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”Dean…” comes the defeated whisper from my brother at his computer. He had been looking for our brother since we hadn't seen or heard from him in a couple of years. “You-” he cuts himself off, “you need to see this.” I move to sit across from him at the table he’s working at.
“What?” I question him. He simply turns his laptop towards me in answer. I look at the newspaper article pulled up. The headline read: ‘ JASON TODD- ADOPTED BY BRUCE WAYNE’ I look at Sam, “So? It’s good for him that he got adopted,” I notice Sam’s heartbroken look. “What is it?” He opens another headline in answer. ‘JASON TODD- DEAD AFTER RANSOM GONE WRONG’ “No...How… Where…?” I finally choke out.
Sam robotically answers, “Car accident in Ethiopia.”
“Where is he buried?”
"Gotham City."
We need to go," Sam nods in agreement. We pack and hit the road as soon as we can to go say goodbye and give our brother a hunter's funeral.
They make it to the cemetery by midnight. They start making their way through the cemetery to find his grave, their little brother’s grave. They finally find it, but there’s someone bleeding and covered in dirt next to it. The brothers rush towards the person and turn him to see his face and check his pulse. The body gently rolls and a grunt escapes his mouth. “Jason,” the middle child breathes out. His brother helps him lift Jason up to carry him towards their car.
As they’re walking, the eldest calls out, “Cas!” A man in a trenchcoat appears next to the brothers.
“Dean,” his deep, gruff voice sounds, “I heard your call. You sounded distressed.”
The eldest, Dean, snorts and responds, “It’s a long story, but I need to know: is this really him? Really Jason?”
Cas places his hand on Jason's head and, after a moment says, "It is a complicated answer. Physically, Spiritually, this is Jason Peter Todd-Winchester. However, Mentally, that boy is gone. There is too much damage for me to even attempt to repair; trauma caused by a mix of blunt force trauma and Oxygen deprivation. But, I know someone who may be able to help," he raises a hand to stop the brothers from speaking before he delivers the, shall we say "final nail in the coffin" about this decision, "you would, however, need to leave him with her. The two of you won't be able to see him until the side effects of her methods wear off, which may be never."
The brothers look at each other and see their own feelings reflected in the other's eyes. They nod and respond, "if you're sure about her and this will help him, then yes. Do it." Castiel nods, picks Jason up, and flys towards his contact in Nanda Parbat. The Heir of the Demon, Talia Al Ghul.