According to Tumblr, today is Jason's "Deathiversary". So in honor of his death, I decided to write up this quick little ficlet. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or the warehouse scene. DC does.
"This is going to hurt you a lot more than it does me."
The Joker brought the crowbar down on Robin's back. The cold iron came back bloody as the young boy let out a moan. The madman kept on beating Jason, all with a terrifying grin on his white face.
Again. And again, and again the crowbar came down relentlessly.
Sheila Haywood looked away from the bloody scene that she had caused by betraying her son to the Joker. Quietly, she put a cigarette to her lips; to get rid of her guilty feelings.
Jason couldn't get away from the pain. He was in agony. Stars clouded his vision and his head felt light from all of the blood loss. It took all of Robin's willpower to not scream; in pain or for his newfound mother standing a few feet away.
Soon the psychopath was finished with his excitement and wiped his red, dripping gloves on his already blood-stained shorts. He left the young hero to bleed out on the floor. Jason was barely conscious and could only make out a few sounds of the conversation between Shelia and the Joker.
He blacked out.
A few minutes later he clawed back to reality. He tried standing up, but he was in too much agony. He looked over at Sheila and was shocked to see her tied to a wooden beam. Her words barely breached through the fogginess clouding his mind.
"… alive… bomb, Jason…"
2:04
The word 'bomb' was enough to shock him back into clarity. He had an overwhelming surge of protectiveness. It took all of his self-discipline to start untying his traitorous mother and not pass out. He was not able to make out any of the words she was saying to him or what he was mumbling to her. He held on to her as she walked him towards the door.
0:12
Sheila placed her son against a crate and frantically pulled at the door. Meanwhile, the timer ticked down slowly.
0:05
"The door!" She yelled.
"…What wrong?" He whispered.
0:02
"It's locked! The Joker locked us in here!" Jason took a deep breath and jumped in front of his mother, ignoring the pain.
The warehouse exploded into flames. The last thing Jason felt was the searing, white-hot agony of flames engulfing his body. His last thought was that Batman wasn't going to save him this time.
Jason Todd woke up, chest heaving. He gasped for air, reveling in the sweet oxygen that entered his lungs and he quickly made sure that his body was not on fire. He fell back onto his pillow with a groan and rubbed at his forehead.
He always had nightmares about his death. They were always so vivid and left him reeling. The young man could never tell if he was still alive, or in hell, after waking. The only thing that kept Jason from putting a bullet into his head to stop the nightmares was the fact that his two friends, Roy Harper and Koriand'r,were sleeping in the room adjacent to his. If he listened carefully, he could hear Roy's loud snores almost overtaking the sound of traffic below.
Right now, they were the ones keeping him alive. Not the vengeance he swore on his murderer or his so called "family". He knew that if he died, his friends would probably be the only people to mourn him. He shook his head free of those depressing thoughts. Tomorrow, he had some scumbag criminals to kill as the Red Hood. His teammates, Starfire and Arsenal, were counting
He was murdered by the Joker on April 27. For mysterious reasons, he had been brought back. Jason Todd was alive.