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Chapter Text

When Jason had spent the twenty dollars he had pickpocketed off some random rich man on a fortune teller last year, he had left the place scoffing and irritated at his waste of money, because there was no way his fortune would be that good.

Now he wants to go back and apologize. Maybe even get Bruce to give her some more cash.

Because his life was perfect. Not only did he have a home, but he was also rich, and his new guardian just happened to be the Batman. He was the new Robin. His life literally couldn't get any sweeter!

Ailavera loved it even more than he did, somehow. His daemon would fly to the highest points in the Wayne manor and slither into the smallest cracks she could find in the Batcave. She couldn't go out on patrol with him, had to stay hidden a building or two behind, and at first it had hurt to be that far apart but they had figured it out. It helped that she hadn't settled yet, and she could turn into an owl and follow from above, unseen.

Even with the little bumps on the way, he still loved being Robin, still loved being Bruce's ward. It was amazing, and he didn't even have to worry about feeding himself or finding someone safe to sleep.

He had been going out as Robin for a few months before Dick Grayson came back to visit. Dick was a few years older than him, maybe three or four, and he had his own crime fighting group called the Titans and honestly Jason really wanted to meet them, because he's seen them in action on TV and he kind of idolized them, Dick most of all because that was his brother, now. So cool.

What Bruce hadn't told him, though, was that he and Dick had apparently had a falling out.

And so did Jason and Dick, somehow, because Dick takes one look at him, in his new Robin costume, scoffs, and walks away.

His dreams almost shattered, right then and there.

Dick stays at the manor for a week, and Jason avoids him for the first half after that. Ailavera is his warning system, and whenever she stiffens he gets to moving. He doesn't know why Dick doesn't like him, but he knows when he's not wanted.

So much for having an older brother.

The manor goes from his castle back to Gotham's alleys, and he falls back into the motions of checking around each corner, watching out for whoever is coming his way. He feels a bit trapped, and Ailavera, who's favorite creatures to shift through consisted of every type of bear imaginable, now only ever appeared as animals small enough to fit in his pocket or on his shoulder. A mouse became one of her favorites.

He thinks Alfred was the one who notices, first, because he was in the courtyard when Dick's daemon flew out through a window and perched on the fountain in the middle of the yard.

He stares at her, a beautiful falcon with streaks of black through her feathers. He didn't know her name, and Dick wasn't even around for him to ask. What was she doing here, anyway? "Hello."

Jason blinks, looks around for a moment before settling back on the other daemon. Ailavera, who had been curling around his fingers as a death adder, raises her head and hisses, more curious than threatened.

Had Dick's daemon just talked to him?

That… that wasn't normal. Daemons didn't talk to anyone besides their humans, in most circumstances. It wasn't unheard of- those who were truly in love usually had sociable daemons, as did close siblings and twins. Still, it wasn't normal.

"Uh…" he glances down at Ailavera, who just blinks slowly at him. "Hello? I, uh, is this okay?"

"I'm the one talking to you." The falcon chirps, ruffles her feathers, and she must be settled, Jason realizes, because Jason's only ever seen her as a falcon. He's not surprised, Ailavera's due to settle at any time too. "I just wanted to apologize for my other half."

Jason blinks, because he had not been expecting that. "What?"

"The name Robin… it means a lot to us." The daemon explains, flapping her wings, and Ailavera copies her, a falcon now resting on his shoulder. She's never been a falcon before. "The colors are the colors of our family. His mother called him her little robin. He just wasn't… prepared to give it away just yet."

Jason almost scrambles up, eyes wide. "He doesn't have to." Ailavera flaps her own wings in agreement. "We didn't know, we can change our outfit, our name-"

"It's okay." The daemon coo'd, shifting slightly. "We had just needed a little time. It looks good on you, little robin. It suits you."

Then she takes flight and disappears back to the room she had came from.

The next day, Dick enters the living room, sits next to him, and says, "Aellamoire." His daemon perches on his shoulder and chirps at Jason. "Her name. I mostly call her Aella."

"Vera." Jason responds, and his own daemon rolls over, a lumbering giant panda. She crawls her way on top of the couch and crushes him. "It's Ailavera when she does stuff like this-!"

Dick laughs, Aella nips Vera's ear, and Jason thinks he might just like his brother.

(He visits Titan's Tower often, plays video games with Cyborg and Beast Boy and becomes a live test dummy for Starfire, Koriand'r, even though she seems worried about hurting him. Dick and Raven always step in before he actually gets hurt, but he does it every time he visits and the Titans become a second family to him, too.)

Of course, it didn't last.

Jason dies, he dies in a blazing, fiery explosion. He dies with his hands tied behind him, beaten and bloodied. He dies with the last sounds he hears being a cackling ha ha HA and Vera's pained whimpers. The bastard had put his hands on her, had touched his daemon, and Jason had spasmed and cried and screamed and all that he got for it was a metal bat against flesh and no one coming to save him.

Then he died.

And when he came back, his first coherent thought was 'the Titans would have saved me'.

The next was 'Vera'.

He claws his way out of his coffin and there, he can faintly see her, golden dust swirling around the grass blades, swimming around him before coalescing into a singular form.

He realizes then that she had settled.

He wanders on his own for a while. There's something wrong in his head, a vengeful rage that wants to claw out and draw blood, but then Vera comes close, brushes against him and licks his cheek and he calms down. Vera shouldn't be here, he knows. He died, which means she died, had turned to dust, and he's pretty sure she isn't supposed to still be here.

"When have the rules ever stopped us before?" Vera asks, head on his lap. They're sitting in an alleyway, leaning against the wall, and no one messes with them because Vera is big and looks mean. 

"Something's wrong." Jason feels wrong, feels wrong and looks wrong and his eyes are green now. They used to be blue, like Vera's. They turn blue when Vera's close by, go back to green when she's further away. "I'm, I'm not me anymore."

"You are." Vera yawns, nose brushing against his chest. "I'm all the proof you need."

But she was different too. At the beginning, it felt like she was made out of dust, barely holding herself together. As time passed she became more solid, but their connection had been weakened. She could move further away from him, and it was like they had been severed, even though he knows they haven't.

He had died. He had died and the body had released the soul but then the body came back and the soul had been pulled back in.

He figures out what's wrong with him when Talia tries to recruit him, and she doesn't say it, but Jason knows what the pit is, can put two and two together. 

Talia stretches out her hand, the tiger by her side strong and graceful. Vera had growled and Talia had looked just a little surprised and Jason had turned her away. Talia hadn't expected Vera to be there, hadn't thought she'd still exist, and she shouldn't. The pit should've only brought back his body, especially after he had been dead for so long. That's why this rage didn't affect Vera, and that's why Vera can stop it from affecting him.

The soul was more powerful than the body. With it, he had control.

He doesn't go back to the manor. He had thought about it, had longed to, but the thought slipped his mind the moment he looked at the nearest TV and saw that Joker had escaped from Gotham.

That Joker was still alive.

Something in his heart broke then, and Vera howled as Jason realized that not only had the Joker tortured and killed him, but that his father didn't do anything to avenge him.

He learns about the new Robin a few weeks later, when he and Batman defeat Poison Ivy. He had been in the ground for sixth months, sixth months. That's all the time it took for Batman to get a new sidekick.

He suddenly realizes how Dick feels.

He looks up the Titans next. They're still kicking it, but Robin had disappeared, been replaced with Nightwing, who was speculated to be the same person. He swipes through the articles on his stolen phone and glares at the pictures of Dick and Bruce, at the headlines that talk of the estranged family who grew closer after the death of Jason Todd.

Dick was always the favorite child. The golden boy. The one who could do no wrong. Jason had idolized him, and the new Robin probably does too. Dick probably welcomed the new Robin with open arms as well, unlike him. If Dick had been the one who died, the one who was tortured by the Joker and killed so brutally, Batman would've acted different. He would've killed the Joker, avenged his first son. His favorite son, not the one he took in out of pity after watching him steal the bat car's wheels.

There's green light on the phone, and he realizes his eyes are glowing. Vera isn't there- she disappears from time to time, like an untethered soul being forced to wander. Maybe if she was there he wouldn't be so impulsive, but she wasn't and the anger was boiling over.

Jason's been alive for a few months now, trying to figure out where he wanted to go with his life. Even though it left a sour taste in his mouth he still wanted to fight crime, which is why he rented an apartment in Crime Alley with some stolen money. It wasn't hard to make his own outfit either, he used to stitch up the Robin garb when it got torn. Vera suggests the name Red, because it's not blue or green and red hides the blood, and he had chosen the Hood because it hid his identity better than the small mask ever could.

He had become a gangster, the Kingpin of Crime Alley, and Batman was glaring down at him but he hadn't found him yet and Jason wanted to be the one that made introductions.

Maybe sending him a video of Dick in pain or a box with the new Robin's head in it would suffice.

He finds Nightwing in Bludhaven, because that's Dick's new crime spot when he really wants to go ham, apparently. It's a terrible idea, having his own solo city, because anyone who hates Nightwing or anyone he's associated with knows that he is the sole protector of Bludhaven and if they want a piece of him the best time to get it would be while he's alone. Which, honestly, he rarely ever is because Koriand'r drops by regularly, sleeps over regularly (he knew something was going on there-) and Dick only patrols Bludhaven every other week, between the Titans and Gotham.

Still, he catches Nightwing by surprise, the only reason his punch didn't do real damage was because Aella screeched in warning and Nightwing shifted out of the way.

"Red Hood?" He asks, Aella flying overhead and out of reach. He wouldn't even see her if he didn't know to look- their daemons always hide during patrol, so no one knows what they look like. "What a pleasant surprise! Welcome to my friendly little city-"

Dick's always been good at riling people up, and even in the dirty alleyway he still manages to put on a show, even if he is confused. Jason's surprised he's heard about the Red Hood, Batman must have told him.

Jason had a plan, a very well thought out plan that involved some level of harm and a well thought out speech to Batman, but it all went down the bin when Dick opened his mouth. He missed him, he realized. He wasn't mad at Dick, not at all. He was mad at Bruce and Dick was the best way to make him pay, better than the Replacement, even, because Bruce has known Dick for longer. It'll hurt more.

He feels Vera getting closer and closer, having followed him whenever he moved just a bit to far for comfort. He hadn't told her what he was doing, just expected her to know, but the closer she gets the more Jason questions himself.

He starts the fight with his fists because he doesn't want to use his gun, catching Dick in the gut and sending him back. Aellamoire is perched on a fire escape, almost bathed in shadows, silent. Dick shifts his weight and goes on the defensive.

"I must admit, Hood, this is a little outside of your jurisdiction." Dick shifts to the side, trying to edge around him. Trying to get him to talk, maybe. "Looking for a tour guide? I do know the city pretty well-"

He jumps back when Jason lunges, and it's easy, predicting what Dick will do next. They've sparred together too many times to count, and he's not prepared for it, for Red Hood to know his combat style. It's easy, knocking him to the ground. He just uses his weight against him (though Jason is now bulkier than Dick, who remained slim), buckles his weaker leg and rests his knee on his neck.

He doesn't know what to do next, though, because Vera is there, right at the edge of the alley, and he suddenly doesn't understand what the purpose of this is. Why would he hurt his brother just to get back at his worthless father?

He can't make a decision, though, because Aella screeches, a sound that's half shock, half joy, and she dives towards the entrance of the alleyway, slamming into Vera, who still sat hidden in the shadows.

Both he and Dick grunted at that, the two daemons colliding feeling like an electric shock to the chest. Jason scrambled up, away from Dick, and he expects Vera to run but she isn't. Instead she's rubbing her head against Aellamoire's, and Aella is cooing and flapping her wings and whispering "Ailavera Ailavera Ailavera-" over and over again and Dick's watching the two, face torn, before he looks back at Jason. "...Jay?"

Jason almost runs. He jolts away, towards the daemons, and his hand comes up, comes up to push Aella away, to shove her away from Vera, but then that stupid ha ha HA is there and he can't do that, can't do that to Dick, so he lowers his hand and waits for the inevitable. 

He gets a hug instead.

…So maybe he had missed his family.

Not Bruce. Never again Bruce. He had lost that privilege, but Alfred? Dick? The Titans? He had missed them all, and the Replacement isn't that bad either. Even understands why he will not, under any circumstances, talk to Bruce. Why he won't even enter the manor when he's in town. Instead Tim finds out his address by snooping and visits him, because he had been a single child before Bruce has picked him up and while he has Dick, Dick is an adult while Tim just reached his teens and Jason is a happy medium at the age of 18, or 17, or 19, he's not really sure after dying.

He really tries to hate the Replacement, really does. Even threatens to kill the kid to drive him away, to make Tim hate him.

Vera ruins that though, because she just snorts after he's done and says, "he doesn't mean it." And Tim nods like it's normal, sitting easy on his ratty couch, a porcupine in his lap, calm as she could be. Tim looks so small, is so small, just a little kid in a big world.

"Her name is Ramona, but I just say Mona." Tim replies, like that's the appropriate response after being threatened. Jason wonders if he got lessons from Dick or something on how to handle him. Dick would be the one to know, besides Vera.

His daemon is cackling, barking, and Jason sends the wolf a glare. "I like him."

"I don't care." He did care.

"We're keeping him."

"We're not keeping anything."

"Ailavera, little pup." Vera ignores him, stalks forward until she's in front of Tim. Tim freezes, afraid of touching her, and Jason tenses as Vera cranes her neck forward until her snout touches the tip of Ramona's tiny nose. "Ignore my human, we love you already."

"No we don't."

"If Dick loves you, so does Jason." Vera completely ignores him, backing away slightly. "And if Aellamoire loves you, so do I."

Jason is honest-to-god embarrassed now. Tim just beams as Mona shakes her quills and Jason decides that the next time he dies, he's going to have a long chat with God to find out why he thought it would be a good idea for humans to have their souls on their sleeves revealing things that they themselves aren't even sure of yet.

Vera winks at him. Tim grins. Jason gives the replacement a chance.

He gets properly slouched for his twenty-first birthday, and while he doesn't remember it Dick took a video of Vera flirting with a fire hydrant and Jason plays it whenever Vera gets on his nerves. He gets drunk enough that Dick takes him back to the manor, and Jason allows it because Bruce is away and apparently they have a new brother or something.

Well, not new, they had apparently known about him for half a year now, but Jason hasn't gotten around to seeing him yet.

He wakes up the next day with a hangover and wordlessly thanks Alfred for the tea and pain killers on his bedside table.

The first thing he notices when he meets the new kid is that he definitely is Bruce's biological son. They look scarily similar.

The second thing he notices is that his daemon had already settled.

Which, weird, because they don't settle before someone hits their teens and Jason's pretty sure Damian is, like, eleven.

The kid in question is trying to get Dick to show him how to do a certain acrobatic move, and he almost feels Vera recoil when he sees a black panther curled around Aellamoire, both not paying attention to what their humans are doing.

(It's always amusing, watching daemons compared to humans. Humans bicker while daemons cuddle, humans shake hands while daemons hiss at each other. If you want to know how people feel about each other, watch their daemons, not them.)

He has one second to notice Vera's haunches rise before she trots over and noses Aella's head with her snout. The panther sideyes her, staring as Aella pecks Vera's snout affectionately and flutters her wings. The panther's haunches are the ones that rise next.

Oh God, the daemons are jealous.

He files that piece of blackmail away for later and makes himself known before the souls start fighting each other. "God, it's a mini Bruce."

Damian turns to look at him, wrinkles his nose in disdain. His panther, on the other hand, tilts her head curiously. He turns to Dick. "This is Todd?"

Ah, he's a brat. "I am Jason." He says before Dick can say anything. He gestures to Vera, who has laid down perpendicular to the panther, nose inches away from her and Aella. "That is Vera."

Damian's nose wrinkles some more. "Vera?"

"Ailavera." He corrects, because most daemons have names longer than Vera and it's actually a bit disrespectful to not give a daemon's full name when you first meet someone. He has manners.

Vera doesn't. "She's hogging Aellamoire."

"She was here first." The panther snaps back, half playful and half guarded. Aella turns to the panther and nips at her, like a mother daemon would. The panther bows her head, still looking defiant.

Damian crosses his arms. "Bri." He warns, and the panther sighs and unravels herself from Aella. Vera makes a happy noise, but Aella just flaps her wings and flies back to Dick's shoulder. Jason snorts and Vera snaps at him, irritated. "Todd, this is my daemon, formally named Medeabriar."

It’s very formal, how he speaks. Jason guesses it's due to his mother, Talia. He wonders if he would've met Damian earlier, if he had taken Talia's invitation. 

Vera and Medeabriar stare at each other, sizing each other up. Vera is a big wolf, but Medeabriar is a big panther. They're both a dark, midnight black, and their eyes both shine a bright blue. They're very similar, actually.

Medeabriar bats at Vera's face with a paw. Vera jumps back, all four paws leaving the ground at the same time. The room tenses.

Medeabriar does it again.

Then she bolts, twisting around and sprinting away. Vera is hot on her tail, and Jason had a split second of panic before realizing that he could feel Vera's happiness and neither daemon looked too angry.

Damian scowled, like he didn't like the idea of Medeabriar playing around with another daemon like that, like it was below him, like he wasn't a kid. He turned to Jason. "Care to fight, Todd?"

Damian is the only one that doesn't randomly show up at his apartment. He never does, and Jason's pretty sure he doesn't know where he lives because he's never even speaks about it, at all. Like he doesn't want to be close to Jason, even though their daemons get along just fine.

Tim mentions it, when he comes over. Mona is grabbing at Vera's tail, the red wolf a puppy compared to Vera. Mona's due to settle almost any time, now, though it could take a few more years before she does. Daemons settle from anywhere between 13 and 21, they have time.

"Damian is still pushing everyone away." He says. "Like, I know it takes time but something is wrong and he won't tell anyone what it is. He and Briar don't get along."

Jason frowns, because while Vera annoys the living daylights out of him they get along. "What? How can they not get along?"

"Damian doesn't approve of Medeabriar." Mona explains, chuffing when Vera's tail whacks her in the face. She's a swan seconds later, hitting Vera's face with her wing. "He doesn't think they deserve each other."

Well, that made no sense. "They're literally two parts of a whole, how-?"

Tim shrugs. "Damian won't elaborate. He just pushes everyone away. Even Dick." Tim pauses, holds out his hands, and a rabbit hops up into his arms. "I think he's just in denial. He's mentioned how he was raised, he doesn't know how to be a kid."

Jason frowns, watches Mona crawl up Tim's shirt and wrap around Tim's neck, little ferret nose twitching, and wonders.

He takes a shot at it a week later when he finds Damian near Crime Alley beating up random gangsters.

"Boy Wonder." He calls out, and Damian knocks out the last gangster and turns to him, teeth bared. "This is my jurisdiction, you know."

"Go away, Todd." He turns away, whistles, and Medeabriar appears from the shadows, sticking low to the ground.

"Let's talk first." Jason cuts in front of him, careful not to touch his daemon. Vera appears next to him, blocking the way. "What's up with you?"

Damian jerks back, face disgusted. "What? Nothing."

"Bullshit." He responds, and Vera stalks forward and does something weird.

She brushes against Damian, rubbing her head against his leg before following with her entire body. Jason's own body tenses, muscles going taunt as electricity zaps down his spine. He makes some kind of strained noise, and Damian looks shocked, looks between her and Jason because daemons don't do this, don't touch other people, even if it's not skin to skin. That's his soul, what was she doing?

But Vera just looks at him, and he understands, feels her gaze, feels the trust me, and trusts her.

Then, surprisingly, Medeabriar walks up to Vera and does the same, brushing against the wolf. Damian watches, silent, as Vera nudges the panther with her snout and then licks her cheek.

It's quiet, silent, tense.

"Bri isn't supposed to look like that."

Jason's head snaps up. Damian's not looking at him, eyes stuck on Vera, who's still pressed up against him. "What?"

"Medeabriar. She isn't supposed to be a panther. She never got to settle." Damian finally looks up, and his eyes seem to flash green. "Mother and grandfather continued the tradition, when I was younger, a process that can make daemons settle earlier than normal, and into whatever animal the person performing the procedure wants. Grandfather has a lion. Mother has a tiger. Bri was turned into a panther."

Medeabriar huffs, head tilted down in what looks like shame. She doesn't talk much, and Jason wonders if that was also trained into her.

What Damian said finally settles, and the idea of it is like cold water splashing over him. They forced Medeabriar to settle into something she wasn't meant to be, forced Damian's soul into the wrong form. No wonder he doesn't approve of her, why he doesn't think they deserve each other. Damian doesn't deserve his soul being wrong and Bri doesn't deserve being forced to settle into something she isn't.

That familiar anger washed over him, and he wanted to go to the League of Assassins and kill them all.

"Felines are worshiped all around the world." Damian states, reciting it like something he's heard many times over. "They are a daemon you can be proud of."

Bri wilts, sinking to the ground with a mournful wail, and Vera drops with her, curling up next to her as the panther practically shakes in sorrow. Damian watches it, face blank.

"I'll never know what she was supposed to be." He whispers. "She used to turn into the most beautiful of birds and snakes. Mother didn't approve of them, but she hated being any kind of mammal. Always said it was too restricting." He sniffles, just slightly, as Bri mewls next to Vera. "The process did something. Grandfather said it was a side effect, but father said it was called severing here. You know father's been severed from his daemon, that his daemon is always hiding. Father called mine a partial severing. Grayson and Drake are always with their daemons, but Bri can leave me whenever she wants."

It doesn't look like she wants to, though. She yowls, jumping up to barrel into Damian, knocking him down to the ground. Damian falls against the wall as Bri drapes herself over his lap, still silent. In fact, Jason's only ever heard Bri say a single sentence, when they first met.

Vera gets up, walks over to him and nudges his hand. Jason brushes it over her head before getting the hint, making his way over to Damian and sitting down next to him. Vera curled up on his other side.

"When I died, your mother used the pit to revive me." He starts, looking at the wall on the opposite side of the alley. Damian doesn't say anything, but he's listening. "She waited a long time before doing so, though. I don't think she wanted Vera coming back with me, just wanted to use my soulless husk of a body. Vera did revive with me, though, we were still connected, but the connection was weaker, for some reason. Whatever it is, it allows us to be seperated, allows us to go far away from each other. It's like a partial sever too."

Damian glances at him and Vera, as if trying to figure out if it's true. Bri croons softly and Damian's eyes water, if only slightly. Vera nudges Jason, and Jason wraps an arm around Damian's shoulders, pulls him a bit closer.

Vera lays her head on Jason's lap and Jason thinks that they can figure this out.

"Ailavera, no!"

Vera will be the death of him.

He's in Wayne manor when it happens, because Damian's returned from the monks and Dick just finished a month long mission in Singapore and he kind of misses them, just a bit.

Everything is going fine, Tim and Damian are elsewhere and he's with Dick talking about whatever and Bruce is out of town because that's the only reason he would step foot here otherwise and it's all going hunky dory until Vera pads up from across the room and presses her nose into Dick's hand.

Jason chokes on his spit and jerks, because it's feels weird. His soul is touching another human being, but this time it doesn't hurt, it's just weird and warm and a bit nice if he thinks about it. Vera removes her nose and gives him an unimpressed look as he gasps and grabs his chest. Dick is frozen next to him, eyes wide as they flicker between Jason and Vera. Aellamoire is perched nearby, wings outstretched and also frozen in shock.

Jason takes a deep breath. "Ailavera-!"

His daemon just rolls her eyes and stretches up to lick Dick's cheek. Aella slips off her perch in shock, landing on the couch with a surprised thump.

"Vera!"

There's a wolfish laugh, and Jason knows that daemons will talk to other people, but touch other people? Much more rare. He's only really heard of it with siblings, especially ones that grew up together, and of course twins. They, though, are not blood siblings. Is it him? Because he died and Vera died and now they don't care about the rules? Good God.

That's when Tim comes in, holding Mona in his arms. He's grinning like crazy, almost bouncing up and down, and Jason's never seen Mona in that form before, never seen Tim walk like that, so sure of himself.

He connects the dots but Dick speaks first. "She settled?"

Mona jumps up, out of Tim's arms and onto the couch. She struts past Aella, who's spread eagle (or falcon) on the couch, still in shock, and preens under the attention. "I think I look gorgeous."

Vera licks her ear. "You sure do, little pup."

The red fox daemon preens even harder, and Tim grins at them. It's enough to distract Jason from Vera's antics. "I thought about what you said, about Damian." He starts. "And I realized how it must feel, watching Mona switch forms and wishing Briar could, and we both decided that it was time to settle and it just happened."

Dick stands up and hugs him, ecstatic, and Jason does a slow clap and grin, which is as good as a hug as any for him.

"It's a good look on you, Mona." Jason compliments, and Vera chuffs because he never compliments her like that. "Ah, I wish Ailavera acted more like you, Ramona, you cannot imagine what she just did." 

Jason's daemon scoffs at him, tail swishing back and forth as she trots over to Tim.

"Don't." Jason warns. 

She ignores him, of course, and brushes against Tim's leg like a cat. It sends a sharp spike of something through him, and he wavers and shakes his head. His daemon grins, wolfish.

Tim just looks confused.

But then it gets worst, it seems like that was the cue or something, because Mona takes it as one and hops onto Dick's lap, curling up there like he was Tim, and Aella squawks, completely thrown for a loop.

Then the falcon shrugs, like she's given up, before flapping her wings and landing on Jason's shoulder, talons digging into his shirt.

It feels almost as weird as when Vera touched Dick.

Jason looks at his brothers, beyond surprised, and they looked just as confused as him, even though he's pretty sure they practically just switched daemons, like that was something you could do. Vera cackles again, pushing Tim back until he sits on the couch and resting her head on his lap. Tim holds his hands up, almost afraid to touch her.

Jason has no clue what's going on.

Ramona is snickering, the fox is snickering, and Jason blames Vera for all of this.

But… on the other hand… he isn't not enjoying it.

So it all goes wrong.

But everything goes wrong eventually.

They're about a month away from celebrating Tim graduating high school two years early when Batman gets called to the Watchtower and things go to shit.

Jason's heard of Leviathan before, a startup made for superhero haters. He was, of course, invited, because everyone knows the Red Hood hates Batman but the Red Hood doesn't hate other superheroes, and even if you don't count his brothers he's not letting anyone get close to the Titans. Actually, add Young Justice into that too. They're under his protection even if they don't know it, and Leviathan is all about destroying them all and also hypnotizing everyone.

He grabbed a pamphlet, said he'd think about it, and meets with Deathstroke every now and then just to keep tabs on it. 

(It's very hard, not putting a bullet through his head. He knows what he did to the Titans, to Dick. Once he's done being useful, Jason is killing him.)

It all goes to shit when Tim disappears and Alfred finds video of him being drugged right outside the Leviathan building.

Jason puts two and two together, remembers just how much Leviathan hates Batman in particular, and recalls a hit list of good people to take hostage to lure Batman to them. Robin hadn't been on that list, but Jason should've realized it anyway.

So here they are, sneaking into the Leviathan building to save their brother.

And by sneaking, he means walking through the front door.

"If it isn't the Wayne brothers!" One of the higher personnel came out to greet them, looking pleasantly surprised. "Richard and Jason Wayne, let me just say all of us here at Leviathan are happy to have you back, Jason."

Jason nods and shakes his hand after Dick, stuffing it back into his suit pocket after. All of Gotham had known he had died, and their story for explaining how he came back had been hidden from the media, claimed to be too personal to share. The media put up a fit, but his new scars made it believable enough.

"Pleasure to meet you, Dr. Knobes." Dick smiles his winning grin and Aellamoire chirps a hello. Next to him Ailavera bows her head in greeting, on her best behavior. In civilian form they had to be. Had to act like normal (rich) people. Had to act like every other person and their daemon in public. And in public, a daemon doesn't talk to anyone and no one talks to another daemon. No one even gets close to another daemon. Especially not someone who could easily press a lawsuit. A kiwi poked out of Dr. Knobes' pocket. "We've heard a lot of interesting things about Leviathan, and both me and my brother are looking to invest in some new businesses. Would you be willing to take us on a tour?"

Dr. Knobes' eyes spark. "Of course! Please, this way!"

They follow him further inside the building and Jason wishes he was once again Damian's size so that he could have his part of the plan. That included crawling through vents and generally being the ninja he is, following them in uniform while also looking for Tim, who was definitely here because when Damian got here he found Ramona outside, pressed up against the side of the building.

She had told Damian that they had taken Tim inside, and she had stayed hidden because she would've given him away as Tim Drake. She couldn't go far from him, though, and their connection was already strained as it was. Medeabriar is with her now, as Damian navigates the vents.

"Leviathan is for those who feel lost, for those who don't know where to go or what to do." Dr. Knobes was saying. "We've helped thousands of people fix the problems in their life, and we plan to help many more."

"So you're a miracle worker?" Jason said, skeptical, because they were pretending to want to buy shares. "Or is there something else here?"

"It's not miracles, Mr. Wayne." Dr. Knobes corrects, and Jason grimaces at the name. "It's just hard work. We help people who come to us. We can't provide the impossible, we just help people achieve their goals, and once we help them, they help us."

"So it's a membership." Dick says agreeably, when he means to say it's a cult. Dr. Knobes nods as they push through into a room with dozens of cubicles, all full of people typing into computers. "Do you help these people with actual labor, or is it more like advice? If so, what's the net profit for each new member?"

Dick is much better at this than he is.

"Sorry to be crude, Richard Grayson, but I'm sure you don't actually care about this, do you?" Dr. Knobes smiles, a bit cold.

Jason doesn't get it, for a second, so caught off guard that he pauses. Dr. Knobes is still smiling, but the people in the cubicles have stood up, are crowding them, and Jason prepares for a fight before remembering that he's Jason Todd, not the Red Hood. Oh fuck.

"Excuse me?" Dick, credit to him, doesn't miss a beat. "What's going on here? What do you mean?"

"I found it a bit odd, Richard Grayson, that you happened to come here, unannounced, on the day after I happened to acquire a very valuable item. A lure, you may say." Dr. Knobes looks way too smug, and Jason wants to punch him. "And it's none other than Richard Grayson, one of the few people on the list of suspected secret identities for Batman."

Oh. Oh.

Oh. That's kind of funny. Jason would laugh if they weren't in such deep shit.

Dick did laugh. He snorted. "I'm flattered, really, but I am not the Batman." The employees crowd in, and Aella flutters nervously. Vera raises her hackles. "I wish."

Dr. Knobes didn't look impressed nor believing. He waved his arm and multiple hands grabbed Jason, pulling him to the ground, and he struggled, really did, but he wasn't the Red Hood right now, and the only way they could get through this was by playing the part and not getting themselves found out.

Damian was around here somewhere. It'd be fine.

Vera growls, weaving through the crowds to keep from being touched and Aella jumps into the air, flying up to a high shelf before getting bombarded by the other flying daemons. Vera snarled at the daemons that came close, and it ended in a standoff.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Dick is still doing pretty good at playing the part, even with his face flush against the floor. "I am not Batman, what the hell are you doing-!"

"The coincidences are just too big, Richard Grayson." Dr. Knobes looks at Jason. "I suggest you tell your daemon to heel, Jason Todd."

Suddenly the Wayne name meant nothing, huh? Jason isn't surprised. He whistles, unwilling to say Vera's name in front of all of them, and Vera lowers her hackles and brushes against the floor. 

"Good. Now, Richard Grayson, we can find out if you are telling the truth quite easily, as long as you cooperate. For the sake of your brother, I hope you do."

Dick glares and Aella screeches and Jason feels a little bit pleased, just a little at the protectiveness. They're pulled to their feet and marched along, Vera walking behind and Aella flying back to Dick's shoulder.

They had a part to play. It wasn't all over just yet.

They're taken to an employee only room and Jason's reminded of an evil lair, with rows upon rows of computers, all with different text scrolling passed it. People stared at each computer, creating new propaganda and posters and sayings. There was a camera too, and Jason caught a glance of Tim's face.

They pass a lab with what he's sure is kryptonite and watch as armed guards unlock the next door, which leads to a long hallway. At the end of that hallway is a room, which Dr. Knobes unlocks. Once open, they're pushed inside.

Tim sits on a chair in the middle of the room, hands tied behind him and roughed up the usual amount for these kind of interrogations. One eye is swollen and the other is a bit glazed, but when Tim sees them he doesn't give anything away. Doesn't show any surprise besides, "The Waynes?"

It throws Dr. Knobes off balance enough for the idea that they've got the wrong guys to stick in his mind. One of the men that were already inside punch the side of his face, and Tim goes with the punch, lessening the force but still snapping his head to the side.

Vera, of course, is having none of that.

She growls, pointed at the man who hit Tim, and Jason wishes she just stayed with the plan but it's almost like the pit got her, not Jason, and she looks a second away from pouncing when there's a cock of a gun and he sees two barrels. One point at Jason.

The other at Vera.

"Here's the test." Dr. Knobes gestured at the room. "Who do we shoot, Richard Grayson? Robin, or your brother?"

He hates it here.

Dick seems genuinely surprised at that, and Jason knows he can't answer, because he would have to pick Jason and that might get Tim killed. Damian was around here somewhere, he had to of seen. He had to be ready.

Dick hesitates for a second to long, and Dr. Knobes gestured to Vera. The man holding a gun to his daemon winds back his leg and kicks Vera straight in the ribs. Jason jerks, coughs up nothing, tilting to the side before Dick catches him. "Jason!"

The guy doesn't stop there, though. He kicks her one more time and then grabs her, two hands grabbing handfuls of fur.

Jason's whole body goes tense.

He screams.

It's worse then he remembers, because of course it is. It's painful, like his heart is about to burst, like his lungs aren't working and he's suffocating and drowning at the same time, his nerves all fire at the same time, sending wave after wave of pain and wrongness through his body, and his brain is screaming at him to make it stop, even thought that was his brain's job, and in the back of his mind all he can hear is ha ha HA.

His eyes were open, he realized, but he was still blind, flashes of white flickering behind his lids. He blinks, the white fading to color and motion, and he blinks again. There's something touching him, fur in his hands, and he turns his head.

Ailavera is there, both of them curled up around themselves and each other. Vera's head is hidden under Jason's arm, something Vera hasn't done since they were little. Aella stands a few inches away, as if guarding them. A few feet away a battle's being fought.

Damian had finally arrived, cutting through the men with brutal efficiency. Tim had been untied and was now quiet literally bashing heads in. Jason's pretty sure he might break Batman's no killing rule with how hard he was hitting them.

Dick is in front of him, shielding him, and Aella caws for his attention when she sees he's awake. Dick spins around, drops down and cradles his head with his hands. "Thank God you're awake. Jay…"

Jason takes a second to breath before sitting himself up. Dick helps him, and moving helps, surprisingly. It helps and Vera whimpers and Jason picks the big wolf up, holding her weight and waiting for the world to feel right again.

They're at his apartment.

He just groans and lets them in.

Vera immediately ruins everything, pouncing at Bri but missing the panther and barreling into Damian instead. Jason shudders at the feeling, much more used to it now then he was before. Ramona does a little cackle and grabs at Vera's tail like she used to before she settled. Aella hopped off her perch and onto Vera, nipping at her ear.

Jason looks at his brothers and shrugs. Dick grins. "Pirates of the Caribbean!"

Damian raises an eyebrow. "Elaborate, Grayson."

"Drunk man named after a bird, Dami."

"So, you after a party." Aella looks around a manmade perch Jason did not add just for her. Her feathers ruffle, pleased.

"Cinematic masterpiece." Jason corrects, because he loves pirates, used to pretend he was one before becoming Robin. “Come on, you’ll enjoy it.”

They watch Pirates of the Caribbean. Damian finds it stupid. They watch the rest of the series.

Chapter Text

It took Jason a few days to notice it.

That was no fault besides his own. He had been getting sloppy, exhausting days making his vision blur and head spin enough that he doesn't even notice the difference in his main apartment when he gets back home.

There's reason for it, though. He's in charge of Crime Alley, which is a big place that loves crime, all types of it, and he's just poked his nose into the jackpot. Like always, the people of Crime Alley only ever try to hide one type of felony from him, that being trafficking. They know he'll probably let anything but that go, and yet they still do it. It took a while to find it as well, and if Vera didn't sniff it out it would've taken longer.

The problem this time is that the people doing it seems to be being paid by someone, someone with a big wallet and bad ideas. Someone who probably has access to magic of some kind, because it's heavily linked to daemon trafficking, and no one wants to traffick daemons unless someone wants to use soul magic. Otherwise there's no reason - it's smarter to go after the person and have the daemon come with then just go after the daemon and try to get them to separate.

He's getting off track.

Anyway, he's been dealing with that for a week now. It's all he's been doing- working with the few police contacts he trusts and doing the rest himself, trying to figure out where the money's coming from and just how big the operation is.

That's why he didn't notice the heron in his apartment.

It's still like a statue when he first sees it, out of the corner of his eye. He continues to drink his coffee, pretending not to see it. He's guessing it's been there for a long time, would think it was a statue if not for its pupils moving. The heron is tall, beautiful, a gray heron with a long curved beak that looks like it could pluck out his eyes pretty easily.

Vera pads past it, not giving it a lick of thought. Jason honestly doesn't know if she's already seen it, or if she can't see it. Is he hallucinating, or is the heron standing so still that his wolf doesn't even notice it's there?

Vera notices his anxiety, though, and makes her way leisurely towards him. She brushes her fur along his hand, a soothing gesture to both of them, and cocks her head. "What's wrong?"

There's an unknown daemon in his apartment, one who's been here for who knows how long. One that could be spying on them and he didn't even know.

It's not even hiding that well!

Jason catches Vera's eyes, calming himself with the deep blue he finds in them. Taking a deep breath, he speaks aloud. "And who do I have the pleasure of speaking too?"

Vera cocks her head. The heron ruffles their feathers. Vera glances over, and Jason suddenly can't read her anymore. He doesn't know what his daemon is feeling.

Slowly, cautiously, the heron takes a few lingering steps forward, graceful and slow. Like an actual heron, wading through shallow water on a hunt. Jason imagines it striking, knows that he probably wouldn't be able to defend himself in time. He suddenly feels like the fish it eats.

The heron pauses in front of the table he's at, bowing its head to nip gently at one of Vera's ears. The wolf allows it, bowing her head in greeting. So they've met before.

"Hello Jason." The heron says, voice distinctively feminine. They tilt their head side to side, almost swaying. "This is the first time we've formally met. Please, call me Fia."

Jason blinks, wondering what kind of crazy someone has to be to let their daemon do this. Either very crazy, or Jason's close to the person this daemon came from.

He has a few guesses.

"What are you doing in my apartment?" Jason asks immediately, and Vera nips his fingers like he's done something wrong. Fia must be important if Vera's acting like that when she knows Jason has never met this daemon before. Vera usually gives him a break when it comes to these kind of situations, she knows how paranoid he is.

"Be kind." The heron scolds Vera, who ducks her head like a child getting a talking to. "His worry is reasonable. I am here to help with your investigation. My person thought you could use it."

And yet he didn't come himself. Yeah, Jason knows who it is. "Does Bruce even realize that I don't know anything about his daemon? I could've shot you the moment I noticed you."

Fia flaps her wings, doesn't object, and Jason can see it now, the almost motherly way she talks to Vera. It makes sense, even if Jason still hates Bruce. Hates Bruce in a way that should make Vera hate Fia, but for some reason it isn't. 

He's surprised that he doesn't immediately hate Fia. He should. He really should. Just thinking about Bruce, talking about him, makes his anger rise. Yet, Fia remains unharmed, untouched, like they aren't even the same soul. Severed. Maybe it's because they're severed.

Vera growls at the thought. "I would have stopped you." She bares her teeth, lips pulled back. Fia pecks the top of her head and Vera almost seems to melt at it. It reminds him of before, before he died and Bruce could do no wrong. Before he died when Bruce was his father.

"Whatever." He mutters, turning to Fia. "I don't need your help. You can go back to… doing whatever it is you do."

The heron's wings sag, and Jason suddenly feels bad. Nothing. A severed daemon does nothing, for the most part. They can't help the way they did before. He and Vera, Damian and Bri, they're all partially severed. Fia and Bruce, they're fully severed.

It's almost like they're completely separate entities, now. Jason can't imagine how it would feel. How just looking at someone's own daemon could cause them pain. He never really thought about it, before. He didn't need to, he had never met Fia before. Dick said they were severed long before he was taken in, and everyone always thought that Bruce's daemon was hiding because it was too scared to come out. Some trauma it never got over kept it hidden inside the manor, somewhere they could never find. As far as they knew, Alfred and his daemon were the only ones who knew where she was.

Apparently their daemons do too.

Vera growled again, a short quick thing, before brushing against Fia. The heron tucked her head in, crooning for a moment. When she came back out she seemed a bit more sure of herself. "I can help." She promised. "I know you have no reason to trust me, or even know me. I know that Bruce has caused you a lot of pain. We… we don't agree on many things. Many crucial things. Still, we both care for you, I care for you, and I want to help." She raises her wings, wide and proud. "There are many things I can do, but acting like a regular animal is one I do best."

There are not many full severs, in the world. Most of the time, if a daemon is fully severed from their person both daemon and person wilt until they die or commit suicide. It's a terrible thing, losing a part of your soul, and most people cannot come back from it.

Jason wonders if all of Bruce's emotional competence went with Fia when they severed. Wonders if that's why they barely agree on anything.

He sighs. "Okay, yeah, we could use the help." He brushes his hands on his pants and stands up. No matter what people think of him, he does have manners. "You already know about us, but I'd like to formally introduce my daemon Ailavera, Vera for short." Unnecessary, because Jason's sure Fia has already adopted Vera, along with Aella, Mona, and Bri, even if Bruce rather none of them ever cross paths. It's what daemons do, and whether Bruce likes it or not the moment he made them wards was the moment their daemons became connected.

If a heron could smile, Fia would. "A pleasure to formally meet you." She dipped her head low and graceful. "My name is Dierdre Fia, but please, call me Fia."

Fia was right, she was a big help.

Crime Alley wasn't located near a body of water, not really, but all of Gotham was basically an island so seeing the heron fly from nearby the water, fish in mouth, got rid of any type of suspicion from the traffickers. From the bugs Jason had planted, they even found her a delight to watch. Someone would always point out when Fia would fly by, landing on a nearby pillar to eat. Only a couple days passed before the traffickers started leaving food out, giving Fia more of a reason to inch closer.

They thought they had a new pet wandering around. Fia, on the other hand, could give him the entire layout of the building they had commandeered.

Which, helpful. Jason felt icky entering the building, even if Vera didn't have to enter with him. He always felt like they were just waiting in the shadows, ready to crawl into his skin or something else equally as crazy. Jason couldn't really walk in there as the Hood, and besides the few bugs he had on the outside it was nearly impossible to learn anything.

They let the heron in fine. Fia would appear in the courtyard in the middle, resting on a pillar or the dried up fountain. They started actively putting water in the fountain, just to try and get her to stay for longer. They're treating her better than they treat any of the daemons they have in there.

And everyday, Fia would come back with something new to tell him. Besides the layout of the place, she somehow figured out all of the guards' rotations. Also, apparently, big boss was coming to check in soon, and everyone was a bit nervous about that. From what she could tell, it was happening in two weeks. 

Now he's got a deadline, cause he's not fighting might-have-magic guy.

Well, good enough for him.

When he opens his eyes the next day Vera isn't curled up next to him, which is becoming increasingly less common as Vera becomes increasingly more cuddly. There's voices, outside his room, and he rubs his eyes as he opens the door.

His window is open, and on the fire escape Bri is sprawled out, tail curling lazily as Fia croons at her. The cat is purring, he realizes quickly, and in a flutter of wings Aella is there too, perched next to her and chirping rapidly at Fia, as if greeting an old friend.

Bri being here could've been happenstance, but Aella isn't severed from Dick at all, so-

As thought, a moment later Damian appears behind Bri, hand resting gently on her head. He easily slips into the room, raising an eyebrow at the heron, right in time for Dick to thump against the fire escape behind him, running two fingers through Aella's feathers before slipping inside himself.

Fia suddenly looks both overwhelmed and ecstatic at the same time.

And Jason realizes that she's never even met the people whose daemons she adopted.

"We haven't seen you in a while." Dick was saying, clapping his shoulder to grab his attention. "You were starting to worry us."

They ignore the heron in the room. Jason can't stop looking at her. "I'm fine, just been busy."

Damian scowls and crosses his arms, ignoring when Vera brushes against him and Fia's  surprised croon at it. Jason's gotten used to it, so he doesn't jump, much. 

"If you're sure." Dick says slowly. "So then, why is there an extra daemon in your room?"

Fia freezes like she just realized she's been caught. Vera whimpers at that, walking up to nose at her.

And Jason doesn't really know what to do.

What are you supposed to do in this situation? Oh yeah, this is Fia, she's Bruce's severed daemon. Isn't that, like, super rude? Like, more so than Jason usually tries to be? Daemon customs are a tricky business, because a daemon is a soul and should be treated with a certain kind of respect.

(Even if it is Bruce's soul.)

But now Fia is looking at him, like she wants him to do it, and when did Jason start understanding what she wants? "This is, uh, Dierdre Fia, or just Fia. She's uh… she's Bruce's."

The silence is stifling. Damian doesn't do much besides widen his eyes, staring daggers at him like he thinks he's lying. Dick on the other hand is full blown shocked, obviously feeling way out of his league. Dick's known Bruce for over a decade and he's never met Fia, once, so that's understandable. The idea of randomly meeting her at Jason's place after all this time must be crazy too.

Fia, on the other hand, visibly preens and coos, and Jason wonders when was the last time she ever had a formal introduction, and didn't have to do it herself.

"Okay, wow." Dick blinks as he tries to get a hold of himself. "Um, hello Fia. Wow, uh-"

He can't finish, because Fia does something like a snort and bends over to nip at Aella's wing. "You said he was brave, Aellamoire."

Dick flushes red and Aella hops closer and chirps back. "You caught him with his pants down, mother." Her voice is drowned in amusement. "He's been wanting to meet you since before I settled and yet you go to the little brother first."

Dick's ears go red and he ignores them both, hiding his head in Jason's shoulder like Jason gave him permission to do that. 

Jason did not.

Jason allows it anyway.

"Knew I was the favorite." He murmurs with a snort, even though they all damn well know that's not true. Fia still croons happily at him, though, so he'll try his best in believing that.

"It's nice to meet you." Damian bows his head, lower than Jason expects him too. Bri stalks up next to him, stands tall and proud like she's putting on a show. They're presenting themselves, and it's kinda cute, but then he remembers where they got it from and that feeling dies in his stomach. "I am Damian, and this is Medeabriar. I am pleased to know-"

Fia croons something sad, and Damian immediately stops, a look of sheer panic crossing his face for a single second. Jason's never seen him look guilty before, and he doesn't even know what he did.

"Oh, dear child." If a heron could cry Fia probably would, and the room turns heavy. She stepped closer to him, beak barely brushing against his forehead, for a single moment. "I'm sorry, I'm so… so sorry. For not being there when you were young, for not taking care of Medeabriar, for not…"

She pauses, eyes sweeping from Jason to Dick. This was a personal apology specifically for Damian, and he would feel envious but-

His parents, as much as he wished they did better, at least were both there. Their daemons together named Vera. It didn't last for long, but for a little while, their souls were all connected.

Aella croons, landing on the floor below Fia to brush against the feathers on her belly in comfort, moving towards Vera after. Fia sucked in a very human-like breath. Damian stood shock still.

"I am… very sorry." Fia sounded a bit calmer now, a bit duller. Jason could finally see some of Bruce in her. "Medeabriar, is that your given name?"

Bri flinched like a stranger had touched her, something harsh and violent. Damian looked like Fia had just exposed the biggest secret he had ever kept.

That was answer enough.

Vera sulks over, sitting next to Bri and leaning into her. Bri tucks her head under Vera's and stays there for a moment.

Damian ducks his head, sounding ashamed. "No."

Jason wondered if Damian would kill him if he tried to hug him right now. 

Fia coos again, beak dipping under Bri and tilting her head up to meet her. "It's okay, Medeabriar. You have no reason to be ashamed."

That'd be hard to sell.

Daemons are souls. Souls. Daemon names, unlike human names, are basically predetermined. They all mean something, all have meaning. A daemon can be named Sunny, Sol, Sunce, Soare, doesn't matter, it's all still sun. That's the important part, that the soul keeps it's meaning.

What's normally supposed to happen is when a person is born their daemons appear right after, and the daemons of the parents do something similar to a soul read and figure out their true name, their true meaning. They don't pick a name, they find the correct one. It's usually not easy, and if there's only one parent (or no parent) other daemons close to the child will help out. You don't misname a daemon, daemons don't change their name. That means-

"Asif named me." Medeabriar looks out from her shelter under Vera. "Sumayyah is my given name."

Jason… did not know that.

Fia tilts her head. "But not your true name."

Bri's hackles raised, like she wants to fight the world itself. "They never told me." She admits, and Damian's hand grabs onto the scruff of her neck, grounding himself more than anything. "Sumayyah is a proud name. A good one. Asif was proud of it too. Proud of me." Her ears flatten against her head. "I don't think that's father's real name either."

Father. Jason's been away from his family for so long, hasn't seen related daemons interact in so long- he had completely forgot that they use the same terms as humans. If Asif is Bri's father, then it's Talia's daemon, he guesses. The tiger who might not actually be a tiger. The daemon who might not have his true name either.

Fia didn't seem to care much, in fact her proverbial hackles raised just at his name. Jason doesn't blame her, with the rocky relationship Bruce and Talia have.

(Honestly, pissed at Bruce or not, if she wasn't Damian's mom Jason would've been killed her-)

"A daemon knows when their name is true, even if they don't realize it yet." Fia pecks her nose, affectionate, and Bri's tail waves happily. "If you are proud of the name you have, then it is true."

Jason can't help himself. He snorts.

"Man, is there where all of Bruce's emotional competence went?" He crosses his arms and shakes his head, ignoring Dick's glare. "Maybe we wouldn't all be so fucked up if he hadn't-"

Dick socks him in the shoulder just before Jason said something he would've regretted later. Vera snaps her jaws at him too, just to make sure he gets the message.

"And…" Fia ignores him for the most part, and Jason pretends not to see the hurt in her posture. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to stop them from changing you. I'm sorry you loss the chance to settle."

A year ago, Bri would've probably wilted to the floor and been generally unconsolable for a few hours. Now, she leans forward, brushes her body against Fia and chuffs. "It's the least restrictive mammal I could've gotten, at least. I like the perks."

Fia trills at that, flapping her wings, and Jason wonders why she now, after all this time, decided to show up and play daemon mom.

It's been a long day.

He went out in civilian clothes, planning on going halfway across the city to a burger joint which fries he's been craving, and that led to him being recognized and followed by the paparazzi. Tim just so happened to be getting out of class at that time, and Jason somehow managed to run into him when his path didn't even go near the University. "Gotta lot of fans or something, Todd?"

"Shut up, Drake." Jason slings an arm over his shoulders and continues walking, ignoring the clicking of cameras and the questions being thrown their way. "Want some fries?"

"I do!" Mona sticks her head around Tim's shoulder, sitting halfway out of Tim's backpack. "They smell great."

"Grease and all, little Mona."

"Jason Todd, is it true that you're severed from your daemon?"

They all ignore them. It didn't help that Vera wasn't there at the moment. "So, what are you guys doing so far from campus? What would dear old Bruce say?"

Tim snorts. "He rather I do dangerous stuff near campus than go out during a run."

"Is it true that you died and lost your connection in the process?"

"I dunno bro, college kids are a special kind of evil." Jason ate a fry. "Smart poor idiots running on very little sleep with nothing left to lose? Sounds like a mad scientist to me."

"Is it true that the Joker was involved with your disappearance five years ago?"

Jason's hand clenches, posture tensing enough for Tim to feel it. With a sigh, Tim stops, turning to face the reporters. "Do you have nothing better to do then try and make someone relieve traumatic memories? What are you trying to do, see which one makes him panic the most so you can get a scoop?!"

The reporters paused for a moment, almost stunned, but it wouldn't stop them for long. Nothing does in Gotham.

Well, almost nothing.

Apparently daemons can, though.

Mona wiggled out of Tim's backpack, taking a moment to find her balance before jumping from Tim right into Jason's arms. He instinctively caught her, use enough now to the feeling that he doesn't react. Luckily, Mona never really grew to full adult fox size, so she was easy to handle.

There was an audible gasp from the reporters.

Tim turned to see what Mona did, almost rolling his eyes at her. "Nice."

Mona let out a little fox laugh.

The reporters got to their senses and started throwing question after question, because two unrelated people able to touch another's daemon without problem is much more interesting than old news.

"Quick thinking Ramona." Tim told her later, as they were walking into crime Alley. They lost the reporters the moment they got to close to here. "Bad idea, but nice."

"It's fine." Mona finally jumped out of Jason's arms, just to scamper into the next alley and pounce on Vera, who seemed to be waiting for them.

And that reminded Jason- "Hey, come up to my apartment. I'm pretty busy with work but I got to show you something."

Tim followed without question. Fia had been hanging around his apartment more than she's been at the manor, so she was probably there right now. It's a good as time as any.

He opens the door to the heron tucked between the table holding the TV and the wall. It takes a moment for Jason to find her, but the moment he opens the door Mona is stiffing the air and wagging her tail, obviously excited.

"So, what's the-that's a heron." Tim points a weak finger at the bird in the corner. "Uh, Jason, there's a bird in your-"

Jason waves him away. "You're seeing things man, come on."

Tim socks him in the shoulder, ignoring his laugh. "No but seriously, who's the heron?"

Mona's barely holding in her excitement, wiggling back and forth as Fia moves from her spot and slowly approaches them. When she's only a few feet away Mona prances forward, stretching her neck up. Fia bends her own down, beak touching the tip of her snout.

"This is Dierdre Fia, or Fia, Bruce's daemon."

It takes a second to digest.

Tim blinks.

"...how are you not a bat?"

Both Vera and Mona bite him.

Jason's just happy Tim asked, because Jason's been wondering that this entire time.

It's dark outside, quiet besides the ambient city noise. Jason looks below his rooftop perch at the building below him. Five more minutes until the shift change.

Next to him, Vera's eyes glow in the dark, strangely green for how close they are. She snarls at the building below, lips curled back and teeth bared.

A minute passes in silence. Another.

A heron flies through his vision, landing in the courtyard of the building below. The door almost immediately opens, and the heron catches the thrown fish with ease. Then, one after one, people walk out into the courtyard, giving the heron space as they spread out among the chairs, smoking and talking.

Vera growls, stops, and when Jason glances over she's gone.

He takes a single breath, turns on his communicator just in case, and jumps off the building.

It's a weird kind of dark inside.

Too dull to really see anything, but too bright to get use to the darkness. It's fucking with his head a bit, but his hood makes it a bit more easy to see inside.

Slipping passed the guards is easy when half of them are slacking off. He's going in such a way that he's walking with the rotation, pausing when need be so keep just in between the next rotation. He can't get caught before he locates any of the victims, can't risk them moving them elsewhere.

He turns the corner and finds someone rummaging through the janitor's closet, daemon nowhere to be seen. Sneaking up behind him, he grabs the back of his collar and slams the man's head into the wall, most likely cracking his skull a bit. The man slumps immediately, brain definitely damaged, and Jason pushes him into the closet, turns off the light, locks the door, and leaves.

(Both the light switch and lock are on the inside, but a concussed man trying to find it in the dark will prove difficult.)

What? At least he let him live.

He continues on with no problem, making it to the main room once he tiptoes down two floors and into the impressively large basement. He's going blind down here, and it's almost like a maze. He glances at the vent, which is conveniently human shaped, and curses his life.

He's allergic to dust, man.

Crawling around in the ducts is not fun, nor is it quiet. Jason's barely stopping himself from very obviously giving himself away, even if he is probably making better progress than he would otherwise.

He needs to sneeze. 

Nevertheless, he continues forward. Up ahead and a little to the right, he can feel bright forms, pulsing and squirming almost. Jason hadn't known he could do this before, but whenever Vera was far enough away he could feel other people's daemons as well, like his body was searching for a soul to complete him. A little morbid, but helpful.

He's in the vent for fifteen more minutes before he finally finds a good place to leave from, dropping down and sticking to the walls. He's in an open room, what looks like a makeshift cell all the way on the far side holding eight or nine haggard looking people. On the other side of the room, in cages or tied to pillars, are daemons.

Jason takes it in. The room is large, very large, enough so that Jason doesn't even have to guess that the distance between the humans and their daemons is enough to be strainful. It'd take Jason more than a minute to full blown sprint from one side of the room to the other, and he's fast. Looking closely, the humans were in decent shape, not well but not sick either. The daemons, eight he could count, were… definitely something. A komodo dragon, two pandas, a golden eagle and snow leopard, a peacock, white tiger, and a white rhino, which Jason is pretty sure are practically extinct by now. All a prime definition of exotic, something someone would want to keep and show off. Even better that they're not real animals, they can take commands and understand language.

Jason feels sick. He thinks about Vera, the largest black wolf he's ever seen, thinks about how her eyes change from sapphire blue to emerald green, and his blood boils.

(She would count as exotic. The animal she took form from is endangered, and above that humans have always found pure black or pure white variants of animals especially beautiful. That's not even counting her size or eyes. Not even counting how she is already partially severed. Jason's blood is boiling, and Vera isn't here to rein him back in.)

There's no one guarding them, at least not inside. There's only one door that leads in, and Jason doesn't have to look to know it's locked. The humans in the cell stare at him, hopeful, but the daemons barely even startle.

Jason knows what's happening.

It's called a soft sever. They seperate the daemon and the human just far enough so that the bond between them doesn't immediately snap, instead slowly fading over time. It's harder, yes, but the other way is more dangerous. If the bond immediately snapped the human is more likely to die due to it, and severed or not if the human dies the daemon dies as well. A soft sever doesn't normally kill instantly, it's just excruciatingly painful. Especially when you can see your daemon but can't get to them.

(Thing is, soft severs still kill, it just takes a long time. Normal severs kill within the month. Soft ones can take a full year. That, if this was being used for magic purposes, would be plenty of time to use the daemons for whatever purpose.)

He goes to the humans first, not wanting to aggravate probably very stressed daemons. There's an elderly couple in the back, two older ladies holding each other. Four of them are adults, another is a teenager. The last is a little kid, younger than Damian, too young to have a settled daemon. They couldn't be older than three, but here they were. 

Daemons can, very, very rarely settle at a young age. Usually, though, it's caused by some underlying sickness or health issue. Also, usually, when it happens, the person it happens too either dies at a young age or they overcome it and their daemons resettles at a later, more normal date. Jason's heard a story when a baby with a heart defect was born with a settled lemur daemon, and after three years of surgeries, when the child was finally healthy enough, the daemon de-settled and resettled into something completely different. Very rare, almost unheard of, but not impossible.

Still though. That's beyond worrying.

No one is paying the little girl any mind, probably too consumed by pain to care about who's with them. Jason honestly can't blame them, a soft severing is maddening- people can lose touch with reality fairly easily.

He reaches the door, glares at the lock. It's just a normal lock with a normal key to open it, nothing fancy, and Jason's angry enough, powerful enough from the pit, that he grabs the lock and yanks. The thing breaks with a satisfying sound, and Jason shoves open the door. "Come on, this is a rescue."

He doesn't think they hear him, at first.

Then the teenager steps forward, out of the cell. He takes a second to look at the ground, blinking up at Jason like he expects him to shove him back inside. When he does, the teenager's breath catches. Then, he runs.  

He runs, sprints over to the daemons. Only one looks over, one of the pandas, and Jason can see even from far away the look of pure disbelief on the daemon's face as the teenager flings himself at it. They collide hard enough that the panda falls back, and Jason can hear faint sobbing.

That sets off a chain reaction. Almost as one, the others get up and go, each reaching for their own daemon. Jason watches each one, the fire in his stomach settling slightly at each heartfelt reunion.

Then he frowns.

The little girl hasn't moved.

He steps towards her, cautiously. She's staring at the daemons, hurt and longing written all over her young face. Jason kneels down. "Hi there."

The girl's eyes flutter to him. She looks down. "Hello. Are you a hero?"

"For you I am." He replies, looking her over. She must have some type of illness, having a settled daemon at three. Adding on the weakness caused by a soft severing, he was worried. "Can you get up?"

"I don't know." She admits, eyes watery. "It hurts."

That fire comes back. Jason grits his teeth, trying to keep his voice soft. "I'm sorry. Can I pick you up?"

The little girl's lip wobbles, eyes wide and full of conflict. Slowly, she raises her arms.

Jason gingerly scoops her up, setting an easy but quick walking pace towards the daemons. In occurs to him then that none of the others would even be in the right condition to help her, especially if she can't walk. Jason's been staking this place out for weeks, it's a wonder the others can walk by this point either.

It's a wonder they haven't all been severed yet.

He recognizes the girl's daemon quickly. It was harder to notice on first glance, when he was so far away, but the snow leopard is tiny, the size of a cub. It laid on its side unresponsive, even as they walked closer.

Jason set the little girl next to her daemon, who still didn't move. The little girl practically fell on top of it, silent tears running down her face. The leopard's ear twitches, but it didn't move besides that.

Jason had a lump in his throat that he didn't expect to have.

He wanted to stay there and help them both, but they had to leave, and fast. The others had calmed, having the few minutes it took Jason to help the girl to reunite. There was trust in their eyes now, at least.

"Okay guys, listen up and listen good." Jason walked up to the rhino, glancing at the old lady who was leaning against it. "Once I've removed these chains, we're getting out of here. This place is swarming with guards, though, so be quiet or none of us are getting out."

Untrue. If Jason has to, he will escape with only the little girl and then come back for the rest, probably with Dick and Tim in tow. Still, this is more difficult than he thought. One, he didn't expect such a big daemon, two, he's probably the only one strong enough to carry the girl right now, meaning he won't be able to fight as easily. Fuck.

He breaks the chains with a tool Tim made for him and pointedly didn't ask questions about. He goes back to the girl and snow leopard last, breaking the chain as gently as possible. The daemon's eyes are open now, at least, glazed over and almost unseeing. It seems to try and speak, but all that comes out is a low whine.

"What's you're name, little one?" Jason's not good with kids, but he has to try.

The girl takes a second to even realize he's talking to her. She blinks, looks at him, looks around him. "Isa." She says. "Where's your daemon?"

There's a sudden silence, the other captives apparently hearing her question. He ignores the eyes on him. "She's around." He promises instead. "Isa, I need your help, okay?"

She frowns, eyes falling back to her daemon as she nods. "Okay."

"Thank you, Isa." He glances at the others, gestures towards the door with his head. The others start moving. "I need you to hold your daemon, okay? Hold him close so that when I pick you up, I don't accidentally touch him. Do you understand?"

She nods again, quiet as she bends a bit, collecting the tiny cat in her arms and tucking it into her torso. They both hum in content at that, the leopard's tail moving back and forth before tucking itself in as well.

"Good job." He said, voice as soothing as it could possibly be. He scoops her back up, holding her with a single hand on his left side because he really does need to be able to fight, holding a child or not.

He really should've called Dick. Or literally anyone besides the heron of a man he hates.

Catching up to the others and leading them the rest of the way, Jason breaks the locked door with brute strength. Then, putting a finger to his lips, they start out.

It takes a while. The basement was a maze of corridors that Jason skipped the first time around by going through the ducts. He didn't have the ability to do that this time, so he chose a direction and stuck to it, hoping for the best.

They met their first guard a few minutes in, the man turning a corner with a chinchilla curled up on his shoulder. Jason barely notices it, lunging forward on instinct. Isa squeaks as Jason pushes the guard's head into the wall, slamming it as hard as possible before removing his hand to take out the equivalent of an illegal taser and stabbing it into his side. The man convulses and sinks to the floor, his chinchilla screeching and jumping away. Jason stares at it- he needs to stop it before it makes to much noise and gives them away but he doesn't want to hurt a daemon, even a daemon of a trafficker, it's a line he doesn't want to cross because he doesn't want to be like him-

There's a low, deep growl. Something within him calms, a part within himself settling back into place. A dark shadow darts from behind the corner, and the chinchilla screams as it's picked up in the jaws of a predator and thrown against the wall. 

Vera growls again, licks her lips, and takes in their situation. The others are quiet, scared of the wolf that's the second largest daemon around, bigger than the tiger and pandas and only smaller than the rhino. To be fair, all the daemons are on the small side, most likely malnourished souls reflecting their humans, but still. Large dangerous wolf appearing from nowhere.

Vera seems to like it, though. Her eyes track the daemons in the room, stay on the rhino for a moment before settling on the tiny bit of the leopard peeking out from Isa's hold. "The way is clear." Is all she said.

There was shock, because daemons don't normally talk around other humans. Jason now felt like he was in a weird place, wanting to introduce his daemon (because that's just kind of what you did when your soul decides to speak to other people, it felt wrong not to-) while knowing how bad and idea that is because if they meet while Jason is in civilian form he's fucked. It's part of the reason Vera didn't come down with him in the first place, she's not the kind of daemon one could just forget.

He settled for an in between, because there was not much more he could do. "This is Vera, she's safe." Is all he said, nodding with his head as a gesture to the wolf. She wagged her tail once, acted a bit like a dog to hide how scary she was, before turning around and stalking away, hackles raised as she crept through the halls. Jason followed.

At least getting out would be easier.

"Mister?" Isa spoke up a few moments after they had started moving again, voice soft, barely a whisper. "Is she your daemon?"

She's quiet enough that he's the only one who hears, maybe Vera as well. He doubts the other daemons could, with the state they're in. Doubts any of them will really remember him, honestly, if he thinks about it. Repression is a wild thing. "She is."

"She's pretty." Is her quiet response, and Jason sees Vera's tail wag, only once. Isa shuffled in his arm, pushing her daemon up just a little bit, enough that Jason could see the snow leopard's fluffy face. "This is Castaince. I call him Casta. He's a… um… a snow kitty."

Casta blinks at the both of them, incredibly small and incredibly adorable. Isa was incredibly adorable too. The urge to introduce your daemon after someone introduces there's is strong, like showing off your most prized possession because you're constantly proud of it. And Isa was a child, she had no clue how to control or fight down those desires. It was adorable and also it was upsetting.

Jason's coming back here later and killing literally all of them.

They make it to the stairs without any problems, and before he even opens the door he can hear the sounds of men milling about. A lot of men. All probably armed.

Shit.

Fuck.

Shit.

Okay, plan. Terrible plan. Vera will hate this plan.

"Fuck, okay." He shifts Isa until he's holding her in both arms, turning back to the others. "There's a shit ton of people out there, okay? Here's what's going to happen- I'm going to go out there and distract them. You guys will wait down here with Vera until I'm far enough away that she can get you guys out of here safely, okay?"

They probably only agree because Vera is scary enough to feel safe with her. Isa doesn't seem happy about it though, and Casta mewls in her hold. "But the scary people…"

"I'll be okay." He promises, probably lies a little. He takes a second to ground himself before holding Isa out and settling her on Vera's back. A tingle runs up his spine at it, and Isa tilts her head a bit, but there's no direct contact and that's enough to muffle the feeling. Well, until Isa steadies herself by grabbing Vera's fur and that Jason feels. It's either this or Jason takes Isa with him, he'd rather just deal with this. "Hold on to Vera for me, okay? She'll keep you safe."

Isa frowns some more. "But she should keep you safe."

Vera makes a face unlike any she's made before, and Jason feels like maybe they should have a heart to heart at some point, soul to soul. Not now, but later. "Don't worry about me, okay. Just hold on and listen to Vera."

Isa's lip wobbles and Jason almost gives in, but then she nods and Jason's head goes back into hero mode.

He waits until they've backed down the stairs and into an offshoot hallway before doing what he does best- cause trouble.

The door flies off its hinges as Jason kicks it open, startling everyone as he walks out with a gun in each hand. The ground floor of this place was almost entirely open, a place converted into a wearhouse with the only walls being the ones encircling the courtyard. While that meant that he got everyone's attention, it meant that he got everyone's attention.

Everyone being a good thirty or so people. All armed.

Well then.

"Thought you could hide from the kingpin of Crime Alley?" He says without even thinking about if it sounded cool or not, mostly focusing on where he was pointing his guns. "Guess again."

As the men raised their guns at him, Jason fired two bullets into the nearest lights.

They shattered, and half of the warehouse fell into darkness as black as the night outside.

Jason ran.

Startled and panic shouts filled the air as he sprinted towards the other side of the building, purposefully being loud about it. The moment the light caught his clothes the men zoned in on him and gave chase, some pulling out guns before deciding, for some reason, not to shoot him.

They don't want him dead? That's never a good sign.

Taking the blessing as is, he makes more of a ruckus by barreling through some of the men, bracing himself as he rammed into the window looking out into the courtyard. Falling to the ground on the other side, he rolled and popped back up, running to the other side and pressing himself against the opposite corner. The men all chased him, crowding him into the corner to trap him. Fia was nowhere to be found.

Jason took a second to breathe. "You know, if you just tell me where your captives are I won't have to kill you all."

Someone snorted, another person laughed, and he successfully planted the seed that he had snuck into their base and somehow hadn 't found their prisoners. He'll take what he can get.

"We don't recognize you as anything more than an urchin tryin' to act big." One of the men in the front stated, spitting at his feet. If he reached out with his senses, he could feel Vera, getting closer and closer. "Look at you- makin' a fool of yourself. Come in here actin' all tough, thinkin' you can fight all of us like you're fuckin' Superman or something'."

"I fought Superman once." He brings up, just because he can, conveniently forgetting to add how he was thirteen and Clark went easy on him. "Killer left hook, but it's all in the element of surprise."

He speaks with enough confidence that they don't know whether to believe him or not. Still, some look wary at the prospect.

"Anyway, he's not the scary one. Wonder Woman, on the other hand, is terrifying." Aunt Diana scares him even though she spoils him rotten. "But I digress. My question is, why do you think it's all an act?"

Several things happen at once.

He reaches out. Vera is farther away than she was before. She's moving farther away now. The man goes to respond as Jason raises his gun and shoots him between the eyes. At the same time, a shadow swoops in from above and several men scream as Fia drops rocks on their heads.

He's never loved a daemon and hated a man so much before.

The commotion gives him just enough time to brace against the wall and push himself up, just high enough for the first few bullets to miss him. He scales the wall rather quickly, grunting at the stray bullet that clips his armor. Rolling once on the roof, he pokes both guns back over and shoots randomly, not even looking. He's coming back for them all later, why not thin the crowd now?

They all eventually duck for cover, and Jason knows he should leave before they get on the roof and try to surround him. He sees Fia fly off and goes to follow, the opposite direction he knew Vera took the captives.

He makes it a block away before doubling back, taking a wide arc through several alleyways and districts before stealing a motorbike and feeling his way back to Vera, Fia flying overhead the entire time. It takes about half an hour to meet back with them. By the time he reaches them, they're only a block or so away from the hospital. 

Jason helps them check in. Promises to visit Isa in the morning too.

(Takes another detour. Kills a few dozen people. Sets a building on fire. Stares at a fountain in a courtyard and tells himself to ask Alfred about adding a pond to the manor garden.)

He gets back to his apartment utterly exhausted, Vera and Fia trailing behind him. Vera's limping from a horse kick to the leg and one of Fia's wings are bloody. Jason can't really see straight, but it's a satisfying type of pain.

He doesn't even have to open the door to know that someone's inside.

Seeing that it's Bruce is a shocker, though.

"Get out." Is the first thing he says, and while he fully means it he doesn't feel like actually doing anything about it. His body is failing him, Vera's not into it, and Fia looks devastated at just the idea of watching them fight, which kind of hurts to see.

"Are you okay?" Bruce asks, genuine enough that while Jason scoffs he decides that he won't shoot the man, this time. "I saw it went well."

Somehow, he has enough forethought not to scold him for killing dozens of people. Maybe he can learn. "That's one word for it."

Fia looks like she's stuck between a rock and a hard place, obviously wanting to go to Bruce while also wanting to stay with Jason. Vera's half heartedly baring her teeth at him, the most she probably cares to manage at this point.

"Why are you here?" He snaps, just wanting to get to the point. "We both know you don't really care, and you wouldn't come all this way just for Fia."

That was the wrong thing to say, as Fia flinched like she was just hit and Vera growled at him this time. Bruce's face turned into something dark and tortured, enough so that he felt the tiniest bit of guilt. He didn't like crossing lines when it came to daemons, and yet he does so so easily.

"Don't assume that you know how I feel." Bruce answers coldly, and Fia winces again, looking between the two of them sadly. "I came here because I wanted to make sure you were okay."

When have you ever-

Vera nips his fingers, gentle, and Jason forces a deep breath. He did care, at a point, just not enough to do what needs to be done.

Not enough. Never enough.

"Well, as you can see-" he raises his arms, ignores the pain that runs up his shoulders. "-never better. There. You can leave now. And maybe spend more time with Fia while you're at it. Like, you know, introducing her to your adopted and biological sons. Where do you normally hide her, huh? I lived in that manor for half a decade and I never saw even a trace of her. Explains why you're so emotionally constipated-"

"Jason." Fia says, voice soft, and Jason's jaw snaps shut. "Please stop."

And Jason does, because she said please and Jason respects her, unlike-

"I'm sorry, Jason." Bruce says, and that doesn't shake him to his core. The older man backs up, close to the open window he probably got in through. "I am glad to know you're okay. Fia?"

Fia perks up, striding across the room to him without a second thought. Bruce's gloved hand lands on the back of her head, and she croons. Vera lets out a sound that's startlingly similar.

Then Bruce is gone, out the window silently like he was never there.

Fia waits a few more seconds. "Thank you." Her voice is soft. "For letting me help you."

Jason doesn't get enough time to answer.

He visits Isa the next day, as promised. She takes a few minutes to wake up, having been dead asleep since she got there, but she's much more energetic the moment she does. Casta is bright eyed and bushy tailed, laying curled up next to her, but he doesn't seem to be able to move much.

This is when he discovers a problem.

Isa is an orphan.

It makes sense, explaining why she was even taken in the first place. Her parents either died or gave her up, unable to afford the surgery she needs (something easy but life changing, she was born with some type of defect that if removed will fix the problem but the surgery is just too costly-). She's been in the orphanage since, which also won't pay for the expensive surgery. Without it, the doctors predict a painful life that will end before she ever reaches thirty.

And Jason, well, he can't have that.

Good thing he's a good liar.

So, he learned all of this the way he learns most things- getting Tim or Barbara to hack into things for him. He's in Isa's hospital room when Tim gets back to him with this information, something that thankfully the doctors don't know yet.

Push comes to shove, a little bit of begging later, and Jason now owes Tim a big favor. Like, hide a body of a prominent figure type favor. 

"We will be talking about why you want this later, Todd." Tim says only an hour or so later when Jason comes to pick the documents up. "I'm not an idiot, I can connect the dots."

Jason pockets it and ruffles his hair. "You'll be proud of me, I promise."

"Dick might actually kill you this time."

"For doing a good thing?" Jason flicks Tim's nose, dodges a punch. "He'll be proud too."

"This is illegal."

"And you're my accomplice."

Mona cackles from the desk chair she's curled up in. Tim crosses his arms and scowls. "I'm coming with you."

"Uh no, you're not." Jason scowls back. "I thought you didn't want to get involved."

"I want to see the fire up close and personal." He deadpans, before pursuing his lips. "Also, as said before not stupid. You don't have access to dad's money, do you?"

He does, technically, but he doesn't touch it because he'd try to get rid of all of it in a rage and while that would hurt Bruce it would also hurt Alfred and Dick and Damian and Tim and the list is honestly quite long so he just leaves it alone. "Point."

Tim grins, and Mona stretches, hopping out of the chair. "Let's go!"

They arrive at the hospital as Jason Todd and Tim Drake, dressed down enough to go unnoticed by most of the people there. Vera gets looks, as always, but she's calm and well behaved, messing with Mona more than anything else.

"Hello there." Jason walks up to the nurse's station and smiles his most charming smile. "I heard that a few new patients came in last night. Does one go by the name Isa?"

The nurse, obviously suspicious, raises an eyebrow. "What's your relation?"

"She's my half sister." Jason lies. "I didn't know about her until very recently. She disappeared a few weeks ago, and our biological dad, who was taking care of her, is gone with the wind. I'm her last living relative."

Jason's a good liar when he needs to be. He puts enough emotion into his voice for it to sound convincing, and the skepticism that covers the nurse's face disappears as Jason shows her forged documents and she finds altered information in official databases.

(Thank you, Tim.)

They wait in the lobby as the nurse makes a few calls, Tim grinning from ear to ear as Mona wiggles below him. "I thought you hated being a big brother."

"To you, absolutely." He responds with little bite, not missing how Tim's grin somehow gets bigger.

"You consider us brothers? Awe Jay-"

"Do not-"

"I thought you only cared about Dick-"

"I don't care about any of you-"

"Come on, you can pretend with the rest of us but it's too obvious with Dick. You twitch whenever someone even looks at him the wrong way."

"He has a lot of enemies!" Jason protests. "In and out of the suit! He was voted heartthrob of America and literally got mobbed in Central City as a civilian. And we all know literally everyone has a hard on when it comes to making Nightwing suffer!"

Tim just raises an eyebrow, smirking. His eyes flicker between him and Vera, who is practically frothing at the mouth just imagining someone hurting Aella. "Man, I wish people didn't care about me the way you don't care about us-"

He was about to tackle him when the nurse came back with a doctor. "Hello, I'm Dr. Fare, pleasure to meet you."

Jason shakes his hand. "Jason Todd. This is my brother Tim."

Both the nurse and the doctor pause, recognition covering their features. He can't see either of their daemons at the moment, but he bets they're slack jaw as well.

The doctor snaps out of it quickly. "Well, Mr. Todd, your sister-"

It takes the better part of half an hour before Jason can even see Isa again, even if he saw her earlier that day. There was a lot of talk about her condition, which Jason totally did not pay very close attention too, and the illness she was born with. They discussed the surgery she would need, how long it would take and how much it would cost. They weren't very surprised when Tim just handed the nurse a card when the doctor projected the amount needed, which was a good thing associated with their names. The amount of money really didn't matter, they had it.

He learns that Isa (and the rest of the captives) were very close to severing, two of them even having a partial sever, but that most had gotten out in time and their connections should fully heal. It was the best news he's gotten in a while.

They're finally able to see Isa, who's half asleep when they come in. Jason, while here early as Red Hood (he came through the window) told her to tell anyone who asked that Jason was her brother before he left, giving her his civilian name because she was young and there's no way she really understands what Red Hood is. It was for the best anyway, if the nurse asked her at any point he needed her to collaborate the story.

As she woke up a bit more, Jason took a seat next to her bed as Tim sat farther away, leaning back and observing. Isa blinked, coming to. Her eyes landed on Vera, looked up to Jason. Something connected behind her eyes. "Mister?"

Luckily the doctor hadn't come in with them. "My name is Jason." He correctly kindly. Then, in as simple terms as he could, told her everything.

When they left an hour or so later, Tim was again grinning from ear to ear. Jason scoffed. "What is it this time?"

He's never seen Tim so pleased. "You two are so alike, it's actually incredible."

Jason knew who he was talking about. "You mean the ray of sunshine and the half dead killing machine?"

Tim smirks. "When Dick found a child who needed help he became a dad literally three minutes later." He started, still smirking. "And we both know Damian sees Dick more as a dad than he sees his actual dad. So, not even counting Rachel and Gar, how is what you're doing right now not exactly what Dick would do?"

He's… got a point. Dick became a parental figure to Damian faster than he forgave Jason for just being in the manor. Jason is literally forging papers to help this little girl that has no relation to him whatsoever.

God, they are alike. Fuck.

As they leave the hospital Jason places his head in his hands. "Dick's going to make fun of me-!"

Tim's laugh echoes throughout the street.

Things escalate. He now has another apartment, this time in a nicer part of Gotham where Isa just lives, because she now full blown lives with him, he's her guardian, which he really shouldn't be. He has enough money for it all, of course, but Fia comes by and basically threatens him into finally taking out of the family fortune to pay for all things related to Isa. Fia phrased it as a gift to him, but he also thinks it might be some type of olive branch from Bruce.

He takes it, tentatively.

Isa's surgery goes well, her recovery goes better, and Casta's talking now, pounces on Vera whenever she's near. He hasn't de-settled, and neither Isa nor Vera think he's going too. As long as Isa and Casta are fine with it, he guesses it doesn't matter.

Jason, of course, makes sure to separate Red Hood from that apartment in all ways. He's never seen around it while in costume, only ever entering from below ground or in civilian form. He has a full time nanny who used to work as a nurse take care of her because Jason honestly doesn't know what he's doing. The best part about that is that Alfred will not stand for it and visits three times a week just to insult his terrible household skills and not because he's totally enamored with Isa just like everyone else in his family is.

Yeah, so, he's a dad now, somehow. Whatever. Shit happens, he guesses. There's a bigger problem at hand, though.

Dick and Damian have been away for the past two weeks. They don't know yet.

Tim is having an absolute field day.

"You bought a new apartment?" Dick asks as he parks in the underground garage. Damian and Tim get out of the back of the car as they get out the front, letting Jason lead them to the elevator. "Why? Wanted a safehouse in a different part of Gotham?"

"No." He said easily. "This isn't a safehouse -don't use it as one- just… you'll see."

Dick is immediately wary, and Damian just scoffs like normal. Bri, Vera, and Mona are hardly paying any attention, too busy making a ruckus playing tag around their legs as the elevator goes up. Aella is perched on Jason's shoulder, obvious in how much she missed him. 

They reach his floor and Jason leads them to his apartment, taking a deep breath before unlocking the door and letting them in.

The nanny greets them at the door, purse in hand and ready to leave. Jason had given her the night off, and the others watch her go with raised brows. "You have a maid?"

"Not a maid." He says just as someone screams his name. He bends down just in time for a little bundle of movement to reach him, scooping Isa up and settling her on his side. "A nanny."

Isa smiles wide at him, eyes going bright when she sees the others. "Hi uncle Tim!" She waves at Tim and wait who told her to call him uncle before turning to Damian and Dick. "Are these your brothers? The other ones?"

"Yep." He answers, looking at them. Damian is blinking rapidly, as if his brain is not computing. Dick is completely gobsmacked, frozen in shock. "This is Damian and Dick."

"Hello!" She grins wide at them, and Damian snaps out of it enough to nod at her. Dick stays frozen. Tim waves back and smiles big, obviously holding in laughter. Isa barely notices, catching sight of Aella (who had, predictably, fallen off his shoulder in shock) and Bri. Her eyes widened when she saw Bri. "You have a kitty too?!" The level of joy in her voice is beyond compare. "My daemon is a kitty too! Casta!"

Casta comes bowling in, unable to stop himself. Before he can barrel into Aella, who's still on the ground regaining her bearings, Vera gets him by the scruff and holds him up high, like a mother wolf showing off her pup.

"This is Castaince!" Isa says proudly, and Casta zeros in on Bri and immediately stretches out to nose at her, still in Vera's hold. "See! Casta's a kitty too!"

He imagines Damian must be feeling many things right now, seeing another child with an obviously too young to be settled settled cat daemon. Still, when he smiled it didn't seem fake. "We both have leopards, it seems."

True, Bri being a black panther and Casta being a snow leopard. Isa beamed at him, and Tim giggles in the background.

Dick still hasn't moved.

Vera let's Casta go, and the tiny daemon pounces on Mona for a second before scampering over to Jason and climbing halfway up his leg before losing purchase and falling. Casta, obviously, is taking after Vera's bad manners and acting like it's normal for daemons to touch humans that aren't their own. Bad influences, they are. They do it enough that Jason barely feels it anymore.

Dick still doesn't move. That shocks Damian into a short stupor as well.

Aella, on the other hand, finally gets control of herself. Both she and Bri scooch up to Casta, who's now on the couch. Aella hops on the cushion, letting the two cats bump noses for a moment. After a few minutes of that, Bri stills, tail lashing back and forth almost anxiously. She glances at Damian, who's watching them curiously, before licking the side of Casta's tiny head. Casta wiggles and paws at her face, which is literally bigger than his entire body.

And Dick? Still frozen.

Aella settles next to Casta, peering at him silently. After a few moments, she coos and brushes her head against his. "I like him." She states. "I'm keeping them."

"What?!" Both Bri and Vera shout, Bri in betrayal and Vera in shock. Vera continues on. "You already have a kid!"

Damian burns red almost immediately as Bri yowls at Vera before turning back to Aella. "What about me?!"

"I can have two." If birds could smile, Aella would be. Casta mewls at her, bats her with a fluffy paw.

"No you can not!"

"That's my kid!"

And they both jump the fucking bird, somehow barely missing hitting Casta, who watches the whole thing with wide excited eyes. Dick's still staring, completely frozen in shock, Damian's as red as a tomato, and Tim and Mona are screeching with laughter, watching this entire thing unfold in front of them.

Isa watches everything from her perch at Jason's side. Quietly, he asks. "Who told you to call Tim uncle?"

Isa smiles. "Uncle Tim did." She said like it was obvious, and sometimes he doesn't know if he hates Tim or if Tim is his new favorite.

"Okay." He decides to go with it. "Well, that's Uncle Damian and that's Uncle Dick, okay?"

Isa nods easily, squirms a bit, and Jason puts her down. She walks up to Damian, smile still plastered on her face. She puts out a hand. "Jay said you don't like hugs. Do you like high fives?"

Damian, somehow, turns even redder.

Isa gets a high five.

Dick, finally, unfreezes. "Jason Todd."

Tension falls on the room, because he's never heard Dick sound like that. The silence is thick in the aftermath of his words. "Uh, yeah?"

"You had a kid and you never told me?!"

Well wait a second- "Firstly, you got two kids and didn't bother telling me either-"

"Rachel and Gar are not my kids-"

"-yes they fucking are, and either way-"

"-don't curse in front of her-"

"-she's not mine Dick!"

"Of course she isn't." Aella says passively, voice oozing with something sly. "She's mine."

"No!" Vera, Bri, and Jason shouted in unison, and Isa giggled next to Damian, grabbing his hand and holding it. Damian freezes, like he thinks he'll die if he so much as twitches. Jason takes a discreet photo.

"Look, I busted a daemon trafficking ring a bit ago and found Isa there. She had nowhere to go and needed an expensive procedure. So I got Tim to forge some documents and now here we are."

Dick looked absolutely murderous.

Jason, for the first time in his life, actually prayed.

His prayers were answered in the form of Isa pulling his pant leg and holding her hands in the air. "Jay said you loved hugs!"

And honestly, no one can say no to that.

A few seconds pass in relative silence (silence being Tim snickering, Mona cackling, and the other daemons fighting over Casta, who just wants to play) before Dick, who is currently holding Isa, gives him a contemplative look. Jason feels like he's under a microscope. "What?"

He takes a second before answering. His face melts into doopy love. "My little Jaybird is all grown up!"

Jason mentally screams, sitting down and giving up. Vera grabs Casta by the scruff again and bolts, Aella screeching and flying after them. In the background, he can hear Dick ask Isa if she wants to learn traipse. During all of this, Tim lays on the ground, clutching his stomach as laughter wracks his body. Mona is sprawled across his chest with the same affliction. Bri goes to join them as Damian silently sits next to Jason, sagging against him as if his whole life had just gotten flipped upside down and he's failing to process it. Isa takes that as the opportunity it is and sits across their legs. Dick is making up middle names because he at some point learned that she didn't have one.

All in all, everything is much too chaotic and Jason is completely and totally overwhelmed.

He loves his family.

Chapter Text

Sean McCanaghn was having an ordinary day. He had a delicious pancake breakfast, quickly finished his homework, and was dropped off at school by his family's butler. It was ten till the bell rang, and everyone was outside the front building, hanging around in groups talking to their friends. His daemon was currently a chinchilla tucked within his pocket, sleeping peacefully.

Gotham's prestigious school did a few things weirdly, like not letting them enter school before the bell, but he didn't care. Sean's been going here since he was 5 and he'll continue going until he's graduated. Only the best of the best go here- even the Waynes go here. Damian Wayne is two years his junior, but Sean sees him in the hallways frequently. The school and class are pretty small, given how prestigious it is.

He was sitting under a tree with his best friend Charlotte and her brother Eric when Eric looked behind him and gasped, eyes wide and expression gobsmacked. "Yo, what the fuck?"

Charlotte looks before he does, and her eyes widen as well. "Who is she?"

Sean turns around and becomes gobsmacked as well.

Because Damian Wayne had arrived at school, and he wasn't alone.

There was a little girl next to him, looking both nervous and excited. 

And she was holding his hand.

Damian Wayne was holding someone's hand. 

And he didn't even look mad about it.

He was scowling, yes, but he's always scowling, and this scowl in particular wasn't pointed towards the little girl holding his hand, but everyone else instead, as if daring them to say anything about it. The little girl either didn't notice or was used to his expression.

Sean's never seen the little girl before. She must be new, because Sean knows everyone at school. It's too small not to. So, that leaves him with one question.

How badly was he hurt so that the coma dream he is undoubtedly having this preposterous?

The rest of the student body gawk at them. Damian pays them no mind besides his usual glare, even as the girl looks around wildly. Behind them, Damian's panther daemon stalks forward gracefully, paying them all just as little mind as a snow leopard weaves in between her legs, playful.

Charlotte's and Eric's daemons, two ermines curled around both their necks like scarves (the daemons seem to find it funny, he thinks, or maybe they never fully separated from each other due to sharing a womb, but they always change forms together, stay the same thing), are chittering quietly. The two siblings are just as shocked as everyone else.

See, Sean prides himself on knowing people, especially those he's gone to school with. He, and everyone else, knows Damian Wayne is not a people person, not even to his own brothers. Sean had attended this school when Tim Drake went here, and because Dick Grayson was the type to go to every event Tim participated in, he got to learn a lot about them just by watching them from the sidelines. While the Wayne family itself was pretty open and kind, Damian Wayne was the outsider in that aspect.

So… what?

One of the little kids was brave enough to walk up to them. Sean guesses it's because he doesn't know better yet- it's his first year and only a few months have passed. He's heard the rumors, but he hasn't seen Damian Wayne in action.

It's quiet besides the soft murmurs of questions floating around. The little boy (Michael Williams, Sean remembers) walks up to them. The child's daemon is currently a gorilla, as if it feels the need to be able to protect itself. All that does, though, is make Damian's daemon tense. In an act that makes Charlotte gasp, Damian's daemon takes the snow leopard by the scruff, picking it up and taking a step back from the others, before jumping up into the tree above them. They disappear from view almost instantly, but just the fact that Damian's daemon would do that with someone else's daemon shows a connection Sean honestly didn't think he would have.

"Hello!" The boy says brightly, eyes wide and innocent and very naive. "My name is Michael Williams, wanna be friends?"

Damian is immediately suspicious, because children wanted to be friends with him when he first arrived due to who his father was, but this time Sean thinks it's genuine. Luckily, Michael seems too oblivious to truly notice the aura Damian is emitting.

"Hi!" The girl says when Damian doesn't answer. "I'm Isa, this is Dami!"

An eagle daemon falls from the sky. Eric's daemon almost faints.

She just called Damian Wayne Dami.

And yet, Damian barely even seems to notice. Michael smiles wide. "That's a pretty name!" He says, prince charming. "Is it a nickname? What's your full name?"

And while Sean still thinks Michael wants a genuine friend, he also now realizes that Michael's older sister definitely is the reason he's even over there talking to her.

"That isn't any of your business." Damian says curtly, coldly, and that's the end of that and the beginning of the biggest rumor in school.

Who is Isa?

It's a cold, sad day when Falcone of all people manages to capture him. The man fell off before Jason had even met Bruce- had lost all of his power and wealth to Batman's hands when Batman wasn't even really Batman yet, and then went into hiding for however many years. Apparently though, he had been keeping watch, because he had known that Red Hood was a Robin at some point. Now his plan goes along the lines of 'to get back at Batman for ruining my life, I will kill off his sidekicks, one by one, and then end him while he despairs!' Or maybe he was lying, and his actual plan (which would be smarter) ran along the lines of 'I want control of Crime Alley so I'm gonna kill you, but you used to be a Robin and I hate Batman so I'm gonna make it hurt while I'm doing it.'

Jason, who is currently listening to this spiel strung up by his wrists to the ceiling with chains, is less than impressed. He mostly just sounds like an old geezer cursing the new generation. He did manage to catch Jason unaware though, and in a respectful way too. No drugs, no spells, they just ambushed him and beat the shit out of him until he passed out. Jason can respect that, honestly. It gives him a chance at least.

Good thing for him, Vera can go wherever she wants and warn whoever she pleases. Jason's not too worried.

(He has been seeing a therapist, ever since he started taking care of Isa, because he's responsible now. They've taught him some breathing exercises, and some methods to help him through his troubles, and now when he thinks about how this is similar to how he died before he uses those methods and tries not to mentally scream.)

He's in a decent amount of pain, at the moment. Besides the preliminary beating, his arms ache from the strain of keeping them up. Currently, chains hang from the high ceiling and connect to his wrists. If he was standing, he could relax his arms easily and not have to worry. Unluckily, he is not standing. In fact, he is on his knees because whenever he tries to stand to relieve pressure someone behind him jabs him with some kind of electrical device. Whatever it is it fucking hurts, and Jason remembers that Falcone at a point did own the entire city and thus probably is pretty good at torture. 

Fuck his life.

The only thing he has going for him is his hood, which Falcone already tried to take off before realizing it's a lost cause. Jason's not fucking stupid, of course he made it harder than that.

"If you really know so much you'll realize the last time I saw Batman I tried to kill him." He spits out, which is a bold face but convincing lie. "Killing me is closer to killing an ally then killing one of his sidekicks."

Falcone chuckles. "I see everything, Hood. While you may hate him, each relationship has two sides. Batman obviously still cares about you, or you would have been locked away years ago."

Jason's glad his hood is still on, because he opens his mouth just to close it again because true. He does have a point there.

While he still hates Bruce, it's harder to say the man hates him back after spending so much time with Fia, who obviously adores him. He grits his teeth. "Why'd you start with me, then? Going from least loved to most?"

"Nightwing is currently outside of my reach." Falcone explains with a lazy wave of his hand. Jason grunts as electricity courses through him for a moment, the man behind him jabbing at him again. "I'm in the process of learning Red Robin's identity, and the current Robin only ever goes around with a chaperone."

Jason scoffs, because the idea that Damian needs a chaperone for his protection and not everyone else's is hilarious. "This is honestly ridiculous." He says it like it is. "You aren't the first evil mastermind with this idea, and you won't be the last. But, as you can see, we're all still alive, so obviously this plan hasn't and never will work. Get new material."

He gets hit for that. Multiple times. Isa's gonna cry if she sees his bruised face, but she's also gonna cry if he waits until it's healed to see her again. God damnit, this is annoying. "Are you done?"

The men hitting him pause, almost surprised with how little he's reacting to their beating. In the far distance, a wolf howls.

"You're far too cocky for the situation you're in." Falcone warns darkly. "Your bravado will get you nowhere, and will not last for long."

Jason studies the guy. He's old, way past his prime, and his daemon isn't visible. It's either in another room or small enough to hide on his person. There are other daemons in the room, though, belonging to his henchmen. They stay just out of reach and barely in sight, silent and unnerving. Jason's arms tense, his hands grabbing at the chains for any kind of purchase. More electricity jolts through him. His vision is a bit blurry.

"You've fallen off, old man." He still jeers, his own downfall. "Should've just left the first time Bats took you down. I mean, look around! You're set up in a decrepit old building while Penguin parties in the clubs you used to own! It's downright embarrassing!"

"You are a terrible hostage."

Jason grins as the others shout, looking up towards the voice. Red Robin is sitting on one of the wooden rafters, bathed in both shadow and moonlight. One leg is dangling down while the other is bent, resting next to him with an arm sling across it. He looks like he's been there for a while, watching the proceedings without anyone noticing him.

"I know!" He calls back, a laugh in his voice. "Only idiots abduct me!"

Tim laughs aloud, doesn't pay any mind to Falcone or his other captors. Falcone goes to speak when Tim gets to his feet, balancing easily on the rafter before smiling down on them all. He salutes and takes a step backwards, into the shadows.

And then he's gone, like he never was there, and Jason realizes that maybe it's Tim that takes after Batman the most.

The daemons are skittish, anxious. Falcone barks orders to his men, takes out a gun and trains it on him. "Come on out, if you want him to keep his head!"

They both know that Jason's hood can withstand a few bullets. Still, Falcone can barely finish his sentence before a dart is flying through the air, digging into Falcone's hand as one of his men scream, pulled into the darkness by an invisible force. Falcone shouts in pain and drops the gun, clutching his bleeding hand. 

Jason takes that opportunity to stand, stretching his legs and relieving the ache in his arms. There's a viper daemon hissing at him, but Jason hears a low growl and the viper disappears in a flash of black fur. One of the men scream and collapse in invisible pain.

With his movement restored slightly, Jason cracks his elbow into the guy who kept shocking him's face. The guy yells and drops his weapon, and Jason grabs it before it can fall out of reach, digging it into the guy's neck and turning it on. He doesn't remove it until the screaming stops and he sees a daemon turn to dust.

Falcone is backing away from him now. The two people left are guarding him as he goes. Jason laughed. "Told you you're washed, old man. This was pathetic."

Falcone glares at him. Doesn't notice Tim until he walks into him.

He gets a staff to the neck and probable spinal damage for the rest of his life. Jason watches Tim dispatch the other two with a half smile on his face, only looking away when something brushes up against him.

It's Mona. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine." He grunts out an assurance. Mona looks to his other side just as Vera emerges from the shadows, dust swirling around her jaws. "Have fun?"

"More so than you." She snaps, angry at the world and probably sharing his pain. She leans heavily against him, a wall of furry protection and startlingly similar to a regular dog. "We were supposed to do things tomorrow."

Jason frowns. "We still can."

Vera looks unimpressed, a strange trait for a wolf. "Sure." Which means, you'll be too grouchy too, which is honestly probably correct.

Jason, thinking everything is fine, doesn't pay enough attention. He hears Tim scream, and he's stealing one of the henchmen's guns before he even looks to see why, training it towards the sounds of his pain.

Falcone is hunched over but up, a few feet away from Tim. It's then that he realizes that Mona had left his side, probably trotting over to Tim, and at some point had been intercepted. Falcone held her by the scruff, and she was thrashing in his hold, visibly in pain as she shrieked. Tim was collapsed on the floor, seizing and screaming.

Jason did not hesitate. His gun went off, and Falcone's head exploded.

Mona dropped to the ground, whimpering in pain as she almost crawled over to Tim, borrowing under him. They were both covered in blood and brain matter, the gun Jason having stolen packing a big punch. Vera hesitated getting closer, but then Tim shuddered something fierce and Jason was suddenly sitting next to him, almost pulling his younger brother close to him. His chains clinked together, having been yanked from their holding place. "Hey, hey, little bird-"

Tim shudders again and coughs, cracking open his eyes. Mona's curled on top of him, for once making sure not to touch Jason. It breaks his heart a little, even though it's considered normal.

Tim groans, eyes clearing a little as he blinks, shivering like it's cold. "Oh fuck-"

He turns to the side, away from him, and vomits. Jason winces in sympathy and empathy. He's done the same before, when someone touched Vera.

His wolf chuffs, ears flat against her head. Mona makes a pained, scared sound as Vera noses at her. Tim coughs, rubs his mouth with his arm. His other arm comes up and wraps around Mona, pulling her even closer.

The little fox sobs.

Jason holds them both.

The room goes quiet when he enters.

It's been a long time since he's been in Wayne Manor. Bruce is hosting a charity event, and for the first time ever he's actually decided to go. It's a mixture of his brothers pestering him and the media finally annoying him enough with their tabloids and rumors that finally make him come. It's obvious that no one was expecting him.

Even though he and Bruce share no blood, he imagines that he looks a lot like him right now. His body type is currently the closest to Bruce's out of all his kids (given the fact that Tim and Damian aren't fully grown that could change-) and he's basing his look off of old pictures he's seen of Bruce because he really doesn't know what to do at these functions. It's for a good cause though so he's actually trying.

Vera looks beautiful as well. They had spent over an hour washing her fur, getting it to shine, and her eyes were a piercing blue that captivated the room almost as much as her height did. She stays close to his side, as is customary at events like this, but they both see Aella almost fall off her perch near the sky roof in shock.

(Aella will fall off of almost anything.)

He stands at the door for another moment before walking in like he owns the place. It only took a few more seconds before the whispering started, rumors floating through the air just a little too quiet to catch.

"Jay!"

And then the rumors change as Dick forgets his manners and barrels into him, enveloping him in an enthusiastic hug. Jason allows it for a few seconds before pulling back. "And I'm supposed to be the uncivilized child."

Jason knows why he did that. It's to show he's welcomed here, that he's not an outcast in the family. Jason doesn't know how well it will work, but time will tell he supposes.

In a gust of wind Aella perches on Dick's shoulder. "I'd appreciate a warning in advance that you're coming." She chirps, almost hauty, I almost broke a wing falling off my perch."

"You fall off your perch every other day." Jason remarks, feels eyes on him and glances over to see Bruce. Looks away. "Get better at balancing."

"I only fall off my perch when you're involved."

"I am so sorry, Aellamoire." Jason gives her doe eyes, and they all pretend not to hear the whispers circling about him talking to a daemon that's not his own. Vera hears them, if her perked ears are any indication. "I'm sorry that I keep wounding you so. If I knew this was such a problem, I would've hidden Isa from you for longer."

Aella squawked. Dick chuckled. Someone comes over asking for Dick's attention. Something about a Wayne company that Dick has tentative control over, and it sounds serious enough that Jason doesn't think there's any hidden intentions behind it.

That leaves him alone though, nursing a glass of something while Vera sits pretty next to him, eyes alert and piercing. He gets many glances, side eyes, and the hair on the nape of his neck stands up each time someone takes a discreet picture.

"Hello." A woman's walked up to him, dressed nice but modestly, a pen tucked behind her ear and interest gleaming in her eyes. "Veronica Lambeth, I'm an independent journalist. Would you mind having a few words with me?"

Jason barely just keeps the smile on his face. He regrets this already. "Why would I, Ms. Lambeth? All you journalists do is slander me, even though I only want to keep my affairs private."

"And I respect that." She says smoothly. "But if we talk about some things you are willing to discuss, maybe we can change your public image."

Jason's not sure how much he cares. "Like what?"

Her eyes spark. "Let's go somewhere a bit more out of the spotlight."

He doesn't take her out of the main room, just to the side, in a quiet corner. It means that he can still see everyone and everyone can still see him. He imagines that the murmurs and whispers are even louder now. Vera doesn't look pleased.

"Okay." Veronica starts a recorder. A mink poked its head out of her long overcoat before diving back in. "To start off, Jason Todd, this is the first time you've attended an event at Wayne Manor in years. Many people had thought you had cut all ties with the Wayne family. It would be great if you could clarify your relationship with them."

Jason knows to keep his voice light and pleasant, and knows to sugar coat everything because whatever he says will be discredited anyway. "While it doesn't show, I'm almost constantly in close contact with my family. While Bruce and I have had our ups and downs, we still care for each other very deeply."

At Bruce's name, Vera sits properly and wags her tail, tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth just slightly. Jason's so proud. "As for my brothers, we have no serious problems and I see them regularly."

"That's very different from your public image with them." Veronica hums. "Why is that?"

"I'm a very private person." Jason responds lightly. "After my incident, I decided it would be better for me to stay out of the limelight. My family respected that."

"You mean the incident that happened when you were fifteen?" She asks, and Jason nods. "Would you be willing to shed more light on what happened?"

Vera, very predictably, does a half snarl that's cut off fast enough to sound more like a whimper than a threat. Jason runs a hand along her head, and thinks.

There was a cover story, he knows. The public doesn't know what happened, just that he disappeared for a while, was thought dead, then came back different from before. With that, it's easy to speculate what happened.

"I was kidnapped." He says, now knowing that the article Veronica releases will be on the front pages and in the news. "They held onto me for a long time - it was people who opposed my family. They didn't want ransom, they wanted my father to suffer and used me to do it. I might've been trapped and tormented forever if I didn't escape."

Veronica's mouth was slightly open, obviously surprised. Vera presses her snout against Jason's leg, uncomfortable. It's too close to the truth.

Veronica blinks, shutters falling over her face. She clears her throat. "Yet your family thought you were dead?"

"They had reason to." Jason promises, his gaze darkening for a moment. "That's all I'm willing to share."

"But-"

There's a growl, not from Vera, and Bri drops down from the balcony above, landing right next to them. The commotion draws the attention of the room, and Bri steps in between him and Veronica, hackles raised.

Vera nips her ear in warning. Bri's tail lashes, and it's obvious the daemon is thinking wildly, trying to figure something out. She seems so small for some reason, even though she's the same size she always was. It makes Jason remember that Damian isn't fully grown, and neither is Bri. Just like Isa and Casta. 

And then those thoughts don't matter, because Bri turns around, lunges, and Jason catches her as she barrels into his chest. He grunts at the force of it, but Bri gets comfortable in his arms and all Jason can do is stare in shock and try to ignore the thunderous gasps and haws of everyone watching.

Bri's tail curls around one of his wrists. "That's all he's willing to share." She says, loud and clear, another shock, and Jason's almost as dumbfounded as the rest of them. He hears pictures being taken, doesn't really know what to do in this situation. He's already been seen holding Mona, but this is different. This can be interpreted in way too many ways, not all good. If no one can see Damian they might think he's off secretly seizing somewhere due to this.

Fuck, he doesn't know what to do.

"Medeabriar!" There's a gust of wind, claws digging into his shoulder, and Aella is not helping here. "This is unsightly!"

Bri grumbles low in her throat. Aella flaps her wings, which brushes against his face. He thinks he probably looks just as dumbfounded as Veronica does right now.

Someone starts laughing. It's Tim, of course. Jason cranes his neck to see Tim walking over. "I always knew you were the Snow White of our family."

Mona wiggles next to him, just looking for someplace for her to jump on him. He glares down at her. "Don't." Because while he's used to daemons that aren't his contacting him, having two different daemons do it at the same time is making him a bit woozy.

Tim takes pity on him, face still red with laughter. "What's got you upset, Bri?"

Bri scowls and doesn't answer. Tim holds out his arms, and Jason takes the hail Mary and deposits the panther into Tim's arms. The gasps are quieter this time, and when Bri speaks it's too quiet for Jason to hear. Tim does though.

Tim doesn't seem to like what he hears.

"Geez, someone's caused a scene."

Jason makes sure to move slowly enough not to knock Aella off his shoulder, much more steady now with only one daemon on him. Dick and Damian have finally arrived, looking nonplussed and not worried at all. Aella even chirps a hello, yet she doesn't bother much more of a greeting. She stays where she is, as does Bri.

Tim spins around, holding Bri like she weighs nothing. Damian's eyebrow is slowly raising, arms crossed and face passive. Jason looks around the room, ignoring the eyes. He finally finds Bruce across the room, watching but unbothered. Probably the best expression he could have, showing that there was no problem to be worried about.

"This is why I don't come to functions." He mutters, and Aella nips his ear playfully. No longer caring, he runs his hand along her back feathers. Aella visibly preens as the crowd looks visibly horrified. He can see cameras now, no longer hiding what they're recording.

Someone finally takes pity on him, as Dick holds out an arm and Damian jerks his head in a gesture. Bri hops out of Tim's arms and Aella flies over to Dick, landing on his arm and hopping up to his shoulder. Vera brushes against him in comfort, and he holds onto her fur to ground himself.

Then Tim turns to Veronica. He scowls. "You should be grateful he told you that much." His glare hardens. "Don't push your luck."

It occurs to him then that Bri was listening into their conversation, she was spying on them, and Jason's almost positive that Damian put her up to it. He knew what was happening all along.

Veronica has no answer to that. Tim tilts his head to the side and Jason takes that as what it is, following his brothers as they walk away.

As they leave the room, he sees Bruce approach Veronica, and no matter how charming he looks Jason can see the anger lining his muscles.

He's back again. Back at the Wayne Manor.

It hasn't even been a week.

He scowls at the place as he gets out of his car, frowning as he goes to the back seat and opens the door.

"We're here!"

Casta jumps out the car and is immediately looking around. Jason leaves him to Vera as he unbuckles Isa from her car seat and helps her down to the ground. She's buzzing with excitement, unable to contain herself. Casta weaves in between her legs. 

Jason can't help but smile, even though he didn't really want to be here. "Come on."

Isa rushes forward before turning back, grabbing his hand and running forward again, almost trying to drag him with her. Jason picks up his pace a little.

Alfred's waiting at the door for them, his owl daemon Chioma perched on his shoulder. "Master Jason." His smile is warm. His eyes shine when they land on Isa. "Lady Isa."

Isa's eyes widen at the title. She curtsies, and Jason's heart melts when she stumbles through it, and ends it with a hug. "Hi!"

Alfred laughs warmly, returning the hug as Chioma hoos her own greeting. Then Alfred opens the door and Tim is of course right there and waiting, phone out and recording the show that's about to commence. "He's in the dining room."

Tim had said it to Jason, but Isa took that as a cue, running into the manor before realizing she didn't know her way and pausing to grab Jason's hand. "Dining room please!"

"Have patience, Isa." Jason soothes, purposely not moving even as she tried to drag him forward. "Don't you want to look around?"

Isa pouted but conceded the moment she saw the art hanging along the walls. It took ten minutes to reach the dining room, and even though Tim recorded the whole thing he didn't seem too upset by how long it took. He had that doopy love look Dick got whenever any of them did the right thing or excelled at something. Jason hid his own snickers at that.

Then they got to the dining room.

Bruce was there, as expected, along with Dick and Damian. The biggest surprise was seeing Fia, off a little to the side, about six feet behind Bruce and a few to the right. Jason didn't really want to be here, but Isa had been begging to meet Bruce, ever since she started school and learned about him through kids talking to her about Damian. Jason finally relented after a few weeks of nonstop pleasing, and Isa's been ecstatic ever since.

Bruce and her eyes catch each other at the same time, and the room goes quiet for a moment before Isa smiles big and rushes forward, Casta at her heels. Isa's fast enough and Bruce is shocked enough that he's not able to stand up before she reaches him, climbing up his chair to sit on his leg, and that almost gives Jason a heart attack, even as Tim smothers his wheezing next to him. "Hi! Uncle Tim said you're my grandpa!"

Jason's glare would've put Tim six feet under twenty times if possible, because it was obvious Tim told her to say that. Bruce obviously does not know what to do, almost as shocked as Dick is. Aella had enough forethought not to perch somewhere when this happened, so she hadn't fallen this time. Damian was coughing up the food he just choked on, and Bri was busy keeping Casta from climbing up Bruce too, which honestly was a godsend. They had too much to deal with - adding that on was too much.

Jason expects Bruce to be Bruce and do what he did to all of his kids, and when he doesn't Jason feels both relieved and jealous before realizing that Isa was five whereas they were all around ten or more when brought in and maybe Bruce has more class than that.

He gives Tim a look that makes him giggle more than anything else before smiling at Isa. "Are you the Isa I've heard so much about?"

Perfectly side stepping that question, Isa's eyes widen. "Papa talks about me?!"

Jason chokes, Tim cackles, and Jason socks him in the gut because he knows Tim is probably responsible for Isa calling him papa too. He was fine with Jay, he was even fine with brother, but papa was too much.

Vera's tail is wagging. Jason ignores it.

"Papa?" Alfred whispers to him, Chioma's big eyes staring unblinkingly at him. Jason feels like he's under a microscope. "I thought her documents said you were siblings."

"They do." Jason hits Tim again. "Tim is trolling."

Alfred looks disapprovingly at Tim. "Don't confuse her any more than necessary." He scolds, and Tim looks a bit bashful then. He'll have to talk to Isa later and explain it to her because, if he's honest, Jason isn't really ready to be a parental figure. He can be a big brother, he cannot be a papa. Not when his first papa abandoned him and his second left him to die. He has too much inner turmoil to try and be that for someone else.

Bruce must hear a bit of that, because he looks at Tim a bit more sharply the next time. Isa's words are also funny, because Jason hasn't talked to Bruce about Isa, he doesn't talk to Bruce at all. If Bruce knows about Isa it's due to Fia and his siblings. Which, very likely.

Aella's somehow fallen from her perch, even though she had been near the ground. She never changes. Bri almost drops Casta. 

Fia watches the proceedings, still like she's afraid if someone notices her she'll have to disappear again. Chioma hops off of Alfred's shoulder, a slight gust of wind yet silent and unnoticed to everyone else. Jason watches as Chioma lands next to Fia, brushes her beak through Fia's feathers the same way Aella and Fia do to Bri. Fia relaxes, leans into it as much as she can. Jason is vaguely reminded of a video taken where Alfred is soothing a young Bruce in a similar way. The more Chioma does it, the more he sees Bruce relax, even though the bond between him and Fia must be threadbare at best.

(Maybe he remembers a time when he could feel it, and that enough is soothing. Actually, Jason's not sure he's even able to see what the daemons are doing from his angle.)

Bruce somehow keeps his smile when he speaks. "All the time." He lies smoothly, smiles like he's about to do some trolling. "He calls you his little princess."

"Master Bruce." Alfred scolds, the only one on his side, as Jason turns red and Isa giggles.

"Alfie called me a lady!" Is Isa's response, and she beams at him. "But I can be both! I'll be a little lady!"

"Little lady!" Casta repeats from under the table, reaching for Bruce to most likely climb him. Vera takes over from Bri, getting him by the scruff and pulling him to the side for a talk, more likely to scold him. "Mama, wait!"

Vera stumbles over her own legs, Mona howls in laughter, and Vera's close enough to punt her with her hind leg. Mona barely even notices as she flies through the air. Tim lets her, doesn't even try to catch her, too busy recording it all. Mona doesn't even seem offended by that, like she knew that his recording was more important than her safety. Fia and Chioma look conflicted for a moment, battling between catching Mona and keeping Vera from having a crisis. Mona's still snickering as she flies through the air though, so they decide as one that she's fine and moments later are at Vera's side, hovering around her trembling form as Casta (completely oblivious to what he's done) nips at her snout playfully and calls her mama again and again.

Jason's getting a headache.

Bruce, for once in his goddamn life, is the one who saves him. "Do you want to see the gardens?"

Isa nods rapidly. "Yes please!"

Bruce helps her down and turns to Jason, a clear gesture of 'I'm giving you some alone time to sort this out while I sort my own kids out' and Jason takes it immediately, halfway there before Isa's even fully stable. As they leave the room Jason gets one last look at Tim only just starting to regret his life choices as Bruce stands over him, ready to berate him on messing with Jason's parenting.

Parenting. Big brothering. The second one is familiar territory, he'll go with that one.

Isa calls him brother or Jay after that, but Casta still calls Vera mama and that's enough for Tim to think he's won.

Jason doesn't argue it, because it's enough for him too.

He looks through the tabloids because he's curious.

Veronica Lambeth's article came out a few weeks ago, long enough that public opinion has gone from scorn and wariness to sympathy and guilt. He's no longer the family recluse, but now the recovering victim. Which, honestly, give him back the recluse title.

Still, that meant that all the new gossip about him and his family actually had flavor to it again, and Jason couldn't guess what they would say about him next. He sits down in one of his big cushy chairs, coffee in one hand and tablet in the other. Across the room Vera is curled up in a bed of pillows, surrounding Isa, who fell asleep reading to the wolf, working on her literacy. The moment Jason sat down Casta jumped into his lap, curling up. "Pillow time…"

The cat yawned, eyes blinking to a close. Jason hasn't been around young daemons in a long time, so he has no clue if Casta's level of speech is normal for his age or not. It's better than when he was silent, though, so Jason allows him to learn at his own pace comfortably. He has the urge to pet his fluffy ears, but he feels like most parents would disapprove of touching your kid's daemon, even if he's already unconventional at best. He'll just let Casta sleep there and call it a day.

Besides, he has gossip to read.

He takes a sip of his coffee and scans until he finds a heading with his name in it.

'JASON TODD, SINGLE FATHER?'

And he promptly spits out his coffee.

Shit.

"But like, what do they even think happened?" Jason groans, palms of his hands pressed into his eyes. "I hooked up with some girl at fifteen and then got kidnapped before she could tell me she was pregnant? How does that make any sense?! Why wouldn't she have told me earlier than now?!"

"Well, probably because this mysterious girl isn't real." Tim prompts, voice passive and considering. Taking the matter seriously because it has to deal with Isa. "But honestly, they seem to think it's the real reason you became a recluse."

Jason blinks, crossing his arms. They're in Jason's nice apartment, Isa currently at school with Damian. Vera, Aella, and Mona had disappeared into the next room, leaving the three to discuss their new biggest problem.

"That's where my mind would go." Dick agrees, shrugging. "It makes about as much sense as everything else. 'Jason Todd messed around, got into some trouble, and found out about a new child once he got back'. Children made from teenage hookups are usually kept on the down low, especially in wealthy families."

Tim nods. "In a lot of situations, the child is raised as a sibling and the grandparent becomes the parent. The child might not even know who their true parents are."

Jason groans again. "And we can't even tell them the truth because she's not actually related to me at all…"

Dick pats his shoulder while Tim hums, considering. "I mean, the paperwork is already all there, and there are ways to get passed a DNA test…"

Jason frowns. "What?"

Tim waves it away. "Bruce has been working on stuff like that for years now. He says it's for espionage but I think he just wants to get the news to think you're both his biological sons so they get off your backs about inheritance."

Dick opened his mouth, obviously questioning, before closing it again. Jason takes a moment. "What does this thing do?"

"Nothing, if it works right." Tim purses his lips, thinking. "You wouldn't change at all, but it's supposed to add just enough noncoding segments that it would match someone else's DNA. And since the DNA added is all basically useless-"

"-the cells in our body wouldn't actually translate them into anything important." Dick looks a bit impressed. "Crazy, but that could work in a last case scenario."

"I still can't get over Bruce wanting to claim me as a biological son." Jason murmured. "Are you sure you heard him right?"

Tim gives him an unimpressed look. "He'd do it for all of us, Todd. He'd do it for me too, if my family wasn't already well known."

"It could settle the matter though." Dick got them back on track. "If a Dna test said you were only a quarter or so related, that would point more towards a sibling than a daughter."

Jason frowns. "I thought siblings were like half identical?"

"Siblings can be anywhere from like 30 to 70 percent identical DNA wise." Tim cuts in, resident genius. "Depends on what they get from both parents, discounting identical twins. The average is normally 50%, but if Isa had, say, 35% of your DNA, that would make people think either sibling or half sibling."

He felt the strange Dick-like urge to gush over the smartness of his brother. He felt the strange Vera-like urge to lean against one of them and not move no matter how much they protest. He's in a mood today, apparently. "This is all theoretical anyway, Bruce probably hasn't even finished this thing yet."

"And if we do that, Bruce would probably have to claim Isa as his child." Dick points out, and Jason chokes on his spit. "Unless we want to go with the half siblings root and say she's related via Jason's mother's side. If not-"

Tim's eyes sparkle at the thought. Jason wants to punt him across the room. "Tim, you promised."

Tim made a face of annoyance, but stopped when Dick elbowed him in the side. Jason let it be - no matter how smart Tim was, he still made mistakes, and he didn't really seem to understand Jason's avoidance of these kinds of family matters. Didn't understand why he didn't want to be called a dad, even though he adopted a kid. And maybe he would if Jason just explained it to him, but Jason's not a saint either, and it's hard to explain.

Dick got it. Jason didn't say a single word to him and yet he got it. Favorite brother.

Jason sighed, rubbing a hand along his face. He takes out the tabloid in question and puts it on the coffee table - 'JASON TODD, SINGLE FATHER?' is written loud and proud on the front. There's a picture of him holding Isa, taken from what looks like a surveillance camera. No one even got the drop on him, someone combed through cameras and happened to strike gold. It pissed him off. "They're going to torment her whenever they see her." His voice is a wounded mumble. "Unless we clear this up. They'll swarm her."

She's only going to school right now because Alfred will pick her up, Damian is with her, and the school has a strict policy about not photographing children on the property you absolute psycho.

In fact- "Tim, can you ask Bruce to sue this magazine?" Jason taps against the front page, right over Isa's photo. "She's a minor and they definitely don't have permission to take or use any photos of her."

Tim's smile turned demonic. He heard Mona cackle in the next room, feeding off of his energy. "It would be my pleasure." His phone is already in his hand. He pauses a moment later, though, frowning. "This could stir up the rumors."

Jason knows. "I'm her legal guardian, yeah, but I'm barely even an adult to most people - it wouldn't be a surprise for Bruce to handle it, even if we say Isa's related on my mother's side and Bruce really is-"

He can't say it.

He should be disgusted. He is, he thinks. In the back of his mind something is telling him to be revolted and angry, but he just doesn't feel it. Maybe it's the shock, maybe it hasn't really settled, the idea that Bruce would do that. He should be mad that Bruce was planning this, didn't even tell him, but-

But…

He hates the man, he's almost sure of that. He hates him, and yet-

He loves Fia. He loves Fia and Fia loves him. Fia loves him and Fia treats Vera the same way she treats Bri, her biological child. Fia treats all of them the same way, treats Aella and Vera and Mona just like she treats Bri, the same way Chioma treats her.

(Chioma once told him, when he was very young, that she had never really understood how to care for younger daemons until she met Thomas's and Martha's daemons, watched how they interacted with Fia and copied it. Thus, Fia learned it from her, who learned it from her parents. It's the same way Aella treats Bri, the same way Vera treats Casta.)

Did he want to be forever tied to Bruce Wayne, even moreso than he already is? He wants nothing from that man, truly, but-

But if something happened to them, if everything went wrong, Isa would be next of kin. Isa would be set for life.

He's already changed a lot about himself for Isa, most for the better. The therapy was years in the waiting, he's been eating better, going out more. He sees his brothers on a weekly basis instead of whenever the mood strikes, which was rare, because Isa loved them and they loved her. Fia and Isa have been connected since the beginning, the only reason he met either of them was due to the trafficking ring. His story was told to the press because his brothers, who he sees more often, got him to go to a charity event. Everything, honestly everything, is much more different than it was a few months ago.

And, if he's honest with himself, it's because he was scared.

He's seen a lot of terrible shit, over the years. Experienced a lot of it first hand. Seeing worn out children on the streets, eyes shifty and hunched over, untrusting of the world, always hurt him the worse, reminded him of himself in ways he didn't want to remember. He's not sure he truly believes in romance, in that kind of love. Maybe for truly stable people it's possible, but no one is truly stable in Gotham. Romance seems like a trap, more likely, something to get caught up in, believe with a pure blind faith, and then lose it all when that love disappears. He sees it happen all too often. Men and women who believe to be in love get together, start a family, and the moment the baby's born problems they had been ignoring start piling up and they're apart before the child is even three years old, the child fully abandoned by seven.

People who aren't ready for the responsibility of children have them, and the child is the one who suffers. It's what happened to Jason. He's terrified of that happening to Isa.

Why did Bruce take him in in the first place? Why? Why him? Why?!

He never thought he could hide Isa from the media forever, especially not after starting her in school, but that school was known for its privacy, and-

And-

He had been hopeful.

He had hoped he'd be lucky enough, just this once. He had wanted more time, more time to figure everything out. More time for Isa to grow and forget the past, bloom and heal - she's still not completely recovered from her illness! Her checkups are monthly now, but it's too early, much too early-

He had to crawl out of the car through the shattered window. Blood fell from a cut above his eye, and everything aches, but he was okay. He's had worse. Besides, he was too busy to really notice, too focused on the dark figure above him. The guy who's car he just stole. Who's car he just wrecked.

So far his family has consisted of people who can all protect themselves, even if Jason still buts his way into every little conflict they have. This time is different, though, and Jason-

Jason is scared.

Scared of something happened to Isa, scared of something happening to him and thus making her life harder. Scared of all the goons and villains he fights, scared of dying again, and somehow that's even worse than before.

"Jay?" Dick's voice is far away, concern shimmering in eyes Jason can barely see through his blurry vision. "Jay-"

Whatever he says Jason doesn't hear. He's spiraling, he can understand that, somewhat. Something tells him that he needs to stop, to get control of his thoughts, but his mind is on a one way rail down into his darkest, most intrusive thoughts, and he can't help but go along for the ride.

Jason didn't see his mother die, but he knows she did. He knows because his mother's daemon, a white squirrel, would always find him every few days after she left. He would always check on him, and that made Jason feel better, because even though she had left him she must of still been close by, close enough that her daemon could still find him. On cold nights he would find them, and Vera would turn into something big and fluffy and he would settle on Vera's head while Jason curled into her body and tried to sleep.

The last time Jason had seen him, Vera wouldn't stop wailing and the squirrel's tail had been leaking dust.

His mom had apparently overdosed on drugs. She was unconscious, she was going to die, but there was enough time for her daemon to visit his child one last time. Jason watches their tearful goodbye, tried to take the daemon's pained filled words to heart, but all he could feel was a vast emptiness at the thought of his mother dying, ricocheting pain from Vera, and his own guilt filled jealousy at his own daemon. She was able to say goodbye. Jason hadn't seen his own mother for months.

The daemon disappeared, went off to die with the other half of his soul. Vera was unconsolable for days. Jason didn't cry about it until right before he died, when he saw Vera's tail turn into dust and noted that he and his mother shared the first dusting in common.

Now, all he could think about was having to watch that happen to Casta. Having to watch Isa die. Having Isa watch them die.

And he can see it, in too vivid detail. He, slashed and bloody, makes it back just to see her again, just to say goodbye because he's too selfish to save that sight from her eyes. She grabs his hand and pleads to gods not listening as he goes still, and Casta wails and gasps and drowns in sorrow as Vera turns to dust before their eyes, and they try to stop it, try to save her because the moment she's gone it's over but they can't stop it can't even touch her and then she's gone and-

"Fuck, man." His voice cracks, a rush of air entering his lungs like he hasn't breathed in the last few minutes. His heart pounds in his chest, a pain in his lungs, and there's a bolt of something that flies through him, coming from a place that's felt empty for so long inside of him. He looks down at his hands, sees them bathed in a green glow. He's lost control. "I- I can't-"

Arms wrap around him. He jerks, and the arms fall away before he can take it back. He blinks, feels tears in his eyes, before leaning towards where the arms had come from, silently begging for them to come back. He needs something grounding, an anchor, something to keep him steady as he remembers how to breathe.

The arms come back, hesitant for a moment. The moment they settle he gasps like it's his first breath again and the words come tumbling out. "I- I can't mess this up, I just- I can't. She's not like us, she's innocent, and she deserves a normal, a happy childhood and-"

He stutters on his words, and the whole world is tinted green now, even as he slowly grounds himself. There's another jolt of something within him, something he vaguely recognizes, before there's a whimpered howl from the room over and the door opens. Vera tumbles through, almost skidding along the floor as she jumps up on the couch, stepping on Tim before settling half in Jason's lap and half in Dick's, head tucked under Jason's chin. A low rumble comes from her throat, her version of a purr, and Jason's world slowly slides back into place. The green tint fades.

He stays there for a few minutes. They all sit in silence. Jason gains control over his breathing, over his mind, and even while an exhausted feeling takes hold he's broken the flood gates and now he feels the urge to speak.

"What we do is dangerous." His voice is raspy, like he had been screaming. Vera whimpers, and the sound is followed by Mona's reply and Aella's croon. Both daemons sit next to their person. Jason can't see Dick's face from his perspective (he's not sure he could even say what he wants to if he could-) but Tim's eyes are wide, shocked. There's a level of concern and caring that almost surprises him, there. He's genuinely worried, genuinely cares, and Jason knew that, and yet still-

"I watched my mother's daemon turn to dust." He admits, says like a secret, because it is. He's never told anyone that, before. Vera presses her head into his chest and Jason rubs his hands along her fur, feels Dick's arms tighten. Sees the range of emotions flash across Tim's face. "I was already dying before Joker blew up the building, so I saw Vera start to disappear as well."

Aella lets out a sound close to despair and dives into Dick's other side, burying herself there. Mona curls up in Tim's lap, object horror on the face of an animal Jason didn't even know could have that type of expression. Humans rarely ever watch their daemons die, because the soul is always the last thing to let go. Daemons, on the other hand, almost always watch their humans die. Sometimes it's short, a bullet to the head, and sometimes it's long, a battle against cancer lasting for years. Daemons are burdened with it, watching without being able to save, but they would rather have it that way. Would rather deal with that pain then make their human go through that. Jason's sure that, if the situation was reversed, humans would feel the same.

It's at that moment, for the first time, that he realizes something.

Bruce and Fia. They not only watched Thomas and Martha die, but they watched their daemons turn to dust as well. They watched and could do nothing about it. Bruce watched his parents bleed out as their daemons said their sorrowful goodbyes to Fia, unable to touch him in their final moments. Bruce, unable to do anything but hold his parents limp hands and be an outsider to a farewell he would never be able to get.

Just like Jason.

(Can you truly hate and yet still love someone at the same time?)

"It's dangerous, what we do." He repeats again. "We could die anyday - I already have. I- I can't let - Isa doesn't deserve anymore trauma."

Tim looks shaken, unable to move or speak. Dick runs a hand through Jason's hair. "No, she doesn't."

It's three words, and yet it gets Jason going again. "No more." His voice is shaky. "She was an o-orphan, she h-had a disease that would've killed her before she could ever really live her life, she was kidnapped and thrown into a trafficking ring, and now she has the Red Hood as a pathetic excuse of a father-"

"Jason." Dick cuts him off, voice low and filled with a warning Jason only half gets. "She loves you, and you're giving her a better life than most could even dream of."

Jason shudders, vision flickering green, and Vera whines and pushes her entire body into him, like she's trying to push his feelings out and away. "She deserves better." He finally says. "Better than all of this."

There's a quiet trill from Aella, one he could barely hear. The dam breaks again. "You all do." Because Dick saw his parents die, and Tim was abandoned by his own, and Damian and Bri had a form forced onto them- "Why do all of our parents… why do they… why do they leave?!" His face is wet. "Why do they die? Why do they abandoned us? Why do they hurt us? Do they not have a choice? Do I not have a choice? Am I going to-"

"Jason." Dick says again, this time with pain in his voice, as Vera lets out a mournful wail and Tim dives into his other side, finally having enough. "I know you're scared, trust me, I understand, but please-"

"You were a better parent to me than either of mine were." Tim cuts in, voice muffled. When he looks up his eyes are glassy. "And you weren't even trying to be. Hell, you didn't even want to be my brother, and yet…"

Jason remembers the beginning, when they first met. Her name is Ramona, but I just say Mona. And he sat on his ratty couch, unsettled daemon a porcupine on his lap. He was so tiny, small and pretty much helpless with the amount of combat skill he had at the point. Jason could've killed him right then and no one would have known. He had debated it, too.

"Don't." He says, because he's not sure he can handle the weight of that admission. "I wanted to kill you, when I first learned about you, Replacement-"

"-Tim-"

"-don't… don't say that. It's not true, I'm not-"

"Not what?" Tim raises an eyebrow, understanding his expression so quickly, so easily. Just like how he said Replacement to create distance that didn't really exist. "Not my brother? Not a good person? Not what, Jason? Not something that you are?"

Vera lets out a growl that surprises even herself, but Mona cuts it off with a yip and a snap at her muzzle, the first time anyones ever seen her do something like that. It matches the steely glint in Tim's eyes.

"Every time I came over to see you, ranting about whatever was annoying me, and you let me talk for hours about whatever I wanted, helped me through whatever was bothering me, talked to me even though I was obviously bothering you." Tim looks upset, not at him, but at something. "And yet the next time I came over, ready to do the exact same thing, you let me in. Every time, you let me in. You'd have bullets lodged in your arm and you'd let me in and I'd rant and rave and you'd listen while trying to hide the fact that you were digging shells out of your arm."

Jason remembers that. He had thought he'd gotten away with it. Thought he had been so sly that he did it again the next time it happened, but the next time Tim had been oddly prepared for it, had helped him and ranted while digging it out instead. He hadn't thought anything about it, too busy focusing on Vera and Mona.

"Do you think my parents ever did that for me?" Tim asks, pulling back and crossing his arms. Mona's ears fell flat on her head. Jason felt a spike of hot anger. "They rarely even acknowledged my existence, much less listen to me talk for hours on end."

"Little bird-" Dick sounded just about as choked up as he's sounded for the past twenty minutes, and yet Tim still has the will power to hold up his hand, calling for silence.

"So yes, when I say you, a sixteen year old at the time, was a better parent then either of mine, I mean it. A better parent, a better brother, a better person- whatever you want to call it Jason, you were just better. You had died and come back to life, mind fucked with the pit, and you were still better than my parents."

Jason blinked, unsure what to say. It occurred to him that maybe Tim kept telling Isa to call him papa and to call himself uncle because he really doesn't see the difference between a father and a brother. To him, they're basically the same. While, of course, it wasn't as obvious, Dick did raise Tim as much as Bruce did. Tim didn't need much raising given his age, but he was still young when he became Bruce's ward. Enough that his outlook on life was still very influenceable. Adding Jason into the mix, maybe he really didn't see the big deal between a father and an older brother. To him, both were just people who raised you, with varying degrees of success.

(He cannot imagine what will happen to Damian, since Bri already gets conflicted when going to either Aella or Fia for comfort.)

"I'll say it again if it's still not through your head." A few moments of silence had passed, and Jason realizes he was gaping, open mouthed and quite honestly baffled. 

Vera shifts in his arms, head poking out to nuzzle against the side of Tim's head. "He'll need another moment, little one." Vera's voice is only that soft when she's talking to Isa. Not even Casta gets that voice. "But, if it's any consolation, I claimed you as mine the first time we met. Do you remember? I even gave you my name."

Jason flushes and buries his head into the closest object, which is Dick. Tim's smile is softer. "Yeah, I remember."

She licks his cheek. "We have been through a lot, and we lash out… a lot. But there has never been a time that we have not cared. I accepted you the moment I met you, and Jason did the moment you introduced Ramona."

It's the embarrassment that lets him find his voice. "Vera, please stop… I have an image to uphold…"

Someone snorts, Tim looks beyond pleased while Mona's tail is wagging. Vera licks a long stripe along Mona's snout, who practically buzzes in joy. Jason sighs and gives in. "You're alright, kid."

Mona jumps into the air like Christmas came early. Vera sniffs the air moments later and climbs out of his lap, disappearing from the room. Mona immediately takes the empty spot and bounces into his lap, front paws up on his chest and face inches from him. "Do you mean it? Really?!"

Now Tim looks embarrassed, and it's a strange look, mixed with how happy he is. Jason can only laugh, a bit vindicated now that it's not his daemon telling all of his secrets. He places a hand on Mona's head. "I'd hide a body for you, Ramona."

"Jason." Dick scolds as Mona practically squeals in delight, like she has just been handed a love confession. Which, it basically was. Mona flings herself from Jason's lap and collides into Dick, who's still holding him. 

She's vibrating in excitement. "And you? Would you?!"

"Mona!" Tim tries to grab her, but Mona can have the consistency of water when she wants too. Tim gives up rather quickly, face red as Mona looks for the approval they inwardly (and outwardly) obviously crave.

Dick frowns. "I'm not sure about-"

"We'd absolutely hide a body for you!" Aella chirps, wings fluttering. Dick makes a strangled noise, and Aella pecks at him. "Hide, human dearest, not kill."

"Oh, yeah." Dick blinks, considers. "We'd absolutely hide a body for you two, Mona."

Mona melts off the couch like she's made of honey, slowly slipping from the cushions onto the floor in a puddle of happiness. It's absolutely contagious, because Tim barely seems to be functioning anymore.

The door opens. "Mama, mama, look! Look who's here!"

"Yes I know." Vera sounds slightly exasperated, leading Isa and Casta into the living room. Jason hadn't noticed the time, he expected Alfred to take her up to the apartment anyway, but Vera must've found out they were here and went down to get her herself. What a sight that must've made.

"Jay!" Isa runs towards the couch, climbing up the cushions to settle on his lap. She had dropped her backpack along the way, but she held a paper in her hands. "Look! I got an A on my quiz!"

"Really?" Jason looks at the paper, a simple spelling quiz. She had only messed up one word. Vera preens full of pride from where she stands, a visual showing of Jason's current emotions. "Awesome! Your handwriting is so pretty, Isa."

Isa turns and ducks her head into Dick's side, something she so obviously got from Jason. "I got it from Alfie." Her voice is muffled.

Jason wraps an arm around her in a half hug while making sure she doesn't accidentally fall. Mona hops up next to Isa as Casta tries to climb his way onto the couch. He has a bit of a problem getting up, stuck halfway through, and Vera has to push him the rest of the way with her snout. It apparently took a lot of effort for Casta, as the moment he's up he's yawning and slumping down next to Dick.

Mona, on the other hand, collapses on Isa with a foxy grin. "Do you love me, Isa?"

Isa immediately wraps her in a hug. "Yes! I do! I love you Ramona! I love you and Ali-a-vera and Aella-moire and Me-dea-briar!"

Aella might've fallen off the couch if Vera didn't catch her, pushing her back on and into Casta, who immediately claims her as a feathery pillow. 

Tim wheezes slightly as Isa squeezes Mona just a bit too hard. Jason loosens her grip just a little, and Isa settles back into him. "I love you too, uncle Tim, uncle Dick. Jay."

"Love you mama." Casta mumbles, fully asleep, like he's just another voice for Isa. It's good seeing that, knowing that their bond must be healthy for something like that to happen.

"And we love you." Jason kisses her forehead. "Now, go get cleaned up, you smell."

Isa giggles and lets go of Mona, hopping to the ground. "We played kickball today!"

"Did you win?" Tim asking the important questions.

A nod. "I hit Michael in the chest with a ball!" She sounds both proud and upset by that. "He fell and the teacher said he 'got the air hit out of him'! I said sorry afterwards, we're friends now!"

Dick smothers a chuckle at that. Tim gives her a thumbs up. Jason can't help his smile. "Go wash up, then you can have a snack."

Isa sneezes and runs off. She didn't really smell, but she did have allergies and Jason created that rule so that she's not miserable every second of every day due to it. She's not allowed allergy medicine yet due to her other health medicines, so this was all they could do at the moment.

As if seeing his inner monologue, Dick nudged him. "I don't see anything to worry about, here."

Tim wipes away an imaginary tear. "I really am an uncle now." He sniffles. "I'm too young."

Jason whacks him. Tim laughs. That empty thing inside him feels a little less empty.

Sean McCanaghn thinks that that little girl can't be a normal human, to have won over Damian to the point of adoration. When he mentioned it to his mother, she had looked amused, disbelieving.

He had been right.

Because no normal human could win over both Damian Wayne and Jason Todd!

Chapter Text

He's sitting pretty in an interrogation room, smiling wide even with the mask covering his expression from the onlookers. Vera is pacing outside the police station, and Jason can feel her annoyance and agitation from all the way over here.

The detectives had left him alone for the moment, since he hadn't told them anything of use. They had started getting upset when his hood just wouldn't come off for them, and it only got worse when they learned that not only was Montoya not going to help them, but that commissioner Gordon was openingly against holding him here.

(Jason doesn't even have to be there to know what he would say - 'let the masks deal with the masks! You don't bring in a potentially dangerous mask without Batman here first!' Which, all fair points.)

There's a falcon daemon in the corner, similar to Aella but just a little too different to make him look twice. A ten foot python was draped over one of the chairs, slithering around easily, which told him that both detectives were still very close by. Probably just behind the closed door.

"I don't have all day." Jason called out, raising his hands (which used to have cuffs on them) in mock surrender. "I've got places to be - a date at the fair near the harbor! It's starts at seven!"

They do not respond. The python ignores him while the falcon stares holes into his forehead. Great crowd.

Jason stands up and knocks on the glass wall, looking at his reflection as he talks through the one way mirror. "If the teacher is fifteen minutes late to class I'm legally allowed to leave!"

That has to get someone's attention, given the fact that he had been cuffed by both his wrists and ankles to the table, and thus should not be able to get up nor move around. Huffing, he crosses his arms and sits back down, leaning heavily on the chair.

The python hisses, twisting suddenly and darting towards the door. The falcon lets out a shriek of alarm before disappearing through a bird shaped hole behind its perch. The snake vanishes as well, though Jason doesn't see where it went.

The alarms go off, and Jason shrugs and takes that cue.

Vera pulls back her teeth when he drops down next to her. "Took you long enough."

"Missed me." Jason smirks at her, ignoring her snarl. "Someone's grumpy, huh?"

Her hackles are raised. Something is off. "There's a smell in the air."

"Skunk daemon?" He jokes, eyes darting about. They start making their way through alleys. Vera's taunt next to him, large and graceful body coiled like a spring as she stalks, feet silent on the concrete pavement.

She pauses, crouching low and growling fiercely. Jason pauses next to her, watching saliva almost drip out of her jaws. She is on edge.

A daemon appears from the other end of the alley and suddenly Jason knows why. 

It's a wolf daemon, just like her, it's reddish gray fur almost as well kept as Vera's is. The wolf is massive too, the only wolf daemon he's met that's bigger than Vera, with bright golden eyes and paws as big as Damian's hands.

Jason recognizes the daemon. He knows the other part of its soul.

The daemon walks until it's eight or so feet away. It's tall and proud, sure and bold with each step. Jason would even call the daemon elegant if he hasn't seen it kill a human by tearing off their daemon's head in front of them. He didn't even know that a daemon could die before then - he thought that a human had to die for a daemon to turn to dust.

He learned his lesson.

Which is why he pulls out his gun and trains it on the other wolf. "I'm too tired for this bullshit today!"

The other half of the daemon emerges from the shadows. Vera's growl stutters for a single moment, and Jason's hands waver before tightening. "I expected gratitude."

"For what, scaring the shit outta those cops?" Jason scoffs. "That's fuckin easy."

Slade tilts his head to the side, his daemon unmoving in front of him. Vera has sunk lower towards the ground, belly brushing pavement and muscles taunt. "The Elshers."

Jason paused. "The what?"

He couldn't see Slade's eyes, but he knew the man had just rolled them. "You put a job out for information - which was easy enough to find. There it is."

Jason blinked. It took a second to settle in.

Oh. Oh.

Oh shit.

Jason, in all his worrying, went to look for Isa's parents. Not to give her back (because they obviously didn't want her) but to learn about family history. Isa already had one chronic illness, who knew what else ran in her family? Basically, Jason was fretting and he couldn't find anything besides a single photo of Isa's mother held in a locket she had from the orphanage. When even Tim couldn't find anything, he put out a bolo for it on some unsavory sites asking for information on people who were mostly likely already dead.

He did not expect Slade to be the one who takes the job. Honestly, his plan was to take the information that he got from whoever took the job and then kill them after, in case they somehow caught wind of why he wanted the info. 

This was ten times worse.

"Eric and Mayra Elsher lived a few miles outside of Gotham." Slade continues, staring at him, trying to figure out what he wanted to know. "Mayra was an abusive drug addict and Eric was crippled after one of the many catasphronies that happen in this city. Their two children, Isaac and Isana Elsher died from suspected abuse. Eric passed away a few months ago, Mayra is currently in prison."

…But why did Slade take this job?!?

HOW DID HE KNOW JASON WAS THE ONE WHO POSTED IT-

He keeps his body relaxed as he nods. "Payment should come in by tomorrow morning." 

His voice stays steady. Slade studies him.

Wait did Slade say there were two children-

Slade's daemon takes a step forward, and Vera growls. The daemon ignores it, huffing at her once before going still again. Vera relaxed, if only slightly.

Jason really needs him to leave and forget this ever happened.

Slade, of course, doesn't. "Isana and Isaac Elsher disappeared the day after Isana's third birthday. CPS suspected violent abuse and a coverup once Mayra had finally gone too far, which held in court but was never fully confirmed. Isaac Elsher, 16 at the time, has been missing ever since. Isana was seen in an orphanage across Gotham for a few months before disappearing all together as well."

Slade knew. Slade either knew or he suspected. How, though? He knows something what is it- "Send anything else you found through the site, I have places to be."

Slade stares at him. Jason feels a bit sick. Deathstroke's been pretty quiet lately. Everything he's done for the past few years has either been in the shadows or hasn't involved them whatsoever. Jason can't remember the last time he had to fight Slade, but that doesn't make him any less wary.

Slade nods slowly, and for a second Jason thinks it's over.

Then Slade's daemon howls, throwing their head back and singing into the night sky. Vera stills, confusion melting her stance away.

Slade sighs. "Isaac Elsher is currently working for Penguin as a cook at the night club off fifth street. Isana Elsher was taken by daemon traffickers, and is presumed dead."

Wait.

…Huh?

Jason blinks, taken aback. Slade is… it's almost like… it kinda sounds… is Slade helping him?

(Jason would say he has a soft spot for children if Jason didn't know that was very clearly not true.)

He stands there, baffled, as Slade's daemon seems pleased enough, turning away and disappearing into the shadows. Slade takes one last look at him before vanishing as well. Vera stays alert for another minute before relaxing.

Jason stares at nothing.

He takes out his phone. "I need a huge favor."

"No." The voice at the other end groans. "It's my night off. I have an exam in three hours."

"Please. I'll owe you one."

"Jason-"

"You'll be my favorite brother."

A snort.

"I'm serious! I'll love you the most."

Tim laughs.

Jason pulls out all the stakes. "Isa will love you more than me."

Silence. "...what is it?"

Got him. "I need you to get a guy's phone number. He's a cook at one of Penguin's clubs. Name's Isaac Elsher. Should be around your age I think."

Tim makes a confused sound. "What do you want with him?"

"Isa's been a picky eater lately." Jason lies through his teeth. 

"And you barely eat at all." Tim grumbles, too tired to noticed his lie. "Finally gonna start taking care of yourself?"

Like he hasn't been already. "Yeah, sure, anyways this is a time sensitive one, please." Jason pauses. "But it can wait until after your exam."

"You're too kind."

"Hugs and kisses." Jason says just to hear Tim retch over the phone. Isa's gotten into the habit of saying it, which made Jason get into the habit of saying it, and the first time he accidentally said it to Tim Tim almost died via tripping out into traffic so now Jason just finds it funny. "Thanks again, though."

"Fuck off." He hangs up.

Jason gets a new cook a few days later, one so good that he randomly decides to send him to Gotham's culinary school and pays him as if he was a gourmet chef. And, very randomly, his new chef completely stops working at the night club and becomes a full time student who only actually cooks for him during the weekends because Jason's a very busy man and only needs full meals then. The most random part is how he pays him an entire week's worth of work in the span of two days. And, somehow, even more random, is that his chef somehow managed to get the Wayne scholarship and was granted a full ride through culinary school.

(Really, he needs this kid on his good side. It's surprising he hasn't already seen Isa in the news, but they really were considering telling the world they were biologically related with DNA tests to back it up, including in relation to Bruce as well. If, or he should say when that hits the papers, Issac could mess it all up by going to the media to tell the truth. Mayra he can deal with, Mayra he's going to deal with if she ever gets out of jail, but Isaac is a wild card he needs on his side. Currently, he's happy with what he has and he's glad that his sister is doing better than she ever was before with their actual parents, and as long as it stays that way he won't be a problem. Isa barely remembers him, but she remembers him more than she remembers her actual parents, and Jason didn't think she could possibly be more happy than she already is. He rarely ever gets to see tears of joy.)

It's quiet, at his place. Isa's sleeping in a pillow fort with Casta and Dick is scrolling through his phone. Vera and Aella snooze curled up with each other. Jason plops down next to him with a thoughtful expression. "Think Slade is up to no good?"

Dick was the only one he told about where and how he found everything, because he can't trust the others not to tell anyone else. Dick is surprisingly good at keeping his mouth shut when it matters.

His brother ponders that. "I think that man has enough money that his great great grandchildren won't have to work a day in their lives. I think he's bored."

Jason blinks. "Bored? Slade?"

Dick shrugs. "Hes done everything. I mean, if you spent five years trying to take over the world without success, would you keep on doing it or would you get bored and do something else?"

Jason frowns. "But that something else is helping his enemy."

"Not if he doesn't see it that way." Dick goes back to scrolling through his phone. "He was bored, looked for a job, thought that digging for info was different enough from murdering people, and hyper fixated on it once he figured out you posted it. Hard to be bored when the Red Hood is looking for some random unassuming family. It was a mystery then - Slade's version of Clue."

Jason groans. "I should be happy a super villain is giving up, and yet-"

"He's really bored." Dick bites his lip. "Half a year ago some thug's daemon found Aella while she was hiding and went for her. Slade's daemon got it before I could even run over."

Jason blinked. He blinked again. "Really bored."

Isaac texted him a picture of a new dish he was creating, based solely on Jason's favorite foods mixed together. Isa was sleep talking her multiplication tables, a true academic, and Casta appears from the fort only to yawn and disappear back within. Damian texts him complaining about how much attention Isa's getting at school because someone had caught Damian smiling at her. Tim was somewhere curled up in a ball sleeping off finals season.

Jason thrived.

They're in Europe when it all goes wrong.

He's not quite sure why he tagged along, besides the fact that Tim wanted him there. They can move across borders without anyone knowing, which is what they do, and Tim's of legal age, it's not like he and Damian need an adult. Not really.

Still, they're in Europe, and he's with them. The trip is a mix of recon, tying up loose ends, and looking for international gifts that people would like for upcoming birthdays. Jason's got a whole year's worth of Christmas and birthday presents waiting in their jet, which they need to get back to at some point.

The problem happens in the back alleys of Rome. Damian wanted to visit for a reason he wouldn't tell, said it was business he never finished, and they trusted him enough not to do something stupid to let him go while they went sightseeing. He came back unruffled and everything seemed okay.

The sun was setting as they wandered through Rome, sticking to less traveled roads to get the sense of being alone in a tourist trap. Vera and Bri were wandering a few dozen feet behind them, and Mona was up in Tim's arms, spoiled rotten. Jason wonders if she chose a small form solely for this reason, sometimes.

"I still don't quite understand." Damian sounds hesitant, obviously not comfortable yet with being unsure to them, with showing weakness. "How does it lean?"

"The soil underneath the tower is very soft." Tim explains casually, easily. While he teases Jason whenever he doesn't know something, he's all kind smiles and easy words with Damian. "As they built the tower, the soil underneath it was compressed, and it started to tilt over time."

Damian blinked, still unsure, still confused. Tentatively, he asked, "But how does it not fall over?"

And there's that kind smile, not patronizing, not too overbearing, just gentle and light. "Its center of gravity is at the base of the tower, that keeps it stable even as it shifts. And, of course, modern engineering." 

Damian scratches his chin and looks down at the ground in thought. Jason watches them talk silently, imagining how happy Dick would look if he got to see this conversation, see how much Damian has changed, settled into being somewhat of a kid.

(Good thing Jason secretly recorded the entire thing. He knew this was coming the moment Damian first got that conflicted look in his eyes. He's been thinking about that tower for days now, and only just got the courage to actually ask.)

They pause as the sun touches the horizon, bathing the sky in oranges and pinks. The hair on Jason's neck stands on edge, and he hears Vera growl.

His eyes shift around, searching the area. Vera's growl warns the others, who now stand on edge. Mona drops from Tim's arms and is immediately surrounded by Vera and Bri. They're in civilian clothes, nondescript and unnoticeable. No one should be stalking them right now, save a petty thief that they would've noticed much sooner than just now.

There's a piercing whistle, one he less so hears and more so feels. His ears burn at the sound, and the daemons all hiss and whimper, the pain from them transferring over to their humans.

Something bites at his neck. He touches the area and feels a dart embedded in his skin.

He takes it out and looks at the others. "Fuck."

They see it. Damian's eyes narrow in recognition. "It's the-"

Jason doesn't let him finish, because it's already taking hold, but if they only darted him then maybe the others had a chance. "Go."

"No!" Tim looks at him like he's crazy, like they can actually fight against someone sneaky enough to do this without any of their weapons on them? Damian probably has at least three knives on him, because Jason does too, but he knows whatever Tim has isn't enough for whatever this is. 

Vera sways in place, and Jason's vision goes blurry, stars exploding in his eyes. "Get your fucking gear, Tim." He growls out, feels the vibrations of people landing behind him. Damian sets his stance, face stony and cold, and they'd rather lose with him then get away to save him another day, shit.

It occurs to him, as he completely loses consciousness, that maybe they darted him because he and Vera would be the most trouble to deal with.

He wakes up in a cell, eyes crusted closed and head pounding in pain. His body aches in a way that tells him that someone had touched Vera, while he was unconscious. Given the fact that Vera was in the cell with him, still unconscious, he can tell why.

He muffles a groan as he sits up, trying to clear his vision and survey his surroundings. The place felt like it was previously a cave of some type, old and well worn and just slightly familiar.

"I should have gotten my gear."

Jason's head snaps to the voice before he can think about it, and the regret is instant as his head gets worse. Tim is in a cell diagonal of him, barely visible from his viewpoint. He looks fine, a little roughed up and worn, but nothing worse than a normal night patrol. Jason thinks this might be why he doesn't go on vacations. "You should have."

Tim glares at him even as he agrees, mostly upset with himself over anything else. If he had listened, there was a chance he could have gotten away and then later rescued them from this mess, or at least been able to contact Dick or (ugh) Bruce to help out. Instead he hadn't wanted to leave and now-

Where's Damian?

"Where is he?" He doesn't say his name, doesn't need to. Tim looks ashamed for a moment and points to a symbol carved into the floor, one Jason's drugged brain had overlooked.

It was a symbol from the League. Ah. That does explain a lot.

Also, shit.

Dick's never going to let them go out together again. He's no better than Bruce, letting this all happen, fuck.

Vera shudders behind him, finally coming too. His headache lessens the more she wakes up, and he takes the blessing as the pain dulls, lets him think a little more clearly.

(They could of darted all of them, he knows. They took all of them, the only reason he could think that they didn't was as punishment, of some kind. Jason they drugged because he would kill them if they didn't. That wasn't a worry with Tim, and while Damian would he has no doubt that the League wouldn't of just so they could beat the shit out of him before dragging him back with the rest, dangers be damned. Ra's may have even told them to do it, the jackass.)

"He's been gone for an hour now." Tim extrapolates solemnly, eyes dull. "I should have left… gone to call someone, something…"

Jason isn't good at soothing people. "Let's be honest with ourselves Tim, none of us would have left if we were told to."

"Doesn't mean we didn't all fuck up."

Jason frowns at him, Mona lets out a pained yip, and league members drag them out of their cells. "Fucking finally-"

Rough cloth is shoved into his mouth, tied behind his head to form a makeshift gag. He's completely offended before they do the same to Tim, a true showcasing of equality, and he only remembers to struggle when they try to bind his hands behind his back. Vera can't do much more than growl and stay five feet away from the baboon daemon at all times.

They drag him towards their destination a little more bruised than he was before. There's a big one blooming around his eye, not enough to swell to the point of blindness, but very noticeable nonetheless.

And noticed it is.

The room they're taken to is large and important looking. Talia stands in the shadows, her tiger sitting still next to her. Two league members stand behind Damian, who is sitting on his ankles, head bowed, in front of Ra's Al Ghul. The moment they enter, though, his gaze shoots to them. Fire sparks in his eyes, turning into a blaze the moment he sees Jason's face.

(And if that doesn't please the hell out of Vera and subsequently him-)

"They are not involved in this, grandfather." Damian's voice is low and obedient, so not like him that it makes Jason angry. Bri sits at his side, head bowed but hackles raised. Jason is pushed to the floor next to him, Tim on his other side. "They were only aiding me in a mission."

"Do not try to fool me, child." Ra's spits, sword moving towards Damian's neck. "I see all."

Bri yowls the moment Ra's sword settles under Damian's neck, lunging forward with claws outstretched. He doesn't know what she could do, touching Ra's would only hurt them both, but she doesn't seem to care. Before she can claw out his throat, though, the lion that had been slinking through the shadows pounces. It pins Bri underneath it, holding her against the ground as Bri tried to lash out, too small against the grown daemon. It strikes at her instead, red lines ripping across her hind leg. Damian flinches harshly and Bri slumps against the floor, unable to hold her own weight.

Jason shouts behind his gag, as does Tim. Vera snaps at the lion, hackles raising, eyes flashing emerald. She takes a step forward, lips pulled back in a deep, vicious snarl. Ra's lion is big, intimidating, and yet it has nothing on Vera.

Before she can attack Talia's tiger stalks out of the shadows, near Tim and Mona. Vera's body twists to meet the new threat, stepping in front of Tim (and thus covering Mona) as the tiger daemon (what was his name again, Asif?) blocks his mother from harm, uncaring about the harm she's causing his daughter. Asif is massive, a male tiger almost as big as a bear. He's not attacking Vera, he's just making sure Vera doesn't attack the lion daemon. He's making her have to choose between protecting Bri and protecting Mona.

After learning that daemons can die, that it's possible, and that if you do it the humans dies with them, Jason understands why Vera chooses Mona. The size difference between the tiger and the fox is terrifying to think about, much less look at.

"You give Sumayyah too much reign." Ra's spits, presses the tip of his blade against Damian's neck. He tilts his head, and the League members in the room leave. "She is feral, disobedient, worthless."

A hot rage overcomes him, and Vera speaks his anger since he cannot. "You lying piece of shit!"

Ra's barely gives her any of his attention. "I see where you learned it from." His expression is dull, unimpressed. Disappointed. Damian's eyes flash, a small glint of green that Jason rarely ever sees from him. Forgets about completely until it shows itself. "I allowed Talia to take you to your father because of the attack on the League, I never should have allowed you to stay. You've grown weak, idle, in your absence."

Damian doesn't respond, just keeps his eyes locked with Ra's and glares. Jason wonders what they had done before they dragged Jason and Tim in here, wonders what was said to keep Damian from snapping and lashing out. He wonders why they're even here, what Ra's wants to prove with all of this. Show that they're helpless to stop him? Show that they're weak compared to him? He's not sure.

What he does know is that he has at least five bullets with Ra's name on them. Vera growls to show his anger. Her eyes flicker green again, before turning that color and staying. Ra's considers her for longer, this time, and that sets Jason even more on edge. He levels his strongest I'll kill you glare at him, a pit of anger welling up inside of him. Reacting to something he can't see, rising quickly and harshly, lashing out.

Ra's eyes turn to him. They study him, almost curious. Vera snarls, looking close to jumping the man herself. Bri twists along the ground beneath the lion daemon, blue eyes locking onto Vera with something close to horror. Damian squirms next to him, more uncomfortable the moment Ra's not focused on him than when he was.

"This is the one you resurrected?" Ra's asks, speaking to seemingly no one. He studies Jason inquisitively, and Jason hasn't had the displeasure of meeting Ra's face to face since he was brought back. He only really knew what the man looked like from pictures and videos. He never really got involved with the higher ups in the League. "Months after his death?"

"Yes, father." Talia's voice is blank, tinged with either loyalty or fondness. They have more of a familial bond than Damian has with either of them, his own corroded after so long away. Even if it wasn't, after spending so long with his brothers, it would have been destroyed the moment Ra's daemon attacked Bri. Even if that was normal between them (which it somewhat seemed to be, fucking sickos-) after spending so long without it, Damian would know by now that that's not the way things should be. "Six months, after an explosion, no less."

"Fascinating." Ra's murmured, leaning towards him, and Jason got ready to headbutt him, almost lost to his anger by this point. Ra's anticipates it though, and before he can even begin a hand snatches a fistful of hair at the back of his head, yanking his head up and to the side, holding him still. He breaths out harshly, green leaking into his vision. He wants to slaughter him. "He was exposed to it once years ago, and yet it still influences him to such a degree."

He feels like he's under a microscope, unable to move with the grip in his hair. Ra's is right, he should be able to control himself after so many years, and he can normally. As long as Vera is there and Vera is calm, he has control, but the moment Vera loses herself Jason spirals with her, causing a feedback loop of anger neither can get out of so easily. 

And nothing makes Vera lose control as quickly as someone hurting one of his brothers' daemons.

Vera, who currently looks quite feral, lips curled back and eyes glowing green like neon lights. She's only a foot or so away, and the only reason she hasn't attacked yet is because the moment she gets ready to pounce Asif darts in to snap at Mona. She's stuck between defending Jason and protecting Mona, and while a daemon's answer should always be their human Jason's own desire to keep Mona safe (over detriment of himself) also influences her actions.

Jason's angry enough to try speaking through his gag, which just devolves into a rumbly growl. Ra's studies his eyes, and Damian is silent next to him, tense like he's considering getting up and tackling his grandfather.

"The pit did not save him, it recreated him." Talia theorizes, head tilting slightly, an air of disinterest in her voice. Jason thinks it's all bullshit, which he would voice if he didn't have a gag or if his daemon wasn't currently overloaded with bloodlust. "It is not influence, it is what he is. He would be like the others, a zombie, if his daemon didn't come back with him."

Jason thinks they should take out the gag and ask him, and then immediately regret it as he bites off Ra's nose.

He grunts as his head is pulled up and back, stretching out his neck and putting him in a painful angle. "What do you think, grandson?" Ra's doesn't look at Damian as he speaks, eyes stuck on Jason's as if he's seen something holy. With how Ra's practically worships the Lazarus pits after so many mind altering times in them, he wouldn't be surprised. "Should we throw him in and see what happens?"

If Jason was a bit more in control of himself, he might have regained control, his fear kickstarting the rest of his mind. With how he is now, he barely even digests what Ra's proposing.

Damian does. When he speaks, his voice is level, clear. "No."

"No?" Ra's finally looks away, grip loosening, but he moves away before Jason can satisfy his need for violence. "And why is that? Do not tell me it is because you care."

He says it almost like an afterthought, like the idea is so absurd that it's not even amusing, nor laughable. It's said emotionlessly, like it's an option that doesn't hold any merit or thought.

Damian grits his teeth as Ra's walks back over to him. The moment Ra's back is to Vera she lunges, unable to resist. Her tunnel vision envelopes him as well, and he barely even notices the consequences of her actions, only sees Asif lunge out of the corner of his eye.

Vera, to her credit, gets him good, mouth tearing into the juncture between his shoulder and neck while her claws tear into his back. Jason can taste the blood bubbling in her mouth, the satisfaction and anger so strong that the pain is dull and meaningless in return. He had already ached before, but now the burn just heightened his desire for bloodshed.

Before Vera can kill him Ra's lion is there, tackling her off. They both collide into Jason, but before Vera can fight back the lion's retreated, a fight it knows it can't win, standing back over Bri and keeping her still.

It's then that Jason's mind clears enough to hear it.

Tim's head and torso is curled into the rest of his body, forehead pressed into the floor as he tries to breathe through his pain silently. He's shaking, and Jason can't see Mona over the flashes of black and orange fur. The moment the lion had moved Vera had leapt at Asif, roaring in anger. They had lost themselves to their rage, and Tim had been hurt because of it.

The pit inside of him empties as quickly as it filled, leaving him only with shame and regret.

He winces as a wave of pain slams into him, Ra's contact with Vera and Vera's fighting finally catching up to him. She's holding her own pretty well right now - she had Asif's throat in her jaw and was currently trying to end his life. She probably couldn't, no matter how she tried, but Talia didn't seem to care either way. Jason glances her way, saw a throwing knife slide into her palm, and felt panic slice through him.

Vera immediately backed off, pulling back like she heard his silent command. She crouched next to something Jason couldn't see, blocked by Tim's body, and he heard Mona whimper.

Ra's watches the scene with a detached gaze, seemingly uncaring about the wounds Vera inflicted. He waved it away like it was a mere papercut, turning back to Damian the moment the fighting had ended. "Answer me."

Damian just glared. For a moment, his eyes flickered to Bri, then to Jason, hardening when he sees Tim. He looked back to Ra's, and the smirk on his face was the perfect copy of Dick's taunting smile. "Fuck. You."  

Jason would be so proud of him, if he wasn't cussing out an insane man that currently held his own daemon hostage. Still, after all of this, he will tell him how proud he is, even if he does get one of them killed in the process.

Ra's scoffs, like he finds the entire thing distasteful. "This level of disobedience requires a severe punishment, Damian Al Ghul."

He raises his blade again. Damian's eyes widen, a flash of surprise that turns into realization and fear. He couldn't do much more than watch before the blade came down with startling swiftness.

The room went silent before it echoed with Bri's wails.

Damian let out a soundless gasp, blinking rapidly as his eyes shifted to Jason. Blood gushed from his throat, gurgled out of his mouth and splattered against the ground. He stared at Jason, more shocked than anything else, not even really scared anymore. Jason watched in horror, unable to move as Damian tipped backwards, lifeless eyes staring at the ceiling.

He didn't move. He didn't speak. He didn't breathe.

A painful keen erupted from Vera's throat, an agonizing scream she couldn't contain. Mona cried out, much the same, and Jason's eyes snapped to Bri, had to see her, because if she was still there then Damian was too and this isn't real this isn't happening-

But it is, and Jason watches as Bri's body turns into dust before them.

"Medeabriar!" Mona struggles to stand, limps into view before collapsing to the floor. Her hind leg is mangled, neck torn into, and no matter how hard she tries she can't get more than a foot towards her. Vera hesitates for only a moment, glancing once at Mona before running towards Bri.

Neither Asif or the lion try and stop her.

She falls to the ground next to her, nosing at her head in what little comfort she can give her. Bri is silent, quiet, eyes focused on Damian's body like nothing else matters anymore. Vera murmurs something too quiet to hear, and Bri finally looks at her, bumps her head against Vera's before tucking it under her neck. Moments later and she's gone, golden dust swirling into the air before disappearing all together.

Time stands still. Jason stares at the place Bri used to lay, at where Vera lays alone now. He turns back to Damian, sees still features and blank eyes. There's nothing there, no movement, no life, no nothing-

Ra's nods his head towards Talia. Tim makes a muffled sound of sorrow behind his gag, body still wracked in painful tremors. Mona is shaking next to him, wide eyes staring at where Bri used to be, helpless and agonized.

And Jason… and he…

Talia looks as disinterested as always, crouching next to him to pick Damian up, uncaring like she didn't just watch her father kill her son. Asif gives her away, but only slightly, unruffled besides the wild lashing of his tail.

Vera hasn't moved from her spot. Jason doesn't think any of this is real. He wouldn't be reacting like this if it was. It's all so far away, it's all…

Talia takes Damian's body to a table behind Ra's, on the opposite side of the room. She places him on the table, puts his hands (cold hands, dead hands-) on his chest and pulls down a lever.

The table, which wasn't a table, shudders. The top sinks down, starts to disappear into the ground with Damian on it, and after a moment the table glows an acid green light, bathing Damian in it, and everything snaps into place.

That's a pit. A Lazarus pit. Jason lost control so quickly, felt it so easily, because they were right next to a Lazarus pit.

A Lazarus pit. Something that can resurrect the dead. They're putting Damian in it. Damian was dead.

Ra's Al Ghul killed him.

Ra's Al Ghul killed him.

There was a moment where he was Jason, where he was before he wasn't. One moment he was, and then the next he wasn't.

Damian disappeared from view, golden dust starting to appear from thin air, Vera howled her disturbing wail, and Jason's vision became bathed in red.

One moment he was, and then the next moment he wasn't.

One moment the pit within him was empty, the next it was overflowing.

He's not aware of how he stands, how he breaks out of his bindings or how he tears the gag from his mouth. He's not aware of how his left wrist is suddenly broken, nor how his mouth is bleeding. A voice inside his head screams for vengeance, and he doesn't even know why.

Vera howls again, this time a deranged cackle of a sound, and she sways and weaves as she stands. Blood drips from her mouth as she smiles at the void.

One moment she's there, and the next she surrounded by the lion's intestines, claws dipped in red.

One moment he's watching, and the next Ra's head is bashed against the wall.

One moment Vera's covered in gore and the next a knife is dragged along her side.

One moment Jason has a knife in his shoulder and the next he's crouched above him, punching the blade into his gut over and over and over again.

One moment claws dig into the scruff of her neck, the next she's digging out its eyes.

One moment a sword is lodged in his side and the next he's gouging out Ra's eyes.

One moment Tim lets out a wail and the next Mona is crying out in horror.

One moment his hands are slick with blood and the next he sees black fur and blue eyes.

One moment Vera is covered in golden dust and the next Damian's eyes are staring into his, wide and terrified.

One moment he is, and the next he isn't.

One moment he wasn't, and the next he was.

There's a bloodbath when his eyes are no longer tinged with anger. He's fatally wounded, ten times over, yet he doesn't feel any pain. Damian stands in front of him, mouth agape and eyes full of horror, a rare emotion to see on Damian's face. He's speaking, Jason thinks, saying something maybe. He should be out of control, if he just came out of the pit. Those were the rules, right? Someone should have to calm him down, right? That, or shock him out of it.

(What were the chances that Jason accidentally shocked him out of it?)

Tim appears next to them, no longer tied up. He doesn't see Talia, can't see much besides his brothers and the gore that surrounds them. Not only is Ra's skull bashed over, but his body is covered in holes, like a slice of cheese. His head is barely connected to his neck anymore, and one of his hands lays detached from the rest of him. He must've gotten the jump on him, bashed his head in good enough that he was only half able to fight back. Jason was bleeding out, but he came out the winner here.

Vera had been practically cut open, unable to stand lest she lose her organs along the floor. She, like him, doesn't really seem to notice. Ra's lion is half dust next to her, looking very similar to the tauntaun from Star Wars after Han was done with it.

Tim is speaking too, and he finally realizes why he can't hear them.

Half of his face seems to be cut off, including one of his ears. The other side of his face had been bashed a few times, it's honestly a wonder he could see.

Tim must realize that he either can't hear or is deep within shock, because he stops talking and instead pulls him over to the Lazarus pit. Jason sees their destination and tries to struggle, the idea of being subjected to the pit in its entirety is terrifying, but for some reason he can't control any of his limbs. They have to carry him to the pit.

He might have spinal damage.

They get him on the table and Damian takes control, knowledgeable for reasons Jason probably shouldn't be told. He's submerged and he feels like he's being burned alive, feels like he's bathing for the first time in years, feels angry and happy and satisfied and terrified and his body knits itself back together, reforms skin and cells and nerves and when he wiggles his fingers they do as they're told and when he blinks he's no longer in the pit.

"Jason?" Tim asks hesitantly, hand brushing his shoulder. Jason's eyes find Vera immediately, find her curled up around Bri, fur glossy and full and covered with gore but not her own. His eyes flicker to Tim next, see a shaken and broken boy rather than what he normally sees and looks away just as quickly. His eyes land on Damian last.

He looks… fine. Like nothing even happened. 

Jason blinks and sees lifeless eyes and blood dribbling down parted lips.

Risking his life, he pulls him into a hug, not willing to let go even if he fights it.

When Damian doesn't, Jason drags Tim into it as well.

They land back in Gotham. Jason takes them both to the manor. As he's dropping them off, Tim looks around the car and frowns. "Where's Vera?"

Jason looks around too. She had been on the plane, and Jason's pretty sure she had gotten in the car. "I don't know."

Vera does not reappear.

Casta is getting lonely.

It's been over a week. Jason hasn't seen Vera since they got back. After Jason had been dipped in the pit, she hadn't spoken at all. Jason could feel her shame at what they did, mixed with other emotions he couldn't identify. Jason let her brood, gave her time to go through whatever she was feeling. She was mute the entire way home, didn't say a word to anyone, and the moment they were in Gotham she disappeared.

He's seen not hide nor hair of her since.

The only reason Jason doesn't think she's gone, dead, is because he can still feel her.

A week is a long time. When he first came back, she would disappear like this, both of them unstable and unable to help each other. It feels like a relapse, but it's not, exactly. It's worse, somehow. Something is wrong, and he doesn't know how to fix it.

Dick has been hovering. Jason didn't tell him what happened, but someone did. He doesn't know what to do either, but he's trying and Jason doesn't want it, doesn't want his help, doesn't want to be near him. He backs away, ignores his texts and calls, avoids all of his brothers and wonders when Vera's coming back.

He can't avoid them entirely, though, because Isa still goes to school with Damian and Isa still deserves to see them.

(Jason doesn't talk to them when they visit her. He sits in his room, leaves the apartment, because they all want to talk about things he doesn't want to remember and the daemons all look for a wolf that doesn't want to be found.)

Casta is the worst of all.

He didn't say anything at first. Jason showed up past midnight to check on Isa, to see how she was after he had been gone for so long. He planned to stay away until he got himself sorted but Isa woke up and asked if he'd be there in the morning and Jason couldn't say no.

He made it through most of the first day before he asked about her. Vera had been better about not disappearing for long periods, but she did, and Casta knew that. Still, at the end of the first day he climbed into Jason's lap and with bright eyes asked, "Where's mama?"

And Jason stares at him and didn't answer and didn't say anything until Isa picked Casta up and said, "Jay needs a nap, Casta." And Jason almost broke down because even Isa could tell Vera wasn't coming back.

Jason avoided them for two more days, before the nanny texted saying Isa missed him and he dragged himself back over and Isa pulled him to the side and said, "I don't want you to be alone."

And Jason can't cry, he's the adult in the situation, but Casta is becoming more and more quiet as each day passes, more and more still, reverting back to how he was when he first saw the snow leopard. Isa's trying her best, is still bright and happy, but when she thinks he isn't looking she'll stare at nothing with a frown on her face like something's wrong and she doesn't know how to fix it.

Which is true. Jason's wrong and he doesn't know how to fix it. He's wrong and he's hurting Isa and this was what he was afraid of.

It's late, Isa is asleep and Jason is at the counter trying to distract himself, unable to sleep with a hole in his heart, and he hears the soft thumping of the stairs and a clawing at his pant leg. He pulls Casta up onto the counter and runs his fingers through his fur, because it's the only thing that brings him comfort now. He is Casta's only connection to Vera, and this baby daemon has already lost his first parents, Jason can't let him lose another. "I'm sorry."

It's the first words he's spoken in days. "What?"

"I'm sorry." Casta repeats, and Jason's heart breaks a bit more. "I'm sorry mama. I'll be better, I promise."

His words are soft, rehearsed. He had obviously planned this, thinking he had done something wrong and was being punished, needing to apologize because he was the reason Vera wasn't here anymore, like he's the one at fault when Jason's the one who fucked up, who didn't pay enough attention, who got them caught and got Damian killed and then lost control-

Casta shivers and mewls and pleads again. "I'm sorry mama, I'm sorry, please mama-"

And Jason realizes that he's said this before, probably to Isa's actual parents' daemons, and now Jason is making him do it all over again, feel helpless and at fault just like he did before.

He was right. He didn't have a choice. 

No matter how much he tried, he still hurt his kid. Still abandoned them.

"I'm so sorry, Casta." His voice cracked with a half contained sob, the distance and conflict with his daemon bubbling over. "None of this is your fault, please, you did nothing wrong."

"But mama…" Casta's long tail curls around his front paws, and he buries his face into it. "Mama doesn't want to see me. Mama's angry at me…"

Jason feels one of the strongest spikes of self loathing he has probably ever felt before, at that moment. He rarely ever gets angry at Vera, but he is now. Angry at Vera for abandoning Casta, angry at himself for pushing Vera into this, angry at himself for not being able to fix this.

He doesn't even know what the problem is to begin with.

"Vera's not angry with you, Casta." He says softly, voice gentle. "I promise you that she's not. She's angry at me."

Casta blinks, long lashes fluttering in confusion. "At you? But… how?"

Casta's young enough that he hasn't experienced a time where he's been angry at Isa for something she did. Hopefully, he never will. For stable people that's not uncommon. Jason can hope. "I… I let people we care about get hurt. She just needs some time and space, Casta. I promise you, I promise, Vera loves you very very much, okay?"

Casta wilts, disbelieving. "Okay…"

"Hey Casta." Jason waits until the little leopard looks up at him. "Do you think I love Isa?"

There is no hesitation when he speaks. "Yes! A lot!"

"And if I love Isa a lot, then wouldn't that mean…"

Casta startles like he just made the connection himself, never realizing it before. "Mama must love me!" He sounds so joyful, so hopeful. "Mama loves you too!"

Jason opens his mouth and closes it again, Casta's simple but confident words making him pause. Of course Vera loves him, they're the same soul, and yet-

And yet Jason's a self loathing person, and while he loves Vera and Vera knows it, each time he ridicules himself he's also ridiculing her. Hating on her, even if he only directs it at himself.

"She does." Jason smiles, scooping the cat up and carrying him back up the stairs. "I'm sure that when Vera gets back the first thing she'll do is give you some cuddles."

Casta purrs at that, and Jason deposits him back in Isa's room. He checks to see if the nanny's left, which she has, before seeing that Isaac was sleeping in the guest room. He shoves a note under the door before leaving the apartment, taking a deep breath before starting up his motorcycle.

In this whole clusterfuck, he's learned that he can go exactly ten days without Vera before he gets desperate enough to go to the manor.

It's quiet when he arrives. He's pretty sure most patrols would have ended by now, and almost everyone is asleep or brooding somewhere alone. He comes in quietly, looking for the youngest resident.

He finds the oldest instead. "Master Jason, a surprise to see you at this hour."

"And yet you have hot tea already prepared." Jason raises an eyebrow, glancing at his tray. "Be honest with me Alfred, was this for me or someone else? Are you psychic?"

Alfred chuckles and doesn't answer, handing him a steaming cup. When he takes a sip he finds it his favorite blend. This just makes him more suspicious.

"Let me keep some secrets." Alfred murmurs, and Chioma hoos, sitting on the kitchen counter. "I don't have many left."

"The suspense is part of the fun, dearie." Chioma talks like an old lady, a part of her charm that endears him some of the time and annoys him the rest of it. She glances around him, spins her head all around. She's looking for Vera, though she doesn't say it. She must've heard already, and is just checking for herself. "What brings you here at this hour?"

Jason sighs, sips his tea and takes a seat at the counter. Alfred sits down across from him, and Chioma flies high above, out of sight to give them some semblance of privacy.

"I'm falling apart." He admits wryly, almost amused by the thought as he stares at his tea. "And I can't really do that anymore. You were there when Bruce first adopted Dick, how'd he do it when he couldn't even take care of himself?"

Alfred gives him a half scolding look, one Jason ignores. "Well, he had me, of course."

Jason raises an eyebrow. "I have a nanny."

"Not to take care of Master Dick." Alfred gave him a look again. "He had me to talk to." Jason smothers a snort. "The more time that passed, the more he started to realize that. I won't pretend that he was doing well in the beginning. Quite the opposite in fact. Master Dick was causing a lot of trouble and he barely even knew Master Bruce's face. As time passed, though, he became more involved, and he realized that to help Dick he had to help himself. So he started asking me how I raised him."

"Not everyone can be the saint you were, Alfred." Jason mutters into his tea.

"The saint I am, Master Jason." Alfred chuckles. "Master Bruce is not good at choosing the correct path when it comes to caring for his children, there is a lot of inner turmoil he still needs to work through. That does not mean, though, that he doesn't know the correct path, and that he doesn't try to reach it."

He doesn't want excuses. "And the correct path?"

"Don't shut people out." Jason can't help his snort. "I already know what you're thinking. Master Bruce shuts everyone out, even his own daemon. And yet, what have you been doing for the past week?"

…Shutting everybody out. Jason wilts.

"Loathed as you are to admit, you take after Master Bruce in many ways." Alfred ignores his glare. "Self hatred is only one of them. You are angry with yourself because of what happened, and yet instead of fixing the problem, you only make it worse."

Guilt churns in his gut. "How am I…?"

"Master Tim wants to see you." Alfred looks unimpressed. "He's constantly worried, concerned about how you're doing, if you will spiral or not, if you will accept help even as you try pushing him away. Miss Ramona is still healing, and yet you avoid her. You avoid both of them."

He's not sure when this turned into a scolding, but all he can do is duck his head and stare at his tea.

"And Master Damian-" his head snaps up. "-is concerned as well. He asks Lady Isa how you are every time I pick her up for school."

"Why are they concerned about me?" Jason wants to pour the tea all over his face, burn his skin into something unrecognizable. "I'm not the one who died-!"

Alfred fixes him with a look that makes his mouth clamp shut. "They are concerned because they are your brothers and they care for you. You three shared a traumatic experience together, it is only natural that they are worried, especially as you push everyone away."

Jason stares at his tea. Groans. "They'd be better off without me."

"Do you really think that?"

"Yes. No. A little." More as the days go on. "My own daemon can't stand me, if that doesn't say enough about me-"

Alfred's tea cup clicks against the table. His expression is stern. "Make no mistake, Master Jason." There's a rumble to his voice that wasn't there before. "When Miss Ailavera returns, Chioma and Miss Fia will be having words with her. What she is doing right now, leaving you alone for so long, is a grave and reprehensible action. She is causing you harm, punishing you for something you should not be punished for."

Jason slumped against the counter. "You weren't there." He mumbles. "It's pretty deserved."

He couldn't control his anger. Mona was hurt because of him, because he lost control and caused Vera to lash out as well, caused her to forget who she was protecting. And throughout it all, Jason let Damian die.

"As well as enforcing your misguided belief that you deserve something no one deserves." Alfred pauses, takes a deep breath. "What would you think if any other daemon in this family decided to leave for an extended period of time?"

Jason blinks, considers it. "I'd have Vera go drag them back. They couldn't even get far to begin with, most of our daemons aren't severed."

"True." Alfred agreed. "Then let me ask you this. Master Bruce and Miss Fia are completely severed. They've been severed since Master Bruce was a child. If Fia disappeared for ten days, left the manor and did not return, how would you feel?"

Bad. The answer was bad. The first day Jason would be smug about, say he deserves it, and by the third day Jason would be out searching for Fia himself, because the idea of that kind of separation, even for a severed person…

Alfred sighs. "I understand that after you first came back, you and Vera spent a lot of time apart. I understand how that can make this feel normal, like what she is doing is not wrong, but you must understand how time passes. Vera is not newly severed. If anything, your bond is the strongest it's been in years. You two are not severed, you are barely even partially severed. Vera has the ability to travel far away from you, that does not mean that she should. You are experiencing the symptoms that a normal bond would experience when a daemon is too far from their human. Usually, the bond would sever. Since yours cannot, you constantly feel the pain with no respite and no urge to ease it."

Jason frowns at the idea of it. The idea that his bond wasn't actually partially severed, it was just healing from him dying. If it was healed now, and the only lasting side effect was Vera being able to go long distances away from him, then he could see Alfred's point. Jason feels the pain he would feel if his bond was normal and Vera went too far away, but Vera is able to push the limits without consequence. 

"Why is she doing it, then?" Jason asks, pushes, because it doesn't make sense. "Why did she leave? Why isn't she coming back? If it's not because I deserve it-"

"Even daemons do irrational things, Master Jason." Alfred soothes. "And it's up to the daemon's parents, like a human's parents, to teach them. Sadly, Miss Fia wasn't around, and Chioma could only do so much. From what you told me, your parents didn't teach her much at all either."

It never occurred to him that while Jason knew all the human rules when it came to daemons, Vera might not know all the daemon rules when it came to humans.

He's an idiot. "I should've realized something was up when she started brushing against other people!"

"It's not your job to notice." Alfred cuts in, voice holding no argument. "It was Chioma's, it was Miss Fia's, and it was your parents' daemons. Just as humans can mess up, so can daemons."

Jason finished his tea, lets the warm feeling soothe himself. His voice catches when he speaks. "How do I get her to come back?" His tone is too close to pleading. "I just - I want her back. I miss her, I need her."

There was a shrill sound from above. Chioma's angry, surprisingly angry, and Jason looks at Alfred with shock. He's hiding it well, very well, but if Chioma's angry then Alfred is also angry. That's how a non severed bond works.

"Miss Fia is out searching for her right now." Alfred assures, refills his tea. "If Chioma was severed, she'd be looking as well. She's quite angry, as you can see. It's taboo, for a daemon to hurt their human."

Jason shrugged, because it was the same for humans and yet Jason keeps hurting Vera, enough for her to leave-

Blinking away tears, he can't make eye contact with Alfred. "She left because I got Damian killed, Alfred. Bri turned to dust in front of her and all she could do was watch because I-" His voice catches and he loses it all. Taking a breath, he tries again. "I understand why she wouldn't want to see me, but… Casta needs her-" Alfred's eyes widen and Chioma coos overhead. "-and if that means I have to leave the room whenever she enters that's fine, I just want her back, Casta wants her back. He came up to me tonight, just kept apologizing, over and over again - he thought he did something wrong when it's all just my fault."

Alfred lets out a long suffering sigh, rubs a hand over his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, the weight of the world on his shoulders. "Master Jason, you are not in your right state of mind. I suggest you find Master Dick and hold onto Miss Aellamoire for a little while. Of course it will not be the same, but it might ease your pain."

Jason didn't understand. "I'm not sure…?"

"Master Jason, you blame yourself for Casta's pain, and yet Vera is the one who left him."

Jason blinks. "Because of me."

"Yet when you aren't at the apartment, Vera still doesn't come to see him." Alfred points out, and Jason blinks again. He's frustrated enough that he's dropping honorifics, using nicknames. "She is not only avoiding you, she is avoiding everyone."

He still didn't… "But isn't that because of me?"

"She avoids her child because of her human?" Alfred fixes him with a look, stares deep into his soul. "You of all people should know that that is not how daemons work, Master Jason. You've told me the story of your mother's daemon."

His mother's white squirrel daemon, who watched over Vera long after his own human gave up on Jason. Who, even with his dying breath, came to see her one last time. "But then… if it's not me, why is she avoiding us?"

"For the same reason you are."  He says simply. "You're shutting us out."

It clicks slightly, then, but not fully. "I still don't…" he pauses, reconsiders. "But avoiding Isa… even I stopped doing that the second day. There's no way she doesn't know how Casta feels, she can tell from me, right? Normally, she's so tuned into that kind of thing that even a fleeting thought will have her going to him."

"And that's what the daemons must talk about." Alfred nods like they finally got to the main issue. "Whatever her reasoning, she is hurting both her human and her child. In your case, it's physical harm. Chioma and Fia should have nipped this in the bud years ago, before it got this bad."

Silence follows. Jason finished his tea as he thinks, sitting at the counter as Alfred puts everything away and heads to bed. He's left almost alone, Chioma still high above. Alfred's bedroom is right above him, since the kitchen leads to the living room, which has high ceilings made for bird daemons and circus children. It allows Chioma to stay where she is, high above and watching.

He's not sure how long he stays there, but at some point he decides to take Alfred's advice and find Dick. It's been a while since he's dealt with bond pain, not since he's died, so it's hard to recall what it's like. He mostly remembers the burning pain, fear and panic and the need to fix whatever was broken. When he thinks about it more, he realizes that he had to fix whatever he broke. If the pain started up, he had gone too far from Vera, he needed to find her, get closer, to fix it. The thought of it floats around in his head, makes him wonder if that's what Alfred was talking about.

He wanders without meaning to, and when he finally realizes it he's come to a place he doesn't want to be.

The study.

And the light is on inside.

He must really be feeling out of it, because instead of turning around he walks inside.

Just like he knew it'd be, Bruce is there, hunched over something on his computer. The light is dim inside, almost cozy in a way. Bruce looks up and freezes at the sight of him, deer caught in the headlights of someone who stomps on the accelerator. "Jason."

"B." Jason crosses his arms, looks around the study even as he leans on the nearby wall, makes himself comfortable. "Do you ever sleep?"

Bruce blinks, as disbelieving as Jason feels. He must really be messed up right now, fucked up in the head enough that he's desperate enough to willing conversate with Bruce Wayne.

Bruce must know the situation, or maybe he just doesn't look a gifted horse in the mouth, because instead of asking why he's particularly insane today, he cracks a smile. "I'm nocturnal."

Jason rolls his eyes. "You're so fucking old. A dad joke, really?"

"It's 4 am, I don't know what you want from me."

Jason didn't know either.

The conversation trails off, a silence not comfortable or uncomfortable settling for a moment. This, of course, was a stupid thing to do. Out of everyone in the house, a painting of Gregory Wayne would be able to comfort Jason better than Bruce could. This was a failure waiting to happen.

But then- "Is Isa enjoying school?"

And he's surprised, shocked even, because Bruce Wayne was making conversation? And it was a safe and even well thought out topic? Jason must really be out of it, because this is absolutely a hallucination.

Well, this is for that one reoccurring dream he has once a month where his family is happy and healthy and they never argue and he actually likes Bruce. That dream is always drowned out by the other more realistic ones, but Jason's all about equality. "Isa's doing amazing, honestly, she's a little genius! You wouldn't expect her to do so well, in such a prestigious school with no background knowledge and still recovering from her illness, but she's flourishing!"

Bruce's smile is small, genuine, and Jason forgets who he's talking to. Forgets the past, forgets the animosity, just focuses on the fact that he's proud of his kid and he can finally gush about it to someone. "Does she have a favorite subject, or do her passions lie elsewhere?"

"She paints abstract like you would see at a modern art exhibit." Jason wrinkles his nose, because Isa was a terrible artist and yet her paintings were still more interesting than modern art. "She really likes science though, and writing. She's copying Alfred's writing style, and honestly it's already better than mine. Which, really, is just sad on my part - but she's really interested in the daemon classes."

Bruce hums. "Is that part of science or is it a separate subject?"

"Part of science." Jason doesn't think about the fact that he definitely already knows the answer to his own question. "I was worried that she'd get picked on for already having a settled daemon, but the kids her age don't understand why yet or think he just doesn't switch often and she says everyone just thinks Casta's adorable."

"He is."

"He is!" Jason has lost his goddamn mind. "And the older kids obviously know, but they have enough tact not to say anything. And, of course, Damian is there so of course they watch what they say - but she really enjoys the daemon classes. She said she even wanted to become a daemon specialist when she's older!"

"Incredible." Bruce's smile is bigger now, incredibly fond. "I think that would suit her perfectly."

"It would, it really would." Jason smiles at the thought. "She's enjoying PE as well, as much as she can with her allergies. Her favorite is kickball. I think if I put her in soccer she'd be an absolute menace…"

Jason pauses, realizes once again who he's talking to, and frowns. Bruce senses the change instantly, and his smile slides off his face. Jason feels a bit bad about that.

"I'm a hypocrite."

Bruce blinks. "What?"

"I'm a hypocrite." Jason repeats. "I yell and get angry at you for not being able to protect them, for letting me… for not being able to save me, and then I fail at the same thing. I let Tim get hurt, I let Damian die, and yet I stood in front of you and cursed you for the same things."

Never let it be said that Jason doesn't realize what a piece of shit he is.

Bruce studies him for a long moment. He sighs. "You talked to Alfred?"

Jason groans. "I don't need another 'its not your fault' or 'you're experiencing bond pain' conversation."

"But it's not, and you are." Bruce smiled wryly. His face smooths out. "If you want to get technical here, when you were killed, I was neither tied up nor recently drugged. So, if anything, I let you die while you were not able to save him, even though you did actually save them in the end."

Jason paused, taken aback. A disgusted look crossed his face. "Do you want me to hate you?"

"If it gets you to stop hating yourself, then yes."

It's said so simply, so easily. Jason's sure this is a hallucination. "I can hate both of us, old man." He pats his chest, grins. "Plenty of room for hatred in here."

"It's better to fully hate someone then try and divide it up." Bruce advises sagely, solemnly. "Believe me."

Jason's almost sure he's joking or teasing or lying or something and yet he cannot figure it out in his state of mind. "It's not really fair of me to hate you for something I also did."

Bruce shrugs, voice light. "Well, you're barely an adult when you saved your brothers while I had been crime fighting for decades when I failed you."

Jason is on acid or something, he cannot understand this conversation. Pausing, he narrows his eyes. "Is this your version of comfort, old man? Are you trying to comfort me?"

His face is blank even as his ears go red and Jason's living in a different universe right now, no way any of this is actually happening. "Is it working?"

"No." He lies, and Bruce lights up like a Christmas tree because apparently he is a bad liar.

Still, hearing that Bruce agreed with him about his hatred of him was always nice to hear, even if he himself wasn't completely sure-

Wait a second time out.

He's not completely sure?! Of course he's sure of his-

Never fucking mind.

"I don't know why I came in here." Jason admits before Bruce can say something corny or cheesy or smug. "I feel like I'm on drugs or something, but I came in here and… I don't know. I don't know. Fuck you, or something. Actually, you know what, get some fucking sleep, before you faint and hit your head against the table on the way down. Swear to god it ain't gonna be me who kills you but your own bad habits."

He leaves the room before he can make a bigger fool out of himself, stomping away like a child who just lost a game only they were playing. He can't help the warm feeling in his chest, even as he punches himself there several times to get it to go away. Fuck that nonsense, he'll be a hypocrite, he'll stay a hypocrite. Once this entire thing is over his hatred will come back full force and everything will be fine.

There's a creaking in the hallway branching off from his. He turns towards the sound.

Damian stands in the hall.

He's small, which is weird because he's always small. He's just smaller, somehow. He's wearing a set of baggy pajamas, which makes him small, his hair is messy and cowlicked, which makes him small, and his eyes are droopy and tired, which makes him small. He's just so small, so tiny, and Bri stands next to him, blue eyes sparkling with something he can't read.

"Uh, hi Dami." He says, the crazy person he is (because only Isa and Dick can call him that and not die). Damian stills at the name, some expression he doesn't understand settling on his face. "I probably should explain why I'm here so-"

And then there's a small tiny why is he so small child running headfirst into him and Damian is hugging him oh my GOD-

Jason hugs him back because this was rarer than winning the lottery. Bri cautiously comes up to him as well, low to the floor like she's scared of him. She seems to study something, look deep inside him, before purring loudly, brushing against him. After days of having no contact with any daemon besides Casta, Bri's fast and fleeting touch makes him break down.

Immediately.

He's suddenly sobbing, falling to the ground and taking Damian with him. Bri makes a surprised noise, voicing Damian's own feelings, and Jason lets him go like he had burned him, covering his face as he tried to pull himself together.

Moments later, a hesitant hand lands on his arm. Damian's voice is soft. "Is it true?" He sounds upset with his own question. "That Vera's been gone since we got back?"

Jason hates looking vulnerable, can't imagine doing it around Damian, and yet he sniffles and nods and acts like a big fucking baby.

It's quiet for a moment. Jason thinks Damian had left when fur brushes against his arms. Jason jolts, looks to see Damian in front of him, holding Bri. 

"I will return." He drops Bri into Jason's arm the same way one deposits money to an awaiting hand. "Hold her for a moment."

The feeling is monumental, like a firework going off behind his eyes. Something within him is slotting back into place, fixing itself even though Jason hadn't even realized it was broken to begin with. Alfred's words almost made sense, now.

He's not sure how long he sat numbly on the floor, Bri silent in his arms, but after a while a human pressed against his back, wrapped their arms around him, and Aella's crooning voice appeared right before she perched on his shoe, not actually touching him but still there.

And the moment he realized the only person it could be behind him, he fully let himself go.

He woke up with a clearer mind than he has had in days, able to think and rationalize instead of whatever he was doing before. The all encompassing guilt was still there, but now it simmered on the back burner, more detached from his actual emotions, something he could recognize wasn't entirely his.

He was in his room, but it took him a moment to realize that given the company. Dick was sitting on the windowsill, some old book slipping from his fingers. Aella was nestled in his lap, his free hand resting over her lightly. Damian was curled up in a chair next to them, far enough to not touch but close enough to reach out if need be. 

There's a rumble next to him, and he feels more than sees Tim curled up on his other side, Mona in between him and Jason with Bri slumped over his legs. Mona looks better, mostly healed, but there's still markings on her neck that send sharp guilt down Jason's spine the moment he sees it, detached emotions or not.

Still, just seeing them all lightens his mood. Especially Tim, seeing that he at least looked alright after what happened to his daemon. He'll just take a moment to stare at the peaceful faces around him and rest.

Everything went a bit wiry then. 

"I'll be fine." Jason promises at breakfast, surprisingly chill with his company. After such an emotional breakdown, he's much too tired to care about who he sees, too detached to care about how Bruce sits across from him eating slices of mango with a fork like a heathen. Or maybe not that much. "I swear to God, Bruce, use your fingers like us filthy commoners."

Bruce did an over exaggerated haughty sniff and proceeded to cut the mango cube into smaller bites with a knife, stabbing one with his fork and dabbing his mouth with a napkin once he had eaten it.

Jason hates him. 

Tim blinks at the interaction while Dick stays on the task at hand. "I know you will, but Jay - for me, please?"

Dick wanted to stay at his apartment to keep an eye on Jason and help out with Isa, and in any other situation Jason would be fine with it but Jason knows he's going to die of embarrassment from yesterday night soon and Dick will only accidentally make it worse. "I will be fine, Dick, stop treating me like a baby."

Bruce finishes his mango and clears his throat. Jason's hackles rise instinctively. "How about we compromise-"

He waved his butter knife in Bruce's general direction. "Fuck you-"

"-and Fia goes instead?"

Jason opens his mouth to spout nonsense about Bruce spying on him or pretending to care or something before realizing that he and Fia are not like that and they all know that and honestly he's an idiot. "Fine."

Bruce smirks, Jason scowls at him, and Fia appears from nowhere like she was waiting the whole time.

The moment they step out of the elevator Fia is on edge. That immediately makes Jason on edge, mentally counting his ammo as his hand hovers over his gun.

Casta is squealing when they open the door, stuck on his back with his legs kicking wildly. 

Vera nips at his stomach playfully.

Jason almost can't believe his eyes. Fia looks more murderous than Jason's ever seen her.

Isaac's badger daemon is sprawled out next to them. The man and Isa are at the kitchen counter, eating breakfast. Isa spins the moment she hears them. "She's back!"

Vera looks towards him. Her ears flatten against her head.

Jason feels a stab of guilt. He wants to run away.

Fia trills unhappily. "If you do not fix this, right now, Ailavera…" her warning is cold, and Jason feels that stab of guilt and pain again, wonders for a second if all these feelings have been Vera, not him, before the thought flies from his mind as Vera inches up to him. The badger grabs Casta before he can interfere, and Isaac has enough forethought to take his sister out of the room. The badger drags Casta with him.

Jason stays frozen. Slowly, very slowly, Vera inches forward. Her nose stretches out, brushes against one of his hands.

Jason doesn't need an apology, he just needs Vera never to leave again.

A floodgate of emotions slam into him, Vera's, he realizes. Another part of himself, connecting in a way it hasn't since before he died. He feels her again, almost. Slightly off, slightly different, but there in the way that matters.

At least, it should.

Because he's suddenly connected before, as quickly as it came, the connection disappears.

For a second, Jason thinks he's imagining it.

Then he sinks to the ground and cries, once again. Vera whines next to him, settles on top of him like a blanket, and it helps as much as it hurts, like being in the heat after freezing half to death. The burn is a sign of healing, and yet it hurts so much…

Healing fucking sucks. He briefly wishes they just stayed apart for the rest of his life.

Fia is trilling quite unhappily behind them, something Jason barely notices as he can't really see with how blurry his vision has become. The heron takes his phone, or one of his communicators, and he knows Dick will soon be on his way, but everything around him is fuzzy and blurry and black crowds the edges of his vision and it all hurts-

Dick and Alfred find him sprawled across the floor, unresponsive as Fia screams at Vera in the background and Isa holds his hand, tears and snot bubbling up on her face.

He wakes up in the hospital, something he doesn't ever really remember happening before. Vera's tail is poking out from under the bed, and he's hooked up on something he doesn't like. Fia is watching him from the corner of the room like a hawk, and Bruce sitting nearby is only half a surprise. He would be considered family, and no one would dare deny access when Bruce Wayne was the one trying to go somewhere. He feels like he should care some more-

But everything hurts.

(He can no longer tell what are his emotions and what are Vera's. That detached feeling is gone, and now he feels everything, everything.)

He speaks up, knowing Bruce is listening even if he doesn't show it. "This must be what you call karma."

Vera's tail twitches. Bruce doesn't respond. Fia wilts, like she's watching a loved one die in front of her.

As if Jason has any loved ones. His own daemon can't even stand him. Suddenly, he is his mother, and Vera is the white squirrel. Vera didn't come back for him, she came back for Casta, just like the white squirrel daemon was there for Vera, not him.

Nothing was healed from reconnecting with Vera. If anything, Jason feels like he had just died again.

"Get some rest." Bruce finally responds, and Jason had forgotten that he was here. "Dick stepped out for a few minutes, he'll throw a fit if you're not resting."

…well, maybe he has one loved one. He can't deny Dick that, not after everything. It's Dick after all, and if there's one person more stubborn than Jason then it's him. He was out stubborning him right now in Jason's own mind via the imagined conversation Jason could see happening between them - there's not a thing he could think of saying that he knows Dick wouldn't have a better comeback to.

(If he was alone right now, he could cry, because his brother loves him and Jason hasn't really put true thought into that yet, hasn't let that really digest. Someone loves him, loves him whole heartedly, without shame or embarrassment. Loves him so much that his daemon cares for Jason just as much as she does Vera, and that's… that's amazing.)

"Jason, please," Fia's voice is sad, warped into something between sorrow and fear. "Please just rest. You were… you were doing worse than any of us could imagine."

Jason blinks. Oh.

That's Fia talk for he almost fucking died.

That's surprising. Well, like, yeah, being that far away from someone's daemon for over a week would kill the normal person four times over, Jason doesn't count himself in that normal category, he doesn't really apply. So, like…

Wow he almost died in the most pathetic way possible. How the ever living fuck did he almost let that happen? How did Vera? He's not saying they're picture perfect mental health wise, but they're definitely not suicidal, how did they let themselves go so badly? No wonder Vera's hiding under the bed, no wonder Fia looks ready to murder someone, they're dumbasses.

Vera, finally, pokes her head from under the bed. She seems to have heard his mental monologue. "We are." She says simply, licks his knuckles, and goes back under the bed. Jason's too busy thinking about how Vera can hear his thoughts to notice Fia tense, or see Bruce look at Vera with something akin to sadness.

But then Dick is there, and so is Isa, and his attention is torn away.

He's released hours later, and Dick puts Isa in her car seat, ready to drive them both back, when Jason hobbles to the side and pulls Bruce with him. "Look, I'm only asking this because I have a feeling I won't get around to handling it in time." He doesn't have the strength to stand on his own, but he's not using Bruce as a rest so he instead slumps against the wall, the picture of a dignified gentleman. "We need a statement concerning Isa. Talk to Tim for more details if you want. She's listed as my sister on her documents, but the media talks-"

"They already think you're her father." Bruce finishes for him, voice calm. "It doesn't matter what you say, they'll twist it to fit their narrative."

"What's most important is that they think we're related." Jason knew he would get it. "Whatever one makes it easier to sell, I'm giving you discretion on it."

It's less of a favor and more of a business deal - Jason's forte lies in other things, he's using Bruce's services as the Prince of Gotham. He'll pay the man if he has too, not like Bruce would take money. No, he already knows what he must do. Isa will have to go home with Damian at least once a week now. His family is hopeless.

Bruce nods. "Tim and I will handle it. Get some rest."

"Can't do much else." He pushes away from the wall and wobbles over to the car. 

Bruce heads to his own car, calling out behind him. "And stay off the internet for a while!"

That's definitely for the best.

He climbs into the passenger seat, ignoring everyone else in the car. Isa is too busy to notice it, strapped into the back in a booster seat, Vera's head resting on her lap as the rest of her body spreads out along the rest of the back. Casta wiggles his way into Jason's lap the moment he's settled in, and Aella perches on the middle compartment, crooning over Casta and pointingly ignoring Vera.

Jason feels like it's getting to be too much. "Aellamoire, it's fine, please don't be mad…"

At Vera, is what he means, but also a little bit of please don't be mad at him either. Aella trills angrily at him, a sound he didn't know Aella was capable of making. Casta looks away like a kid who just saw something they didn't want to, and Isa didn't seem to notice.

"Jason, you know I love you." Dick's voice is gruff. "Shut up."

And Jason does, because Dick rarely ever used that tone with him.

They get to the apartment, and there's a fine balancing act done between him and Vera - she stays very close to him, brushing against his leg once every other minute, no more no less. He thinks it's helping, but he's not too sure.

Casta takes her attention the moment they get to their apartment, which Jason is surprisingly okay with. Isa makes him sit on the couch before climbing into his lap and hugging him for a good five minutes. She had waited because she didn't want him to try and pick her up like he usually does for their hugs, because even the little child can tell he's messed up.

Then Aella draws her away, and suddenly its just him and Dick.

Like old times.

Dick used to hate him. Used to think he was stealing Robin from him. Used to glare at him in the manor, used to make him feel unwanted. Now he's the only one he can always rely on.

There's a little divider between the living room and the dining room, one Dick draws up after pulling Jason pass the border. He knows what's coming before it does, steels himself so he doesn't break down at the first sign of love and affection. "Jason…"

Dick is just slightly taller then him. The perfect height for all encompassing hugs.

He lasts about two more seconds, steeling be damned, before he starts to bawl.

Chapter Text

Jason's been arrested before.

Yeah, not surprising. It's been a long while of course, and they were all petty things. This time, though, it might be for murder.

And no, he's not saying this as a joke. He might need to kill her.

And the whole reason for it, like most of his reasons lately, had to do with family. Family he was currently holding while looking for escape roots.

Isa had her arms around Jason's neck, curious and confused. Jason had surveyed the room and immediately picked her up. "Jay, what's wrong?"

He sways in place. Even though his hospitalization was a month ago, he still hadn't fully recovered. That, added on to other recent injuries, left him at a disadvantage that he was currently very aware of. Just holding Isa without preparing beforehand left him in bad shape. Luckily, Dick was also here, because he can't be trusted to drive half the time apparently.

Well, look at the bright side. He's here.

Jason shushes her softly, turns her head until her vision is covered by Jason's jacket. Vera had stepped in front of him, hackles raised and teeth bared. Casta was hiding behind her hind leg, just as confused as Isa. Aella and Dick were sitting in the waiting room, but there's no way Aella wouldn't have sensed the problem by now. She may not have a keen sense of smell, but her eyesight and hearing are above all.

Unfair. Completely unfair. This was supposed to be a doctor's appointment.

It made no sense. Isa had a normal physical scheduled for today. Nothing for her condition, just a normal checkup with a normal pediatrician. This was supposed to be an easy thing with Dr. Quill.

Dr. Quill. Jason's stupid.

Still, not even Bruce would've been prepared to enter the examination room and find Harley Quinn waiting inside.

And Jason… Jason…

Jason has to kill her. 

There's no other way. Harley knows about Isa. Jason's not sure how much Harley knows about the Waynes, but she definitely knows something, and if she's connected the dots somehow and that led her to Isa-

Jason doesn't know how close she and the Joker are nowadays. Harley loves and hates him, has saved his life and shot him in the back. Last he heard she had a spat with Ivy and was working alone, but Harley is either helpful or a hindrance, and with something as important as this…

Jason has to kill her. Before she tells.

"Jay…?" Isa asks again, clutching onto his jacket. Vera growls like she's trying to cover the sound. Harley laughs.

"I was sure I was going crazy!" She stands up with some dramatic flair, grinning as she bows. "No, it's as I see and breathe. Which promiscuous lady did you knock up to get that?"

Harley's daemon laughed along with her. It was a bat, perched in Harley's hair, but as Jason watched it flew to the ground and shifted into a hyena, letting out a screeching cackle.

An adult with a still changing daemon is exceedingly rare. Jason knows from Bruce that her daemon had settled at a point, but after her time with the Joker it had lost its form (it's identity-) and had been searching for it ever since. "What do you want?"

"Ah, don't be like that!" Harley pouts. "What have I ever done to you?"

A lot, but she hopefully doesn't know that. "You torment this city with Joker and Ivy."

Harley scoffs. "That was the old me. I'm reformed now."

She reforms herself every other day, that means nothing. "Why are you here? You're not Isa's doctor."

"Jay." Isa doesn't try moving in his grip, her voice a little more scared than before. "She knows Joker?"

Even little kids know who the Joker is. Jason tightens his grip, just a little more, giving it the feeling of a hug. "Don't worry, Isa. I've got you."

"Brings a tear to my eye." Harley rubs one of her eyes. "Touching, really. Adorable daughter, you got there. Adorable daemon, too. Ain't it funny, that kitten's settled while my Sugah ain't?" She rubs her daemon affectionately. "Anyway, I have a soft spot for daemons, you know - my mother had a daemon - and I was going to go through the right channels-"

Jason can't follow this conversation. "What do you want, Harley?"

"There's this event going on in a few days, one I'm trying to crash." Harley shrugged. "Well I was invited but nevermind that. Anyway, they're doing some stuff no law abiding citizen like myself can condone."

Jason frowns. "Then tell Batman or Nightwing or something."

"That's no fun." Harley pouts. "Besides, there's something inside the event I need, and if one of the spandexes go in it'll get destroyed."

"And… where do I come in to this?"

"I need rich eye candy." Another shrug. "It's a very bougie event, not my style at all. Having you be there, the recluse son - no one will be paying attention to what I'm doing!"

Jason… Jason cannot understand her.

But he already knows the outcome of this conversation.

Before he can respond, the door slams open. In a whirlwind of feathers, Dick suddenly appears in front of him, completely blocking Isa's view from Harley. Aella hovers nearby, talons out and waiting.

"Oh, my favorite!" Harley chirps. "I've missed your ass- oops, kids around. Sorry~"

"Jason." Dick says, already knowing that talking to Harley will get them absolutely nowhere. "What's going on?"

"She wants me to be her arm candy to some illegal event." Jason readjusts Isa, kisses her hair even as she pats his shoulder, trying to signal that she's fine.

"I'll explain it when there isn't little ears around." Harley stage whispers. "See! I'm being conscientious! I've reformed!"

Jason… did give her that. Only a little, but he did. She's actually doing better than Jason does half the time, sadly enough.

"I'm giving it some thought." Jason admits, even as Dick whirls on him. "What? She's crazy but she's not stupid."

"And if it's a trap of some sort?"

"Please, do I look like the type?" She so clearly fibbed, because she does traps all the time. "Besides, Jason has a get out of jail free card. He can't go off the grid for half a year again, you can only die once!"

Jason keeps his body relaxed and tries not to think about how Harley, who was there, is now talking about his death, which she helped cause, and Jason doesn't really have a problem with Harley, not really, but right now it was… it was-

Vera whimpers, mostly likely to inform Dick and Aella of his incoming panic attack. He's halfway through a spiral when Harley frowns and tilts her head. The doctor in her must come out, because she seems to realize that she just somehow triggered him, even though she doesn't know the real reason.

"Know what hun? I'll call back in a few hours. Give me your answer then!" And she skips out the back door like she belonged here. 

Jason watches her go. He barely notices Dick take Isa from his arms as he sinks to the ground. Vera curls up in his lap, and he spends the next five minutes smothered in warm fur as he got himself under control again.

Dick's patient eyes are looking at him when he finally gets up. "Are you really going to go?"

Jason sucks in a deep breath. "Either that or she wrangles in some other poor sod instead. At least I can defend myself."

Isa, who's standing by herself now with Casta in her hands, pats his hand with her own and holds out Casta. "Cuddling Casta makes me feel better."

He really shouldn't, because that was teaching Isa to give her friends her own daemon when they were sad, but that can be a lesson for another day.

She's right, though. Holding Casta is very therapeutic.

When Harley calls, Dick tells her that they'll both go with her.

When they tell the rest of the family what's happening, Tim demands to come too.

'ILLEGITIMATE NO MORE!'

Jason wrinkles his nose, even as Isa peers closer at the paper. "What does that mean?"

"It means someone doesn't have the right qualifications to be something." Jason pulls the paper away to skim through it as Vera quickly takes Isa's attention away from the article. They work in sync, something that makes Jason feel warm about inside.

'In a rare interview done by Bruce Wayne to the Gotham Gazette, the prince of Gotham finally revealed his secret reason for taking in and adopting Richard 'Dick' Grayson and Jason Todd. It turns out that the playboy of Gotham was really getting busy all these years, and that Damian Wayne wasn't the first byproduct of that.'

He's not sure how Dick would feel about the potential slander that could be done to his biological family. If people think that his mother secretly cheated on his father, that would paint his mother in a bad light. Jason knows that theory will get passed around real soon, if not already. He should suggest to them that they say the Graysons actually adopted him, and his 'real' biological mother is unknown.

He should suggest that. Better than nothing.

'While he hasn't gone into much detail about it, he's shown the Gazette some hard pressed evidence of their biological relation to each other, all of which has been checked by verified medical professionals. As far as anyone can tell, he's telling the truth! Richard and Jason have been true Waynes all along!'

He rolls his eyes.

'On top of that, he revealed more information about Jason Todd's mystery child. According to him, the little girl is Jason's sister. When we asked for clarification, Mr. Wayne would not explain any further. It's unknown if she's his full sister, if they share the same mother or father, or her relation to anyone else in the Wayne family. It seems like they plan to keep it that way too, for the foreseeable future. No proof was provided with this claim either, meaning that Bruce Wayne could easily be lying about this mystery girl's relation to the Wayne family.'

He wants to burn this paper. There's more to read, though, and it's honestly not that bad to begin with.

Still, he'd rather not any news personality talk about Isa in any capacity.

Still, it could have been way worse.

"Look at you three, dressed up all cute!" Harley skips forward, straightening Dick's tie before ruffling Tim's hair. "I was against bringing the baby at first, but seeing him in a too big tux made this all worth it."

Jason steps in front of Tim before he can stop himself, adjusting his cuffs as he did so. "Can we hurry this up?"

"Scared Mr. Bats or his orphanage of sidekicks is going to try and rescue you from me?" Harley grins, tapping his nose and sliding away. "I've already talked to him - he's given me full custody for tonight!"

The line they were all walking is thin. Given how they are the masks that should be saving themselves right now, and Batman is their father who would have to give custody of at least Tim over - this is so stupid. This is so stupid-

"I feel completely reassured." Dick mumbles, like they all don't have trackers on them, and runs a hand through Aella's feathers. Vera is glued to his side, and Mona is in Tim's arms. Given where they're going, none of them want the chance of getting seperated.

Especially not Vera.

Harley smiles, her own daemon hidden in her crazy hairdo. "Keep this from your father, okay? Don't need half of Gotham's money being used against me. Now, the one with the nicest ass goes first!"

She makes a shooing gesture at Dick, who rolls his eyes and starts forward. Jason keeps himself firmly between Harley and Tim the entire time, something deep within his hindbrain telling him to not, just no.

Harley's actually dressed up nicely, and he can see that when they've gotten into some light. Their suits are all pretty average, but her dress feels normal, crazily enough. She left her signature motif behind for once, going for a long glittery dress with a slit up to mid thigh. Jason's guessing it's because she's hiding the fact that she is Harley Quinn to these people, going by Doctor Q, and that if they for some reason knew who she was it'd spell all the wrong things for them.

Whatever reason, Jason feels weird looking at a normal Harley, even as a rainbow colored thigh holster can be seen peeking from under her dress.

They navigate through some dingy back alleys in a part of Gotham Jason rarely ever goes. The moment they get close Harley grabs Dick's shoulder, pulling him back until they're right next to each other. Jason's ready to commit murder, but all Harley does is wrap her arm around his, linking them together as they round a corner.

And suddenly, they're not alone.

Harley smiles brightly at the two men in front of a lit up door, pulling an invitation from her bra and handing it over. "Hello boys, party of four."

They men look at them all. Jason feels like they can see under the masks, can tell who they really are. One of them huffs at Tim. "Ain't he too young to be here?"

"Gotta start them early." Harley says, leaning in a bit like it's a conspiracy. "Let him see all the world before he starts investing in things."

Luckily, this was a masked event, or else they would be found out immediately. The men stare but let them through. Their daemons all stay close as they make their way into a crowded overview, looking out into a makeshift boxing ring.

This place, because humanity really was the worst, is a daemon fighting ring.

Turns out, Bruce had known that a place like this had existed for a while - he and Gordon have been searching for it for months now. It was one of the only reasons Bruce is allowing this little sham of a thing to happen anyway.

Of course, since they're civilians, they're doing it the civilian way. Batman took the three of them to Gordon's apartment one night, told the commissioner that they came to him after Harley roped Jason into her plan. So now criminal backlash can't come back on them, the commissioner and a select few officers know what they're doing, and plan to conduct a raid right after the event ends. It's all a bit messy, considering how many masks and secret identities are involved, but they can do it.

Hopefully.

Jason keeps a hand on Vera's scruff as they make their way to their table. Jason now understands exactly why Harley asked him, rich eye candy or not. Vera was a massive daemon, scary but breathtakingly beautiful. She would quickly become a popular, if not the star of this ring. And Harley knew that. Just as she said earlier, no one will pay attention to what she's doing.

(It's sad that he thinks he's lucky that Vera wasn't settled when he first died, because if she was Harley would've known who he was instantly. She wasn't, though, and Harley might still think that the second Robin is dead and buried.)

In a flash of feathers Harley's daemon turns into a pygmy owl, perched on two of her fingers with a puffed out chest. “He's going to scout for us.” Harley explained to them in a mock whisper, twiddling her fingers. The movement made the daemon take into the air, flying out of view high above. Aella tracked him carefully, even after Jason could no longer see where he had gone. “Call ‘em Sugah if you need him.”

Jason shouldn't be surprised that Harley calls her daemon Sugar instead of whatever his true name is. If he lost his original form due to her broken sanity, then of course his real name would lose meaning as well.

Vera growls at nothing, sitting down next to Jason's chair. She gnaws at his seat, tugging it slightly as if telling him to move. Currently, at the four person table, Harley is situated next to Dick and Jason, across from Tim, with Jason furthest from the wall. Vera was trying to get him to scoot over closer to Tim. And while Jason was already uncomfortable with being here, something he couldn't sense must be setting Vera off - she was radiating protectiveness. More so than she ever really did with anyone besides Isa.

Tim didn't seem to notice his daemon, and didn't mention it when Jason shuffled his chair close enough that Vera could be next to both of them at the same time. Instead, he bent down and looked under the table, coaxing Mona forward until he could pick her up and set her on his lap. The fox daemon laid down curled up, silent but vigilant. Vera chuffed at her.

“Harley.” Dick keeps his voice low, only asking after a waiter serves them drinks and leaves. Tim swirls his glass and frowns at it. Jason pretends to take a sip. The others don't touch it. “You never explained what you needed to do.”

Harley's smile is a bit leery as she leans forward, elbow resting on the table and head set on her palm. She reaches forward to tap his nose, playful, and if it was anyone besides Harley Vera would probably bite their fingers off.

(Which, admittingly, ironic. It's Harley, his sense of danger should be screaming at him. But also, it's Harley, when is she ever serious?)

“Even bad guys have their limits, honey.” She giggles, eyes sharp, assessing. “I hate seeing poor daemons get used and abused - and one of the sponsors here may have gotten on my bad side once or twice.”

The lights dimmed slightly. She scowls as the the ring brightens, signaling the first fight of the night. Vera growls low in her throat, a deep rumbling thing, and lays her head on Jason's lap, ears flat. Aella is strangely alert, incredibly tense, like she too also sensed whatever was irritating Vera. She hopped off of Dick’s shoulder, down onto the table, before shuffling over towards Tim and settling.

Just what are they feeling that's making them more alert than they are even in masks? And why are they focused on Tim?

There's a sharp sound, the rumbling of rising metal gates. A cheer starts up in the crowd as a daemon rushes out into the ring and roars. It's a grizzly, fur matted and mangey with foam frothing from its mouth. In any other circumstance, Jason never would have expected it to be a daemon, and not just a rabid wild bear.

What had they done to it? What did they do to it's human?

It's well known that when in a prolonged intensely stressful situation, humans will start to rely solely on their instincts and intuition. Many would say that they turn more animalistic, more wild, a creature backed into a corner and forced to lash out. Daemons, of course, are the same way.

But daemons already are instinctive. They are a human’s soul, their truest emotions and desires, personified as a representative animal. They already are their animalistic instincts. Yet, at the same time, they are not animals. Vera acts like a wolf not because she is one, but because she represents Jason's true self. If Jason was different, wasn't him, she would be a different animal, she would act like a different animal. What they are does and does not define them, for that is the true duality of being a human in the first place.

So, what would happen if a daemon did become just like the animal they represent? A scared, hurt animal, untrusting and stressed and in torment?

Jason imagines this would be it.

The grizzly daemon roars again, and Vera’s ears perk up even as she and the other daemons flinch. It sounded normal to his ears, but the sense he's getting from Vera is different - it's a sound full of sorrow, of mourning. Around them, the crowds cheer. Yet, at the same time, no one else has a daemon visible. He wonders if they're all hiding under the tables, or if all these people have smaller daemons. Were they watching brutal fights like this to compensate? Did they wish they had bigger daemons so they could inspire fear and authority in others? What was this all for?

The second daemon finally appears. They must choose battles with interesting pairs, because a hippo daemon comes lumbering out next, snapping it's jaws and bellowing, long tusk-like teeth seemingly purposefully serrated.

The two daemons stare at each other for a moment. The crowd shouts obscenities, throws glasses of champagne into the ring. It shatters as it hits the ground, littering the arena, and the two daemons duck their heads, as if used to the spray.

Jason looks at Tim, barely manages to catch his eye. His expression is visibly horrified, and Mona is trembling in his lap, even though she can't see what's going on. Jason makes a hand signal under the table, where Harley can't see.

Call him, was what it roughly meant, but not really. In this situation, the message was clear. Call Batman. Get him over here, now.

Tim’s eyes scan the room, watching. He seemed hesitant to do it with Harley right here, which was fair. They'd have to wait until Harley was distracted.

There's a noise, sharp and irritating. Their daemons, which all have heightened hearing, violently jerk at it. The hippo and the grizzly lose whatever sense of self they have left at that noise. Like a command they must obey, both fling themselves forward, teeth bared and dripping with saliva.

They slam into one another, and Jason winces in sympathy, unable to comprehend how much this must hurt the human. While it's easier to work with a severed or partially severed daemon, when it comes to black market things like this, it's harder to make them act like they are now. Severed daemons, surprisingly, have more control over themselves - their will, which used to be their human’s, grows into something stronger. They are also less influenced by their human’s emotions, less prone to mood changes. Vera is an exception, of course, due to the severing caused by death and his dip in the pit affecting them both.

Nonetheless, it's easier to turn a daemon rabid when there is no severing because they still have something to fight for. Severed daemons of course will fight for their humans, but it's different when one can feel the pain of their human and the other can get a faint sense of it instead. By not severing them, a person can torment both the daemon and human separately, and by doing that cause double the pain on both of them. It's much faster breaking a daemon that way, turning them into an animal that way.

But, in the end, that means that these two broken daemons were most likely still fully connected to their humans. Which means that the humans most likely felt their full pain, and the daemons would be getting a feedback loop of it as well.

The grizzly stood on its hind legs and swiped with its claws. Hippos are not agile, and a chunk of flesh was ripped from its side. The hippo daemon did not seem to notice, instead charging forward and biting into the junction between the grizzly daemon’s neck and shoulder.

There was a distinctly human howl, muffled as it was, that was quickly drowned out by the cheers. Jason suddenly felt dizzy.

Harley clicked her tongue and called a waiter over. She ordered some stuffed mushrooms. Her fingers twitched from where she was tapping them against her arm. Her posture was loose, her mouth set in its normal smile.

She was upset. 

“Did you know-” she said after the waiter left again, drawing their attention from the fight. “That some idiots believe that daemon dust can restore youth?”

Somehow, it felt like the cheering around them had cut out. Jason felt like the entire world had gone silent, if just for a moment. What?

“What the hell are you talking about?” Tim demanded, on edge even though he was doing his best not to show it. Mona was still laying in his lap, but now her front paws were above her head, holding her ears down, trying to dampen the sound of the fight. “How would daemon dust-”

“Daemons are a human's soul.” Harley continues calmly, relaxed. She dabs at her lips with a napkin, smudges her lipstick. If you kill a daemon, the human dies with them. They are the closest thing to a life force that people have.”

“And what, snorting dead daemon dust will turn you young again?” Jason snorts, even as Dick glares at him for his crass language. Harley shrugs, and then Jason seems to understand. “Do you mean that they're doing that here too?!”

That makes the others startle, surprised at the idea of it. Harley hums. In the ring, the bear was staggering side to side, bleeding dust from its neck. The hippo had lost function in its hind leg. They were at somewhat of a standstill. The bear daemon charged forward. “When a daemon dies the dust disappears shortly after, and daemons normally don't get mauled to the point where they even lose large amounts of dust, unless they are also fighting to the death.”

She points to the ring. Dust, like blood, tends to pool. Unlike blood, it clumps together, almost like a dust ball. “Guests get to watch an entertaining daemon fight, and then can buy dust from the injuries left behind. An innovative business model - like a hibachi restaurant.”

The grizzly daemon clamps onto the hippo’s jugular. It locks in, biting down for the killing blow. 

That loud, sharp sound from before rings. The grizzly immediately lets go, almost as if shocked, and the two daemons stand eerily still, as if afraid to move.

They get a round of applause from the audience as the gates open back up and they limpishly bolt back to where they came. Soon, the pit is empty besides shattered glass, spilled champagne, and daemon dust.

Dick turns to Harley, eyes hard. “Tell us more about this sponsor.”

“Oh, I'd love to.” She bats her lashes at him. “He's almost the head macho here, from what I can tell. He's their biggest sponsor. He used to make house calls a lot, back when me and the hubby were still on talkin’ terms. One of Gotham's old money people, you know?”

None of that was really helpful. Jason watches a few people walk out onto the stage, gathering up the dust, before asking, “So you want to screw him over by leaking his connection to this place?”

Harley laughs. “Oh honey, you're too sweet. No-” she flashed him a bright, brilliant smile. For a second, she was startlingly beautiful. “I'm going to cut off every single one of his fingers.”

Silence, for a moment.

Harley shrugs. “Maybe his toes, too.”

Tim and Dick look at each other, and Jason can already see the conflict on their faces. About if they should allow Harley to kill a man when they could stop her, civilian or not. Jason speaks up before they can decide. “What'd this guy do to you to deserve that?”

Her smile, this time, was much darker. “He looked at Sugah wrong.”

That… was pretty on brand for Harley Quinn. Still, he could see the worry - a man who deals in selling daemon dust for ‘youth’ checking out an adult daemon that could still change forms, something only a ‘young’ daemon should be able to do. That would put him on edge too.

He thought about Isa, for a moment. His hands clenched into fists, before he slowly relaxed them.

Aella perked up then, right before Vera's head swiveled and Dick’s eyes darted to something behind him. Jason tilted his head, eyes shifting to the side until he could see what they were looking at.

It was a couple, a man and a woman walking towards them. Their movement was a little stiff, too practiced to feel natural. They held hands as they walked closer, smiling serenely like they thought someone might be taking a picture. Two matching lemur daemons sat perched on each of their outside shoulders, silent and as still as statues.

They didn't look human. Like NPCs from a video game, each movement felt like a performance. It made him uncomfortable.

“Hello there!” The woman started first, smiling brightly and warmly and off. “You're a new face around here, so we just thought we'd come and welcome you! I go by Belle here, and this is my husband Victor.”

Obviously not their real names, which made sense. Secrecy was the most important thing here, and since Dick was the heartthrob of Gotham Jason spoke up before his voice gave him away. “A pleasure meeting you.” He lowered his own voice down, something to a low timber. “Thank you for the warm welcome. We haven't decided on names yet, so there's nothing for you to call us.”

“Ah, that's completely fine!” Victor assures, arm around his wife's waist. Neither of their daemons had moved yet, as if they were just stuffed toys glued to their shoulders. “We just wanted to come over and say hello, and give compliments to you on your daemons.”

The atmosphere suddenly felt heavy, though the couple didn't seem to notice. Jason laid a subtle hand on Vera's neck. She was the closest daemon to them at the moment, given how they decided to come up between Jason and Tim. Jason tried to keep his posture relaxed, tried not to show how tense he was.

Victor continued like he had said nothing wrong. “They're very well behaved, and at such a young age. Very beautiful as well-”

“She's gorgeous.” Belle cuts in, looking at Mona. One of the lemur daemon's eyes bore into his. Vera's ears pricked. “You should start training her now, if you haven't already. The earlier the better.”

There was a moment of silence. Tim blinked, eyebrows furrowed. Aella’s feathers fluffed up, and Vera's hackles slowly started to rise. “Train her?”

Belle perked up, suddenly excited. “Oh yes! It's better to start early when the daemon is still young since it's easier. We've been training our daemons for years now, but it's harder when you only start as an adult.”

Vera has gone completely stiff, muscles coiled like a spring being held back. Aella has gone still, like if she doesn't move no one will be able to see her. Mona, surprisingly enough, had raised her head to look at the couple, eyes hard and unrelenting. Or, well, not really surprising, Mona doesn't take shit from anyone.

Victor nods like that made complete and total sense. “It's very important. To have complete self control you must have control over your truest self. Training the soul can make the impossible possible.”

And, as if to prove that, the man whistled, a sharp, curt thing.

His lemur daemon, who hadn't moved at all until then, immediately stood to attention. Victor raised his free arm, and the daemon walks along it to perch on his hand, which was way to close to Jason. “Go.”

There is a second of hesitation from the lemur daemon, too fast for a normal civilian to catch. He doesn't know if it's defiance or fear, but it's gone just as quick as it arrived, and without taking another second it hops off of Victor’s hand.

And onto Jason's shoulder.

And, to keep balance, its tail curls around Jason's neck. Touching skin.

Vera barks once, unable to stop herself. The others look beyond surprised, eyes wide but unwilling to move. Jason's face pinches, and Vera ducks her head to place it on Jason's lap once again.

He's never touched a daemon that wasn't his before, minus that of his family. He swore to himself that he wouldn't, because while he doesn't normally have bad intentions towards daemons he is violent enough that he isn't sure it still wouldn't count. Not to mention how fucking disgusting that would be, touching another person's soul without their permission. Still, because of all that, he never really knew what it would be like, touching a stranger's soul.

It… it was…

It wasn't nice.

Contrary to popular belief, touching a person's soul doesn't tell you about how the person is feeling, it tells you about what the daemon is feeling. For most normal, somewhat mentally stable people, those two are one in the same, so nobody cared enough to learn the difference.

This, though… this was definitely the daemon.

It felt so cold. Like he was trapped hundreds of miles underground, and each time he tried to climb to the surface the cave closed in around him. Like he was running away from something terrible but each time he looked back the thing was right behind him. Like he had a metal collar around his throat and a muzzle around his mouth.

Victor smiles widely, pleased. “It took many years, but the pain associated with touching a daemon no longer concerns me. This is just one of the pleasures you can gain by training your daemon.”

The others didn't know what to say. Jason's body felt so rigid, like if he tried to move he'd break something. Victor did seem unworried, uncaring, which wouldn't be the case if he could actually feel pain because Jason kind of wanted to strangle him right now. The lemur daemon, on the other hand, was very obviously uncomfortable. Jason wondered if the daemon had somehow learned to close that part of the connection over time. He tried his best to send the daemon some warmth, some peace. 

The lemur daemon twitched. Its grip around his neck relaxed, if only slightly. 

Belle smiles and turns back to Tim. “If you start training her now, your daemon could do that in probably only half the years it took us!”

And that was the final straw for Vera. She growled low in her throat, an ominous sound, and shifted back until she sat right next to Tim’s chair, effectively blocking their view of Mona and doing a half decent job of blocking their view of Tim too.

Victor and Belle’s face flickered, briefly. He couldn't catch what emotions past by them, and neither daemon moved at all. Victor snapped his fingers again, and the lemur daemon jumped from his shoulder to Victor, going back to his original position. Jason tried not to sigh in relief when that cold feeling finally abated.

He glanced at Dick (who had also realized that his voice was too well known to speak too much), made a small gesture, and spoke up again. “I apologize about her - we're under strict orders by our father to guard him tonight, and I told her not to let anyone come too close.”

Whatever had passed their faces was immediately wiped away. They both looked extremely impressed. “Wolf daemons are notoriously hard to train.” Victor notes, nodding like that was a compliment. “Which is ironic, given the domestication of dogs. Maybe that's why it took so long?”

Belle laughed gently at his joke. Neither lemur daemon moved at all. She seemed to notice Tim’s eyes on hers, and with a slight click of her tongue, she raised her hand. Her lemur daemon hopped onto it, and she placed him down on the table, only a foot or so away from Aella. She patted its head lovingly, firmly. The daemon did not move from its spot.

She looked back to Jason. “At such a young age, and you've already trained her into a guard? That deserves a lot of praise!”

Jason feels sick. Vera feels vicious. Both emotions curl in his gut. “It wasn't too difficult.”

“You have a strong will.” Victor brushed aside his words. “You've trained her to protect your family. It's very sweet and loving of you - if I had a larger daemon I, too, would do that for my love.”

Belle grins at him, eyes full of adoration. “You made the best of your daemon's form.” She continues on. “Each type of daemon has its own strengths, so you should always work towards what they would be best at. Many predatory bird daemons would be great for security as well, given how strong their senses are.”

Jason only half paid attention to what she said. On the table, Aella had inched forward slightly, so carefully that it was almost unnoticeable. The lemur daemon was still, but it was looking at her.

No, it wasn't just looking at her, it was telling her something.

They were looking into each other's eyes, and Jason doesn't know what the lemur daemon’s eyes expressed, but it must of been something. A nonverbal plea, was all he could guess, after feeling the emotions of the other daemon. A cry for help.

The only way they could help was by throwing them both in a mental facility until they got their heads back on straight.

Aella shudders for a moment, a quick little thing. She croons, very quietly, and chirps.

Belle’s eyes dart over. The lemur daemon doesn't see it.

He expects the daemon not to respond, to stay still like normal. Something must've happened, he must've missed something, because the lemur daemon chitters anxiously, as if it couldn't help itself. A subconscious thing, a skittish cry that happened to leak out.

The woman's hand darts out, faster than any other. The daemon cries as she grabs him by the tail, yanking him away and off the table before wrapping her other arm around him and holding him close to her chest. Her body is stiff, rigid from likely pain, but otherwise she seems unaffected by her own actions. She speaks in a low, stern voice. “What did I tell you about vocalizing animal noise?” Her voice is a murmur. “Don't be disrespectful.”

She kisses the top of its head and clicks her tongue again. The lemur dutifully sits back down on her shoulder, silent and still once more. She smiles apologetically at all of them.

Aella makes a noise.

It's a tiny one, barely audible above the other chatter in the room. It's one, though, of pain.

Jason's head swivels to her, but she hasn't moved from her spot. When he looks at Dick he sees that he's as tense as a live wire, body carefully controlled in a way that told Jason that he was hiding his discomfort. His pain.

Jason realizes then that, while Belle was reaching for her own daemon, she might have accidentally brushed against Aella as well.

And that… that's the last straw.

His left eye twitches. Vera picks up on his sudden rush of anger, picks up on the cause of it as well. Jason breathes in and out, deeply, tries to think about calming himself like his therapist suggested.

It's not working.

He's two seconds away from grabbing his glass and slamming it into Belle's head when Harley, after being silent for the entire conversation, finally speaks up. “Pardon me, but I was wondering if you two would kindly give me a tour? Since you seem pretty familiar with the place.”

The couple, completely unaware of how close to death they were, blink at her and smile. “Of course, we'd love to!” Victor looks at the brothers. “Would you also like a tour?”

Harley speaks up before Jason can cuss them out. “They have food on the way.” She smiles pleasantly, cheerfully denying them. “See, I have custody of them over the weekend, and they have both an overprotective father and a really grumpy caretaker. I have to make sure they're well taken care of if I don't want a yelling when I take them back.”

Tim is the only one who can keep up with her. “I haven't eaten all day.” He complains sullenly, like that's what's been bothering him the entire time.

Harley leans across the table and ruffles his hair. “Growing boys are food vacuums, you know. It's better they wait here for the food.”

Jason studies her for a moment. She had been silent the entire conversation, and Belle and Victor didn't even look her way, probably because she had no visible daemon. He wonders why she finally cut in - could she see how angry Jason was getting? Did she think they would fuck up somehow? Is that why she's dragging them away, or was she actually telling the truth about the dad and caregiver? It's true, she does have both. Bruce Wayne and Batman breathing down her neck with this one, but stuff like this never really stopped her before. Maybe she is changing.

They start to walk away. Harley's being a model student, asking more about the finer details of training one’s daemon. The couple answers her questions with enthusiasm. 

Harley's voice sounds just a little bit off.

When they're finally far enough away Jason turns to Dick, scanning him. “You okay?”

Dick only grunts, which Jason doesn't know if he should take as a yes or no. Tim’s still looking at the trip walking away. His eyes are wide, and he's taken Mona into his arms, holding her against his chest. 

His voice is a mere whisper. “They're crazy.”

Vera lets out a low whimper of agreement, but instead of comforting him like normal she stays still. In any other situation, Vera would have been curled around him and Mona, would not of hesitated.

But she's not.

Jason wonders why, before he looks around.

Their table was a bit off to the side, by the wall. It gave him a pretty good view of the room if he turned sideways in his chair. Each table was decently space from others, given each conversation a little privacy. There were dozens of tables, each holding four to six people in masks.

More than half of the tables kept looking at them.

It wasn't malicious, he could tell. It was definitely curious - quick glances and shifting eyes. They were new faces, and they were the only ones with visible daemons.

It wasn't just that couple who wanted to talk to them, apparently. Many people were curious, were looking, so Vera didn't touch Tim, didn't bring more attention to herself than she was already getting.

If made sense. Vera was most likely the largest free daemon here. And, not only were they new to this very illegal scene, but, as Victor and Belle had said, their daemons were beautiful. The animals they were were already seen as graceful, gorgeous creatures, but they were also well taken care of. Confident and healthy. And unique.

While having a wolf, fox, or falcon daemon wasn't rare in the slightest, their daemons all had a unique visual quality as well. Besides Vera’s striking blue and green eyes, she was massive and pitch black. Mona still was smaller than a fully grown red fox, but unlike the normal black paws commonly seen, hers were pure white, just like the tips of her ears. And Aella, besides the smattering of blue feathers, was a beautiful, vicious little creature.

Their daemons stood out even among other daemons of the same species. They're all extremely recognizable, and Jason is sure the only reason they haven't been found out is because of the dim lighting.

Still, many of the event goers are curious, yet seem too wary to actually approach them. Probably because of how on guard Vera currently is, still sitting in between Tim and the rest of the room.

They really don't need everyone to continually look at them and suddenly realize that they're Waynes, so he takes one for the team and stands. “Stay here, Vera. Sneak under the table if they keep looking at you.”

Vera nips his fingers in a way that only Tim could see it happening. There's a protesting squawk from Aella, and Dick stares at him silently. He might still be recovering - Jason couldn't imagine what it would be like, having your soul touched -even just a graze- by someone who abuses their own daemon.

“Are you walking around alone?” Tim looks at him like he's stupid. Which he only partly is.

He places a hand on the table and leans in, trying to play a part. “We have a role to play - we're brothers checking out a new scene and I'm supposed to be protecting you. Vera stays here to make it look like I'm doing that, and I'll walk around and mingle.”

Dick snorts. “You? Mingling? That's my job.”

“Well mister heartthrob, if you weren't the most wanted bachelor in Gotham after our father-” he makes a disgusted face. “-and we weren't trying to hide our identities, I'd let you mingle as much as you want. Watch Tim, watch the daemons, I'll mingle. It'll draw enough attention away for the replacement to contact dad.”

He's trying not to say their names too much, of course. Dick seems to recognize that as well. He looks Jason dead in the eyes, and seems to get his secret message.

Watch Vera. Don't let anyone touch her.

Dick sighs. “Try not to act hostile. It's easier to mingle when people think you aren't going to try and kill them.”

Jason wiggles his brows. “My poor, naive brother, you don't understand. People like danger, and mask or not I'm still, like, the ninth most wanted bachelor in Gotham.”

He knows he's attractive. People don't approach him because of his past and his attitude, but even with that he's gotten plenty of propositions. The people here don't even know him, this'll be easier.

“Fourth.” Dick murmurs, and Jason sends him a look. “You shot up in the charts after that interview got out. Saw it on my feed a few days ago.”

He snorted. Give a dangerous mysterious loner a heart wrenching backstory and a secretly good relationship with their family and suddenly they're the hottest thing around.

Tim wrinkles his nose. “Those articles and websites are weird.” He huffs, grouchy. “I'm going to corrupt their code when we get back home.”

That put him in a good enough mood to actually look outgoing when he finally started making his way through the tables, over to the buffet and talking area. There's a droning voice overhead saying that the next match will start in a few minutes, and Jason tries not to frown, least the people he's talking to see it. They're on the younger side, a few years older than him, and he thinks they're either very interested in what it's like having such a large daemon, or they want a threesome.

He should probably figure that out.

Jason isn't able to weedle much out of them - they don't have anything more to say that Harley hasn't already told them. The only slightly interesting thing was their generalization of the other party members. Apparently, with what they believed, anyone with old or new money in Gotham sponsored these kinds of events, but only those with smaller, hideable daemons attended them. He takes it with a grain of salt, of course, because they also believed that included the prince of Gotham himself, unknown daemon and all.

The next match starts up. Jason can't help but look, even as he feels his stomach clench and his gut roll.

An ostrich daemon struts out first, wings flapping and feathers ruffled. This one seems less crazed, as well as less injured. The daemon was probably taken recently, had not yet been forced to rely on it's instincts yet. Jason tried to look at where the daemon had come from, but the gate was already closing. Instead, he turned to the other gate, trying to see if he could see the other daemon’s human instead.

He froze.

The second daemon was slower to come out, cautious. It creeped out of the shadows like it was one itself, silent and deadly, muscles coiled and powerful.

A black panther.

A black panther.

He made a noise halfway between fear and fury, his feet already moving without his permission. He had only taken a step, though, before he finally realized.

That wasn't a black panther. That wasn't Medeabriar.

Panthers normally apply to two kinds of cats - leopards and pumas. In the wild, leopards can be born with a condition that darkens their fur to the point of blackness, where their spots are either barely visible or impossible to see. Of course, daemons work differently, and don't need a condition to either shift into such an animal or either settle as one.

The thing is, leopards aren't the only kind of cat that can have this condition. And, when you put a jaguar next to a leopard, both with this condition, it's almost impossible to tell them apart.

This wasn't Medeabriar. This was a black jaguar.

In the end it didn't really matter, though. Jason was already mad.

One of the couple laid a delicate (probably flirty) hand on his shoulder, completely desensitized to the going ons around them. Jason turns to them, ready to once again throw hands.

Only for, like last time, Harley to stop him.

“I was lookin’ for you, sweet pea.” Harley's arms wrap around one of his, holding it close to her in a mimic of a warm, possessive embrace. Jason stares at her for a moment, wondering why he shouldn't end her too. “I see you made new friends? That's good, I lost track of our old ones.”

Jason's eyes gaze along the room. Belle and Victor had, in fact, disappeared. He arches an eyebrow at her, questioning. Harley just giggles, blows him a kiss. “Sorry.” She told the couple, grinning at him. She doesn't look at the two. “I don't like sharin’.”

The two excused themselves quickly after. Harley didn't let him go, eyes shifting to the daemon fight happening in the ring. Jason grunts. “Find what you wanted to find?”

“Not yet.” She mutters. “I could use a big strong man like yourself to help me out.” At his rolled eyes, she huffed. “I can't do everything myself, y’know.”

“You're asking a rich kid to be your muscle.”

“Oh, are we pretendin’ to not know that you're a brawler?” Harley looked at her nails as she spoke, unimpressed. “Sorry, wasn't aware. Call your daemon over, I'm getting bored.”

He grunted. “She stays with them.”

That surprised her. “Are you two… severed?”

Jason almost spitefully doesn't want to answer. “No, but distance doesn't matter.” He sends her a dark smile. “Perks of a traumatic past.”

Harley's eyes flutter towards the ceiling, where Jason can only imagine Sugar sits, watching. “Do I know the bastard?”

Why did she ask that? Why did she want to know? Why did it sound like she already knew the answer?

“Intimately.”

Harley grinned once more. It was more similar to an animal baring its teeth than it was to a smile. “I'll make sure to stab him a little for you, next time I see ‘em. Now, would'ya like to stay out here and get freaky in front of your brothers, or would ya like to be my muscle for a few minutes?”

That… Jason could do that. Jason is great at being muscle. “Sounds like fun.”

Harley lets out a giggle of a laugh, too normal to not be faked. She stands in front of him, holds his wrists in her hands before running her hands up his arms flirtatiously. She leans forward, right into his personal space, and Jason forces himself to still. “Gotta make it believable.”

Jason is less uncomfortable as he is suspicious. “When have you ever cared about shit like that?”

“This is a delicate situation.” She laughs again, fake and high, eyes darting every which way. There are people watching, he can tell. Many. They're new here, Jason's daemon is attention grabbing, and they're both some of the hottest people in the room when they really try, masks or not. Of course people are watching. People who would get curious if they randomly wandered off. “So? Promise I'll treat ya good.”

Jason rolls his eyes, dutifully wraps his arms around her waist when Harley locks her arms behind his neck, and pretends to not only be in love, but also extremely horny for the fifteen seconds it takes Harley to get her point across to the room with her mouth.

(Honestly, not his worst kiss. He will never live it down, though.)

Across the room, Vera slips on the tile floor and makes a fool of herself. Luckily, for the first time that evening, no one is paying attention to her. 

Harley pulls back with a pleased little surprised grin, tongue between her teeth as she yanks on his collar. “Such skill for such a young thing.”

Jason lets himself be pulled away, keeping his eyes on her and his expression fake. “You're just calling yourself a cradle robber, y’know.”

Harley makes a yuck face but continues to drag him eagerly towards a hallway door. Most of the other members that had been watching had looked away. The couple Jason was talking to earlier had what Jason could only describe as fomo in their expressions.

He made a show of crowding her against the door as she blindly searched for the knob before they slipped through and closed the door behind them. The moment it closed they separated, and Harley took a moment to stretch out, run a few fingers through her hair and smudge her lipstick a little more.

Jason watches her, before looking at himself. “Have any lipstick on you?”

Harley laughed. “Bein’ my muscle will sell the look enough.”

Jason frowned. “What? Like a busted nose would help sell the act.”

“Awe.” Harley squeezes his cheek. “You don't understand. You think all those perverts out there are vanilla? I'd bet you your inheritance that however we come out of here they'll find it tame.”

Jason… can believe that. He's also a little curious for how Harley knows that, but whatever. He's already done more for this act then he expected to. This was pretty mild compared to some other shit he had to do to keep his cover, but if he knew this job included kissing Harley Quinn he probably would have reconsidered.

(Still, could be worse.)

Luckily, the hallways leading to where Harley wants to go are empty. The farther away they get from Vera and the others the more pressure Jason can feel on his chest. It's nothing more than that, just a noticeable pressure, but it's stuck in Jason's mind now. Distracting.

Harley peaks around a corner before smiling at him. “Will you need help with just a single guy?”

Jason scoffs at her, rolls his shoulders and turns the corner. A man leans against a door, barely paying enough attention to notice him. He's big and beefy, gruff when he speaks. “Hey, bathroom's the other-”

Jason gets close enough to grab his jacket and yank him closer, right into his awaiting fist.

The man stumbles but does not fall. Jason keeps his hold on him, keeping him from falling back away from him. Instead he pulls him forward once more, kicking almost lazily at the side of his knee. It doesn't snap but it's a close thing, and the man tumbles to the floor.

Jason considers mercy, before remembering exactly where they are.

He rears back his leg, and kicks the man as hard as he can, right in the back of his head. Hard enough that the nerves in his legs fire and his foot aches.

Blood swells around the man’s head, oozing out of his eyes and nose. He'll live… probably.

Harley twirled around the corner, joyful. Sugar is a gecko on her neck, watching him with reptilian eyes. “I knew old money would lead to good results!”

She breezes past him, stepping in the man's blood on the way. Jason follows, subconsciously focused on the pressure on his chest.

They're ‘somewhere close’ by Harley's standards when Jason finally huffs and slows down. “You could have picked literally anyone in the entire city to pull this off with.” He points out. “And you picked me?”

Harley blows him a kiss. “You know how to look and act like old money, sweetie. And I needed a looker to attract attention.”

Jason narrows his eyes. “You could have asked my father to do it. He's a little more your age, anyway.”

Harley waved that idea away with an indignant squawk, like that was a stupid thought to have. “Everyone who fits the list is either involved already or too goody too-shoes to let me do what I want. You seem like you're chill with murder, though. I didn't have many options.”

Jason still isn't impressed. “You could have done this all on your own. Easily.”

Harley's tongue pokes her cheek. “But now I can tell people that I kissed Jason Todd - Gotham’s Lone Wolf.”

Jason wanted to tell her that he didn't want to be used to make Ivy or whoever her current fling was jealous, but he didn't want to accidentally broach a sore subject that could actually get on her nerves. Not while he's a civilian at least. So he leaves it alone.

Which is good enough, because they turn the corner and Harley gestures to a door with little flourish.

She kicks it down.

The man in there is kind of short, but not by a substantial amount. He yelps and squeaks when they answer, immediately reaching for presumably a gun.

Jason's instincts kick in. He's hopped over the desk, which is across the room, in record time, pulling the man’s arm behind his back and pressing (slamming-) his face into the desk in front of him.

Harley looks impressed. “I might have to pay you extra, sugar buns.” 

Jason glares at her. Harley's laugh twinkles. The man squirms. “L-let go-!”

“Funny thing to say as someone sponsoring human trafficking.” Jason hisses out, pulls his arm back uncomfortably far. The man yelps and screams and sobs and pleads, already. “Pathetic.”

“You're making me look bad, just for having a vendetta with you.” Harley agrees, pouts at Jason. Her hand closes around a bottle opener. “I promise my other enemies are much less wimpy.”

Without warning, she sticks one of the man’s fingers into the bottle opener, yanking hard to the side. The man screams and the blunt blade tears off his finger.

Blood and tears and snot start to mix on the desk surface. Jason gives the man a chance to breathe before sticking his face into his own puddle of fluids. “What gave them the idea to start selling daemon dust?”

“W-we didn't start it!” The man immediately responds, begging for reprieve. “Places do it e-everywhere, please-”

Harley laughs, grabs the heaviest paperweight on the desk, and slams it into his left ring and pinkie finger. The man’s voice cracks as the bones are crushed. “Beggin’ won't save you here, honey.”

Jason lets him breathe for another moment. A mixture of body fluids drips from his face. It's enough to even make him pause, so he pushes the man down on his side next time, a small mercy. “Who owns this ring?”

“I d-dont know!” Spittle flies from his lips. “They a-all wear m-masks! O-owl masks or something-”

Harley frowns at that, and Jason has to pretend he doesn't recognize it. He's already surprised Harley's letting him practically interrogate the guy, he doesn't need to make her any more suspicious.

Harley grins at the man, gesturing to his other arm. Jason situations himself in a way that the man has both arms splayed out in front of him, side by side. Still, he sets it in such a way that the man's at a disadvantage no matter what kind of stunt he tries to pull.

Harley pulls out a knife, long and serrated, from her dress. She whistles once, short but shrill, and Sugar crawls out of her hair, a little mouse. He lands on the desk with a tiny thump, scarily close to the man’s pinned hands. A moment later and a wallaby's taken the mouse’s place, and the man squeaks. “Recognize me now?”

He squirms. “I-I didn't-”

“You didn't what?” Harley brings the knife down. The blade cuts through both of his thumbs like they were half melted butter. The man doesn't scream this time, just stares at his stumps in shock. “Didn't try to experiment on my Sugah? Didn't wanna see if he could grow back a leg as a lion if you cut if off when he was koala!? You. Didn't. What?!”

Harley doesn't let him answer. She pulls out her gun and drills a hole through his still mostly intact hand with a bullet. The man whimpers and pleads and Jason's pretty sure pisses himself, and Jason kind of wants to step in but he knows he'd be ten times worse if someone had said that stuff about Vera, so he's not sure he can even intervene here.

Sugar turns into a bat and perches on the top of Harley's half ruined hairdo. “Someone might have heard that shot.” Jason says, the only mercy he can bare giving this man. “We should go.”

Harley's gaze is cold. “I'd rather get caught then finish here too early.”

Jason rolls his eyes. “He's already going into shock, Q, he's not gonna feel much of anything anymore.”

A half lie, but one she needed to hear if they were going to at least halfway keep their cover. Harley frowns at him, glares at the wall. Finally she huffs and puts a bullet through the man's skull. “You're no fun.”

“If you wanted fun, you should've done this with a vigilante.” Jason mutters, because yeah he'd have found this fun with Harley as the Red Hood. He'd have to be a lot less careful, at least.

“They all have sticks six feet up their asses.” Harley mutters as they leave the office room, and Jason can't help but snort. “You're the only one for me, sweet pea.”

They speedwalk back to the main room, aware of how long they were gone. Harley huffs right before they get to the entrance. “You were too good.” She muses. “It looks like you ravished me and I didn't turn any favor.”

“It's the gentleman’s way.” Jason made something up, just so Harley would leave it alone, but he's not able to duck out of Harley's reach fast enough. By the time they open the hallway door Jason's hair is a barely styled mess and his rumpled clothes have a very obvious kiss mark on them, which makes no fucking sense who would kiss a tux there. Harley did that just to mess with him, Jason knows it. It felt like wrestling with any of his brothers - Jason kept trying to duck out of the way as Harley kept trying to ruffle his hair to give him a debauched look.

They walk out looking thoroughly fucked, though, so he guesses Harley did her job well. “I'm exhausted.”

“I thought young people had good stamina.” Harley pats his arm, watches as Sugar flies back up to the roof. Jason stays with her for another few moments before breaking away, heading back to their table.

He slinks into his seat. “Not a fucking word.”

Tim immediately starts laughing. Dick looks a bit worried for a moment, but Jason gives him an all good signal and he calms. “You can't do that stuff right in front of us and then think we're gonna stay silent about it, Jay.”

Jason groans, hands reaching under the table. Vera licks his fingers, but does not come out. “Even my daemon is ashamed of me!”

Dick’s hands twitches, like he was fighting the urge to fuss over his hair and clothes. “I'm so happy there are no mirrors around right now.”

“She's good.” Tim translates, and Jason wants to die. “If I as your brother came here late and walked in to you like this, there was nothing you could say that would convince me that this is a plan.”

Jason looked mournfully at his suit. “She kissed the undershirt.” He mourned. “This red is never coming out.”

Mona starts cackling madly from underneath the table. Tim is not much better off.

It all gets better and worse, then, because that's when the police and Batman arrive.

The police sirens go off first, giving Jason enough time to curse. “Fuck!”

Dick and Tim are immediately on edge. “What's wrong?”

“Look at me!” Jason gestures to his outfit. Tim bursts out into giggles once more. “Dad cannot see me like this!”

They both smile like Jason is telling a joke, even as he hastily moves to calm his hair into something presentable. “It's fine, Jay.”

“Am I the only one who recognizes the problem here?” Jason asks again, and then realizes he is when they both look at him blankly. “I look like I just got out of an orgy, and Harley does too! Do you think Dad's really going to take a moment and go- ‘hm, they must of needed an excuse to leave the event!’? No, he's going to see that and go ‘my son only just learned how to initiate physical contact with outsiders three weeks ago, whatever happened he's definitely not happy about it!’!”

And then he's going to start assuming things and Harley's going to end up back in jail. Maybe Jason's overthinking this, but he rather overthink then have that conversation with his estranged father.

His brothers get the message. He's looking presentable less than a minute later when Batman rains glass down from the ceiling. Crisis averted.

Batman obviously finds them first, but also pretends not to, going around the room to stop party goers from running. Jason's so engrossed watching him work that he completely misses the black panther appearing on their table. “Oh fuck-”

Medeabriar scoffs. “You're losing your touch.” Her voice is teasing. “Father put us on rescue duty. Robin must accompany them to the police’s safehouse, which means it will just be Batman and the police today.”

That was a bit of an ominous heads up, but he got the message. “Keep an eye out, out there.”

“Stay safe.” Dick includes, and Bri purrs, rubs her head against Dick’s chest for a moment before disappearing the way she came. It's then that Jason notices the half eaten food on the table.

Well, he has some time to spare.

They sit and wait as the police and Batman handle the security. Harley appears from nowhere at a point, even less put together than she was before. This is less debauched and more Harley Quinn than before, though, so all is right in the world again.

She pouts as she sits down, holding up a hand. Sugar flies down from the rafters, turning into a salamander and disappearing into her hair once more. “I hate it when the good guy breaks the deal.”

They, of course, don't tell Harley that they called him and told him to break the deal. That, of course, will stay a secret. “I mean, you already got what you wanted, so what's the harm?”

Harley shrugged, forlorn. She nibbles on a piece of food, watching the fighting happening only a little bit away. The table next to them is smashed as Batman throws a security guard through it. “At least there's free entertainment.”

“Dinner and a show.” Dick mutters. Harley brightens considerably at that thought, for some reason.

She stands up, takes a split off table leg from the nearby broken table. “It's the work out channel.” She grins. “You gotta do the work out with them!”

And she bashes a nearby event goer’s head in.

Jason winces as some blood splatters on him, wrinkling his nose as Harley giggles, twirls her table leg in her hands. The battle is already coming to an end, lightning quick with the police force and Batman working together. Harley settles a hand on her hip, looks back at them. Her eyes narrow. “Why ain't they arrestin’ us?”

Batman, of course, was informed, but Harley would never tell the police, and yet the police hadn't even looked at them threateningly the entire time they've been here. Jason sends her a look. “Did you expect us not to tell them?”

She gave him a look that screamed you're no fun, sighing as she dropped the table leg, the energy drained out of her. Not even a minute later and the room was basically cleared.

Jason stands from his seat, his brothers standing with him. Gordon and a few officers move towards them, eyeing Harley warily. Jason stood at her side, trying to show that she was at least somewhat reformed, and they really didn't need to worry about the blood staining her face, not at all.

“Were any of you harmed?” Is Gordon's first question, scanning Tim before moving to him and Dick.

“We're fine.” Dick assures, as Jason crosses his arms and whistles. Vera emerges from under the table to stand next to him, body loose and relax for the first time all night. “Nothing happened to us.”

Gordon nods, but the officers at his side are still looking at Harley like she's a bomb wired to explode. Harley's cheeky grin is definitely not helping the situation.

Then Batman lands with a thump next to Gordon, and everything somehow gets worse.

“Bats!” Harley almost cheers his name. “I thought you and me had an understandin’! Never thought you'd be the one to break our deal.”

Bruce glares at her in a way Jason wasn't expecting, and he's tense, very tense, and it's almost like a standoff. His brothers and Harley on one side, Bruce and the police on the other. There's maybe eight feet of distance between them and Batman, but it felt like an uncrossable gap.

“I couldn't trust you.” He says, growls out, and the police tense even more. “Not with the Waynes.”

Not with the Robins, is what he means. Not with my children.

"I cannot believe you, Bats!" Harley rushes to Tim, hugs him close to her chest. "As if I would do anything to a child!"

Batman's face, surprisingly, darkens to a point of deadly. The atmosphere in the room drops, Bruce's posture going tense and violent. Everyone else shifts, probably as confused as Jason is about what set Batman off. Gordon looks at Bruce worryingly.

"You dare say that to me." His voice is soft, a low rumbling growl that Jason's never heard on him before, wow. The daemons in the room all cower, even his and his brothers'. He feels off somehow, in some way that the daemons understand. A type of angry that normal people never experience - that might be a side effect of being severed from one's daemon.

Harley, very calmly, lets go of Tim. Aella croons and shivers, trembles.

"...after what you did to my Robin?"

And…oh. Oh.

Oh wait, this is about him.

He didn't think the atmosphere could get any heavier. Everyone seems to freeze, as if they were all worried that, with one small move, Batman would kill them. Which, crazy, Jason doesn't know if he's ever seen Bruce have such murderous intent before, and the situation isn't even that serious.

Harley frowns, leaning away from Tim and placing a hand on her hip. "Not a good look for me, is it? I do regret that, you know. Have I messed with any of your brood since?"

Bruce's shoulders go up, just slightly. Jason wonders if he has anything lethal on him. Vera noses at his hand, expectant. 

Oh shit, is he supposed to break this up?

"Look-" Jason grabs Tim by the arm, pulls him away from Harley and towards Batman. "he's fine, no need to freak out. See?"

See, he says, staring at Bruce, I'm fine, I'm alive, we're all alive.

Batman does not relax. Jason pushes Tim forward a little. Tim gets the message and walks forward until he's behind Gordon, 'safe'.

Was this a hostage situation? When did this turn into a hostage situation? They're not hostages, are they?

Did Bruce actually-

He shakes his head, getting it out of his mind. Sugar, in a strange way of thanking him, trots towards him as a white wolf, only slightly smaller than Vera. When it laughs, though, it still sounds like a hyena. The white wolf chuffs at Vera, and Vera growls back, unamused.

The white wolf pauses. It tilts his head.

Jason feels like he sees the barest spark of recognition.

Vera grabs its tail in her jaw and yanks.

Harley flinches as her daemon yelps and runs. Vera sprints after it, snapping at its ankles in a way that's only slightly violent. She feels amused though, and when she inevitably catches the daemon the worst she does is nip it's ear.

Harley shudders and smiles wide. "See! We're all friends here!"

Bruce still does not move. Jason sees the shadow of a heron, high above.

Dick's hand wraps around his wrist, tugs him away from Harley and towards himself. His brother takes a step back, and Jason follows, not really sure what else to do. They're not going to the police, no, not going in the direction of Batman. Instead, they're going off to the side, out of the way.

“Sugah.” Harley snaps, the first tinge of anxiousness finally reaching her voice. Sugar is at her side in an instant, disappearing into her clothes immediately. The police all pause at this, at the shifting daemon. “It's not polite ta stare, y’know.”

Batman studies her for another moment. Tim stands right behind him and Gordon, unsure and uncertain about how to continue. He holds Mona in his arms. Bruce takes in a deep breath, exhales sharply. “What else do you know about this place?”

The room visibly relaxes as he switches back into professional mode, and Harley launches into an overly graphic explanation of everything she knows they do here. At some point a detective pulls them and Tim to the side, way out of the way, because civilians should probably not be privy to this.

They're given blankets, because apparently daemon fighting is traumatic to watch, go figure. Tim lays on the floor, curls around Mona. He doesn't want to be touched, that's obvious to tell, but he and Dick sit on the floor anyway, just in case he changes his mind. Tim doesn't acknowledge them, but one of his hands does brush against Dick's leg, and he doesn't pull away, as if just wanting to know he's there. Jason tucks himself under his blanket, spreads the leftover bit to Vera next to him, and leans against Dick’s side.

And they wait. And wait. And wait.

After what felt like hours of waiting someone comes to ask them to recount their own perspectives, and then it's a sudden whirlwind of people and noise and movement. Jason tells them nothing, says he sat with his brothers and walked around with Harley and that's it, and they were outside when they were questioned, or maybe after, and suddenly he's in the back of Bruce's car, and when had he even gotten there?

As Bruce drives to his place, Damian, who had stolen the front seat, speaks up. “The captives of the ring are safe.” 

He doesn't speak again, no one does, but after everything that's happened he's okay with the silence. He's extremely tired, exhausted more like it, and he can't tell if something’s wrong or if Harley just drained his social battery. He thinks it's the latter.

The time between then and him falling face first into bed is a blurry mess, and that's fine with him.

He gets a gift basket in the mail, a day later. It's full of chocolates and flowers and love letters and a compact gun. Harley leaves a little note giving him a five star review and saying that, if she ever needed similar help again, he was her new go to.

Honestly, the most romantic thing someone has ever done for him. He hates it.

"What the fuck."

Jason frowns at Tim's language, gesturing to Isa, who's currently laying on his lap half asleep. Tim winces, eyes apologetic, before he turns his phone towards Jason.

"...what the fuck?"

Damian wanders over, curious. The daemons are nowhere to be seen. They're all at the Wayne manor, because Isa wanted to spend time in the garden, one of her new favorite places.

Damian tchs when he sees what's on the phone. "I expect better from you, Todd."

It's a picture, posted on social media and quickly gone viral. In the picture, curled up in a quiet corner, is a hulking black wolf. Laying on the wolf's stomach, the thing the wolf is curled around, is a tiny snow leopard. They're both sleeping, peaceful. The leopard's nuzzled into the wolf's fur, and the wolf's tail is draped around the leopard's paws. It's almost the textbook definition of a mother daemon with their child.

Vera and Casta. Vera and Casta.

Shit. Who took this photo? He looks at the sender, memorizes it so he can save the photo later. It's cute.

The caption above the photo reads, 'Jason Todd's wolf daemon and someone else's (the little girl's?) snow leopard daemon. Obviously family - enjoy the serotonin booster'

Jason takes the phone and scrolls down. Hundreds, thousands of replies, all stating the obvious.

Vera, very clearly acting like a mother, and Casta, very clearly acting like a child. People always say the daemons can't lie, that they show the truth, and now they're going to use this picture against what they want to portray.

Well, there are a few people on his side in the replies. Some saying that if a sibling raises another sibling the daemons might act like this. Some calling on personal experiences. Some saying that Jason might have raised her after their unknown mom vanished - might have been raising her secretly for years now, on his own. Fuck. Fuck all of this. It's only the beginning, too. When people start seeing more photos of her, start wondering if they're even related. Isa doesn't look like him, looks the most like Damian out of their entire family. They're fucked. They're fucked.

And Jason, being the dumbass he is, grabs his phone and goes onto social media. To the account he hasn't really used in forever. He posts once a year, at most, and that's so he doesn't get spam emails of his inactive account.

He finds the post immediately. His anxiety types out a reply faster than he can stop himself. Before he can realize his stupidity, he presses 'post'.

'Given the fact that my sister is six years old and unaware of social media as a whole, I think you should reconsider posting a picture of her sleeping daemon taken without her consent.'

And immediately regrets it. "Fuck."

Tim's phone buzzed. He swipes a bit, reads his post. Shrugs. "I mean, it's true." He pauses, scrolls. Shows him the replies already piling up. People agreeing, calling the original post owner creepy. Wondering how they even got that picture.

Others, though were pondering on the sister comment, because Vera looks like a mother there. After that is just more people asking more questions, trying to see if he might answer, as unlikely as that is. Fiends, the lot of them, snooping for anything they can get their hands on.

Jason grunts. "Find the original poster, Tim. Dox them."

Tim gives him the side eye. "I'm disappointed in you." He says. "I did that five minutes ago. Reported the guy to Gordon as a stalker."

Damian scoffs. "Even I know that isn't enough proof of stalking."

Tim smirks. "He said the term was flexible - after some persuading."

Jason doesn't know how he's had such a conversation next to him without Jason noticing, but okay. "Persuading?"

"He wants to meet Isa."

That's fair, Gordon's never done wrong by Jason, at least not by society's standards (Jason is a crime lord-) and his brothers all respect the man, as does Bruce and Alfred, so he guesses that's fair. Besides, having the police commissioner enamored with Isa is an added positive.

And he must be very obvious, or maybe Tim can just read him well, but his little brother gives him a quick side eye before saying, very nonchalantly, "Your eyes are eerily similar, by the way."

Jason blinks, takes a moment to go to his camera and look at himself. Ever since his resurrection he's avoided looking at his eyes, tired of seeing the green sink into them. Now that he really studies them, though…

Tim is right. From eye color to eye shape to the end crinkles, he and Isa do have eerily similar eyes. How did Tim know…

There's a weight against his side. Tim's brought his legs up to rest on the couch, bending them to fit into the small space. Now sitting sideways but still on his phone, he's leaning back against Jason's side, avoiding disturbing Isa while he scrolls through social media. He practically ignored Jason, as if he's not using him as a backrest.

Jason lets it go.

Damian hums. "...there is a much easier solution to this."

Jason frowns. "No."

Damian scoffs. "I could easily find the perpetrator myself and-"

"Don't make me call Dick."

The media only gets worse.

‘Leaked Hospital Video Shines some Suspicious Light on the Newest Addition to the Wayne Family.’

Jason nudges Tim the moment he sees them both in the video, waking him up. They're in the manor’s living room, because Isa wanted to come over, of course. At some point Jason put her down for nap time, and then somehow the rest of them followed soon after, until Jason was the only one awake. In the middle of the carpeted floor all of the daemons snoozed together as well, tangled up together. Even Fia was in there, pressed against Bri and head resting lightly on Casta, content.

Anyway, it's cute. Anyway, it's not the issue here.

“...whatisit?” Tim mutters as he wakes up, blinking blearily. Jason shoves his phone into his face. He's suddenly much more aware. “...oh.”

Yeah, oh. Jason scowls at nothing and plays the video.

“Hello there. I heard that a few new patients came in last night. Does one go by the name Isa?”

“What's your relation?”

“She's my half sister. I didn't know about her until very recently. She disappeared a few weeks ago, and our biological dad, who was taking care of her, is gone with the wind. I'm her last living relative.”

It was from the hospital camera overlooking the reception office, of the hospital Jason had taken the victims of the daemon trackifficking to. And there he and Tim stood, lying to the nurse in broad daylight.

“Oh shit.” Tim is wide awake. “Leaking this cannot be legal.”

Jason doubts it'll be up for long, of course, but it's already been up long enough. He scrolls down to the rest of the article.

‘After months of wondering, we finally have a name to put to the face! But all that does is give us more questions.

‘As stated here, to a medical employee, Jason Todd says Isa is his half sister, and that he didn't know about her until recently. Not only that, but they share a biological father. After learning what we know now, it's easy to connect the dots.

‘But here's where the holes in the story come to play. Jason said their biological father had randomly disappeared, even though Bruce Wayne is still around. Not only that, but Isa lives with Jason Todd in Gotham, not at the Wayne Manor with her supposed father. It's clear to see that Jason lied about something in this video, but it's unclear what he lied about.

‘The most likely truth is that Isa is related to him, in some way. Tim Drake stands with him, showing that the broader family does recognize the ties between Isa and Jason. Along with that, it makes no sense for Jason to just randomly take in a child he has no relation to. What Isa was in the hospital for is unknown, and will probably stay that way due to HIPPA.

‘Its also is probably true that Jason didn't know about her until recently. None of the Waynes probably knew about her until recently. And while many love to theorize that Isa is Jason's daughter, and while we believe he was lying about her being his half sister, I don't think that's the relation between them.

‘We believe that, in typical Bruce Wayne fashion, he sired both Jason and Isa with the same woman, making them full siblings and giving Jason a reason to take almost full custody of her. Because, and let's be honest here, it makes more sense for a well known playboy to do something like this than it does a loner recluse.’

Jason sways in place, tired and done with being in the public eye. Tim murmurs tiredly next to him. “At least they're following the sister narrative…”

Using illegal methods, but yeah, at least there's that.

He should honestly be lucky they didn't get the rest of the footage from them in the waiting room, where they had quietly outed themselves as vigilantes. Jason had whispered, of course, but still.

Being a superhero (or anti-hero) is actually pretty boring most of the time. Petty crimes get stale after the first five times, and any villain worth their salt treats crime alley as neutral ground - a place for meeting that no hero or villain owns. Being an anti-hero has some perks - no one likes him, but no one hates him enough to actually get on his bad side.

Anyway, he's pretty bored patrolling his small part of Gotham. He rarely goes more than a few blocks outside of it without reason, and he's not with the others so there's no reason to. And besides that, while Vera has gotten pretty good at being stealthy on patrol, there are still places she can't go (like rooftops), and it's hard to converse, so it's even more boring.

Anyway anyway, what was he doing?

Oh yeah, stalking.

A wolf howls a building over, and Jason turns towards the sound, creeps closer. When he looks down at the street below, he sees them and grins darkly.

Before dropping down in front of them.

Belle shrieks as Victor pulls her behind him. Their daemons are hidden.

Jason grins. “Hello.”

Victor shakes as he confronts him. His easy going yet stiff manner from before is nowhere to be found. “W-what-? What do you want?!”

Oh, well that was an easy one. Jason adjusted his cuff. “This is a kidnapping.” He says easily, then aims his wrist at them.

He has brought his special bracers today.

Two darts shoot out of his wrist cuff, hitting them both around the side. They're unconscious almost immediately, and Jason leaves them sprawled along the ground to go find himself a decent car to steal.

Ten minutes later, after he's gotten both of them laid out on the back seat, he lets out a single sharp whistle. Vera stalks out of the shadows, silent as she hops into the passenger seat. Jason drives.

It takes an hour and a half to get to his destination. It's far outside of Gotham, on the outskirts of a completely different city. It's a mental institution, of sorts - one focused around helping those who exhibit or participate in frequent acts of self-harm.

That, when Jason calls to ask, includes daemon abuse.

So he pulls up to the side to two doctors already waiting for him. The female is no nonsense, obviously unhappy with the two unconscious people he's obviously kidnapped but more eager to hear his explanation. The male is skittish and looks a bit terrified. “Mr Hood?”

Jason snorts. Vera moves to the ground by the passenger seat, flattening herself until she's out of view from the window. Jason gets out, moves Belle onto an awaiting gurney. “Don't call me that. These are the bastards, Dr. Illnova.”

The woman, Dr. Illnova, scans Belle with a critical eye. Jason can't see the man’s daemon, but Illnova cannot hide her’s. A ten foot python is wrapped around her neck and arms, luckily thin enough to not put her off balance. It flicks it's tongue out at Belle, hisses quietly to Illnova. Her brows furrow.

“Please refrain from insulting any potential patients.” She says, more of a requirement than an actual belief. No matter the damage a person might be doing to themselves, they still need that person’s permission to treat them. Luckily, a daemon's permission would also count as that person's, especially when that person is too unwell to speak for themselves.

Her python hisses again, louder. It lets out something close to a croon.

A moment of nothing. Then, from Belle’s pocket, her lemur daemon's head sleepily emerges.

By the time Jason's got Victor on a gurney the lemur daemon is sitting still on Belle’s chest, silent but present. Still, by the look on Illnova’s face, the lemur didn't seem cooperative.

Not good. 

The python hisses once more, before speaking. “We want to help you.” His voice is raspy, scraping against his throat. His tone is warm, comforting. “You deserve some control too. We want to help give that to you.”

The lemur does not answer. Victor’s daemon emerges from an inside pocket on his jacket. He sits on the gurney, in the space between Victor’s neck and shoulder. The same spot he would sit when Victor walked around at the ring.

The python continues. “You deserve to have a say.” It hisses out, voice eerily soft. “You can always decide against it later. If you ask to be treated by us, they cannot ask to leave without your permission, and they cannot coerce you into leaving either. Trust me, we will know if that's the case.”

Belle's daemon ducks its head, hiding. Victor's daemon darts its head, every which way.

Her eyes land on Jason.

He doesn't know how, he doesn't know why, but the moment she sees him she knows. She knows who he is. Remembers him.

Jason didn't want to speak up, didn't want one of the daemons to recognize his voice. It's too late for that, apparently. “It's scary, I know.” He gestures to the empty space around him, points to the car, where Vera is not so subtly trying to spy. Shows the distance between them. “Things happen - traumatic things we can't control. While we can't stop ourselves or the ones we love from spiraling down a bad path, we have to work on putting them back on the right one. If… if you both are so scared, so hurt, wouldn't they be the same? Wouldn't this be unhealthy for the both of you?”

Illnova gives him a half glare, which he understands. Guilt tripping daemons by using their human’s health is only a thing done in the worst of circumstances, and only done by a doctor who trained to deal with harsh cases like this. Not a vigilante anti-hero like him. Still, Illnova was going to bring it up at some point either way, Jason can tell that she realizes how fucked these two have already become, even when they're dead asleep. Perks of a snake daemon or twenty plus years of experience or something.

Belle's lemur flinches, looks to Victor’s daemon. Victor's daemon does not look away from him, boring into his eyes like he's looking at Jason's very soul.

He's talking to Victor’s soul. Victor did this to himself. Shouldn't that mean that Victor’s soul was also just as ugly and twisted?

Or would it not be, because it was separated from the main body? Is that was a daemon is truly for? Letting the mind truly see what the heart cares for? Seeing a true representation of yourself, even after it's been buried for years? The soul rarely changes, in normal circumstances. That's why it can settle. A human might change their hair styles, their outfits and hair color and their personality and accent and every little thing about themselves.

But their daemon will still be the same thing. That will never change.

Victor's daemon chitters. It turns towards Illnova, speaks in a voice that hasn't been used in months, years. Soft, light, young. “You… you can help us?”

Belle's daemon looks shocked. The python nods its head. “We have helped many before you.”

The lemur shakes, lets out a little cry. “I don't want to be scared anymore.” She admits quietly. “I don't recognize him, he's not- that's not him.”

The python just bowed its head, solemn.

She continues. “They're going to be so angry…”

Illnova finally speaks up, voice just as soft and soothing as her daemon. “We have 24 hour surveillance here.” She assures. “People who are specially trained to deal with this will be keeping watch at all times. You will be safe here. You will be able to heal.”

Before Victor’s daemon can continue, Belle's daemon suddenly cries out. “I'll do it!” It's voice is almost just as light, only slightly deeper than the other daemon. “I'll do it, I give permission or whatever you need, I'll try and remember how this started or whatever will help just please-”

The python shushes him softly, reaches out to touch the tip of its nose against the distressed daemon.

Victor's daemon watches, almost shocked. “I give permission too.” She murmurs moments later. Then, she turns to Jason. “Are you coming here too?” She asks, and Illnova’s eyes snap to him. “To help with the sever?” 

Jason laughs lightly, feels a little awkward. “I'm not severed.” He explains, and Vera gives a wolf of agreement from the car. “We're figuring it out on our own.”

Illnova definitely has some words for him. Ever since they started working together to help get mentally unhealthy people out of Gotham and into an institution that could actually help Jesus Arkham- she's been on him about that. Illnova only needed to take one look at him for her to know that something was wrong with his daemon connection, and now she wouldn't let it go. Jason trusted her patient confidentiality, truly he did. Enough so that even if she did find out who he was he thinks she'd keep it on the down low. Still, Jason doesn't have time for daemon therapy. 

(Well, he does. Vera doesn't. Vera doesn't want it and they have an agreement that as long as they aren't avoiding each other for more than a day they don't need daemon therapy. Jason took the deal just because it meant Vera wouldn't go off again- which was unnecessary because Vera rarely ever leaves his side anymore. They're almost like a regular person now.)

Illnova talks to the other doctor, who then starts wheeling the two gurneys in. Illnova makes a no nonsense face at him and starts walking towards his car.

Jason couldn't stop her if he tried.

She stops in front of the car. She doesn't look in, of course, respecting that privacy, but it's almost like she didn't want him that far from Vera if it wasn't necessary. 

Jason suddenly felt the need to soothe her. “Oh, don't worry about our distance.” He waved her concern way. “Few years back I flatlined from an accident and ever since our bond's been a little skewy.”

An unimpressed raise of a single eyebrow. “So you have restoration syndrome?” She asked, before nodding. “That makes sense. Connects some dots for me.”

Jason blinks. “Restoration what?”

“Restoration syndrome.” She repeats, crosses her arms. Her python curls around her neck until he looks like a scarf. “Common in near drowning victims. When a person's bodily functions cease the connection between the body and soul is cut. In the cause of near-deaths via drowning, a person will drown and be resuscitated. Since they've only been dead for less than a few minutes, their daemon is able to reconnect to their body. No sever, but there's still a documented list of common side effects. Distance increases between a daemon and human is one of them.”

…oh. 

Why hadn't Jason thought about the fact that he couldn't possibly be the only one who's dealt with these symptoms before?

He means, yeah, no one else has gone half a year dead and then came back with their daemon, of course, but he should have realized that many people die and come back why hasn't he thought of that-

Okay, well, now he feels stupid. Maybe he should go to the doctors when he has a problem, if they just know stuff like that off the top of their head.

Vera whines in the car, scratches at the door. Her mind was made up.

Jason opens it. “Dr. Illnova, meet Aliavera, or Vera. She's the cause of all my worldly problems.”

Vera gets on her hind legs to give him a hug and splatter slobber on his cheeks as a response. Then she raises to her full height and bats the python daemon with her paw, because her full height was tall and Illnova was on the shorter side already.

“Nice to meet you.” Illnova professionally ignores the batting paw, just as her python does. “This is Kenzokaimi, he goes by Zoka. Does this mean you're willing to get professional help?”

“I don't know about all that.” Jason laughs. “I just thought we had reached a new level in our relationship, is all. I just kidnapped two people and brought them to your institution, we're partners in crime now.”

“I'll pretend I didn't hear that.” She stares with a straight face. Studies him a little longer. Vera shifts, expectant. “Zoka’s tasted pain in the air, ever since we first met you. It's worse today, but it's also stale. As a doctor, I am obligated to ask.”

And Jason is obligated to be a pain in the ass and not tell her. Still, Illnova is a mix of his mother and Alfred in a way that has already given him a few nightmares where he is being chased by her because he did something stupid that put Vera in danger. So while he should lie-

“It's all fine now.” -he was too terrified to. “Family emergency, almost died again, traumatic shit, didn't see Vera for a week and a half, you know all regular stuff-”

Jason's legitimately surprised she didn't try and strap him down to his own gurney with the look she's giving him right now. “I have an hour free tomorrow morning. There's some guest rooms on the third floor. We'll have our first appointment then.”

Jason tried to protest. “I have somewhere to be.” He lied, because Isaac currently had Isa. “I'm a very busy man-”

“Come back after you ditch the car.” She very pointedly did not add in the adjective stolen. Though it was obvious she was thinking it. I'll tell the front desk to expect you. If you want to hide Vera she can enter through the fire escape.”

Then she was gone.

Jason considered leaving. It would be so easy. Not like Illnova could hunt him down. 

Vera shuddered. “I don't think the Hippocratic oath applies to her.”

Jason snorts. “She has definitely killed a person before.”

He ditches the car. He stays the night. He does not join a new type of therapy, but it's a close thing. 

Chapter Text

He's starting to hate charity events.

Sounds awful of him, he knows. Doesn't care, either.

It's just a lot of rich elitists flaunting their money because they believe it can buy them everything, even reputation and praise. Jason's not sure why he's here, but he is and there's literally no one to talk to besides his father, which sounds like torture in and of itself.

How dare his brothers be busy.

He sighs into his glass, sips it lightly and glances around the crowd. People eye him the same way he does others, his reputation still proceeds him. Doesn't help that he's making a point of staying at least somewhat close to Bruce's orbit, or maybe Bruce is doing that for him. His father's here to look into the Court, after what they had learned from that daemon fighting ring. Just some light recon, but Dick had called him and asked him to keep an eye on Bruce, make sure nothing happens, and Jason couldn't say no to him.

He wishes he did, because he spots two different problems walking up to Bruce currently, looking quite peeved and snotty, and this is not going to end well.

Wait, actually, idea.

Jason smothers a grin as he makes his way to Bruce, tilting his glass towards him with a slight smirk that spoke of trouble. Bruce barely raised a brow before Jason turned around to greet the two nuisances that had just reached them, grinning smugly and proudly. “Awful pleasure seeing you two again, Mr. and Mrs. Drake!”

Tim’s biological parents looked down their noses at him, unimpressed and slightly disgusted. One of their daemons, an elegant swan, looked like it wanted to bite him. Jason just smiled wider, wondering how Vera would feel about that. Alas, she was his internal feelings, and his internal feelings would not under any circumstances come out of the shadows at this charity event. So, instead, she was hidden out of sight, just far enough away that Jason can feel it. Probably with Fia, wherever Fia usually went during these things.

No matter, he's trying to stir shit right now, a daemon fight wasn't necessary. 

Mr. Drake ignored him, huffing in his direction before turning to Bruce. “The nerve of you, to show up here.” Jason snorted, and the swan daemon looked murderous. “After everything you've done to our family.”

Bruce looks thoroughly unimpressed. Some of the news and photographers had already caught the scent of trouble a brewin’, and had turned their recorders towards them. His father glanced at him, giving him an obvious go ahead for whatever shit he was trying to stir. Jason kept his face passive, even as he mentally grinned.

“And what exactly has my father done?” He's said it enough at this point that he doesn't feel sick each time anymore, but he is still suspicious about how happy Bruce gets when he hears it. “Besides given my brother a life he deserved, one you neglected to give him?”

“You have no right to speak to us like this!” Mrs. Drake snaps, haughty, and Jason wonders how these two made Tim, his brother is much better with his sass. “You're just a half bred mongrel, show us some respect!”

“You took our child away from us.” Mr. Drake continues, voice getting louder, letting anyone who wanted to know know. “Bribed the courts to steal custody, and forced our son to make false claims against us!”

“So all that evidence has to be fake too, I guess.” Jason mutters, stuffs his hands in his pockets and shrugs at Bruce. “Imagine being so full of yourself that you believed you were completely above the law. Newsflash, there's a lot of crooked cops in this city, but the justice system is pretty clear cut. I've never seen a case that open and shut before!”

Mr. Drake's face was red and fuming. They had gathered a crowd, all of which were watching like they were entertainment. They knew Jason was putting on a show for them, and they liked him for it. Anything to push away the boredom.

“If this is how your son speaks, I'm horrified at just the thought of the environment that Timothy grew up in.” Mrs. Drake fanned her face, crocodile tears collecting at the corners of her eyes. “Just what all you could have done to our son!”

“Well, he graduated high school two years early and is currently pursuing two different degrees, so I think the environment was pretty nice, all things considered.” Jason chuckled, mockingly. “Also, ain't it weird that you only ever bring your son up to us in public, when you have an audience to cry to? Not to mention that Bruce took over custody almost a decade ago. Odd that you've only started to care when it became public knowledge that Tim had access to the Wayne Fortune.”

He's making all of this up, but it's close enough to the truth that the gossip and rumor mill will make it the truth, even if it's not. Bruce is stone face next to him, but Jason knows him well enough to know he's amused.

And Jason hasn't even gotten what he wanted out of this yet.

“How- How dare you!” Mr. Drake looks two seconds away from an aneurysm. “You've forgotten your place! You… you and all of your siblings are just bastard children, with nothing but half a name to call your own, just lucky enough that your father trades away his dignity and reputation for quick pleasure that resulted in your birth!”

Jason scoffs. “Yes yes, we're scum under your heel, and yet no one ever talks about the Drakes, never praises them for their accomplishments or their status. Honestly, I wish we could trade spots for a week, I'd love to walk around Gotham without being hounded by the press!”

Some of the crowd laughs at that. Jason's so close to his goal, he just has to tip one of them over.

“Also, and just a heads up.” He adds, winks at Mr. Drake, even as his face goes cold. “Keep insulting my brothers and sister, and just see what happens. For being a bastard child-” he leans in close, speaks in a whisper only the Drakes can hear. “-I have more power in this city then you ever did. No one would even notice if you disappeared.”

Jason can barely finish his sentence before pain flares along his face, sharp and quick and hard against his cheek. He’s prepared, snaps his head to the side to lessen the damage but also emphasize the force behind it. He lets himself grin for a single moment before forcing his face still, stoic. A shocked gasp ripples across the crowd.

Mr. Drake is the one who slapped him, Jason discovers when he looks. That makes sense, and Jason is beyond giddy, because this is what he wanted all along.

He forces out a laugh, loud and clear and full of humor. “For not being the bastard mongrel here, Mr. Drake, that was very uncivilized of you.”

Mr. Drake is red in the face, angry beyond belief. Jason doesn't know if he always gets violent when he's spoken against, and if it's true he might have to probe Tim a little about it, but even now the fog of rage over his eyes is clearing. He's just now realized what he's done.

He's realized he fucked up.

The crowd is murmuring, shocked whispers washing over them all. The Drakes are a quiet family, elite but mostly unnoticed, besides Tim Drake (Tim Wayne, Bruce has been telling the reporters lately, because the Drakes have been worse lately, and now Tim is rarely even associated with that name anymore-). They are old money, mostly, but their reputation holds nothing on a Wayne, and bastard or not they just slapped a Wayne, the one who has a tragic backstory that everyone loves to root for because he's honestly the most interesting thing that's happened to the old money in Gotham for years now.

Jason turned to Bruce and grinned with his eyes, pleased. Bruce let himself look exasperated for a single moment before wiping his face, expression cold as he took a step towards the Drakes.

The room, predictably, went silent. “Causing such an unsavory scene.” His voice is low, a rare grumble. “Striking my son. I think you are the ones who have forgotten your place.”

Mr. Drake shrinks back, cowed from his earlier actions. Mrs. Drake steps up to defend him. “You speak about forgetting things, Bruce Wayne?” She scoffs. “You are the so called prince of Gotham, and yet you roll around with whatever mangey thing that offers. Gotham has only now learned about your newest mistake, how many other bastard Waynes are out there? Do you plan to claim them all, have enough for a small school?”

…No way. No way.

She did not just call Isa a-

Bruce's eyes hardened. Mrs. Drake, very smartly, shuts the fuck up at the look Bruce sends her. “Speak of her again with anything but praise, and you will make an enemy out of the Wayne family. We have been cordial so far, because you are still Tim’s parents, but do not mistake our courtesy for weakness, he does not care about you. Now-” Bruce turns to a nearby lady in a long expensive gown. “Can you please have security escort them from this event? How can they be here for charity when they harm the person who's donated the most here?”

Another rumble of murmurs, and Jason keeps his face blank. Well, apparently Bruce was donating a lot to this little event, and he was saying it was from Jason now. His lips tilt up slightly, because that's also diabolical. Going to a charity event and insulting, slapping, the main contributor to the charity. In front of the press.

Ingenious. 

The woman, who was the host, did not hesitate. The Drakes were escorted off the premises, and as the press got video of them leaving Bruce and Jason made their way to a private lounge, away from the reporters.

Once inside, Bruce frowned. “I should have known.” He muttered. “Next time you have a plan, please try to keep bodily harm out of it. Do you know how your brothers are going to react?”

Jason giggles and scoffs. “Oh, so scary, like any of them would actually do something-”

Bruce gives him a look, and Jason takes a moment because wait would they actually? “You are not the only brother that blames me whenever something goes wrong and I'm in the vicinity. Damian will have my head for allowing you to do that.”

And Jason laughs, because he must be joking.

…right?

“Watch this.” Andras says, wiggles and scrunches his face. His body shifts, morphs until it's something similar to a tiger, but missing the stripes, and those teeth. “Ta da!”

“Are you a sabertooth?” Jason asks, and Rachel looks beyond pleased with her daemon, almost preening under his gaze. Andras nods enthusiastically.

“Yep!” Andras changes into a hummingbird, flutters around Rachel's head before settling in her hair. “I can change into extinct animals too! Ain't it cool!?”

“Very.” Tatya lounges next to him, also in feline form. She is a large lioness, paws crosses in front of her as she watches Andras and Jason interact. Vera is nearby, somewhere, roaming alone like the lone wolf she pretends to be. “Never seen before.”

Andras spins around to lunge at her, new tail lashing back and forth. “It's not as cool when you do it!”

“Hey.” Garfield pouts at that, expression half mocked hurt and half actually hurt. “Yes it is.”

Rachel pats his shoulder in consolidation. Their daemons tumble along the ground, fighting. Neither are flinching, though, so Jason lets it be. 

He is only a good babysitter half the time, to be fair.

The two teenage daemons jump at each other once more, two velociraptors going at it. Gar flinches, very subtly, and Jason inwardly reaches out, calls on Vera to handle her part of babysitting duties. “Do they fight about this often?”

The two look at each other, before looking back at their daemons. It must be embarrassing, watching your inner emotions play out in front of you, to everyone. They've probably never actually talked about it to each other, more keen to never mention it, and yet here their daemons are making it impossible. Rachel's eyes are downcast. “It's been getting more frequent…”

Well then. He sighs, runs a hand over his face. “If either one of them come back to this you do know I'm the one they're gonna kill first, right?”

“We’ll say it happened during a fight.” Gar suggests, eyes twinkling with mischief. From the shadows he hears Vera growl, and the two daemons stop fighting at the sound, looking like they had just got caught doing something they weren't supposed to do. “Actually, hey, can we go scouting?! Imagine the headlines - Raven and Beast Boy spotted with the Red Hood-”

“You're gonna get the Justice League on my ass.” Jason mutters, watches as Vera stalks out of the shadows, posture imitating a mom who's two seconds away from giving a three hour lecture with just her glare alone. “They'll think I've kidnapped you. Again.”

“To be fair.” Rachel grins, looking much more relaxed now that the daemons are cowed. “Last time you did kidnap us.”

“Barely counts.” Jason sits down, gets comfortable in his armchair. Vera almost immediately climbs into his lap, as if she were a lapdog. Jason allows it, pretends to not enjoy the large blob of fur in his lap. “Pizza, Chinese, or Ice Cream?”

They both give him a look. He smirks. “Alright, okay, I get it.”

Thirty minutes later, after the ice cream had been finished, he turns back to the two kids and sighs. “Alright, we do have to talk about it.”

They pout, like they still felt like they didn't have to. Gar won't look at him. “No we don't.”

“That's a great idea, Gar.” His voice is deadpan. “You know what? I'll let it continue, until Tatya or Andras actually get hurt, and then you'll have to deal with that instead. Ever felt that before? Your daemon being injured?”

“It's not fun.” Vera warns, curled up by his feet now, a hulking black mass of clinginess. 

Rachel frowns as Gar stares at the floor. “There's nothing wrong, they just won't stop fighting over silly things.”

Andras, a white ferret draped around her neck, looks betrayed for a moment. Tatya shifts into a vulture just so she can stare at Rachel, also displeased. Jason sighs.

“There's obviously a problem here, and we all know it.” He stands up, walks until he stands in front of both their seats. “You're both angry about recognition, and you're taking it out on each other because there's no one else to take it out on.”

Vera yips in agreement, taking away the same conclusion from their earlier argument. She looks upset for a moment. “Does Aellamoire not praise you enough?”

It's a question to the daemons, and yet it's such an insane question, how in the world could Aella of all daemons not give enough praise? Yes, it was a little more complicated than normal - Kori was not human, did not have a daemon, so while Rachel and Gar had two parental figures walking around Tatya and Andras only had one, which was unheard of before. Now, Aella was enough of a praiser to count as two, without a doubt, but it was still a burden, one that can not be underestimated.

Still, both daemons bulk at that, as if Vera was insulting Aella’s honor. “Of course she does!” Andras growls, sufficiently ferretly pissed.

Tatya nods her agreement, now glaring at Jason's daemon. “I can't believe you'd even consider it.”

“Hey.” Jason cuts in, voice soft but firm, trying not to scold but still needing to get the point across. “Don't forget who you're talking to.”

“Aella is my sister.” Vera continues, staring right back at Tatya, not at all intimidated. “And she's a great daemon, but no one can be perfect.”

Tatya huffs and looks away. Gar flushes, obviously embarrassed. They both are, embarrassed by their daemons, embarrassed by what their daemons feel. Inner emotions on display, it kind of makes Jason happy that he didn't grow up normal, never had to let people see Vera during puberty.

Then Rachel sighs, like she's given up, and Andras looks scandalized right before she starts to speak. “It's just… I dunno, it's hard. Dick and Kori, the Titans, they're all great, but it's not enough. It's never enough. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I want to go back to school, make more friends, but I can't because my powers still go haywire sometimes and I don't want to hurt anybody.”

Jason hums. “You feel cooped up. Understandable, yet it doesn't fully explain why your daemons are at each other's throats.”

“We don't know!” Gar cuts in, like he's protesting it as well. “Has this never happened to you before?”

Surprisingly, for how fucked he is- “Never.” Vera growls, like that in itself was disrespectful. “I've never hurt them before, and I never would.”

They all feel cowed by that, as if the magnitude of their roughhousing is finally starting to hit them. Tatya turns into a squirrel, hides in Gar’s hoodie.

Jason sighs, crosses his arms and leans back, out of his depth. “Look, there's obviously some shit you two have to talk about that you're vehemently trying not to. I get it, I really do, but it's only going to get worse the longer you go ignoring it.”

They're silent at that. Vera makes an exasperated sound and stands, trots over to Rachel. “Come here.”

Andras, a meerkat now, meekly hops down to the floor. Vera gets him by the scruff, hoists him into the air and walks into the adjoined room. It's a move she only ever really does to Casta and Mona. Tatya chitters nervously.

Gar finally gives in. “There's this new guy, on our team.” He admits, even as Rachel's head snaps towards him, wide eyed. “He's not - it's not - he's a jerk. He's a bit of a dick and no one else seems to notice it.”

“They tell us we're being too judgemental.” Tatya adds on, gives a pointed look at Rachel. “Even them.”

“You both truly think he's only being a jerk when you're the only ones around to see it?” Rachel snaps, and there it is, this is in fact at least part of the real problem. “Be realistic.”

“I am.” Tatya hisses, tense from her perch on Gar’s head. Gar seems regretful, or at least moments away from covering his daemon's mouth. “Maybe you would notice it too if you weren't so enamored with him!”

Rachel gasps. Jason wishes he had popcorn. Teenage drama is so fun when you're not personally involved. Given the low-key pettiness of this entire thing, as long as it gets squashed before it becomes a real problem, Jason's fine just watching the ride. 

“I am not!” Rachel's face is turning red, almost as red as Gar’s turned the moment Tatya finished speaking. “What are you even talking about?”

“Satatya…” Gar warns, mutters under his breath. His daemon was now an anteater, clinging desperately to his head and shoulders. It could not have been comfortable, but Tatya was prone to randomly switching between forms when emotional, unable to fully control it. No one seemed happy with this situation.

(Except Jason. He found this hilarious.)

“You follow him around like a starstruck puppy!” Tatya does not listen to her human’s warning, falling off his head and into his lap, climbing up onto his shoulders as a muskrat. “You would've thought he solved world hunger, the way you look at him!”

“So that's what this is really about!” Andras comes zooming in from the other room, a mongoose with a lot to say. “You know, this all just sounds like a case of jealousy to me.”

“You-”

“Satatya Mu.” Vera cuts her off, and Tatya, startled, once again falls away from Gar. As if needing the size for her one on one with Vera, she shifts into a vicuna, ambles over quickly like a child who knows they're in trouble. Suddenly, it's Gar versus Rachel and Andras.

He really wishes he had popcorn right now.

Gar’s approach is much softer, at least in the beginning. “That's not it.” His tone is gentle. “I just, something’s off about him.”

Jason stays silent, makes a mental note to background check this guy, though the chance of whoever this is even being allowed in the same vicinity as these two with Dick looking at their entire family tree is pretty low. Maybe Andras is right, and he is just jealous. 

“Well, sorry to burst your bubble.” Rachel looks almost hurt now. “But we get along so well because we have a lot in common! If he's sketch to you then I must be too.”

“That's not fair.” His voice starts to rise. “And you know it. Tatya wasn't lying when she said you follow him everywhere - I barely see you anymore, now that he's around all the time! And when I try to hang with you guys, try to get to know him, you both avoid me like the plague!”

Andras does a mock laugh. “Sounds like jealousy to me.”

“Hey.” Jason cuts in there, gives both the daemon and Rachel a disapproving look. “Rude. He's telling you how he feels - if you can't not think it at least have the decency to not say it.” 

Andras hisses at him this time. “We're daemons.” He snaps. “That's what we do.”

Ugh, teenagers. Puberty. Hormones. It's much less fun now that he has to be involved.

“You're saying daemons have no impulse control?” He challenges, and Rachel's face scrunches up. “Doesn't matter, be nice and settle this maturely, or else I'll have Dick take away your superhero privileges.”

They both scowl at him. It is not effective. Taking care of Isa has given him some immunities. 

It's quiet, for a few moments. Vera comes trotting back out, settles back down at his side with a long yawn. Tatya armadillos her way back to Gar.

“On the bright side.” She says, resting her head against Jason's leg. “When you look back on this in a few years, you'll find this argument just as silly as we do now.”

And he must of done something right, because Kori texts him her thanks a few days later.

They were supposed to go to the zoo.

Isa had wanted to go, had wanted to go with his family, but they were all busy besides surprisingly Bruce, and Jason didn't have it in him to say that no one was going to join them when he knows Bruce would and he just didn't want to ask.

He has to at least try. For Isa.

They had parked a block away, prepared to walk. Jason wanted to act like normal civilians, blend in with the commoners so to say, but someone must know Bruce's most discrete cars as well, because by the time they get everything out of the car they're already starting to be swarmed by photographers.

Just his luck.

They've noticed Isa as well.

Just his luck.

“Jason Todd!” One of them shouts, above the chatter of the others. Jason is faced away from them, holding Isa to his front, away from their view. He dreads the day where Isa is too big for him to hold, too big for him to hide. “Are those medical documents true?! Are you really his biological child?”

Jason narrows his eyes subtly, looking at Bruce. The man is both irritated and smug, only just behind him, to the side. “Please stay out of our personal lives.”

“How long have you known about your half brothers?!”

“Oh, so they're half brothers now.” He mutters to himself, because for some reason now that they're related they're only half brothers, instead of brothers- Jason is getting upset over nothing. “Please leave us alone.”

“Are you going on an outing?!” They ignore him. “Who is the little girl?”

Isa perks up at that, looks up at him. On the ground, Casta weaves between Vera's legs, curious and wandering. Still, he does not try to walk up to the reporters - he stays planted beneath Vera. “Respect our privacy.”

Vera steps between him and the reporters at that, and the reporters all take a collective step back because Vera is big and also Vera is big which means scary sometimes. Casta mewls and jumps for her tail, misses and tumbles away from her. One of the daemons of the reporters, a crow or raven, hops up to him. He looks at the bird curiously, wiggles once and yawns, fangs showing. The bird chirps, and Vera lets out a low gruff sound, barely audible. Casta seems to trip over himself as he spins around, only now seeing how far he had gotten from Vera. He clicks and trills like Aella does before diving back, leaning against her front legs.

He should have known the moment he saw Casta that curiosity did in fact kill the cat.

“Hello!” Isa crawls up until she's peeking over his shoulder, waves a hand towards the reporters. Jason bites his own tongue as Vera makes a very unbecoming choked off sound next to them. “Those are big cameras!”

Half the reporters are instantly smitten, the other half are vultures falling on new prey. “What's your name, sweetie?!”

Isa frowns for a moment, looks at him. “Jay told me I shouldn't talk to strangers.”

They ignore her, of course. Jason makes a mental note to look up laws on what you can and cannot do when interviewing a child. “Is Jason your family?!”

Isa nods rapidly, beaming at that, like she's proud of it, and if that doesn't warm his heart- “He's my big brother!” She says, unhesitatingly, and Jason is so proud of her, she's doing so good. “Big brother Jay!”

Casta roars on the ground in agreement, eagerly tries to climb up his leg. Vera catches him before he can start, holds him by the scruff to keep him still. Bruce looks at both of them fondly, still seemingly prepared to stop the impromptu interview at any moment.

“Who is Bruce Wayne to you?!” Someone shouts from the back, and they both tense at that. Jason gets ready to book it, waiting for the moment Isa turns to him, confused, because who is Bruce Wayne to her besides the guy with the cool garden?

But then Isa, his lovely, amazing, manipulative Isa, cocks her head to the side, blinks once, twice, and chirps out. “You mean daddy?”

And Jason legitimately freezes at that, because he never told her to say that. He didn't want her to be involved in any of this, never expected this to happen while she was still so young. Even still, she's somehow following a version of the story they want the press to believe, and Jason never told her to call Bruce that, Bruce didn't either, so who-

…Tim.

Isa doesn't seem to notice. She wiggles in his arms, reaches towards Bruce. Jason lets her, deposits her into Bruce's arms. Like a natural born actor she hangs onto his neck like she's been doing so for years, getting comfortable before resting her head on his shoulder. Bruce schools his features pretty quickly, before looking at her once more. Instantly he's fond again. Camera shutters click.

Now childless, he decides to step in. “Let's not interview the preschooler, okay?”

That stops some of them, because some of them recognize Jason as the ‘one who will use legal percussions’. The others push forward, shouting several questions at once, a chaotic cacophony.

Isa frowns once more. “It's really loud.” She complains, presses her head against Bruce's chest, as if trying to hide. The crowd stills just a little bit when they sense Jason's new murderous aura. Vera growls, and Casta vibrates with the movement.

Before Jason can get to the car to grab his guns, Bruce cuts in. “You're overwhelming her.” His voice is monotone, no nonsense, sharp like the edge of a knife. “Step back.”

And they all fucking step back.

Isa looks at them all, eyes wide. She glanced between them and Jason and Bruce, must notice the tension and atmosphere because she throws them a bone. “My name is Isa!” She greets, raises a hand away from Bruce to wave at them all. Casta’s tail swings back and forth, and he yowls his own greeting. Vera still does not let him go. Isa turns to Jason. “You talked to them, Jay. Are they still strangers?”

“Yes.” Both Bruce and Jason say at the same time, and Isa doesn't question it, doesn't look at the reporters a second time. She settles against Bruce, closes her eyes, and either feigns sleep or actually goes to sleep. Bruce acts like he's holding ten billion dollars in his arms right now, and Jason mentally notes that he needs to bring Isa over more often.

But for now, time to end this- “Alright, you snooped enough. Leave us alone before you end up scaring a child.”

And they start back towards the car, outing cut short. Jason's already thinking of new things they could do, because Isa was excited and so was Bruce and Bruce doesn't really matter not at all but he can't disappoint Isa.

“Don't worry.” He whispers as he buckles her back in, keeping his voice low as Vera deposits Casta into her lap, brushing against her discreetly as she goes. “We're going to the aquarium instead.”

Isa’s face lights up. “Really?!”

“Yep.” Jason lets Vera climb into the back as Isa cheers. They go to the aquarium instead. Isa loves the sharks and seal lions.

“So.” Dick spreads his hands along the table, expression serious. “We need to get our stories straight.”

Aella chirps in agreement, currently perched on Tim’s shoulder. The younger boy nods gravely, arms crossed as he looks down at the cleared table. All of the brothers are here, as is Bruce, and they're currently standing around an empty table like they're in a mob meeting.

“It's probably for the best.” Tim says. “You know the media - if our timelines have even the smallest inconsistency they'll jump on it.”

Damian is unimpressed. “So then we just don't tell them anything.”

“Information vacuums are dangerous on their own.” Bruce warns. “If we don't fill it, someone else will.”

“When I was first adopted Bruce didn't tell anyone.” Dick seems to agree. “People got so suspicious of why Bruce didn't hold galas anymore that they just started believing rumors of him being Batman.”

“Better to fill the void with our own narrative then to let them make one for us.” Bruce finishes, taps on something. The table flips, showcases a large screen instead. Some graphs appear in a timeline, and Jason didn't know this was a TV table what the fuck- “Our best chance is to keep it relatively simple, but concrete at the same time. We'll start at the very beginning.”

He taps on the screen, and an old picture of him and a woman that looks vaguely like Dick pops up. They're at a party or something similar, pressed close and smiling. “This is Emily Bernard. As far as the public is concerned, I had a fling with her a couple decades ago and Dick was the result. She passed away shortly thereafter, and the Graysons adopted and raised him from there.”

“And when they ask why you didn't take him in?” Tim questions.

“Or when the real ‘Emily Bernard’ comes out and says that didn't happen?” Damian adds.

“Emily Bernard never existed.” Bruce seems a bit pleased. “This isn't a real photo, either, though it's good enough to fool anyone who looks into it. As for why, I didn't know about him until a few years later, when I found an old confession I had never read. By then Dick was already adopted and happy so I let him live his life as he previously had.”

Dick hums, and Aella copies the noise, tweeting. “That works, I think. It would be hard to disprove, at least.”

“Would it be the same story for Jason?” Tim asks, and Mona hops into the table to get a better look at the screen. “One night stand with an accidental baby you never knew about?”

Jason scoffs. “Can't have it be too similar.” He had already come up with a partial story to tell. “Yeah, the fling stays the same, but my mom and dad were still together when I was born, and since I also can't just be randomly adopted, it'd be smarter to say that my mom cheated on her husband and then pretended the baby was his all along.”

He should feel a bit scummy, sullying his mother's name after she's gone, but he does still feel a little miffed at her, for leaving him even though her daemon still came back for Vera. It was a tiny enough jab, and it didn't really matter anyhow. He's keeping those still alive protected, the dead only need to rest.

“Something more discreet, then.” Tim purses his lips. “Met at a dingy bar, away from the cameras and paparazzi. There's no photos of them together, no one would have ever known.”

Bruce sniffs, as if he's just now realizing that he's making up one night stands to fool the media with his sons. Or maybe he's realized that these stories are believable because he is known to be a casanova, and that only just now hit him. Whatever it is, the face he makes is pretty funny.

“As for Damian.” He continues on, and Damian immediately scowls, like he thought he might get skipped. There's already a solid story out there for him, so it shouldn't require much of an add on. “We're going to say that I don't know your mother at all. While you are obviously my son, I had little recollection of your mother even after you told me who she was.”

He's going to… not mention the elephant in the room and instead make a point. “Do you want yourself to come off as a dick?”

Bruce's tone is deadpan. “I have four children with three different women, and I have never been married. I also never paid child support or participated in any of their lives until after the moms had left - am I supposed to be the good guy here?”

He… has a good point. “Touche. What about Isa? Mom’s been listed as deceased for over a decade now.”

Tim snorts. “He made Emily Bernard a real person, he can change a measly little death date.”

Again, true. If he gave Emily Bernard a real identity, with social security and a tight background, just so nobody could discover anything while snooping, he could easily finagle some death dates. “So I'm guessing Mom had me, dad ‘found out’ I wasn't his, they abandoned me, I lived on the streets, you found out about me, adopted me, dad dies or leaves at some point, a few years pass, I die, you hook up with Mom again, Isa is born, and then Mom dies a decade late.”

Mona’s claws click against the screen. “Sounds about right to me.”

“It needs a bit more detail.” Bruce murmurs, eyes fixed on the screen below them. He seemed to contemplate something. “I wonder if-”

He cuts himself off, sucks in a sharp breath, like he had just realized something. Jason turns to him, curious, and Vera slams into attention, barks out an alarm.

Because Bruce's face had gone red, sweaty, as if he had just broken out into a fever. He sways, clutches the table, grits his teeth like he's in pain. “Bruce?”

“Father?” Damian is the closest, reaches him first. Bri inches close, sniffs him and snarls at whatever she smells. “What's going on?”

Bruce pauses, like whatever sudden attack this  was had ended, just as quickly as it had started.

He coughs. Blood drips from his mouth.

What?

Jason's moving before he's even realized it, because Bruce is falling, his dad is falling, and he catches him before he can bash his own head open. The man groans in pain, body tense like a live wire. He throws his head to the side and hacks up more blood. Jason suddenly can't think over the ringing in his own ears.

The sound of footsteps, someone helps him lower Bruce to the floor. There's panic, all there is is panic. Someone runs away, checking the manor, and Jason feels fine, why is only Bruce affected? What's going on? What's happening?!

His father's body goes rigid, and he clamps his mouth shut, cutting off a half choked scream. Jason winces, scans him, looks for whatever could be causing this, what was causing this?

Why… why does it look familiar?

The footsteps come back. Someone is speaking, though he can't really hear it. Bruce is seizing now, uncontrollably, and when Jason looks up he catches Damian’s eyes. He looks shocked, scared, uncertain. He doesn't know what's happening, none of them know-

Wait.

“Fia.” He says, barely a whisper in the chaos around him. He says it again, louder. “Fia. Where is Fia?!”

She would know what is wrong, or maybe she's experiencing the same thing, alone and scared and without comfort. Either way, they needed to find Fia.

“Bri!” Vera snaps, and Bri nods, takes off towards the garden while Vera runs further into the house. Aella flaps her wings, like she's about to follow, but she cannot go far from Dick, she cannot help much. Alfred enters the room, kneels next to Bruce, looks him over with a medical eye.

Bruce calms, slightly. He pants, out of breath, and rolls to the side and gags. Jason thinks he's about to vomit, but instead a weak shaky hand comes up to wipe at his brow. “Something…” he murmurs, dazed. “I can't-”

His eyes roll back, and his spine arches off of the floor as he screams.

And this time, Jason recognizes it immediately.

“It's Fia!” He has to shout this time, just to be heard over Bruce. “Someone- someone has her!”

Because this was lasting far too long for it to be accidental. Was far too painful for the person doing it not to have bad intentions. Someone was holding Fia, had grabbed her against her will, and severed or not that was still Bruce's soul, and he was still feeling all of it.

Something cold washes over the room, heavy and thick. He's never heard Bruce scream like this before, never wants to hear it again. Green brushes his vision - he needs Vera back, needs Vera here so she can track Fia and Jason can find the bastard responsible and kill him-

Alfred grabs Bruce's hand. The man is too far gone to even properly hold it back. His brothers split off, join in the search, in the rescue. He stays where he is, unable to make himself move.

Jason's not sure how much time passes. It feels like an eternity before Bruce finally calms once more, slumps bonelessly to the ground, wheezing and coughing. Alfred has a bucket ready, and Jason looks away as Bruce hurls, gags and heaves for what seems like hours in itself. He's never seen anyone withstand a person touching their soul for that long, ever. He's not sure a regular person could withstand that. The amount of stress that puts on a person's body, it would put an unhealthy person into cardiac arrest.

(He does not say it, will never say it, but if Bruce was not severed, he is certain he would not have survived.)

He's unsure of how much time passed, but by the time Bruce weakly lifts his head away from the bucket his brothers and their daemons are all back. Vera is pressed tightly up against him, a whirlwind of anxiety and fear. Jason wishes she was smaller, just so he could pick her up, hold her, like Tim does Mona.

It's obvious how much of a toll that entire ordeal took on him when Bruce doesn't even try to stand immediately. He instead leans back against the nearest wall, rests his head against it and focuses on his breathing. Sweat still rolls off of him, and his body shakes and shivers, unbidden, uncontrolled. He should do something, something, but he doesn't know what.

“Father.” Damian starts, and Bruce grunts. Whatever he meant to say is incoherent, but he's sure the message is something similar to I'm fine. It makes him wince. “Father…”

It's scary, watching someone deal with this. Deal with having someone else's hands on their soul. It's terrifying, an innate fear all humans have that gets dug up every time your forced to witness it. Normally, at least, you can help stop it.

This time, they didn't even know where to look.

“Fia…” Is the first thing Bruce says, because of course it is. Vera wilts next to him, forlorn. “Dierdre…”

“Dad.” Dick kneels down in front of him, voice soft yet firm and serious and so so angry. “Can you feel her? Do you know where she is?”

Bruce blinks. His eyes go from cloudy to clear, and he blinks several times more, as if coming out of a trace. “Shit.”

He pulls himself onto his feet, against everyone's wishes. No one stops him, though, because he looks like an angry bull two seconds away from charging. Jason suddenly feels lightheaded. Who would do this? Fia would not wander far from the manor, who would take a daemon from a high class area? Unless they were going specifically for Fia, but if so how would they have known about her? She's one of Gotham's best kept secrets - people still believe Bruce has a tiny daemon that he always keeps in his pockets.

“Did the cameras catch anything?” Jason asks Tim, who scrambles to grab his laptop. “Anyone going in or out?”

“Nothing suspicious enough to set off any alerts.” Tim mutters, fingers moving a mile a minute across his keyboard. “I'm looking through it manually now.”

“Aella.” He turns to the bird daemon. “I need you to go to wherever Fia normally hangs out in the manor, grab whatever thing of hers that smells the most. Vera can try and track her with that.”

Aella is off in a burst of feathers. Dick glances between her and Bruce. “Who would do this, Bruce?” He asks, almost like he genuinely does not know himself. “To you. They didn't grab Batman’s daemon, they grabbed Bruce Wayne's.”

Because Fia, as far as Jason knows, has never joined Bruce for patrol, for any superhero related thing. She always stays back at the manor, or several blocks away, somewhere far enough so that nothing can ever connect her back to him. This wasn't about Batman, that was impossible.

Bruce grits his teeth. Jason's phone rings.

It's an unknown number.

“Fucking ransom.” Tim curses, has the same thoughts as Jason, because the timing adds up too well, and Jason never gets phone calls, never gives his number out to people either. It's worrying that someone even got it. Just how good were these people?

Jason answers it robotically, voice gruff when he speaks. “How'd you get this number?”

“...Jay?”

All accusations and questions fled from his head, his mind blanking in an instant. A cold, icy feeling starts from his stomach and runs it's way up into his throat, drops back down to his heart, wraps around his body like a possessive lover. Next to him, Vera shakes and whimpers, pressing her body against the floor, tail tucked underneath her.

It's quiet, so quiet, and Bruce's breathing has calmed, they're all looking at him, at Vera, trying to figure out what's wrong, who's calling, but Jason can't- he can't-

This is an unknown number.

Vera makes a mournful sound at that thought, expressing the emotions he didn't dare have at the moment, afraid of scaring whatever this was away, afraid of not figuring it out, afraid of-

His breath hitched, even as his body went painfully rigid. “...Isa?”

The others freeze at that, heads snapping back over to him. He catches each one of their eyes, unable to hide the naked fear in his own. “Isa, sweetie, who's phone are you calling from? Are you still at home?”

“Jay.” Jason can hear it clearly now, doesn't understand how he hadn't noticed it immediately before. She's scared, terrified, and Vera's paws come up to scratch viciously at her ears, like she wanted to deafen herself to that sound. “Ms. Sasha wouldn't wake up, and there were strangers, and-”

“Isa.” Jason hates to cut her off, but he had to, had to figure out the most important details now and get the rest out later. He nodded at one of his family members, he's not sure who, before he started towards the door. “Where are you now?”

“...he says I can't tell you.”

Just to freeze again. Vera's stance went from wounded to aggressive faster than ever before, setting everyone on edge. She bared her teeth at the phone in his hand, even as he, very calmly (calm calm calm calm-) asked, “Who is ‘he’, Isa?”

Isa did not answer. Isa did not answer.

Vera's eyes flashed from blue to green, before settling on an acid green.

He tried one more time. “Isa, I promise you it will all be okay.” He assures, promises, in a way that ties his soul to his words. “Whatever's going on, I will deal with it. You have no reason to fear, no need to worry. Now, if possible, can you please give the phone over to whoever is in the room with you.”

Quiet, for a moment. He hears a sniffle, a muffled sob. Isa’s.

His vision goes green. Does not change back. Someone grabs the phone from his hand, holds it just a few inches from his ear. He almost snaps at them, at Dick, but he realizes that he had almost crushed the phone with his grip, knew he would have broken it if he continued holding it.

Shifting static, the phone changing users. Jason waits, fists clenched at his sides. Heat flooding his veins.

“I don't think we've had the pleasure of meeting!”

-for it all to change to ice, and something small and feeble takes its place, takes over his mind, and he stares blankly at the wall in front of him, unprepared to hear that voice again, after so long, talking to him, in this situation.

Someone takes the phone from him completely, someone is moving, somewhere Jason can't see. Hands land on his shoulders, which he barely feels. His mind is elsewhere, no longer with the rest of him, and Jason can't bring himself to admit why.

Bruce, weak but firm, an impenetrable wall, is the one who speaks into the phone next. “Joker.” It's not a greeting, barely a statement, more an insult. “What do you want?”

“Pulled him away so quickly Brucie, you're no fun.” Jason can barely hear, barely remembers the strange fascination he has with the Wayne family, something that always worried them, their connection between them and their secret always hiding beneath the surface. “I just wanted to meet him! I feel like we'd get along just swell!”

There are eyes, in front of him. Dick stands there, and he might be talking, but Jason can't be sure. Hands are soft on the sides of his face, cradling him gently, firmly, an anchor to a world he's suddenly detached from. He blinks, and everything locks back in, as if he had just wrapped a tether around the floating pieces of his mind. He needs to pull them in.

Joker. Isa. Joker. Isa.

Bruce says something, lost in the swirling void of silence and ringing that swallows him whole. Joker’s response is still startlingly clear. “You've been ignoring me for so long, I had to get creative. I'm exploring new avenues, testing new ideas. Oh, I can't wait for you to see them!”

The fucking Joker has Isa. Jason can't breathe.

He can't breathe.

He can't breathe.

Jason can't-

He has, supposedly, only been unconscious for two minutes. An accidental extreme-stress induced fainting. Slightly embarrassing, doesn't really matter either way. Isa-

He looks around silently. He’s on something, he's in the bat cave, actually. Vera has vanished, though he knows she's close. The bat cave has plenty of shadows and edges for Vera to hide, for her to blend in. Half of his family is at the computers, Bruce is on the phone, Dick sits next to him.

His brother raises a hand, though he's unsure where to put it. Jason sits up. “Jason…”

He doesn't respond, even as the others turn to him as well. Bruce hangs up, eyeing him with a wary certainty. No one moves as Jason stands, checks his clothes and pockets to see if anyone took his shit. Something they really should have done. When he finds that they didn't, he turns and starts walking towards the exit.

There's not a single person in this room that doesn't know what he's about to do. Not a single shadow of a doubt of who he's about to kill.

“Todd.” Damian warns, less about him killing and more about who he's broadcasting that to. Damian doesn't care if he kills, but Bruce and Dick do, Tim does, and if he upsets Dick by brutally slaughtering someone like an animal, he'll upset Damian too.

Still, Jason ignores him.

“Jay-!” Dick starts after him, he hears it more than sees. He doesn't get more than a step in before a low growl echoes around the room, bouncing off the walls. The sound is low, vicious, full of overwhelming anger and hostility.

Vera is not giving him a warning growl, right now. That growl was a threat.

There's a primal edge to her voice, one that sets off the defense mechanisms of every daemon in the room. Aella shrieks and flaps her wings, taking off into the sky for a vantage point. Mona hisses, fur stood on end by Tim’s shoes. Bri snarls right back, hackles raised and stalking back and forth, where Vera's growl had come from. Even Chioma reacts, sharp eyes locked on something inside the shadows, something only she can see. She does not look away from it, does not blink.

He understands Vera’s why, knows the reason. Jason lost Isa, must find Isa, but Vera… Vera's lost both Casta and Fia. Her child and her parent. Just Fia by herself would be enough to set Vera off, but Fia is a grown daemon, can care for herself. Adding Casta…

Jason stops, lets out a sharp whistle. Vera stalks out of the shadows, eyes a vivid green. She snaps at Dick as she passes, a warning not to interfere. Bri yowls and tenses, the only other daemon in here that could possibly hold her back.

It's quiet, save for the unbearable tension in the room. Jason turns back, looks at everyone before ending with Bruce. He looks haggard, hanging on by a thread. There are bags under his eyes, his face is weary with pain and caked in sweat. Even with his severing, he can't completely separate himself from his daemon. No one can. No one can escape the pain.

He looks pathetic, Jason thinks. Weak. Not worth the waste of time.

“Do not…” he starts, and Vera echoes him, voice a rumbling thing. He keeps his eyes on Bruce, so that he understands what happens if he doesn't heed what he says. “-get in my way.”

Or else Joker won't be the only person he's killing today.

Bruce does not respond. There's a new pain in his eyes, now. One Jason cannot bring himself to care about.

“Jason.” Dick says, a command for him to stop, for him to wait. Against Vera's threat, he takes a step forward. “Just, let us figure this out-”

Vera snarls, snaps her teeth, and something about her must give off the impression that she was going to attack, because Bri leaps forward, blocks her way towards Dick. Vera takes a step back, ears pinned, vicious.

Dick looks hurt, betrayed, eyes wide and watery when he looks at him. Jason cannot bring himself to care, not when his vision is clouded in green.

He looks around, at his family one more time. Vera backs up, pushes against his side.

The cave is silent as he leaves

Chapter Text

It's a quiet night, peaceful and still and just a bit dull. This would normally be a night where he called the patrol early and caught up on some extra Z’s, but this wasn't a normal patrol.

Dick sighs, crouching on top of a stone column as he takes a second to reorient himself. Anxiety and concern bubbles up in the pit of his gut, and he lets out a sharp huff of a breath, mentally venting his frustration.

Aella, who's flying overhead, searching the streets below, swoops down to land behind him in his shadow. She swats his head on the way down with her wing, a quick reprimand for getting mad with her. She is upset, she is anxious, and she doesn't deserve Dick being mad at her for worsening the emotions he already feels.

He'd normally apologize, but, as previously said, he's worried and anxious and where could Jason have gone-

The door to the building below him opened wide, and a familiar woman comes skipping out, a peacock fluttering behind her. She ducks into a nearby alley and continues to skip, as if she wasn't walking through dangerous territory.

Aella’s anxiety sharpens into precise focus, pointed like a blade as Dick steps off his pillar, lands softly behind Harley Quinn. Sugar squawks and shakes his feathers as Harley spins around with a grin. “Oh, Nightbutt! It's been much too long. I've been wonderin’ when y'all would come callin’.”

Dick feels eyes on him, Aella perched up above and watching. She is stressed enough that she's treating everything like a possible enemy, and now she's analyzing Sugar like he was prey. Dick hates the feeling of it, the feeling of hunting instead of scouting.

When Aella scouts, she does so to help him. When she hunts, she's preparing for someone to die. It's hard to get her out of that mindset once she's in it, and she almost always drags him into it too. Never with permanent consequences, thankfully, but Dick still worries. “You knew we'd look for you?”

“Of course!” She claps her hands together and Sugar turns into a chinchilla, scurries up her legs and across her torso. “Everyone's talkin’ bout it, y’know! Our resident clown's somehow kidnapped Bruce Wayne's daemon and daughter. I knew y'all would look for me eventually.”

There's a wave of suspicion from Aella, confirming his own. Because he's not actually here due to who she knows - he's here because of who he's chasing. “Look, I know you and the Joker didn't leave off on the right foot-”

Harley scoffs. “You saw the breakup, honeybuns, it was explosive.”

“But-” he continues, undeterred. “-you don't want the guy dead, right?”

Harley pauses, hums a little. “I mean kinda, yeah.”

He sighs. “Harley.”

She laughs, takes a hop skip forward and leans into his space, gets only inches away from his face. “Hood already grilled me, sweetie, and he's much better at it than you. Your ass ets are somewhere else, but it don't matter - I know nothing anyway.”

And Dick believes her, which sucks for him. While he was right to assume that Jason would come here, if Harley didn't know anything the trail ran cold. He wishes for a moment that Aella had settled as a wolf or bear or something with better smelling - ignoring the sharp whiff of indignation that causes as he sighs, gets ready to leave.

“Nightwing.” She says before he can go, and he pauses because Harley just used his name correctly, that means something. “I know it ain't your thing, to kill, but one day you're gonna realize that by saving one guy, you'll be dooming hundreds more to die.”

Dick frowns, instinctively defensive and yet a little resigned. “I know, but to think that way is to give up. I'd be stagnant, never working towards a better tomorrow.”

“When the body is sick-” Harley says like she didn't hear him, Sugar wrapping himself around her neck. “-it kills the virus infecting it. Your problem is that you think Joker is anything more than just that - a parasite. And what's that way of thought going to get you? Oh, I know- a dead little girl.”

A rush of anger colliding in his stomach, Aella's and his own a torrent threatening to overwhelm him. “If I start thinking that way, I'll never stop.” He must stay strong. “If I say it's okay to take judgment into my own hands, kill one person, who's to say I won't say it's okay another time, and then another after that?”

“So what?” Harley asks, holds her hands up in a shrug and laughs. “You all take justice into your own hands, but judgment is a little too far? If you of all people can't control yourself after a single necessary act, what chance does the rest of us schmucks stand?”

“And why do you care?” He's stressed and anxious and worried and fucking fed up. “Why do you want me to kill so badly?”

“I don't.” She replies, voice simple and breezy, light, as if this was a casual conversation. As if she wasn't tearing at his insides. Or maybe he was doing that to himself, with this whole thing. “But I know how your lot is, and I am fluent in nonverbal communication. And whoo, your Hood buddy is going to kill tonight. Just try not to ostracize him for it, yeah?”

He doesn't remember what peace feels like, anymore.

He had it, for a moment. At least, he thinks so. There was a single moment where everything was fine, were everything was good, was correct. His sons were okay, were talking to him, his daemon didn't hide, he even got to see his son’s new ward every week. It was nice, his family was healing.

Bruce thinks that, maybe then, he had felt peace.

He doesn't know, anymore. He doesn't remember. Nothing feels real past the pain.

His muscles ache and scream as he lands roughly on a rooftop, forcing himself to not stumble, to take the landing through gritted teeth, to not show any weakness. They are at a deadline, how he feels does not matter.

Millions of bugs crawling up and down his spine, lighting pinpricks of fire each place they step. Burrowing into his flesh, slowly tearing him apart, agonizing minute by minute.

He's supposed to be beyond this. Better than this. He's been severed from his daemon since he was a child, Fia’s absence should not be affecting him like this. What pain must she be in, for him to feel it so keenly? What can pass through even a broken bridge?

He should have died then, he knows. He lived through pure stubbornness and spite alone, punching death in the face and living off of borrowed time. He should have died as a young child, so destroyed by his parents’ passing that he threw Fia away from him, ran and ran from her and himself until the cord inside of him had snapped.

Instead, he had lived. He should have died, but he was too scared, too stubborn. And he had lived, and had thrust his own problems onto others.

Bruce Wayne has been Batman for a long time. Years before even Dick was born. Both of the characters he plays changed the very foundation of Gotham. He always thought it was for the better, did not let himself think of the alternatives. What would've happened if he had died, if he never became Batman? Would Dick’s parents have died? Would Jason still grow up on the streets? Would the Drakes treat Tim the way he deserves? Would Damian have even been born? And if he had, would Bruce have been a better father then?

Ha. He's a terrible father now, any change would've been an improvement.

His body groans in protest as he drops to another rooftop, heading towards the docks. It's complete luck that he catches a flash of red, or maybe it isn't, and Jason isn't trying to hide from him. Whatever it is, Bruce stops in his tracks, trying not to curl into himself as pain batters against him from all sides. Nausea rolls in his stomach. “Jason…”

Jason is looking out over the wide span of docks and warehouses in front of them. He doesn't look at Bruce. “If you're here to stop me, you can go shove it.”

Bruce notices the rigidness in his posture, the anger and stress lining his frame. He's a near shadow right now, even in bright red. Bruce knows what he plans to do.

Bruce doesn't notice how his tone is soft, almost gentle in a way. He doesn't notice Vera, who is hidden, watching him intently. Studying him. 

“I-” Bruce cannot think straight, cannot even breathe right. His body is a pile of organs and limbs, each of which taking more energy than he can afford to control. He's become undone. “I can't, in good conscience, let you do this.”

Jason spins around at that, posture fierce and dangerous as he marches towards him. “How fucking dare you.” He hisses. “Isa is in danger. Just because you don't have the strength to protect your kids from danger doesn't mean I don't have it either.”

Of course. Of course. He's right. When it mattered Bruce failed him, Bruce couldn't protect him. Does his way even work? When it truly mattered, he lost his son. How could he possibly let his son do the same?

Bruce doesn't know. It's hard to think, hard to move, hard to live. All he knows is that he failed Jason, he continues to fail him, to fail all his other sons, and-

And…

He misses Fia.

The thought is sudden, unwanted, though it hits him with the force of a truck. He misses Fia, always has and always will. He's been living with a part of his heart missing for so long, and yet time doesn't heal this wound. He misses her just as much as he did when he was young, if not moreso now. He doesn't even remember how it used to be, being connected to her, and yet he yearns for it like a starving man yearns for food.

Without her, he doesn't even feel human. He hasn't in a long time. And yet he let himself raise children, when he himself is nearly a monster. 

He cannot fix this, it is far too late. He's not a hero, not even a vigilante. He cannot think beyond the pain, beyond his need, and everything seems to be spiraling down around him. He cannot do anything right, as Bruce Wayne, as Batman, as a father - he's always messing up, those around him always getting hurt for his screwups.

But… he has to keep trying. He… he has to.

Jason spins around, jumps onto another roof. Bruce goes to follow, but he's weaker than he even realized. His knee buckles at the last moment, pain engulfing his body so strongly that he sees white. He only feels one of his feet land, the other hitting the side of the building and pushing him back, making him fall. His vision clears just in time to watch the world shift underneath him, vertigo battering his balance as his body falls off the edge.

Then a hand grabs his own, pulling him back up, steadying him on the rooftop. Bruce blinks, steadies himself. Jason lets go of him, turns back around with a huff. “Sit down, before you get yourself killed.”

And Bruce sits down, because up is down, left is right, his heart is a rapid beat that makes him light headed, and all he can do is hear Jason speak and feel his body burn and boil against his skin. Everything else is hazy and dim, beyond that.

He's useless. Pathetic. Everything hurts.

Jason scoffs. “You're not even strong enough to take care of yourself.” He sneers, and Fia, he misses Fia so much, where is she where is she- “Why should I listen to someone like you?”

Fia Fia Fia Fia Fia Deirdre-

Molten liquid burns tracks down his face, brushing hypersensitive, oversensitive nerves. Everything hurts, everything is too much. Bruce concentrates on Jason's voice, because if he feels anything else he'll be overloaded. He can do nothing else but listen, and think about everything he's ever done wrong, why he deserves this.

Jason makes an aborted noise, like he's going to speak before stopping himself. He stares at Bruce, and Bruce stares back through blurry eyesight. Bruce doesn't move, doesn't speak, because if he moves he'll scream and if he speaks he'll scream.

Fia, it hurts so much, where are you? Please-

Jason moves, and Bruce's reaction is slow, subdued. He only follows him with his eyes, because moving past that is pain pain pain, and he lets Jason grab his comm without any protest, not a single muscle moved. Jason could take his comm and push him off the roof, right now, if he so wished.

Bruce would let him.

He deserves it.

He can't even care for his own daemon.

“Wing, get your ass over to the docks.” He says into Bruce's comm, voice rushed and harsh. “Pick B up before he gets himself killed.”

He doesn't wait for a response, throwing the comm to the floor near Bruce's feet. He should pick it up, but he's near catatonic now. He's not even sure any of this is real, or if he's just dreaming. Maybe it's a hallucination?

Jason takes one last long look at him, before turning and vanishing from sight, as if he was never there to begin with. Bruce is left on the roof, wondering if any of it had been real.

He blinks, and it's different, somehow. Something has happened, or time has passed. He's still alone, but he's not. Claws click against stone, and Vera appears before him, massive and hulking, taller than him right now, with how he’s slouched against the ground. Her eyes are a mix of blue and green, molten, glowing, like the Lazarus pit.

She doesn't speak, doesn't greet him. She just sits there, watches him, and Bruce wonders if Jason had her wait with him, but that wouldn't happen. Jason is worried about Isa, would not think about him. He is not important right now, would never be important. Vera must be doing this on her own.

They sit like that, for a while. Bruce is unable to do much more than lay still in pain, staring at Vera to keep the overstimulation at bay. Vera leans closer and closer towards him, like she's planning something.

As if she wants to touch him.

Bruce, at this point, is feverish. He's feverish and in so much pain and he just wants Fia, wants to touch his daemon again, be with her, and he mindlessly reaches forward, unaware of his own movements.

Vera does not move away.

He's only inches away when he realizes what his hand is doing. Bruce immediately pulls back, and he's suddenly speaking again, his mouth and voice and lungs burning yet he can't stop himself, has to- “I'm sorry, I'm sorry I didn't mean to i'm sorry I should know better I'm sorry please don't hate me-”

Vera leans back, almost baffled, and Bruce tries his best not to throw up, even as he keeps apologizing, unable to do anything else in his pain addled mind. He thinks, for a moment, that this might be what it's like to die.

Vera then calms, stills. She leans forward, again, and Bruce flinches away. He won't make the same mistake, won't hurt his son more than he already has. Jason will never forgive him, if he did that. No one would.

The privilege Bruce has, to think he could be included in something like that, what his sons have. He could never - not him. Not someone who lost the right to have a daemon long ago. He doesn't deserve it, he deserves nothing.

Vera watches him, watches as he melts down from the inside out. She doesn't say a single word.

Then, she too disappears into the night, and Bruce is left truly alone.

Damian doesn't trust this place.

It's outside of Gotham, a large corporate looking building made of whites and blues. He stands outside with his arms crossed, Bri at his side. It's an odd safehouse, he thinks, wonders why it's so far out of Gotham.

“It's not a safe house.” Bri says, sniffs the air. “Smells of medicine, and pain.”

So a hospital, and yet it's not labeled as one, there are no ambulances. Not a sanctioned one, or a different type of medical facility. A dentist?

Bri snorts. “There's traces of him here, though hard to track. Side door.”

And Damian makes his way with Bri’s guidance, sneaking in through the side door and blinking at the bright lights shining on pure white walls. Bri backs up into his shadow, seeking darkness.

He makes it maybe three steps inside before he sees a woman marching up to him, a fury in her steps that makes him immediately ready for battle.

“Another one of you!” The woman hisses, jerking her arm to the side, towards an open door. Damian narrows his eyes, but Bri isn't tense or even growling, so Damian follows, goes where she wants him to. “You can never show up during normal hours!”

It's a normal doctor’s room, and before Damian can stop her she's pulled out a list and is examining him with her eyes alone. Her daemon, a large snake, slithers into the room after her. She doesn't even notice as it climbs her body, settling around her like an oversized scarf.

Damian scoffs. “I'm not here for some checkup, I don't have time-”

“After the last one I've made a policy to always do a checkup first before speaking to vigilantes.” She cuts him off. “Because you'll have medical disorders you aren't even aware of.”

Bri jumps on top of the patient examination table, behind where Damian finds himself sitting. Almost baffled, he just sits there and lets it happen. At least this lady could tell him a bit about Jason.

“Alright.” The lady says, writing one last thing her daemon hisses to her down. “Now then, I am Doctor Ilnova, Daemon Specialist. I work on cases involving daemon abuse.”

Ah, okay, that's why Jason comes here. There's no one like this in Gotham, he thinks, so he sends those needing treatment here instead. And apparently himself. “You've spoken with Red Hood?”

“Patient confidentiality.” Ilnova hums, eyes darting between him and Bri.

Damian doesn't have time for this. “He's my brother.”

“I know.” She says simply, checks off another thing on her checklist. “He's given me permission to share critical matters with you, after certain conditions are met.”

Damian’s eye twitches. “What conditions?”

“Firstly, his family members must have a checkup, done by me, which you just had.” She starts, and Damian wonders how much her snake can tell, if she didn't even need any medical equipment to finish a checkup. “Secondly, they must agree to treatment if any is needed.”

Bri finds that funny. Damian scowls. “I do not have time for this.”

“Then I'm afraid I can't help you.”

Evil woman. Bri is purring. Damian scowls at his daemon this time. “What treatment?”

Ilnova’s voice switches to a softer note. “There is a minor disconnection between you and your daemon. I'm guessing it might have something to do with your daemon being in only a semi-true shape.”

Bri goes still and silent, both outwardly and inwardly. Damian tenses. “How do you know that?”

“It's my job.” She states easily, and her daemon hisses. “From what I can tell and what I have read in studies, your situation is caused by unnatural means. As you know, daemons have a true form, which one is supposed to settle into. Those forms do not change, but a daemon might not settle correctly if something traumatic impacts the process.”

Damian, for some reason he doesn't understand, offers information. “My grandfather did a ritual that made her settle into this form.”

Ilnova's gaze wavers for a single moment. Her snake hisses harshly, but hides their emotions well too. “That would, unfortunately, do it. Semi-true forms are forms that, while not a true form, is close enough to not cause irreparable damage to one's psyche. Semi-true forms do not exist, but can be made. I suspect that this black panther form was originally inviable, but after some time became a semi-true form. This is either because you both grew to accept the form, or as a defense mechanism needed to survive.”

Damian scowls at the floor and tries not to cause damage to the room around him in his frustration, because he's been away from his grandfather long enough to hate him just for what he did to Bri, not mentioning anything else. He has a long list of grievances against him, Bri at the top of the list.

(He hasn't forgotten what he did to his brothers either.)

Bri speaks up when he doesn't. “There's no way to have me settle as normal?”

Ilnova gives her a sad smile. “Sadly, there isn't. Once a daemon has a semi-true form, their true form turns into a semi-true form as well. Remember that a true form shows what someone truly is. By having a semi-true form, that person is now different then they were before, meaning the original form no longer fits them properly.”

Bri wilts. “So there's nothing we can do.”

“I didn't say that.” Ilnova responds. “There are a few possibilities.”

Damian… will keep this in mind. “Save this for later. What do you know about Red Hood?”

Ilnova frowns. “He was here yesterday. He gives us patients dealing with daemon abuse. Red Hood also comes to us for treatment for his Restoration Syndrome.”

Restor- later. “He hasn't been here today?”

“No.” Ilnova looks worried. “Is something wrong?”

Damian spent too much time here. “It's nothing a civilian should worry about.”

And then he gets up to leave. Ilnova walks him out. Before he can leave, though- “Will you plan to come back? I strongly encourage treatment for anyone who has suffered through daemon abuse.”

Daemon abuse. He guesses it's true, Bri has been abused. Still, this is so far out, and not worth his time-

“We'll be back.” Bri says, and Damian, no matter what others might think, listens to his daemon. If she wants it, that's what they'll do.

As the smartest one in the family, at least in tech, Tim has a responsibility to hack Gotham’s street cameras and compulsively stalk his family when one goes off the rails.

He takes this job very seriously.

Seriously enough that when he finally does catch Jason on the cameras, he goes completely off the grid to go after him. He had visited Star Labs a few weeks back, got some new gadgets he had been waiting to try. One was a full body cloaking device.

He doesn't tell Dick or Damian what he's doing, he just goes. There's really no reason to tell them - Dick will rile him up with his righteous don't do this talk and Damian will rile him up with his unrighteous do this talk. Tim isn't there to do either, isn't there to influence him. He's not even really there for Jason.

It's hard, stalking someone through the city when that someone has Vera as a daemon, cloak tech or not. There are many times when he's almost sure Vera’s caught wind of him. Mona’s internal pleading in his backpack seems to pay off, though, as he makes it all the way to Gotham’s docks, following Jason.

His older brother lands near an abandoned warehouse, glancing every which way as Vera settled besides him. He takes a moment to card his hand through her fur, as if memorizing the feeling, before tilting his head to the side. Vera disappears into the darkness at his command, and Tim feels Mona’s sorrow, gets a pang in his chest at just the thought of being able to, having to send one’s daemon away. It was to keep Vera safe, obviously, but still…

Jason takes a deep breath, steeling himself, before kicking the door open. Tim grapples to the roof and crawls in through the sunroof.

The warehouse is mostly empty, everything cleared out long ago. Jason is beyond tense, body rigid as if he was remembering something far too unpleasant. Tim knows what happened between him and the Joker, the first time around. He knows this looks too similar to not feel reminiscent.

The Joker being on the other side of the warehouse doesn't help the feeling either.

“Well well well.” The Joker says, chuckles as Jason stomps forward. “You're not the one I wanted to see.”

“Too bad.” Jason grunts, something harsh and painful in his tone. A gun slides into his hand. “I'll be the last one you ever see. Where's the hostage?”

Joker laughs. It sends a shiver up Tim’s spine, causes Mona to whimper. They can't help but wonder where the Joker’s daemon is. Tim’s never seen it. Bruce doesn't talk about it. Harley once said it doesn't even exist.

“You know the rules.” He giggles, as if everything about what he just said was extremely funny. “It's always straight to business with you! Come, laugh a little with me!”

Tim sees Jason raise his gun. He also sees his arm quiver. It's anger, he knows. It's also fear.

The Joker laughs at the gun, as if there's nothing to be afraid of. He claps his hands.

An explosion rocks through the warehouse, shaking the ground they stand on. Mona’s squeal is drowned out by the sound of rumbling. 

Tim turns back towards the sunroof, sees smoke wafting from a tall building several blocks away. Jason's turned to get a glance at it too, gun still pointed at Joker. 

He's not leaving. He's not going to go help whoever was caught up in that explosion. He's not leaving, and no matter how much Tim wants to go help, he's not leaving Jason either. 

If it was up to him, Jason would never have to deal with the Joker ever again. Sadly, it rarely ever is up to him. The least he can do is stay with him now, be there in case it all becomes too much.

Joker is laughing again, saying things that Tim cannot be bother to listen to. Jason looks about two seconds away from shooting him, but they know he won't. Not without ensuring Isa’s safety. Instead, he watches as some of the Joker’s henchmen drag out a large cardboard box, setting it right at Joker's side.

“Ah, perfect.” Joker says, produces a knife from nowhere with a practiced flourish. As if he was part of a circus, the next big attraction. The fingers of his free hand runs along the seam of the box. “This one is a classic!”

He takes the knife and slams it down, stabbing into the top of the box. There is a muffled yet piercing shriek from inside. Mona’s heart seems to slam against her ribs, and Tim feels his own heart drop as a result.

That scream, he recognizes it. It's Fia's.

“How long will it last?” The Joker questions, leans against the box as if it could support his weight. “How long until the box stops shrieking?”

It's subtle, what Jason does next. His thumb twitches over the safety, flicking it off. And yet somehow the Joker sees it, because he raises his hands with a deranged cackle that sends shivers up both of their spines. “Oh, none of that here, hood wonder. Don't want that kitty to pay for someone's silly mistake.”

Kitty. Casta, it must be. Jason does not move, but his physical defeat does not matter. He will not do anything that endangers Isa. In fact, he's more likely to endanger himself, in this situation.

Which is why, loathe as Tim is to do so, he leaves. He leaves, turns on thermal seeking equipment and starts heading towards where he sees blimps. Keeping Jason safe is impossible without also keeping Isa safe. Getting Isa out of this situation while the Joker and some of his goons are distracted is the best thing he can currently do.

It's the right decision. He'll regret it anyway.

Smoke wafts from the destroyed building as he hops across the roof, vision focused on the small body of heat two buildings over. The idea of what happened to Jason previously happening again will haunt him forever, but he knows Jason would never forgive him if Tim put him over Isa. She was a civilian, Jason’s ward, a little girl, in the hands of the Joker.

The Joker, who was currently blindly stabbing a knife into the box where Fia is. As if he was playing a carnival game.

Tim slides to a stop on top of a building, hangs off the side to drop onto a windowsill, quietly pushing it open. This was a smaller storage facility, and even without the thermals Tim sees several of Joker’s goons littering the floor, singing to songs only they know the lyrics to, joking and laughing, dragging behind clubs covered in chainmail and nail bats. Their daemons all dance around, as if high on something. A soul shouldn't act that way.

He hops onto a dark catwalk, using it to sneak towards a backroom, one of which has a smaller thermal in it, hopefully who he's looking for. Slipping into the hallway leading there is relatively easy, given his cloaking tech. Getting out would be the hard part here.

The door at the end of the hall is cracked open, because of course these buffoons would do that. He pushes it open, as softly as he can. Inside, he hears a soft gasp, before the beginning of what sounds like crying, hyperventilating. The moment the door is wide enough to slip through, he goes, not wanting to open it further.

And suddenly, he's terrified.

The inside of the room is washed in red - splatters and streaks of blood painting every surface. It's bare besides a single table pressed against the back wall, pieces of trash and litter and who knows what else making the room smell more rank then it did before. Tim is immediately horrified at the idea that any of this blood could be Isa’s. He looks around the room, trying to spot her.

The crying softens into hiccups as he sees her, curled up underneath the table. There's blood on her, too much blood, but Tim can tell immediately that she's not in any pain, that the blood isn't hers. It's there to scare her, nothing more. A sign of relief leaves his throat, and Isa perks up, wide scared eyes darting around, searching.

“Isa.” Tim whispers, and Isa nearly shrieks, eyes immediately brimming with tears. “No no, please stay quiet, we don't want them to hear us.”

He doesn't try and change his voice. Isa's eyes go even wider in hope. “...Tim?”

“In the flesh.” Tim turns off the cloak, knowing a place like this wouldn't have functional cameras. Isa barrels into him before his cloak’s even fully turned off, hugging his middle and crying. “It's okay Isa, I'm going to get you out.”

Isa just cries harder, hiding her face in his clothes. Tim wants to give her the time she needs, but they really can't afford it. Especially since he can't cloak with her. 

“Come on.” He kneels, gets to her height to look her straight in the eyes. “We have to go, and quick. Where's Casta?”

Isa blinks, as if she only catches every other word. She doesn't speak as she turns around, crawls back under the table. She digs into a pile of trash, and Tim’s heart hurts as she emerges with Casta in arms, absolutely filthy from hiding in the garbage. When in a dangerous situation, it's only natural to hide the most vulnerable part of you, no matter what that might entail. Isa, as a child, would not be able to resist that urge. 

Tim, still kneeling, twists to the side. Mona takes the moment to wiggle his backpack back open. “Casta would be safer in here, I can't carry you both.”

Not without fear of touching Casta. Mona has already contacted Isa, but they all have a rule to stay as no contact with Casta as possible. While Jason’s pretty bad at sticking to it, the rest pick up the slack. It's no good, letting anyone know how normalized it's been for Isa. In other situations, if they were not good people, others would take that normalcy as abuse. It's better that no one knows, and that Isa doesn't get used to it until she recognizes the consequences of it fully.

For a second, Tim thinks she might protest. Her bottom lip wobbles, as if she might cry again, but then she lifts her arms and drops Casta next to Mona in his backpack. Mona thinks he smells horrendous, is disgusted by the blood on him as well. Still, she does not mention it at all, leaning forward to press her nose against Isa’s hand before pressing against Casta, trying to soothe him. Casta does nothing but tremble silently.

It reminds him of when they first met Casta. It makes Tim seethe.

“Alright now-” He holds out his arms, and Isa hugs him once more. He wraps an arm around her and stands. Isa squeaks, locks her own arms around his neck and wraps her legs around his sides. It's not the best position, but with the daemons on his back it's the best he can do. “Hold on and keep your eyes closed, alright?”

Isa nods, squeezes her eyes shut and buries her face into his front. Tim, with his one free hand, brings out his grappling hook. 

Well, it might be time to test out his one handed fighting.

He doesn't give the henchmen any time, opening the door to the room and running through the hall at full speed. Joker’s goons don't have much time to react when he reaches the main floor, raising his grappling hook and firing into the catwalk. He shoots into the air to the sound of shouts below, and Isa tightens her grip as they go airborne.

Hitting the catwalk running, Tim heads for the window he entered from, diving out and twisting once he was out in open air. His grappling hook latches onto a nearby building, not in the direction of where he knows Jason and Joker are, and Isa makes a scared noise as they fly through the air.

He's gentle when he lands on the ground in a nearby alleyway, hidden, worried as Isa starts to tremble along with Casta. “What's wrong?”

She looks up at him with big wide eyes. “Where's Jay?” She asks, sniffles. “Is Fia okay?”

Fia? She must have seen the daemon at some point, knows that Joker has her too. “Once we're safe, I'm going to contact Jason, and he'll come running over, I promise.”

There's a shriek from a bird, the sound of shouting. A shadow dives from the sky, and Tim isn't fast enough to twist out of the way. The shadow, a raptor, slams into his backpack, and he nearly falls to his knees as Mona screams in pain. White hot agony shoots through his veins as Mona is attacked, pushed out of the backpack and onto the ground. Isa gasps, Casta cries out.

Tim whirls around, raises a leg while, at the same time, covering Isa’s eyes. He lashes out, his foot makes solid contact with the raptor daemon, cracking bones as it's thrown away. Mona staggers where she lands, and she's injured, Tim can tell, as if his own body was the one that ached and screamed. He goes to grab her, protect her, when a monkey daemon appears from the way they came, batting at her. She's pushed away from him, hit hard by a screaming daemon.

“Oh goody goody!” Joker’s goons have caught up to him. “It's one of the spawn!”

Every single cell in his body tells him to go to Mona. Mona herself tells him to protect Isa. He's caught between two warring sides, and a split second of hesitance is all it takes.

A jackal joins the monkey, lunging at Mona and catching one of her legs in its jaws. Tim’s own leg turns to mush, and he falls to one knee as Mona hisses and snaps, outnumbered, small, overpowered.

Get back to me, he thinks, the only solution. If she could get past the daemons-

The monkey locks its arms around her, effectively entrapping her. Tim’s thought process changes from escaping to making sure Isa escapes.

“Ain't this fun!” One asks another, smiles before frowning at Tim. “Ain't this fun?”

Tim tucks Isa’s head to the side, looking away from it all. He's not quite sure how he's still standing. He stays silent.

“Definitely not the life of the party.” Another one says, pulls out a vile of something acid green. “Let's change that.”

The goon turns towards Mona, uncorks the vile. Tim, knowing that he currently had a grappling hook at hand, contemplates sending the hook through the man’s head.

(He believes in the no killing rule the way one believes in not littering. He doesn't do so purposefully, but if for some reason he had to, he wouldn't lose much sleep over it. It has a purpose, a reason, he knows he wouldn't do it without that. This is a purpose, a reason, and he can only hope Isa won't be able to understand what's happening.)

There's a growl, a massive shadow. A reddish gray wolf pounces, catches the jackal around the jugular and shakes it. The daemon’s neck snaps, and the human goon drops to the floor, dead with it.

Tim… is pretty sure he's seen that daemon before.

The wolf daemon growls at the monkey daemon, stalking forward and completely ignoring Mona. There's the sound of slicing flesh, and one by one the goons start to fall to a hidden killer.

He doesn't understand. “Is this your good deed of the decade?”

Deathstroke, Slade, sheaths his blade as he kills the last of them. “Satisfying a curiosity.”

He tries to hide Isa from view. Mona limps back over to him, presses against his leg. With his free hand he scoops her up as well, has some trouble getting her back into the pack with Casta while also staring Slade down. “Well… hope you've been satisfied.”

Tim turns and runs. 

Slade, thankfully, does not follow.

Jason forgot what it was like to hate life.

A feat all on its own, Jason used to hate life like a gold medalist at an Olympic Sport. He was the best at it, went through all his trials and tribulations and got his deserved I hate life sticker from it. Then things started to look a little better. His family came back into the picture, he met Isa, started to actually get some help.

He forgot to hate life.

Of course, the person who started his dark descent is the one who's trying his hardest to put him right back into it.

His hands clench as Fia screams again, this time in pain. Dust swirls along the Joker’s blade when he raises it. “No one likes an early bird, Hood!” Joker tsks, running the knife edge along the box. Jason can't move, feels green tinge the edge of his vision. Bruce was already in a terrible state, he can't- “It's no fun if the party never even starts!”

He pushes the tip of the blade into the box. Fia doesn't make a sound. Neither does Jason.

Jason, who can barely see over the green. Jason, who does not know where Vera is, even though he can feel her nearby. Jason, who should be furious right now.

Jason, who can't feel much of anything.

Joker sighs. “There's so much predictability, in pain.” He leans against Fia's box, raises the blade with a twirl. “But the one thing that never makes sense, is what comes after.”

Searing, burning heat, melting the flesh off his bones. He can never forget it, no matter how hard he tries, how much he drinks. Vera’s whimpers stay stuck in his mind, too far away, he can't reach her, his limbs were broken-

His arm, holding the gun, starts to quiver. To shake.

“Some like to laugh in the face of tragedy.” The Joker continues, grinning like the madman he is. “They can do nothing else. I want to see if Bruce Wayne is one of those people, too.”

He angles his knife, aiming for the center of the box. The knife starts to fall.

Jason moves before he can reconsider. His wrist twitches, his hand turns, his finger tightens and the sound of a gunshot echoes throughout the room. The knife the Joker has flies from his hand, hit by a bullet.

His goons surge forward, crowding around him but still not touching. The Joker laughs, like Jason had just proved him right somehow. He leans fully against the box now, arm folded across the top.

Jason grits his teeth, searches for control. “I can assure you, he's not that type.”

“Ill share a secret.” He leans forward, just a smidge. “Everyone is.”

His henchmen close in. Jason tries to figure out if shooting him would cause another explosion, if Isa would still be in danger if Joker dies.

He shouldn't have shot. He threatened Casta. He shouldn't have shot but then Fia might have-

A growl, from the shadows. Daemons of all shapes and sizes surround the henchmen, surround Jason. He recognizes the sound, feels a bit more steady for it.

“Everyone laughs at the hand life gives ya!” The Joker says. “That’s half the fun of it, and why you, Hoodie dear, are no fun.”

“I laugh plenty.” Jason says, eyes darting around. Joker’s goons are especially annoying, since they’re more likely to dogpile then come one at a time. “I’ll laugh pretty damn hard once you’re a corpse with a bullet in it’s brain.”

“Ah.” He brings out another knife from his pocket, slams it into the side of his head. Giggles when Jason flinches, even as the joke-knife’s blade disappears into the hilt as it’s pressed against his skull. “You’ve always been so very angry with me, red wonder. So many bad days… tell me, have you started to crack?”

“Long ago, Joker.” He smiles, behind the mask. Happy that it’s hidden, that his voice still sounds hard and unamused. “It’s over, your jokes grew stale years ago.”

He holds a hand over his chest, as if offended. Then he clicks his fingers and his henchmen swarm. Jason spins, fires three times in quick succession. Three goons go down with bullets in the head, and daemons cry out as they turn to dust. The growling shadows morph into an actual animal, and a black wolf lunges from the displacement, claws at bigger daemons and bites at the smaller ones.

A metal bat hits hard against his shoulder. He stumbles, twists out of the opening he just made and fires four more times. He misses twice, hits limbs with the other two shots. Vera leaps into the air, snatches a bat flying to safety in her jaws, and crushes it.

All the while, Joker stands and watches and giggles. “What a fun daemon, Hood! Mind if I borrow it?”

It's a distraction, and it works. A blade slices against his side, but he can't bring himself to care. Jason turns towards Joker, fires a shot after he reloads. He's unsure if it lands, but the Joker starts laughing even louder, which could mean an abundance of things.

The henchmen he had ignored buries his blade into Jason’s side, inches left from a fatal stab. He hisses as Vera growls, and the green in his vision turns blinding before fading away. The pain of it makes him surprisingly dizzy - usually, at this point, he would be too angry to notice. He’s either out of touch or off kilter, unable to get into the zone like normal.

Shit.

The offending henchmen does a death laugh and keels over, Vera flattening his daemon to the ground and ripping through it’s throat. Jason staggers, and suddenly its just him and Joker.

It’s a struggle, raising his gun. His side screams at him, blood drips to the floor. He’ll have to deal with that, sooner rather than later.

Joker just tilts his head to the side, pondering. “Maybe I should have waited on the building.” He says, as if his goons weren’t all dead around him. “Batsy is sure taking his time.”

Jason aims, and the Joker sniggers, crouches behind Fia’s box before picking it up. He hears something heavy push against the sides as Fia is used as an effective barrier. Joker pokes his head to the side of the box, playful. “Seriously Hoodie, you're no fun. Toddle off and wait for your daddy.”

“Batman is tired of you. Sent me to finish you off instead.” Dust still swirls out of the box. He’s starting to worry. “Call it closure, for every Robin you tried to kill.”

For the Robin you did.

“Oh!” Joker smiles brightly, much too wide. “Ah, I should’ve known! A tragedy ain’t complete without revenge shoved somewhere in there! That’s not my genre, really but I’m sure-”

Jason’s comm buzzes, rings in his ear. He twitches as someone very obviously hacks into his secure, private line. “Jason?”

“Little busy here.” Jason snaps, voice low. Joker takes his silence as a gesture to continue. 

“I found Isa.” Tim cuts to the point, and Jason goes very still, tunnels into his voice. “We’re heading to the manor now. She’s safe.”

He can’t help it. He shudders, relief crashing over him. Vera makes a cut off sound, very noticeable.

“So.” Joker noticed. “Whats with all the doom and gloom? You’ve always been broody, Hood, you give Batsy a run for his money.”

Jason thinks about telling him, and reminding him of the Robin he murdered. Telling him that it didn’t stick, that Jason is walking and talking and living a life Joker tried to take from him. He thinks about telling Joker how he failed, how he and Vera are stronger now, how he will never be able to hurt someone like he hurt Jason again.

He turns off his comm.

Joker stares, waiting for an answer.

Jason fires his gun.

A bullet slices cleanly through one of his eyes, lodging in the socket. Joker is thrown back by the force of it, box tumbling out of his hands as he hits the floor. There is no fanfare, no final laugh. He’s dead before he hits the ground, a wide yet blank smile settled on his face.

(It did not matter, if Jason told him. This was not the first time Hood has seen Joker. Joker already knew. He did not care.)

It’s anticlamatic, and yet Jason falls to his knees, staring at the corpse in front of him. Strangely enough, he does in fact want to laugh. It was supposed to be something big, something momentous. And yet the Joker dies with no one watching but Jason and Vera.

And Fia.

He scrambles to his feet, even as Vera starts to work on clawing Fia’s box open. Jason reaches her side, takes out a knife. There’s a plume of dust, wafting out of the box when it’s finally opened. Jason’s stomach drops at the sight of it. “Fia?”

The heron is worse for wear, curled up at the bottom of the box as small as she could make herself. One of her wings is near torn at the base, an ugly looking stab wound right through the muscles. Sympathy fills him as Vera sticks her head inside, whimpering softly. Fia croons in response, presses her head against the wolf’s.

“Fia.” She was hurt, should be taken to a daemon hospital, but first she needed her human and before that they needed to get out of here. “Can you stand?”

It takes a few minutes, to get her up and out of the box. Besides her wing Fia is thankfully unharmed, but she’s bleeding dust like she’s dying and that terrifies Jason, terrifies Vera. He’s reminded of a white squirrel, whispering his goodbyes.

Not again. Not again.

“Isa.” Is the first thing Fia says, looking around, and Jason’s heart hurts. “Is she safe?”

“She’s safe.” He assures, and Vera loops around Fia, over and over again, wanting to help but unsure how. “Vera, get her outside, discreetly.”

Vera, knowing what he’s about to do, starts to lead Fia away. Fia, in too much pain and too out of it, doesn’t notice that he’s not following.

Instead, Jason walks up to the Joker’s corpse. He lays sprawled across the ground, eerily still, obviously dead. Some look like they’re sleeping once they die. Joker’s left eye is a bloody mess and his mouth is wide open in an ugly smile, teeth slighty gaped. His body is contorted to how he fell. He was already deathly pale.

Everything about him screams death. He is very, truly, gone.

He thought he would have wanted to make it hurt. He wanted Dick and Tim and Bruce to suffer, of course he’d want the Joker to suffer. Instead, he’s just relieved it’s over, that he didn’t string it out. It’s over, it’s done with, he’s gone.

Jason digs into his belt, picks out a new addition to his arsenal. He slides it along itself, watches as it catches a flame.

Throws the match onto the body.

Joker’s clothes catch immediately, his flesh and skin following shortly after. Jason watches the body burn for a few seconds more.

(This isn’t the first time Joker’s died. He’ll make sure it sticks, this time.)

A bit of muscle and bone is showing when Jason finally turns around, marching towards the pull of his daemon. He switches comms as he goes, hears Damian and Dick talking about building infanstructure. They’re at the explosion sight, it seems.

He walks out into the cool night, turns the corner. They haven’t gotten far, Vera and Fia. Still, they had relatively hidden here, so it was good enough. “Where’s Bruce?”

“Jay?” Dick asks near immediately. “Where are you? Everything okay-”

“Where’s Bruce?” Jason asks again, spying the nearby cars. He spots one he can hotwire, making his way towards it. “I have Fia, where’s Bruce?”

“You found them?” Dick sounds overjoyed, staunchly ignoring the fact that if Jason found them he must’ve found Joker too. “Alfred’s watching him, at home.”

He figured.

The car is easy to hotwire. He pulls up near Vera and Fia, opening the back door to let them in. Vera sprawls across the back and almost curls around Fia, still unsure how to help. Fia is still bleeding too much dust, is still too quiet. Jason knows that daemons normally go silent during a long death. It’s terrifying. 

He breaks every speeding law to get to the nearest entrance to the batcave, opening it manually even though he knows he shouldn’t bring a foreign car inside. Emergencies, of course. There’s first aid kits here, enough to help, at least. He hopes.

The moment the car stops Vera is up and out, already knowing to go find Bruce and Alfred. Jason exits the car, turns to the back where Fia still waits. “Fia…” He doesn’t want to ask, but he must. “My suit is pretty thick, and we need to move faster. Can I…”

Fia nods before he can finish. “It’s fine.” She says, pushes forward and lays her head on his arm. “Please.”

Jason is very, very careful, placing his arms under her and gently taking the heron into his arms. It’s a bit difficult, but he manages. He was telling the truth, his suit is an amazing buffer between her and him. Still, he gets wifts of pain and fear with each move he makes. Fia croons.

There’s a little medical room, where they store most of the heavy hitting medial supplies. Jason puts Fia down and pulls out a standard med kit. Most medicines used on humans don’t work on daemons, but good old fashion gauze and blood clotters should at least help. “This will hurt.”

Fia snorts, and Jason’s reminded that this is Bruce’s daemon before taking a gauze patch and pressing it against the stab wound. Fia doesn’t so much as flinch, as Jason takes some lines of gauze and wraps it around her wing, holding it in place. Dust is different from blood, but hopefully it’ll keep it all in place, inside her.

Keep her from bleeding out.

There's the sound of very quick footsteps. Chioma appears first, swooping through the door just before Alfred turns the corner. He takes quick stock of everything, face carefully controlled even as Chioma near screeches and dives towards Fia. She lands right next to her heron, presses against her uninjured side and starts chattering in an animal language Jason doesn't know. Alfred lets out a relieved sigh at the sights of her, as Fia near starts crying to Chioma.

Sometimes Jason forgets that Alfred was the only parent Bruce had for a long, long time.

Alfred only takes a moment before hes next to Jason, clapping his shoulder as he pulls out a different medical kit from the back. Its filled of radically different items, and as Alfred puts on thick gloves he realizes that everything inside is for daemons. Oh.

Alfred works with a practiced precision, with experience. He's done this before, of course he has, on Fia in particular. Fia, once again, doesn't make a sound. Chioma stays pressed against her side, crooning softly. Jason watches them, before getting his own first aid kit and dealing with his own stab wound.

There's a grunt, and Bruce appears in the doorway, Tim supporting him. Fia makes a near broken sound at the sight of her human, scrambling to stand. Chioma hoots and puts her weight on her, holds her down. Alfred, who is still tending to her wing, pulls his hands back as if the reaction was predicted.

Bruce does not look good. That's the first thing Jason thinks. His skin is pallid, dark spots deep under his eyes, where the whites have turned near yellow. He seems unable to support himself, which makes sense. His daemon was stabbed. Severed or not, that was excruciating.

There's a crack in Bruce’s blank expression, a quiver of his lips, a widening of his eyes. Jason looks away, feels like he’s invading privacy. Being a part of a moment that didn’t belong to him.

He hears more than sees Bruce stumble forward, hears Fia’s relieved sob moreso than sees it. Tim looks touched, hopeful at least. Vera had not reappeared. Instead, when Jason searched inwardly for her, he felt joy.

Without so much as a word he slips out, makes his way out of the batcave and towards the manor proper. He’s following the pull of his daemon, taking long strides to what he realizes heads towards his old room.

He stops at the open door. Looks inside.

“Jay!”

Some things cannot be fully explained, cannot be put into words. Looking at Isa, healthy and safe in his room, Jason feels emotions that he may never experience again, so strong that he nearly stumbles at the power they hold. He falls to a knee, eyes watering.

Isa was sat on his bed, holding Casta with both arms as the cat rubbed his face against Vera, who laid curled up on the bed as well. She's obviously just gotten out of a bath, hair still wet and dripping. At the sight of him Isa releases her daemon, scrambles off the bed and onto him. She wraps her arms around his neck and the moment he holds her back Isa starts sobbing.

His heart breaks. 

“Jay!” She cries, a mixture between happiness and genuine fear and terror. “I was so scared. It was like with those other bad guys, when we first met, and I-”

She dissolves into incoherent sobs. Casta looks between his human and Vera, before he starts to cry as well.

“I’m sorry, Isa.” He’ll be apologizing to her for the rest of his life. “You’re safe, and he’ll never take you again.”

Jason lets her cry it out, because that’s the least he could do after getting her into this mess.

She falls asleep like that, half an hour later. Jason very carefully tucks her in, looks her over once more for any injuries before taking a step back. Casta purrs as he does so, presses his head against Jason's hand and nearly trills. Vera pulls him back, deposits him next to Isa's neck, where he curls up and sleeps as well.

Jason takes a step back, as does Vera. Isa sleeps peacefully, undisturbed, holding a stuffed animal Jason used to hide under his bed because he thought he was too old for them but had nightmares if it wasn't close enough.

Vera hops off the bed, turns to look at Jason. Sees someone behind him instead. “She's sleeping.”

“I know.” Dick’s voice is warm, soft, fond. “I've been standing here for twenty minutes.”

Oh wow, Jason’s losing his touch. He turns around, sees Dick leaning against the doorway. “Say something then.”

He pushes his way out with Vera, closes the door behind him. Dick tilts his head. “How do you feel?” He asks, and Jason's kind of surprised he's not immediately questioning how Jason got Fia out, where the Joker went.

Jason gives him a look. “How do you expect?”

Dick's face flashes through several emotions. Aella, from her spot perched above, croons.

Then Dick is hugging him, and oh wow he's crying Jason is such a bitch-

An indeterminate amount of time later finds them back in the batcave. He stands leaning against the little enclosed pedestal that normally holds Tim’s Robin outfit. It’s, of course, currently empty. Everyone else is scattered around the area, minus Bruce and Isa, both of which Jason assumes are currently asleep.

His brothers are near the large computer, speaking in low voices. Alfred is bent over something, busy fiddling with a platter of either food or weapons.

Jason waits with his arms crossed. They’ll ask eventually.

Like he assumed Damian makes an irritated sound a minute later, turns to Jason. “Well, Todd?”

Jason won’t make it easy for them. “Well what?”

“Did you kill the clown?”

Jason, currently hoodless, merely raises a single brow. “Your tact could use some work, Dami.”

Damian’s eye twitches, a good sign that he’s about to kill Jason. Bri sits on her haunches and glares at him too.

Tim groans. He doesn’t look too good, paler than normal and a little shaky. Dick stands near him like he expects Tim to faint at any moment. Mona lays curled up on the computer’s console, scratched and bruised. “Jason…”

He coughs, and Jason feels a little bad. “You all already know.” He scoffs, looks away. “Must I spell it out for you?”

The tension in the room goes up a notch. Alfred pauses in his work before continuing on like he hadn't frozen. Aella sticks her head underneath her wing and stays there.

Jason laughs. “There, happy? I don’t know what you expected - newsflash, I haven’t changed, guys. I’m the same I’ve been since I crawled out of that pit. You thought I'd what, let him go after he terrorized Isa? Almost killed Fia? You should know me better.”

Damian rolls his eyes. “Stop your incessant chattering. You are a terrible liar, Todd.”

“What am I lying about?” Jason wants to do something, run, cry, fight, he’s not sure what. Whatever it is, there’s a lump in his chest because of it. “I don’t-”

“You thought any of us believed you wouldn’t gank the guy the first chance you got?” Tim scoffs, crosses his arms with a slight wince. “Jason, we know you, but that other crap about ‘not having changed’ or whatever is such bullshit, and we all know it.”

Dick nods sagely. “He has a point, Jay.”

Now he’s just angry. “Really? And how have I changed?”

“You’re talking to Bruce again, for one.”

God fucking shit, he got him there. “Whatever.”

“Hey.” Jason blinks and suddenly Dick is right in fucking front of him. “It’s okay, Jay. It’s a lot, it’s okay to feel whatever it is you’re feeling right now. Just, don’t try and push us away. It won’t work.”

Tim snorts. “Don’t bother trying. Damian’s got a list of all your safehouses.”

Damian does not refute Tim’s claim. Bri smirks like she’s very much pleased.

Jason brings out the big guns. “And when Bruce wakes up and learns the truth?”

“He stabbed Fia.” Tim’s voice is monotone. “Do you know what he did after what happened to you?”

No, Jason doesn’t. Tim has made vague callbacks to it before. Apparently, Bruce is capable of near murder. And, to be fair to Bruce, nearly anyone would say good riddance to the person who hurt their daemon - it’s just how humans work. “Not in the mood to stick around and find out.”

Except that isa is sleeping upstairs, so he does in fact have to stick around and perhaps find out. Dick also looks like he has no plans on letting him leave.

Jason’s just about to gut check him and run when fucking Bruce appears because of course. “Hey pops. How you feeling?”

Bruce looks like absolute shit, and yet he raises an unimpressed brow like he sees through Jason way too easily. Shit. Shit shit shit.

Dick grabs his arm. Quadruple shit. He can’t escape.

“I’ve had worse.” Bruce says, like a liar would. “We’ll be fine.”

“Good.” Jason says, means it. “You should probably be in bed.”

“No rest for the wicked.” Bruce intones, very obviously out of breath and should be in bed. “Jason…”

Thats when he knows that Bruce knows. He heard. “Don't-”

“Do you feel safer?” Bruce cuts him off and confuses him at the same time, because what is he saying? “Now that he's gone?”

He pauses, considers it for a moment. “…Yes.”

“…Okay then.” Bruce sighs, like the weight of the world is on his shoulders and he's too tired to carry it for any longer. “Just switch back to non-lethal bullets, please?”

Not only is he not getting a lecture, but Bruce is pleading with him? He's been taken to an alternate reality. That's the only reason any of this would make any sense. “Sure. Now go lie down.”

Bruce does not do that. Instead Bruce looks like he might fucking cry, which throws Jason through possibly the biggest loop he's ever had before. If course, Bruce doesn't cry. Instead, he hobbles up to Jason, face a mask of pain, and oh wait he's just hugging him-

Oh my God Bruce is hugging him.

Jason freezes, slowly pats his dad on the back and hugs him back, because he's sure Bruce needs this, needs the reassurance. Bruce pulls back, searches Jason's face for something. Finds or doesn't find it, turns away and hobbles back the way he came.

Jason watches him go, completely gobsmacked.

“Told you.” Tim says after a moment of silence. Jason's too shocked to even flip him off. He's sure that once Bruce has his head set on straight again he'll get a lecture for sure. “Now, someone should catch me.”

Tim lists to the side. Dick yelps and frantically grabs for him. Damian looks unimpressed as Bri jumps to her feet like a skittish cat, diving for Mona like she's afraid they're dying. Tim’s just fainted though, probably hiding some injury that's only now serious after the adrenaline crashed. He's not bleeding though, and Mona doesn't look too good, so maybe it's daemon related.

Vera growls. Aella lands on his shoulder as Dick struggles to maneuver Tim to the nearby couch. 

“We understand.”

Jason looks at Aella, perched on his shoulder. He's reminded, very suddenly, of when he was barely a teenager, sneaking around the manor believing his older brother hated him. Aella was reaching out to him first, just like before. “It's okay to be disappointed with me. I mean, you guys hate killing.”

“Do you think we are so rigid? Us?” Aella chirps, laughs. “Do you believe that we did not try the same thing, when we had learned what happened to you?”

Well that- well he means- you know what- 

Yeah he has no response to that what?

The daemon chortles even as Vera makes a very unbecoming noise. “We would all be hypocritical if we lectured you, Jason. The only difference between you and us is that you succeeded.”

She chirps one last time, presses her beak against his cheek, and then flies back to Dick. And, just like so many years ago, she somehow soothes worries Jason doesn't even know he has, lets him feel loved.

(He makes a mental note of the fact that yes, Dick would even excuse murder if he's the one doing it.)

Then Damian comes up to him, asks, “Where did you ever find Dr. Ilnova?” And before Jason can answer Alfred, still busy with his platter, flails and spins around, says, “Dr. Ilnova? Maria Ilnova?” And that's when Jason learns that Alfred had been getting his advice on how to deal with Fia and Bruce from Ilnova and that the man definitely had a crush on her.

And that's when Jason decides to call it a night.