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“What are you-“ Batman starts, as he watches his son relax into the arms of the alien boy he’d brought back to the cave.
“Nope,” Hood replies, lifting Danny until he has to wrap his legs around him to stay upright.
“Wha-“
“Mine now,” he cuts in before Nightwing can finish, getting back on his bike, Danny still wrapped around him, and driving away.
“… what just happened?” Nightwing breathes.
Batman sighs.
&&&
“So… who are you? And why do you calm the pit?” Jason asks, as soon as they’re in one of his safe houses.
“Danny, and I dunno what a ‘pit’ is,” Danny mumbles into his chest, not wanting to let go of the one thing that has given him purpose since before.
“The pit, it’s-It brought me back from near death and… and it made me angry . But you, you pushed it away, somehow. I can actually think.”
Danny hums, thinking that over.
“Hmm, well, you seem to have something similar to my core, but yours is… sad, hurt, angry. So I just… comforted you? I dunno, it’s instinctual to those with a core.”
“So… did the pit give me a core? Or did dying?”
“Could be a mixture of both. Traumatic deaths tend to…” Danny cuts off to comfort him as he lets out a whine of anger/pain/sad/help.
Safe/i'm here Danny coos back.
“You never told me your name,” he says once he’s calmed him down a bit.
“Jason.”
“Nice to meet you Jason! And you don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to.”
“No, I… I want to.” He takes a deep breath, fists clenching. “There’s a man called the Joker-“
&&&
Danny’s been staying with Jason for a few weeks now, visiting the manor (Batman's apparently some billionaire?) whenever he does and following him around to help as Phantom when he goes out as Red Hood. He’s actually always in his Phantom form now, scared to change back and see traces of them . Anyway, they’re sitting by the coffee table glaring at each other over a game of scrabble when it happens.
“You cannot use ‘yeet’,” Jason growls.
“Can too!” Danny argues.
“How do you even know that word? Did Dick teach you?”
“No? I don’t remember when I learnt it, I just know it.”
“What? Is it a word on your planet? It can’t mean the same thi-“ he’s cut off by Danny choking on his drink.
“My-what!?” he gasps out between coughs.
“What?”
“You think that I’m not from earth? I mean, I’m not from this earth, but I am still from earth.”
“… what?”
“Yeah! I-“
Jason automatically brings his phone to his ear as it begins to ring, still giving Danny a look as he answers with a curt, “what?”
“ Hood, Arkham break out, we need all hands on deck, ” Danny hears Oracle say on the other end.
Jason stiffens.
“Is he…”
“ …yes. But Batman will be going after him.”
“I am too.”
“ Hood-“ Jason hangs up before she can say anymore.
“I gotta go.”
“Need help finding him?” Danny replies.
“ No .”
“Jason, we need to find him before he hurts anyone. I can help.”
“… fine,” he sighs. “You go down that way,” he points down the street, “don’t underestimate him.”
“I won’t!” Danny agrees, already flying through the wall to go look.
He flies around, invisible and intangible to search through warehouses unnoticed, but can’t find the Joker in any of them, so he decides to go find Jason. Maybe he’ll have had better luck!
&&&
Hood looks down through the skylight of the abandoned warehouse.
The Jokers there, his goons all around him, just standing there. That and how easy it was to find him, screams a trap. The near silent sound of a person landing behind him has him tensing.
“Fuck off,” he growls.
“Hood, you’re comprised, you need to-“
“I don’t need to anything, you can’t fucking tell me what to do B.”
Batman sighs.
“Hood-“
And suddenly, they’re falling.
&&&
Danny flies, listening out for Hoods voice as he goes, until finally he hears it.
“Fuck off!”
And a creepy unfamiliar voice replies.
“Aw! Little birdy wants to get his wings broken again?”
A thwack.
A laugh.
Pain/fear/help/please/ help
Danny doesn’t bother with intangibility, crashing through the wall to tackle the Joker.
How dare he.
How dare he!
He will never hurt Jason again.
&&&
“Oh! Goodie! I was hoping it was the one I killed!”
Jason glares at the clown, even if it’s not visible through his helmet, trying not to think about the tied up and gagged Batman to the right of him, even as he makes protesting noises and glares like that would help anything.
“Fuck off!” he spits, and probably would’ve actually spat at him if his helmet wasn’t in the way.
“Aw! Little birdy wants to get his wings broken again?”
Even knowing it’s coming, the hit from the crowbar sends him spiralling, his breathing picking up, and the edges of his vision blurring out. I’m going to die again , he thinks as the crowbar’s raised for another hit, I’m going to die and no one’s going to save me, again .
He’s jerked from his spiral as the wall to the left of him crumbles , a very angry looking Danny zooming by and tackling Joker through the other wall. Huh. He watches with a growing grin as Danny beats the absolute shit out of the Joker, eyes glowing so bright they look like light bulbs and teeth sharpened, now closer to a sharks than a humans. He’s got to be an alien, right? He’s about to open his mouth to say something, only to gape as Danny rips the Jokers head off his body.
Well…
Fuck.
He’s… he’s dead.
Relief floods him, and if he wasn’t tied up right now, he probably wouldn’t be able to stay standing.
“Jay?!” Danny cries, flying over and releasing him from his bonds, catching him easily when his legs give out and looking over him with a worried frown like he hadn’t just murdered someone. “Are you okay?!”
“I-you…” Jason looks over at the Jokers decapitated head and smiles . “I’m great.”