Chapter Text
Jason's the one that sees Tim off. He escorts the son and daughter to a nearly empty parking lot, breaks into an old van, and helps them get settled inside. As settled as one can be, still restrained.
“I wish you guys the best.” He says at the end of it. “In getting deprogrammed, and in living a normal life.”
The kids just blink at him. “Nothing is wrong with us.” The son says.
He doesn't even sound like he believes it himself, anymore.
Jason only sighs, making sure they're properly secured before closing the door. Then he turns to Tim. “Stay alert with those two. They're stronger than they look.”
Tim was checking his phone, probably trying to figure out how much time he had left to make it to his final. “‘Course. And keep at it with wonder boy, he's definitely cracking.”
“Well duh.” Jason grins. “Even while brooding, he's adopted two kids that need his help. Have faith.”
Tim laughs. “Funny, coming from you.” He punches his shoulder and climbs into the car. Jason watched them drive off.
His phone rings. “Hello?”
“We have a problem.” Dick says, urgent. “Rachel and Gar ran off-”
Jason cuts him off, voice rising. “You lost your kids?!”
“My kids?!” Dick nearly yells back. “Y'know what, it doesn't matter! Meet us there!”
He gets a location and then the call ends. Jason stares at his phone, standing in an empty parking lot, snow falling softly around him. “Mother-”
He heads back to the safehouse and grabs his gear, for the first time since this entire clusterfuck started actually putting everything on. He doesn't care to be discreet anymore, if Rachel and Gar ran off it means nothing good.
It takes longer than he'd like to get there, using Tim’s cycle that he left behind. He's maybe five minutes away when he calls Dick again.
No answer.
He frowns. “Fucking hell, Dickwad, you have the worst-”
Kori doesn't answer either.
Irritation immediately turns into dread. He tries calling Dick, one more time.
No answer. No answer.
He leaves for two hours and-
He pulls the cycle over, leaving it to get buried under snow on the side of the road, autopilot on but dormant. No need to give himself away with whatever's currently happening inside.
Jason shifts from foot to foot, judging how far he's have to go. His boots crunch in the snow. His injuries barely sting. Two guns, barrels cold yet burning against his side, beg to be used.
He missed being in costume. He didn't want to scare the kids anymore than he already does, but he knows when backup is needed and this is most certainly one of those times.
The address he was given looks run down with at least three failed safety inspections. Jason studies the chain linked fence and notices, on the road, Dick’s car.
Well, this can't be good. He'd text Tim and tell him how quickly everything became fucked up after he left, but he's sure the teen is still in exams.
It's only when he's gotten closer does he realize how… quiet, it is.
Too quiet.
There's no sounds of fighting, no sounds of even people. Like the place is abandoned. Jason's worried for a moment that Dick and the others have already chased them someplace else.
Then another idea takes hold. What are the chances they've been captured?
Low, if he's had to guess. Kori can cremate someone and Dick is Nightwing, he feels like there's very little that could get them outside of an ambush-
Wait. They came here looking for the kids. Jason forgot about that.
Hostages. Hostages. Jason growls, feeling the dread curl into anger. Neither answered their phones. The building’s too quiet. Everything feels wrong.
He's meticulous, entering the building. As a gift (he stole it) from the Flash last year he got some tech from Star Labs that can turn his costume pitch black. That along with the video looping device he nabbed from Tim let him sneak around whatever the fuck this place was with relative ease. Still, after fifteen minutes of finding nothing, Jason was starting to get really worried.
“...no change to controlled voltage…”
He pauses, listening for the whispered words and then creeping his way over. Down the hall two scientists are chatting their hearts out. One, a man, grins at the woman who first spoke. “Well I could have told you that - you know kids, they either fold immediately or are as stubborn as mules.”
Kids. Either Rachel or Gar, unless they make a habit of kidnapping-
Alright, calm down Jason, no need to get even more angry.
“Garcia’s confident in their abilities.” The woman says, voice flat. “I'm sure he'll just up the voltage until there's a forced shift.”
“Or until it kills him-”
Jason steps out of the shadows, into clear view. He smiles, hidden behind his hood. “Hey gents.” His voice is far too pleasant. “Mind giving me directions?”
The two scientists immediately freeze, because Jason has two guns pointed at them. “W-what-”
Jason decides that their voices are grating on his ears. “Nevermind.”
Two muffled bangs. Two bodies falling to the floor. Jason walks around them, boots stepping through blood. He'll just keep going forward, they wouldn't be talking about Gar if he wasn't-
Bingo.
Through a set of stairs and into a dank concrete hallway, he hears the sound of pained grunts and picks up his pace.
Then, he turns a corner. Sees everything. For a moment, feels nothing.
Then, it snaps.
Anger. Hot, livid anger. He's shaking with it. It's all he can feel, tunnels his vision into what he sees in front of him.
They have Gar strung up by his hands, stripped nude and locked in a cage like an animal. Just as Jason's turned the corner and locked eyes with them, he sees one of them press a long rod into his back.
Gar seizes. It's a cattle prod. It's a fucking cattle prod.
He sees red. No, he sees green.
Three people in the room, three people besides Gar. He raises his gun and shoots twice, the two observing in the back falling to the ground with holes in their heads. The last man jerks back, immediately terrified. “W-what-”
Jason runs at him, leaving him too shocked to dare try and use Gar as a hostage. The man only has enough time to pull out the cattle prod and jab it at Jason.
Electricity courses through his veins, hot and sharp. Jason grunts, holds the neck of the prod with one hand.
He twists his wrist. The rod snaps in half.
The man stumbles back, falling on his ass. Jason grabs him by the neck. “You piece of scum.”
He punches him, watches the man’s face snap back, blood flying from his nose. He does it again. And again.
And again.
And again.
“J-jason…”
And he stops, Gar’s voice raspy and strained from screaming. The man below him is a bloody mess, shaking and shivering.
Jason takes a deep breath. It does nothing to calm him. “Where's the key?”
The man doesn't hesitate to hand it over. Jason takes it and shoots him in the head, point blank, giving him just enough time to feel fear before pulling the trigger.
And then he's moving, unlocking the cage and uncuffing Gar’s hands. He helps him down gently, and Gar collapses into him, weak and shaking. “Gar, Gar, where are you hurt?”
He's not looking, because Gar has curled up, both into himself and into Jason. It would be easy, he has an eye trained to find injuries, but he'll just wait, hear Gar talk again-
“I'm… alright.” He whispers. “Just, just shocked.”
He stays curled up, head pressed against Jason's chest. Jason tries to shield him from the world, or from any cameras. Give him some time to recover.
His clothes are thrown haphazardly into a corner of the cage. Jason reaches back to grab them, gently places them in Gar’s hands. He doesn't want to rush him, but the others-
Gar seems to jerk the moment he feels them. He’s shaky as he puts them on, not bothering with his socks or shoes, shivering with his arms curled around himself in a self hug. He looks so very pitiful, and Jason’s vision is still so very green.
Gar is fifteen, he thinks. The age Jason was when he died. When he died alone on the concrete floor, beaten and humiliated. This felt too similar. “Gar?”
Gar takes a second to look at him, seems surprised when Jason opens his arms, inviting a hug. Then he's falling into him, and they don't have time for this, but Jason doesn't actually care at the moment.
Finding Kori is, thankfully, much easier.
He dispatches one of the scientists about to cut into her body without a second thought, letting Gar work on freeing her before turning to the other scientist. That one takes a look at his outfit and does something unexpected.
“Ah.” They smile. “You are the Red Hood - is it true that the man is Nightwing?”
And, to be quite frank, everyone and their mothers would probably tell the guy how stupid of a thing to say that was, to Red Hood of all people. Taunting him? They must have a death wish.
He vaults over the tiny table separating them and slams the scientist into the wall. “You got a lot of ego for someone so weak.”
The scientist smirks, as if they weren't at Jason's mercy. “We took down Nightwing, didn't we? How is that weak?”
Something in him snaps. Or, maybe not snaps. It has already snapped - it'd be more accurate to say that the last of his conscience, at that moment, fizzled up and died.
“Where is he?” Jason snarls, holding the scientist by the neck, fingers digging into their jugular. “Where is he?!”
The scientist chokes, fingers clawing at his own. He pulls his arm forward, pushes it back until the scientist slams into the wall.
“Nightwing.” He tries one last time. “Where is he?”
The scientist wheezed. And then they laughed. “Just kill me.” Their voice is strained. “And run around in circles-”
Jason's free hand grabbed their wrist and snapped. The scientist screamed in pain. It sounds vaguely like his name.
“Jason!”
He blinks, expression hidden beneath his hood. Jason turns, only to find Rachel standing there, free and unharmed, an unknown woman with her. Kori has been released too. “What?”
Rachel's looking at him with wide, terrified eyes. So is Gar. He can't bring himself to care. “I k-know where Dick is.”
He stares at her, trying to judge if she's lying. If she, for some reason, was trying to keep him from finding his brother.
Rachel has no reason to do that.
And he has no use for the scientist anymore.
Jason grabs a scalpel from the dirty tray, still wet with Kori’s blood, and stabs it up, through the soft palate of the scientist’s jaw, through their mouth and into their brain.
The scientist slides to the ground, blood squirting onto his costume. Jason pays it no mind, only barely reminding himself that these people didn't deserve his anger. He's not used to working with people that aren't his family. “...where?”
“T-this way!” Rachel stammers, sticking close to the random woman. “He’s… he’s tied up, in a padded room-”
Jason marches forward, reloading his gun. Rachel's voice fades away, no longer important. She's safe, his brother is not.
It doesn't take long, to find him. He's locked in a room with a door that is far too weak for Jason’s strength. It takes only a moment to kick it down, and then Jason is kneeling by Dick’s side, staring into dull, unseeing eyes. “Dick! Hey, Dick, Dick, come on, snap out of it-”
“He's been drugged-” Gar starts, only for Jason to snap back, “I fucking know!”
“They might have broken him.” The random woman comments idly. “This place does that.”
Jason snarls at her. “Say another word and I shoot you in the head.” Then he turns back to Dick, pulling off his hood to look his brother in the eyes. “Come on, Dickiebird, Scarecrow's got whatever this is beat-”
Nothing. As if there was nothing behind his eyes. Jason's never been so scared. “Please don't make me pull out the big guns.”
Rachel's kneeling on Dick’s other side, determined as she releases his restraints. The others are solemn. They don't understand, they don't realize that drugged or not, Dick’s always come through it. He knows his brother, believes in him, and-
No response. Jason's heart twists. It hurts.
“Alright.” He whispers. “You made me do it.”
It's pathetically easy, to start crying.
The effect is instantaneous.
A hand reaches up to grasp the back of his neck. Someone exhales rather harshly as he's pulled into a hug. “Awe, Jaybird, what’s-”
And then Dick omphs because Jason hugs him with the ferocity of a bear. “I swear to fucking God Dick-”
Dick, still drugged and probably confused, mumbles something like, “Are you okay?” before resuming his hug. Then, louder, he says, “Is everyone alright?”
“Yeah.” Rachel says.
“Mostly.” Gar looks down at the ground. Kori doesn't respond.
“This is why you always take backup.” Jason pulls back, taking Dick with him. Dick wobbles as he stands, face turning a sickly green moments before he turns and throws up behind his chair. “Geezus, what'd they got in you this time?”
Dick retches. “Something strong.” He mutters, coughs. “Wanna… get a’ sample ovit.”
“Yeah, no. We're leaving.” He gestures towards the door. “And who the fuck are you?”
“She's my mother.” Rachel says quickly, because now that Jason can safely see Dick he can turn to other matters. “My biological mother.”
Huh, okay. He puts his hood back on. “Let's go.”
Jason takes them back the way he came, dispatching those they came across with bullets between the eyes. It's only after he runs out that he has to start improvising.
“Children.” He says, pulling a pipe from the wall. “Look away.”
The first two assailants came close, electric batons in hand. Jason swung, crushing the skull of the first one with one hit. He elbowed the second, ducking under the baton and jabbing his pipe into the guy's gut, upper cutting him right after.
Electricity courses through his veins. He cuts off a scream with a grunt, headbutting a third assailant, who had come from the farther group. Then there's another pipe bashing the dude’s head in and Dick is at his side, face stoic.
Jason blinks. He glances back at the others.
“Children.” He says again, voice deadly serious. Rachel and Gar look at him, eyes wide. “Look away.”
It's a bloodbath.
Dick is aiming to kill, with the force and ferocity he's putting into each hit. Jason puts all his efforts into stealing each killing blow, unwilling to let his brother's conscience get tainted with blood.
The hallway gets messy because of it, gore and fluids squishing beneath them as they work as a deadly pair. It only ends when Dick sweeps a guy’s leg out from under them and Jason rams his pipe through the guy's eye socket.
Then, they are alone.
Jason takes a step back, taking in their carnage. Dick is still staring at the last guy they killed, panting heavily.
“Come on.” His voice is heavy. He feels the others moving past them, but doesn't really see them. In fact, his vision’s kind of gone.
Then there is a hand on his shoulder. He blinks, able to see once more. Kori stands in front of him. “Go watch the kids.”
Jason takes one last, assessing look at his brother before going. Dick is safe, or at least he's safe now, and with that he's finally coming back to his senses.
He finds the kids with Rachel's mother right as the building explodes. The others jump, but Jason's too detached to really notice. “Are you alright, Rachel? Did anything happen to you?”
“No.” She shakes her head. Jason can't tell if she's lying. “I'm… I'm fine.”
She leans towards and away from her mother, unsure. Jason wants to help her, doesn't know how. At the same time, Gar stands bruised and battered next to her, obviously worse for wear and probably traumatized.
So he turns to him instead. “Hey Gar.” His voice is low. He removes his helmet. “Anything hurt more than the normal cuts and bruises?”
“I'm fine.” Gar echoes Rachel, but with nowhere near the surety. In fact, he looks like he might run at any second. His eyes follow Kori, who walks out from the fire. “Is… will Dick…”
Even while brooding Dick manages to be everyone's favorite. “He'll bounce back. It's a specialty of his - he's like a cockroach.”
Gar’s smile doesn't reach his eyes. Jason bites the bullet and pulls him into a side hug, unsurprised when Gar turns it into a full hug and starts to shake.
Everyone is sluggish, getting into the car.
Jason's already remote activated Tim’s cycle, helping the rest get inside while waiting. Dick is fading in and out of awareness, the adrenaline wearing off and the drugs seemingly kicking back in. Jason's already given him a shot of what Bruce calls a universal drug solvent, so hopefully he'll be semi normal by the time they get back to the safehouse. He's just made sure the three in the back are good when Tim’s cycle arrives.
Kori squints at it. “Are you sure you should drive that? It's snowing.”
Jason shrugged, putting back on the hood and pulling a leg over the seat. “I've done stupider things. Call me if Dick gets worse.” It would be their luck that he's allergic to the solvent or something equally as annoying.
Then they're driving, and it's a long thing, too long, and he's more anxious waiting to see them all again than even rescuing them.
Luckily, or unluckily, Tim calls right when he arrives, a few minutes before the others. “What's up?”
“Barbara might be able to deprogram them.” Tim says, not waiting a second. “It'll take a while- what's wrong?”
He thought his tone was pretty neutral, all things considered. “It's been a long day.”
“Hm.” Tim doesn't sound convinced. “I have three days till my next exam-”
“Don't.” Jason says, because it's not an offer of help, it's a warning. “Okay, alright. While I was with you the others managed to get themselves experimented on. Dick's been drugged with something heavy, probably Scarecrow related. It's not good.”
“Oh.” Tim pauses. “Everyone's okay now though, right?”
“As well as a traumatized person can be.”
“And you?”
Jason scoffs. “I was the rescuer, Drake.”
“I was the rescuer, Drake.” Tim mocks. “And I know you, Todd. Tell me, percentage of enemies you killed tonight?”
Jason frowns. “...95.”
“Up by about 70, alright.” Tim sounds analytical. “And how about your control? Given how you said they were all experimented on but you only mentioned Dick I'm guessing you had none.”
He scowls this time, hearing the others coming up to the safehouse. “That's not-”
“Jason, I've never seen someone hyperfixate as much as you do when Dick is in trouble.” Tim sounds almost amused by it. “You'd probably kill me without a second thought if I got in the way.”
Jason snorts here, knowing that, while Tim might not believe it, he'd act the same way with him too. “Sure, fine, I got a little tunnel visioned. It's fine now-”
“You haven't eaten since breakfast.” Tim almost sings, calling him out. “It's 3am~”
“Damnit Tim-”
“Jay?”
Dick rounds the corner, the others shuffling in after him. He looks pale and weak, sweat collecting at his brow like he was going through withdrawal. Which he might be. “You look like shit.”
“Speaker.” Tim demands, which Jason does without a fight. “Dick, tell me what's going on. What do you see?”
They set up in one of the bedrooms and pry information out of Dick on whatever drugs they've shot him up with. After coming to the conclusion that the solvent he's already taken is the best course of action and the only thing that's left is to ride it out, Jason forces Dick to lay down on the bed and puts the phone off speaker. “He's resting now.”
Dick mumbles something. Tim sighs. “You both are hopeless.”
“You're the one who sent me out here.” He grumbles. “Now, go sleep.”
“Go eat.”
“Fuck you.”
“Love you too.”
The call ends. Jason sighs, happy to have the lights off, already fighting a headache.
There's a knock on the door. “Come in.”
The door tentatively opens. Gar peaks his head in. “Um…”
Jason beckons him inside, unsurprised. Gar is still skittish. There's blood on his clothes and skin, left there from being in contact with Jason. It makes him wince, looking at it. “Uh, Rachel is with her mom, and Kori’s gotten a bottle, and uh…”
His eyes shift between the quiet bed and Jason. His entire body seemed to scream for comfort and security. Just a few hours ago, he was being tortured and humiliated. Of course he doesn't want to be alone.
Jason sighs, gesturing to the attached small bathroom. “Go wash up. There should be some pajamas somewhere in there.” Bruce keeps the entire place stocked.
Gar hurries away. Jason starts pulling off his armor, content with what he was wearing underneath. He's too exhausted to actually get ready for bed, he'll just crash on the couch.
Dick murmurs something. A hand curls around his wrist. “Yeah, Wing?”
“...my parents would hate to see me now.”
It hits him like a wrecking ball. He doesn't know what to say.
Dick sits up with a bit of struggle, hand coming up to brush a thumb under Jason's eye. His voice is slurred when he speaks. “Please don't cry, Jay. I hate seeing you cry.”
This one, he could answer. “You were catatonic, Dick, I didn't know what to do.”
Dick blinks slowly. He nods. “I'll be there, so please don't cry.”
The bathroom door creaks open. Gar stumbles out, pajamas engulfing him. He stands next to the bed, as if waiting to be told what to do next.
Poor kid, Jason thought. He just didn't want to be alone.
Dick turns to him, and Jason sees his brother how he used to be, compassionate and caring. He raises his arm and Gar nearly falls into it, curling into Dick’s side and trying not to shake, eyes squeezed shut. Jason raises a hand, pulls the covers over him. “I'll keep that in mind. Shout if you need anything.”
Dick only hums, half asleep and not lucid at all. Jason places two water bottles on the bedside table, pulls the bathroom trash can over to the bedside as well, checks to see if Dick has a fever (only a slight one) and then leaves.
The other bedroom's door is closed, Rachel and her mother probably inside. Jason comes out to see Kori sprawled against one of the armchairs, drinking expensive liquor.
Jason grabs a pillow and blanket from the shelf and throws it onto the larger couch, plopping down and laying out. “Pass me a cup.”
Kori smirks something amused. “I don't think you are allowed to drink yet, in America.”
Jason scowls at her, pleased to see her laugh. She hands over a glass. Jason knocks it back, enjoying the burn. “How's Rachel?”
“Alright, all things considered.” Kori's voice softens. “Some douchebag was recording our torture. She's very protective of Gar, right now.”
“Makes sense.” He mutters, holding out the glass for Kori to pour more alcohol in. “They had him chained naked in a cage, fucking tazeing him.”
Kori pauses, his glass only partially filled. Her eyes darken. “Should've made sure they all burned alive.”
“Don't worry, I got them.” Jason pulls back, once again gulping the drink down. “Dick ain't doing good, but it isn't his first time, he'll probably be fine in the morning. Gar’s with him too - he doesn't want to be alone.”
“No shit.” Kori mutters, and Jason can't even tell if the alcohol is affecting her. “Thanks for saving us. I don't think anyone's said that, yet.”
“Don't mention it.” Jason never pretended to be the good guy. “I don't know if you noticed, but saving everyone was moreso collateral.”
It's quiet, for a long moment. “You care about him.” Kori murmurs. “A lot. It is… heartwarming. And scary.”
Jason snorts. “You don't know the half of it.”
“Well…” Kori looks outside. “I'm not going to sleep anytime soon, so if you're willing to share.”
Jason studies her for a long moment. He shrugs. “Sure.”
He doesn't tell her everything, of course. He tells her that he died, and he came back, and when he came back he came back broken. He tells her how the pit changed him, how dying alone and afraid changed him, how he'd do anything to protect the ones he cares about. Even if they wouldn't approve.
He's yawning by the time he finishes. Kori looks just as awake and just as sober as she had previously. “Don't tell him I said any of this.” Jason mumbles. “Girlfriend or whatever or not. We don't like to talk about it.”
It was a difficult thing, to mention. His trauma of dying, and Dick’s trauma of having to live through it. Of everything that happened afterwards. How he almost killed Tim. How Bruce hid his living status from his brothers. It's all too much.
“Of course.” Kori says, standing. She leans over him, kisses his forehead and moves to the lights to turn them off. “Get some sleep, I'll be in the kitchen.”
Jason might've said something else - he doesn't know. He's already asleep before she's out of the room.