Chapter Text
"So, I've got a question," Jason said after he finished chewing his bite of lasagna.
"Ask away," Vlad said. They were eating in a small breakfast nook rather than the grand, impersonal dining room Jason had seen on the way in. It was more relaxed this way.
"You said you looked for Danny when he was taken," he gestured to Vlad with a forkful of salad and ignored Tim dumping several olives into his bowl. "But she," he gestured to Dani who had half her fettuccine alfredo in her mouth, "thought Danny was dead so…" Jason trailed off and let the question hang. At his side, Danny shifted uncomfortably. Jason understood his discomfort, but he needed to fully understand the motivations of these people if he was ever going to trust them.
Vlad sighed deeply and set his fork down.
"Danielle came to me shortly after Daniel was taken," Vlad explained. "She believed the official report and I let her."
"I'm still pissed about that," Dani grumbled, glaring at the man. Vlad sighed again.
"I had just lost one child. I wasn't going to let another get herself killed with some half cooked rescue plan," he nearly growled, clearly this was an old argument. Dani a made a face but didn't argue.
"Wouldn't having two halfas attacking the GIW be better than one?" Tim asked.
"Halfas develop their powers over time," Vlad explained. "When we're created, we have very little control or even understanding of what we can do. It's only with time that our full strength develops and with practice that we gain any control."
"He's saying I would have only been a distraction," Dani grumbled.
"It was safer to go alone. Yes." Vlad agreed.
"Okay, I was just curious," Jason said, trying to drop the subject.
"I have a question for you now," Vlad began. Jason made a, 'go ahead' motion with his hand. "You, and I'm sorry if this sounds strange, but you kind of smell of ectoplasm."
"I noticed that too," Dani agreed.
"I smell like ectoplasm?" Jason asked. "Are you sure it's not from being around Danny? And does ectoplasm even have a smell? I've never noticed it."
"It does," Vlad said. "But you'd have to be a ghost or a halfa to smell it. And it doesn't smell of Daniel's ectoplasm, each ghost's is unique. Besides, this smell isn't surface level. This ectoplasm is more, baked in. Have you ever encountered a large quantity of ectoplasm before? Anything you can think of."
"Is ectoplasm always green?" Tim asked, a waver to his voice Jason didn’t like. Vlad made a, so so, gesture.
"It's not always green, but that is its usual color," Vald said.
"Jay! The Lazarus pit!" Tim gasped.
"The Lazarus pit?" Vlad asked. Tim nodded vigorously.
"The Lazarus pits are these green pools that bubble up from the earth. They have healing properties but they enact a toll on the user," Tim explained.
"Yeah, I was a crazy murder machine for two years after getting my zombie ass tossed in one " Jason growled.
"The League of Shadows, they're an assassin death cult, their leader, Demon Head Ra's al Ghul, he uses one to be immortal," Tim explained.
"I have, several questions," Dani said.
"You said they bubble out of the earth?" Vlad cut her off. Tim and Jason both nodded. "Hmm, that must be the source of the ectoplasm in Jason. There are several natural portals between the Ghost Zone and our world. Some even open on a semi regular basis. It's likely that one such portal is letting ectoplasm mix with ground water and creating these Lazarus pits. I've never heard of ectoplasm causing madness before, but perhaps it's mixing with something else in the earth to cause that reaction."
"So what, I'm part ghost?" Jason asked.
"No," Vlad said. "But you have a higher concentration of ectoplasm in your body than is probably healthy. Does the madness still bother you?"
"Not like it used to," Jason admitted.
"I'd have to test to be sure, but as your body has no way of containing the ectoplasm, it's likely slowly draining from you," Vlad explained. "Over time it might fade away completely."
"Okay, we can look into that after we're done with Danny," Jason said.
"Fair enough," Vlad agreed and went back to his food.
"You were a zombie ?!" Dani blurted loudly and Jason sighed, it was gonna be a long night.
….
Jason had always had nightmares. When he was young, before his mother died, his dreams featured his father heavily. His father was a mean drunk, the nightmare version was worse. His father would beat him, or kick him out into the snow. The even worse dreams were the ones where his father would beat his mother, and Jason wasn't able to draw his attention away. Jason had always been willing to take the blows for his mother, especially when she was too drugged up to even know what was going on.
After Bruce took him in and he became Robin, his nightmares changed. Now he dreamt of failing, of people dying because Robin wasn't fast enough, wasn't good enough. He dreamt of Bruce kicking him out, getting rid of him when he realized what Jason was, just a useless street rat.
After he came back, his nightmares were of the night he died, of the Joker killing him. Sometimes Bruce helped with the torture.
Now, Jason's nightmares had changed again. He felt guilty to be haunted by the lab he'd pulled Danny out of, he wasn't the ones tortured by them. But it'd been the worst thing he'd ever seen. Danny flinching away from him, covered in his own blood and ectoplasm. Wearing nothing but a stained pair of pants and the inhibitors that were burning his skin away.
Danny had told him little about his time there, but Jason had seen the marks left on his boyfriend's body first-hand. What the halfa had suffered put his own torture and death to shame. Jason had only suffered a few hours, Danny had been there for weeks.
Jason jolted awake, he hardly ever woke up screaming anymore. He frantically searched with his eyes for Danny. He was curled up right next to him in bed, wrapped around Cujo and fast asleep. Jason wanted to grab his boyfriend and hold him close, assure himself that Danny was fine. But he couldn’t do that, he couldn’t disturb Danny's sleep for this.
Quietly, Jason swung his feet out of bed. He pulled on his pants where he'd left them on the floor, and grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair. He slipped his boots on and opened the door. Cujo lifted his head and blinked sleepily at him, but Jason whispered at him to stay and he obediently went back to sleep.
Jason trudged down the halls looking for somewhere to smoke. The Master's manor was so very different to the Wayne's. It was new, only a few years old if Jason had to guess, with none of the history that plagued older homes. Everything was modern and sleek. It felt more like a museum than a home. Wayne Manor could feel like that too sometimes, but if you looked closer, you could see bits of life, shoes left on the stairs, cracks in a Ming case from when someone knocked it over, family pictures, selfies, and crayon drawings hung up among the million dollar paintings. There was none of that here.
Their bedrooms were on the second floor, so Jason made his way back to the stairs and then once on the first floor, he headed towards the back of the manor. He found an exterior door easily enough and slipped out onto the manor grounds.
It was just as modern and manicured out here. Instead of the fun and eclectic animal shaped topiaries, there were sleek, gray, abstract sculptures on the plain, perfect lawn. Jason sat down on the edge of a perfectly white gas fire pit. He lit a cigarette and took a puff. A gleam of blue light caught his attention. On top of one of the sculptures was something that didn't belong.
Jason stood up with a groan and headed across the grass, his boots picking up condensation as he went. When he reached the base of the sculpture, he took one final puff before stubbing out his cigarette on it. He eyed the dumb thing, plotting out his climb before scaling it.
Huddled on top of the structure with his tablet propped on his knees was Tim. Jason sighed as he sat down next to his brother. He wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him to his side.
"Whatcha workin on?" he asked.
"Just watching a dumb cartoon," Tim muttered as he paused the video. Jason reached around Tim's head and gently extracted one of his earbuds before popping it in his own ear.
"Will I like it?" Jason asked. Tim snorted.
"Probably," he admitted and hit play. Jason realized it was a reboot Ninja Turtles cartoon. He remembered loving a different version when he was a kid, but this one was pretty good too.
"Why aren't you in bed?" Jason asked when the episode ended. Tim sighed.
"That place," he gestured to the manor, "it reminds me of home." Jason snorted.
"That place ain't nothing like Wayne Manor," he argued.
"No!" Tim blurted. "I meant where I grew up, Drake Manor."
"What? Too clean?" Jason tried to joke.
"It was like living in a museum," Tim sighed. "I wasn't allowed to touch anything, or sit on any of the furniture. I was just another one of my parents' interesting little things locked up in a sterile environment and only brought out to show off to guests."
"Oh," Jason said dumbly.
"Yeah," Tim breathed.
"If it's too much, I won't hold it against you if you need to leave," Jason offered. "Danny won't either.
"I'll be okay," Tim leaned into Jason's side. "What about you? Why aren't you in bed?"
"Nightmare," Jason grunted.
"What about?" Tim asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"That hell we pulled Danny out of," he admitted.
"It fuck you up that bad?"
"Mmhmm," Jason hummed.
"Have you talked to Danny about it?"
"He doesn't need to deal with my shit right now."
"You're boyfriends, Jason, partners," Tim argued. "You need to lean on each other."
"But he's so fragile right now," Jason started.
"He's tougher than you think," Tim interrupted. "He's not going to let the world break him, Jay. He's proved that several times."
"I know," Jason agreed. "I just don't want to make him worry over nothing."
"You're not nothing Jason," Tim scolded. Jason took a deep breath.
"Yeah," he agreed.
"Talk to him," Tim urged.
"I will," Jason promised. "As soon as we get home."
"Good," Tim said. "Now, do you wanna watch another episode?"
"Sure Baby Bird," Jason said, pulling Tim into his lap and resting his chin on his little brother's head.
"Danny needs a family nickname," Tim said.
"I'll try to think of one," Jason promised. "Now play the damn show." Tim laughed but started the show back up again. It was nice, spending time with his brother. It hadn't been just them since before Tim started bringing Damian along. It was like old times.
…
Tim's algorithm did as promised and located what everyone was pretty sure was the recipe for the ghost de-powerer, the only problem, it was still written in a code. Jason was rather unceremoniously kicked out of the lab when his hovering became 'too intense.' He thought he'd get to use the time to get to know Dani, but it turned out that despite having her own rooms and a decent relationship with Vlad, she had a wanderlust that could not be squashed and left almost immediately.
So Jason sat in the backyard again, smoking a cigarette and throwing a slipper for Cujo to fetch. We wouldn't usually encourage the dog to play with slippers, but there were absolutely no sticks on the perfectly manicured grounds and the monogram on the slippers indicated that they were Vlad's so he didn't particularly care.
A thought struck Jason and he pulled out his phone. It was answered on the first ring.
"Yo, you guys still on earth?" he asked.
"Yeah, why? What's up?" Roy asked. "Yes it's Jason!" he shouted to someone in the distance. There was a whoosh and a muffled cry of pain, and then Kori's voice was in his ear.
"Jason! How are you? Do you need us to crush some heads?" she asked.
"No, just my boredom," Jason laughed.
"I see. We can be there in one hour. You may explain why it has taken you weeks to talk to us since we got back to earth then," she decided.
"Love you too Kori!" Jason cheared. She only harumphed and passed the phone back to Roy.
"So where are we going?" Roy asked.
"How do you feel about fucking with a rich guy's house?" Jason asked.
"Bruce?"
"No, Vlad Masters," Jason said.
"Ooh this is a story I gotta hear in person," Roy crowed. "Be there in a bit Jay, gotta stop for Mexican first."
"As is tradition," Jason agreed.
"You know it. Bye Jay!" Roy said, and hung up before Jason could reply, as also was tradition.
……
"What're you working on?" Clark asked as leaned in the doorway of Bruce's office.
"I can't stop thinking about something Jason said to me," Bruce said as pushed away from his desk and leaned back. Clark came around the desk and held onto the back of Bruce's office chair as he leaned forward to look at the computer screen.
"Artificial larynx?" Clark asked. Bruce hummed in the affirmative.
"Jason said I'm the reason he doesn't get to hear his boyfriend laugh," Bruce explained.
"And you want to help," Clark said, understanding. "Have you asked Zatanna or Constantine if they can restore his voice?"
"Yes," Bruce grunted.
"And… what did they say?" Clark prompted.
"That magic isn't a cure for disability," Bruce muttered.
"So they won't heal him?" Clark asked, sounding surprised.
"They can't heal him," Bruce corrected. "Magic isn't an undo button."
"So what about these?" Clark gestured to the computer screen. "If magic can't heal him, can tech help?"
"Artificial larynxes are old tech," Bruce explained. "Jason would have gotten one for Danny if he wanted it, but he hasn't."
"Any idea why?" Clark asked.
"Artificial larynxes don't give the user their actual voice back," Bruce explained. "They allow the user to speak, but they sound robotic and strange."
"Can you make a better one?"
"It's possible," Bruce admitted. "But developing that kind of technology can take years, even the scientists at W.T. aren't miracle workers."
"Okay, so science isn't the answer and neither is magic," Clark said slowly. "What if you combine them?" Bruce froze in his seat.
"Say that again," he ordered quietly. A grin spread across Clark's face.
"What if you combined science and magic," he said. A grin broke out across Bruce's face.
"Clark, you're a genius!" he bolted out of his chair and hugged the other man. Clark froze for a second before eagerly hugging him back.
"I've gotta call Zatanna and Constantine back," Bruce said as he headed for the clock that would take him to the cave. "I've got work to do."