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When Jason first got back to Gotham and put that bomb under the Batmobile, he came this close to changing his mind, to let all the effort he spent crawling under the chassis of that monster of a car go to waste. His fingers clenched and his fists shook and he almost threw the remote far away from him the minute he saw Batman emerging from the shadows. But, in the end, he didn't. And he thanked his lucky stars he hadn’t smashed that control to bits the moment he decided Bruce wasn’t dying tonight.
Now, that was mainly because Joker was out of Arkham (again) and Batman and his new Robin were on the case (again). The new Dynamic Duo had just arrested him and locked him in the cage in the back of the car and...well, Jason was only human, but he recognized the signs of a heaven sent gift. He saw the perfect opportunity and took it. How could he possibly refuse this? Not only would the bomb get rid of that pest , it would also scare the cuckoo birdie to high heaven and it would drive Batman crazy . He would obsess over the bomb and how it bypassed his security, how he didn't notice anything amiss, how vulnerable his system was, how it could have ended his and his little cuckoo’s lives…but mostly, he would wonder, forever (or until Jason revealed himself) , who had done it.
He needed to create a quick distraction on their way out of the city. Jason knew the route they would take like the palm of his hand, so it wasn’t difficult to steal a bike and surpass them, to gather supplies. His info on the comings and goings of the city might not be up to par with the Bats, but he had done his homework and read up about it on his way here. And he knew exactly which happy trigger thugs were gonna help him kill the clown.
A couple of quick blown up Molotov cocktails in between those gang territories and the goons were going at it with gusto. Batman, being the meddling nosy bastard he is, had to leave the car to minimize loss of life. But he also left cuckoo-Robin behind. So Jason needed to up his game. He did this by throwing a Molotov filled with sand and dish soap directly at the Bat, so that it clung to whatever material the new uniforms were made of.
Of course, Robin immediately jumped to his aid. The only reason he didn't barbecue the cuckoo bird too was that he wanted all the attention to be on the clown's death, and nothing else, the cuckoo-Robin was just so lucky tonight. .
“One way ticket to Hell, coming right up.” As soon as the kid was out of range Jason activated the bomb. “Rest in pieces but never in peace.”
The Batmobile went flying sky high and the charred clown's body was expelled from the windows (as in, from several windows because the corpse was in several parts) to complete and utter silence. The whole city went deadly quiet for a whole minute. He could practically feel the disbelief everyone exuded when that fuckers head (green hair unmistakable) went thud-thud-roll until it stopped at Batman’s left boot. Not even in his dreams the outcome could have been better, it was like it had been rehearsed or some shit.
Jason had to stay very still and very silent, swallowing up his laughter at the two heros’ faces. Then the ambulances came and the chaos re-started. Jason bolted from the apartment window he had been waiting on and onto his bike and lost himself in the crowd trying to flee the scene as to not be next (ah, gotta love the old Gotham’s instinct to go to ground and mind your own business when the Bat was on the scene and causing explosions) to one of his safe houses.
He had had four he was sure no one knew about, having set them up as an exercise in stealth and backup plans, and this was the nearest and most complete one. He plugged the ancient computer there and linked it to several proxy servers to make sure it couldn’t be traced back to this address (at least not that quickly). Reaching into his jacket, pulled several credit cards he had ‘liberated’ from assholes since he had landed in Gotham (it was instinct, alright? It’s not like any of them will actually miss the money that much) and he bought half a dozen suspicious plane tickets to several destinations for that night. Still, he cleaned up every trace of Bat related stuff in the apartment, leaving it looking like a normal space instead of a husk, just in case. By then, it was already mid morning, so he left for another one of his safe houses. He hunkered down there and sneaked his way out of Gotham into Bludhaven three days later. From there he took a train to New York, mingling with a bunch of college students. From New York he flew to England, on the periphery of a similar-looking family. Once in England he slept for almost a day and then took another plane to Nepal and then, finally , managed to get to Nanda Parbat. And to Talia.
Much to his surprise, he had managed to impress her. Ra's too, although the old goat wouldn’t admit it (still, Jason could feel the assessing looks the man threw his way; it always made the hair on his neck stand up). As a reward for killing Batman's ‘greatest enemy’ right under his nose and getting away with it, he got to choose his training and teachers within the League of Shadows and outside of it.
But best of all, he got introduced to Damian and became an older brother. His murder tour went way better with a little brother to impress. He took more breaks to be able to play with his baby brother and teach him some things here and there. Damian was an entitled little shit, but had a soft soul that he showed only to those he loved (and to animals, he just loved animals) and Jason quickly became one of those. He cherished the time spent with his new little family, and after every monstrous teacher he got rid of, he could rest and recover with them.
Without the menacing shadow of his murderer closing in on him and the knowledge that even without his father’s love he still has worth, his time in the All-Caste was much more healing. His favorite memory turns out to be the first time he woke up from a nightmare in the middle of the night to Talia singing a lullaby in Arabic and Damian on his chest, hugging him with his stuffed lion in the middle.
Life was good.