Happy Halloween!

The Wrong Batcave

Summary: The Justice League rescued so many. Hundreds of kids returned home, or at least to freedom. But they didn't save the ones they wanted to save most of all. Believed dead by family and friends, Dick Grayson-Wayne and Damian Wayne struggle to recover from the consequences of their ordeal under the watchful eye of their grandfather. Meanwhile, life goes on, with occasional interruptions from villains, new heroes, and ghosts, of course.

This is the sequel to The Medium Between. This chapter, the prequel, takes place about eight months after The Medium Between (not including the epilogue), and then the story will jump back to shortly after the climax.

I do not own DC comics, Young Justice, or any other things you recognize that may be referenced randomly.

Without further ado, enjoy.

The setting was Ethiopia, February 2014. The weather was fine, or at least it was at the beginning of the day. There was snow on the ground, but the sun was shining between scattered clouds across the plains. The land was full of refugees from the various wars across the continent, and the Red Cross Relief centers and Doctors Without Borders were providing much needed aid to the hundreds of thousands of people forced from their homes by fear or their house blowing up or both. A bit a ways from the camp sat a warehouse of supplies set at the top of a big hill with some nice curvy paths set between snow, snow, and more snow.

Oh yeah, and the Joker had escaped from Arkham, but why the hell would he be in Ethiopia? It's on the other side of the freaking world!

But no, Joker had decided that getting the fuck outside the United States was a good idea, and Bruce, being Batman, had been trying to find him. While being his overprotective self, of course. So, when Jason had found in a box of things from his old apartment that Catherine Todd was not, in fact, his real mother, he had immediately wanted to find his real mother. He had tried to slip past the overprotective Bruce, but the man had eyes everywhere, and picked up the plane ticket alert immediately, and, naturally, bought the seat next to him. Jason really thought he gave him the slip, until he sat down on the plane in first class, hey, why not spoil himself, and looked to his left. There sat Bruce, smirking at him.

"So, why are we going to Lebanon?" He asked. Of course, Jason had to explain himself. Bruce had followed that with a lecture about keeping his eyes open, especially in public as Jason Todd-Wayne, because Bruce had been following him since he left the manor, and had stopped someone from kidnapping him. Twice. Also, he had gone on a huge guilt trip about Jason leaving home without telling anyone, and let Jason know he was grounded when they got back.

After that, they had gone on a fun and interesting adventure where they searched out his mother from three potentials Jason had picked out from his father's old address book, while Bruce was still keeping an eye out for trouble and the Joker. Bruce also kept in frequent contact with Alfred and the League and not so much the Team. They could take care of themselves for a while. How the hell Bruce got the utility belts and communicators through the airport was a question that hadn't been answered. Those were not things that should make it through security.

They found her, her being Jason's mother Sheila Haywood, in Ethiopia, aka the current setting. Which brought them to now. With Jason alone in a warehouse, well, alone in the sense that no one who gives a fuck about him was there, and Bruce on the other side of town, looking for Joker who was, naturally, beating the hell out of Jason with a freaking crowbar!

"What the-?" The Joker said. Jason peeked up at his tormentor and saw the crowbar halted in midair a couple feet above him. He sensed as an invisible foot shifted to plant more firmly behind him to keep a strong stance. Joker yanked the crowbar away, unbalancing a little with the force and then swung it again. Jason winced away, screwing his eyes against the expected pain, but it didn't come. The crowbar was halted again, and this time, it flew away from the Joker as if yanked and then thrown across the room. It hit his smoking birth giver. She made a protest. More protest than she had given so far since handing him over to the bastard, that bitch.

After that, it was like a bizarre fight. It looked like Joker was fighting someone, but he wasn't having any luck. The invisible person was like a ghost. A ghost who could punch back, and constantly used underhand blows to hit Joker where it hurt, while staying outside of Joker's range. At least, that's what it seemed like. Jason couldn't actually see Joker's opponent, but the Joker wasn't landing any blows. He seemed to be getting more and more frustrated, whipping out a knife and slashing with it, trying to hit the invisible person, but he just looked ridiculous turning in circles like that, more than he already did in his stupid purple clothes, that it.

Not one to give up an advantage, Jason had managed to catch his breath while the Joker was distracted. He still hurt all over, but he was able to shove the pain into his 'don't think about it' pocket. He crawled away the best he could to find something to pick the handcuff locks with, leery of the fact he was leaving a trail. He searched along the path towards the door. Hopefully, if he could get outside the warehouse, he could gain some advantage or help. Maybe a signal boost to help Bruce, well Batman, find him faster? Did Batman know he was in trouble? Jason sure hoped so because his afternoon of getting to know his mother had not turned out well so far.

Joker had stripped the emergency beacon from him shortly after he had managed to activate it, which had been immediately, because he was JASON at the moment, not ROBIN, and neither identity was STUPID. Jason was extremely happy he'd discussed with Bruce about revealing that part to his birth giver before taking off, because that was something that would only make the present situation worse. Who knew the bitch would be filching off the top of medical funds in the relief center? Seriously, the woman had issues. Like she had experimented on teenagers, like his dead brothers, which put her to the top of his jerk list. Not that Damian was a teenager, but that made it worse. And that Joker considered that good enough blackmail that Sheila would hand over her son without regret? She was seriously messed up.

"Why you little…!" He heard the Joker exclaim, snatching him away from his train of thoughts with just enough sense to dodge as the Joker's very sharp knife embedded into the wall where his head was a moment before. He quickly turned his attention back to the Joker whose eyes were focused on him. Joker's gloved left hand was clutching empty air, while the right was searching for another weapon. Jason saw as an invisible force yanked the hand downwards, away from Joker's pockets. The Joker gave a frustrated huff and launched something at Jason. Jason felt as a foot landed on top of him and then tried to move the foot so that the impact was off of Jason and stumbled and fell bodily instead.

And then Jason could SEE him! It was a translucent boy with shaggy, ruffled hair and a few scratches from where the Joker had somehow managed to inexplicably land a blow. The kid looked around his age, and was wearing a long sleeved shirt that was not right for the weather in Ethiopia and a pair of dark slacks. He looked like he just came from school! But that's not what really caught his attention. What caught his attention was how the boy carefully pushed himself up and quickly checked to make sure Jason was okay. What caught his attention was the worried face of his older brother and the goggles that were over his, very much alive looking, eyes.

Embarrassingly enough, Jason completely lost track of the action after that, just trying to get his head, which most likely sported a concussion, wrapped around the idea that his brother was alive-ish and helping him. He may have also blacked out, but details. Before he knew it, the Joker and his goons had left him, Dickie-bird, and Sheila with a bomb. Sheila was tied up, but, aside from the handcuffs they had put on his wrists at the beginning, Jason was basically free from restraint. He really snapped out of it when Dick helped him to his feet. His ghost of a brother seemed to be exhausted. There were several scratches where the Joker had managed to land a blow, and he seemed to favoring his ribs a bit, but the git didn't look to be seriously injured. Perks of being a ghost, Jason supposed.

Dick supported Jason over to the door, although it definitely seemed to be taking a lot of effort on Dick's part. Jason just didn't understand that the exhaustion was from staying solid, because apparently that took effort, until they reached the door. That's when Dick, upon figured out it was locked, promptly allowed Jason to fall through him while the git walked through the door. A minute later, the door opened, and Dick was smirking as he picked him up from the untidy sprawl he made on the floor. To Jason's dizzy, slightly out of it eyes, it looked like his brother's left hand was messed up, but he could somewhat attribute that to hallucination, like Bruce would probably argue Dick was a hallucination. So, yay! Hallucinations!

They walked a bit away from the warehouse. Once they were at a fairly safe distance, Dick lay him down facing away from the building with a motion to stay. Jason watched as the ghost trotted back into the warehouse. A minute later, Sheila ran out, glanced at him unsure, and then continued on her way upon receiving a proper Batglare.

It happened suddenly. Dick was trotting back towards him, following Sheila's path. The idiot probably checked to be sure there was no one left inside. He heard a roaring behind him as Batman roared up the slope on a motorcycle, narrowly avoiding Jason as he leapt off and ran towards the warehouse. His dad didn't even see him! Blind as a bat, really. He literally ran through Dick, who looked startled when it happened. Then, just as Dick reached Jason, the building exploded. Jason dropped back down and curled up the best he could. He felt an extra layer of soft shield him before hot metal struck the exposed parts of his body. After a minute, he felt Dick vanish, and some more metal dropped on top of him, gently this time.

Jason coughed. "Dic-?" He whispered. He cleared his throat. "Dick?" He called out, before breaking into a painful coughing fit. He heard metal shifting and then hurried footsteps. A moment later, the metal shifted off of him. He looked up at Batman's cowl. The man gently lifted him so he was sitting. Jason cried out as his ribs were disturbed. Oh yeah, and didn't Joker rupture a lung or something? Something like that might have been mentioned when the man was beating him to death. Bruce immediately put him back down and looked around for help.

"Batman to Watchtower. Robin requires immediate medical assistance. Send aid."

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