#liminal!jason

Red Robin assures, that they are in a safe location. There is a possible civilian with them, but Red states suspicions about telepathy and mind control. Robin is told to maintain distance from the civilian as they approach. They don’t know how they are affecting Hood. 

They arrive at the apartment, Red managing to separate Hood and the target. Batman goes in to sedate the target. The target cries out as Batman grabs him, inserting the needle and plunging the medication into him. The cry doesn’t last long and the target is asleep, restrained and being brought outside quickly, as Hood moves to intercept. Robin is told to take the target to the car and he does, as Red and Batman secure Hood. 

They are all in the Batmobile and headed to the cave in under five minutes from their arrival to the apartment. 

Robin watches as Father secures Jason and the stranger in different cells. He listens as Red Robin tells them about how Hood stopped in the middle of patrol, following a sound only he could hear, to a boy that started communicating with him via unknown means. 

Hood said he didn’t suspect telepathy, telling Red that he was hearing their conversations out loud. He did not seem to have any insight on what the language was or how he was communicating, stating he “didn’t know how he was making the noises,” and exclaiming surprise when Red informed him that only Jason was hearing them. 

Somewhere near the end of this conversation, Damian hears a growl. It was choppy and loud, claiming hurt-confused-angry. Damian turned to face the cells. He debates the merits of going to comfort those in the cells, explaining to them what is going on, and staying to explain to Father and Drake what is going on once Drake finishes with his ceaseless jabbering. When he hears a whimper that makes his chest hurt, full of alone-panic-hurt, it makes the decision for him. Damian is heading towards the cells without a second thought, heart pounding in response to the panic in the other’s voice. He is almost there when he hears a keen.

The noise causes such a physical reaction that he nearly stumbles, causing a churning and urgent need to help. His quick walk turned into a run towards the cells. The keen was a different voice. They’re both panicking in the cells. 

Damian arrives at the cells, and is about to reach for the panel of the first one, wanting to open it, to help. The keening has continued, full of panic and confusion. They’re in distress, stuck and alone. Damian can help, he can explain what’s going on, he can let them out.

But he’s stopped just as he reaches the door, a voice calls “Robin, what are you doing!” A hand grips his wrist. 

A rumble comes from inside the closest cell. Jason. He’s calmed some, annoyed but understanding of the situation now, and Damian breathes a sigh of relief as the other responds, confused and wary, but coming down from the panic.

There’s a purr, and then the sweetest churr, and Damian can’t help but let out a soft chuff in response. A question and declaration of support. If this is the communication Drake has been obsessing over, then everything is okay. 

Damian just needs to get to them so he can explain. Damian lets out a frustrated huff, when Bruce and Drake pull at him, questioning what the hell he thinks he was doing. Damian just wants to help Jason and the other boy, and his breathy huff cuts out in a short, clipped whine as he is forced away, pain starting to blossom in his wrist from the force of Bruce’s direction. 

A short growl erupts from Jason’s cell at the pain in Damian’s whine. A churr comes from the stranger’s cell, confused and slightly scared, but supportive and Damian almost balks at the stranger’s kindness in this situation. Damian is quick to let out a soft churr of his own in response, saying okay-patience-help.

Bruce and Drake are looking at him with concern, and Damian straightens himself. “What?”

They share a look with each other, Damian hears a churr from both Jason and the boy full of patience-warytrust-concern, and Bruce gives him a full-body lookover when he looks back at him.

“Why were you trying to open the cells, Robin?”

Damian squared his shoulders, and in a voice like he was giving a report, stated “They were in distress. I thought it would be wise to help keep them from panicking.”

Drake’s brow furrowed and Damian just knew he was overthinking. “How did you know they were in distress?”

Damian tried to reign in the snark, but he didn’t fully manage it. “That is your question. Not, ‘are they okay now?’, maybe ‘do they still need help?'. Where is your concern for your brother Drake?”

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do they need help?” His eyes were closed. Damian almost felt sorry for the fear he must have felt for his compromised child. But everything is fine.

“They are stable for now.” 

Drake is starting to look like he wants to strangle him, and Damian can relate to the urge. Unfortunately, that is frowned upon in their current circles.

“How did you know they were in distress, Robin?”

He let out a growl, pushing to sit up on the bed. He thought they were doing better. He thought his family trusted him again. His growl was angry, foreboding, telling of the danger and anger in his thoughts. But his head was pounding from the sedative. They knew he hated needles. Hated drugs. Why would they do this to him, trick him like this when they knew how he felt about it. The haze in his head, making his thoughts heavy, and doing nothing but reminding him of all the harm drugs have done to the people around him. He stopped growling, hoping the quiet would help. Much less angry, the clouds in his head starting to make him sad and breathless. He hopes the effects wear off soon. He can’t focus. There is something important that he is missing. He is forgetting something, the spiral of his thoughts and emotions starting to lean towards hysteria. He’s alone. Trapped and alone, mind heavy with fog. He can’t think, why is he stuck here? His breath starts coming faster, increasing while his heart starts to race. He tries to keep quiet, and calm down. A whimper escapes him as he finds a corner and slides down the wall. Then he heard a keen. Close, probably coming from one of the other cells. The sound cuts through the haze. Important, a strike of clarity hitting him with a pulse as he remembers the kid. There was a kid with him. 

Danny. Jason hears him call out again, a sharp keen of panic-confusion, and Jason needs to help him. Jason stumbles up, leaning on the wall for support. He heads towards the door, but he was familiar with how the cells worked. He reached it and of course it was locked. He attempted to manually override, but the pad inside the cell was locked down. The cell can only be opened once someone on the inside clears whoever is inside it. Created for instances where one of them has been incapacitated by a new strain of fear gas, or a new Ivy concoction. To hold someone until an antidote can be created. There was no getting out of here before the other came by. 

Hopefully, they’re on their way now, seeing him awake on the cameras. Jason has some choice words to be had about his situation, angry seething inside him as the panic from earlier recedes. 

Danny lets out another keen, breathy and biting and Jason hears him start to panic. Jason still has to do what he can. He can’t reach him, but he can try and calm him down. They’re in this together, and Jason is going to do whatever he can for the kid. He let out a rumble, steady and calm in response to Danny’s cries. His rumble is filled with annoyance, but still said okay-here-safe. 

Danny is silent for a moment before he hums back a confused-trust. It’s closer, louder, like Danny has moved to be right on the other side of the wall from Jason. This kid, who just had his world destroyed, came here alone and afraid, and he trusts Jason. Screw yelling at the Bats. Danny needs him, and priority one is getting Danny to a place he can feel safe. 

A soft churring sound leaves Jason, sweet and caring, and Jason hopes the kid knows that he is going to do everything he can for him. Then Jason hears Danny let out a short purr, a quiet susurration, that ends as quickly as it starts. Jason is stunned by how much faith Danny is putting in him. How much Jason cares for this boy he just met. 

“Sort of,” Danny shrugs. “What you have to understand is there are a lot of different kinds of beings from what you would consider the land of the dead, which I call the Ghost Zone, and is more formally known as the Infinite Realms. There is a lot of diversity, and It would be a real sit-down kind of lesson to try and explain them all to you guys. The important bit for right now is that the three of us,” Danny gestures to Red Hood, then himself, then to Robin,”are three different beings, as related to the Infinite Realms, and I am the only one that technically counts as dead.”

Danny is very good at ignoring the side glances being thrown around. “But Ghost Speak can be spoken by any denizen of the Infinite Realms, who falls under any of it’s categories or rulers.” 

“Rulers?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Danny does another hand waving motion. “You know, Hades and Pluto, Lucifer and the Devil, the Ghost King, and other various religions and beliefs rulers. It's all very monarchist. The Infinite Realms are all technically under the control of the Ghost King, but the Infinite Realms are infinite and that’s a lot for one person to control. So various religious leaders all  make up what is essentially Dukes and Lords and Barons and other random titles, and they all control their little Realms and make up what could be considered a council or a parliament or Congress or what-have-you that is technically under the rule of the Ghost King. But the Ghost King really only takes care of the really big stuff most of the time. Unless there’s a tyrant on the throne, like with Pariah Dark. He was a terrible ruler, very controlling.”

Danny was rambling. He was aware of this, but the others seemed too shell-shocked to be able to stop him, and he has never really been able to talk about this with anyone so now that he is he doesn’t think he can stop himself either. 

“He’s not on the throne anymore, luckily. Technically the right to the throne is transferred through single-combat, very old-fashioned. No one could beat Pariah Dark so they locked him in the Coffin of Forever Sleep for a really long time instead. I don’t think the Infinite Realms really need a King all that much, they got by just fine for millenia without one. But now we’re getting into politics. Unimportant. Death Speak, language of the Infinite Realms, totally natural, not at all bad.”

Danny forces himself to take a very long, slow breath. By the time he is done, the others seem at least semi-recovered. 

“If it’s all the same to you, I think I would like that sit-down lesson at some point.” Red mutters, fingers twitching as he pulls out his tablet to start writing down this information. Bruce grunts in agreement.

“If it's all the same to you,” Hood snaps, “I would like to get out of this cell now.” 

“If we let you out, will you stay until we have the results from all of the tests?” Bruce asked. “They’re currently running so it won’t take long.” 

“Why the hell do we need to stay for that? You-”

“Did you take my blood?” Danny interrupted, seeming very concerned.

“It was a precaution, we had to test it. We took some of Hood’s too.” Red tried to explain. It didn’t seem to be helping, Danny’s breathing was getting kind of fast. “The tests are running now, just to look for influences of mind control or magic. And to test for dimensional distortions and integrity, if you were telling the truth about being from a different dimension. And to see if you have an alternate in this dimension that we need to be concerned about you running into.”

“I don’t really care -well, yes I do, breach of privacy, and consent, and-” Danny took a deep breath. “That is not my main concern at the moment. You were safe when handling my blood, right? You used gloves and it didn’t get on you or anything? I don’t know where we are and what you people are like, but just tell me you were safe around my blood.”

The real concern and fear in Danny was starting to get everyone else.

“Don’t worry, we are very safe here. We all have training and we know and use lab and medical safety procedures.” Damian spoke softly, aiming to calm.

“What is wrong with your blood, Danny?” Hood’s concern for him came out in underling Ghost Speak, and between him and Damian, Danny was able to calm some.

“It may be… not radioactive. Not contagious either.” Danny’s voice trailed to muttering for a moment as he figured out how to word what he said next. “My blood has a contaminant in it. Just don’t let it touch you, and definitely don’t let it get inside you somehow. It can also be dangerous if you have prolonged exposure, so make sure to get rid of any samples as soon as possible after the test and keep it away from other samples. And for the love of everything that is holy, try to keep it away from anything that will ever be ingested. Keep it away from food!”

“It can contaminate other samples?” 

“It can contaminate anything given enough time, technology included. But it spreads way more easily when it’s cold for some reason, so really anything put in a fridge with it should be tossed immediately.”

“You said it’s not contagious?” There was concern in even Red’s voice now.

“You’re not ill are you?” Damian eyes Danny warily.

“I’m fine, It’s part of me being what I am. Just,” Danny sighed and ran his fingers through his hair before cupping the back of his neck with both hands and looking towards the ceiling. “Think of it like a transforming agent. I’ve already been exposed, my DNA is altered, the harm is already done. My body actually needs that substance to survive now. Hood and… I’m sorry I don’t know what to call you.” Danny swung his hands back down to his sides as he glanced at Robin. 

“Robin.” Damian stated bluntly.