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Your worst fears had come true. Somehow Ra’s had managed to track you and Damian down to where you were hiding in Gotham. You couldn’t remember how, but somehow you’d managed to get captured and were now hanging from the ceiling by your wrists before the Demon Head himself.
“Tell me where my heir is, and I will consider letting you live,” he offered in a tone that–had you not known him personally–you might have mistaken as kind.
“Never,” you spat in response.
“Then how about I sweeten the deal?” He prowled around you like a tiger in a cage. “You tell me where the boy is,” he snapped his fingers, “and I’ll let your darling little Robin live?”
Two League assassins dragged an unconscious Jason between them into the room, the toes of his boots dragging the floor. Blood dripped from his chin, exposing the beating he had to have taken before ending up here.
You scoffed, heart pounding with fear behind the brave face you were putting on. “Do you really expect that to work? Honestly, do you think we haven’t had a discussion about what to do if you idiots finally showed up?”
“Knowing the two of you, yes. Paranoia has always run freely in the Wayne household, but stupidity has hardly ever run in yours, my dear.” He turned those hate-filled eyes to look at Jason. “This boy has come back from the dead once already. Who is to say that he can’t do it again?” His gaze returned to yours. “And again … and again … I think you understand my meaning.”
Oh, his meaning was perfectly clear alright. If you didn’t tell him where your son was hiding, this bastard would kill the man you loved over and over until one of you broke. You weren’t able to hide the way your breathing picked up with your fear. “Go ahead,” you snarled through gritted teeth, hoping Jason would forgive you for the hell he was about to endure. “I’ll never tell you.”
“Very well.”
All it took was a simple wave of Ra’s hand, and then one of the assassins pulled a knife to cleanly slit Jason’s throat. To make matters all the more horrible, his teal eyes snapped open as he started choking on his own blood. Terror shone in the way those eyes started glowing green with the remnants of the Lazarus Pit that still flowed through him to this day.
Tears were streaming down your face. “I’m sorry,” you sobbed, resolve crumbling as you watched him suffer. “I’m so sorry, Jason.”
“Sweetheart, wake up,” a distant voice pleaded. You could have sworn it sounded like Jason, but that wasn’t possible. His vocal cords had been severed. “Baby, it’s just a dream. You gotta wake up. Don’t leave me like this.”
“Jason?” you croaked, voice rough with your sorrow.
Everything around you started feeling distant, as if you were the one dying rather than him.
“Mama?” That was Damian’s scared little voice.
But how? you wondered. He’s not here. Dimly, you started to become aware of a weight around your hands as if someone was squeezing them.
Then suddenly everything shifted and you were gasping for air. Eyes flying around like a madwoman, you tried to understand what was happening. You were wrapped in Jason’s arms, back against his chest with his legs around you though one of them looked bent strangely. Damian’s little hands were clenching yours desperately.
“That’s it,” Jason murmured, voice distorted by the modulator in his helmet. “Just breathe.”
“What–” You were racked with another bout of coughing. “Happened?”
“Scarecrow snuck up behind us. Fear gas,” he explained in a clipped tone he only used when he was stressed but trying to remain professional. “My leg is busted, so I couldn’t carry you. Everyone is busy, and the bike’s busted. We had no way to get you to the cure, so you had to ride it out.”
“Damian, come here,” you ordered desperately, tugging at his hand to pull him into your lap so you could wrap him in as tight a hug you could manage.
“What did you–”
Damian’s question was cut off by Batman’s voice over the comms, “The last of the inmates have been apprehended. I’m headed to your location in the batmobile.”
So you did the only thing you could: hold your boys as tightly as you can and wait. Discussions could be had once you were all in the safety of the batcave.