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“ Revenant, we must leave immediately.”
The Pit wasn’t happy to be back in the Nanda Parbat, and, honestly, Jason wasn’t so thrilled about it either.
But he wasn’t letting Tim go alone. Bruce had already vetoed this plan but Jason knew Robins.
Robins didn’t listen to Batman and Tim was no exception. Plus the kid had the survival instincts of a wet paper bag and was more than stubborn enough and dumb enough to attempt to sneak out by himself. So Jason came with him to be the babysitter and make sure the kid didn’t get himself beat with a crowbar and blown up.
And wherever Jason went, the Pit came too.
He leaned up against a wall, arms crossed over his chest and eyes fixed on Tim as he debated something with Ra’s al Ghul. Just looking at the man made Jason’s skin crawl, but he forced that feeling down. He had to play nice.
Tim apparently needed this information and there wasn’t anyone else in the world who could give it.
They were here to appease Ra’s, but the moment they could leave, they’d be hightailing out of there.
But Jason still hated having to listen to the old man spout some pompous bullshit to Tim. He shared a quick look with his brother and could practically see the baby bird rolling his eyes under his domino mask.
He smiled and stifled a snort of laughter. At least, Jason didn’t have to be stuck here listening to the crazy old man alone.
Only a couple more hours. He just had to make it through a could more hours and they could get back home without any of the other Bats even realising they were gone.
“Revenant”, the Pit hissed in his head. “ Collect the Raccoon-eyed child.”
The being inside him twisting and rolled like a snake in his belly. It had been restless the moment they stepped foot into Nanda Parbat and had been constantly hissing in Jason’s ear.
“No,” he snapped, not for the first time, 100% done with having a voice in his head. “We have business here. We’re almost done.”
The Pit growled inside him. “ What business requires consult with the Old One? He is poison to the blood. A scourge on the Earth. ”
Jason shrugged. “I don’t know. Some shit that’s important to Tim.”
“If it’s not of import. We must leave.” The Pit was growing more urgent and Jason could feel it trying to take control of his muscles again. “Listen to me, Revenant. Collect Timothy. We must go.”
“You don’t order me around anymore. Remember our deal” Jason hissed right back and the Pit inside him paused. “We have business here and we’re staying.”
“ Fool,” The Pit was a rattlesnake in Jason’s head. “You do not realise. You do not understand. You are a fool.”
Annoyance flared through Jason but he kept it down. The Pit had said much worse to him, much more viciously before.
“Well fat luck,” he whispered back, “because I’m the one calling the shots. You get jack shit and stay cooped up in my head.”
The Pit was quiet, even though Jason could feel it slithering under his skin. He could imagine its scales brushing across his veins.
Jason thought he might get peace until suddenly the snake was back.
“ You anger towards the wrong being. You do not understand. The raccoon-eyed child must not—”
“Jason.”
Jason’s head snapped up at the sound of his name on Ra’s al Ghul’s tongue. He hated the way that the man purred it.
They met eyes and Ra’s gave him a sinister, sharp-toothed smile.
“Could you be an obedient boy and go fetch us some more tea? I’m sure you remember where the kitchen is.”
Jason’s jaw tensed and he ground his teeth together. His gaze flickered to Tim, and he caught the boy’s subtle nod to the door.
The message was clear: listen for now so they could get this over with sooner.
He hated it, but he forced himself to listen.
“Sure.”
“ No!,” shrieked the Pit in his head. It was spiralling into a complete hissy fit. “No, Revenant, do not—”
But Jason was long past listening. He was too annoyed, too on-edge, too fucking pissed to be in the same room as Ra’s al Ghul.
Maybe taking a short walk would help cool his temper.
He walked out the door and closed it behind him. The Pit’s hissing kept growing in the back of his head, but he made sure it was firmly planted where he couldn’t hear it.
Nanda Parbat was both familiar and unfamiliar around him. His memories of it were in a strange dissonance with each other. There were memories from when he was essentially brain-dead, only going through the motions of living without ever really thinking. There were also memories from when the Pit held his body, moving Jason without his consent or control.
This was the first time Jason had been here fully in control and it still sent his skin crawling.
He turned down a hall, trying to remember exactly what kind of tea that Ra’s and Tim had been drinking, when suddenly he stopped.
But he hadn’t told his legs to stop.
He tried to move them, but the Pit was gripped them, forcing them still.
Fury raced through him like lightning, and he pulled the Pit back from where he had shoved it into a pocket of his brain.
“You fucker!” He snarled being the Pit could begin hissing at him again. “Don’t you remember our agreement! I keep control of my body and you don’t fucking touch it, and then I won’t fucking dissolve you into oblivion and give you what you deserve for being a fucking parasite you—”
“ YOUR RACCOON-EYED CHILD IS IN DANGER.”
Jason’s voice caught it in his throat.
“What?”
The Pit was frantic in his head, slithering in anxious circles, tying itself up in knots. Jason had never felt it be so worried. “ The raccoon-eyed child. Timothy. He must not be left alone with the Old One. You must retrieve him.”
Jason turned, looking back in the direction of the room. It had only been ten minutes since he had left. What kind of danger could Tim have gotten into in ten minutes in the middle of one of the most secure facilities in the world?
“What are you talking about? I just saw Tim.”
“ Fool. You do not understand. Imbecilic revenant.”
“Well, why don’t you tell me what the hell is going on instead of just insulting me?”
The Pit made a sound that Jason could only describe as a whine. “ We do not have time for…” It paused before making a keen of frustration “ Fine. Remember, you are not the first corpse’s mind I have inhabited.”
Jason nodded. He had heard that before and listened to many boasts from the Pit about what great minds it had invaded and controlled.
“The mind before yours was the Old One’s.”
Jason knew that too. The Pit had never said it explicitly, but it wasn’t hard to put it together. The Pit spoke about Ra’s with disdain, but also familiarity. It had never mentioned why it left, though.
Jason had always just assumed that it had moved on and gotten tired by staying in the same head for centuries.
“ The Old One is poison. The worst poison than I had ever felt before. I escaped him when you were put into the pool.
“I know his mind well. I know what he would wish to do to a boy like Timothy.”
Horror was beginning to dawn on Jason, creeping in like the cold.
His own voice was distant in his ear. “What would he do to a boy like Tim?”
“ Swallow him,” the Pit hissed with protective rage that mirrored Jason’s. “ Take him. Dominate him. Break him into pieces and steal the innocence away. He loves young things. He loves to rip them apart.”
Jason’s legs were moving under him, and he was stumbling forward, back to the room he had left.
The Pit kept talking in his brain.
“ Run Revenant. Run faster.”
But he was running as fast as he could, the Pit’s rage fuelling his own.
He skidded in front of the door and threw it open and…
It was Tim. His eyes were wide open and panicked, but his body was completely limp. Ra’s was leaned over him, stripping him of his Red Robin costume as his tongue licked up Tim’s throat.
“ DEATH,” screeched the Pit, rushing into Jason’s limbs, and Jason didn’t fight.
He could only agree.
Jason and the Pit flew at Ra’s, surging forward with an animalistic snarl. Jason moved on pure instinct, with wild punches and only rage guiding him. The Pit was taking over, controlling his movements, and he didn’t hold it back.
They punched Ra’s in the face, and the man’s head twisted back with a sickening crack. His arm came up and he struck again. And again.
“He is just a kid!” Jason screamed as Ra’s blood coated his fist. “He is sixteen! He—”
He screamed as Ra’s jaw shattered under his hand.
“—is just—”
He yelled as he snapped the man’s fingers, ground the bone into a pulp under his skin.
“—a fucking—"
He snarled as he kicked Ra’s and the man’s chest caved in. Ra’s coughed wetly and blood came up from his throat
“—KID!”
Inside him, the Pit sang, blood and fury fuelling its joy.
Jason could have stayed there, beating the man until he was an unrecognisable smear on the floor, but he stopped.
There was a scared voice calling him.
“Jason?” Tim was whimpering, still unable to move with Ra’s blood sprayed across his pale face. “Jason, please… I can’t feel my legs.”
Jason was trembling in fury, but he forced himself to turn.
Tim was a crumpled heap on the floor and desperately trying to get control of his body again. He seemed to be regaining some motion in his arms, but his legs were deathly still. The boy was trying to crawl away from Ra’s and toward Jason, but his muscles seemed to be failing him.
“Jason, he drugged me. I can’t… I can’t move my… I want to leave, but I can’t use my…” Tim was crying, tears streaking down his cheeks.
“ Help the raccoon-eyed child,” the Pit urged him in his head, giving him a little mental shove. “ He needs protection more than the Old One needs pain.”
Jason collapsed next to Tim, gathering him into his arms.
Tim sobbed against him, clawing his fingers into Jason’s shirt, and shoving himself into Jason’s lap as much as he could.
“He drugged me… I couldn’t… I couldn’t… I didn’t want him to…”
“Shh, baby bird,” Jason hushed, pushing all the anger back. “I’m right here. I got you. He isn’t going to touch you anymore.”
He stood, lifting Tim with him, and kept the boy cradled to his chest. Tim’s cries quieted, and he tucked his head into Jason’s shoulder with a sigh.
The Pit purred at having Tim close.
“ Good, ” it said, “ the raccoon-eyed child is ours’s. We must bring him back to the Refuge. Bring him to the comforting flippy-haired one.”
Jason chuckled, pressing Tim closer. The boy blinked, still a bit out of it.
“Is the Pit talking to you?” he asked quietly, his voice strained.
“Yeah, it’s telling me to get you to Dick.”
“ The flippy-haired one is good for healing.”
Tim forced a smile, but it didn’t seem real at all. “I would like that too.”
His eyes travelled down to Ra’s and he shuddered in Jason’s arms. Jason held him even closer.
He was going to rip Ra’s into pieces for putting fear into Tim’s eyes.
“ When the raccoon-eyed child is with the flippy-haired one, we shall return. We shall return and feed the Old One his own intestines. We shall eviscerate him and pull his teeth and…”
Jason didn’t disagree, but he stopped listening to all the ways the Pit wanted to kill Ra’s al Ghul.
Tim was still scared and anxious in his arms. He still had the immobilising drug in his system and they needed to get him in a safe place until it wore off. Thankfully, he seemed to already be working through it, and slowly Tim’s grip on him was getting stronger and more sure. They would need to run a medical check for lasting effects, but for now, Jason just had to get him safe.
He had a baby bird to get home.
But he’d be back later to put some of the Pit’s creativity to good use.