Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Jason had set his sights upon Titan's Tower for the first time since his death, it was with a very clear plan in mind. A plan that he had been thinking of since his return to Gotham, one that he had even gone to the lengths of wearing a fake Robin suit on under a tare away version of his normal uniform. It wasn't the most dramatic thing that he had ever done, sneaking through the tower right then with two sets of clothes on after following the latest Robin all the way to San Francisco, it felt like one of the more annoying of his plans.

Maybe it was that annoyance that made him miss the fact that three of the other teens heroes had been called back to the Tower by the current Robin when he had previously thought the tower to only hold one Tim Drake.

The former Robin took care to walk silently down the hall to the main room of the tower, avoiding each of them cameras in the way that one only learned to do after being trained by the bat. It was almost laughably easy to get there, definitely one of the easier things that the vigilante had done in years. Maybe he should have expected the bump in the road then, when he stopped outside of the living room.

Three bumps in the road really, each of them shaped like teen heroes.

Superboy, Wonder Girl, and Impulse.

All four of the teens were dressed casually right then, something of a rare sight in the tower given just how much the League wanted them to essentially be in costume all of the time when within the walls of the tall building. But, all four were dressed casually that night as the three super powered teens sat upon the couch and the bird stood before them, a slide presentation of all things at his back that was blank right then, but there was a clicker in the kid's hand.

"What the fuck?" Jason whispered lowly to no one at all as he saw extra three - super, a demigod and a speedster at that - slipping into the shadows of the cracked door to listen before going inside. He already felt more than a bit fucked, there had been a reason that he had waited for the tower to be empty after all, but he had to make sure that there weren't more teen heroes, or adult ones at that, on the way.

This wasn't how he had planned this going at all.

And then the kid started speaking.

"So," Tim started, looking at his friends with that smile on his lips that made all three of them immediately feel on edge of whatever the other was about to say. It was the sort of smile that the teen usually got before suggesting the most insane of plans. They always worked - of course they did, he was Robin - but that didn't make them any more sane. "Christmas is pretty soon."

Jason was expecting a lot of things from such a sentence like that spoken by one teen to another: laughter, smiles, a contemplative look as they thought of want they wanted and what to give. What he didn't expect was three identical groans as if the holiday was some cursed sort of word.

"I thought that holiday was canceled, forever," Bart complained, slouching down in the seat and leaning against Cassie as if she could hide him from the rest of this conversation.

She would if she could, but Tim had that look in his eyes that said that he had planned for just that and she didn't want to know what that plan was right then.

"You're from the future, Bart," she reminded him instead, ignoring the betrayed look that he gave her by patting him on the head instead, "you know it's not."

"It'd be better if it was," Kon grumbled in a manner that was not at all under his breath.

"I am choosing to ignore you all at the moment," Tim decided before turning towards the PowerPoint that he had created. "As I was saying, Christmas is pretty soon, which means that we have a unique opportunity for…"

Jason watched with furrowed brows as the current Robin clicked the button on his controller, two words appearing on the screen before the three sitting upon the couch:

Take two

The former Robin didn't understand it right then, but it seemed that everyone else in the room did.

"You're not serious," Kon said, knowing that the other was even as he spoke. Tim's idea of a joke was more along the lines of sarcasm and dry wit. Not this.

"You know I am," the Boy Wonder grinned, something a bit manic in it that brought heat to the super's cheeks.

"I know you are," he agreed, hating himself for it right then.

"But why?" Bart whined, crossing his arms over his chest like the five year old that he technically was.

It was around here that Jason started regretting coming to the Tower that day, because whatever they were talking about was already causing the former Robin a headache and he didn't even know the half of it.

Any of it really.

"Yeah?" Cassie agreed, looking at the standing teen as if he had grown a second head. "It took us three months last time to wrap it all up last time, and we didn't even do it on purpose. It was the meteor."

A meteor? Jason wondered, wondering just what a meteor had to do with any of this. With Christmas at that.

"You're right," Tim agreed, knowing that would stop them all from speaking for a moment, "we didn't do it on purpose last time, he just died-"

Who died? The man in the hall wanted to storm in there and ask, but stayed where he was.

"-but Constantine actually ended up grinding up his bones and using them for some spell or another, and apparently he needs more."

"What the fuck?" Jason found himself whispering once more, which was something since no too long ago he had left a duffel bag full of heads at the police station.

"How do you run out of that much bone dust?" The clone boy asked, exasperation clear in his tone.

"How does one find a giant shark man attractive?" Tim rebutted, making the other three shrug. "It's Constantine, the only question we ask is how he is willing to pay us for doing this."

The three supers all looked at one another then, a silent sort of conversation passing between them that Tim was usually privy to when it was not about him as it was right then.

"And how is he paying for this?" Cassie asked at last, the demigod sounding as if she didn't want the answer.

There was that damned smile again that made her feel like she was right.

"With one round trip to the future and back," Tim answered, his voice a bit softer than it was before, as if the words meant a lot more than Jason could ever know as he was listening to them. The way that all of the kids in the room when pale at them made him think that he was right.

"Why would we want to go back there after last time?" The speedster asked, as if he truly would rather not know. As if he would rather never have to know.

"We'd want to go back there because of last time," the current Robin said, sounding no more excited about it than any of the others in the room right then. "I don't know about you, but I'd like to double check that we're not still evil dictators, and I'm not spending my days cleaning up Gotham the easy way like a certain red helmeted vigilante is trying to do right now."

Jason felt as if he should be angered by what the other teen was saying right then, but the accusation in the other Robin's words about the methods of the Red Hood. But it was the other part of that little speech that made the man pause.

The dictator part.

"It's not a horrible idea," Kon admitted, knowing that he never wanted to come to a world where he became that version of Superman that they had seen. One that tortured their villains even as they were far worse than any of them.

"Won't the bat kill you for this if he finds out?" Bart asked, his words starting to become almost as fast as his foot tapping against the ground.

There was a part of Tim that wanted to answer with a maybe, knowing that there were lengths to Bruce's care. Knowing that the older vigilante could be cruel, hurt those that they were supposed to care for psychologically just as well as physically. He'd been subject to the previous not long before after all.

"I'm guessing it's gonna be like when Dick offed the Joker," the current Robin answered, unknowingly making the former bird outside of the room choke at the words, "or that time that B actually killed Ra's. As long as he comes back it doesn't matter," he said, hoping for it to be true. "Though," the teen continued, his voice growing bitter, "Ra's could benefit from the zombie treatment if I got a say, asshole keeps trying to recruit me. Him and Lady Shiva both are in on the murder - recruitment dance now. I should have crushed that guy with the giant penny when I had the chance."

No one argued with that, no one ever really did when Tim said such things about the Head of the Demon, not when they knew that the man had been trying to recruit the other for a while now. Not when they all guessed at the lengths that he might go to do just that in the future. It was creepy as fuck.

"Besides," Tim continued with a forced sort of pleasantness, "it could be fun to kill a mythical being on purpose for once."

The four looked at one another then, each of them weighing this choice against there own conscious. It wasn't really much of a choice at all right then, not when they got a chance to make sure that everything was still going right, or to fix it all once more if it was going wrong. Either their future selves were fine, or they were going to try and brainwash them again. Either way, they'd have their answers.

"So, we're killing Santa, again?" Bart asked, looking between the three of them as if to make sure that this was right.

"We're killing Santa again," Cassie agreed.

"What. The . Fuck?" Jason asked himself for the third time that day, backing away from the room as he did.

In the end, Tim Drake did not meet the Red Hood that night, but the former Robin still felt as if someone had been beaten, only right then it wasn't him.