Chapter Text
This is not how his return to Gotham was supposed to go.
He was supposed to come back, take over the alley and force Bruce to kill the Joker or Jason himself.
He should not be trying to take care of a baby vampire who for the love of god wont stop gnawing on him.
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Jason has been back in Gotham for about a month and he'd been busy to put it simply. Cutting off heads, shooting out knee caps, and some good old fashioned putting bullets between eyes left one with little time for leisure. You know standard Crime Lord business. But for all the violence he'd brought to the alley he'd also been busy watching out for the kids who live on its streets. Making cash drops to shelters, handing out blankets and coats to those who chose not to go to the shelter, killing anyone who messed with his alley kids, ect…
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Jasons relaxing in his safe house of the week sipping some blood from a tea cup, just because the lazarus pit made him a monster doesn't mean he can't still have some class he was raised by Alfred after all, Typing on his computer tracking the bats movements for the night before he heads out. He groans, setting his laptop aside and wiping his face before he stands going to rinse his cup out on the sink. Some habits die hard when you were raised by an English butler.
He moves through the run down apartment grabbing his gear from the random spots he's left it the night before when he stumbled in. He suits up adding the last piece of his uniform, His lower face mask which he designed to be airtight not wanting his senses to be affected by the smell of blood while fighting. He does one final check of all his gear making sure he's got plenty of ammo and his knives are secure before making his way out of the window and onto the roof.
Tonight was supposed to be a simple recon. The scanners had reported a shootout at the docks and Jason was sure Batman and Nightwing would get involved since Black Masks had been causing trouble down there anyway so he figured that would be his first stop for the night. He makes his way towards the docks slowly , making sure to keep an eye out for any Bats on his tail. He doesn't see any signs of them on his way to the docks but he still can't shake the feeling he's being watched.
He gets about a block away from the docks and he can already hear the shouting and gunshots. Taking a deep breath he sticks to the shadows of the rooftops slowly making his way to the edge of the docks. He can see the flash of gunfire but no Bats yet. He waits on the edge of the roof for fifteen minutes. The throngs of goons are thinning at this point but more still keep appearing. Some have run out of ammo and have resorted to drawing knives and charging one another. From what Jason can tell it looks like Penguins and Black Masks goons. Most likely Oswald wanted his stubby fingers on whatever drugs Roman was smuggling. After almost a half hour of watching the blood bath with no sign of the bats he pulls out his phone checking scanners and cameras looking for any signs of them. After five minutes of searching he discovers thier both hung up on the other side of town dealing with the riddler.
He sighs realizing this gunfight is his problem now. He squares his shoulders grabbing his pistols from their holsters before jumping down into the fight.
Thanks to the lazarus pit plus Talia so kindly turning him he moves quicker than any of the two bit thugs with nine millimeters. The goons seem almost slow motion to him as he dodges their half hearted shots and punches.He starts shooting left and right nailing each goon between the eyes with precision and ease. Throughout the whole fight he can't shake the feeling of being watched and it distracts him. It was a rookie mistake really letting a thug sneak up behind him.
He felt the crack of the pistol against his jaw and saw green. He quickly turns, the goon not being able to keep up with Jason's supernatural speed. As he tries to fire, Jason jerks his arm away pulling it out of the way and out of its socket. He growls as he realizes that the hit had cracked his muzzle and the smell of blood was quickly filling his nose and distracting him. He quickly snaps the last goon's neck and tries to calm down. Even though Talia spent months training him to control his hunger, When he was being influenced by the pit it always made it harder to control himself.
He sighs falling back against a crate that presumably contains the drugs these idiots were fighting over. He removes his muzzle since it's not doing him much good anyway. He knows he needs to move, he needs to get out of here before he snaps or even worse the bats show up. He raises up, straightening his gear and pulling his hood back up. He starts to make his way to a building across the dock that has easy access to the roofs. He's halfway across the lot when he stops dead in his tracks he smells blood, not the stale rank blood currently oozing from the goons around him, but fresh blood that doesn't smell like stale cigarettes and alcohol. Blood that's still flowing. He listens carefully trying to find a heartbeat, a breath, anything. He wanders through the docks following the smell all the way to a rickety fire escape that was positioned directly above the shoot out.
What he finds stops him in his tracks.
A small boy, who can't be more than 10, slumped against the brick bleeding from his side. He is still weakly gasping but he's pale and his eyes are clouding over.
“Shit “ Jason panics
“Kid, kid, kid are you okay” Jason asks dumbly knowing good and well this kid is about to die.
Jason is panicking, his brain playing images of his own death.
The kid tries to say something that jason doesnt quite catch but it sounds like “Robin” and fuck if that isnt a punch to the gut. The kid is scared and dying and he calls for robin to save him. Jason used to be that light for Gotham, Jason used to protect kids but now he gets them shot.
“Fuck, fuck” Jason swears as he tries to out pressure on the kids wound.
“Fuck kid what were you doing up here” he mutters noticing a carmera laying next to the boy.
He realizes he's gonna watch this kid die. He realizes he's not gonna be able to save him.
If his heart still beat the realization would have stopped it Jason thinks. This kid is gonna die because of Jason. This kid is gonna die because Jason was reckless. This kid is gonna die because Jason wasn't fast enough.
Jason's mind seems to reboot and he realizes there is only one way to save this kid.
So without thinking of what it could mean for his plans, for him, Jason bites the boy.