Little Bird's Vengeance Chapter 63 Data Required
"Fury has instructed us to ensure your data is recorded and filed with SHIELD," Natasha announced.
Clint stood by her side, impassive. They were specialists, not data analysts, but they were the ones that had the most contact with the Titans. And Tasha spent more time on intell gathering than him.
"Our records are currently on one of Jarvis' virtual boards," Cassie shrugged. "And at the moment they're more orientated around keeping track of exactly when we were where rather than for actually using the data."
"Trying to prevent paradoxes?" Clint asked, remembering Red Robin's lecture.
"Yup," Bart said cheerfully. I mean, seeing ghosts of yourself is creepy, but if you know you're time travelling, it's not as perilous as Harry Potter claims."
"Harry Potter?" asked Tasha. Her voice was deadpan, but Clint knew her well enough to pick up the faint trace of confusion.
"Yeah, all that nonsense about killing yourself," Bart shrugged. "Seeing your future self, thinking you're going crazy, it's not nearly so difficult when you know what you could be doing."
"So your records are what exactly?" Tasha asked.
"Uh, mostly a rather confused sort of map," Cassie explained. "Jarvis? Give us our board?"
A holographic projection shimmered into existence, and Cassie and Bart started to run through it.
Jason curled up in the pilot's seat of his borrowed Quinjet, his new 'friend' in the co-pilot's seat. "You say Fury sent you?" he said suspiciously.
"He didn't give me much by way of details, but yeah, he sent me," Coulson confirmed. "He told me you had a highly unusual traumatic experience and needed someone to talk to about it. Said that you'd understand if I said that our Battle of New York was your UN attack."
Jason frowned. The UN attack was obviously a reference to what Tim had outlined regarding Joker's next move after killing him. For the Battle of New York to have the same implications would mean that…
"Did Loki fatally wound you prior to the battle?" he asked.
Coulson stilled. "My survival is a Level 7 security issue," he said. "The details are highly classified."
"Did you die?" Jason insisted. A bit of a reach, but he had a feeling.
"If I died, I'd have had to be resurrected," Coulson evaded.
"It can be done," Jason said sharply. "I have…intimate experience of such things."
"According to the records, I flatlined for eight seconds," Coulson murmured. "But it was more like several months. There was this program that brought me back. I don't remember it. My memories were altered. I'm told that remembering the experience destroyed me."
Jason huffed a laugh. "Yeah, now that I understand. Everything messed up in the head, all…full of pain. Like being dragged naked over broken glass. Not knowing what's real, or imaginary, or anything. Thoughts jumbled up, looping back, not being able to tell what you're even thinking. Count your blessings you lost that."
"You been to Tahiti?" Coulson asked. There was something in his voice that hinted that he wanted the answer to be yes, but doubted it.
"Nah, but it sounds nice," Jason shrugged. "I got thrown in a Lazarus Pit."
"What's a Lazarus Pit?" Coulson asked.
"A rather unstable method of rejuvenating dead or badly degraded tissue. Dunno how it works." Jason shuddered, remembering the slime he'd crawled out of. The agony of it seeping into his body. Coughing it out of suddenly functional lungs. He shook his head, forcing it out of his head as best he could. "You said Fury sent you to talk to me?"
"You keep coming back to that, don't you?" Coulson asked, bemused.
"What can you possibly offer that made Fury send you?" Jason asked. "Just a little chat about death and life subsequent to it?"
"I don't really know myself," Coulson answered. "I told you. He didn't give me much by way of details. You need to talk about a highly traumatic experience. Our Battle of New York was your UN attack. You, Red Hood, are a contact for an asset called Red Robin, with whom Fury has a deal to keep certain useful information of-the-books, including information about you. But you're unstable. I'm to be completely truthful, and keep all this off the record. That's all I have to work with."
"I don't like being called unstable," Jason snarled, then relaxed again. "But it's accurate."
"Because of the Lazarus Pit thing?"
Another huffed laugh. "Some people would say I wasn't the most stable even before then, but yeah." Jason felt a strange suspicion stir inside him, and focused the hardest glare he could muster on Coulson. "Don't you hold it against me, okay? Don't you try judging me for it."
"Considering I was driven to want to die by my resurrection and had to have my mind altered in order to have any will to live? I can't really fault you for a little instability." Coulson settled back in his chair a little. "Why don't you tell me a little about yourself? I mean, I hadn't heard of you or your friend Red Robin until I got Fury's message. I'm kinda curious."
"You really know nothing?" Jason asked, reading truth but not even beginning to understand it.
"My team and I have been sort of in our own little bubble," Coulson shrugged. "I mean, Skye's probably got a massive amount on you by now – she's a hacker, was with this group called the Rising Tide. But I don't think there was anything sensitive in Fury's message, and all your private information is unrecorded, right?"
"Sounds about right, yeah," Jason agreed. "Right. You familiar with the idea of other worlds?"
"We talking Asgard or Mars?" Coulson asked nonchalantly, but deeply curious.
"Asgard is closer, but not really," Jason elaborated. "I'm talking about parallel Earths."
Coulson leaned forward eagerly. "I'm listening."
"Well, these are Earths where things are different. We don't really know how it works, but we've seen a variety. I, and Red Robin, are from one of these other Earths…"