Title: Waiting for that one vacancy sign
Summary: Stories from beyond the grave; Jason Todd is a Black Lantern.
Rating: T
Notes: Continuation of No blinding lights to the gates of white but you don't have to read it. Simply know that Superboy Prime's universe-shattering punch had no effect on Jason. Instead, he was resurrected as a Black Lantern near the end of the Blackest Night storyline. Batman is dead, Dick is about to don the cowl, Damien is the Robin and Jason has just been discovered by Talia Al Ghul. By the way, thanks all of you who reviewed in the last story, really appreciated it. More now since the weather is shit and I don't have an umbrella -sobs-
Disclaimer: Do not own
Warning: None
Word count: for this chapter 700+
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'You're supposed to let me go.' Jason insists sullenly. The Black Entity thrills out a twittering laughter in response, not because it is amused because he expects it to. Jason isn't sure that it can feel anything other than the overwhelming desire to meet its brother and whenever that happens, the darkness fades to grey that it almost looks white.
'You and I are an end. We can never let each other go.'
Jason takes a deep breath or whatever passes as an equivalent of one trapped in this stagnant corner of space, seeing images that are not possible.
'I know this sounds bad, national demographic for teenage suicide, but why am I not dead?'
'You are. You are. You are.'
He winces at the resounding echos, trying to pinpoint the Black Entity's location.
'Why am I still here?'
All of the sudden, the Black Entity wraps around him and Jason can feel himself drown in its coils. Briefly, he panicks, kicking and clawing as he tries to fight himself out from the dark. He imagines that this is what would have been like had he suddenly revived in his grave, no help, no ring, probably in a suit like a proper society boy instead of his few earthly remains. If the Black Entity feels pain it does not show it and hums and waits in silence as Jason slowly tires himself out.
'You will be a gift.' It purrs, tasting his tears. 'A magnificent, magnificent gift.'
.
Ra's Al Ghul sees the extraordinary sight of a boy hanging upside down in the air, skimming his fingers through the lustrous waters and watch them glow. The guards, behind him and around the pit, all clench their weapons nervously, clearly at a loss. The boy is obviously an intruder but has yet to show any hostility. At least, not yet.
"What do you call this place?" The boy asks in a blank monotone, sucking on the tip of his fingers and gagging at the taste. He shudders, his lips dyed temporarily green before restored to its usual pallor.
"It is called the Lazarus Pit."
The boy hums, no, not a boy—a thing, rerighting himself with a dramatic flourish, a subtle dimness cast about his shoulders making him seem out of place above the brightly lit waters, like a caricature from another dimension.
Ra's Al Ghul inspects him with narrowed eyes, a boy dead and gone a year hence revived and in his possession. The detective is dead and his sons are in mourning, he has all the time in the world to pick apart the secrets of his revival.
"Are you responsible for the boy's resurrection?"
The boy cocks his head. "You mean Jason."
It extends the vowels, mangling words out of pure mischief. "Nooooo…"
"What are you?"
The boy twitches, his facial muscles leaping up and down in horrible spasms that might have been diagnosed as seizures or something worse to the pedestrian eye. Finally, he lands, bare toes digging into the stone at the bottom of the pit. A protective bubble shields him, black where it touches the water.
He's smiling, Ra's realizes, the boy or whatever that is inside of him is trying to smile.
"I am an end."
.
In the end, it isn't the Lazarus Pit that brings him back. The healing springs blot his scars and eases physical hurts but it is the blackness which decides to bring him back. He remembers waking up in the dark, disoriented and weak. But it was the quality of the darkness that alerted him to the change in location, that and the multitude of stars scattered overhead as he stared at the first traces of color he's seen since the death of Black Lanterns.
