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Jason knows his gun won’t do much against a Lantern, he’s seen them get thrown down the street and get back up with nothing more than a groan, but he raises it anyway. It’s a sore point between the Lanterns and the Bats, other than Bruce disliking Hal Jordan since the first time they met. Still, he knows enough that Lanterns weren’t allowed in Gotham unless “it’s the apocalypse, an actual one and not whatever disaster you create Jordan.” He’d been Robin when that happened.
The Lantern, now clearly Hal touches down on the roof. He was a year older than Bruce but he still looked twenty-two. Jason wondered if there were other reasons Bruce hated Jordan other than them being complete opposites when it came to their heroing.
“You’re one of the Bat Brood aren’t you?” Hal asks in lieu of a greeting.
“Depends on who you ask,” Jason shrugs but doesn’t lower his gun.
Hal returns his shrug, “listen there’s something wrong. I can’t reach any of the League, and none of the Titans are responding. You’re the only one I’ve found.”
Jason kind of appreciates that Hal doesn’t loop him in with the heroing community but then again Hal sometimes doesn’t include himself in that group.
“I don’t keep tabs on the Bats, that’s B’s job,” Jason replies, “and I have nothing to do with the Titans, you’ll have to find a guy with Robin in his title.”
Hal pulls up a construct of a globe, Jason approaches it despite himself. He might have gotten to see the Lantern Ban but that meant he never got to work with one. Before Bruce took him in, he always dreamed of being a Lantern, he figures he would have turned out to be like the newest guy to join their club. Hal enlarges an area.
"They were fighting something magical, but the report Nightwing sent in,” Hal explains, “but then during the battle, comms went dark. After all, hands were called.”
Jason leans back, he halfway remembers hearing Dick asking if he wanted to help out with the League. But then he’d have to deal with Superman being disappointed in him, and really, Batman has failed to tell his super friends that his dead son is alive. Not exactly a good time to have that conversation. It's weird that Hal knows he ran with the group, but maybe the Lantern is smarter than everyone gives him credit and takes the Bat symbol to mean something else.
"And you didn’t vanish because?” Jason taunts.
Hal fiddles with the globe, “I was coming back from Oa.”
Jason vaguely knows that name, “sorry I can’t help you.”
“It was a longshot,” Hal closes the map, “I’ll check out the battlefield, maybe there’s a clue.”
He feels the magic before he hears or sees it. There’s a chirping sound next to him, but Jason whirls around with his gun pointed towards where he can’t faintly make out a portal. Hal raises his fist, and the ring sparks with energy. Jason turns his attention back to the portal and frowns when a blond tumbles out of it.
“John Constantine?” Hal gapes.
Jason knows the name only from Bruce’s muttering about magic. After having dealt with it, Jason is inclined to agree.
John looks at them and sighs. Then he pulls out a cigarette and takes a long drag. Hal looks mildly offended and Jason glances towards the roof, he’s pretty sure he can lose them but he’s curious about why a self-proclaimed Master of the Dark Arts is on a rooftop in Gotham.
His apartment roof, man he was just about to start patrol and weird shit was already happening.
“Let me guess,” Hal sighs, “it wasn’t friendly magic.”
John blows out a ring of smoke, “the good news is that most survived.”
“Most?” Jason asks before he can stop himself.
He doesn’t like the look John gives him, “Z and I did what we could.”
“What’s the bad news?”
Jason looks at the Lantern in surprise, from everything he was told, Hal was more likely to fly off the handle or not pay attention before trying to gather information or create a strategy. Although Jason supposes Bruce isn’t the best source of information when he was clearly biased, and Clark had a tendency to agree with Bruce even if he was nicer about complaining about a teammate. No, Hal must have something at stake, otherwise, the Lantern wouldn’t have come to Gotham as a first option.
The Flash was probably caught in this magical whatever. Jason rolled his eyes, grateful for the mask.
John glances towards the horizon, “they’re stuck in a place that only people that have touched death can travel too without consequences.”
“What about the heroes that haven’t died?” Jason wonders, he was sure there were some that hadn’t died and been brought back at some point.
Huh, he really wasn’t special anymore, but at least he was unique in still being the only one to try and kill their once allies.
"That’s why I can’t give the guarantee, they didn’t get there through normal means. Klarion broke some rules and I helped break more,” John replies around the cigarette.
Hal looks between the two of them, “well.”
Jason shrugs, Gotham was standing long before the Bats took to her streets. She could last until they figured out this magical bullshit. There would be more problems for everyone once word got out about this power vacuum. He didn’t want to think about what villains like Joker and Lex Luthor would do with the Justice League gone. He’s also probably one of the only candidates left to go on this, probably, suicide mission.
Not that he knew how many heroes were still left, but with their luck, the main hitters were all gone.
“I’m in,” Jason shrugs.
John looks at him and then nods, “that’s what that’s about then. You’ve taken a dip in a Lazarus Pit.”
“Zero out of ten, would not recommend,” Jason says.
Hal raises an eyebrow, “Lazurus? Man, you Bats have a lot of weird shit happen in this city.”
Jason snorts, “you don’t know the half of it.”
“There’s no chance you have one of those black rings lying about?” John asks Hal.
“No,” Hal clenches and opens his fist, “do we need one?”
“It would help, but they’ll probably show up,” John bends down and begins drawing symbols in the dirt.
“Oh joy,” Hal mumbles.
Jason vaguely remembers the Black Lantern corp issue, Kyle was drafted to be the White Lantern, and Bruce was still dead. The rings hadn’t messed with him, but the red ring had kept bugging him. Something about great rage. Hal would probably know, but he’s also seen Green Lanterns throw down with the Reds, o it might not be the best choice.
Hal is looking at him strangely.
“What?” He snaps.
“Just wondering how I should bring it up to Bats that he should probably let the rest of the Founders, particularly Superman and Wonder Woman, that his second son is alive.”
Jason raises an eyebrow. Like he thought, Hal wasn’t dumb, he’d put together his identity fast. Not like it was particularly difficult, but it was still a feat.
"It’s still a sore subject between us.”
“Trust me, I understand how that feels.”
He huffs. Hal had been a villain, controlled by a fear bug if Kyle’s description was to be believed. Jason understood being controlled by something that you couldn’t separate from you. Bruce had iced both of them by acting in a different way.
John claps his hand, “now, who's ready to go to the realm of spirits?”
Jason pulls a face behind his helmet. Dealing with physical ghosts sounded unappealing, but then again so had death and that worked out reasonably well for him. He felt Dick’s accusing stare. You’re not even here. Leave me alone.
“Let’s get this over with,” Hal sounded about as enthused and Jason felt.
John glances behind to double check on them. Jason squares his shoulders. He might know about magic, but he’s not comfortable in dealing with it. Although he’s also not comfortable in being the only Bat left, he was the first in the family to die and he sort of feels like he should be the first to stay permanently dead, besides they would owe him afterward. Hal’s arms are crossed, but there’s no waver in his eyes.
Jason wonders what its like to be fearless.
The portal ripped open, and it was the absence of power that made his skin crawl. It was like how he knew he was dealing with a person that had been dipped in the pit. There was a lack of feeling. Jason looks at John, he seems unbothered which meant that this was probably in his wheelhouse and Hal wrinkles his nose but otherwise doesn’t react.
Until he steps towards the portal, “should I be ready to be attacked?”
John shrugs, “it wouldn’t hurt, it’s hard to know where I’m putting us.”
Jason cocks his second gun, “wonderful, let’s hope that we don’t wind up in the middle of the enemy fort.”
John and Hal shoot him a look that says that’s exactly what’s about to happen. It’s only then that Jason remembers that Hal is arguably the unluckiest member of the Founders, if not the entire community, and John Constantine talks himself into trouble as easy as breathing. When Jason adds his own penchant of misfortune into the equation, he decides that they’re screwed.
At least they’ll probably survive to save everyone. One of them will. Hopefully, the guy that can portal everyone to the material world.
Jason curses softly. Hal walks through the portal.
The good news, Jason decides, was that they weren’t in the middle of the enemy base. He ducks under a wraith flying towards him, the bad news was that John found the only place on this place that spirits congregate. Hal manages to dissipate four with a fan construct, which is funny, but then another one swipes at him and Jason hisses as the claws rake through his jacket and armor.
John slides next to him, a spell pummels the spirit away, “careful. Our physical bodies are here.”
Jason huffs and shoots a spirit to his right, “which means if we die here, then we’re dead.”
"Yes,” John is blunt, which Jason appreciates, “and there’s no hope for resurrection.”
He appreciates that thought. The last thing that he wanted to do was die and must claw his way out of a coffin. Jason wonders if John would be willing to shuck his dying body into this realm. Hal falls past him in a blur of green, and it’s interesting to see the ground sink beneath him, but less so when he sees that spirits can cut through Green Lantern uniform.
“Get down!”
Jason drops to the ground, he had too many years of following that order ingrained in him to even think about arguing. Hal was dazed which kept him on the ground. A push of magic soars over him and the rest of the spirits vanish with screams. He wonders what happens to the spirits killed in this realm. Do they get to be reincarnated?
John moves to pull Hal from the ground. He’s still slightly disorientated, but Jason has seen enough concussions to know that he didn’t have one. Hal shakes head and grimaces at the movement, but he steadies soon enough.
“Well, that could have gone better,” Hal mutters.
Jason huffs, “it could have been worse.”
Hal tilts his head in acknowledgment of the statement. Jason looks towards John whose looking over the land. This plane is dull gray in color, they’re the only splashes of color, even Hal’s Lantern aura isn’t casting a glow onto the earth like it usually does. The sky above them swirl in storm clouds and the ground below them is smooth but the sink when the step into it, almost like a blanket of snow.
It’s familiar and it reminds Jason of what it’s like to have broken ribs, grating, painful, but ultimately there was nothing you could do about them. Hal doesn’t seem as affected, his lips are pulled together in obvious thought. Jason kind of wants to ask what he’s thinking about, but it feels wrong to pull Hal out of his thoughts.
John fiddles with a stone in his palm, and it spins for a second before the tip points in a direction to their left.
“We head that way,” John says.
“How do you know that’s the right way?” Jason asks because he doesn’t like moving on guesses.
“The crystal is locked onto Z’s magical signature,” John replies, “it’ll find her in any dimension.”
Jason shrugs because it’s good enough for him. He should probably know more about magic, but most of Gotham’s rogues are science-based and when it gets weird he can usually ask Artemis about it and get a satisfactory answer. Magic is just complicated science.
Jason scowls at Tim’s voice in his head. Hal looks at him, but he knows the helmet is hiding his expression. Which now that he thinks about is probably weird to the others, but he doesn’t want to carry it, and the tech in it still works. It’s an advantage he doesn’t want to give up for people’s comfort.
They start walking. Jason notices the spirits, but they mostly stay away from them. He tries to ignore how the world seems to darken except for the area they’re moving through. It makes him feel like the world is collapsing and his skin crawls with the thought of being in tight spaces.
“Be ready, we can encounter them at any time,” John says suddenly.
Hal’s ring flares bright, “who do you mean by them?”
John turns his head back towards Hal, “disciples of Nekron.”
That gets the first reaction from Hal that Jason’s seen all night, his body physically flinches backward. It’s not of fear, but disgust.
“Wait, Klarion was working with Nekron?”
“His disciples,” John corrects, “they’re like permanent Black Lanterns, your Alpha Lanterns?”
Hal nods still scowling.
Jason thinks maybe he should gather more information about Nekron, “Who is Nekron, other than a skeleton dude?”
"He’s entropy,” John replies as if that cleared anything up.
Hal is a little more forgiving, “Kyle has told you about Parallax? It’s kind of like that, except for death.”
Jason still doesn’t get it, “but he has Lanterns?”
“In a sense,” Hal responds, “they are chosen so much as raised from the dead and commanded to fight.”
Necromancy? Jason thinks to himself. There have been a few crackpot magicians in his travels that claimed to raise the dead, but he’s never seen it in action until Nekron invaded. So apparently, it’s possible so long as you had enough death energy. He dwells on what that means about the Lazarus Pit.
“It’s disgusting,” Hal says, “wearing that ring. You feel the death curl inside of you.”
Jason frowns, “what does the green ring feel like then?”
Hal grins, “it’s the build-up before a good fight, but constantly.”
That’s a feeling Jason knew well, and it’s no wonder that people like Hal and Guy made good lanterns if that’s what it felt like. It must change based on the person who was wearing the ring.
The group fell silent again.
Several minutes later Jason tensed as he felt the ground beneath him rumble. Hal’s ring chirps and the space surrounding them suddenly fills with black mist. He could see that these people resembled more closely a skeleton that a living human being. They wear robes of black with a triangular pendant on their necks.
“You will not advance,” one hisses.
Jason scans the faces but can’t tell who it was that spoke. Hal growls and John backs up so that he’s nearer to them.
“We must be close,” John mutters.
Something else breaks through the mist. It’s a black streak that races towards Jason. He tenses briefly before he springs into a roll just before the streak hits where he had been seconds before. The streak turns to follow him, and he spins but it already hits him.
“Jason Todd of Earth, you have the ability to overcome death.”
Okay. Jason looks down at himself. He’s in a suit that’s similar to Hal’s, but it’s mostly black with an edging of silver. The same triangular figure is in the center of his chest. It’s weird, he feels a second presence center in his chest and somehow, he knows that it’s the ring. If it is anything like the green power rings, then it’s connected to his thoughts.
Hal stares at him with a slack-jaw expression. John’s eyebrow quirked, but he doesn’t seem surprised. Well, he’s not as surprised as Hal. The skeletons surrounding them, chatter in an unknown language, but suddenly they’re backing off into the gray. Which he now sees is made of spirits. It’s almost like they’re in one of those tunnel aquariums, the thought makes him uncomfortable, so he drops that line of thought.
“So, how do I use this thing?” He asks Hal.
Hal shakes his head, “basically you point, think, and it does it.”
Jason holds his fist out and thinks of a Batarang, as he thinks it something blasts out of his ring. He’s pretty sure it’s made like a bat, so apparently, the ring does work. Although he feels tiredness already pulling at him.
“You’ll get used to the feeling,” Hal pats him on the back.
Jason shrugs him off gently. He fingers the clasp of his helmet. Now that he has the ring, he’s more certain that he’ll be able to stop any surprise attacks. Once the helmet is off his head, he feels less claustrophobic. Hal stares at him.
“You’re really him.”
"I thought you figured that out,” Jason replies.
Hal gestures with his hand, “I did, but it’s different seeing it.”
Jason wonders if that’s the case. Maybe it was the same with Bruce and that’s why it took him a full year after he came back before the Batman realized that Robin number two was alive and kicking their asses.
John rejoins them from wherever he had wandered off to during their conversation. He looks Jason’s new suit up and down, “well, that’s helpful.”
“Are you sure?” Hal wrinkles his nose at the uniform, “how are you feeling?”
Jason thinks about it for a second, and then decide that he mostly feels cold, “decent, considering.”
“It seems that these worshipers aren’t ring-bearers themselves, but treat those that are with something akin to respect,” John explains, “which means we should be able to move unimpeded.”
Hal huffs, “in theory. They won’t bother him, but we’re fair game.”
John shrugs, “we’ll have to make do with what we have.”
Hal crosses his arm and returns his gaze back to Jason. This time it’s calculating, Jason doesn’t know how he can tell difference, but he does.
“Okay, a crash course in being a Lantern,” Hal says, “your ring is more than constructs, it’s a very advanced computer.”
“So if I can think of the use, it should be able to do it?” Jason bites his bottom lip before continuing, “so if I say had it track a frequency of some sort that we knew?”
Hal nods, “it would be like John’s stone.”
“But what if I told it to show me the layout of this place?” Jason presses.
“It could scan and make a 3-D model,” Hal replies, “I tried that already with my ring, it didn’t work.”
John shakes his head, “but he’s is similar energy. It might work.”
Jason holds up his fist and looks to Hal, then he thinks to his ring to scan the area. It whines and several seconds later there’s a map in front of him in black hard light. Hal’s own ring scans a replicates the image. He stores it, and Jason wonders why.
“We’re here,” Hal points, “and your stone points in this direction.”
John holds up the stone just to double check.
Jason spreads the map out further, and it’s weird because he only thought that he should, and it did it. There’s nothing he can compare this feeling to. Further, in the direction, they’re heading is a large citadel type structure. He feels confident in saying that’s the main base and with any luck that’s also where everyone is being stored. There’s a chance they got separated but there doesn’t seem to be a tactical advantage in doing that.
“So, we head that way,” Jason says.
The other two make noises of agreement. As they move, Jason decides that he liked it better when the sky was dark gray and not filled with ghosts. He isn’t afraid of them, but he would like them to stop motioning like they were calling him to come to join them. Just because he calls himself the dead Robin in arguments with Bruce doesn’t mean that he wants that to be his legacy or a reality anytime soon.
Maybe thirty minutes pass before something charges from the outside of their vision. Jason has a little more warning, but its only enough to get off an unformed blast. It doesn’t stun the beast, which is dog-like and has three heads.
“Is that Cerberus?” He yells.
John rolls underneath a massive paw as it swipes at him, “it might look that way to you, but it isn’t!”
Hal catches the paw in a construct and flips it over him and into the ground behind him, “you see a dog?”
“It’s different for everyone,” John explains, “but it’s basically here to kill us.”
“I thought you said they weren’t going to try anything now that I have a ring!” Jason cries.
He pulls his arm back and launches three perfectly aimed Batarangs. It isn’t original, but it’s what he knows how to use, the fact that he has an unlimited amount of them is just a bonus. This time it seems like it stunned the beast.
“It isn’t a servant of Nekron,” John launches fire at it, “it’s just mad that we’ve escaped from death.”
“Oh, wonderful,” Hal groans and does an impressive aerial maneuver that brings him right between two of the heads, and he punches one with a construct-covered fit.
There’s a cackle from behind them. Jason whirls around, more Batarangs forming in his hand. A young boy is behind him, and he’s pretty sure it’s –
“Klarion,” John hisses, “what is the meaning of this?”
The boy strokes his cat and pouts, “does there have to be a meaning?”
John scowls, “you want to piss off the Lords of Order for fun?”
“They haven’t come around recently,” Klarion shrugs, “but watching your superfriends try and get out of their cage has gotten boring.”
Jason jumps as a paw slams into a construct beside him. Hal’s construct snakes around the arm and then anchors into the ground. The beast growls and flails with its other paw, nearly striking Hal on his side. For now, it looks like the battle is even, but Jason wants to join in sooner than later, but he can’t leave John alone to fight the Witch-Boy.
“So I found you and this guy. I wanted to see who would win,” Klarion cackles, “the three heroes, the beast, or the clock?”
“The clock?” Jason narrows his eyes, he doesn’t like the sound of that.
“The rest of the Wimpy League are going to be sacrificed to bring Nekron back.”
Hal shouts in pain as he slides to a stop several inches away from Klarion’s feet. The Green Lantern glares up, “are you mad? It’ll destroy the entire universe.”
Klarion slams his foot down where Hal’s head. John casts a spell to yank Hal to relative safety. Jason turns to see the beast straining against green chains. An impressive show of willpower, Jason thinks, but Hal looks like he’s barely worked up a sweat despite the gashes in the side of his uniform.
Klarion slams his foot down, “no fair! You can’t use weak magic like that against me!”
John doesn’t seem impressed, and already another spell is forming in his hands. Jason always thought that you had to speak backward to use magic and he knows for a fact Zatanna is much more powerful than John, he shakes his head. Now isn’t the time for that. The spell slams into the cat, and both Klarion and the animal flicker.
He takes his cue from that, a gun forms in his hand and he shoots at the cat. Jason feels bad when he hears the yowls of pain but less so when Klarion regathers the animal in his arm and blows a raspberry at them.
"Attacking a poor kitty like that, shame on you!”
Klarion vanishes in a swirl of fire.
Hal is back on his feet and holding his arm steady. Jason spins, ready to finish the fight against the beast. The beast is straining against its bindings but so far only cracks have appeared on the chains.
“Leave me behind to deal with it,” Hal grunts, “you need to stop that ritual.”
Jason opens his mouth to argue, but John shakes his head.
“Good luck,” John says.
John grabs his arm and yanks roughly. Jason looks behind at Hal, who is still holding the beast at bay. He faces forward to stare at John’s back, but a portal had already engulfed them. There was a weird spinning situation and he stumbles when it stops.
Jason glances back, but the portal has already closed, “you just left him?”
“We had to,” John says, “we can’t risk Nekron getting a foothold on the material plane again.”
“Why didn’t you just teleport us here in the first place?” Jason asks, looking around and noticing that they’re in a large citadel.
“I did try, but there was a barrier blocking the way. I stole the key from Klarion during our fight.”
Jason blinks and tries to remember when the magician had time to do something like that. He doesn’t think of a time, but since they’re here, Jason can’t doubt him.
“How are we going to get back to GL?”
John’s jaw tightens, and he doesn’t answer. Jason thinks that’s an answer. Hal probably knew what he was volunteering to do. The Lantern was very different in person, and Jason feels bad that he’s going to be trapped here, but right now they must focus on stopping certain death.
“Right,” John sighs finally, “we need to figure out where the most likely place for them to keep prisoners would be.”
“Don’t we need to have a plan?” Jason asks, and then he thinks about it further, “or a general idea given that we had no idea what we’re facing?”
John stares at him, “I do have a plan, get in and get the heroes out.”
“What? And just leave them to try this again?” Jason scowls.
“There isn’t anything we can do to stop them,” John replies, “the best we can do is delay it.”
Jason growls, “that’s always the answer. We can stop it if you’re willing to go far enough.”
John levels a glare at him, “it’s not a matter of going too far. We cannot kill them, they’re immortal.”
That’s not exactly reassuring. Jason’s anger abides somewhat he can feel the pit madness surge in anticipation of a fight. He pushes it back down and focuses.
“They’ll probably be on the bottom level, or furthest away from the entrance,” Jason narrows his eyes to the space below, “if there’s any sense to this place.”
John nods, “the ritual will be down there.”
Jason shifts forward, he can see a symbol being drawn into the ground. There were different candles placed around the runes in what he assumes are specific locations. He watches several cloaked figures move through a tunnel and disappear. Others come back with more materials for the rituals.
“Ring, can you amplify sound?”
To his surprise, the conversation with several of the robed figures. The language they were speaking was one that he didn’t know, but just as he thought it the words made sense.
“Are the sacrifices prepared?” One figure hisses.
“Yes,” another one answers, “although the Kryptonian, is causing some difficulty.”
"He will be the first then, the others will not be so willful.”
Jason winces and turns to John. The other didn’t seem to have heard anything from the ring. He didn’t think it had been in his head, but then again it would make sense.
“Go inform them,” the first one orders a third.
The third bows deeply and then vanishes down a tunnel.
“Is that where your crystal is pointing?” Jason tilts his head towards the opening.
John pulls the stone out, and the tip is to the right of the tunnel.
“That’s where we need to get in,” Jason says as he stands.
"There’s an entire courtyard filled with demons and the like,” John gestures towards the ground, “how are we going to sneak there?”
Jason flashes a wild grin, “who said anything about sneaking?”
John purses his lips, “oh no.”
“Exactly,” Jason grins.
“This won’t work,” John says, “but I think we’re out of time.”
A candle flared and a cold presence filled the area. Jason shivers and looks back at John, “is that Nekron?”
“His essence,” John explains, “they had to lure it here first before they can bind it into a body.”
“Then we need to move, hold out your hands.”
John raises both hands in front of him, and Jason thinks about handcuffs forming around them. He then adds a chain to them for good measure and tugs.
“They aren’t too tight are they?”
“No, and even if they were you aren’t supposed to be worried about my comfort.”
Jason offers a grin, “time to walk directly into a trap.”
John glares at him.
Slowly, they make their way down to the courtyard. They’ve already passed several of the cloaked figures, and they haven’t reacted beyond a couple of chittering sounds. It reminds Jason of spiders and he shivers. The one in the courtyard, which Jason assumes that means it’s the one in charge stops them.
“Warrior,” it hisses, “what have you there?”
“A prisoner,” Jason prays that the ring is translating, “I found him wandering the plane.”
The figure moves towards John, and Jason can see that it was one of the skeletons from before. Up close he can see strips of leather hanging from the bone and he barely keeps himself from retching at the smell. It turns towards him, and Jason panics thinking that they’ve been discovered.
Instead, the figure backs off, “he was one of the ones that ruined the plan. Take him below.”
“I will,” Jason says and then bows for added measure.
He keeps himself from running to the safety of the tunnel but just barely. John stumbles behind him, but the magician looks more relieved than anything.
"Keep me tied up until we reach the cells,” John whispers, “there might be patrols.”
The tunnels are slate gray and the walls are completely smooth. It’s the same wispy texture as the rest of the plane, he’s unsurprised by the fact but the purple flames do surprise him. They give off more light than anything else in the world and instead of releasing heat the flames suck it in. Jason yanks one out of the scone. He has a feeling the tunnel will get darker.
John follows behind him. His breathing is too steady, Jason knows the trick, to keep from completely falling into a panic attack. He doesn’t think that John will if he does they’re all screwed seeing as he’s the only one on the outside on their side that knows spells. The tunnel suddenly widens, and there’s more light further away, there are two guards in front of a doorway, behind that Jason can hear the faint conversation.
The two guards snap to attention as he nears, and Jason tugs John up towards him. He hopes that the other understands what he’s about to do.
“I have a prisoner,” Jason lifts his hand to show the chain.
“Understood,” one snaps and starts to crank open the door.
The second steps forward and prepares to grab John. Jason clicks his tongue.
“I’d rather I make sure this one gets settled, he’s a tricky bastard.”
Once the door is fully down, it touches the other side with a loud slam, Jason springs into action. He drops the chain construct and lashes out with his fist to the first guard. The guard stumbles back but reaches for his spear. Jason ducks under it and into the guard’s space. His fists are reinforced with the hard-light and the guard drops within seconds of the brawl beginning.
John’s opponent drops a second later, it’s chest smoldering and John sporting a bloody nose and black eye. He’s not dead, so Jason takes that as a win. Carefully he steps out onto the bridge. It’s an old door, made out of water damaged wood, or rather made to look like it’s unsafe. The room they enter is massive, cells line both sides and reach up for an uncountable amount of feet. At some point, prisoners attempted to escape and failed because numerous bones littered the main floor.
“So, now where?” Jason asks John.
He pulls out the stone and it spins before settling slightly to their left. Jason steps off the bridge and his footsteps echo ominously. John isn’t any quieter despite the attempt. It must be Magic, and that’s how the prisoner’s escape was detected.
Strangely enough, there weren’t any prison guards on the inside of the cell. Jason pauses before going further.
“Can you magically still that door? I don’t want it closing behind us.”
John nods, he turns around and this time he does mumble something under his breath. There’s a warning creak, but things fall silent once more. He figures that must mean the spell worked. Slowly he steps further into the room, John only feet behind him. There’s no sign of opposition and Jason slowly increases his pace.
He doesn’t like this.
They edge further and further into the room. As they were about to turn down a separate hallway, Jason hears a clacking sound. He barely forms a shield before bones slam into it. John dives towards him and Jason opens the shield enough for the magician to get in. Bones smack against the shield, which cracks but doesn’t shatter. Jason is about to flare out his power when the bones back off and start regathering into skeletons.
“As soon as I drop the shield, go and find them,” Jason orders.
John scowls, “and leave another person behind?”
“I doubt you’ll be able to cast your spells in there,” Jason winces as another bone slides across his shield, “not to mention you’ll have access to the flash who can run and tell me if you’re leaving.”
“Fine,” John is still scowling.
Jason waits until a majority of the bones have formed skeletons and then drops the shield. John bolts out from behind him and towards the door. Once the brit is through the door, he blocks it off with rubble. There’s still room for a person to get through, but he doubts skeletons will have the reasoning to figure that out.
“Time to see what this thing can do,” Jason grins ferally and lets the pit madness heighten his senses.
The first skeleton lunges him and he shatters it with a hammer construct and tries not to remind himself too much of Harley. He relaxes his shoulders by rolling them, Tim says it makes him look too eager for a fight. Jason thinks it helps him scare off thugs who would just waste his time. Too bad for the skeletons that they have no idea who they’re dealing with.
He loses track of time, there are so many skeletons that he has to be completely focused on fighting otherwise he would be completely overwhelmed. The stone barrier he created shatters behind him and he whirls to face the new threat only to see a red and blue blur rush past him and into the horde of skeletons. He looks long enough to determine that, yes, it is his side before plunging back into the fight.
With Superman’s help, they make quick work of the remaining skeletons. They finish just as John and Zatanna finish opening the portal. Zatanna leaps through first. Jason watches the skeletons for a few seconds, some of them got up after he broke them, and then heads over to where the group is. He doesn’t see the Bats at first, and there’s a slight edge of panic that races up his back before he sees the ungodly bright Robin yellow.
They’re looking at him and he just barely hides the wince. He’s sure he doesn’t look healthy to them, rips in his uniform and cuts on his face, not to mention he’s essentially a Lantern of Death right now. There would be explanations later. They seem content to stay where they’re grouped and discussing tactics. The next problem, he decides as he scans the crowd, is Flash. He finds the speedster near Green Arrow, and his jaw is firm.
John must have told him then. Jason feels bad that he’s grateful for that. The last thing that he needed to do was not only suddenly be alive, but also telling people that their longtime companion was going to be left behind if he wasn’t already dead.
The ceiling started to collapse. Jason jumped to the side, his fist raised and ready to launch Batarangs at whoever it was that was attacking them. Once the dust settled and no attack came, Jason narrowed his eyes to find that Hal was slowly picking himself up from the crater he created.
An unearthly scream filled the chamber. Jason looked behind him to see that there were only a few heroes remaining, most notably Batman, Nightwing, and Flash. Flash who had been behind him and alone was now back with Hal leaning heavily into his side. The Green Lantern looked worse for wear, his suit torn, and a particularly large claw was sticking out where his shoulder met his torso.
“We’re going to have company,” Hal slurs.
“What you couldn’t defeat your one opponent?” Jason taunts.
Hal shakes his head, “no, it had friends.”
Jason swears. The rest of the heroes are ushered out in a much faster and disorganized pace than previously. Flash and Hal are the next out. Nightwing follows them, but not before he turns and gives Jason a long look.
Batman is still staring at him and Jason raises an eyebrow.
“Go,” Jason says, “we’ll be out soon.”
Once more Batman hesitates before he vanishes through the portal. Jason looks at John, whose trembling with effort. They were almost safe. He pulls the ring off his finger, the suit and power along with it vanish. The madness is easier to ignore and lock away.
With one last look at it, he tosses it to the side where it clatters to a stop. John raises an eyebrow.
“Don’t need it anymore,” Jason replies. Don’t need to be reminded I died.
He jumps through the portal, and for the third time today he feels the dizzying sensation. This time he knows the stop is coming and can keep his balance. It’s good because he really doesn’t want to face plant in front of Wonder Woman, he’s still the only Robin who hasn’t. There’s a swell of energy behind him, and he sees John stumble out and onto his knees.
The portal closes and Jason collapses.