Soulmate AU where, upon the youngest Soulmate turning 18, all have a dream the next time they sleep about the most important moment of their Soulmate’s life(or lives, if there’s more than one.)
For most people, this isn’t a huge issue. For the Batfam, it’s a huge problem.
But when Jason dreams of a boy who walked into a dark hole in the wall, only to hit a hidden switch, die of electrocution, and wake up as a ghost moments later?
Yeah, fuck Bruce. He’s finding his death buddy.
Yay! Plot bunnies hello! It’s my favourite soulmate pairing! Warning for graphic description of death/half death/ they get all the trauma :D
In the early fall of an insignificant year, Jason Peter Todd went to sleep. At the age of 19 and having been alive again for 3 years, this was an insignificant day followed by an insignificant night.
Jason Peter Todd slept 6 hours before he woke up screaming from a nightmare of a horrible memory and this too, shouldn’t be anything new or significant.
But it was.
It was a significant day followed by a significant night with a significant nightmare of a horrible memory.
Because his soulmate turned 18 yesterday and Jason Peter Todd reenacted his soulmates most significant memory.
The memory of dying violently.
It started with a boy in a white, with black highlights, biohazard suit walking into a metal hole in the wall.
Jason, in place of the boy, didn’t stay upright for long.
He trips.
He falls.
He catches himself by pressing a hand to the wall.
A click and then pain.
This was a memory of being ripped apart at a molecular level for what should have been less then a minute and yet felt like HOURS.
The pain giving away briefly to the sight of a world beyond the veil of the mortal realm, of a green vastness that words fail to give an accurate description of.
But just as the pain left, it was back and he was back to being surrounded by white metal, only this time the pain was three times worse because there was now electricity F O R C I N G his being back into the shape of a boy and into a body beyond saving and no longer accepting of life.
Agony was the only word that could describe the pain he was in and yet the word did not give it any justice. It did not describe a level of pain that shouldn’t have been possible to feel.
He wanted to die. He wanted to live. He wanted to be an astronaut. He wanted to explore SPACE. Why was the pain not leaving? How long was dying supposed to take?
The screaming had started as something recognizably human near the beginning but as the memory carried on, it became less human and more haunting.
Yet still, there was human screaming present that wasn’t his own. He knew deep down, past all the pain and knowledge that he wouldn’t be making it out of this alive, that there was someone else there and that they were hurting too. He needed to get to them, to get to them and help them before he can no longer move, before they, too, reach a point where they are no longer able to be saved.
He wants to be saved.
He knows in his very being that he is past saving.
But he can save the others if he just gets to them. He can save them like he wants to be saved. He can PROTECT THEM before he dies so they don’t die too.
Jason could F E E L as every movement brought agony to every inch of his body.
As every movement felt like too much for him to handle.
But they were still screaming and he needed to get to them.
Seconds or minutes or hours or days and he knew he wouldn’t be able to tell you how long it took to crawl out of the tunnel. Only that he did.
The screaming had stopped but he couldn’t have told you when.
Movement to his left caught his eye.
His eyes met GREEN.
The creature wasn’t human. Eyes too wide, hair floating as if it was underwater, the colour matching the purest white he’s ever seen, and the body was just WRONG.
Sharp ears, claws, arms too lengthy and bending at the wrong places.
No legs, just a whispy black tail.
Black with white highlights.
It was wrong.
It was terrifying.
He was looking at a mirror…
The pain was no longer a thought in his head as everything was replaced with HORROR.
The reflection wasn’t human. The reflection was a monster.
He knew he DIED. He was DEAD.
He was a MONSTER.
Jason Peter Todd woke up screaming.
He needed to find him.
————————————————
Danny had been dreading his 18th birthday ever since his accident.
He had a gut feeling that he would be the youngest and knowing his luck made him certain that that would be the case.
He was right.
Leading up to this point he had hoped beyond hope that he would be paired with either Tucker and/or Sam. He desperately wished to have someone that he knows wouldn’t see him as a monster. As some sort of freak.
Someone who would accept him as Phantom AND Fenton.
He has learned by now that he rarely gets what he wants.
But like usual, it worked out in the most unexpected way.
His dream turned into memory as he took the place of his soulmate.
His soulmate who was half beaten to death and still getting hit.
Over and over and over again Danny felt as each hit broke bones and left deep bruises.
The laughing haunting every strike.
Danny, for a brief moment, knew that he would have more clowns in his nightmares after he woke up.
The pain was quick and sharp, followed by an aching that he knew would last for months if not years.
He was crying.
He was screaming with each hit near the end.
He wanted Bruce.
He wanted his dad.
The sight of the lady across from him just brought him pain and hurt in a way that he couldn’t put to words.
Does Bruce even want him?
He wants be saved.
Bruce will save him.
He needs to get out.
Bruce will come.
The door is locked.
Bruce will be here soon.
There is only ten seconds left on the bomb.
B’s really pushing it close.
5
Where is he?
4
He wants his dad
3
Bruce should have been kicking down the door right now.
2
He doesn’t want to die.
1
He wants his dad.
For a brief moment Danny could almost hear his name being called.
He’s so sorry. He should have listened.
Bruce came for him.
But it was too late.
He’s so sorry.
True void filled his head and for a brief moment there was absolutely nothing. No pain, no emotion, no breathing or movement, no sight, no hearing, no touch or taste or scent.
Then, with a sudden great breath, he woke up to black. The kind of black you get only with the complete absence of light.
It was cramped.
It was cold.
It was dark.
It was getting harder to breath.
Where’s Bruce?
He wants out.
Pulling off his belt, Danny felt the memory guide him as he used it to punch through the wood.
There was dirt.
He’s buried alive.
Danny didn’t have much air and felt the panic grow.
He needed to get OUT.
He dug and dug and dug. His nails bled. His mouth tasted like ash and dirt.
He couldn’t breath.
He was going to die.
He was going to die again.
He wants his dad.
Then there was air.
He crawled his way out dropped to the ground with great heaping breaths.
Danny’s eyes felt unfocused as they dragged across the surface of the stone beside him.
In Loving Memory of Jason P. Todd-Wayne.
Danny woke up panting and crying.
His soulmate was a zombie.
He knows his soulmate’s name.
He will find him.
Well hello again! *cackles in pure delight* The people have spoken and I’m still trying to get out from a pile of plot bunnies so part 2 here we go! (ps my ‘at’ symbol is not working on my computer right now so if you wanted to be tagged for a continuation I apologize)
Be warned Jason does not have a fun time and connects all the wrong dots :D
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Apparently ‘finding him’ is going to be a lot harder then his re-traumatized brain said it’d be when he woke up.
Jason stared at his high tech laptop like it offended him.
Sadly, his laptop was unaffected by Jason’s glaring and didn’t tell him anything about his soulmate or even where to start in his search.
The only thing he had was his birth date and age.
He had no name.
No location other then some kind of lab.
There was someone else there with him but Jason didn’t get to see them.
Oh and to make this even worse, his soulmate was also no longer human which will make searching for him either stupidly easy or unimaginably difficult.
Not that he minds the inhuman part since he is determined to be the best DB (death buddy) a ghoul? Wraith? could have at the very least.
He’s definitely down for something romantic though if it’s an option since he doubts he’ll find someone who will understand him to the level a soulmate will, human or not.
That was new information about himself that he didn’t need to think about right now.
Though seriously, wasn’t that a real kick to the gut. At least Jason still looks like a human and feels like a human. His DB didn’t even get the zombie experience, he just skipped all the steps and went from small teen to whatever the fuck he was now.
Jason froze.
He forced himself to backpedal through his train of thought.
His soulmate was in a lab.
His soulmate wasn’t alone.
His soulmate went in human and came out something else.
His soulmate was something ‘other’ and in a lab with someone else.
Someone who could be a scientist.
Someone who would be interested in the creature the hole in the wall produced.
Someone who could have no problem ‘studying’ his soulmate even knowing that he was the kid who went in.
Jason would have collapsed if he weren’t already sitting down. The air felt heavy and an edge of green tinted the corners of his sight.
His soulmate was a small teen (his gut knew that he was a teenager but probably only just).
A small teen who had a biohazard suit that fit him perfectly. Jason can spot a tailor made suit when he fucking sees one and that one was tailored for him.
Why was there a button that turned the machine on on the INSIDE?
A convenient pile of wires cutting across the ground with little to no light right before the button.
It wasn’t an accident.
It wasn’t a mistake made by a clumsy teen.
It was PLANNED.
It was a TEST.
It was an EXPERIMENT.
An experiment done on a KID who was UNAWARE that HE was the SUBJECT.
The LAB RAT.
WHERE IS HIS SOULMATE NOW?!
WHERE IS HE?!
——————————————
Danny reevaluated the level of difficulty ‘finding his soulmate’ would actually be.
One of the first things he did was grab his phone when he woke up to set up a video call between his friends and sister.
Jazz was currently living in her university’s dorm and thus no where near Amity but she was adamant about being included.
She knew how scared he was.
“How bad?” Was the first thing asked when the call connected, granted it was Sam asking and he probably was not looking great after what he just witnessed.
“So do you want the good or bad news first?”
“Bad,” Tucker cut in before the other two could answer.
“I now have more clown trauma and my soulmate died in a planned explosion.”
Silence answered him as his friends plus sister digested what that meant. The thing about soulmates is that when one dies, the other still gets the connecting dream regardless of the others death. The connecting dream will always happen after the youngest of the soulmates has existed for 18 years, whether they are alive or not has no effect on the dream and it’s the same if the older one is dead by the time the youngest reaches his 18th birthday.
You’ll always get the dream, but on the chance you don’t, it simply means your other half wasn’t born into your time period. Case and point that one famous singer dude who was the soulmate to Mozart.
Death was unfortunately something soulmates had to experience if whatever caused their soulmate(s) to die wasn’t fast enough to kill them instantly. Death is a pretty significant event after all and unfortunately not as rare as people wanted it to be.
“…You said there is good news?” Jazz was the one to break the silence but the mood had turned somber and Danny could roughly guess what they were thinking about his luck and life.
“He came back from the dead zombie style and I managed to get a look at the name on his gravestone,” this time the silence was filled with an ‘are you shitting us’ vibe and Danny couldn’t be more proud. “So I don’t think I’ll have a problem with them selling me out to the government before I find them.”
Tucker snorts an aborted laugh, but it was too late and before they could even continue the conversation everyone was laughing too hard to form words.
“Ancients! What the fuck man?!” Tucker manages to get out between two heaving breaths.
“Danny, your life is a bloody soap opera,” Sam states as she tries to force down the laughter. Unsuccessful, Danny notes, since her shoulders are still shaking but her attempt is appreciated.
“Only you, little brother,” Jazz grinned, “only you.”
“Well then,” Tucker pulls out a laptop from somewhere off screen, “give us the name. We’ll track him down for you.”
“Jason P. Todd-Wayne.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“Yeah,” Danny nods, “heard enough about the Waynes from the three of you and Wes enough to recognize his name too.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“You know Wes is actually right like 97% of the time when it comes to his conspiracy theories and the only reason no one believes him is because of the curse placed on his family line. Which is good for me since every time he tries reveal me it just strengthens my secret identity….” he trailed off and waited for a reply but it seemed they were all still in shock so he just continued his train of thought, “so like, what are the chances that the Red Hood is actually my soulmate?”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“So, I mean like, all I need to do is show up in Gotham and track down his safe-house or whatever?” He paused again but more so to put his thoughts back into order and to remember everything he’s been told about the Waynes and the Gotham heroes. “It would probably not be a good idea to approach the Waynes since officially Jason is still “dead”. I don’t think they get along all that much if the hero identity thing is true considering the last I heard they barely work together and only when it’s absolutely necessary.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“Which means they would probably be hostile if I showed up? I mean, Batman is notorious for hating metas and even if that isn’t really my situation I think he’d be pretty unhappy about me being there and even more so that I’m his estranged son’s soulmate…” He shifted onto his back and stared at the stick on stars on his ceiling. “I’m thinking it might be easier and safer if I just approach Red Hood in Phantom form in case Wes is actually wrong. It might be better if I find him out on patrol instead of his safe house cause I don’t want him to feel cornered and Phantom can be slightly terrifying to non-Amity Parkers but I’m pretty sure he saw my accident so like he should sorta recognize me. What do you guys think?”
“…”
Yeah, Danny thought, finding him will be much easier then I thought it was going to be.
Greetings Guys, Gals, and non-binary Pals. I’ve given up on crawling my way out and have simply accepted my place in the plot fluffle I’ve found myself buried in…. Aka part 3 lets gooooooooo!
Also @justwannabecat Thanks for posting your idea cause I’m just going to town with this now. Your amazing. I love this idea so much.
Danny POV! He’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit.
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Danny’s a little distracted.
He should be paying attention to his surroundings but honestly he just has so much on his mind.
Like, you could argue that it’s fair that he’s a little out of it considering he just had The Dream™️.
That anyone would be after experiencing a soulbond like his.
The problem, however, is not that he’s distracted by the dream so much as he’s distracted about how he’s supposed to introduce himself.
He does NOT want to mess this up.
Danny has a history of messing these kinds of things up, and sure, it has always slowly sorted itself out but Danny doesn’t want to risk a bad impression right off the block.
This is his SOULMATE.
Soulmate means FAMILY, regardless of whether it’s platonic or romantic.
His secondary obsession may be PROTECTION but before all else it is the PROTECTION OF FAMILY.
Jason is already tied into his obsession and Danny doesn’t know whether he’ll be able to take another rejection from his family.
The rejections from his parents, even completely unintentional on their end, hurt him so badly that he thought he was dying again. They weren’t (and still aren’t) aware of his Phantom status but his core received the message loud and clear that his connection to them was unwelcome.
Danny dodges to the left avoiding a stray ectoblast, his eyes still dazed as he contemplates his issue.
You see, Danny KNOWS Ghosts. He KNOWS Ancients. He KNOWS Nerverborns.
Danny KNOWs almost every sub species in these categories.
They are beings that he’s dealt with since he was 14 and freshly half dead. They are creatures that he’s grown up learning about from before he could even read (regardless of how biased that information was and how much of that information he’s had to relearn).
Danny does NOT know about the creatures of The Undeath.
Even though he’s technically a part of that category. More so then even the Ghost category, since Halfas are just considered as a honorary sub-subgroup of Ghost.
Since they’re stupidly rare.
Like.
There is only ONE true Halfa rare.
It’s Danny
Both Vlad and Dani are considered Halfa only because there is no other name to give them.
Danny may have lost it a bit when he was told that little piece of information by a confused Frostbite after a question on his biology brought up the fact that ‘of course you’re biologically different from them, they’re a different species then you. One is human-adjacent and the other is ghost-adjacent.’
He freaked out even more when he was told he was arguably an Ancient.
He’s getting off track.
Danny rolls forward to escape the glowing net and sends a spike of ice back in the direction it came from. A curse notified him that he’d hit and destroyed Skulker’s new net launcher.
The thing is, not only are Halfas rare, they are rare amongst the RARE.
The Undeaths are RARE and to make it even worse (for Danny) they keep to themselves.
But, there IS still enough of them to NEED their own category instead of just labeling them as some weird subgroup.
Which is where his problem stems from.
Danny knows NOTHING of The Undeath culture let alone the cultures of its subgroups.
He forms a sword out of ice and meets the serrated hunting knife in a stalemate above his head with a clash of power.
So yeah, Danny’s a little distracted because although he KNOWS Jason is at least a part of The Undeath category since he died and came back, he doesn’t KNOW which Subgroup he actually belongs too.
Sure, his first thought was Zombie and he did make Zombie comparisons when talking to his friends and sister, but in truth, he honestly has no fucking idea WHAT Jason actually is.
He felt Human when he came back from the dead and he crawled out of a grave.
Yes, Danny is guessing based on human stereotypes but he has nothing else to go on.
He’s never met an actual Zombie but he’s pretty damn sure whatever he’s learned about them through various medias is probably 99% wrong and/or misunderstood.
They probably don’t even eat brains.
Media portrayals are awful and mean after all.
Danny should know, he’s had 4 years of media spotlight and very little of it has shown him to be anything other then a monster that’s useful.
So yeah, Danny’s just going to assume that Jason is a Zombie until otherwise researched or told and he’s not going to believe anything he can find on the internet or in movies.
He’s going to treat this as an academic research assignment and only believe reputable sources.
He CAN’T let this introduction be ruined by a cultural misunderstanding. There is a high chance that Jason knows he’s an Undeath too if he witnessed his accident.
Which means he might (probably will) expect Danny to be aware of The Undeath culture.
Aware of what should be taken as an insult.
Aware of customary greetings and introductions when meeting someone you want to have in your life. Greetings and introductions that tell the recipient whether you actually want them or if your doing it out of polite curtesy.
Danny NEEDS to know these things and to preform them correctly so that Jason knows he wants him in his life in whatever capacity he can, and is willing, to give.
On the rare chance that Jason DIDN’T see his accident and subsequent revival and thus not actually expecting him to know the culture (which Danny highly doubts) then he at least wasn’t underprepared and it’ll be a nice surprise for his soulmate.
Which means he needs to ask Ghost Writer about researching The Undeath. He will have something on them and hopefully it will be a text that has been written by someone who’s actually apart of The Undeath community.
Someone that the community actually knows/knew.
Not someone like him, not someone who is alone and isolated because they have no one to even introduce them to the others. No one to learn from.
Danny, who has been matching the knife blow for blow, finally steps back before launching himself forward across the ground. He swipes his sword of ice across Skulker’s knees and separates them from the main suit, causing him to lose his balance for a split second before his flight kicked in.
The split second was all Danny needed.
With Skulker shoved into his thermos, Danny takes off towards the portal.
He’s got research to do.
———————————
Jason came into awareness in a warehouse turned lab, surrounded by (still breathing and alive, thankfully) bodies.
He’s been trying to avoid killing when he can.
He’s been trying to build some semblance of a relationship back with his family.
Jason has never been more grateful for that fact as he is now.
He might be at odds with Bruce and still hate his methods and choices but he knows he needs help.
He needs Barbra. He needs Oracle.
Oracle works with Batman.
He’ll give her whatever she wants if she can find his soulmate.
He’ll give Bruce what he wants. He’ll suffer through every family dinner and be polite and civil. He’ll get Bruce to ‘revive’ him and pretend to be the perfect Wayne kid at every gala.
He’ll stop killing completely.
Whatever it takes, as long as they find him.
As long as he’s allowed to protect the one person who is supposed to be his other half. Supposed to be there for him through the good and bad. Someone who’s supposed to want him for him regardless of how broken and damaged he is.
He just needs a plan. A plan to hopefully involve only Babs. Involving the Bat and his merry flock of followers is a last resort scenario.
Jason just needs to find his soulmate.
He just needs to find out who’s in charge of that lab.
He needs to find that lab.
*Drops Part 4 and sprints off into the distance while still covered in plot bunnies.
Also I was just going to keep it Jason <—> Danny POV switch but other characters demanded time and bullied their way into the story so you lads can have a fun point of view switch this time.
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WHO is Barbra Gordon?
The police chief’s daughter?
The first Batgirl?
A woman who lost so much potential because of a clown with a gun?
The Oracle who sees all?
A librarian who is always happy to help?
A woman who believes that the law will prevail?
These facts may give you a small glimpse into solving the question of WHO, but that is all it is, a glimpse.
Barbra has asked herself this question for years and yet she can never come up with an adequate response.
Since she, herself, doesn’t know the answer.
There are even times, like right now, where she isn’t sure if she’ll like the answer she will find.
Because when Jason Todd (a boy who was almost a little brother to her. Someone who was working his way back into that spot ever since Bruce was rescued) came crashing into her apartment and started BEGGING, she felt the cold icy rage like she hasn’t felt it since the day she was told she would never walk again.
Stubbornness and pride is what defines the Red Hood. NO ONE and NOTHING should be able to hurt him enough to make him B E G.
Not after the Joker.
Safe to say, Barbra Gordon was a wheel away from stealing Jason’s gun to shoot whatever had pushed him to this point.
She still felt the same way after getting the full story from him.
Someone was going to die and she is not surprised to feel absolutely no remorse in that thought.
So instead of thinking to hard about it, Barbra let that icy rage fuel her as she extracted as many details as she could get from Jason.
‘What kind of lab?’
‘How much of it did you see?’
‘What kind of metal?’
‘How about any papers?’
‘Do you remember what was on the paper?’
‘Could you describe the logo that was on the corner?’
‘Are you sure it looked like a G stacked on a W with a line cutting through it?’
Details she got.
Details she used to hunt down anything even slightly similar to a lab Jason described.
Details that led her to the government.
Details that led her to laws passed under the guise of something else.
Laws that used undefined, broad, and blacked out words to give them the right to kill and persecute and experiment on who ever they like.
Barbra Gordon decided she wasn’t going to control her rage this time.
She was going to let it burn and if she got closer to the answer of WHO she is, then so be it.
She would make them burn too.
—————————
“Heya Sweets!”
“Mmh?”
“O just called,” Dr. Harleen Quinzel smiled a manic smile, “she asked if us Sirens wanted ta burn down da Gov with Hood cause they’ve got his soulhalf.”
Both knew their answers and there wasn’t any doubt Selena would disagree.
.
—————————————
Danny sighed in relief.
The Undeath follows a similar culture as Ghost, subcategory Revenant.
Also, his soulmate wasn’t a Zombie.
NOT that there is anything wrong with being a zombie. The problem was that he couldn’t find anything written BY a zombie. The closest he got was a journal written by a wight which are, in GW’s words, a more sentient zombie.
The information he came across in the journal didn’t describe what he felt from his soulmate or line up with anything he’s heard about the Red Hood.
Considering some of the information he did read he is maybe (a lot) glad that Jason isn’t a zombie/wight.
He doesn’t have the stomach for it (even if he’s willing to force himself to adapt)
With that crossed off, Danny is proud to say that he managed to narrow the list of possible categories of The Undeath down by a substantial amount.
Although, he’s probably not going to get any closer to an answer until he meets Jason himself.
Thus, all Danny needs now is an adequate gift to give his soulmate.
Some type of gift that would impress him and show that Danny is very strong (luckily, the first gift in ghost courting and adopting a family member is the same so Danny doesn’t have to worry about being too forward or accidentally rejecting his soulmate).
The first gift always needs to show that you are capable of protecting the recipient and/or able to take out their enemies.
He’s stuck on what to do/get for his gift though, but he figured he’s better off thinking about it with his friends anyways so he simply heads back to Amity.
He was in the Ghost Zone for a grand total of 3 days.
He had 103 missed calls.
It’s safe to say, that Danny was both 100% certain Wes was correct about Red Hood’s identity and that he’s probably never blushed as hard as he did when he turned on the news.
The white house was on fire.
The headline stating the abolition of the Ecto-Acts along with a list of various GIW labs that have been blown completely off the map.
Starfire, Arsenal, Dr. Isely, Dr. Quinzel, and Catwoman walked behind THE Red Hood as he glided over to a heavily modified motorcycle. The light of the fire framing all of them in shadow.
Yeah.
Danny really needs an amazing gift if he’s going to come anywhere close to matching Jason.
It’s also, in Danny’s mind, confirmation that Jason knows what he is.
Danny has never been more happy about taking his time to research.
*shuffles into view while covered in plot bunnies, drops Part 5, and shuffles back out of view* also I have lost control of the characters so they’re just doing there own thing and I’m stuck here for the ride.
Danny has some trauma and decides to share it.
Jason finally figures out he’s not in a vivisection fic but he still has no idea what’s actually happening.
Thank you all for the comments and keyboard smashes btw, your joy brings me joy :D
Also if someone wants to tag others that’d be awesome cause my computer currently hates the ‘at’ button right now (again… I should maybe get a new computer soonish maybe)
Anyways…. Here ya go you funky internet people!
————————————
Jason needed this search to go faster.
6 days and they still haven’t found his soulmate.
6 days and all they’ve done is hit the major labs.
6 days and all they’ve fucking managed to do is change one government implemented act.
6 days and all Jason can do is wait and force himself to NOT shoot the various “scientists” simply because the government covered up UNETHICAL EXPERIMENTATION by leaving no record of their labs, making the scientists the only people who might actually KNOW where the other labs are.
The ONLY upside to this entire situation is the fact that there is apparently a group of KIDS who have been teaming up with the “Ecto-Entities” (Which Jason and pretty much EVERY OTHER hero/antihero who was present/listening to the conversation was pretty sure E.E. was just another way to say A META or Non Human. Safe to say it wasn’t just Jason who was holding back their urge to kill) who have been breaking INTO the labs to free the test subjects.
These kids seem to be stupidly competent too considering The Labs they’ve visited haven’t been able to keep a test subject long enough to preform “extensive research” like VIVISECTION and have only had enough time to do surface scans before they where “stolen” from them.
That and the fact that not even Oracle can find traces of this team up. Every single tech file and online trace has been wiped so clean it’s like they computerized bleach and flooded the system with it after every raid.
The GIW have had to start from scratch every single time because of that.
The government couldn’t even arrest the group either since all video evidence of the raid has ALSO been wiped from existence so other then some basic surface descriptions they had nothing to identify the group.
Jason has never seen Oracle be so impressed by another hacker.
The existence of this raiding team also brings up a very important fact, there is a large possibility they’ve already saved his soulmate.
He needs to find this team and give them a hug.
Still, the point remains that they still haven’t found anything about where his soulmate is, they don’t know where the raid team is from, and they still haven’t gotten the locations of the other labs.
Worse yet, Jason was called back to Gotham 2 days ago due to an Arkham breakout.
The Joker still hasn’t been found and the bats haven’t been able to track him which means Crime Alley needs Red Hood there for when shit hits the fan.
Jason once again considers just killing every Arkham rouge so he can get back to his search.
But he promised Babs and so he’s stuck.
Jason is stuck waiting and thinking about his other half.
They could be trapped in a GIW lab (though that has become less a worry. Seriously, even Barbra wants tips from that raid team).
Maybe his soulmate thinks Jason won’t like them if they’re not really human looking (or human at all) and isn’t trying to find him because of that. Jason hopes that that is not the case but maybe it is and that might mean that he’ll have to make his search public as Jason Todd.
Maybe his soulmate didn’t see his death.
Maybe they they only saw his death.
Maybe Jason is just spiralling into worse and worse trains of thought and maybe he should just stop but he CAN’T.
A ringing sound cuts off his panic before it can really start but it still takes him a moment to realize it’s Babs calling him and that he should probably step away from the edge of the roof he was on.
“Joker has been found.” Jason loved that about her, always straight to the point when she knew he was worried and couldn’t tolerate long meaningless interactions.
“Where?”
“In the medical ward at Gotham General. Apparently someone found him before us and they weren’t happy to see him.”
Jason drew a sharp breath. Barbra doesn’t sugar coat things unless it’s very bad and he knows what she sounds like when she tries to understate something. She sounds like him.
“How unhappy are we talking Babs? The standard Gothamite unhappy or our version of unhappy?” He could almost feel her lips flatten into a cold grimace as the conversation paused.
“Ours,” he pressed down on the sick satisfaction that boiled up from the emotionless tone of the original Batgirl’s voice as he imagined exactly what ‘Ours’ meant for the Joker. Jason didn’t need to imagine for long. “The Doctors said he’ll live and that he’s healing but right now they aren’t exactly sure of the true extent of his injuries because he’s currently in what looks like a self induced coma. They also said they’ll need to wait for the X-ray results and for him to wake up before they can confirm whether or not he’ll regain full use of his arms but even if he does he’ll most certainly have chronic pain in his hands for the rest of his life.”
“So he won’t be hurting people for a while huh?”
“No Hood, I don’t think he will be doing much of anything for a while.”
Maybe Jason should have said something more and maybe Barbra should have been helping Bruce track down the person who did that to the Joker but maybe they both needed a moment to feel satisfied.
Maybe they both needed this moment to just feel some small bit of relief.
No matter how temporary.
——————————————
*3 day before the Joker was found*
Danny wasn’t quite sure what to do for Jason.
He sat down in the air as he stared at Arkham Asylum.
He came to Gotham almost immediately after he was filled in on what Jason had been doing for him and Danny knew he had to do something about the Joker because that’s the only real enemy he knows Jason has.
But what should he do?
He obviously can’t kill Joker even if it’d be so stupidly easy to do.
Maybe even because it’d be stupidly easy to do.
Red Hood, and therefore Jason, never killed The Joker when he had the opportunity too. Time and time again Jason has had opportunities, Danny remembers seeing and hearing the news talk about The Red Hood bringing The Joker in which means it’s an active choice.
Honestly, from what Danny has seen, Jason has been actively avoiding killing people for roughly a year now.
Further proof of this is that Jason didn’t kill a single GIW agent either and honestly that should have been even harder then killing them. They have a stupid tendency to use untested weapons that backfire on them 90% of the time which means they end up needing to be saved most of the time from themselves.
If Wes is to be believed (which again, he usually is) then Jason might not have been right in the mind when he was having his kill streak anyways.
Maybe he was mind controlled and/or manipulated.
Danny knows what that can be like.
He knows what it’s like to blame yourself for things other people and circumstance made you do.
Take Freakshow and Dani for example.
The image of someone making Jason do something that might haunt him for the rest of his life makes Danny want to rip the imagined person to shreds with his claws. It makes him want to find them and put them through a real horror movie scene as he hunts them from empty corners until they’re screaming at their own shadows and then drag them into the deepest part of the Infinite Realm.
He wants to weep and curl up on himself as the image of Jason being hurt that way makes his core cry out in pain.
Danny wants to rap Jason in a hug and tell him that he had already proved how strong he is by how far he’s come.
So Danny can’t kill The Joker because if he does then he is undermining whatever Jason is trying to achieve by letting him live.
But Danny can make him hurt.
He needs to display that he’s physically capable of protecting Jason so a few broken bones from the Joker should work but it doesn’t feel like enough.
He wants to kill him.
He knows that he won’t for Jason’s sake and because it’d place him one step closer to becoming Dan.
Dan’s timeline still gives him nightmares.
Regardless of whether he’s reformed or not.
Oh.
“Now that’s a thought,” Danny whispers to the air as it whisks his voice away.
He looks back down at the asylum, his eyes shadowed as he lets himself think.
Danny’s worst enemy and biggest monster has always been himself. It is what keeps him in check and it is what keeps him in control of his abilities.
The Joker keeps killing and killing and hurting and hurting with no remorse. He will keep doing so because he knows he’ll get away with it.
The Joker acts as if he’s playing a game.
He acts like he’s obsessed.
The Joker acts like some members of Danny’s rouge gallery. The ones who have forgotten what it means to hurt and to die.
But Danny’s rouges usually only need to have it pointed out to them that they are causing pain, that they may have almost caused someone to DIE before they immediately stop.
Ghosts might forget what it was like to be mortal in death but they also remember what it was like to die.
Ghosts rarely (if ever) want to kill.
But The Joker doesn’t act like a ghost.
He acts like an Ancient.
A being who doesn’t know what it’s like to feel fear or pain.
A being who hasn’t learned to be afraid of itself.
Danny should teach him to be afraid of himself.
He even has beings who will help him. Who are required to aid him because he is their Crowned Prince.
He is sure Nocturn would love to work with Fright Knight in creating a very terrifying and long lasting nightmare. It’d be fulfilling their obsessions and Danny is quite sure he can convince Ghost Writer to write the nightmare’s script.
Who knows, the nightmare might just make The Joker relive his every kill from his victims’ point of view. It might make him experience EVERY SINGLE BIT OF PAIN AND FEAR they felt before they died by his hand and word.
It’s not like The Joker needs to wake up until he’s terrified of himself.
It’s not like he needs to only relive their deaths once either.
An alarm sounds below.
Danny smiles.
First things first, Danny needs to shatter every bone in those awful hands that touched HIS SOULMATE.
Maybe he’ll take a small souvenir to turn into a gift too.
Yeah, a small souvenir for his soulmate.
All i can imagine is danny being the gremlin he is gifting jason jokers kneecaps
