@spinnerofink I was trying to answer your ask but Tumblr ate it, so this the next best thing (don't worry, I didn't have to re write the answer)
So there we go!
For you let's ramble on the Brujay time travel fic (that may or may not become a brujaykhoa, for reasons)
Also I apologize for any typos, weird tenses, etc, this isn't meant to be a clean piece.
So the basic idea started with me being salty with a fic I was reading, it was a Tim time travel fic and I was like: Jason would work better with this idea (not offense to the original writer, just personal taste) and well things spiraled.
So the idea is that a 30+ years old Jason from after a zombie apocalypse (sort of inspired by DCdeceased but not really has I haven't read it yet), ends up around 25 years in the past, when the first dinamic duo is still going strong and his younger counter part is just 9 years old.
I have the barest idea for a plot, just Jason comes back in time and while he does the classic preventing future tragedies thing, he also take over crime alley has it's protector, and becomes something of a mentor for many future heros because he doesn't want any more dead kids.
The Brujay part comes in because Bruce will hear about this new vigilante in "his" city and start obsessing has he does, he will try to control Jason and impose his morals (no killing etc). But this Jason has much more experience over Bruce and doesn't bow down to his wims, this would degenerate in to fights that have Jason show off his training and kick Batman and Robin asses (look UtRH Jason nearly beat Bruce several times, a older and more experienced Jason against a younger Bruce? Not even a chance, he knows all their moves and he is a tricky motherfucker, he would win). Bruce would notice that he has very familiar moves and start investigating where this mysterious man would have come from (also he would be horny on main, look Bruce has a type and Jason smashes all the buttons). This could include Minhkhoa getting involved, I haven't decided yet.
But for the most part we would be following Jason.
(Also this isn't very important for the plot but it's important for me, but this version of Jason is a trans guy, just so you know)
One of the first scene I visualised for this fic was Jason reunion with Catherine.
Jason would be investigating his old apartment to get an idea on the situation, his original plan is probably to try to help his younger self from a distance maybe get in to contact later, but doesn't want to put them in danger by contacting them. That plan goes out of the window when he see his mother shitty dealer (you know the one from cheer) getting an "extra" payment (aka sexual favours). He burst in to the room and beat the shit out of the man before throwing him out of the door (or maybe the window?).
And then the fight is done, the adrenaline is gone, and the only one left are him, his younger version, and a very alive, very scared Catherine. Now Jason is very quietly panicking in his head, and he just defaults to his victim training and his old habits of taking care of his mother, calming her and baby Jay down and cleaning up the place, making dinner with what there is in the house. Catherine and Jay would be very skittish, but have an instinctive trust, something very unusual for them, and after a while Catherine would notice something that lets her connect the dots, a mole or a very distinctive scar on adult Jason that combined with how he is acting let her recognise her adult son.
That moment would be very emotional, Jason would have spent the time before (either a few days or just hours depending on what I'm doing) pretty much suppressing all his emotions on finally having his mom back, and at that point they would brust forward turning this tank of a man in a weeping mess.
That or Jason breaks down after beating the shit out if the dealer and Catherine recognise him then.
I'm undecided between this two options for that.
But part that stays the same is Catherine holding Jason face in her hands and whispering "Jay" with a voice bursting with emotions, and big scary Jason on his knees looking up to his mom with a trembling lip and tears in his eyes before hugging her and sobbing his heart out in her arms.
Catherine and Jay would be his first contacts in the local community to help him set himself up.
Between settings himself up in the neighborhood and and more general time travel stuff Jason would contact Willis and bust him out of prison.
And I'm going with my own interpretation of Willis (link), so he would be useful to Jason to keep things up when he has things to do outside of Gotham or he need back up. There would be a whole subplot with the two of them reconnecting and Willis actually sharing his past with his family for first time after beginning faced with what with his adult son that had killed in part because of the secret he keep. (Lots of comparison/parallels between him and Bruce of the original timeline)
Also Willis when seeing adult Jason commenting "ah I see you took after your mother" meaning Lady Shiva, because outside his height and build he has nothing of Cain. But Jason never knew who is actual bio parents where in the other timeline.
One of the priorities that Jason has outside of Gotham is finding Cass, by this time she had already ran away from Cain and is now homeless.
In the other timeline Jason and Cass had become pretty close, has the oldest of the family to survive and after a while the only ones. Bruce, Dick, and Tim were the first to die, the rest following in the years after.
They learned to work together His methods are now better to this new situation and she recognised the pratcality of it but she never gave up on her ideas and never killed again. It made her a less effective fighter so she shifted her focus in other areas, evacuation, etc.
Jason deeply admired her in that future, they learned to share space with eachother, and bonded on their experiences living on the streets and the interest that they had in common (they never talked about the family they both lost, when the grief hit too much they would just sit together in silence remembering).
He was gutted by her death. She always seemed invincible, but in the end one mistake was enough.
He had long before promised her that he would stop her if she was infected, and after a mission gone wrong he is the one to track down her zombie, putting it down and burning the remains, keeping the promise.
Now in this different past he uses what she had told him of his life on the streets to track her down and taking her with him back to Gotham, he was not able to save her in that terrible future, and he may not be able to give her her childhood back now, but he can give her a family.
On the more "heroic" scale Jason get in contact with several of his old contacts to get stuff done on a larger scale to prevent various catastrophies.
Two of the people that he got in touch with were his exs, Talia and Slade. (Yes I'm problematicTM, I don't care)
Meeting Talia was jarring, she was so painfully young, so different from the woman he remembered, so idealist, she was still studying to become a medic, but still the steel in her spine was the same.
Slade in so many ways was both easier and harder to deal with, he hadn't yet lost his children, and he was somehow even more of a bastard from the future timeline version. Still with some generous use of blackmail and future information on how to save his family they hashed an agreement.
During this he may meet a young Tera, and meeting this painfully young angry version of a girl that he know would have died in just a few years brought back memories of when he was a furious young man. Idk how but I want Jason to become her mentor and having to dodge her very unwanted flirtations, because that's Tera and that's the shitty coping mechanism of her choice (and Jason understand the urge). Idk this part of the story would require more work, at the moment it's mostly just vibes.
Going back to the Brujay during all of this we would occasionally jump back to Bruce pov, and while Jason doesn't think much about this timeline Bruce (outside how to avoid him if he would interfere with his plans), Bruce is absolutely obsessing over this mysterious new opponent.
Also Dick is dealing with the worst sexuality crisis after dealing with Jason, and he absolutely hate that Bruce has a very obvious new crush on this man, he already has to deal with the drama with Selina, Harvey, and Minhkhoa. Poor boy wants to rip his hair out because of Bruce inability of keeping it in his pants.
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So this is about it. There are some more bits and pieces that I didn't know where to fit that's the general idea. Hopefully it wa enjoyable.
Tagging @captainclovis because you were also interested in this idea
