Chapter Text
As soon as Jason step foot in his apartment his phone went off. When he saw Barbara’s name flash across the screen, he rolled his eyes. She and the rest of the Bats knew he just was out from a two-week mission with the Outlaws. Jason’s usual routine after coming back was passing out for at least twelve hours. His family respected his need to rest and take time to adjust his mindset from Outlaw Jason to Bat Jason.
Barbara better have a good reason for calling him. She must have been tracking his movements and she knew he hated when she did that. He braced himself for whatever catastrophe was hitting Gotham now.
“Hey Babs,” Jason said as he put his phone on speaker. He tossed his stuff on his bed and started to gear up, he had a feeling Red Hood would be out tonight. “This better be important. I had a very important date with my bed.”
“I need you at the manor now. I have no time for you little quips, it’s an emergency Jason.” Her voice sounded defeated. “Everyone’s down, if I didn’t see you were back, I was going to reach out to the League.”
“What the hell happened while I was gone? Where’s Alfred, why didn’t he call me if it was this bad,” he practically yelled. Jason was suited up and connected his phone to his com line in his helmet. He was on his bike headed to the manor, noticing that he wasn’t hitting any red lights (not that would stop him). It must have been Barbara’s doing, he almost didn’t want to go, afraid to face what awaited him.
“I told you. Everyone is down, just meet me in the Cave. I’ll explain everything there.”
Jason disconnected the line and urged his bike to go faster. By the time he arrived in the Cave’s tunnels and parked his bike, he was close to losing it. Why was Alfred hurt, what could have attacked his family and make them seek help outside of Gotham?
What he saw in front of him halted all his thoughts. Barbara was stroking the head of Tim, who looked sound asleep. All of them looked sound asleep. His family were all laying on beds side by side, hooked with IV’s and what looked brain monitors.
As he got closer, he noticed how pale and sickly Tim truly looked compared to everyone else. He looked thinner too. Bruce and Dick looked paler than usual, but it wasn’t as apparent as the second youngest. Only Damian and Alfred looked normal, he was grateful for that. He didn’t know if he could handle it if Alfred looked sick too.
“What going on?” Jason felt himself whisper, walking to the side of Alfred’s bed. He held the older man’s hand, and it was cold. He wanted to throw up.
Barbara finally looked up from Tim and took a breath. “A week ago, a new player came to town, messing around in your territory. Tim decided to take him on himself, he was doing double duty. He would make sure check in on your patrol route because he knew you’d be out of town.”
She rolled to the Batcomputer, where his families brain activity was displayed. “The guy was a magic user and put him under some sort of spell. Bruce caught him and the guy said Tim needed to find a wake up on his own. When Tim didn’t wake up the next day, Bruce hooked him up to monitor him and had the bright idea to connect himself to Tim. Dick joined him and as you can see, they weren’t successful.
He thought Bruce’s experience in mind-based attacks would help him against this kind of thing. Apparently not.
“I was getting information on how to break them out of the spell when your impatient little brother decided to go in on his own. I think Alfred decided to go in as his back up, but it was too late for me to tell them how to leave.”
She put a couple things in her lap and rolled back over to the beds. She stopped at an empty one, Jason was assuming this would be for him.
“You gonna tell me how to wake them up?” Jason asked as he laid on the bed. He saw that she had padded wires with her, he was assuming that would connect him to the other so he could enter the dream. The other item sitting in her lap was a bit surprising.
It was a gun.
Barbara followed his gaze to the object in her lap. She held it up, showing him a display on the side. “This is connected to same monitors I have hooked up to all of you. In the dream it will act like a gunshot, essentially it will kill them and you. I’m hopeful the shot will he able to shock their brains enough to trigger them to wake up.”
She placed the gun in his hand. “To wake up from the dream, you’ll have to kill everyone.”
Jason felt his heart clench. Even if it was a fake world, this would be hard to do.
“Are you sure?” Jason almost pleaded, he couldn’t imagine killing Alfred even in his nightmares.
Barbara looked pained as she answered, “Yes, and you need to do it fast. Tim’s been getting worse every day. Another day stuck in there and we’ll need to take him to a hospital.”
Jason nodded and closed his eyes. He no choice, he had to go kill his family.