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Jason was free running, keeping an eye out for trouble, when he saw something unsettling. At first, he’d thought his eyes were tricking him. The glare of the damp pavement from the ongoing drizzling rain was reflecting neon green up at him, and he paused to look. There were glowing drips and smears of lazarus leading like a breadcrumb trail down the street. Jason paused, long enough to swallow his wariness, then proceeds to follow the trail. Is this a trap? Perhaps. But the best way to spring a trap is to walk in to it. It's only when he gets on ground level and starts following the trail that he realizes what it really is.
Smears, where someone leaned or touched the walls. The way the trail of drips on the pavement almost looked like uneven footsteps.
This is a blood trail. A lazarus blood trail.
Well. Shit.
Jason is not any less certain this is a trap, but now he’s more wondering what the fuck he’s going to find that bleeds Lazarus.
He sees a full hand print on the next corner, though it’s small. Something unsettles him, but he tries not to draw conclusions, not until he sees what it is. Not yet.
He turns the corner.
At first, it looks like just another alley, albeit one with more green smears tracing their way down the walls. There is a dumpster partway down the alley though, and the smears stop there. Jason approaches cautiously. Hands on his weapons, but not drawn.
He needs to see what this is. He needs to know.
And then he gets a glimpse around the corner of the dumpster, and he flinches almost as hard at the other does.
“Shit,” he breathes.
It’s a kid. Small, maybe fourteen, curled in on himself. He’s wearing very little; a too-big t-shirt covers most of him, and he has a lab coat that he’s clutching closed to cover most of the rest, but Jason sees enough. Aside from physical characteristics- glowing green eyes, grey skin, white hair- the more disturbing attributes are easy to spot. The kid doesn’t have shoes, or pants, or a right arm. The right sleeve of the lab coat is mostly lax and stained a violent green. So is a lot of it, actually. The worst of it seems to be on the right sleeve, the left thigh, and the abdomen. This kid is extremely hurt, and Jason swallows his rage.
“Shit,” he says again, “Fuck, kid, can I help you?”
He gets a flinch, and after a moment, and heartbreaking laugh. It sounds rough, like his throat is shredded.
“Pro-prob’ly not,” the kid coughs out, like it’s a fucking joke. Jason can see green blood in his mouth when he talks, and doesn’t have to wonder if talking hurts him. Hell, it looks like everything hurts him right now. He crouches down, to be less a threat, still halfway behind the dumpster to not crowd the kid.
“I can get you to a hospital, they can-“ Jason cuts himself off ad the full body flinch the kid gives.
“No, nono, no hospitals, no doctors, I’ll be f- fine.”
“You don’t look fine, kid, you look…” Jason trails off, not sure how say it.
“Half dead?” the kid actually smiles. It’s a small, strained thing, but real.
“Yeah,”
“I’ll survive.” Despite struggling to get the words out, he seems confident. Jason wondered only as long as it took the kid to mutter the next sentence. “They’ve been trying to kill me for months- I’m not gonna End now just cause of a little light maiming.”
Jesus fucking christ.
“…that’s… fuck, kid.”
“Danny.”
“Danny. I need- I can’t just leave you here.” Jason doesn’t know what his plan is. Doesn’t know what he wants, not at all, but he knows he needs to help, somehow, needs to make this right. “Even if you say you’ll survive, let me take you somewhere else, somewhere safe,”
Danny stares at him, for a moment too long, and then shrugs one shoulder. “Sure.” He says, like it’s a casual agreement. “but no doctors.”
Jason hesitates, and Danny narrows his eyes.
“I’m hoping to change your mind on that," Jason says carefully, "but I won’t bring in a doctor unless I can get you to agree to it, okay?” Danny’s mouth thins, but he nods, and Jason slumps in relief. “Alright, thanks Danny. I want to carry you to my safe house, but first can I know what injuries to avoid making worse?”
Danny tilts his head, unfocusing slightly, and a quiet moment passes before he answers. “Most of my injuries are external, but will heal on their own eventually. The only one that’s harder to deal with is my- I’m.” he stutters, then stops to fish for the right words. “... my stomach,” he says eventually, “It’s… kind of being held together right now? and if I let go it’ll get worse.”
That is such an unsettling way to describe an injury.
“Should we wrap it now, before moving? I have bandages,”
Danny shakes his head, “No, I just… you’ll have to carry me?” he looks nervous, like this is the worst thing he’s asking of Jason. But, well. Jason knows how that vulnerability can be terrifying.
“Alright. Princess carry? I promise to keep you safe.” Jason felt something shift in him with that statement. Something in the pit, quiet as it’s been, and suddenly Danny’s brilliant green eyes are locked on his, even through the mask.
“oh,” he says, “You’re like me.” What. “Yeah, okay.” Danny says, and much of the tension that’s been keeping him upright starts seeping out. “Thanks,” and then Jason is moving forward, catching Danny as he slumps in on himself.
Fuck.
---
Jason gets the kid back to the safe house mostly on autopilot. He doesn’t know what’s happening. He knows he felt *something*, and the kid seemed to feel it too, but damned if Jason knows what it was. He doesn’t feel like his emotions or decision are being manipulated in any way. He knows bringing the kid back to his safe house is an atypical decision, but he’s done more for less, lending out his safe houses to whomever needs a safe place in his territory. It still feels like his choice, and he’s taking care of this personally because… well.
Because he trusts himself, and this kid has obviously been targeted by someone, and it involves something that looks like Lazarus.
Unusual, yes. Still his own choices.
It’s fine.
The kid though… significantly less fine. Jason tries not to worry about the kid dying on him- he’d seemed pretty confident that wasn’t an option for him, but even having passed out, Danny never let go of the front of the lab coat. Jason kept the kid curled in on himself to avoid aggravating whatever was being ‘held together’ there, but he knew it had started bleeding more with even as little jostling as Jason tried to manage. By the time Jason gets into his safe house and sets him down on the bed, he could tell Danny’s green blood is pooling in ways it isn’t supposed to. He grabs some supplies, takes off his helmet, cleans his hands, then comes back and hesitantly brushes a thumb over Danny’s face, hesitant to start unwrapping Danny’s wounds without his being conscious.
“Danny, wake up.” He tries, and Danny’s eyes twitch. “Danny, c’mon kid, I need you to open your eyes for me bud.” They open, but they seem hazy and unfocused. “Hey, kid, I need to start dressing your wounds now. think you can stay awake for me?”
“Nngh,” danny says, scrunching his eyes shut and breathing deeply. “m’kay.”
Jason sighs in relief. “Okay. Good, thank you. Let’s start with the big one, okay? Can I help you get your top off, so I can see?” Danny visibly tenses, then forces himself to relax.
“Okay.” He shifts, supported by Jason, until they can peal open the labcoat, then lift op the shirt he has on underneath. Jason is unreasonably relieved to acknowledge the kid is at least wearing underwear. That relief curdles at the sight of Danny’s injury. It’s…
Jason doesn’t know what to call it, but the word vivisection starts repeating in his head.
“The insides will heal on their own, in time.” Danny says softly, mercifully not acknowledging Jason’s panic. “I just need to get sewn shut so I stop… losing stuff.”
“Right.” Jason says, hoping the kid just means blood. “Okay.” And then he puts everything unnecessary in a box in his head, puts it away, and gets to work cleaning and stitching the surface level damage.
To he credit, Danny stays present through the process and barely flinches. Though maybe that’s more worrying, really.
Jason can figure out how he feels about what’s happening when it’s over.
It’s a long process. The skin around the incisions is already torn up, almost frail. There are a few places he uses butterfly bandages instead, and talks through his process with Danny as he goes so the kid knows they’re not as effective, but will hold if he’s careful. Danny responds almost casually, talks about his injuries in a detached manner. He doesn’t say anything about how he got them.
Jason doesn’t ask.
He does say that they’ve been reopened multiple times. That he knows he’s missing things. Organs, at least one rib, part of his digestive track. He expects to regrow them in time. He’s also expecting to regrow his arm, but it’ll be a slower process. He flinches when Jason asks about his thigh, but turns so Jason can see it anyway.
There’s a whole slice taken off. it’s scabbed over in parts, the tissue trying to protect itself. Danny is quiet when he starts cleaning, despite how much it must hurt. He tries to be careful.
There’s not much to be done there save for wrapping it up, keeping it clean and giving it a chance to heal itself. By the time he’s done, Danny is flagging again.
“Think you’ll be able to eat something before you sleep?” Jason asks, and he hates the defeated exhale he gets in response.
“I need to regrow my digestive track first.” Danny says, and Jason shudders at the realization of exactly what that means.
“How long…” since you’ve eaten? How long can you go still?
“I’ll be okay.” Danny says, saving Jason from having to ask. “I just need… I just need to be safe. To heal. It’ll be okay.”
“…okay.” Jason says. “Okay. I’m gonna pick you up again, okay?” Danny nods, and Jason lifts him carefully. He pulls the ruined top cover off the bed, and sets Danny down on the blessedly clean layer underneath it. He lays the kid down so he’ll be comfortable, hopefully, and goes to get a new blanket to cover him with.
Danny is asleep by the time he comes back.
---
Jason spends his time effectively. He does as much surface level research as he can on how to take care of someone recovering from gastrointestinal surgery, as that’s the closest parallel he can think of. Of course, it’s not terribly helpful, since it’s made with the assumption that the intestinal track is at least put back together afterward. Something Jason suspects did not happen.
God, what Jason wouldn’t give to bring Leslie in right now. or Alfred.
He places an order through on of his most trustworthy goons to get saline drips, then sleeps on the couch for a solid four hours, and when he gets up again Danny has barely moved a muscle. He checks his communicators and sees nothing new- his schedule isn’t as consistent as the bat’s are, since he’s just one guy he has no one to schedule around, and he can delegate most general maintenance to his lackeys. Not to mention, the bats know his patrol habits change depending on his mental health. He’s been in a significant upswing for a while now, it won’t be surprising for them that if he has a disruptive episode by now. It’s about time for one.
So, he’s got time to figure this out.
He’s pacing in the living room when he hears something shifting in the bedroom. He looks through the open door and sees Danny staring back at him, his green eyes eerie even in the early morning gloom.
“Hey, kid.” Jason walks closer, then crouches down a few feet away to be at eye level for danny. “How you feeling?”
“…better,” danny says after thinking for a moment. “Not great but… better.”
Jason can’t help a small sigh of relief. “Good, I’m glad.” He smiles a little, “I can get you some pain meds, but it probably won’t do much more than take the edge off.” in all honesty he probably should have addressed that last night, but with how little Danny was reacting to the whole thing it had barely been a concern until after he had fallen asleep. Not that it seems to matter, since danny is shaking his head anyway.
“Not- most human medicine won’t work on me, not while I’m like this.”
“Right,” Jason frowns, “I can try to get my hands on some meds adapted for metas, but we wont know what your reactions are gonna be like,”
“Don’t worry about it, helmethead.” Danny says, smiling, “I’ll be fine. The worst is over.”
“It’s Red Hood when I’m in the mask, actually.” Jason says, very aware that he’s not in the mask right now. “I honestly thought you’d recognized me.”
“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not local.”
“Not a disappointment.” Jason hesitates. Stupid, stupid decision, but- “I’m Jason.”
Danny blinks. “oh,” he breathes deeper, “Oh, I- thanks.” They watch each other for a moment more, then Danny says “I used to be Phantom.”
“Phantom?” Jason gets the impressions Danny expected him to recognize that name the way Jason had expected Danny to recognize the Red Hood. He doesn’t.
“Phantom,” Danny says again. “the Protector of Amity Park.”
No.
Jason’s breath stills in his chest.
This kid was a hero.
This happened to a child hero. Again.
“Fuck, kid.”
He puts his head in his hands, just for a moment, but looks back up when Danny makes a small noise.
“Sorry,” he says, not sure what his face is doing. “I… I don’t recognize the name or the place. But I know- I’ve known child heroes.”
“Jason.” Danny says. “I’m sorry, too.”
He looks at Danny, almost says ‘what for,’ but Danny’s face stops him. He looks so… sympathetic.
“I can tell… I know you’re like me. I know you’re like me in the worst ways, and I know it- it must’ve hurt.” Danny’s eyes are looking far away. Jason knows he should say something, derail them, get them talking about something else, something easier. But there is a knot of pressure in his throat and he can’t get out a sound. “I’m sorry it happened.”
“H-“ Jason clears his throat. “How?”
Danny meets his eyes, fully present and here and somehow more real than anything else in the room.
“When… When I was fourteen,” Danny says. “my parents built a very strange machine.”
---
(a week later, two bodies are found burnt and unrecognizable in a warehouse near crime alley. No one connects the murders to the Red Hood. After another couple weeks, when Danny has largely recovered physically, Jason brings the Anti-Ecto acts to the attention of the Bats. They bring it to the Justice league, and the JL takes action to remove them from legislation, and to protect ecto-entities the way all metas and sapient entities should be protected. The week they are fully repealed, Jason starts inviting siblings, one at a time, to his new three bedroom apartment. They love their new kid sibling.)