TW: Violence, and mild swearing (I mean it's Jason)


Jason had been having a long night, he'd been shot at twice tonight already, and had his plans to take out one of Blackmask's warehouses go awry. He stomped back to his motorcycle and kicked up the stand angrily.

Oh yeah, and something else had been strange tonight, Nightwing had been going around Gotham for the last hour. And with a vengeance, if the goons with bashed-in noses limping around have anything to say about it. Jason was tempted to go and see what was up with big bro. But he wasn't all for that touchy-feely stuff. Honestly, Dicky bird was probably just mad about something and blowing off some steam. He could talk to him later. But right now he needed to finish his patrol.

Then he heard something. His helmet picked it up quite clearly: "He didn't send the ransom video yet? I figured he would want it out immediately." Hood stopped in his tracks and crouched down on a nearby roof to listen in.

Two men were standing outside a warehouse and next to a white unmarked van, because of course they were. Hood rolled his eyes. The other man leaned up against the van putting his weight on one leg. "Boss wants us to deliver it to the GCPD directly. The last time someone sent it directly to Wayne, they were found out by Batman in an instant. Prolly' on his payroll or something."

"Oh come on, but…" Hood tuned them out and started walking away towards the back of the warehouse. So that was what Dickface was so mad about, one of his little birdies was kidnapped. Jason rolled his eyes as he grappled over onto the tattered roof.

Hood looked down through a hole in the badly shambled together warehouse roof. "It's so boring, all you can do is watch the strangely large rats run across the floor and listen to that annoying water dripping." Hood's eyes narrowed as he spotted the boy tied to a chair in between two guards.

It was the replacement, his mind grumbled angrily. How the hell did he get caught by thugs?

"How's about you shut up, kid?" Hood smirked a little under his mask. Robins never knew when to shut up. The guard moved in front of the teen. "Cause I'm this close to putting a bullet through your knee and telling the others you tried to run away." Jason narrowed his eyes, scanning the man for weak points.

The brat opened his mouth again, "How in the world am I supposed to run away when these ropes are so tight?" Little birdy is gonna get himself shot at this rate. Hood jumped down to the ground silently. "I mean what do you expect a skinny kid like me to do?" Although… from over here his voice seemed off somehow.

Hood saw the man move again directly in front of the kid. Jason barely fought the urge to immediately shoot through the man's skull. Just barely. The man growled. "Well seeing as the video is already taken care of we don't have to protect your pretty little face anymore, do we."

The man sneered as he raised his fist, about to deliver a punch. Tim closed his eyes and winced for impact. Like Jason was gonna let that happen. Though maybe he should let the brat take a punch, it might teach him not to be such a smartass. BANG! Ugh, fine. Might as well.

He stepped out of the shadows he was using to cloak himself. The goon was now cradling his bleeding hand. Jason was a good shot, he could always kill him later if he needed to. The replacement opened his eyes and looked up at his would-be attacker in shock for a second. There was blood spatter on his shirt and the side of his face. Oops.

His eyes were wide. Like he was scared. Something seemed very, very off. He spun his head to stare at Jason as he prowled forward. Then Jason froze. Were his eyes glowing? Hood was distracted; it was a rookie move. The man next to the first pulled out his rifle and began shooting at the vigilante.

Jason ducked out of the gunfire and hid behind a crate. He jumped up and shot twice at the man, one in the thigh and the other in the shoulder. The man yelped and dropped his weapon. Honestly, Jason was lucky that the man didn't try and shoot Tim instead.

Others would surely come now after hearing the gunfire. He vaulted over the crate and ran over to the kid. And he… the kid winced when Jason got close. I mean, Jason wanted his replacement to be fearful of him, but this was strange. What was also strange was that Hood could feel his fear, almost taste it. It was like it was radiating off of him.

Hood pulled out a knife from under his jacket and sliced the ropes. Careful not to cut his skin. The moment the ropes were gone Jason grabbed the kid by the shirt and hefted him to his feet. Suddenly there was the bang of a door being kicked open. Hood turned to see four more men run into the room and aim their rifles at him, shooting without question.

Tim threw himself and Hood to the ground as the first line of bullets sprayed overtop of them. Hood rolled over the kid and began shooting with one hand, the other holding himself up off the floor. He shot and hit one of the men somewhere in the abdomen. He may die later, maybe not. At this point, Hood didn't care. He felt his lower calf get nicked by a bullet, but it didn't hurt yet, probably all of the adrenaline in his veins at the moment.

Jason had gotten up off the floor now to get a better angle on the men. Better than being a sitting duck anyway. While Hood was distracted by some of the goons in front of him, one of them split off and tried to grab the kid from behind, lifting him off the ground. Tim spun around to punch the man in the jaw, causing him to let go and stumble back.

Normally Red Robin would try to knock his feet out from under him or get his arms behind his back, not just punch him in the face. That was one of the least likely things to work in this situation, honestly. The kid stepped away from the man, out of grabbing distance.

Hood was distracted by the kid again, and one of the bullets managed to hit his shoulder, causing him to drop one of his guns onto the ground. He hissed. He sure felt that one. He ducked down again as another spray of bullets came his way. He heard a sound of surprise from next to him, and glanced up to see the kid holding his side, some blood staining his fingers.

Great, he got hit. Hood raised his gun and shot the man that was getting closer to the now injured kid. The man cried out in pain that was pleasure to the anti-hero's ears. But now he saw that the kid wasn't moving at all, just standing there with all of this gunfire around. Out in the open!

He was just holding his side and staring, the brat was gonna get himself killed! Hood rushed over to him and grabbed his shoulder roughly, throwing them both behind a nearby crate. He reached into his belt and grabbed onto a handful of small grenades. They looked like large silver beads. He threw them at the men and they blew up after two seconds of priming. The rest of the goons were blown back onto the floor, unconscious. Hood smirked as he stood up slowly, careful of his shoulder.

He turned around to look back at where he left Tim, and now he was angry. He grabbed the boy roughly by the lower arm, yanking him up. If he did it any stronger he probably could have dislocated his shoulder.

"What the hell were you thinking, replacement!?" Hood yelled. "Why didn't you run? Were you trying to get yourself shot!?" The kid looked petrified, looking up at Jason. "You really do have a death wish, don't you. That, and zero self-preservation skills. I mean I'm surprised you even survived this long."

Tim was trying to get himself killed. Why wouldn't he run? He could have died, If he… Jason could have… Somethings wrong… The kid in front of him looked like he was about to have a panic attack. He choked on a gasp and tried to pull his arm away. Jason looked down at his gloved hand that was wrapped around the kid's wrist tightly. His eyes widened under his helmet.

"Shit. Sorry kid." He let go, and stepped back. Tim stumbled back a bit as well, not taking his eyes off of Jason. He looked like he was in shock, and that everything was just now catching up with him. Hood knew he had almost killed the kid before, and honestly, he regretted that whole situation. But he hadn't seen the kid this frightened of him in ages, perhaps ever. The fear radiating off of him felt toxic, he could partially see green waves flowing off of- "Tim?"

The aura was all wrong. It still felt like Tim. But there was something else. He looked at Tim's wide eyes. His glowing green wide eyes. They looked like the Lazarus pit. Like Jason's eyes when… This wasn't right.

"You're not Tim."


Authors notes

Beta read by gamma_radio (ao3)

OOOOOH, let's go! Jason POV. I love him so much! Also sorry for the shorter chapter. But I wanted this chapter to be on its own. Also, this is posted a bit early so that helps!

Thank you everyone so much for your amazing comments they always bring up my mood so much when I read them! Please tell me what you thought of the chapter! And what do you think will happen next?