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The first thing that registers in Bruce’s mind is the giant glowing portal in the middle of his living room. The second thing that registers is that Jason is standing dangerously close to it, observing it like it’s not a danger that Bruce very much wants to drag him from.
“Huh,” Jason utters, still doing absolutely nothing to remove himself from the situation.
“Jason,” Bruce calls out, wary and definitely not in a panic. “Step away from the portal.”
Predictably, as he tends to do nowadays, Jason does not follow his order to step away from the portal. “It’s fine, old man,” he says instead. “I’ve been looking at this thing for at least five minutes before you showed up. It hasn’t killed me yet.”
Bruce misses when his words meant something to his children.
“Yet,” Bruce stresses. And then he tries again, this time with niceties. “Jason, please step out of the way of the portal.”
“It’s safe,” Jason says. “Probably.”
And then, as if that’s the cue for the portal to do something, the glow intensifies for a moment, brightening to nearly blind Bruce.
Bruce lunges forward, grasps cloth, and yanks Jason back from the increasingly dangerous portal that he should definitely have called off-limits the moment he saw it and Jason together. His vision comes back with black spots, and he blinks repeatedly to get rid of them.
“Bruce?” Jason’s voice asks incredulously.
“I know you don’t like me touching you, but this is an emergency, and I need you to go call Dick or Tim right now,” Bruce starts to ramble, glancing at Jason.
Jason’s expression is confused, and he’s staring at Bruce like he’s never seen him before. “What?”
“Uh, old man, I’m over here.”
Two sets of voices sounding distinctly like Jason has Bruce looking at the person he’s grabbed a hold of and then at the Jason still standing by the portal. For a moment, he’s silent. Then he lets go of the Jason near him and steps away.
Both Jasons turn to look at each other.
Bruce thinks he should get some more sleep. Hallucinations aren’t uncommon from Fear Toxin or Ivy’s pollen, but it’s the first time for Bruce that he’s seeing two Jasons.
The Jason nearer to him, the one he grabbed in the light of the glowing portal, is wearing a leather jacket with a red hood. The armor he’s wearing underneath it is painted almost sloppily with a red Bat symbol, and while Bruce might feel touched that Jason’s feeling some kind of kinship with the family again, he’s also aware that Jason has not touched vigilantism in a while.
“The fuck are you?” Red Bat spits out at the Jason standing next to the portal. “Why is Bruce here? And—and is this the Manor?”
Jason—Bruce’s Jason, looks unimpressed at the questions. “I’m you, apparently,” he says almost calmly. He does a once-over on Red Bat. “Is that our getup for being a vigilante? What name did you choose?”
“Red Hood,” Red Bat—Red Hood responds. “Answer my fucking questions, clone.”
“Language,” Bruce says faintly.
“Shut the fuck up, Bruce. If you’re gonna try to parent me, maybe don’t fucking blow yourself up after telling me that we can fix shit together.”
“He what?” Jason asks with furrowed eyebrows.
There’s too much to unpack in Red Hood’s words, and Bruce is debating on believing that this is all just a hallucinogenic dream. It might be better for his sanity.
“Questions, clone,” Red Hood snarls. His hand inches further towards the guns he has holstered at his side. “Before I decide to shoot you.”
“Alternate universe,” Jason says then. “I’m you, or at least a version of you. I don’t know why your—your Bruce blew himself up, but he didn’t here.” He stumbles over Bruce’s name, but he says it.
Bruce thinks he should celebrate, even if the name isn’t directed towards him and more towards an alternate version of himself. He will not be jealous of himself.
Red Hood’s head swivels between the two of them. “Huh,” he says in a very familiar tone and vague interest that Bruce had stumbled upon in the first place. “You didn’t—He didn’t—You made it in time?”
“In time for what?” Bruce asks.
“The City of Fear,” Red Hood says, and both Bruce and Jason still at those words. “Oh, I know it happened here then. But you managed to… To stop him from unmasking Bruce?” His words are vulnerable and guilty.
“Unmasking?” Jason repeats incredulously. “You mean Scarecrow actually managed to win?”
Red Hood doesn’t respond to that, but his silence answers the question.
And that puts things fully into perspective for Bruce. He understands what Red Hood means by the other him blowing himself up now, even if he wishes the man didn’t feel guilty about it.
“No,” Jason says, and his voice is vehement. “No. I bailed on the City of Fear. Not that it did a lot of good considering they just moved up the timetable, but I didn’t—Scarecrow never did anything close to that.”
“Oh.” The blank way Red Hood says that single word has Bruce already wanting to give this version of his son a hug.
“I’m sure he doesn’t blame you,” Bruce offers gently and cautiously. “There’s always been a protocol in place for a situation where I’ve been unmasked.”
“You mean blowing yourself up apparently?” Jason asks sarcastically, and there’s a hint of outrage that Bruce is familiar with now. The type of outrage that Jason gets when he doesn’t want to think about certain things and is blaming himself.
“It’s called Knightfall,” Bruce says, wincing as both Jason and Red Hood shoot him scathing looks. “In the event that my identity is compromised, I’ll wipe out any traces of Batman to protect everyone else.”
“You blew up the Manor,” Red Hood accuses quietly at first before his voice raises. “And you took Alfred!”
“He did what,” Jason says.
Bruce thinks there’s a lot of betrayal in Jason’s voice for someone who isn’t even part of the other universe.
“He took Alfred!” Red Hood repeats himself to Jason, and the two are looking a little too buddy-buddy for Bruce’s liking.
“I never did that,” Bruce stresses, rapidly making the decision to distance himself from his alternate self. “Alfred is here, and he’s safe, remember?”
“His Alfred isn’t,” Jason says, scandalized. “I can’t believe you—alternate you. You. Whatever. It’s still your fault.”
Red Hood nods in agreement. “Hear, hear.”
“Can we address the main point again?” Bruce asks in exasperation. “The portal is still here.”
And glowing. Dangerously so. It’s actually starting to flare up again. And so, Bruce’s eyes are treated to another flashbang because he makes the mistake of not closing his eyes again.
“Ow, what—Grayson, let me go! I’m not even your Jason!”
If those words don’t tell Bruce what’s going on, the sight of a fully armored Nightwing standing in the middle of his living room will. The vigilante from the other universe is gripping Jason’s arm tightly, and his expression is in slight shock as his eyes roam the room.
“Bruce?” Nightwing asks, voice strangled.
“Not again,” Bruce says, bringing a hand up to rub at his face.
Red Hood snorts in what is very clearly amusement.
“Let me go,” Jason demands, stomping on Nightwing’s armored foot but doing nothing to the vigilante.
Nightwing’s eyes go from Jason to Red Hood and back again. “Someone wanna explain to me what’s going on?”
“Alternate universe,” Jason grunts. “Now let me fucking go, you goddamn dick.”
“I heard my name!” Dick Grayson bursts into the room with a cheerful and elated smile. “Jason, you finally said it!” Then he stops short as he takes in the room. “Uh.”
Nightwing looks at Dick. “Yeah, what other me said.” He still doesn’t let go of Jason.
“Let him go, Nightwing,” Red Hood tells the other vigilante to which Nightwing shoots a frown at him and very much does not let Jason go.
“Dick, why are you here?” Bruce asks as a headache begins in his temples.
Two sets of voices begin to answer, and Bruce has to raise a hand to stop both Dick and Nightwing.
He points first at Dick. “Go.”
“I got a text from Jason,” Dick says, bringing his phone up to wiggle it at them. “Said something about a portal and an alternate version of him and that you needed help? Tim’s on his way, but I got here first.”
Bruce then points at Nightwing. “Nightwing.”
“I feel like this is kindergarten,” Red Hood mutters.
“Is someone gonna make him let go of me, or am I gonna have to do it myself?” Jason hisses.
“Giant glowing portal on a rooftop,” Nightwing says before he turns to Red Hood. “O mentioned that you disappeared off camera near it.”
“So you followed me right into it,” Red Hood states flatly. “Genius.”
Jason seems to finally be fed up with his situation because he twists and then suddenly there’s a loud thud and Nightwing is on the floor. “I told you to let me go.”
“I was going to let you go soon,” Nightwing tells him, getting up and wincing.
Dick looks at the two of them. “Jay, you’d never do that to me, right?”
Jason gives him a murderous look.
“Serves you right,” Red Hood says with pleasure as he gives Nightwing a smug look.
“Is Drake coming through next?” Jason asks, looking utterly done with everything. “Because as much as I can tolerate him now, two of him is pushing the limit and I might just kill one of them.”
And of course, this is the very moment that Tim walks in. He stops, looks around the room for a few seconds, and then turns to walk right back out. “Nope,” his voice travels back to them faintly. “Not dealing with this. Not today.”
“Coward,” Jason mutters.
Dick tries to smile at their counterparts. “So, how’s life on your side of the universe?”
“They’re from a different universe altogether,” Bruce corrects him. “One where the City of Fear unmasked me, and I… Alternate me enacted Knightfall Protocol to protect his family.”
Nightwing scowls. “You’re a dick, Bruce. And I’m the one saying that.”
“Wow, okay,” Dick says with a weird look. “When I’m on the other end, it doesn’t sound quite as funny.”
Bruce just sighs. He kind of wants to do what Tim had and just walk away. But unfortunately, he’s supposed to be mature about this because it’s becoming clear that his children are unable to.
“Cave?” he asks tiredly.
Nightwing and Red Hood glance at each other before they both nod.
“Cave,” Nightwing agrees.
“Wow,” Dick says once Red Hood and Nightwing’s recollection of their version of the City of Fear has finished. He glances at Jason, who’s glaring a hole into the table. “Guess what happened that night wasn’t that bad for us, after all.”
“Why?” Red Hood asks, snapping his head to Dick and then to Jason and Bruce. “What happened for you? You said you bailed, but what does that even mean?”
Dick looks at Bruce in clear askance.
Bruce clears his throat for a moment. Remembering that night isn’t exactly something he likes to do, but considering the need, he should take charge of the summary. “The City of Fear for us didn’t happen on Halloween.”
“What? But it was planned for Halloween,” Red Hood says, alarmed, and Nightwing scowls at him for it.
“Jason—well, our Jason—he defected from the operation well before it was ever ready.”
This time, both Red Hood and Nightwing stare at Jason.
“I shot Deathstroke in the back,” Jason says flatly. “I say defected is a mild word for it. And then I came back to the Manor. The idiots kicked off the City of Fear because they thought I blabbed to these guys about the op. Some things happened, city got saved, and here we are.”
“That is a very sanitized version of what happened,” Dick remarks, wincing slightly before a weak smile appears on his face. “But that is essentially what happened for us.”
“And you’re all…” Nightwing gestures between the three of them with a mix of odd hand movements and a vague expression. “Fine being together?”
“No,” Jason says.
At the same time, Dick says loudly, as if to cover up Jason’s denial, “Yes!”
“We’re working on it,” is Bruce’s answer when the two vigilantes from another universe turn to him.
“I don’t like this universe,” Red Hood says faintly, staring at his counterpart in slight disgust and horror.
“Me, too,” Jason agrees.
“Jay, this is your own universe,” Dick reminds him.
“I said what I said.”
As his sons bicker, which is becoming an increasingly normal sight now, Bruce notices that Nightwing is watching the two of them with an almost envious expression. He quietly slips nearer to the other version of his son.
“You and your Jason aren’t on good terms?” Bruce asks, voice lowered.
Nightwing smiles tightly. “I didn’t even know Hood was Jason until a few months ago,” he admits. “When we first met after the City of Fear, I yelled at him. Said some not-so-nice things. We fought. Then one day, he just shows up at my door, bleeding and hurt. I saved him because I couldn’t let him die, even if he was the cause of… Then it turns out that he’s Jason, and by that point, it was too late. It hurts a little to see that we could’ve been, well, like that.”
Bruce considers this new information for a moment. “They didn’t have an easy time of it that night either,” he finally settles on saying. “There were things said that weren’t nice from what I hear. Dick and Tim essentially gave up on Jason at some point apparently.”
“Apparently?” Nightwing repeats with a frown. He looks at Bruce in question. “You make it sound like you weren’t there for it.”
“I… I essentially wasn’t,” Bruce admits.
“Okay, now what does that mean?” Red Hood asks, and Bruce jolts a little, having not realized that the other man has been quietly listening in.
“Joker,” Bruce says, struggling to bring up the subject.
Red Hood tenses. “He’s not dead here?”
“He’s dead,” Jason interjects stiffly before his lips curl into that familiar derisive smile. “I made personally sure four different times. But the last… The old man here succumbed to the Joker blood in his veins for a bit. Brought Joker back.”
“There’s four different versions of Joker in this universe?” Nightwing asks incredulously.
“No,” Dick answers grimly. “One Joker. Five victims infected with his blood which eventually mutated them into Joker. The original Joker died during the Arkham City incident. Jason killed four of the victims, but Bruce managed to fight him off.”
“Eventually,” Jason mutters.
“Jason,” Bruce starts before trailing off.
“Save it, old man. I didn’t kill you, and you didn’t kill me. We’re even.”
“You know, Nightwing,” Red Hood says, “I really, really don’t like this universe.”
Jason laughs bitterly. “Yeah. Me, too.”
“Sorry,” is what greets them when they make it back upstairs into the kitchen. Tim, in Robin gear, is seated at the kitchen island, snacking on some chips. “Your Tim went to go have a mental breakdown in his room.”
“Why?” Bruce asks slowly and wearily.
“He’s not married yet,” Robin says, oblivious to the way that Jason and Dick have stiffened right next to Bruce.
“Yeah, dumbass,” Red Hood snarks. “This universe is a little behind ours on timelines.”
“Oh.”
“Jay,” Dick starts, drawing out the nickname.
“No.” Jason’s shutdown is swift and short.
“It’ll be embarrassing.”
“For me?”
“For Tim.”
Jason seems to consider that. “Fine,” he agrees reluctantly, heaving a sigh. “But no clowns.”
“Never,” Dick vows, and the two of them make their way out of the kitchen.
“Uh,” Robin says with a mildly concerned look on his face. “Is that normal?”
“Here, it is,” Nightwing tells him, a wistful tone in his voice.
“It’s disgusting,” Red Hood comments.
“I think it’s nice,” Nightwing counters, and he looks at Robin and Red Hood with a slight plea in his expression.
“No,” both of them chorus.
“Not to interrupt, but is that portal still there?” Bruce cuts in. “And are you going to be able to go back to your own universe through it?”
“Oh, yeah,” Robin confirms, taking Bruce’s presence into stride. “That’s why I came over here actually. Oracle called up this new vigilante called Zatanna to see if the portal was anything dangerous. Far as she can figure, our universes did a little scrape-by. Think extremely minor earthquake. Happens all the time apparently. Portals usually don’t appear though. The point is that we can just hop through the portal again to get back to our universe. It’ll close up in like an hour or two.
“We’ve already set up a perimeter on our end to make sure no one enters. And well, considering this side has set itself up in the Manor, it doesn’t seem like we’ll get anymore cross-universe visitors on either side.”
“Good,” Red Hood mutters. “Sick of this universe already.”
“Wait,” Nightwing says then. “Gimme ten minutes, and we can leave.”
“Do whatever you want. I’m leaving. See ya, assholes.” He nods at each of them before shooting a dark look at Bruce. “Fuck you, Bruce. Blowing up the Manor and stealing Alfred. Go to hell.”
“Not me,” Bruce says automatically.
Red Hood doesn’t bother to respond, leaving for the portal.
Robin flattens his chip bag and tosses it into the trash. “Right. So now that we’re done here, I’m going to follow Hood. It was nice seeing you, Bruce, even if it was only for like five minutes. Tell my alternate that I’m sorry and that Barb would rather jade than diamonds.”
And then Robin follows after Red Hood, embodying the whirlwind of emotions that Bruce has experienced through this entire event.
Bruce still isn’t quite convinced that this isn’t just some weird hallucinogenic thing. Or a dream. Or both.
Nightwing has disappeared by now, which doesn’t help Bruce’s slight delusion.
He sighs, wonders how this is his life, and then takes a seat to contemplate existence.
Dick bursts into the kitchen, wild-eyed and panicked. He also looks like a ball of murderous energy, reminiscent of the first time Bruce had met him after the murders of his parents. “Jason’s been kidnapped!” he yells.
Bruce’s mind blanks.
Then, before Bruce can spiral, Dick continues with wild rage. “And it was me—Nightwing—that other guy that did it!”
“What?”
Dick seethes. “That bastard stole Jason from us. I can’t believe I’ve been betrayed by myself.”
Bruce stares at him and contemplates going to bed.
“Put that thing back,” Red Hood demands.
“Calling yourself a ‘thing’ is indicative of your self-worth, Hood,” Robin points out dryly.
“Fuck off, Robin. That’s not me so I can call him whatever I want.”
“No,” Nightwing refuses, clinging to Jason, who has half-a-mind to judo flip the vigilante once more. “You can’t make me.”
“You have a Jason right here,” Robin says, gesturing at Red Hood who snarls.
“Touch me, and you’ll be getting a bullet between the eyes.”
“This Jason is nicer,” Nightwing says.
“I almost killed you in my universe,” Jason remarks mildly, just to see what the reaction is.
Red Hood snorts and grins in what might be approval. Robin shifts uncomfortably. Nightwing doesn’t even blink.
“Sibling bonding can be quite violent sometimes,” Nightwing says calmly. “Why, sometimes, I like to think about hitting a certain person over the head because of some things.”
Robin awkwardly shuffles some more. “Anyways,” he says, clearing his throat, “Nightwing, you know he can’t stay in our universe. Our counterparts are probably worried sick about him considering how different his universe is from ours.”
“I say we leave him over there,” Tim says as he watches Dick and Bruce suit up.
“But he doesn’t even like his universe,” Nightwing protests. “I’ll treat him nicely and much better than the me over there.”
“Am I a dog?” Jason asks flatly.
“Put that thing back where you got him,” Red Hood says again. “There’s only one Jason in this universe, and that’s me.”
“We could trade,” Nightwing suggests, looking a little too considering for Jason’s tastes. “There’s still enough time.”
“No,” Robin says then. “Absolutely not. It’s weird enough that this has happened. I’m not swapping Jasons. That’ll probably mess up the space-time continuum or something equally as bad.”
“I’m not thanking you,” Red Hood tells him.
“Do I even get a say in this?” Jason asks.
“No,” Nightwing replies and clings to him tighter.
The familiar sound of a swishing cape has all of them tensing before Jason spots the new intruder—Batman, or at least this universe’s Batman.
“Oh,” Red Hood says bitterly, “now you show up. Couldn’t do that before, huh?”
Nightwing’s grip on Jason tightens. “Batman,” he greets with clear forceful neutrality.
Jason’s eyes trail from each of the tense vigilantes to the Batman standing opposite of them, who does a visible second take upon seeing Jason in the middle of them all.
“Your trackers disappeared,” Batman says. “I was…worried.”
“We’re fine here,” Nightwing replies tightly.
Batman looks behind them at the glowing portal. “And the…portal? And someone who appears to be another Jason?”
“Go back to retirement, Batman,” Red Hood spits. “We don’t need your presence here.”
Robin looks between all of them before he sighs. “Batman, this is a Jason from a different universe. We were just about to release him back to his universe.”
“First you call me a thing and now you’re treating me like a wild animal,” Jason comments dryly and unamused.
“If the label fits,” Robin says with a shrug.
Jason contemplates breaking free from Nightwing and going after Robin. It makes sense that every version of Tim Drake would piss him off. Must be a universal constant or something.
“Nightwing, your pet is contemplating murder.”
Jason lunges at him, only to be caught by Batman. “Fucking let me go, Batman! You don’t need him. If he dies, I’ll just give you my universe’s Drake.”
“No,” Batman says.
“It’ll be like he never died,” Jason reasons rather practically in his opinion. “You still have Drake, and my universe will be rid of him. It’s a win-win scenario for the both of us.”
“No.”
Before any of them can cross the portal in an effort to save Jason from the clutches of their counterparts, Jason is shoved through.
Robin steps through right after and gives them a small wave. “Hi. Sorry for what happened. Nightwing is undergoing some strict punishment. Promise that this won’t happen again. Sorry again for the trouble.” Then he’s gone, back through the portal.
“Your counterpart is an asshole, and not for the whole taking Alfred with him thing,” Jason informs Bruce. “He didn’t even want our Drake.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Tim asks, staring at him.
“I offered to take care of their Drake,” Jason says, looking disdainfully at Tim. “And then replace him with ours. But Batman refused because apparently, they have a quota for him or something.”
“Okay, now I know you’re just making shit up.”
Bruce sighs in relief. “Stay away from glowing portals next time, Jason. I don’t think I can handle something like this again.”
“No promises,” Jason says. “Maybe the next one will agree to my deal.”
“I knew we should’ve just left you over there,” Tim mutters.
“I still say we should head over there and give my alternate a beating,” Dick says, expression hard.
“What’s wrong with Grayson?” Jason asks, raising an eyebrow and jerking his thumb at Dick.
“Don’t ask,” Bruce sighs. “Now, if everything is over, I think I’m going to bed and pretending that none of this ever happened.”
“No, seriously,” Jason says, voice growing fainter as Bruce heads to bed. “What’s up with Grayson?”