My fingers tap wildly against the keyboard of my laptop as I hack into Wayne Enterprises. Due to Damian crying he knocked out earlier than he normally would as he's basically nocturnal and once he entered REM sleep I didn't waste the opportunity. Deep down inside me I knew I had to research what kind of bomb that was, needing to understand if that was truly what it was meant for. It was obvious that it was Wayne tech as Jason easily got his hands on it, but it definitely had to have been reprogrammed as Wayne Enterprises doesn't make weapons.
It didn't take me long to find what I was looking for once I got past the firewall and, fuck it's worse than I thought. The device was originally meant for the health industry but he managed to reprogram it. Even though I only got a quick glance I know exactly what type of bomb he made and its timer is cruel.
Jason turned it into an EKG bomb, otherwise known as a hair-trigger explosive, which has special prongs that become embedded once applied to its victim and any attempt to remove it or even slightly jostle it can set it off. But the real thing that stands out about this bomb is what Jason used as the timer.
Regular bombs have your typical time timers or motion sensors, but not this one. No, Jason reprogrammed it so that its timer was based on heartbeats, thus giving Hank a certain amount and when it runs out he'll explode. He made it so there would be an exact number of beats for him to go through with whatever he was planning, ready to break his former teammates hearts.
However, I can't say that I give a shit whether Hank lives or dies. Despite all the good he's done and how much he's misunderstood, there is absolutely no excuse for how he treated Jason and threatened his life so easily. In all honesty I'm surprised that this shocked the team as out of all of them Hank and Jason had the most strained and unfixable relationship.
There is no doubt that everything Jason is doing is wrong and that what is going to happen to Hank will be devastating, but he sealed his own fate when he went after Jason by himself with the intention of probably taking him out. He dug his own grave and sure the team will miss him, especially Dawn, but the bright side is that he'll finally see his brother again if he doesn't end up in Hell.
Violet would get a kick out of that.
Hank's story comes to an end tomorrow and it will tear Dawn apart, but he has only himself to blame. The one thing people never count on when it comes to Jason is his intelligence. He paints himself as stupid when in reality he's very intelligent, even if this is all Crane's work.
Jason would never admit but he's a huge nerd, and I'm not just talking about theater. Looks are deceiving in his case as he looks like a rebel who flunked out of school. People would never guess that he graduated high school with straight A's and that he enjoys every second of learning, mainly literature as he is quite the bookworm.
But it's not just book smarts that he possesses, no, if anything his real brilliance is found in his street smarts. Hank lost the second he decided to go after Jason because if there is anything Jason is better at than being snarky and impulsive, it's surviving. Sure, Hank's been through some shit, but Jason, oh that's a whole new level.
It also doesn't help that Jason is fresh out of the Pit. The Lazarus Pit had never been used on a dead person before but I know it made him go through the darkest parts of his mind and made him go through trials. It fucks with the mind and when Jason emerged it was obvious that it affected him. In every world he dies in he goes on a rampage for his first few months after resurrecting as he's so mentally unstable that he's unsure of how he's supposed to be feeling.
Right now he's lost and being fed lies, letting the outside and inner voices sway him into submission. Plus his new found addiction is making it harder for him to hear the voice of reason and figure out he's being deceived. Compared to other world Jasons, his trauma with the Joker is minimal despite being murdered by him. He will still have nightmares about it, that's futile, but the damage Crane is doing will add to that.
In other worlds the Joker played a much bigger, much crueler role. He beat a fifteen year old Jason Todd to death with a crowbar and then blew up the warehouse his body was in for extra measure. He considered Jason to be his greatest victory and the day he killed him was the only date he actually bothered to remember. When Jason was resurrected, to say the Joker wasn't happy would be an understatement as he was so angry that Jason came back alive that he burned a 'J' onto his face.
Some of the other words, mainly the Arkham Knight worlds, instead of the Joker killing Jason, he kidnaps him and stages him shooting the poor boy wonder in the head and sends the video to Batman to make him believe his sidekick was dead. In reality he tortured my baby for over a year, feeding him lies to turn on Bruce and even molested him for the hell of it. Joker claimed that messing with Jason's mind were the happiest moments in his life in a very long time.
Out of all the Robins, Jason was Joker's favorite, considering him to be his creation, not Batman's.
I doubt the effects of the Pit will be different in this world and it's obvious that Jason is going to have PTSD, but I worry on how Scarecrow's manipulation will affect him on top of being murdered. My Jason didn't go through the same torture as the others did, at least not on the same level, but none of them were being toyed with by Crane before dying. Not even the Jasons that were taken in by the League were used to this extreme and they are awful people, I mean Talia fucked Jason and he was nineteen when he was brought back in those worlds.
Fucking whore.
As biased as it's going to sound, out of all the Titans and Bruce included, none of them have suffered on the level Jay has. Yes, they all have their sob stories but none like his. He can never catch a break and it's like the world hates him, beating someone who's already on their knees further into the ground. He hides his pain well but I know him, he's gone over the edge and he doesn't know how to stop himself from falling, not wanting to lose himself completely.
But no matter how much of himself he loses, one thing will always remain the same whether he's a hero or a villain. It's what's truly the most terrifying thing about him because it's what makes him so impulsive and headstrong.
Jason has nothing to lose.
***
By the time morning rolled around I'd only slept for three hours, leaving the hotel early to get food for Damian and I for the day.
That was hours ago as it's now early afternoon as I drive on the busy roads of this city. After our talk yesterday Damian didn't fight to come with me when I said I was heading out, understanding that this is something I have to deal with on my own. I dressed in black ripped jeans and a black hoodie, my beat up converse adoring my feet.
It's strange really, I have no idea where I'm going but my instinct is guiding me. Something just feels off and I just know something is going to happen. Normally I know how to control this but right now it's out of control, meaning it has something to do with my soulmate.
So my feet carry me to this strange unit garage of some sort, not exactly knowing what to call it. It doesn't have doors, kind of an open space with a roof and two side walls. My guess is that the opening is for trucks to pass through, but why the hell was I led here?
When I hear the sound of a motorcycle I begin climbing the wood planks to stay out of sight. It's my go to tactic when needing to be stealthy, plus higher ground to get a good look at everything. It's not shocking when Jason enters my field of vision, decked out in his Red Hood gear, minus the helmet. With each time I see him it becomes more unsettling, his appearance more unhinged than the last.
He's pale and his eyes look sunken into his face, hair unkempt as his curls are everywhere. For someone who just came out of the Pit he appears more unhealthy than when he went in. None of the changes have occurred yet as he's still five nine and hasn't started building muscle mass yet. The Pit is supposed to heal all medical issues, meaning that Jason's time on the streets will no longer put a strain on his body. He'll be able to reach his actual height and won't have to worry about the years of malnourishment.
Really won't be a problem because he's supposed to become two hundred and twenty five pounds of pure muscle.
I know it's the effects of the toxin addiction and most likely lack of sleep. Another common occurrence in every universe is Jason's awful nightmares, always working to the bone to avoid it. As hypocritical as it sounds coming from me, he needs sleep or else his body is going to shut down and kill him.
When I see Dove, followed closely by Nightwing, it's clear how this is going to go. They are here because of Hank and Dawn has become impulsive because she wants to save him. Jason must have sent a ransom before there is a truck full of bars of gold in the background that Dawn must have hijacked. Dick is pleading to Dawn to let this go and that Connor is going to figure out a solution.
Superboy huh? Well looks like his maturity is kicking in.
Jason throws them a gun and says if she wants the deactivator she's going to have to kill him. With that a brawl unfolds, Dick and Dawn fighting each other as Jason smirks evilly as he watches on. There is so much going on that it should be hard to follow, but not for me. I'm not paying attention to the fight, my attention is on my soulmate.
What's the purpose of this? What does Crane get out of this?
There is this look in Jason's eyes, one of mischief and deception. It entices me to closer examine the weapon he threw to Dawn, an odd suspicion bubbling inside me. Right as she gains leverage and aims the gun at Jason's head it all clicks.
That gun isn't a gun, it's the detonator.
As she pulls the trigger nothing happens and she's confused, attempting to fire again only to get the same result. Jason cackles and sarcastically apologizes, informing them that he "accidentally" gave her the detonator. At the realization Dawn breaks down onto the ground, whaling out in pain as her actions just killed Hank.
It's at this moment that I understand what Crane got out of this. He needed to have Red Hood send a message to the Titans, that this isn't the Jason they know and there is no saving him. He needed to hurt them and cause a rift in their relationships, killing off one of the originals who had an already sensitive relationship with Dick.
Jason had Dawn murdered the love of her life to weaken the group, absolutely guaranteeing that she would leave due to the loss.
Dick holds her as she falls apart, trying to console her but in a situation like this there is no consoling. Jason mounts his bike and Dick shouts at him, asking the dumb question on 'how could he do this to them' like they weren't the ones who pushed him over the edge.
For a moment Dick's eyes drift from Jason to higher up and just like with Hank at the gym, we make eye contact. The only difference is that Dick has seen me before and I know he remembers me. It catches Jason's attention and he goes to glance in my direction, so I make a run for it.
Dick seeing me has now created a problem as I wasn't even supposed to be there. He knows I saw everything and that I purposely don't want Jason to notice me. This alone messes with fate and now I fear that I've put a target on my back for none other that Dick Grayson.
What the fuck have I done?