Work Text:
As far as even number robins go, Stephanie was doing pretty good so far. The getting kidnapped and murdered thing will suck but she’s pretty sure it won’t happen today. See Robins get kidnapped often and while Steph avoided it pretty well she’d made some serious enemies when she beat the shit outta Victor Zsasz. So, she did what any good little Robin does and took the beating of a lifetime, for 3 days.
Roman Sionis, or as he liked to be called, The Black Mask seemed to have taken a personal grievance with her habit of absolutely destroying bad guys. She’d met him once when she was little, some business of her parents, and while he didn’t remember her she still knew what his face looked like under that mask. The look in his eyes as he killed her parents after a deal went wrong. She ran that night, right into Batman and Robin.
But not Tim, see Tim came after. Jason was her robin, her light in the sky that shone alongside Batman’s darkness. Not Dick and not Tim (even though they were both great), it was Jason that was her beacon to heroism. The reason she donned the purples and flew through the sky. He was however also the reason she almost drowned in her own sobs when Bruce took her into his arms and told her what the Joker had done.
She made Bruce tell her every detail, she was trying to find a reason it had happened. When she couldn’t she left. Went around the world learning all she could, in a very Bruce-like way. When she came back, Timothy Drake was Robin, and, while she was upset that Jason was replaced, she couldn’t help but agree the kid was good. She trained more with Bruce, worked with Leslie, And Barbara, and Dick. But, even with all that training and a Robin suit, None of it seemed to be helping currently.
Currently, the Black Mask had taken to breaking her arms in multiple places with a hammer. Drugged out of her mind with something she wasn't immune to, possibly a concoction of different drugs. Stephanie could do nothing but stop the screams of pain that continued to threaten some sort of sick satisfaction for Roman. Her only thought was ‘Is this how Jason felt, wishing and praying that Bruce would save him?’
When Jason died it was gruesome, and it was bloody. The thing he remembers most is the feeling of leaving everyone behind. The only thing he wanted was to go back to Alfie, Bruce, and Dick. He wanted to graduate and become something more than Robin, the way Dick had. He wanted to make B proud, he wanted his dad to be proud of him. He wanted to make more friends and get back to the ones waiting for him. He wanted Stephanie to know how he felt.
He screamed for Superman until he tasted blood in his mouth, and then screamed more. He tried to open the door but his arms were tied. He tried to get his mother to come back, but he was sure the Joker had already killed her.
When Jason lived it was gruesome, and he bathed his ledger in blood. When he returned to Gotham he found he’d been replaced, twice. He had no idea where Stephanie was, he knew Bruce wouldn’t accept his murdering habits, and big brother Dick was rumored to work with the new Robins often. So what if his brother just hated him and not the others he would find these new Robins and give them a lesson in stealing what was his.
“Word is Roman’s got a pretty little bird upstairs,” Jason's voice was already deep, filter it through his helmet and he could scare anything. Sionis’s lackeys led the Red Hood through the building. When he got to the top floor Sionis met him.
“What brings the Red hood all the way out here?” Roman boasted prior to a bullet carving a hole through his skull. The guards followed quickly, as well as anyone else on the floor.
“My, My what a pretty little bird, and all tied up too.” Jason cooed out. When he turned the light her face finally came into view. “Stephanie?” Jason was thoroughly confused now as not a single person decided to mention that the newest Robin was a blonde or a girl. He made quick work of the ropes and carried her beaten and broken body down to the Thompkins clinic.
When Stephanie woke up Bruce was there. He’d been crying, and so had Alfie. She was on strict bed rest for a while and when she asked what happened,
“You don’t remember? Leslie found you unconscious outside and said she figured you’d walked there and passed out from pain or injuries.” Dick replied, he was staying until she could walk on her own.
“No, Babs I still don’t remember anything other than passing out after dinner and waking up in the clinic,” Steph said over the phone. This was of course almost a complete lie. She hadn't even been knocked out after dinner, just paralyzed. She remembered all 3 days of intense torture, and then a kind voice and a warm jacket wrapped around her. She thinks she must have died for a few moments because, and she understands she’s insane but, she swore she saw Jason. The warm way he would smile and hold her in his arms is all she remembers after torture and before waking up in the clinic.
She goes to the place she was held immediately after she’s released from bed rest, more like prison, to go ‘shopping’ by herself. Of course, it’s been 2 months and everything was cleaned away but, it was worth a shot.
Batman, Oracle, and Nightwing were busy with a new player in town, The pink…panther? Steph really should have listened more closely. The blue...box? Tim was in Kansas visiting Kon, and all her other superfriends were also otherwise occupied, The green....goblin? , which meant Stephanie wasn’t being stalked by any of them. But, someone was indeed following her. When she turned the corner she blended into the shadows and waited until he too turned then, she slammed him into the brick wall.
“The Red Hood! I knew It’d come back to me. Now, ” she pressed into the back of the massive dude who’d been stalking her, “Who are you? Why are you following me?”
“Come on now love, this hurts.” Stephanie shoved him into the wall a little harder. “Ok, ok! You wanna know who I am turn me around and all will become apparent.” Stalker dude mocked.
Stephanie swung him around flicking out her pocket knife only to find “Jason? Y…..yo…you … you died. What? How?” Stephanie was quickly approaching into a panic attack at the sight of the boy, now a man, who was supposed to be dead.
"Come on breathe with me darlin’ it’s ok, just breathe love.” Jason worked on calming her down and then told her everything.
Waking up in a coffin, the Lazarus pit, training around the world. He tried not to leave anything out. Finally, he told her about pulling her out of death’s clutch. He told her she had died, but the vial of Lazarus water had brought her back to him. Her injuries weren’t healed all the way, but it did make her recovery period swifter.
In turn, Stephanie told him everything that had happened when he was gone. He’d been assured Tim wasn’t Jason’s replacement. He’d been assured that Bruce did everything he could and in fact had felt the heat of the explosion he was so close. He’d been told that Superman was off planet and had returned in time to stop Bruce from killing the Joker.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Jason spoke softly a few weeks later as they were heading towards the manor. The batfam hadn’t heard anything of the Hood in a while, he’d stopped killing as much and as publicly, so a family dinner was in order. Stephanie had already told Alfred and had started subtly asking questions about the pit around Bruce. So here they were a pie in hand and ready to run, just in case.
“Nonsense,” Steph said in an Alfred-y voice ”It shall be fine Master Jason.” then she rang the doorbell and insanity ensued.
After hugging, crying, yelling, and blood tests. Everyone sat down with happy tears of the wayward son returning.
That night for patrol Jason had a batsymbol and rubber bullets. The Red Hood and Robin dominated at rooftop tag and beating the shit out bad guys, much to Nightwing and Batman’s dismay. At some point after patrol when the others had gone to rest and Stephanie was stealing Jason’s fries and leaning on him, he lets it slip out that he’s still in love with her. When she sits up he freezes expecting literally anything other than the kiss she plants on his cheek.
“Took ya long enough handsome,” Steph says, and in a move of total audacity, she stills a chicken tender and runs.
In the chasm of power that was left in the wake of Black mask’s death, another would rise. One hell-bent on sharpening his talons.