Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot.
Anyone who'd worked with Batman had heard that spiel about a hundred times. It was what made them easy to control, what made it possible to drive out most of the established mob bosses, along with their crime cartels within a few years.
Of course, there had been a time when anyone would have run away screaming from any grown man running around in a Halloween costume, throwing pointy things at people.
Criminals were still superstitious and cowardly, only they'd grown numb to the fear costumed heroes had once struck so well. Hell, half of them worked for people with names like Penguin and Two-Face (why he was called that when he actually had two half-faces was a point of contention for Jason that he'd carried from his Robin days and still refused to let go of even if he never mentioned it out loud).
They were still afraid of Batman, just not enough to stay in their holes and leave other people alone.
Smart Gothmites knew to stay out of alleys and all the other darker corners of the city. Those that had no choice, who were born in those places, were bred tough and even more suspicious than their fellow city dwellers.
Before they could even walk kids from those seedy parts of the city knew the ins and outs. Nothing was free, stay away from anyone affiliated with the gangs as much as possible, never follow anyone into an alley alone… the list went on.
Jason knew those things because he was one of those kids.
That was why he was fucking stumped when he realized Blondie had followed him down an alley that was barely visible from the street, not even blinking as she entered the hole in the wall dive bar.
She was a Gotham kid too, and a bat on top of that, her fight or flight instincts should have been screaming at her.
"Oh, so scary. Is this where all the supervillains hang out?" Coming in from the rare sunny Gotham day, she had to squint to see properly in the dim interior. "Not as weird as Talia's hotel rooms though, unless you're gonna threaten to drown me in Gotham bay too."
"Talia threatened to what?" He guided her to the furthest back of the four booths, right next to one of the tinted windows while he waved four fingers at the guy behind the counter.
"Yeah, the letter, hold on." She dropped her school bag on the table and began rifling through it. "But it was right after she saved me from being rescued by Big and Little D, so I think she was joking or, whatever."
The hell was Talia even still in Gotham for? Jason accepted the large brown envelope, but set it aside. It could have been some unimportant drivel to show she was still around and wanted him to get in contact with her, or she was desperate enough to entrust something important to Batgirl.
It could wait until either he was somewhere more private, or reading it in public was a bad idea.
He was self aware enough to know that he was likely just being petty because Talia had gone behind his back to mess in his business again, but he wasn't honest enough that he'd ever admit it.
Threatening people who had nothing to do with it was going just a little too far for his liking, and she didn't make threats lightly.
"I thought places like these only opened after dark." She chirped, eyes flittering across the room staling for a second on the chalkboard menu hanging above the bar then moving back to the few other patrons. One of them winked at her and she grinned, waving four fingers at him. "Is this some kind of secret super villain salute?"
"No." He glared at the man, who hastily turned back to conversing with his friends. "It was me ordering the number four."
"Oh." Her cheeks flushed a light pink and Jason covered most of his nose and mouth to suppress his chuckle.
They were quiet up until the cook came from the back with two orders of wings and sodas balanced on a large tray. The tall woman dumped the food on their table with just a nod in Jason's direction before disappearing again.
"I don't know if bar food is to your taste, but I'd rather not haul your starving ass back to you apartment when you pass out from…"
"Aw, you'd carry me to safety if I swoooooned?" She drew out the last word as she clasped her hands to her chest and leaned far to the side.
Figured she'd focus on that instead of the implication that a dangerous criminal knew where she lived.
"Hell am I even doing here?" He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"It's all low key, hidden, tinted windows and you're paranoid." She said around a mouth full of chicken, gulping down a large sip of soda to wash it down.
Jason held up two fingers at the sides of his head, keeping his expression blank when she cracked up and spent the next few seconds trying not to choke between bouts of laughter. "Don't know why I bothered. Booster Gold woulda been more subtle."
"Yeah, B's really been goin at it lately, huh. Like he thinks if he punches the city hard enough it'll cough you out." She shook of most of the tension that had crept into her shoulders. "Everyone else is mostly working on this league of shadows slash gang thing that's been going on. Only reason I'm not on patrol alone most nights is cause they're worried about your little fan club popping up to say hi all the time."
"Told you it'd make you a target."
"Yeah, but I also got a scary big bro to be all like…" She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb and spoke in a guttural growl, "… scram. And chase away all the guys that get all…" She brought one manicured finger to her mouth and stopped what probably would have been a long rant short.
"Fuck, are you choking again?" He leaned over the table to wave a hand in front of her eyes.
"Hey, does my awesome big bro know anything about what's going on with the gangs right now?"
"I know people are OD'ing left an right on some new drug that hit the streets coupla weeks ago, every drug lord an their cousin want in on it, but the guy controlling supply is aint sharing. Got to six runners I know of."Kids two of them, another with sick parents who now had no support. "Not gonna lie, things are getting ugly real soon, maybe not a full on gang war, but nothing good either."
"Damnit." She groaned, running her hand though her hair, the golden locks catching the dim lighting. "Are you sure, I never heard about any new drugs."
"Got a real short half life, so only way to get a sample is to let them hit ya up, and I don't think any of you are dedicated enough for that. Anyone gets near enough and the dealers are torching their own supplies." Yeah, the new boss was real paranoid about losing the monopoly on his product.
"Bet you know another way to get it." She leaned forward, planting her elbows on the table and cradling her head in her hands.
"I might." He smirked, sliding his untouched serving of wings towards her. "Been outta the loop for a while, so it'd be tricky."
"Riiight." She made a show of looking around suspiciously, going so far as to check under the table before she slid one of the glittery IOU's he'd made back at the clinic over to him. "Genie, for my first wish, I'd like some of those new drugs please."
"Don't say it like that." He winced, his face scrunching up in distaste, he really wasn't in any shape to be tracking down a drug cartel and raiding their supplies. She held his gaze though and he let up with a sigh, accepting the card with a disbelieving shake of his head, glad they were in a place where overtly asking for drugs wasn't too out of the ordinary. "Your wish is my command Blondie. Meet me back in two nights, before your patrol."
He finished off his soda and stalked off to drop a few bills with the cashier while she chattered with the man about packing up the left over wings to go.
There were worse things she could have asked him for, he thought, clutching the brown envelope tightly.
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The sun didn't often shine in Gotham, and when it did, it didn't shine all that brightly. It had seemed bright in that room at the clinic, but after Arkham, any scrap of natural light would have.
Jason had never minded the darkness before, but hunched in an oversized rain coat – and finding anything that was oversized for him was a feat in itself – watching the light drizzle of rain falling from the overcast sky, he was craving some actual, blindingly bright sunshine.
With his luck, it was probably some kind of vitamin D deficiency and would bite him in the ass around the same time that stroke did.
The park was still nice either way, grass, some benches, of which Jason seated on. Under some trees were signs that kids came around to play on the rusty equipment on the rare occasion the weather allowed. Fuck, a lot of kids in Gotham would have been out regardless most days, Jason knew he'd danced in many a storm when he'd been a kid.
There were even a few bright flowers, wilted but standing boldly against the concrete jungle they were born into. The flower that blooms in adversity, huh?
A man came by in a shambling gait, splashing through a grimy puddle that must have soaked through fancy leather shoes that didn't sync at all with the rest of his ratty outfit.
Unfortunately weeds grew very well in adversity too.
Jason stomped down on a cluster of blackjacks as he followed; paying no mind to the barbed seeds that clung to his pants and sneakers.
'Frenzy', was what the new drug was going by on the streets. How so many people had gotten hooked if he first place when it had a name like that was a mystery Jason had no interest in solving, but in an ironic turn that was in no way pleasant, the results made it almost insultingly easy to track.
A while ago, he could have racked it all the way to the source and blown the place sky high without breaking a sweat. His current… er situation made more subtle means necessary, hence his following of a guy who he knew would only be in the East Quarter for one reason.
Turns out he was right on the money when the guy ducked into a shabby, graffiti heavy building that might once have been a snack bar of some sort. Jason leaned casually against a side near a low window where he could peek in at the two waiting men.
"Don't like this man." One of the dealers whined. "You know what he does when kids are involved, and I heard…"
"You wanna duck out, go ahead, but you won't catch me crossing the boss fer a ghost." The taller of the two cut in as needles dulled from use made their appearance.
Jason's breath hitched a little at the sight, but he pushed it into the same corner as all the other shadows and made himself pay attention. How ridiculous would it be if he exposed himself and it wasn't even the right drug, huh?
The guy with the nice shoes was handed over a wad of bills with his shaking fingers, glancing every which-way at shadows of his own. Just another sign of the withdrawal that had given him away in the first place. That along with the nausea, which, yeah, that had not been pleasant to watch.
Few words were exchanged and the whiny thug plunged the needle into their customer's neck. The guy's eyes widened while the rest of his face sagged in relief, looking around at a whole new world. A blissful smile crept on to his face and he thanked the dealers profusely before sauntering out.
Before he knew it, bile had found its way up Jason's throat and he had to sprint away so the dealers didn't hear him loose the take out lasagna he'd had for lunch.
He pressed his back against a tree and wiped the remains away from his mouth while he took some time to calm his stomach. First time that had happened all day though, so it was still a new record, maybe he should have been following the meal plan Leslie had handed him on his way out.
"Fuck it." He scowled when he looked up and the dealers were all ready leaving. He already looked like hell so he might as well play it up right.
"Hey, wait!" He broke into a run, chasing after them.
They knew they were the ones he was calling out to, maybe because the park was empty, but Jason had long since decided weeds like them knew when they were being singled out by someone interested in their product. Even when the one doing the calling was industrial strength herbicide.
Weird as it was doing it during daytime, at least there were no bats getting in his way.
"Ryan Orwell said I could get some of that new stuff from you guys, said it feels like heaven."
They went from pissed to pleasant in a matter of seconds, one of them even threw an arm around Jason's shoulder while they steered him back towards the abandoned snack bar where they'd either bring out the drug or try to kill him depending on how believable his act was. Either outcome was good in his eyes, so he didn't fight it.
"Ryan Orwell huh?" Tall Thug grinned. "Heard he had a bad reaction."
"Come on man, how old this kid?" Whiny Thug dragged his feet, but followed.
"Older 'n Orwell, and I aint no kid." Jason bit out, it had been forever since someone had called him a kid. Scratch following the meal plan, he was bulking up as fast as possible. "Not my fault Orwell couldn't handle his shit."
"Ya heard the man." Tall Thug shut the door behind them. "You got the green ta pay fer this? Frenzy don't come cheap y'know."
"Yeah I know alright." Jason gave the area a cursory scan for witnesses, ambushes or surveillance equipment. "But I ain't the one payin."
He'd fired off two shots from the gun in his pocket, taking out both of tall thugs arms before he'd even had a chance to blink.
"Fucking hell!" Whiny Thug dropped the needles he'd been prepping and reached for his own gun, but Jason was faster and the dealer's firing hand got it's very own bullet to match the ones in his friend. "You need money kid, you can have it all, no one's gotta get hurt here, right?"
Money. Jason almost laughed, would have maybe if he'd been in a better mood. It always went back to money with those people, didn't it?
"Psh." Jason scoffed. "No one's gotta get hurt." He scooped up Whiny Thug's discarded gun. "Stupidity is a talent for misconception." He turned his gun on Whiny Thug with a sharp edged grin. "Congratulations, you've just won the talent show."
BANG
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"Hey Tim, is this gonna take long?"
"Uh huh." He was still turning the little blue box around in his hands, running a little tool over it to check for who knew what.
"Do I have to be here until it's finished?" She rubbed at her crusty eyes.
"What if it's fanmail?" He asked with a small smile, not looking up from his examination. "But seriously, I might need you for context. Go talk to Dick or something if you're bored."
"Fine." She sloppily saluted and dropped off the table she'd been perched on to leave Tim's isolated little alcove and reenter the main part of the cave.
She couldn't talk to Barbara because the woman was actually getting some sleep for once, and for all the cool knick knacks laying around, the cave wasn't really that interesting when you'd already spent as much time in it as she had.
She almost turned and went right back to annoying Tim when she noticed what Dick was watching on the huge Batcomputer monitor.
More footage from that blank white room where Jason had spent most of his time in Arkham. The only reason she went closer was because she heard Dick chuckle softly. No matter how much he hated a guy, Dick would never laugh at anyone in real pain.
Jason was arranging the many skittles into a Nightwing symbol, shooting occasional glances at the camera. When he was done, he made a show of studying his work, then looked at the camera again before gathering up the skittles he'd used and dumping them in the toilet. He saluted, one fist placed on his chest, then the fist stretched out, and he flipped the bird at the camera while flushing the toilet with a completely deadpan expression.
Dick chuckled again and scrubbed a hand across eyes that were tinted red, guy really needed to get some sleep.
"You shouldn't laugh at that." Steph said and Dick looked at her over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow. "Those skittles are stolen property, he cheated them out of me and then he wouldn't even share."
"God, he was a brat." Dick shook his head, a fragile smile playing across his lips while Jason fashioned a Green Lantern ring. "The guards took what was left over when he went to the common room the next day."
"And he doesn't even like skittles." She poured as much disdain into her voice as she could.
"Yeah? I didn't know that, maybe I should have sent him some more." Dick's voice hitched on the last word and his eyes got a little more watery, and uneasy feeling that it wasn't just because he was tired brewed in her chest.
"I can't believe this is the guy you were all so scared of."Steph shook her head as the Jason on screen wrote K and R in colorful candy next to the ring and pointed at it with both index fingers while looking at the camera before he began crushing it. "I get the dig at Nightwing, but what does he have against Green Lantern?"
"He went on a trip through the multiverse with one of them and Trioa."
"I can't decide if that's cool or terrifying."
"Neither could they. Kyle told me he was starting to like Jason, in a bratty kid brother kind of way, then something happened and he just abandoned the mission, took off." Dick's eyes shifted off the screen and back to the case that loomed like a shadow in the cave despite the pale blue display lights attached to it. "Someone who hated him at first almost saw him as a brother, and I…"
"Dick?" Steph put herself between him and the case. "Are you feeling okay?" Dumb question but damnit, she didn't know what else to do.
"I told Damian that Jason could have saved himself if he'd just reached out to someone, anyone, but he did reach out, in New York and when I was with the Outsiders and, and I talked so much about family, but I just wrote him off and I, fuck and I used Bruce's last message against him like that when he was…"
Okay, if she'd been feeling wrong about the whole thing before, that just amplified the wrongness by like a hundred.
"Dick?"She carefully laid a hand on his shoulder, looking around frantically for one of his siblings or Alfred, or Babs, or literally anyone he was close to to show up and calm him down. "You need to stop watching these things…" She stormed towards the controls and typed in the code to shut of the footage so hard she would have broken the keys on a more normal computer.
"If I'd visited him just one time, or watched the surveillance then maybe I would have noticed what was happening… he wouldn't have been…" The most telling sign of Dick's current mental state was that he was even letting her see him like that.
"He proly would have tried to flush 'you' down the toilet, you know, in itty bitty bits like he always threatened to chop him into. Definitely if you said you wanted to help him. You woulda just given him more things to be mad about when plots his revenge plan that will involve like, burying Gotham in skittles or…"
"He's not going to be plotting his revenge Steph." Dick let out a shaky breath. "And we did enough of pushing the blame onto him the first time."
"Tell that to Bruce, I don't think he's looking for Jason to give him a little pat on the back." Steph said. "He's probably gonna give him a much big pat, in his face, with his fist."
He looked up at her, shock on his bright blue eyes while he scrubbed a hand along the lower part of his face. "Is that what you…" He slowly stood up from his chair and gently pressed her towards it.
"Dick, what's going on." She tried to smile, cheer him up a little maybe.
"Just sit down." He said firmly and she complied, if only so she didn't kick up a fight. "We stopped looking for Jason more than three weeks ago Steph…"
"Bruce…"
"Someone as malnourished as he was, just wouldn't have been able to handle the kind of drugs Arkham was pumping into him down there Steph. He needed a Doctor, and we checked all the ones he could have gotten himself to before his body would have just given out. Do you understand?"
"No." Steph pressed a hand over her mouth and stared at the man in front of her, horrified at the implications of what he was saying.
"Arkham had some people set up to take away the, the remains of the people he… For the past four weeks Bruce has been looking for those people, so, so we can at least give Jay a proper funeral and…"
"Dick." Steph shot up from the chair and wrapped her arms around him, holding tightly as shudders ran through her body, she didn't even try holding back her tears.
"It would have been painless at the end." Dick said, returning her hug. "He didn't suffer at least."
Dick was a good liar, and she might have believed him if she hadn't seen Jason in what would have been his very, very painful death throws. He would have studied the chemical cocktail detailed in those files, would have know how the drug would affect Jason.
She ran her hand in circles along his back and remembered the tightness in Tim's voice when she'd asked if he knew where Jason was.
The whole time she'd been so sure they'd been scouring the city to send Jason to some other hell hole. That they hated him and wanted him gone and would have been relieved to have him gone. They'd been frantically searching, not to punish him further, but because they thought he needed their help.
She couldn't regret keeping him hidden from them in the beginning of his stay at the clinic, when they would have had him transferred somewhere 'more secure' where he'd have felt trapped and unable to recover. She couldn't regret not letting them send him to some other 'facility' in Central City as soon as he looked well enough to walk.
She did regret that while they were mourning his slow and painful death, she'd been sneaking him candy and laughing along with him at corny musicals.
She thought of Jason's shaking hands and the way he was still jumping at shadows, and she regretted that she still couldn't tell them where there was nothing to mourn, or where he was, because that fucking room was stuck in the back of her mind and the thought of him being locked away again was worse.
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She still felt terrible the next day when she slouched into the same booth she'd shared with Jason the last time she'd seen him. No sleep on top of feeling like the worse person in the history of the world, and her stomach physically threatened a revolution every time she even thought of filling it.
"The fuck happened now?" There was a heavy thump as Jason dropped into the seat across from her.
"They think you're dead." Her voice was heavily muffled by virtue of having her face pressed into her folded arms, but she was sure he could hear her anyway.
"Good for them." A peek over her arms saw him waving two fingers at cashier guy. "They forget to invite you to the party.
"No, not good for them." She reluctantly propped her arms up and rested her cheeks in her palms. "They're taking it really, really bad Jay, and I don't know what to do."
"They're Bat's, they latch onto everything they can think of to add to their long list of things to brood about, give em a few weeks and they'll be saying how I deserved it for decking Quinzel, or talking smack to Arkham or whatever." He slid an A5 sized black case made of some kind of tough fabric towards her. "Instantly addictive, so don't get curious with this stuff, right?"
"It wasn't your fault Jay." She wrapped her hands around the case and pulled it towards her.
He blinked down at her, his teal eyes wide an unguarded for a few seconds before he closed himself off again. "Sure Blondie, dare you to say that again in a few weeks."
"You didn't kill anyone getting this, right?" She couldn't help but ask.
"Not directly." He had a thoughtful frown on his face when he answered. "Worst I did was shoot some guy's arms 'fore he could pull a gun, but their boss won't be happy they lost his product."
"Why?"
"It's bad business to play against the rule when you owe someone a debt." He said, going quiet while milkshakes and chili cheese-covered fries were dropped in front of them. "You might ask me to streak down Crime Alley yelling about cannibalistic lobsters."
"Lobsters are cannibalistic." Steph said, watching as Jason wrapped a long strand of cheese around a fry. "I had to write a paper on it once."
"Heh, more ya know." Jason shrugged.
"Would you do it?"
"Eat a Lobster?"
"Streak down crime alley if I asked you."
"That'd use up both of your favors," he said, his expression completely blank as he dunked a fry in his milkshake.
"No don't eat that!" Steph cringed when he popped the fry in his mouth. "Gross."
"You're the one trying to get me naked."
"Asshole." She groaned while he chuckled and her face burned hotter than the chili on her fries.
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The next time she was in the cave there was a shiny red helmet at the foot of the lost Robin's memorial, the plaque marking Jason as a good soldier was gone, replaced by his name written in brightly colored candy.