Rise (And Try Not To Fall)
by TwinEnigma
Warnings/Tags: Crossover fandom fusion; Jason centric
Part of the Jason is a Jedi AU; crossposting from my Ao3
Chapter 1:
Purple Moon Rising
Gotham isn't the greatest planet to grow up on. On the borders of the Western Reaches and the Outer Rim, the Dici system has few planets worth noting and Gotham is not one of them – at least, not in polite company, that is. Most of the planet is covered in dense urban settlements, jungles of durasteel stacked in layers and layers over more ancient buildings that delved down near endlessly. The rest, save the polar regions and the massive Isley equatorial jungle ring, is a maze of various industrial complexes and research facilities. Not that Jason Todd has ever seen them, mind.
He is a kid from Below.
Kids from Below don't go Topside, not unless they are brought there. Sure, if they are lucky, someday one of 'em might strike it rich and move up to the Midway, the levels between Upper Gotham and Lower Gotham, but that's a thing that happens only in dreams and when the red moon, Bludhaven, turns purple with displaced atmo. And kids from Below certainly never are that lucky. No, the only way a kid ever left Below is because someone brought them Up and there weren't a whole lot of reasons for anyone to do that – and none of 'em were any good.
Some kids get brought Topside and never come back. A few come back, but they're never the same. Jason's seen it – they all have – and the Boss isn't shy about letting them know it could easily happen to them too if they step too far out of line. The Boss has friends up there, friends that wouldn't mind taking the troublemakers off his hands.
So, when the Boss says they're going Topside, Jason's skin crawls something awful. He's got a bad feeling about this. And when he's got a bad feeling about something, it tends to be right.
Not that the Boss would listen to him anyway: he's just a kid, what does he know?
If Lower Gotham is dark and cramped, then Upper Gotham is unsettlingly open and bright.
It gives Jason the jitters, to be honest. He's used to the dimly lit, flickering labyrinth of streets and passages that make up Below. There weren't a lack of places a kid in trouble could hide down there, not like Topside. There isn't even a shadow to be had here. Even Midway had more nooks and crannies than this place! And, worse, he can practically feel Boss's eyes on him, no matter which way he turns.
Jason just wants this job to be over, so they can head back to where it's safe.
He chews on his lip a little as he weaves through the crowd and does as he's been trained. It's laughably easy for him, small as he is, to lift credits from his marks: there's a celebration of some kind going on, something he doesn't quite understand, but everyone's too busy focusing on it to really notice him or any of the others filtering through their ranks.
Still, there are a few close calls. The worst is when a Twi'lek almost turns around as he reaches for her credits, his hand clumsily brushing the lining of her pocket. Don't see me, it's nothing, he thinks over and over and she stops, relaxing. He slips away, his heart hammering in his chest as relief washes through him, and that's when he collides with a human man, one he hadn't even noticed at all.
Jason rolls with the collision, his fingers instinctively finding the man's pockets and latching onto the credits, and feigns a stumble. Then a hand catches his wrist, latching on, and he freezes.
The man, tall and broad shouldered, stares at him, his blue eyes narrowing and Jason knows he's been caught. Rule number one: don't get caught.
"Let me go!" Jason snarls, tugging his arm back, but the man is far stronger than him and frowns down at him.
He's going to call the guards. The Boss is going to kill him.
"Let go, let go, let go!" Jason chants and that's all he wants in that very instant, for that man to just let go.
The man's eyes suddenly widen in surprise and something else as his grip starts to slack and then it tightens again. "You're Force Sensitive," the man says in a hushed, strained voice.
Jason doesn't know what that means, but he's scared and he struggles, kicking with all his might as he cries out in anger.
Sleep, something distinctly not him says in his head.
Jason sags, suddenly inexplicably tired. Dimly, he notices that the red moon is rising on the horizon, swollen and tinted purple.
Sleep.
He falls asleep.