Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

               Bruce rarely acted on impulse, but when he did – and Tim cringed even admitting this to himself – he…overreacted. It was the same when he was caught off-guard; he tried to overcorrect for his mistakes. Which led to problems, and more overcorrecting, and more problems.

Really, he had a sneaking suspicion this had been Jason’s plan all along.

X

Red Hood was missing for exactly three days before Gotham descended into chaos, and it was all Bruce’s fault. And Tim was not saying that just because he was the reason for Jason’s absence.

The Red Hood had been active in Gotham for three months before he began making any big moves, challenging dominant gangs and bosses, and wresting control of Gotham’s underworld out of the hands of its most prominent figures.

Bruce had not picked up on this for another four months – although to be fair, there had been a rash of League-level incidents and Rogues in that time span that had distracted him. A little suspicious, considering, but Tim was willing (barely) to write it off as coincidence.

This was followed by another two months of playing cat-and-mouse, and then Jason’s big reveal and the Confrontation That Nobody Talks About.

So.

Nine months, Jason had spent in Gotham, at least. Nine months doing for her people what he saw the Bats and Birds of Gotham failing to do. Nine months spent caring for the people even they forgot about. Nine months spent protecting and helping and building up communities everyone else had forsaken, thrown to the wayside, forgotten.

And in those nine months, her people had grown to love him.

Add the twenty-six other months between the Confrontation That Nobody Talks About and the present, and, well.

Superman might be something like a god in the eyes of some people. But even that devotion pales against the loyalty of Gotham to her favored son.

x

In not dealing with Jason’s hostile takeover and the ensuing restructuring, instead choosing to leave it be, Batman had inadvertently abandoned control of the city to Jason. Tim didn’t think Bruce really understood how much control that was, not really. Because—well, Jason was right. Nobody cared about the poor, the homeless, the criminal in Gotham. Nobody cared about Crime Alley. Batman was constantly tossing any issues that part of the city had on a backburner to deal with threats of the costumed variety, or the apocalypse, or a business meeting. When it wasn’t a slow night, when it wasn’t convenient, Batman didn’t bother with them. The lack of attention had only increased when Bruce had tossed low-level criminals into Jason’s ring and left.

But Jason? Jason loved the city so fiercely he put up with Bruce for it. Subjected himself to literally every trauma he’d ever experienced again and again to make lives better for the people living in Gotham – his people. Moralizing the drug trade had been the first step. Stopping gang wars, keeping innocents from being caught in the cross-fire, had been second. Getting his hands into every shady business and restricting and reorganizing as he saw best, setting up aide and help for victims – and it helped. With no secret identity to protect, Jason stayed close to his people. Helped them, talked to them, worked with them instead of hiding in some plush office.

And for that, he was theirs.

X

Tim was entirely sure the fallout of the Confrontation That Nobody Talks About had been unplanned, but that didn’t really help much. If anything, it made it more impressive.

Because although Jason had kept his identity secret from Bruce, and though he’d never really made an effort to inform anyone else, he’d been much more honest with the people he saved, those he worked with.

Bruce, at the time the Red Hood had first cropped up as a problem, had dismissed those people as nothing. They were the cobbled-together remains of those loyal to dead men and women serving a new figurehead out of fear. Bruce had missed that Jason’s people were Jason’s people, and they were organized. They hadn’t followed Jason out of fear back then. They’d been genuinely loyal.

And they still were; and they were furious once they put the pieces together.

If Jason had been Robin; if Batman had been his father; then it was his father who’d let him die the first time around. Who’d caused whatever fallout the Confrontation That Nobody Talks About had led to. Who’d been standing against their vigilante since his reappearance.

And then had come the videos. Dozens of them, from different angles and directions. People had died taking them, uploading them. All to protect Jason.

The structure, glitching into existence above Gotham City. The debris it had thrown off; Jason, tumbling out of it, the explosion, him running for buildings caught in the crossfire, and –

- and Bruce, leaping out of the smoke to beat his son into the cement beneath them. Jason, not fighting back. Pleading, though none of the videos catch audio. There’s too much blood flowing down Jason’s face to properly make out how his lips move.

So.

Tim couldn’t blame them.

X

Crime Alley kicks the riots off by burning an effigy of Batman and spray-painting red helmets everywhere. People plaster red blankets and sheets and flags over their windows. Jason’s people tell the GCPD to get fucked and set up barricades. Most of the GCPD hate Jason with a passion; they make police brutality an art. They lose.

Jason’s people aren’t playing games. They aren’t here for the law.

If Red Hood dies, they say, so does the Bat. Anytime Batman gets close to the Alley, people get violent. Bruce breaks his leg after a kid cuts his grappling line mid-air with a knife. Dick takes Damian back to Bludhaven. Steph grabs a first-aid kit and joins Leslie during the day. She’s not going out at night anymore.

There’s not a need, in the Alley. Jason’s people are there to protect their families and neighbors. It’s just business as usual for everyone else.

Tim screams into a pillow for a solid minute before deciding that he has to do something.

Luckily, he knows where to start.

X

Cass is so put out by the fact they aren’t sneaking into Jason’s safehouses that Tim has to sit her down and explain boundaries and what do you mean you don’t know and Jason’s never made a secret about it and that’s how he finds out none of the rest of the bats hang out with him that much.

Well. Neither does Tim. Tim just stalks.

Jason doesn’t like people entering his space. He’s got triple the number of safe houses as any other person in existence mostly as decoys, tests, traps. Specifically for the Bats. And apparently hearing get out of my fucking apartment accompanied by said building going down in an explosion of fire and smoke just…never computed.

Duke puts his face in his hands and groans.

“Man, look – sure, bringing him home and all is great, but he’s not gonna come home.”

Steph rests her weight on Tim’s head.

“You’re right. We need to go get the others.”

X

Damian’s eager to come. They have to trick Dick.

Tim doesn’t let himself think about it. He just texts Barbara the time and place, and come Thursday the whole lot of them are kicking down Kate’s door and piling into her apartment. Kate’s girlfriend shrieks in surprise and bolts for the bedroom, and wow, there are children present, Tim can never unsee that.

Kate stares after her girlfriend, looks back at them, and chugs the whole fucking pot of coffee she’s holding.

Nobody’s said anything by the time Montoya stalks back into the room, fully clothed. Tim sees Steph waggle her fingers at the detective out of the corner of his eye, but Cass elbows her before he can.

“Okay, what the fuck.”

“I considered calling in the Justice League, but if Bruce is going to insist we can handle our own shit then he gets to live with the consequences.” Tim opens with, and Dick’s head snaps around so quickly Tim kind of expects to hear a crack. Kate’s on edge and alert at that, even with her mussed hair and wrinkled pajamas.

“I hereby open this Family Meeting with a motion to instate Cassandra as Batman for the foreseeable future.” Duke doesn’t sound half as robotic as Tim had expected, as the other teen flings himself onto Kate’s couch.

Duke hadn’t been there the last time. He’d been terrified he’d get this one wrong.

Dick lets out a strangled sound, and Barbara wheels herself over to Kate’s kitchen table and drops her laptop on it with a deep thud.

“Motion accepted. All in favor?”

Dick’s the only one who doesn’t say ay.

X

They set up a patrol schedule easily enough. Damian is taking rigorous notes for Alfred’s later perusal; they agree on a second meeting time should Alfred have any input without fanfare. They’d have invited him, but he won’t leave Bruce’s side. And, frankly, someone needs to babysit Batman.

It’s when they get into the actual meat of the discussion that things get complicated.

“If we’re going to judge Kate for killing in defense of her niece – no matter our personal feelings on the matter, that’s not the topic here – we have to judge Bruce for what he did to Hood.” Duke starts out so diplomatically too. If Tim wasn’t playing his cards so close to his chest, he’d have been more supportive, but…

“Hood shot Penguin.” Right out of the gate, Dick’s snarling. Kate and Steph look taken aback, and Tim is once again reminded how few people seem to realize the eldest Wayne is kind of a dick.

“Bruce accused Jason of murdering the Penguin. Jason didn’t. And Jason wouldn’t miss at point-blank range. Here are the hospital files on Penguin’s current condition. His short-term memory was shot. Not literally shot, it just – that’s what was damaged.” Tim adds hastily, throwing photocopies onto Kate’s coffee table. They’re snatched up and passed around within moments, and Damian hisses when a copy comes dangerously close to smearing the ink on his notes.

“Short-term memory damage…I agree Jason missed on purpose. But how would he…? And why?”

Cass is Tim’s only hundred-and-ten-percent ally here, and it’s her time to shine. She slams down a bunch of photographs; grabs from the news report that caught the shooting. She stabs a finger at the Penguin’s rotund form.

“Knows.” She says, and Dick kind of freezes, where he’s halfway climbed out of his seat.

Damian hisses again and bats Cass’s pictures off the table in retaliation. But that’s what the brat gets for not using a pencil, like any other human being would.

“Jason was visiting his father’s grave. There’s no body in that coffin.”

Duke is an unexpected ally here, too – though he’s not here for Jason. Not that Tim can blame him.

“So our leading theory is that our resident zombie confronted Mr. Asshole here over his dad copying his tricks. Probably let something slip; and took care of it. Non-lethally.” Stephanie stretches her arms out above her head as she speaks, and sinks into Cass’s spot. Cass glances back at her and then sits on the blonde’s lap.

Dick sits back down, too.

“We won’t know until we ask Todd. But that’s irrelevant. Todd did not commit murder. Penguin was never pronounced dead at the scene. Father…” Damian hesitates, and then lets the rest of what he’s trying to say go. He meets Tim’s gaze, just for a moment, and looks away.

Tim nearly groans again because, like, fine, okay, they kind of get along now, but can he just deal with one brother breaking down at a time?!

“Has he ever hit any of you before?” Tim blurts out, because, well, never mind.

“This isn’t right!” Dick snaps, before anybody can answer. Cass nudges his side, tilts her head slightly towards Dick, and Tim groans and puts his face in his hands.

“Has anyone heard if Todd is even alive?”

And Jesus, Damian goes in for the kill. Tim peers out at them over his fingertips. Dick looks like he’s been struck. Duke and Steph and Cass are resolutely looking straight ahead. Barbara’s knuckles are white around the edge of Kate’s kitchen table, and Kate and Montoya are both looking at him. So’s Damian, but that’s not a surprise.

“Bruce always said he believed Batman to be something bigger than him. He wanted it to be about a cause, not the man. He’s proven himself unworthy of that, for now. And Dick, relax. We all know you hate being Batman. That’s what Cass is here for.”

The for now is entirely false, as far as Tim’s concerned, but Dick is – well. Tim’s just making concessions.

Dick storms out.

Tim waits a heartbeat while Damian glares daggers at him.

“So I’m gonna go find Jay and bring him home, anybody wanna come?”

X

Jason has been testing Bruce from the moment he came back. Everybody seems to know this except Bruce. It’s horrifying, and uncomfortable.

Because Bruce fails every time.

So; this, Tim thinks, was the final test. Jason was getting tired and burnt out always making excuses for Bruce, that much had been obvious. And while Starfire and Arsenal had started helping him let go, it was really Bizarro and Artemis that taught him to do so.

Tim is okay with acknowledging this only because he resolutely ignores his own relationship to Bruce, and his siblings, and the mess of pain and anger and love and resentment and hurt and grief and stuff that lies there.

The year had begun with Jason shooting a man on national television, and Bruce assuming the worst. The year ends with Jason shooting a man on national television, and Bruce assuming the worst.

All those promises and smiles and you did good, chums that lay between those two points of time taste like ash on Tim’s tongue. And they hadn’t even been directed at him.

Jason had wanted to know, when Bruce overreacted and hit his breaking point, if he’d keep his word and treat his son like his son.

At least he had an answer, now.

X

Kate joins him. Steph and Cass and Duke elect to remain behind and Hold The Fort Down, capitalized, and Tim doesn’t have the brain space to stress about that too. Babs says she’ll help, but she’s got so many side projects going that physically leaving Gotham is kind of out of the picture for the foreseeable future. Damian declares himself on reserve for when you actually find anything useful, Drake.

Kate shows up at his house at ten o’clock the next morning. They stare awkwardly at each other, a duffel bag over each shoulder and keys dangling from their hands.

“Well this is awkward.” Kate says, and Tim slumps in relief.

“Where are we going?” She asks. He lets her drive, and slides into the passenger seat before she gets the chance to go all Weird Aunt on him. She’s done it to Jason a few times, apparently. Safety or something.

“Crime Alley.”

She turns the car off and glares at him. Tim shrugs.

“Gotta calm the riots somehow.”

“It won’t work.”

He narrows his eyes at her.

X

It does. Because he’s a fucking genius. Or – well. It buys them time. And that’s all Tim had really been looking for.

Jason’s people know nothing and are incredibly suspicious of him. He peels his mask off once they’re in what is, essentially, serving as their headquarters – an old garage long since closed to the public. The woman in charge goes oh it’s timmy and they all relax and then some vet with the most intimidating tattoos Tim’s ever seen goes wait aren’t you that Drake kid? and only half the gathered men and women gasp, so.

Super Secret Jason Fact Number Two, the first being his need for boundaries: Jason’s made contingencies for his younger siblings in the event of his disappearance. It had nothing to do with his current relationship with them, and everything to do with making amends for the attempted murders way back when. That meant preparing a safe place for his siblings to go; and safe allies for his people to trust in turn.

Super Secret Tim Fact Number One: knowing about this makes him feel all warm and fuzzy.

“The Bats are handling Batman. He’s out of commission right now and won’t be handling the cowl anytime soon.” Kate says as abruptly and uncomfortably as humanely possible. She’s still got her mask on, which is fair. The lady in charge is giving Kate’s biceps very appreciative glances, when she’s not conferring with her fellows.

“I know none of you know where Jason is; we’re just stopping by to let you know we’re going to go find him and make sure he’s okay. So maybe no killing any cops or anything until it’s absolutely necessary, please and thank you. We can only keep Batman out of the picture as long as things stay calm.”

“You need a better leash, then.”

“He’ll just call the Justice League in over our heads and claim you’re aiding and abetting or sheltering Jason.” Tim says flatly, and the whole room goes tense.

“No metas in Gotham.” The lady in charge says sharply, but her eyes are questioning, searching.

“We’re operating under the assumption that Batman is entirely compromised.” Kate replies smoothly. She’s playing along beautifully, even if she’s still standing stiff as a board. Tim plasters his mask back on. His literal mask. Not an emotional one. That one was never taken off.

The woman turns, and everybody converges on her, and there’s a lot of shockingly quiet and subtle conversation. It’s genuinely difficult to pick up on it. Tim is very impressed.

Eventually, the whole group breaks apart to glare intimidatingly at them.

“You bring our boy home.” The woman says, and Kate finally relaxes.

X

Super Secret Tim Fact Number Two: he’s inherited B’s more stalkerish tendencies. Well, that’s not the secret. The secret is that he never really stopped following Jason. So.

He’s avoiding the fact that this is going to be undeniably clear, once they find Jason.

“Where to next?” Kate asks. Tim drums his fingers on the armrest, and debates.

He would have called Talia, except as far as he knows Jason hasn’t talked to her since the whole Incident with Damian. He’d handled that particular parental betrayal with such grace that Tim had been genuinely worried he’d been body-swapped or something. He suspects the distance there is the only reason Talia hasn’t attempted to murder Bruce; after what she did to Damian, she doesn’t have that right. And Tim thinks she doesn’t want to hurt Damian any more than she already has; defending Jason would be choosing one son over the other.

Which means Arsenal is actually probably the only one with information, not some kind of weird bait-and-switch. Arsenal has, conveniently, dropped off the face of the earth. That’s thanks to Babs.

Artemis and Bizarro’s disappearances aren’t. She’d said she’d look into it, that she’d rope Dick into helping. That way, at least, Jason’ll have some answers when he comes home. That way, they could get Dick to help without giving him a nervous breakdown.

“You’re not allowed to tell anybody about this ever.” Tim finally says, and plops a tablet between the two of them and peels off his mask. He has to nudge Kate before she follows suit, and he waits for her before making the call.

Cheshire answers at the last possible moment.

X

“No.”

“I called you because it’s easiest, not because I need you to find them. We’re not after them, though. Roy’s never had access to the kind of medical equipment we can get our hands on.”

“And I’m supposed to believe you’re turning on the big bad Bat for the little shit?”

There’s a flash of dark hair in the bottom corner of the screen and then a flurry of movement and hushed hissing. Cheshire re-appears a second later with a vicious scowl on her face.

That’s good; also bad because it means Arsenal was planning on tracking Jay down before the shitshow, but that’s a whole other problem that isn’t Tim’s business.

“Cass is the Bat now.” Kate drones, bored and casual, even though once she’d realized who he was calling she’d started swearing at him so loudly Tim had been thankful they are parked alone at the back end of some grocery store.

Cheshire stills.

“Shiva’s kid?”

“She’s the only one who wanted it, but don’t tell her that.”

She settles down a little bit, and the sharp anger edging her snarl and her narrowed eyes eases.

“They’ve got better medical care where they’re at than you think they do.”

Tim relaxes a little bit.

“I’ll give you a number. This isn’t my info to give.”

X

They have to go back to Barbara’s to rig up a space call using one of Dick’s old Titans communicators, and they don’t finish until the next day. He and Kate and Barbara and Cass have pizza for dinner, and again for breakfast. It doesn’t occur to Tim until Kate and Barbara are both two beers in and arguing passionately about some show or something that Kate’s never been to any of their family nights, and Tim doesn’t have the ability to deal with that so he tucks it away for later.

Cass is asleep on his lap and Kate’s passed out on Barbara’s bed when they get a call out. Babs throws her hands up in the air in victory and Tim grins at her, but they both stay quiet while the communicator rings.

A purple-haired woman with eyes so cold Tim feels a chill crawl down his spine across space picks up, and sneers at them.

“You intrude.” She says, and it’s such a weird thing to say –

“We’re -  uh. Starfire? Koriand’r? Is supposed to pick up?”

“Funny that you bitch about us picking up when you do the same.” Babs added in the kind of low drawl that meant she, at least, knew who they were talking to. And that she did not like them. Not that she liked Starfire anyway. If it wasn’t for Jason’s relationship with her and Roy, all of Dick’s exes would probably be banned from Gotham.

The woman snarls, and her eyes – glow. There’s a flare of purple-black something and Tim thinks oh great, and then the woman whirls like there’d been a noise. There’s shouting. And then a red-green blur slams the woman out of the way.

Starfire doesn’t try to hide her disappointment, though it quickly morphs into apprehension.

“Is Richard alright?”

“You haven’t had any contact with Earth recently, have you?” Babs asks carefully.

This is a task Tim is more than happy to let her handle, so he doesn’t interject. Given the way Starfire’s eyes flare so brightly the screen goes staticky, he determines this a wise course of action.

“What. Happened.”

“Dick’s fine. But – Jason’s…hurt.”

Starfire jerks back like she’s been struck. Her expression changes so quickly Tim can’t keep up, shock, disbelief, horror, rage, grief.

A touch on his wrist startles him. It’s Cass. She leads him out, to the kitchen, and closes the door behind them firmly. He lets her. She’s always had a good sense for when to leave a conversation, and Tim already knows he would’ve just sat in and listened.

She shoves more cold pizza at him, when he smiles wanly at her.

“Love him.” Cass says certainly, and she sounds proud.

“Starfire? And Jason?”

“Archer…too. Good for…him. Good…allies.”

“How are you doing, dealing with this?” Tim asks, after a heartbeat. Cass’s smile fades, and her eyes grow serious.

“Never…follow man. Never. Followed Cain. Never again. Knew…that. Always follow…bat. Hope. Right.”

It hit him like a bucket of cold water to the face; he flinched and paled and looked down at the lump of bread and cheese in his hands.

“I’m sorry, Cass. I – I’m sorry it happened again.”

She doesn’t reply to his words, not that there was anything she could have said. Nothing would have made it better.

“How…you?” She asked quietly. Tim shrugged.

“He didn’t – Is it wrong? That he’s…he’s always been my…hero?” His voice cracks. An arm slides over his shoulders, pulls him in tight.

“Close?”

“N-No, not…maybe compared. To…the rest of us. But he got – I didn’t want him to chase me away. So I just – “

He cuts himself off.

He and Cass wait in silence until the call is finished. An hour and a half later, Babs rolls in looking so vindictively pleased they both flinch at the sight of her.

“She’s on her way.”

Chapter Text

Komand’r is a solid, steady warmth at her side. When she looks up, her sister’s expression is grave and solemn – though Komand’r has no love for Earth or its inhabitants, she’s long since judged Kori’s partners and found them adequate.

“This is a declaration of war.” Komand’r says softly, gently, and folds her hands over Kori’s. She’s shaking. She’s not crying, not yet. She has things to do first, she realizes, because yes, this has been.

Tamaran is a planet populated by people of heart. For a beloved to be struck down is devastating; to have been the one to commit such an act is unforgiveable, and one of the few evils still punishable by death.

And there were none more beloved to her people than she herself, though she would like her people to gaze at Komand’r with the same adoration, one day. To cripple her heart was to cripple the heart of all Tamaran.

And even the other Bats of Gotham did not know if Jason yet breathed.

She knew. She could feel his flame in her heart, the bright heat of it beside its twin.

But a failed assassination was still an assassination.

“I must retrieve them. Would you allow them here?”

Komand’r narrows her eyes.

“You ask me permission to bring your consorts to your own planet?”

The truth is that moments like these, of unintentional offense and hurt and rage – they are common. But they are unintentional. Ephemeral. They do not last.

Jason had been the one to help her see her sister truly, to help them communicate. He’d –

He’d made her understand.

She flips her sister’s hands, so that she is now holding onto her sister.

“I know nothing of war, not between planets. And I would never bring them here if it made you uncomfortable.” Here, at least, Komand’r came first. Kori has worked hard to make this place a home again, harder still to make it recognize Komand’r as Sister-Queen. She will not risk hurting that, hurting her sister, when her vendetta can so easily play out on Earth’s surface.

Komand’r pulls away, groaning in disgust.

“Only if we make proper men of them before we send them back. They’ll need to be recognized by Tamaran if you claim them, anyway.”

And despite the weight pressing down on her shoulders, Kori almost smiles.

X

There are rules about declaring war on another planet. Komand’r tells her what to say, tells her when to broadcast, and sets up a backdoor in her ship’s system for Oracle to use.

They will take over every screen, every speaker, every broadcast on Earth.

The Green Lanterns, Komand’r says, require prior notice. Their rules do not specify how much prior notice.

Kori will not give the League a chance to rebel.

Tamaran is not merciful to its enemies.

X

The mother of Roy’s daughter is a warrior. She is sharp and strained and tired when Kori’s call makes it through, and she sighs audibly in relief when the screen crackles to life between them and she lays eyes on her.

“They’re hunting her. Me. Us. They think I know where they went.”

“I offer you both safe harbor.” Kori says softly, seriously. The exhaustion and the stress and the anxiety in Jade’s face melt into one perfect, beatific sneer.

“I have blood to shed for this too, princess. I’ll get her to Star City. His…family…has been protesting this.”

“I only know the – shadow, so you say? The outline. I thought there was no one hunting them.” She keeps the alarm from her voice and from her face, but the console’s metal frame whines beneath her bare hands.

Her Honor Guard, standing at attention behind her, tighten their grips on their spears in turn.

“The great big bad Bat called in the League yesterday. They leapt to his call. I think he found out what his brats were up to.”

Three breaths. In, out. In, out. In, out.

She drains the tension from her posture with such single-minded intent that she nearly forgets to speak.

“Then I suppose I have nothing to feel guilty for.” She says. The other woman gives her such a disapproving glance that Kori thinks she might turn into her sister, for a moment.

“Guilt? No. Not for them, not for any of them. Your boy’s stupid, but he’s always been right about them. Hypocrites and liars, all of them.”

“I will leave an – avenue of communication. With his…with Black Canary. For you, should you wish to visit.”

Jade has never been a particularly present mother; but she has always been fiercely devoted and viciously loving. Kori fears the woman’s response to her daughter being taken, even willingly, for what they both know will be – months. Years, maybe, though Kori doubts Jason will consent to being so far from Gotham for so long.

A tension she had not noticed in the other woman’s frame bleeds away, then.

“I will take you up on that.” She warns, and Kori smiles. It’s the first real smile she’s given since she’d heard what had transpired.

Jade ends their call.

X

“People of Earth. I am Koriand’r, Sister-Queen of Tamaran and all its people. Today I bring you a mercy; I am not the Sister-Queen of Warfare. Today I bring you punishment; you have declared war on my people and this is not an insult I will stand for.

I have walked among you. I have called your planet home. I have bled for you and I have fought for you and I have loved your people as my own. And you have repaid me with war.

The man you call Batman has attempted the assassination of one of my consorts. Further, your Justice League has not condemned him for this action. Instead it stands behind this act of violence and seeks the life and liberty of both of my consorts, and any they call friend.”

X

Holy motherfuck, Tim thinks. Thinks he thinks. Dick smacks his leg on instinct, even though he doesn’t look away from the television in front of them.

Damian flops onto an armchair with a sigh of relief.

“Finally, a sane one.”

X

“But I am familiar with your Justice League, and I am not unjust. I know that the League has chosen to speak for all of Earth without the opinion of its people. I know you have not had a say in the matter. I know that one man has chosen to put your lives and the lives of your children in danger. I know that the League has done something cruel and unforgiveable to you. In Tamaran, we do not punish the innocent to hurt the guilty.

The attempted assassination of a consort of the ruling body of Tamaran is an act singularly considered by my people to be cowardly. If you wanted war, Batman, you need only declare it yourself - not attempt to strike at the heart of Tamaran’s leadership.

While Tamaran does not recognize the total authority of the Green Lantern Corps, we have long accepted their policies on war-making. By rights, we could raze your planet to dust for your actions. We are under no obligation to extend peace talks to you.

And so in four hours, when I land on your planet, the League will have ceased their hunt. They will have removed Batman from their ranks, for any man who purports to uphold peace and who ignites a war out of a cruel desire to hurt his own son does not deserve a seat at their table. He will face trial for his actions. Here, I thank the Bats and Birds of Gotham – you have ever been honest and true allies, people I am proud to call friend, and my heart is at ease to hear that you have already dealt with Batman satisfactorily within your own city. If these demands are met, I will leave your planet with my consorts and consider this matter closed.

This is not a negotiation.”

X

“Well, I’m definitely attracted to her.”

“Doesn’t count if you only think she’s hot ‘cuz she threatened to kill you.” Tim fires back immediately, and Duke throws his hands up.

“Just accept you’re ace and move on. Anybody wanna carpool down to Star City?” Steph asks, and Damian is on her like a leech.

Tim hesitates for a moment, and then shakes his head.

Bizarro and Artemis still haven’t been found. And Steph – Steph’s always had a decent relationship with Jason. She’s trustworthy, and Jason’s people know it.

He wants Jason home. But he wants to make sure Jason has a home to come back to, too.

“I’ll stay.”

X

She allows two of her Guard to join her in a smaller vessel meant for descent; it barely fits atop Queen Industry’s tower. He and Black Canary wait for her, Lian caged between the two of them and squirming like a worm at the sight of her.

Kori allows herself this weakness, and scoops her step-daughter up and clings.

It’s been so long since she was on earth, since she saw her boys…Lian is so much bigger now, and the look on her little girl’s face spears Kori’s chest like a blade.

She’s angry.

“Mama said you’re gonna help Daddy and Uncle Jay and we’re gonna go stay with you.”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t tell nobody where they went.” Lian says it sharply, viciously, teeth bared and eyes almost feral. Behind her, Black Canary flinches and looks so pained –

“I know, little star.” Kori whispers, and tucks her step-daughter’s head beneath her chin for just a moment longer.

“How long will it take you to find them?” Queen asks, his voice raw and cracking. He’s no love for Jason, Kori knows, but with Roy in the line of fire…

“I am going to retrieve them now. Should…any of you wish to come, as we leave. This is your chance. This – this is for Jade.”

Black Canary takes the offered device with a tight shake of her head, and hugs herself.

“You were serious.”

Kori lets herself breathe for a moment, and composes herself. She lifts an eyebrow.

“I do not think you understand the gravity of what Batman has done. If I did not know that Jason would beg me not to, I would have exposed his face and hung his corpse from his own tower by now. I told you; this is a mercy.”

“I told you she was competent.”

It’s a child’s voice, one she recognizes. Hauling themselves over the lip of the roof are…children. Three of them.

Jason’s siblings.

“None of the assholes are with us! We just – gonna help guard y’all. No masks so the League won’t draw attention to you, ‘cuz then they’d out B and everything.” The blonde girl, Stephanie, beams from where she lays panting on the rooftop. The youngest of them, Damian, is studying her with such sharp approval that tears prick the back of her eyes –

Jason had agonized over whether his father or his grandfather would ever come, if he truly needed the help, if he ever asked. He’d never given thought to his siblings. He’d never thought he’d stood a chance, when it came to them and their loyalties.

And yet here they are. Her heart swells, for him.

“Where is Richard?” She asks, and sets Lian down gently. The little girl is glaring fiercely at the Bats. One of her Honor Guard step forward and offer the child a hand, and Lian takes it without so much as blinking.

They do not respond until she’s disappeared into the ship.

“He’s not taking this well. Red Robin has him looking for Hood’s teammates.” The other boy says cautiously. She does not know his name, only his mask – Signal. The other two flinch, however slight, at his words.

“He will come around.” She says softly, and Damian looks away from her, lips pressed together so tightly his mouth is little more than a white slash.

“He is angry, and he is loyal. For your sakes he has forgiven much you do not know of, and this is yet another sin he would see washed away, if he could.” She means it as a comfort. Stephanie’s derisive snort surprises her.

“Look. Tim asked if B’d ever hit one of us, and Dick flipped shit. If I ever find out he’d been letting Dami around a guy who beat his own kids, Dick will fucking die. I get it’s hard for him, but this isn’t about him. But I’m glad you’re so sure he’ll come around. I hope so too.”

The youngest’s eyes go wide and round with shock. There is a cough, behind her, and Kori forces herself to ignore his plight.

“Thank you, for your protections. I would offer you and yours passage as well, if you would like.”

“Don’t make that offer. A good two-thirds of Gotham thinks you’re the shit right now, by the way. You don’t have enough room for everybody who’d want to go and make sure Jason’s okay.” Signal says flatly, and.

It’s a comfort, if a lukewarm one.

“Stop wasting time.” The youngest growls, and she nods.

And then she flies.

X

Their island is cold.

It feels like a trespass, to land on its beaches. The sun shines above her, but the sand is cool and the vegetation seems sallow, washed-out.

Their ship is dull, coiled in on itself. When she had last seen it, it had been half repurposed into a true home, passages open and inviting. Now it sits ready for a battle.

And still, the door blinks green and slides open at her touch.

Roy nearly catches her in the throat with an arrow before he recognizes her. As it is, it takes a blast of energy to send the projectile clattering off down a dark hallway.

He’s pale and frightened, and his posture does not relax at the sight of her. He is not hostile because he is confused, not because he does not see her as a threat.

Her heart nearly breaks, then, and her fire dims.

“I came as soon as I heard.” She says, and her voice shatters in her lungs. Roy crumples into her, his bow clattering to the floor, and she just –

He doesn’t say anything, not for a long while. His flame in her chest sputters and trembles and burns, burns as surely as her hands do on his back and his tears on her shoulder. But by the time he pulls back, it has steadied – grown solid and warm and unyielding despite his pain, his grief, despite how small it remains…

“Lian is waiting on my ship.”

“Your ship?” Roy rasps, startles, his hand calloused and desperate around her wrist as he leads her through their once-home, towards what remains of the medical bay.

He doesn’t know, she realizes, and she’s reached out and cupped his face in her hands before she can stop herself.

“What he did – when I told you I would come back for you, for the both of you, I meant it.”

“D-did Jade…?”

“She knows. I have offered her sanctuary, too.”

Tears begin to leak from his eyes again, but he does not seem to notice; she brushes them away with her thumb.

“It’ll – he needs – he can’t be near Gotham when he wakes up. It’ll – he’ll kill himself for that fucking city. Seeing Batman again will – he hasn’t woken up and I don’t know what I’d do if he did, Kori.”

And with that confession hanging like a prayer between them, he turns and leads her to their partner.

She’s too far gone with grief and rage to feel anything but cold when she finally sees him, so small and frail and tucked into a medical pod groaning under the burden of alien biology and age.

She’d – she’d added them to the ship’s interface. Done scans and submitted their biometrics. Even broken, the medical equipment in their ship was leagues above what they had access too anywhere else on Earth. She’d never expected them to – to have to use it. Not in such dire circumstances. It couldn’t handle dire circumstances – Roy had never been able to figure out the technology well enough to do any substantial repairs after the ship had originally crashed.

And – as poor an aide as it was, it is the only thing that has kept Jason alive.

“Can we move him?” Roy asks softly, voice pitched so low Kori almost doesn’t hear it.

She hesitates, only for a moment – and then something black blossoms in the air behind the medical pod. A woman steps out before Kori can startle herself into action – a woman she recognizes.

She smiles. Essence sneers, but even that does not hide the way her eyes dart to Jason’s form.

“Consider me a taxi. Mother’s orders.”

 She doesn’t accept a hug, of course – she makes them swear not to tell Jason she even showed up. But rather than removing Jason from life support for an uncertain amount of time, rather than jostling his injuries in a frantic flight across the entire fucking planet –

Essence sinks him into darkness, and out onto Kori’s ship, into the care of her Honor Guard. They’ve never had to work with human biology before, but Komand’r has already pre-loaded all relevant information onto the ship’s system, because she is nothing if not thorough; and Kori trusts her Honor Guard to keep him safe until she returns. Roy does not; Essence glares, but returns for him, and Kori –

It saves her time. She’s grateful for it.

The sooner she finishes her business – the better.

The League won’t see her coming.

X

And the most insulting part of it all  -

Is that they don’t.

When she alights in the Watchtower, they startle and draw back and look at her in about fourteen different shades of confusion, as if she has not made herself clear and as if they do not expect her. She props a hand on her hips, lifts her chin, and waits.

To their credit – well, no to Diana’s credit – she does not wait long; someone must alert Wonder Woman because she strides out into the Watchtower’s main entrance hall and heads straight for Kori. Her expression is grave and serious, but there is something soft in her eyes – she, too, is a warrior; she, too, loves Jason.

When she beckons, Kori follows.

There is no meeting, no conference, waiting for her in the room Wonder Woman leads her to. There is Superman, flexing his fists and looking furious. There is a single sheet of paper laid out on a table. And there is Batman’s cowl, or one of them, folded neatly beside it. She gives the paper a cursory glance; it is a record of the League’s vote to remove Batman. The margin of success is incredibly slim; it seems the League had been willing to watch their planet burn rather than let the man face the consequences of his actions.

She’s no need for the cowl – wouldn’t dare sully her hands with it, let alone take it with her where a traumatized Jason or Lian or Roy could find it and panic – and does not touch it. She folds the paper carefully, however, before sliding into a pocket. Then she turns to Superman.

“Where are your records of ceasing your adversarial actions against my family and allies?” She asks.

When she was new to Earth and young, she’d learned to weaponize her cheer. Friendliness, naivety. She’d used to be able to disarm her enemies with a smile and a bright question. She’s lost that skill – it’d had the unfortunate side effect of constraining her in others’ eyes. She doesn’t have it in her to maintain that façade in the best of circumstances; certainly not now.

He stiffens.

“The Red Hood is a – “

“Superman, understand – I am well within my rights to glass this planet from orbit for what Batman did, for what you supported. Either understand that you will face the consequences of your actions, or understand that the death of Earth itself is on you.”

He stiffens. Draws himself up. And then the screens on the conference room crackle to life.

Barbara Gordon is not in uniform. She is not hiding behind a digital mask. She looks tired. Angry. At her side stands a pale-faced Richard.

There is a moment of silence.

“I didn’t know you had – um. Married them. Congratulations.” Richard says softly. He doesn’t look at her, but he’s – she knows when he’s being genuine.

Something in her softens, and she nearly begins crying.

“We were going to wait to announce it until after I had returned to Earth. We wanted to…be certain we could survive the distance.”

His face crumples.

“I’m sorry. I – I’m sorry. Tell him I’m – please?”

“We’ll keep in touch. You can tell him yourself.” She says quietly. He nods, and then whispers another apology and flees. Barbara waits until he’s off-screen before sighing.

“I’ve already removed the parties of interest from any and all League watchlists. They are no longer priority, and no one has clearance to go after them. This is me informing you that I’ve been granted authority by Kyle Rayner to act as a proxy of sorts for Tamaran here on earth; I am going to be monitoring Bruce and the League for the foreseeable future, to be certain the terms of our…uh, surrender are upheld. Kori, Jason will be a mess when he wakes up. His partners are currently MIA. We’re working on finding them. It is not going very well.”

“I appreciate that. Thank you, Barbara.”

They do not have a good history. Kori would go so far as to say they dislike each other. But she’s never ever thought Barbara was untrustworthy, or questioned her competency, and having her standing behind her like she is is – it’s a blessing.

And – there it is again, a mention of Jason’s new partners. She hopes they are found; she knows she will love them. She tucks that fragile hope away in her breast, and lets out a slow breath.

“If that is all, thank you for your cooperation. Ensure nothing like this happens again.”

Wonder Woman sees her out. Superman does not so much as look at her.

Just before she slips into a zeta tube, Diana reaches out. She catches Kori’s hand, and squeezes. Just once, just for a moment. But it is enough.

When she returns to the ship, Jason’s siblings are huddled together near the entrance to the building with swollen eyes and frowns. She nods to them, but does not exchange pleasantries. Essence is long gone when she steps inside. Roy is passed out in a chair, a tear-stained Lian tucked into his arms.

Her Honor Guards are still working over Jason’s still form.

“Your Majesty.”

She breathes out, and presses shaking hands to the console in front of her. Behind her, the ship seals itself shut.

“How is he?”

“He’ll live.” The eldest of her Guard says frankly, without hesitation. She smiles, then, and feels her tears finally spill over.

“Your orders?”

“It is time to return home.”