Archive of Our Own ^beta

Jason hid a lot of himself away from his family, logically he knew there were parts of him they would never accept. Bruce had a lot of rules, no killing and definitely no magic in Gotham. While he kept the maiming to a minimum in Gotham he rarely, if ever, used magic of any sort anywhere Bruce or any of the other Bats would catch wind of it. It opened the door for a lot of questions that he really wanted to avoid. Which made his current situation a little tricky.

Somehow Dick, Stephanie, Tim, and Jason himself all managed to be caught and kidnapped by the same guy. Said guy had tied them up and stuck them on what was, without a doubt, some sort of altar. A group of others busied themselves with work around the room, some setting up candles, others drawing sigils on the floor, all of them wearing the same stereotypical cloak. They had a sigil drawn on the back of their cloaks that Jason had been trying to get a good look at without looking too suspicious to the others, he really didn’t want to give himself away.

“Hey, nice place you got here but we actually have dinner plans so we’ll have to leave early,” Stephanie called out. Jason snorted.

“Yes, well you see we can’t let you leave until He shows up,” one of the cloaked figures from the other side of the room replied.

“And who the fuck is he?” Jason could feel her trying to wriggle out of the ropes behind his back.

“The Last Son of the All Caste.” Oh fuck that’s me

“Who?”

“No matter,” with a flick of his hand Stephanie's loose ropes were tightened once again. This guy wasn’t just a summoner like Jason feared, he could actually cast spells with just his hand it seemed. Which made him infinitely harder to fight against. Usually Jason could just separate the summoner from their source of magic, usually as easy as breaking a summoning circle, but with someone who didn’t need that he’d have to actually fight against the magic. Seeing that all of the prep work was seemingly done the sorcerer signalled to the others and they filed out of the room.

“Well at least we can look forward to meeting that Caste dude,” Stephanie broke the silence.

“Yeah, but what the fuck is the All Caste?” Tim responded, Jason took slight pleasure in knowing he knew something Tim didn’t.

“I don’t know but could he hurry the fuck up, I do actually have dinner plans.”

“Jay, you ok?” Dick, who had been leaning against Jason’s side, asked quietly. Clearly he could feel how tense Jason was.

“Just not thrilled to be here is all,” Jason half mumbled back, trying to think of some way to get them out of here without exposing that he was indeed the hero they were supposedly waiting on. Dick didn’t respond, choosing instead to gently shoulder bump Jason, a reminder he was there. Jason assumed Dick thought he was panicking because the last time he had been tied up in a warehouse like this it hadn’t really ended all that well for him.

Not to say he wasn’t a little antsy because of that, but right now he had much bigger issues than his death. He almost missed the Joker right now, at least the Joker would monologue at you and you knew exactly what he planned to do and how he was going to do it. With this group, whatever they may be, he was in the dark, and not just because he was in some dingy warehouse. He knew next to nothing about them, the sigil on their back just looked like a basic protection one, nothing you wouldn’t see on any magic practitioner of any level really. At the same time he really didn’t want them telling him their plan because then that meant they actually had one. Some small, delusional, part of him hoped their only plan was to kidnap them and hope, for some unknown reason, that the All Caste would show up.

His prayers would not be answered unfortunately, as a few minutes later the members shuffled back into the room. Each took a spot around the altar they were sitting upon, spaced evenly apart. Damn it . It looked like they may actually know what they were doing. The same man from earlier walked around the circle, double checking that everyone was in place.
“He shall be here soon, once we start he won’t be able to ignore us,” he stated, walking up the steps to stand on the altar near them. He was just out of reach of any of them though, no use in trying to swipe his legs out from under him.

“Still don’t know who this dude you’re expecting is. Is he like some sort of ex boyfriend?” gross.

“Of course, I wouldn’t expect any of you to understand the powers that be and the powers that will be once I’m done.” He was clearly trying to bring about some sort of evil power, likely the Untitled with the way he was talking about the All Caste. “Of course, we will need some sort of sacrifice.”

“Why does every ritual always require that one of us dies?” Dick whined next to him, clearly not his first rodeo with the whole being a sacrifice thing.

“Oh not just one of you, all of you. By the time all of you are gone I’ll have enough power to bring Him here so I can end him once and for all.” Jason had a feeling he wouldn’t get a lot more time to come up with a plan which wasn’t great because he had come up with fuck all. Even if he wanted to tell the others about oh, being the exact person this crazy dude was trying to summon, he couldn’t without giving it away to the crazy dude in question. While Jason could no longer see him he could hear the man walking behind him, with the way Tim shifted backwards he would guess he had walked in front of him.

“Ahh, Red Robin, I suppose you’re as good a place to start as any.” Jason could feel the All Blades twitching under his skin, the flames aching to slash through the source of the evil, but Jason didn’t want to give that away yet. Taking a deep breath Jason relaxed his entire body, pushing his palms flat against the floor. He usually didn’t cast spells, it wasn’t his strongest skill, but Ducra had made sure he was more than proficient in it. No member of the All Caste got away with not being well rounded.

Streaks of gold traced through the floor, barely there at first but glowing brighter by the second. The other Bats gave no indication that they saw it, Jason could feel them struggling to get free. Those standing around the altar did seem to take notice, mumbling to each other about what that could mean. Once the lines he cast reached the walls of the warehouse he could feel everything inside of it, more specifically he focused on the intentions of the cultists, trying to figure out their next move before they did it.

He didn’t have much time to think however, as the glint of a blade caught his attention. The man was waving it in front of Tim’s face. Jason, now filled with rage, decided now was as good a time as any to make a move. He could feel magic underneath his skin, begging to be let out once again. Ink rose up to the surface, his markings now shining bright gold. While Tim and Stephanie likely couldn’t see him Dick had. Glancing over Jason saw his wide eyes, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Without much of a thought Jason burnt the ropes from around his wrist, they only had a low level spell keeping them on after all. He rose quickly from the floor, not wanting to give the other magician any time to think.

“You really didn’t need to do any of that to get me here, an invitation to your ritual would have sufficed ya know?” Jason was now facing the man, who was still focused on Tim in front of him.

“You– you can’t be– really Red Hood?” Stuttering the man seemed way less confident now. He quickly abandoned his plan, instead turning and slashing the throat of one of his cult members behind him, providing the blood he would need to summon the Untitled. While he was working on the spell Jason burned through the other’s ropes as well.

“You all need to leave now,” he didn’t leave any room for argument.

“Why the fuck are you gold?” Stephanie didn’t seem to care much for his order.

“Go. Now, I’ll explain later.”

“Fuck no Jay, we aren’t leaving you here.”

“Fine,” he grumbled, glancing over all where the Untitled was starting to form, “just stay out of my way.”
He shooed them over to a corner of the warehouse, wanting them as far as possible from what was about to happen. For all of his muscle when using the All Blades Jason fought like a dancer, moving with grace that no man built like he was should have. Each slash of the blades felt like an extension of his soul, mostly because it was. He hoped it would be a short fight, he was low on magical energy after helping Constantine out last week. Jason could hear the others fighting the cultists in the background, most of them subdued fairly quickly, even the main magician was taken down by Dick with ease.

Now it was just him and the Untitled.

“Silly boy,” it hissed “we killed the rest of you, now it’s your turn.” Jason didn’t dignify it with a response, instead ducking under its tendril and swiping upwards with his sword. Since it was only one sacrifice the Untitled was fairly weak, only taking a few minutes for Jason to banish. Staggering over towards Dick he managed to speak.

“Gonna pass out for a week now.”

“Wait but we need to know–” Tim tried to ask as Jason passed out.