Hey guys! I know it's been a really long time since I updated. I'm sorry.
This chapter has been re-written about four times and I'm still not sure of the final result, that's one of the reasons it took me so long to update. You can thank the Arkham games for the inspiration.
I hope the wait was worth it and, as always, thank you so much for your support. Every comment filled me with joy. Thanks for reading.
Hong Kong
November 18, 15:04
"His name is Jason Todd. He was Robin. And I know he's alive."
Tim's words felt childish, even to him. His voice echoed through the dark corridor before leaving the two teens in an awkward silence. He waited impatiently for Red Hood's reaction, only hearing the sound of his own breathing when the older teen turned around and simply started walking away.
Tim's eyes widened under his mask.
"Hey! Wait!" he said, following the Red Hood. Tim had expected a reaction. Any kind of reaction would be a welcome clue. He didn't expect or want to be ignored, not with something this important.
"There should be an elevator at the end of this tunnel…" the older boy muttered.
"Hey! Did you hear what I said?"
"Oh! Here it is!" the Red Hood found a hidden button in the cement wall and pressed it, which resulted on a mechanic wall opening right in front of them. "They really should upgrade their security. I was expecting DNA scans."
"I'm talking to you!"
"At least an eye scan. C'mon Robb!"
"Stop ignoring me!" Tim cried out, standing in front of the older boy. "Why don't you say something?"
The Red Hood stared at him for a good ten seconds and pressed the down button on the elevator door. The metallic doors closed behind them and they started going down.
"I have nothing to say, Baby Bird," the Red Hood finally answered, staring deep into Robin's eyes under his red helmet. "If you want to believe the League kept the second Robin alive and brain damaged, feel free. It's stupid and beneath that genius brain of yours, but you can believe whatever you want. It's none of my business. How's that for an answer?"
Tim opened his mouth to answer him, but the elevator stopped and the Red Hood grabbed his twin pistols.
"Talk time is over. Get ready to fight. I'm not your babysitter, if you get yourself killed, that's on you," he said, walking out of the elevator.
Sighing, Tim grabbed his staff and followed him down a white and silent corridor. He tried to focus all his attention searching for enemies, but he always found himself staring at the Red Hood's back. Fortunately, he was good at multitasking.
He thought back on all the videos he had watched on Jason. His snarky remarks, his violent streak, the way he moved, his fighting style… how much would he have changed in three years? Specially after dying, being brought back and tortured? How would that shape him if he had his brain healed?
What would he think when he learned that Batman had chosen a new Robin? How would he react to him?
The first time Tim put on the uniform, he went straight to Jason Todd's memorial glass case and stared solemnly at his predecessor's costume. At the time, he knew this was the end of an era, the official end of Jason's time as Robin as Tim Drake became Batman's new partner.
The new Robin.
He had stared deep into the R symbol on Jason's old uniform and touched his own on his chest, the only thing linking them to each other.
I promise, I will make you proud, he vowed that night before following Batman to their first patrol.
After that day, Tim would stare at Jason's uniform or his hologram and silently ask him if he was a good Robin, if Jason thought he was doing a good job, if he made Jason proud. All those conversations were one-sided. Tim knew would never receive an answer. Until now.
The Red Hood's lenses flared as he scanned the room that appeared in front of them.
"Two armed guards in front of the door," he whispered. "Several bodies, but no heat signatures."
"Zombies?"
The Red Hood nodded. "They're too still… these are only corpses. They haven't activated yet."
"No more guards in the room?"
"No," Tim watched as the Red Hood unlocked the safety on his pistols.
"Good."
Before the older teen could act, Robin burst through the door. With one swift move, he hit one of the guards with his staff, knocking him out immediately. Before the other pulled his gun on him, he used the other end of the staff to tase him on the chest and took him out with a well-aimed punch.
The Red Hood leaned against the doorframe with his hands crossed over his chest.
"You're turning into a show off, Baby Bird."
Tim made sure the guards were both unconscious before he faced him. "I wasn't going to let you shot them."
Tim could practically see him roll his eyes under the helmet.
"Killjoy."
After confirming that there were no more guards or any sort of danger, they began inspecting the room. It was a laboratory, a very big and well equipped one. Tim watched in awe the state of the art microscopes and computers all over the room.
"I guess we know where Robb spent all his money now," Red Hood said eyeing an electronical lock in front of a locked door.
Tim wasted on time and began hacking into one of the computers, compiling and reading all the data he could find.
"Robb managed to alter the Lazarus formula by changing its enzymes. It's… quite impressive," Tim admitted reluctantly. "Edward Robb is brilliant, too bad his also an egomaniac psychopath. If he could use his intellect for good, who knows what he could have achieved."
The Red Hood kneeled in front of the lock and took a small hacking device from his jacket.
"Instead he creates an army of brain dead zombies to do his bidding. We always get five crazy scientists with a genuine good one," he said. "At least the Light isn't involved in this for a change. I really don't feel like facing Slade again."
Tim looked up from the computers. "Deathstroke? You fought him?"
The Red Hood shrugged. "Yeah. We've exchanged a few punches and bullets two months ago in Siberia. Old Slade is a mean son of a bitch. I was lucky he was distracted."
"That doesn't sound like him."
"No, but I can't really blame him though," the older teen chuckled. "He found that me and his daughter were… close and was less than happy about that."
Tim frowned. "What? He was against you and Ravager being friends?"
The Red Hood laughed. "No, kid. He was against us having sex."
"Oh… Oh, that's…" Tim felt the blood rush to his face, lighting it up like a Christmas tree.
"You're blushing, Baby Bird. That's cute," the other boy teased him. "C'mon! You must have heard about sex before. I mean, Bruce Wayne is infamous for his sexy dates and Nightwing… don't get me started on Nightwing. You should be used to that by now."
Tim forced himself to stare back at the computer, though his cheeks were still burning.
"I don't like to pry into my allies' private life. It's none of my business."
"You're telling me the Big Bird never taught you his moves? Or his cheesy pick up lines?" the Red Hood sounded very amused, obviously taking pleasure with Tim's uneasiness. "Did he at least taught you about the birds and the bees?"
"No. Can we talk about something else? Like the zombies outside that door?"
"Chill out, kid. I'm just messing with you," the teen turned his head towards the electric lock and resumed hacking. "You and Nightwing get along so well that I just assumed he would share all that stuff with you… like brothers, I guess."
Tim raised his head again. The Red Hood's tone had changed with the last sentence, all the playfulness was suddenly gone. Even his arms seemed tense.
"Hey, listen…" Tim said but was interrupted by a beeping sound as the metal doors opened in front of them.
Robin and Red Hood walked into the room. There were transparent pods lined up in eight rows, filling the entire room. Tubes containing a green liquid connected the pods to several computers. Most of the pods were empty, but there were still dozens of bodies from all races and ages, even small children.
Looking at a dead toddler made Tim almost scream.
"This… this is terrible," Robin muttered, his blue eyes going from body to body. "They even have babies here."
The Red Hood stood behind him. "Apparently, Robb wanted to see what his revised formula did to dead kids."
"That's sick," Tim looked at the bodies. "Poor things…"
"They're dead, kid. They don't feel anything anymore," in horror, Tim watched as the Red Hood took an explosive device from his jacket.
"What are you doing?!" he grabbed the older boy's arm.
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm shutting down his lab," the Red Hood pulled his arm, but Tim didn't let go. "That's the reason we went down here in the first place."
"You can't just blow them up!"
"They're corpses, kid! I'm saving them from being brought back as a super villain's play thing. It's the right thing to do."
"They are someone else's family and loved ones," Tim cried out. "Someone will be looking for them."
"What if there isn't? What if no one is looking for them?" the Red Hood snapped back.
Tim blinked, surprised with the sudden anger in the older boy's voice.
"What if these people were unwanted and unloved? Would it make it right for me to blow them up then?" the Red Hood went on, breaking free from Robin's grasp. "No one would care if their bodies were found and buried, cremated or blown up. Nobody cared for them in life, why should they care in death?"
Tim lowered his hands and stared deep into Red Hood's lenses, watching his chest rise and fall rapidly as he breathed.
"Even if no one cares, it doesn't make it right to just blown them up and make them disappear. They were alive and had a name before, we can't just forget that even if the rest of the world does," Tim walked towards one of the computers and quickly began searching for the right program under Red Hood watchful eye. "Look, I've programed the computers to self-destruct. All the data will be gone, but the pods will remain intact for someone to find them. Robb won't be able to use their bodies anymore so… you don't have to use that explosive. They deserve better than being forgotten in this tunnel."
The Red Hood looked at the explosive device in his hand. Slowly, he turned his head towards one of children's corpses. Tim wished he could know what he was thinking or at least see his face.
Finally, he put the explosive back in his jacket. "Let's get going. My intel says the reanimation room is a few floors below."
Not hiding a small, satisfied smile, Tim followed him out of the room while the computers fried all around them and the pods lost the electric current that was persevering the bodies.
His satisfaction was short lived however, when they finally reached the elevator and realized it had a voice panel.
"Damnit! He did upgrade his security after all. I don't suppose you brought one of Batman's voice synthesizers?" the Red Hood punched the elevator door, it obviously remained closed.
"Not today," Tim walked towards the door leading to the staircase, but it too required Robb's voice. "The stairs are out of the question too… now what? There's no way out."
The Red Hood looked around. "There's always a way out."
Tim felt a shiver down his spine. Batman always said that when they were trapped in patrol and he was right 99% of the time. It could be just a coincidence. The phrase was very simple and could easily be used without knowing Batman at all. However, add that to the list of things the Red Hood and already said and shown and the conclusion was he would have to be someone who knew almost as much about Batman and the others as Tim.
What if… what if Red Hood is…
"Bingo! There's a ventilation shaft on that wall," the older teen took out a claw gun and used it to take down the ventilation cover. "Let's go."
Tim followed the Red Hood down the ventilation shaft for several minutes in complete silence aside from his breathing. He could feel his heart racing in his chest.
The only way to heal Jason's brain damage would be with the Lazarus Pit. If the League took him and tossed him in there, then…
"Finally, we're here," the Red Hood kicked the ventilation cover and they jumped into the staircase. Tim looked down, but he couldn't see where the stairs ended. "Looks like we need to do the rest by foot. Let's go."
He can't be… If Jason had been completely healed, he wouldn't turn on Batman. He would have come back. He wouldn't blame Batman for his death. Would he?
"Hey, Baby Bird? This isn't the time to be day dreaming," the Red Hood turned around to look at Tim. He wasn't hiding his emotions, so the older boy could clearly see that he was nervous. "What's wrong?"
Tim bit his lower lip. He had no idea how to voice his thoughts without screwing up everything.
"How old are you?"
The young man tilted his head. "Seriously? That's what's bothering you? My age?"
"You can't be older than twenty, right?"
"Very well, detective. That's a good estimate. Now, can we focus on finding the deranged scientist?"
"I was thinking about Jason."
The Red Hood froze for a brief moment, but quickly recomposed himself.
"Christ! Not this shit again…"
"It's important. I was thinking what I would say to him if he was here, right in front of me."
The young man known as the Red Hood was standing in front of him now, his muscles tense, and his eyes glaring at him through the helmet's lenses while Tim's gut twisted into an anxious knot.
"You're wasting time, kid. There's nothing to say to the dead."
Tim took a hesitant step toward him, never breaking eye contact.
"I never knew him, so I have no idea what I could possible tell him. Specially because I'm also the person who replaced him as Robin. I guess if he was here, I would tell that I'm sorry for everything that happened to him."
The Red Hood closed his hands into fists. He was shaking. "Don't say another word."
If Jason had grown after he had been brought back from the dead, he would be around seventeen years old by now and definitely taller than the small fourteen-year-old Tim was used to watch in the hologram or Batman's secret training videos.
The Red Hood was almost as tall as Dick.
This person who had taken the Joker's old alias, who resented Batman and his allies, who knew so much about the Lazarus Project, who fought like a member of the Bat Family, who knew who they all were, who talked and felt so familiar, who acted like a Robin…
"Ja—"
"No. He's gone, kid," the Red Hood interrupted abruptly. "If you're looking for that Robin, you're wasting your time. You won't find him."
With that, the Red Hood turned around and started walking down the stairs.
"I don't believe that," Tim went on, following the older vigilante, staring at his back as he walked away. "I know he's alive."
The Red Hood chuckled bitterly. "You 'know', huh? I thought you were a smart kid who stuck with facts, not useless hunches."
"I am. Jason's body was never found and that's a fact. The League of Shadows was involved and they knew who he was, that's another fact," Tim moved in front of the older teen, forcing him to stare right at his face. "And then… there's you."
The Red Hood froze, his gloved hands closed around the metal bars of the stairs as he towered over the smaller boy.
"What about me?" he asked slowly, coldly.
Tim forced himself not to look away from his gaze. He could be so wrong about this, so terribly wrong, but everything pointed in that direction. All the pieces of the puzzle seemed to fit together. He knew he was right. He felt it deep in his gut. Just like when he knew Batman was actually Bruce Wayne.
"Why did you call yourself the Red Hood?" Tim asked.
"The name was available," the older boy shrugged.
"No. It wasn't that. You choose that name for a reason… because it was Joker's old alias."
The Red Hood closed his hands into fists. "Watch it, kid."
Tim didn't stop. He couldn't even if he wanted to. "You know me, Bruce and Dick. You know who we all are. Back at the warehouse, you fought like one of us. We were so in sync, that we both knew each others' moves without saying a word. You did the dual takedown that Batman thought us. Only a Robin would know that move, no one else."
"Shut up," the Red Hood hissed.
"I know who you are!"
Tim gasped as the Red Hood grabbed him by the neck and tossed him against the wall.
"SHUT UP!" the older vigilante spat angrily, his hands closing around Robin's neck. "You know nothing about me. Nothing!"
Tim's head was spinning from hitting the wall, black dots danced in front of his eyes as he tried to push the Red Hood's hands away from his neck as the older vigilante began to strangle him.
"S-Stop…" Tim whimpered, he couldn't breathe. "Stop… please…"
The Red Hood's eyes widened and he immediately let him go. Tim fell on the metal stairs, coughing and breathing heavily as he rubbed his bruised neck.
"I… sorry…" the older boy's voice broke. "I'm… I didn't…"
Tim looked up and watched as the Red Hood backed away from him, his hands shaking violently. He seemed horrified of what he had just done, just like when he had almost shot him in the alley a few hours ago.
He's afraid, Tim thought, still gasping for air. He's afraid of himself.
"You were right… This was a mistake. I should have never brought you," he said bleakly before he turned around and started to run down the stairs.
You're a monster, Todd. You're nothing but a zombie fuelled by rage.
Jason kept running away from the kid. He had almost killed him. Again. He couldn't control himself, just like an animal.
The kid knew who he was. He had been so stupid and arrogant that he didn't even think that revealing that he knew Batman's secret identity could out him too. This Robin was a genius, he had figured out Batman's identity by himself. Of course he would be able to figure out who the Red Hood really was. Jason had given him all the info he needed. He might as well have a neon sign over his head with his name on it.
So he lost his mind. He saw everything red as the kid closed in on his identity and his first reaction was to strangle him to shut him up. He had let the hate storm take hold of him again. He was no better than a common killer.
Bruce's words echoed in his mind, words he had listened hundreds of times from the recorder Talia had given him. Words that he had strongly tried to deny.
"No matter what differences we had over the years, I've always known that Dick had a gift. Jason had only… rage."
The seventeen-year-old felt hot tears brimming in his eyes and a painful knot on his throat as he willed himself not to cry. His head was throbbing and he felt like throwing up.
He couldn't deny it now, could he? He couldn't say that he was more than just rage, not after almost killing his replacement twice. Maybe the Jason Todd who had died in the desert had something more inside of him, something better, but the person that came back from the dead was little more than a high functioning zombie controlled by anger.
You're hollowed out, Todd. There's nothing good inside you anymore.
"Wait!" the boy's voice called hoarsely above him, Jason heard his steps as he ran after him.
What the hell was this kid thinking?
"Go back upstairs! Go! Call Batman! Call the League! I don't care," the Red Hood yelled as he ran away from him. "Just stay away from me."
Stay away before I do something unforgivable.
But the kid didn't use this opportunity to escape or to call his allies. He jumped down a flight of stairs and landed on Jason's back, making them both fall on the metal ground.
"What the hell is wrong with you, kid? I was going to kill you," he yelled at the boy on top of him, trying to pull him off. "Go away!"
"No!" Robin grabbed his leather coat, refusing to budge an inch. "I'm not going anywhere."
"I was going to strangle you! Do you have a fucking death wish?" the Red Hood tried to punch the kid, but Robin grabbed his fists and tried his best to immobilize the taller boy. He had to roll over and pin down the kid to keep him still. "What's the matter with you? I'm not keeping you captive anymore, so why the fuck aren't you running?"
"I can't," Robin answered, struggling to stand up.
"And why the hell not?"
"Because I know!" Robin yelled. "I know it's you, Jason!"
The Red Hood froze as if all the blood in his veins had turned into ice. His hands slowly dropped Robin's arms as his eyes were fixed on the younger boy's expectant face, lingering on the red marks his hands had made around the kid's neck.
"I've always known that Dick had a gift. Jason had only… rage."
"It's true, isn't it?"
Slowly, the Red Hood stood up and turned his back on the boy, avoiding his hopeful gaze. Everything was silent aside from the sounds of the kid's breathing and distant drops of water against metal.
"Please," the boy whispered behind him, also standing up. "Tell me what happened to you."
The Red Hood remained silent, his left hand grabbing a metal bar firmly as if to steady himself. His helmet felt too tight around his face, but he didn't take it off. He controlled his breathing and waited until his heart beat returned to normal.
"We can help you," Robin went on.
The Red Hood laughed bitterly. Help? No. They would never help him. They didn't even want him to be alive in the first place. Any feelings Batman and his clan had towards him were pity and regret, nothing more. Once they found out who the Red Hood was, they would stick to their precious morals. Their idea of help was an Arkham cell where they could keep him locked up and drugged so they would never have to worry or think about him again.
Just like the Joker.
"Please…" Robin pleaded. "Come home."
Home. Once upon a time, he thought he had a home and a family. He thought he was wanted. But everything had been a lie. People who loved you didn't throw you away like garbage, they didn't give up on you, they didn't call you a failure and replace you with someone better so they could forget you ever existed.
"I don't have a home," the Red Hood answered, finally turning around and pointing a gun at the stunned Robin. "I never did."
The explosion shook the tunnel, collapsing several parts of it. Jason moved quickly as he instinctually grabbed Robin's arm when the staircase beneath them collapsed.
For a few seconds, their eyes met while Robin dangled dangerously over the dark pit, as they both became painfully aware that all Red Hood had to do was drop him to finally get rid of him.
Robin's arm started to slide.
"Please," the boy whispered, never taking his eyes of the older teen's. "Jason…"
The Red Hood blinked and his grip grew stronger.
"Hold on!" the Red Hood screamed, grabbing a metal pipe with one hand while holding Robin with the other. He glanced at the wall on their right. "The wall!"
Robin followed his gaze and threw himself towards the cement wall, using it to pull himself to what remained of the metal stairs next to Red Hood.
"You okay?" the older teen asked, eyeing the panting boy.
"I'm fine. Just a few scratches," Robin looked at him. "I knew you wouldn't drop me."
"Don't be so sure," the Red Hood moved away from Robin and looked down at the bottom of the destroyed staircase, thought the smoke made it almost impossible.
The kid stood up and slowly walked towards him. "Thank you."
Jason almost shivered. What was it with this damn kid? Why did he keep coming closer instead of leaving?
"Don't thank me," he answered flatly and ignored his gaze. "Seems like the generators blew up. Robb is already down there with his zombies."
Robin moved closer to Red Hood and eyed him warily. "How do you know?"
"It takes a lot of electricity to reanimate the corpses even with the Lazarus formula. Mary Shelley got that part right on Frankenstein. We have to hurry."
Robin nodded and they used the twisted metal to go down a few floors until they found a safe staircase that hadn't collapsed. Silently, Jason drew his guns as they ran down the stairs into a wide open door.
They both stopped dead in their tracks the moment they walked through the doorway. In front of them, over a thousand zombies stared dumbly into the air with white, hollow eyes, their limbs swinging from side to side as if they were puppets with a few strings cut.
Overseeing this horrific sight on top of a metal platform, stood Dr. Edward Robb, impeccably dressed in a black suit, and…
Jason felt his heart racing inside his chest. He clenched his teeth and aimed his guns towards the platform.
"Joker."
Tim finally confronts Jason with his identity and Jason realizes that he painted himself into a corner. Poor Jay. And now they also have the face the Joker for the first time since his death.
As force Bruce's line about Jason only having rage, unfortunately that's directly taken from the Pre-New 52 comics.
I hope you guys liked it.