Chapter Text
Tim Drake walked through the halls of Titans Tower, alert and on the lookout for the intruder he knew was there. While no alarms had gone off, there was a feeling to the place of danger and it was far too quiet for the normally rambunctious Tower members to not be in some kind of danger. Lights were also flickering in some hallways, adding to the general creepiness of the silent building.
As Tim turned the corner of one hallway, he noticed a large dark figure standing in the corner. Two glowing eyes all of a sudden appeared as the helmeted head looked up at him. The Red Hood was somehow inside Titans Tower.
“Hello there Replacement. Fancy seeing you here.” Hood stated in a mechanized voice.
‘Replacement?’ Why would he call Tim that? “Red Hood! I’m surprised to see you on the West Coast, I thought Crime Alley was your port of call. I guess you’re all done there? Looking for a new place to set up operations?” Tim asked, hoping Hood was distracted by the speech and missing Tim shifting his weight on his feet and adjusting his hands along the Bo staff.
“No, Gotham is in my blood, if you can call blood the thing that keeps me alive. No, I’m just here to knock a little Birdie down a few pegs, piss off a Bat, and make sure everyone remembers my name.” Red Hood responded, drawing his knife and preparing to start attacking.
“Whoa hey now, no need to do anything rash! I’m sure we can talk about whatever it is that’s bothering you.” Tim said quickly as he frantically reached for his emergency signal. He was officially in desperate need of back up.
Hood started stalking forward towards Tim slowly as he backed up trying to keep the distance between them the same and buy time. He pressed the emergency signal again and again, but he never heard the soft beep that would say his message had been received.
“What’s the matter, Replacement? Is your emergency signal not working? Oh too bad the big bad Daddy Bats isn’t going to be able to come by and save you.” Despite himself, Tim felt his eyes widen. “Did I mention that? Oh, that’s so mean of me, how could I forget to tell you? We’re all alone here until I say we’re done.” Hood finished. And while Tim could not see his face, he could picture a vicious smile going with those words.
Tim’s eyes darted around, desperately looking for a way out of this situation. The back up emergency signal must be out as well and clearly something had happened to the other Titans. He was alone.
Step after slow step, Hood advanced and Tim backed up, until one of his boots hit a wall and there was nowhere left for Tim to go. He HAD to fight now.
“Aw, are you cornered? That’s too bad.” Hood’s mechanized voice said.
And with that, Red Hood lunged at Tim, startling him with how fast he moved, but Tim was able to swing his staff around and bat the knife to the side. Tim went to try to clip Hood’s feet out from under him, but the crime lord jumped the staff and swung back with his knife, managing to nick Tim’s arm and draw blood. While Tim was still recoiling from that hit, Hood cocked back a fist and slammed it right into his face.
Tim’s head snapped back and he almost lost his footing at the strength behind the blow. Blood started to trickle out of his nose that he hoped wasn’t broken. But he didn’t have too much time to even think about that or the pain as he prepared for Red Hood to attack again. But as he blinked his eyes and got back into a ready stance, he noticed something off with his attacker.
The Red Hood was no longer in a ready position and in fact was staring down at his hands in… confusion? It was hard to tell without being able to see his face what emotion it was that the man was feeling. Despite himself, Tim felt curiosity rising over this strange encounter.
Hood’s head snapped back up from his hands to make eye contact with Tim, but he was still not moving to attack. Then all of a sudden, the helmet was removed revealing dark curly hair with an unfamiliar white streak in it. But everything else about the domino covered face in front of him was extremely familiar.
That was Jason Todd! The second Robin. He wasn’t dead..?
“You’re Jason Todd.” Tim found himself whispering.
Jason Todd was throwing up in front of him. He was breathing. He was living! He… Had attacked him. He had called him ‘Replacement’ with clear vitriol even with the mechanized voice. But he wasn’t attacking now; maybe Tim could fix this.
“Oh my god, Jason! I can’t believe you’re alive, Bruce will be so happy. And of course you can be Robin again, now that I know you’re alive. Well, assuming you actually are Jason, you know we can’t be too careful, we’ll have to do all sorts of tests.” Tim mused. He couldn’t get too far ahead of himself, there were still many explanations for this that didn’t involve the second Robin coming back from the dead.
But it was at that point that he noticed the man in front of him was most certainly having a panic attack of some kind. Tim couldn’t tell where he was looking since Jason was still wearing a domino, but he didn’t seem to be reacting to anything Tim was saying and his breathing was far too fast for comfort. If this really was Jason, whether back from the dead or visiting from another universe, or whatever other explanation there might be, he needed Tim’s help.
Tim started counting and talking Jason through the panic with the method that Bruce had taught him; in for 4, hold for 4, breath out for 4. And as he counted, he noticed a strange greenish light that was emanating from behind the domino mask started to recede. Jason looked up, probably meeting Tim’s eyes, but then he noticed Jason’s breathing pick up again and the green started to become stronger.
This wasn’t working, Jason needed something else.
“No, no, hey, keep breathing! Um… Oh!” Tim remembered something that had worked for him before. He dashed off away from Jason and quickly ran to the kitchen. He threw open the drawer to the freezer and grabbed a piece of ice. Focusing on something else had worked for him before to snap him out of a panic spiral.
Tim ran back to where he left Jason, sliding down to the ground and thrusting the ice cube in Jason’s hand, closing his fist around the cube. Jason startled at the cold, finally drawing in a full breath. “Good, that’s great Jason! Keep breathing, you’re doing great!” Tim said, satisfied that he found a way to help.
Jason continued breathing for a bit before he seemed to come down from his panic and finally look at what was in his hand and then up at Tim in question.
Tim felt a blush rising in his cheeks and ducked his head down in embarrassment. “Um, well you know it didn’t seem like anything was getting across to you and I wanted to help! It seemed like something a different temperature would be the best way to get your attention you know, because studies say that things like that can help give people something to focus on and-“
Jason cut him off with a laugh, breathless in between the careful breathing he was still doing to come down off his panic attack.
“S’alright, Baby Bird. I’m not mad.” Jason said absently.
He called him a nickname. “Oh, well yes, that’s great then! But uh…” Tim trailed off, not knowing where to go from here. He had successfully got Jason out of his panic, but there was still a lot that they needed to talk about.
Jason reached out a hand. “It’s good to officially meet you, Tim.”
Tim squeaked, a blush rising in his face again. Jason, if this was actually Jason, knew who he was. “Oh wow, you know I’m Tim? I mean, of course you do, you’re Jason Todd, but I mean, yes! Good to officially meet you again.”
Oh god, he was embarrassing himself in front of Jason.
They shook hands and then lapsed into another awkward silence. Would it be alright for him to start asking questions? There were so many things he wanted to know. Maybe he could just ask them? And best assume this was their Jason until he learned otherwise.
“Um so, are the other Titans ok? And is it rude to ask how you’re alive? And why you decided to be the Red Hood? I mean, the duffel bag incident alone! But why didn’t you come back to the Manor? Bruce would be so happy-“
“The other Titan’s are fine, just incapacitated. I have no idea how I’m back. I decided to be Red Hood because Bruce abandoned me when I needed him and replaced me with a better model. His methods are wrong, some people deserve to be put down and I was helping clean up the streets of Gotham that he forgot about.” Jason said tightly.
Tim noticed the green coming back as Jason spoke. What was that? It seemed attached to emotion. And it seemed familiar in a way. He knew he had read about something like that.
“Ok, so yeah, maybe not the best time to bring up stuff like that.” Tim quickly interjected, hoping to prevent that green from getting too strong. Something told him it would be bad to let that green thrive. Could it be..? Surely not... “But since I doubt you sought out anyone from before, let me just say I’m happy you’re alive. You don’t know how much this is going to mean for Bruce, Dick, and Alfred. They haven’t been the same without you. I tried my hardest to keep them all alive, and you know how stubborn they all can be. For a while, I thought Bruce was trying to get someone to kill him. But I showed him my data about how Batman needs a Robin. And since Dick didn’t want the job anymore, I had to take over and do my best to be a good Robin. It’s been super hard, but I got better at it! And now Bruce only calls me the wrong name on really bad nights, so I think it’s mostly been a success!” Tim continued.
All of this, of course, was contingent on this being their Jason. He wasn’t going to introduce him to Bruce only to have him lose Jason again; that would be a horrendous mistake.
Jason seemed distracted, but he responded, “Wrong name? Look kid, I have some stuff I need to take care of, but we’ll circle back around to that because that shit is concerning.. Let me just,” He grabbed his knife and quickly sliced his arm and then handed it towards Tim. “Run that through a DNA test so the Big Bat doesn’t think you’re crazy-”
“Oh my god Jason, I could have gotten you a needle, you didn’t need to cut yourself with a knife!” Tim interjected, absolutely scandalized. He didn’t need to hurt himself.
“-I’ll be back when I can be, we’ll see how long it takes me to demand answers and rescue the other baby. You know, assuming I don’t see you again tomorrow because of time fuckery.” Jason continued as he scooped up his helmet.
Jason looked as though he was starting to get ready to go, and Tim could not have that. Not when he was so close to confirming this was Jason and bringing him back to his family and definitely not when he was being so deliberately cryptic.
“Where are you going, Jason, you can’t leave now! Dick, Bruce, and Alfred need to know about you! And ‘time fuckery’? What does that even mean! Other baby? What do you mean ‘other’?” Tim rushed to say, holding the knife in one hand.
Jason continued to stride towards the door, though, throwing over his shoulder, “And maybe update security preferences, you know? Shit like that can be easily exploited by people. You’re lucky I wasn’t looking to take out the Titans permanently.” And he threw a two fingered solute over his shoulder as he dropped a smoke pellet at his feet.
Coughing, Tim could see his chances of keeping Jason here slipping through his fingers.
"Where are you going!” Tim yelled offended before the rest of what Jason said processed. “And the security is fine! It’s top of the line! C’mon Jason, get back here!”
But Jason was gone, leaving Tim with a bloody nose and a bloody knife.
Tim quietly pressed the third emergency signal, hoping this one would actually send.