Robin, Interrupted

[Jason Todd]

THEN

The crowbar smashed into Robin's head with a sickening thud. Its wielder pouted as he pulled it away, regarding the blood soaked metal with contempt.

"Jeez," the Joker whined. "I always knew you had a thick skull kid, but wow."

The masked teenager pressed his head against the cool cement, oddly grateful for any sensation besides the pain and nausea that ravaged the rest of his body. He used the reprieve to catch his breath. He opened his one good eye, letting another swell of tears flow freely onto the grimy floor.

WHACK!

"Yeah. Now that's the stuff." A fit of giggling followed as the deafening crack faded to a steady ringing in Robin's ears. The Joker then gleefully proceeded to find out if he could replicate the satisfying breaking effect anywhere else.

So this was all I am without him, the boy wonder thought. Just another orphan street rat who can't take on one lunatic on his own. Worthless. You abandoned me just like everyone else, you son of a bitch. Would it have killed you to help me find my parents, just because you don't have any?

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

"Why?" Robin heard himself say.

Joker stopped swinging. "What's that? Wh--" His words melted into a chuckle, then quickly into full blown laughter. Not the kind of creepy mocking laughter he'd heard all too often before, but a genuine belly laugh. He actually stopped and propped himself up on the wall after running out of breath.

Then he laughed some more.

"Why? That's your dying word? Ohhh priceless."

The clown prince strolled back to the boy's broken body. He flipped the crowbar in his hands as he pondered the question.

The Joker shrugged. "Why not?"

Jason Todd closed his eye again as the madman craned back for another swing, longing for the darkness that began to consume him.

[Jason Todd]

It started as a ripple. A nameless sensation as the darkness rolled away. Random warbles reached him next, distant and indecipherable.

Then as suddenly as it started, all of Robin's senses set ablaze. Searing white light. An ear splitting shriek. A thousand pins and needles stabbing him at once. An acrid fluid filled his nose. His throat. His lungs. Every synapse in his brain fired simultaneously, alighting every nerve ending throughout his body in soul scorching flame.

Jason Todd became vividly aware of every memory; every skill he learned, every moment he experienced in his life happening in a single heartbeat. His mind froze on the last face he saw before--

Before what?

A singular thought drowned out all others: Air!

He swam on instinct, without comprehension of which direction was up. Somehow he broke the surface before his lungs exploded. He clawed onto a rocky slope. With each strained motion of his limbs, the assault on his senses waned, dissipating until all that remained was the unending, cackling laughter that echoed in the warehouse before--

Before...

Jason looked up. A caped, black clad figure loomed over him. It was him! It was all his fault. He lied to him! That bastard pretended to give a shit about him, took him in only to abandon him like everyone else. Bruce was the one who let him d--

Robin sprang at The Batman, screaming in a blind rage. He felt himself tackle the masked figure and pin him to the rocky floor; felt his fists pummel the man with strength he knew he did not possess; felt his skin split and his bones break with each swing.

At last he stopped, exhausted. As he slowly sensed his fragmented mind falling into some semblance of order, he looked down at what he had wrought. His masked eyes shifted from the battered remnants of the man's face to his gloved hands, so streaked in blood they nearly matched the color of his tunic.

The more he studied the dead man's face, the more he came to grips with the realization that the poor soul was not Bruce Wayne. He was not the man who allowed him to...

To die.

He... died. All evidence to the contrary, he knew he was dead. And now he wasn't.

“Why?” he heard himself ask.

“Three times I have offered the Detective a chance to join me,” a voice echoed through the cavern. “Three times he refused me.”

Jason blinked and looked at the cavern around. His eyes fixed on a tall figure standing at the mouth of the cave, trying to bring it into focus as it turned to leave.

“Choices have consequences,” Ra's al Ghul said simply, and left the boy alone on the cold, blood stained rock.

[Jason Todd]

Jason tumbled down the stone steps, landing in the hot sand with a pained grunt.

The man rose unsteadily to his feet. His hardened, chiseled features were streaked with sweat and blood. His long, mottled black hair and full beard clung to his face and neck in clumps. He'd taken worse beatings in his life -- the one that killed him notwithstanding -- but not many.

He started to ascend the steps, but stopped short as massive figure stepped in his path, casting a long shadow over him.

Jason glared defiantly at Ubu, spitting blood in the sand. The burly guard's expression remained as unmoving as his stance. The smaller man feinted left, then darted right to get past him with a snap kick hurled at the giant's knee for good measure.

He was rewarded for his efforts with a meaty hand slamming square into his chest, lifting him bodily into the air, and hurling him back into the sand below.

Jason screamed in anger, trying to make sense of the infuriatingly familiar turn that his life had taken. Again, a monster had taken him in and given him a second life -- this time more literally than the last. Again, under his mentor's tutelage he honed his body and his skills to new heights. The Demon's Head made Jason more than Bruce could dare imagine.

And again, he was cast aside without explanation, thrown out like trash and left to die. Jason knew how far they were from any sign of civilization. He knew he was not expected to survive. Again, the coward couldn't be bothered to just kill him himself.

Jason shielded his eyes against the sun as another shadow stretched into his field of view. His heart jumped as he realized who it was. She wouldn't let this happen. She wouldn't abandon him. She understood him.

Talia al Ghul walked down a few stairs and stopped some distance away, so that her boot heels were level with the kneeling man's gaze. She looked down upon him with a curious blend of sadness and contempt.

She tossed a scimitar in front of him. Jason stared at the blade in confusion.

"Should you decide to end your suffering," Talia explained.

She stood there for another beat, taking measure of the broken man. Having reached some sort of decision about him, she averted her eyes and walked away, leaving Jason's screams to fade unanswered on the desert winds.

[Jason Todd]

NOW

The deck of the cargo ship Abu Yusef bustled with activity as the Gotham City docks drew closer. The crew went about preparing for inspection and offloading of its thousands of freight containers, eager to finish their final tasks before being allowed to disembark.

Jason Todd leaned on the railing, looking intently at the city as it passed along the starboard side, particularly at the tallest building dominating its skyline, WayneCorp Tower.

"Jessie Tucker!" a deep Arab voice boomed.

Jason's brooding frown seamlessly melted into an easy smile as he turned around. "Aye, Cap'n," he replied.

"What are you doing up here?" the captain barked. "You are needed in the engine room. How do you expect to have us shut down for maintenance on time if you are out here sight seeing?"

Jason bowed his head subserviently. "Sorry, sir. On it." He gave a departing glance to the skyline and slinked humbly around the captain.