Jason's head to turn out of a painful position.
"My father is right, I care deeply for you," she murmured, releasing his hand to ruffle his thick hair. She grabbed his hand again, unwilling to let her guard down for long, and directed him down a smaller pathway. It led to an open cavern, a green liquid filling most of the space. There were no stairs into the pool, Talia taking a less used route to decrease chances of bumping into guards. For a brief second, she wondered if her father knew of this path to the Lazarus Pit but told herself to concentrate on the matter at hand. She directed Jason to the edge. With a gun in her left hand, she pushed him with her right, eyes scanning the cave to see if anyone had heard Jason's noise of surprise.
She drew herself back, into the covers of the shadows. Her skills as an assassin let her conceal her presence with what little cover she had. She was good but so were the guards around. If a patrol was ordered to investigate the sudden noise, they would spot her as they walked past. Before any indication of a search had been issued, Jason broke the surface of the liquid, screaming in agony. She threw away all stealth, the cry giving everything away.
"Come with me." She held a hand out to Jason.
"What? What is happening to me?" Even though he was confused, he still took her hand and allowed her to guide him through the labyrinth. They got out of the castle and ran away from the compound, the leaves and branches of the trees hitting their bodies as they sprinted away. The shouts of the assassins and barks of dogs told them they were already being pursued. Talia handed a bag over to Jason, it containing everything he would need to survive until she found him again.
"Run to the cliff, it's directly in front of you. Swim until you find reach land," she barked at him.
"But what about you? Won't your father be mad at what you've done?" He asked. Talia slowed down, turning to face the people behind her. Even now he was worried about her.
"I will stay and hold them up. Don't worry I'll be okay, get out of here." Jason nodded and ran away. "Good luck," she whispered to his retreating back. The assassin squad burst out from the bush and she turned to them, using her maternal feelings towards Jason and her anger at them trying to hurt him to punch harder and faster. It took over thirty of them but eventually they subdued her. She didn't let them knock her out, letting them tie her hands to her back instead. She walked back to her father's castle, head held high as if she had done the right thing. And to Talia, she had.
Her father ordered the guards to leave when she was dragged back to his throne room. She cut through the rope keeping her hands bound behind her and looked at her father without fear in her eyes. Still, she stood one step below him a small sign of respect.
"Do you know what you have done? The evil you have set lose?" Her father snarled at her. She looked down onto the stone floor
"Ask me," she spoke quietly. "Ask me if I would do it again."
"Would you do it again?" He growled.
"Yes. In a heartbeat." She looked up, stared defiantly straight into his eyes. "And I wouldn't regret it."
"You think you can play mother to the boy? Telling him what Catherine once said to him will not make him your son." Her eyes widened in alarm, how did he know what she had said? Talia's mind raced to find an answer, coming to the conclusion that a camera must have caught her saying the words to Jason.
The doors banging open had her breaking eye contact with her father as she turned to see what was happening. Jason, tugging and snarling, was dragged into the room an assassin on either side of him, their hands firmly holding his flailing arms. Her heart sank as he was tugged forward. He hadn't managed to escape the island.
"At least we got to him in time. Kill him." Ra's ordered the men in front of him.
"NO!" Talia yelled, throwing herself at her father. Ra's reacted quickly, grabbing her neck and spinning her around to slam her back into a stone pillar. Talia winced at the pain. She looked over Ra's shoulder, seeing a movement of green. She shook her head at the figure and it stilled.
"LET HER GO!" Jason yelled at Ra's. The four hundred year old man was quick enough to turn and see the dagger sailing straight towards his unprotected neck but with his dominant hand around his daughter's neck, he couldn't catch the blade. Luckily for him, his Dark Angel fell from the ceiling, catching the weapon before it could harm Ra's. The male stayed crouched, his weight distributed evenly, a stance that allowed him to move in any direction. Unlike Talia's Dark Angel, Ra's' Dark Angel wore an outfit similar to the assassins that lived in the compound just with an armour plate on his chest and many more weapons on him. It made it harder for people trying to kill Ra's to determine which assassin was Ra's' Dark Angel thus making it more difficult to pinpoint where Ra's was.
"That is a League of Assassin throwing blade," Ra's pointed out. "How did he get that, he's been a zombie for the past year? He couldn't have had the thought to keep it on him."
"He took it off the guard to his left," it was Ra's Dark Angel that answered his question. "He used the Clockwork Dragon to get out their holds and take the blade from the guard's thigh. And he didn't aim before he threw the blade."
The Clockwork Dragon was a League of Assassins move. Jason had kicked the guard to the right of him's leg back, throwing him forward, off balance and used the body weight of the guy attached to his left arm, to roll over the back of the right guard, taking the left guy with him. As the left guy began to fall, his back to the hard stone, the impact more than enough to knock the breath out of his lungs, Jason had slipped his hand out the guard's hold and whilst they were both in mid-air, unsheathed his throwing dagger. He had landed on his feet, kneeling down to lessen the force of the landing on his bare feet. He had then sprung up and thrown the dagger at Ra's, moving too fluidly to stop and aim.
"How could he have learnt that?" Ra's, the man who was always a step in front of Batman, looked shocked. Talia laughed.
"Guess I was right in saying he understood what was happening around him."
"Unhand her!" Jason yelled, glaring at Ra's. Ra's let go of his daughter, Talia massaging her bruised neck the moment she was released. He walked towards Jason. Jason shrunk back slightly but didn't look from Ra's cold, penetrating stare. Jason shifted his feet apart, lowering his hips and getting into a battle ready stance.
"I am impressed." The words were not what Jason was expecting.
"Wait, what?" Maybe not the most articulate of sentences.
"I am astonished at the skill you possess, learning moves that were never taught to you." Ra's had a cunning look on his face.
"Thank...you?" Jason felt disconcerted at the look Ra's gave him. He seemed to be calculating something.
"Do you know what a 'Dark Angel' is?" He asked. Jason shook his head.
"They are the protector of an al Ghul. They remain in the shadows, guarding the member of this family they have been assigned to. They will gladly give their life to ensure the safety of the person they are protecting. They are the most loyal person to that member of al Ghul, their ward can always rely on their Dark Angel to safeguard them, even when everyone else can't. They will never abandon them and can be trusted when no one else can. In some ways, they are their 'Guardian Angel' but they lurk in the shadows and will annihilate anyone who dares harm the al Ghul they have sworn to defend."
"Why are you telling me all this?" Jason asked. He looked like a wolf, his teeth clenched in a snarl and hackles raised at the enemy in front of him. Everyone knew that the boy below Ra's was just that, a boy. Ra's could easily take him down. Jason wasn't a wolf just yet, he was still a little cub yapping and growling at things too big for him to take on but he had the potential to become an unstoppable force.
"My daughter had a child a few years ago-"
"Yeah, I know him." Jason interrupted, eyes widening when he realised his mistake. He still kept looking at Ra's but backed up a bit more and relaxed his stance, showing he meant no harm.
"Damian is the heir to the League. He will surely be targeted, the al Ghuls have many enemies, most who won't think it below them to kill him whilst he is still an infant." Jason's eyes narrowed as he deduced where this was going. "I am appointing you as his Dark Angel."
"Wha-?" Ra's hadn't finished though and carried on.
"Damian will begin his training soon. He must be trained in the art of killing so that he can defend himself, should the need arise. Not that it will. You will travel around the world learning, from masters, the trades of an assassin. These skills will aid you in protecting Damian. You will also be assessing their teaching abilities so that Damian will be taught by the best."
"O-Okay." Jason steeled his voice and looked down at the floor. It was as close to a bow as he would do, especially to a man such as Ra's.
"Then it is settled, you will leave tomorrow to begin your training."