I am excited to share this chapter.
Chapter eleven
The pieces were falling together. Tim had several possible ways to cure Jason of the Pit's blood, the tracker he had managed to get on Jason revealed three locations where the former Robin went a lot, and he WAS the bait that could draw Jason out. He sat at his bedroom desk over his tablet, drawing up plans to bring Jason out in the open, to get a sedative in him, to get him to Bruce and show him their options to fit the Pit.
It was probably time to bring someone else into the plan since it was clear that Jason retained all of his knowledge. Tim could not beat him, not while Jason was so focused on him.
"Dinner time Tim." Mrs. Mac called up the stairs. The boy set aside the tablet and went downstairs.
Janet had gone to some society party and so it was just Tim and his Dad. Jack seemed fixated on his phone so they ate in silence the first half of the meal, Tim turning his own fixation on running through the best ally. He wasn't sure Bruce could keep an open mind where it came to Jason. Dick too might have a problem with objectivity. Bringing in someone outside the Bat family would cause Bruce to be furious.
That left Batgirl, or maybe even Catwoman.
But Tim was afraid he couldn't explain himself to Batgirl. She might read his intentions in his body language, but that didn't mean she could understand him. And Catwoman liked to make Robin squirm.
"What are you studying upstairs?" Jack broke into his thoughts
"Oh, actually I've done my homework. I was just reading up on chess strategy." Tim answered. Well not chess, but bat strategy. Jack would probably fall over if he knew what Tim knew and what Tim did.
"Good. I've got something to show you after dinner." Jack returned to his phone and Tim scowled at his plate. He highly doubted that Jack's something would be something he really liked. Jack and Janet did not understand their son. They didn't know anything about his likes, dislikes and hobbies.
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"This," Jack set a box that held a DVD set, thick books on business, financial strategies and the like in front of his son, "is Foster's Guide to Business management."
"Oh." Tim said woodenly. He was surprised. So his parents remembered they had wanted him to go into business. The time they had thought to put him in baseball, or the time they planned to teach him to ride a bike, and the time they had meant to show him to his new school all had been forgotten as soon as they went on a trip to their beloved artifacts and dusty history. Tim, who had an eidetic memory, could not remember a time when they had actually come back with the same idea that they had left with. He was understandably confused.
"I've decided you should go through this. You are expected to spend an hour each afternoon studying. You will meet a tutor who you will answer too next week. Since you're done with homework you can start tonight."
"Um, I was going to go out with some friends from school tonight." Tim volunteered. "Can I start tomorrow?"
"No. You can cancel your plans. This is your Future, Tim." Jack said, absently examining one of the books. "I'll check on you in a bit."
Tim groaned, but reached for his phone. He called Bruce to let him know that Jack had something for him to do. Bruce sounded distracted as he told Tim to do his best to get out as soon as possible.
The boy sat down to go through stuff he understood already. For once in his life he was glaring at the books he was supposed to read. Finally he picked up one of the books, tossed himself on the couch and began to read. (Or act like he was reading as he actually went over his plans in his head).
Gradually he became aware that Jack had the TV on his study, right next door to the living room where Tim was working through his extra homework. The name Arkham caught his attention. He tossed the book aside and ran to the study. Jack wasn't there. But the TV was, the images showing an air view of the gothic, dark building with numerous high fences around it. Arkham House for the Criminally Insane.
"… Where tonight the serial killer known only as The Joker disappeared from his cell without a trace. The public is warned to take extra precautions. The police force has already set up perimeters and the famous Bat Signal is on, calling for Gotham's unknown protectors. Commissioner Gordon has asked for Gotham's help…."
Gordon appeared on the screen, rumpled and tired looking, giving the familiar litany of ways to try to keep oneself safe. "At this point we are questioning several persons of interest and…"
Lightning fast clarity fell upon Tim. For once this wasn't the Joker, except in the fact that he had taken Jason's life. This was Jason, the insane, supposedly dead Robin. He had made his own plans. What would he do, where would he bring the Joker?
Bruce… he was going to reveal himself to Bruce tonight.
Tim ran for his room.
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He snuck into the Cave, already fully Robin, because he needed a sedative and supplies to take Jason's blood so he could see what the blood of the pit was doing. Of the three places Jason had been hanging around the most Tim knew very well which he would be at. One was a run down, bare apartment where Jason slept and ate. Another was a base of sorts, where he worked out of, scaring the local drug dealers with increasing violence. The last was the abandoned theater in Crime Alley, the place where Batman began, where Bruce had found Jason stealing tires, and now where Jason determined to make Bruce choose… he had said he hoped Bruce saw reason before he was done with the others.
Tim didn't know what Jason was going to do, but he knew where to go. Everyone else was busy searching for the Joker and were not answering their coms. So Robin set out to save Jason on his own.
Ten minutes later Robin was slipping among the silent shadows of Crime Alley. He stood in the center of the abandoned street, dark cape closing around his slender, youthful body turning him into one of the shadows. And he listened. And he watched.
The dusk closed in around the alley. An air of doom hung over the potholed street, a gray wind rushing through the refuse that lined the cracked, grass grown sidewalks. Of the eight street laps that dangled over the street with its abandoned theater and other shops only two cast forth a yellow light, creating small circles of weak light. Robin's cape flickered at the edge of one of these circles, watching a few motorcycles race through the alley. Probably kids from Tim's own school riding through the Den of Crime on a dare.
However dangerous their joyride was, they caused Tim's quarry to show himself. A light flickered in one of the windows above Tim's head as a gloved hand moved the blackout material to look outside. Without hesitation Robin swung to the top of the building. The old theater administration rooms were his target, but he could not use a window.
A maintenance door, locked from the inside, was Robin's entrance. It took him ten seconds to pick the lock. The rusted hinges had promised to squeal so he quickly lubricated them.
His booted feet made no more noise than a cat as he slipped into the dark void of the hallway. Here he could suddenly hear noise, laughter that made him shudder. The Joker was laughing.
Afraid that the Joker had gotten the drop on Jason, Robin dashed as quickly as he could, taking time to do the briefest examination he could of his surroundings. He burst into the hall where he thought Jason might be. A door on either side of the hall was open, one leading into the room where Tim had seen the brief glimmer of light. The other led into the room where the lighting for the stage below had been handled.
The laughter came from the latter room.
There was no noise of a scuffle so Tim paused. He used the computer hidden in his belt to transmit all his detection and research to Oracle. He had not yet managed to escape Jason unscathed without help. Now he needed to draw Batman, Nightwing, and every other member of the family to this location. He removed a transmitter, keyed it in to Oracle's Network and set it on the floor in the darkest shadow.
Then he flitted to the doorway.
Flat against the wall he peered into the room. Joker was bound hand and foot to a chair that was precariously perched over the dusty, broken audience chairs in the auditorium below. Jason was nowhere to be seen, but the blood staining Joker's jumpsuit and standing garishly out on his white face spoke of the older Robin's handiwork.
A trap.
"Rob-" Bruce's voice started across the channel. Tim cut it out and entered the room.
The trap sprung. His dark cape was the first thing Jason saw, causing the red hooded man to leap from his hiding place before he realized that the wrong member of the dynamic duo had entered the ambush. Tim had determined the most likely location for Jason to be lurking. It was fortunate he was right because he moved away from that location before he saw Jason and the red gloves merely brushed the flap of Robin's cape. As Robin spun around he saw that the red ski mask had been exchanged for a red helmet. Except for the black fatigue pants that Jason wore the jacket, gloves and boots were red.
Jason screamed curses at Robin, who merely stood waiting for the angry man to choose action. With a calmness that belied the racing heart below the red armor Robin catalogued the place of fighting. He stood between Jason and the giggling Joker, who appeared to have gotten a dose of his own gas. Red Hood's foul stream ceased and he drew himself up to his full height.
"I thought I had taken care of you." Hood screamed.
"Don't do this Jason. Batman- your dad will be here soon." Robin pleaded. "Please let us help you."
"I don't need help! I need Bruce to kill that monster!" Jason screamed, lunging around Robin to shove the chair out of the broken window. Tim tackled him a fraction of a second too late, but he had already seen that Jason had fastened cords to the chair. It fell five feet and jerked to a stop. Joker's head hit the wall and the giggling finally fell silent.
"You need help! You were dipped in the Lazarus pit. The blood of the pit is affecting you…" Tim barely avoided getting tackled.
"I am going to kill you." Jason spat. "I am fine!"
"Then why are you doing this? As Robin you would never have killed."
"And look where that got me! Bruce should have avenged me. Instead he replaced me."
"That's not true! I am not a replacement. It is everything I can do to keep him straight. He nearly killed people after you died. He tried to get himself killed! He needed someone to remind him of what he was fighting for, because he had lost his way when he lost you."
As they spoke they danced around the room in the brutal, violent form of martial arts that Bruce had created using every art he had learned in his travels. Jason knew each move, and some of his own. The only reason Tim was not already down for the count was because of Lady Shiva's teaching. Tim had a few of his own moves that Jason did not know.
The bow staff was Tim's only other advantage. Dick had once said he had never seen anyone use a staff the way Tim did. The boy hadn't believed him, but as he fought now he realized that the staff had become the extension of him his masters had spoken off. He was able to use it to keep out of Jason's arms, as a pole to help him leap over his adversary's head, and as an offensive weapon.
Tim's com was continually sounding in his ear. He needed to let Bruce know to hurry…
Jason's arm grabbed Tim's free hand and yanked. The same moment Tim's staff swung into the back of Jason's knees. They collapsed together, Tim's shoulder dislocating on impact, and Jason's elbow cracking against the metal chair lying in a heap on the floor. Quickly they rolled apart, Tim taking the moment to tap his com. He had only one hand now, but Jason was in the same boat.
They eyed each other across the room. Bruce was screaming at Tim through the com, demanding to know what he was doing in the field without letting anyone know and what Oracle was babbling about Jason. Tim yanked the com out of his ear, raising the volume so that Jason could hear and tossing the com to the floor between them.
"Batman. I'm fine. The stalker is Jason Todd. Ra's Al Ghul tricked you with a false body and dipped Jason into the Lazarus Pit. He's alive."
"Robin-" Batman uttered in an awful tone.
"Shut up Bruce." Jason spat. "You're little replacement is right. I hope you get here soon because he's not going to live much longer."
There was silence from the com. Tim had gotten his useless arm tucked into his belt and now swung the staff from side to side. "Bruce he's got the Joker. He wants you to kill-"
Jason attacked before Tim could finish.
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Batman ignored the query from Nightwing over the comms as he landed on the roof of the theater. He could not answer the question from his eldest anyway. Oracle kept issuing a new statement as she raced through the information Tim had collection. This could not be real.
The com was dead. It had been destroyed as Tim tried to give Bruce more information. Batman's emotions were divided between fury that Tim was doing this to him and fear that he might find the youngest Robin dead. The door Robin had entered ten minutes before was still unlocked. Batgirl and Spoiler, however she had heard the information, appeared on the roof. Nightwing was still fifteen minutes out, racing home to Gotham from Bludhaven.
Huntress and the Birds of Prey were continuing the search for Joker.
Bruce raced to the hallway where the beacon was transmitting. The building was silent. No collisions, no voices, no horrible laughter. The fight between Tim and J- the stalker had ended. Déjà vu slugged Bruce in the gut as he raced to the closest door.
The sight within made even him freeze.
Of the two bodies within he saw the larger one first, lying sprawled on its back, the red helmet cracked in half to show a face that Bruce could not be sure was Jason or not. The second, smaller body was propped against the wall, Tim's staff lying on his lap. Robin was just barely conscious. He held up a syringe to Bruce as Batman hurried forward.
"Need to keep him under. He went berserk… and forgot that I'm shorter than him."
Bruce took the syringe in a shaking hand. Cassandra immediately took it and went to do the deed, to keep unconscious whoever this Red Hood was.
"You took him down?" Any fury Bruce had towards the boy faded when he saw the stalker so clearly.
"He attacked high. I got him low in the gut, got him to knock his head on the… chair." For the first time Bruce saw that the Red Hood's head lay on a collapsed metal chair. It was likely what had split the helmet's fissure. "Gotta… gotta take some blood. You need to see…" Tim suddenly smiled. "Bruce, Bruce… it's gonna be okay now. You're gonna be okay now."
He struggled to stand and Bruce, once more, was confused by this child. But Tim limped over to the man he had taken down and peeled away the rest of the helmet and then the eye mask below.
The face was as close to Jason's face, a couple years older, as some of Bruce's programs designed to show him what his son would have looked like were.
Batgirl had given him the sedative and now stood waiting for orders. Spoiler flitted back and forth and was the one to discover that Joker was dangling in a chair from the window facing the stage. Tim laughed slightly. "I think he got a dose of Joker gas."
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Dick wanted to knock his little brother in the head. What was the idiot thinking going after the Red Hood himself? And how had he known where Red Hood would be and that this… this brute had taken Joker? Oracle was babbling about Jason of all people and then Bruce was yelling and then…
Jason and Tim were speaking from Tim's com.
Dick was ready to move back to Gotham just to keep Robin safe, because Bruce was doing a horrible job of it. He was still a few minutes away when Oracle kindly informed him that Robin and the Red Hood were both alive and were both on their way to the Cave. Dick could not wrap his mind around what it meant that Tim's research showed Red Hood was Jason.
By the time he got to the Cave Alfred had corrected Tim's shoulder and Robin was talking a mile a minute as he explained the options he had uncovered for counteracting the effects of the Pit's Blood.
The Red Hood was under sedation and strapped to the bed.
"TIMOTHY DRAKE!" Dick yelled.
Robin twisted around in surprise but before he could ask what was wrong, which his face proclaimed he was about to do and before Dick could lambast him with his idiocy the computer issued a signal to let them know the tests were done.
"Tests?" Dick asked.
"Computer, relay information."
"Blood 99% match with Jason Todd, Robin, deceased. Foreign contaminant detected - matches LZ-15."
Silence filled the cave as the members, except for Tim, struggled to wrap their minds around this affirmation. Jason Todd was alive!
End of Part One
Still a seven more chapters to go! Coming up: We get to see the world through Jason's eyes!
Let me know what you think! Please review!