Chapter Text
Lucy stiffened at Damian’s side as they all entered the Batcave. Jason had asked for a meeting among the Bats, and rather than address them, he had fiddled on the Batcomputer before pulling up one of Jimmy’s photos. Athanasia buried her face in her father’s chest, and Damian stumbled back. Stephanie looked sick, and Cass had buried her face in her hands, being held by Rose.
Silver St. Cloud stalked across the room and put a hand on Jason’s shoulder. A silent conversation passed between them and Silver once more traced an invisible scar that had once been on Jason’s face. A scar that was now visible in the photograph.
“I…think it’s only fair that you know why Cass, Rose, and I are leaving,” Jason swallowed, one hand clenching the armchair as he turned to face his family. “You’ll all want to be seated for this. It’s not a pleasant story.”
No one argued.
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The Third Wave; The End
“They’ve gone mad,” Billy Batson breathed at Jason’s side.
“Yes, and I don’t want you going mad with them,” Jason hauled the kid on his shoulder, casting a look of regret to the unconscious Nubia. “Now come on. Batman wants any kid unaffected to head to the bunker.”
“Why aren’t you affected?”
“Lazarus Pit. I’ve used the time with you kids in Blüdhaven to control my magically induced rage. Not that I’m not a naturally angry person, but you get the picture.”
“So you do thin this was because of the anti-life equation.”
Jason said nothing as they approached their make-shift sanctuary. The wall of green lantern light parted as Jason brought Billy into safety. Darla was still out there, somewhere, but they had saved most of the Marvels. Still, Darla was not one to be affected, and Jason had faith in her skills to survive. They’d find her eventually.
“This is madness,” Koriand’r whispered as she accepted Billy from Jason. “Is there no way to stop it.”
“I can’t get through to them,” Lilith shook her head. “It’s as if there is a block on their minds. All they see is hatred, rage, protection. Like their emotions are being played on.”
Jason grimaced. The protection factor was in their favor as Cass, Steph, and Rose had all three been affected. They had continued to fight and kill at each other’s side, but Jason feared what would happen if something changed.
“Jay-Jay!”
Jason turned to Letitia, seeing the worry in her eyes.
“Dami and Attie aren’t back yet! They went their grandfather! I think something is wrong! Lucy went after them!”
They went with Ra’s?
“Stay here,” Jason told her. “I’ll find them, but stay here and help Milagro, okay. She’ll need care to keep up the barrier.”
Letitia nodded, racing back to Milagro, Carrie, and Nell as Jason once more left the barrier. Dick had been out searching the fallen bodies for survivors. He was crafty enough to avoid the fight, so there was no guarantee Dick was close by enough to reach Damian and Athanasia in time.
He barely acknowledged Slade as the assassin made himself known at Jason’s side. To the surprise of everyone, Slade had been unaffected by the bloodlust, and had helped to round up the children, keeping true to his name of Papa Slade.
“They were headed towards the plaza we passed earlier,” Slade informed Jason. “They’ll be in that vicinity.”
Jason nodded. Ra’s was going to hurt anymore of his family. Not now. Not ever.
He had no idea how wrong he was.
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It took three hours to find Ra’s and the kids. And what Jason and Slade found made Jason freeze in horror. He had heard tales…tales of Ra’s planning to take his soul and place it into that of his young heir. But seeing Ra’s actually preparing to do it. And to his little brother.
“Ra’s!” Jason boomed down into the pit where both Damian and Athanasia lay unconscious, his younger brother halfway strapped into some sort of machine. “Back away from my siblings!”
Ra’s looked up to Jason unimpressed. “Without the detective alive, you have no ties to them. So I suggest you leave.”
Jason hadn’t felt such anger since he first learned Bruce had left him unavenged and replaced. The All-Blades summoned themselves with Jason’s knowledge, and he charged.
With Slade occupying and slaughtering Ra’s minions, the duel between Jason Todd and Ra’s al Ghul might have been one for the history books. They were evenly matched. Evenly classed. And it would have gone on for ages, just the two warriors clashing back and forth till exhaustion stopped them.
But just as Ra’s and Jason lunged for each other yet again, Dick Grayson landed in between them.
“Enough,” his older brother said, a bone wary sound passing his lips with the words. “That’s enough. There has been enough killing to last a life time.”
“Dick. Move.”
“I can’t do that Little Wing. I understand that Ra’s might have been an enemy in the past-”
What?
“-But these are trying times. We need all the help we can get, Little Wing. We need to-!”
“DICK!”
Ra’s grew tired of Grayson’s speech, and Jason watched in horror as his older brother slowly glanced down to the blade stinking out of his chest. The blade slid out slowly, a process that would prolong Dick’s death. Jason barely processed as his brother’s body fell to the floor.
People always talked about seeing red when they feel a blinding rage. But that wasn’t what Jason saw. No. In that moment, as Dick’s body hit the floor, Jason saw white. Two black eyes with a swirled tattoo under the right eye stared back.
“Take it. And end it.”
In that moment, Jason had no choice but to take and end the life of Ra’s al Ghul. For when Death calls, it is best to listen. Ra’s only had a moment to swipe his sword over Jason’s face before Jason plunged the weapon of Death into the man’s chest. Later, this same weapon would be plunged into the dead body of Vandal Savage, sealing his fate to die. Lucy, who had freed Damian and Athanasia during the fighting and was hiding with their unconscious form, bore witness to the death of Ra’s al Ghul. She would tell Jason later that it was as if he had become someone else entirely. Slade Wilson, who also bore witness to the death, who had dragged Dick Grayson’s dying body away from the battle, would claim he could never identify such a weapon that Jason had used. It was not a blade, nor was it a blast of power. It was unlike any weapon the man had ever seen before, and nothing like any form of power.
Both would simply describe the weapon as death.
Jason recalled none of this. Once Ra’s hit the floor, the weapon had vanished, and Jason fell to his knees. He used his remaining strength to crawl his way towards Dick and Slade, Dick immeditatly curling his fingers into Jason’s jacket.
“Take…care of…our family…”
“Dickie-” Jason chocked on a sob. “Save your strength. Please. You’ll be alright. We’ll get help.”
Slade didn’t have the heart to tell Jason that they wouldn’t reach help in time.
“Promise…me… L’ll w’ng.”
“I promise. I promise, okay,” Jason sobbed, uncaring of the tears falling down his face as he pulled of Dick’s cowl and ripped away his own domino mask. “But you’ll be okay. We’ll take care of them together. We will, Big Bird.”
Dick let out a laugh, chocking on blood in the process.
“The world…needs Batman…Jay…”
Jason seemed to short circuit.
“Please.”
“No,” Jason shook his head as his brother suddenly went limp. “No. No, Dickie. Please. No. No! NO! NO! DICKIE, NO! DICK! NO!”
Slade had to pull Jason away from the body, hold the boy to his chest in a firm embrace as he screamed and wailed for his brother, covered in his blood. It took three hours for Jason to calm down, and only because the fighting had gotten louder outside. With Lucy having dragged Damian and Athanasia over to them, Slade took the children as Jason steeled himself and took Dick’s body from the ground.
“Let him rest,” Jason spoke to the wind. “Let them rest together.”
And to the surprise of both Slade and Lucy, a woman appeared before them. Her skin was bleached white, and her black hair was a mess. She wore a pair of tattered black jeans and a black tank-top. Her eyes could have been described as black too, but if one looked to close, they would have seen they were like gates to another world. Beneath her right eye was a swirled tattoo, and she leaned against a black umbrella.
“They are together and waiting for you, my little Jay. I will reunite you all when the time comes.”
And Death meant it, for her brother, Destiny, had consulted her on the path that was to come soon. Very, very soon. Death would once more have to open her gate. And soon enough, a flood of people would be brought out. So be the wish of her father, Time. But she could not tell Jason that at the present.
Death watched as the three left, Lucy tucked into Jason’s side as they mourned the fall of another Batman, and another Bat. The scream of first Silver St. Cloud, then of Darla Dudley, ended this wave of the anti-life equation.
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The room was stunned as they listened, and no one could bring themselves to speak once the tale was done. Even Rose, who had an idea of what took place, was left reeling by this tale.
Jason, however, just looked blank.
“Little Wing,” Dick chocked, launching himself into Jason’s chest. “I’m sorry. So sorry.”
Jason wrapped his arms around Dick, but his expression never changed. Reliving the moment had caused Jason to retreat so far into himself it would be a few days before he came back out of himself. And when that happened, Jason, Rose and Cass were gone before anyone could talk with him.
Bruce was one more sat in front of the computer, staring at the picture Jimmy had managed to capture.
Jason was cradling Dick in his arms, what had to be Lucy buried into his side, only identifiable by the mop of messy orange hair because of how firmly she was pressed against Jason. Slade stood to left, just a few feet away, cradling Damian and Athanasia as the two children lay in what could have been mistaken as sleep. The cut over Jason’s left eye looked terrible, but that wasn’t what got Bruce’s attention.
Jimmy Olsen was a master photographer. And he had captured the pure agony Jason felt in just one photo. Jimmy was good at his job. Bruce wished he wasn’t.
“It’s different, hearing how I died.”
Bruce turned to Dick. His oldest had been silent since he entered the batcave.
“I knew how you died, how Babs died, and how Tim died, but it kind of bounced off me. But this…”
“I know,” Bruce acknowledged. “But your brother and sister are trying to make it right. And I have faith that they will.”
“Even if Jason has to kill Ra’s al Ghul?”
Bruce said nothing. He wasn’t…fond of the idea, no. But Bruce had met Death himself, a few times. She had been kind enough never to ask that burden of him, though he knew the power existed. He had felt it. That did not mean he was at all pleased she had given the burden to his son. A son that had already been through too much.
“So what now?”
Bruce looked to his oldest son.
“We get involved.”
Bruce would not let any of his children live through that nightmare again. Not if he could help it.
Somewhere over the Atlantic, Jason glanced over to his teammates. Their little team had been chosen because they were good. Not only individually, but as a team. Individually, they could win wars. Together, they could concur.
Koriand’r and Roy Harper were givens for this mission. They had seen the League of Assassins in action, had fought with Jason against the Untitled. They were his best friends, more so than Donna or Conner. But of course Donna and Conner were here too. The three of them had become the New Trinity of the Second Generation. They were the ones that the survivors looked up to, and they had formed a bond that might have even been stronger than the original trinity. Wally West II, M’gann M’orzz, and Kaldur’ahm were also on their team, the three having taken the role of their mentors and becoming close to their teammates. Cass, of course, was coming along. They ran the risk of running into Lady Shiva, and only Cass could truly match her. Rose and Slade were also givens. They were family, and family that survived the end of the world together stayed together. The only reason Steph stayed behind was because someone needed to help the non-survivor Bats wrangle the children.
They were an odd band of misfits, but they were a clever band of misfits. And they weren’t going to let anyone destroy this gift they were given.