Renegade Part 1: Chapter 4

[cat_13145]

Series Title: Renegade Part 1
Part Title: Comparing Scars
Author: cat_13145
I finally have a beta (does little dance) Green Galands
Rating: Pg-13
Disclaimer: If I owned them, you think Battle for the Cowl would have happened?
Warnings: Character Death fic, I'm sorry, you're all probably going to hate me. 
Character: Jason, Roy, Tim, Batman (briefly), Marie (OC)
Summary:  In the aftermath of Green Arrows death,  Jason repays a favour.

 

“Go Away!” Roy yelled at the door. Since the funeral, since the Revelations, there’d been a progression of well wishers attempting to beat down his door down. He just wanted them to go away, to leave him alone.

And when silence reigned for a few seconds, he thought he’d driven off whoever this was.

“You need better bolts Arrow.” He lifted his head and saw Jason standing there. Next to him stood Marie, her face worried.

“Would they honestly stop you?” he asked, not really caring.

“No.” Jason admitted, sinking down on the sofa opposite him. “Where’s Lian?”

You could only have these types of conversations with a Bat.

“With Dinah. Figured she’d want to after…”

Marie nodded softly. “I’ll go kidnap her from there then.” She headed back out of the door and Roy barely had time to process his rather strange conversation, when he noticed that Jason had a plastic bag with him, that he was in the process of extracting a six pack from.

“What are you doing here?” He demanded roughly. Jason shrugged.

“Returning a favor.”

Roy snorted. “More like checking up on the Junkie, making sure he doesn’t slip back.”

“No.” Jason said, sliding a beer across to Roy. “I know you won’t.”

Roy blinked. “How?” He asked, cos lord only knew he wasn’t sure himself. The cravings hadn’t been this bad since he’d first quit and for once his brain was in agreement, just not wanting to feel any more.

Jason lifted his head, ice blue eyes boring into Roy.

“Cos, I didn’t” as the impact of this sentence hit him, Jason added. “And I had a lot less going for me than you.”

“You were a junkie?” The surprise in his voice, he hoped wouldn’t be taken for judgment. At Jason’s nod, he had to ask, “Does Batman know?”

Jason shrugged. “If he does, he hasn’t said. Think Alfred does, but that’s Alfred.”

“How…Why?” Roy began, but Jason’s blue eyes pinned him again.

“I was a street kid. My mom was a junkie until she died. Then I did whatever I had to survive.” The eyes never wavered as he repeated. “Whatever I had to.”

Roy nodded. Understanding the undercurrent and honored that Jason trusted him enough to tell him. He took the beer that was being pushed at him.

Jason continued. “First patrol after the funeral, we took down a drug dealer on Main. Bruce took off basically as soon as the guy was down, and all his stuff was just lying around there…” he paused. “Things were really rough. That night, before we went out, Bruce was in the cave when I got down. He was sewing…” At Roy’s expression, he shrugged. “Bruce is pretty good at sewing. It’s only cooking he sucks at.” His arms were folded, and he was looking at Roy like he was a punk on patrol, daring him to laugh, he didn’t. I was in the locker rooms, they didn’t know I was there. You know that Bat symbol Bruce has on his chest these days?” Roy nodded. He remembered the symbols, and the rumors about it in the superhero community.

“Alfred was taking to him, while he sewed.” He imitated the British accent. “and that’s what you’re anticipating? That’s those cowardly and superstitious criminals will aim for your trademark icon rather than your very frightful mask? A shot to the heart as opposed to the head? How appropriate in a time of sorrow. You don’t honor the boy by affixing a bulls eye to your chest.” Bruce…wasn’t really talking to anyone back then, he spotted me standing at the locker room entrance and just jerked his head towards the batmobile, which of course made Alfred madder. “off with you. Have your revenge. Wreak it upon whichever one you blame more, Master or Apprentice.””

Despite the warmth of the room, Jason shivered. “It felt like it didn’t really matter whether I was there or not, like no one really cared if I was alive or dead. I…just wanted it to stop. To stop having to be the strong one.” He fixed Roy with scarily blue eyes. “I was going to take the stuff, then I remembered Richard Milton.”

“Who?”

“Kid I used to know. My best friend, for a while. Died of an Overdose at 12.”

“I’m sorry.” Roy said, but Jason shook his head.
“Don’t be. Was merciful for him and good for me. I stopped using afterwards.” At Roy’s face, he added. “Crystal meths mainly. Never had the money to get much above that and pot.”

He sighed. “I left the guy for the cops, and managed to stop Bruce killing some guy off fifth. A neo Nazi, so if I’d let him succeed, no great loss, except for Bruce.”

Roy nodded.

“Doubt he would have handled it better than Ollie.”

“No.” Jason agreed. “He would have seemed to through, if merely to give him something to lord it over Ollie.”

“He gets that after all.” Roy said, his good humour evaporating. “Least Bruce doesn’t have a kid he didn’t know about.”

“At the moment.” Jason pointed out. “There’s seven paternity suits going on, three of which Lucius is worried about.”

Roy sighed. “Point taken.”

He took a sip.

“You on patrol later?” he asked. He hoped not, he was glad of the company.

“Trying to get rid of me?” Jason joked, though there was a worried look in his eyes. “Yeah. Introducing the new Robin tonight.”

At Roy’s expression, he shrugged. “Can’t put it off forever, the rumours are really circulating and Alfred’s being dropping hints.”

He paused and added. “It’ll be alright.”

Roy gave a choked noise that Jason knew only too well.

“We’ll get him back.” He said, firmly, though it flew in the face of everything Batman had ever taught him. “We got Clark back didn’t we? So why not him?”

Roy gave a choked sound that might have been Dick.

Jason ran his hand through his hair. “ Look. I ain’t religious. I don’t know about God and honestly most of the time I don’t care. Marie’s never made a big deal out of it, she goes to Mass and that’s the end of it. But…”

He glanced at Roy. “But…?”

“But there’s some theory that we get released when we’ve done whatever we were put here to do. I can’t believe that Ollie’s completed what ever the hell he was meant to do, but I can believe that Dick did.”

He sighed. “Look, I’ll play it which ever way you prefer. We can sit here, get drunk and try not to talk about the elephant in the room, or…” He took a deep breath. “You can come with me and watch the new Robin Début.”

Roy paused only for a second. “Let me grab a coat.”

*

The kid was bouncing all around as they made their way to Gotham and to the point where Jason had arranged to meet Bruce.
“You really think I’m ready to meet him?”

“Nope.” Jason said, running his eyes over the kid. “But you’ll do.”

Roy forced himself to smile. “No One is ever ready to meet him, Baby bird.”

He glanced at Jason. “Know any good rooftops in the vicinity?”

Jason grinned pointing to one just above their heads. “Oracle’s got it all set up.”

He swung himself up and actually had a good talk with Dinah, and Barbara, before Batman turned up. The females of the community had apparently gathered at Bab's for an Ollie is was jerk session, and Marie had decide to stay. Dinah sounded better for it, and he was so relieved about that, that he missed Batman’s arrival.

“Batman needs Robin.” Tim sounded terrorised, but was sticking his guns. Jason was too.

“Bruce. Like it or lump it, you need a partner, if merely to keep yourself alive. You need someone to train up.”

Bruce said something about working alone, and Jason snorted.

“Bullshit. Before me, hell even before Dick, you had Alfred. And you’ve got the JLA backing you up. They’ve just lost one of their own, and they don’t need to be worrying about it becoming two.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Things change Bruce. We grow up, we train and we hand the mantle on to the next generation, that’s just the way it works. The way it should work. Sometimes it takes some persuasion to let go and see yourself as a mentor, rather than as a sidekick. But ultimately you have to. Cos that’s the circle of life.”

Roy fought the desire to laugh. He’d been set up. By a Bat. Ollie would never let him hear the end of this. The Bat clan had managed to set him up. The kid must have been patrolling with Bruce for a couple of nights already, based on the ease with which he followed Batman. He was laughing, semi hysterical when Jason came to pick him.

“That went well.”
“You. Set. Me. Up.” Roy managed to gasp out. Jason nodded.

“Fraid so. Did it work?” He looked at the kid, not a kid, now nearly 17, and nodded.

“There was a reason for Dick calling you Bat Brat you know.”

“Yept.” Jason agreed. “And there’s a reason I called Dick an idiot.”

“He certainly wouldn’t have done this.” Roy agreed, with a sigh. He’d go find Connor. Jason was right, the kid was going to need someone, now that Ollie wasn’t…around. And it looked like he was going to have to take Clark up on his offer.

“Yeah.” Jason nodded, shooting a graphook into the air. “But I’m not Dick.”

 TBC