Fic: "Maternal Devotion" by kyrdwyn (PG, mentions of Tim/Jason)
Title: Maternal Devotion
Author: kyrdwyn
Rating: PG
Series: Beloved
Fandom: Batman (comics)
Pairings/Characters: Tim Drake, Talia al Ghul, mentions of Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Summary: "What have you done to my son?"
Warnings: AU. Dark AU. Mentions of events in "A Death in the Family" & "Under the Hood"/"Red Hood: The Lost Days" comics run, though liberties may have been taken
Beta: None
Previous Parts: Beloved | Confusion | Revelation | Conversation | Dead Man's Memories
"What have you done to my son?"
Tim blinked, but finished the kata he was working through before turning to face the woman in the doorway. He was not surprised to see Talia al Ghul standing there, arms crossed over her chest and eyes narrowed. He was surprised to see she wore the gold and green cloak that Ra's al Ghul had always worn in his universe. "I haven't done anything to Damian," Tim said. He hadn't seen the kid since he'd arrived in this universe.
Talia gave Tim a hard stare. "Not Damian," she said with a wave of her hand. "He made his bed and he will lie in it. No, I'm talking about Jason."
Tim stared back at Talia. "Jason is your son?" This...was about as odd as ending up in a universe where he was Slade Wilson's student, Jason Todd's lover.
Talia stalked across the room. "Yes, my son. Who is currently planning what can only be described as a suicide mission into Bat-infested Gotham, a mission he started planning less than five minutes after he left your room this morning."
Running a hand through his hair, Tim looked away from Talia. She looked as if she wanted to kill him, and he didn't doubt that she could. "I didn't... I...."
"What."
Tim took a deep breath. "I think I have his Tim's memories somehow. They come out in my dreams, and when I wake up, I don't....I don't always remember I'm not from this universe."
Talia stared, and then blew out a breath. "You believed you were his Timothy."
Tim nodded. "I'd had a nightmare, about my eye, and Jason was there, and I wanted him to help chase the nightmare away like he always did, so I kissed him. It took Jason pushing me away to remember that I'm not his Timothy."
Turning, Talia walked across the room, stopping to stare at a framed picture of the Gotham skyline, the only art in the room. "Tell me about your world, your Jason? Slade said that you said he'd been Robin to Batman."
"May I ask a question first?"
"I reserve the right not to answer."
Tim nodded. "Is Jason your biological son?"
Turning back to him, Talia stared. "He's not in your world." When Tim shook his head, Talia sighed. "Yes, Jason is my biological son. The only son I carried for me, because I loved his father more than my Beloved, the Batman. Damian was born to be my father's heir, his genetics perfected and an artificial womb used to ensure there were no defects, but Jason..." Talia smiled, a maternal smile that Tim had never seen on her face when discussing Damian, either in his world or this one. "Jason is my son, my heir."
"In my world, Jason was the son of a woman named Sheila Haywood and a man named Willis Todd," Tim said carefully.
Talia looked startled. "I used that name when I had Jason in a Gotham hospital, trying to hide his birth from my father. Willis Todd was a member of the League, who had come with me as my bodyguard. Those are the names on Jason's birth certificate. Father eventually forgave me for having Jason with the man I loved, let me and Jason and Willis return. Willis was killed a few years later by one of my father's adversaries."
Tim blinked, processing that. "Jason didn't know Sheila Haywood was his mother until he was 16. He'd been raised by Willis and his wife Catherine Todd. After they both died, he'd lived on the street for a while." He looked up to see a stricken look in Talia's eyes, though her face was impassive. "Batman caught him stealing the tires from the Batmobile so he could sell them for money."
Talia laughed. "Good for him. I presume the Batman took him in, as he'd taken in Grayson after his parents died?"
"Yes, took him in and made him his Robin. But Jason was angrier than the previous Robin, and when Batman benched him, Jason discovered that Catherine Todd wasn't his mother. He took off, found Sheila Haywood, and," Tim looked away. A part of him was screaming inside at the thought of Jason's death, at the thought of losing Jason, screaming for him to find the Joker and avenge his Beloved's death.
"What happened, Timothy?" Talia crossed the room and sat on the bed, looking up at Tim. Tim sat down beside her, part of him feeling safe with her, vague memories of Talia sitting at his side when he'd been injured, holding his hand when the pain got to be too great for the drugs to battle, surfacing in his mind. The other part of him argued that this was Ra's al Ghul's daughter, a woman who had used her own son as a weapon against Dick, a woman not to be trusted.
Trust won out, and he found himself leaning into her.
"She was working in a relief camp in Ethiopia. The Joker blackmailed her, and when Jason discovered it, he revealed he was Robin and said he'd protect her. She sold him out to the Joker."
Beside him, Talia went still. "What did the Joker do?
"Beat him unconscious with a crowbar, then left him and Sheila in a warehouse full of explosives. They didn't get out in time. Batman was nearby, but trying to stop the boxes of Joker toxin from getting out into the world. He didn't know Jason had tried to save his mother."
Head bowed, Talia was silent. "Did the Batman avenge Jason?"
"Batman doesn't kill, in my world."
Her head snapped up. "My son lies unavenged? The Joker still walks the Earth, the blood of a child on his hands?"
Tim took a breath. "The Joker still lives, but Jason....somehow came back to life. He was in bad shape, until you found him. You took him in, and eventually Jason came back fully after being immersed in a Lazarus Pit. He operates in Gotham as the Red Hood now, mostly trying to control crime by taking over."
Talia's hiss startled Tim. "The Batman does that, although he is more insidious. Willing to kill now, since the Joker took Robin's life."
"So Slade said." Thinking of Bruce as a killer, Dick dead then resurrected....Tim swallowed.
"Bruce Wayne is now Mayor of Gotham, with tight control. The City Council is handpicked and loyal to him, willing to support the Batman as their Mayor does. James Gordon, our best hope at a resistance in the Gotham government, has finally been ousted as police commissioner and replaced by Delmore Redhorn."
"Corrupt as they come, from Bludhaven," Tim said. He hesitated. "A hero named Nightwing had a lot of dealings with Redhorn." There had never been a Nightwing here.
"Sounds like the same man. We, the League, fight to get Batman and his pet Raptor and their corrupt cronies out of Gotham."
"What then?" Tim asked, wondering if this version of the League was anything like his.
"What do you mean?"
Tim looked at her. "You get Batman out, get Raptor out. Kill them if necessary. What becomes of Gotham then? Do you take over? Does Jason? Slade?" Me, he didn't ask.
"I have no interest in Gotham itself, other than the interest it holds for my Beloved. The inhabitants will choose another mayor, there will be a new police commissioner, for we won't allow Redhorn to stay, and with luck, they'll choose better this time. If not," Talia shrugged, "that's their problem. None of us want to rule Gotham, Timothy. Not even your counterpart did, though I suspect he would have left us at some point and gone home to help with the aftermath. This is revenge, pure and simple. Batman killed my father, killed your counterpart. He can't be allowed to live."
Getting up, Tim walked across the room to stare at the picture of the Gotham skyline. He wondered if the unfamiliar tower was this universe's version of Wayne Tower. If so, it was much more ostentatious than the one in his world. "I need more information."
"Timothy?"
Turning to Talia, Tim clenched his fists. "You want me to help you, to use my training to bring Batman and Raptor down."
"It would be a great advantage."
Tim snorted. "Of course it would. If you want me to help you, I need information. Access to whatever you have on Batman and Raptor and Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. I need to verify what you are telling me, and if I do, I will help you bring them down."
"And if you don't?" Talia asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Then I will sit here and demand to be sent home every hour until you are sick of me, but I won't interfere."
Talia watched him for a few moments, then nodded. "Slade will bring you everything you'll need." She stood and walked up to him, reaching up to cup his cheek. "We aren't lying to you, Timothy."
"I need proof, not just a dead man's memories."
Nodding, Talia patted his cheek and left. Tim took in a shaky breath. He remembered Talia doing that to him dozens of times, same as she did to Jason. But not to him, to this world's Timothy.
Moving back to the center of the room, Tim started another kata. He'd wait, evaluate the situation for himself, and decide how to proceed from there. Taking down Batman would not be easy, but Batman himself - Tim's adopted father - had trained him to do exactly that. He'd hate every second, and spend years in his own world atoning for this, but he would do it with every bit of ruthlessness he had.
He owed it to the version of himself he couldn't get out of his head.
Next: Protégé
Author: kyrdwyn
Rating: PG
Series: Beloved
Fandom: Batman (comics)
Pairings/Characters: Tim Drake, Talia al Ghul, mentions of Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Summary: "What have you done to my son?"
Warnings: AU. Dark AU. Mentions of events in "A Death in the Family" & "Under the Hood"/"Red Hood: The Lost Days" comics run, though liberties may have been taken
Beta: None
Previous Parts: Beloved | Confusion | Revelation | Conversation | Dead Man's Memories
"What have you done to my son?"
Tim blinked, but finished the kata he was working through before turning to face the woman in the doorway. He was not surprised to see Talia al Ghul standing there, arms crossed over her chest and eyes narrowed. He was surprised to see she wore the gold and green cloak that Ra's al Ghul had always worn in his universe. "I haven't done anything to Damian," Tim said. He hadn't seen the kid since he'd arrived in this universe.
Talia gave Tim a hard stare. "Not Damian," she said with a wave of her hand. "He made his bed and he will lie in it. No, I'm talking about Jason."
Tim stared back at Talia. "Jason is your son?" This...was about as odd as ending up in a universe where he was Slade Wilson's student, Jason Todd's lover.
Talia stalked across the room. "Yes, my son. Who is currently planning what can only be described as a suicide mission into Bat-infested Gotham, a mission he started planning less than five minutes after he left your room this morning."
Running a hand through his hair, Tim looked away from Talia. She looked as if she wanted to kill him, and he didn't doubt that she could. "I didn't... I...."
"What."
Tim took a deep breath. "I think I have his Tim's memories somehow. They come out in my dreams, and when I wake up, I don't....I don't always remember I'm not from this universe."
Talia stared, and then blew out a breath. "You believed you were his Timothy."
Tim nodded. "I'd had a nightmare, about my eye, and Jason was there, and I wanted him to help chase the nightmare away like he always did, so I kissed him. It took Jason pushing me away to remember that I'm not his Timothy."
Turning, Talia walked across the room, stopping to stare at a framed picture of the Gotham skyline, the only art in the room. "Tell me about your world, your Jason? Slade said that you said he'd been Robin to Batman."
"May I ask a question first?"
"I reserve the right not to answer."
Tim nodded. "Is Jason your biological son?"
Turning back to him, Talia stared. "He's not in your world." When Tim shook his head, Talia sighed. "Yes, Jason is my biological son. The only son I carried for me, because I loved his father more than my Beloved, the Batman. Damian was born to be my father's heir, his genetics perfected and an artificial womb used to ensure there were no defects, but Jason..." Talia smiled, a maternal smile that Tim had never seen on her face when discussing Damian, either in his world or this one. "Jason is my son, my heir."
"In my world, Jason was the son of a woman named Sheila Haywood and a man named Willis Todd," Tim said carefully.
Talia looked startled. "I used that name when I had Jason in a Gotham hospital, trying to hide his birth from my father. Willis Todd was a member of the League, who had come with me as my bodyguard. Those are the names on Jason's birth certificate. Father eventually forgave me for having Jason with the man I loved, let me and Jason and Willis return. Willis was killed a few years later by one of my father's adversaries."
Tim blinked, processing that. "Jason didn't know Sheila Haywood was his mother until he was 16. He'd been raised by Willis and his wife Catherine Todd. After they both died, he'd lived on the street for a while." He looked up to see a stricken look in Talia's eyes, though her face was impassive. "Batman caught him stealing the tires from the Batmobile so he could sell them for money."
Talia laughed. "Good for him. I presume the Batman took him in, as he'd taken in Grayson after his parents died?"
"Yes, took him in and made him his Robin. But Jason was angrier than the previous Robin, and when Batman benched him, Jason discovered that Catherine Todd wasn't his mother. He took off, found Sheila Haywood, and," Tim looked away. A part of him was screaming inside at the thought of Jason's death, at the thought of losing Jason, screaming for him to find the Joker and avenge his Beloved's death.
"What happened, Timothy?" Talia crossed the room and sat on the bed, looking up at Tim. Tim sat down beside her, part of him feeling safe with her, vague memories of Talia sitting at his side when he'd been injured, holding his hand when the pain got to be too great for the drugs to battle, surfacing in his mind. The other part of him argued that this was Ra's al Ghul's daughter, a woman who had used her own son as a weapon against Dick, a woman not to be trusted.
Trust won out, and he found himself leaning into her.
"She was working in a relief camp in Ethiopia. The Joker blackmailed her, and when Jason discovered it, he revealed he was Robin and said he'd protect her. She sold him out to the Joker."
Beside him, Talia went still. "What did the Joker do?
"Beat him unconscious with a crowbar, then left him and Sheila in a warehouse full of explosives. They didn't get out in time. Batman was nearby, but trying to stop the boxes of Joker toxin from getting out into the world. He didn't know Jason had tried to save his mother."
Head bowed, Talia was silent. "Did the Batman avenge Jason?"
"Batman doesn't kill, in my world."
Her head snapped up. "My son lies unavenged? The Joker still walks the Earth, the blood of a child on his hands?"
Tim took a breath. "The Joker still lives, but Jason....somehow came back to life. He was in bad shape, until you found him. You took him in, and eventually Jason came back fully after being immersed in a Lazarus Pit. He operates in Gotham as the Red Hood now, mostly trying to control crime by taking over."
Talia's hiss startled Tim. "The Batman does that, although he is more insidious. Willing to kill now, since the Joker took Robin's life."
"So Slade said." Thinking of Bruce as a killer, Dick dead then resurrected....Tim swallowed.
"Bruce Wayne is now Mayor of Gotham, with tight control. The City Council is handpicked and loyal to him, willing to support the Batman as their Mayor does. James Gordon, our best hope at a resistance in the Gotham government, has finally been ousted as police commissioner and replaced by Delmore Redhorn."
"Corrupt as they come, from Bludhaven," Tim said. He hesitated. "A hero named Nightwing had a lot of dealings with Redhorn." There had never been a Nightwing here.
"Sounds like the same man. We, the League, fight to get Batman and his pet Raptor and their corrupt cronies out of Gotham."
"What then?" Tim asked, wondering if this version of the League was anything like his.
"What do you mean?"
Tim looked at her. "You get Batman out, get Raptor out. Kill them if necessary. What becomes of Gotham then? Do you take over? Does Jason? Slade?" Me, he didn't ask.
"I have no interest in Gotham itself, other than the interest it holds for my Beloved. The inhabitants will choose another mayor, there will be a new police commissioner, for we won't allow Redhorn to stay, and with luck, they'll choose better this time. If not," Talia shrugged, "that's their problem. None of us want to rule Gotham, Timothy. Not even your counterpart did, though I suspect he would have left us at some point and gone home to help with the aftermath. This is revenge, pure and simple. Batman killed my father, killed your counterpart. He can't be allowed to live."
Getting up, Tim walked across the room to stare at the picture of the Gotham skyline. He wondered if the unfamiliar tower was this universe's version of Wayne Tower. If so, it was much more ostentatious than the one in his world. "I need more information."
"Timothy?"
Turning to Talia, Tim clenched his fists. "You want me to help you, to use my training to bring Batman and Raptor down."
"It would be a great advantage."
Tim snorted. "Of course it would. If you want me to help you, I need information. Access to whatever you have on Batman and Raptor and Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. I need to verify what you are telling me, and if I do, I will help you bring them down."
"And if you don't?" Talia asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Then I will sit here and demand to be sent home every hour until you are sick of me, but I won't interfere."
Talia watched him for a few moments, then nodded. "Slade will bring you everything you'll need." She stood and walked up to him, reaching up to cup his cheek. "We aren't lying to you, Timothy."
"I need proof, not just a dead man's memories."
Nodding, Talia patted his cheek and left. Tim took in a shaky breath. He remembered Talia doing that to him dozens of times, same as she did to Jason. But not to him, to this world's Timothy.
Moving back to the center of the room, Tim started another kata. He'd wait, evaluate the situation for himself, and decide how to proceed from there. Taking down Batman would not be easy, but Batman himself - Tim's adopted father - had trained him to do exactly that. He'd hate every second, and spend years in his own world atoning for this, but he would do it with every bit of ruthlessness he had.
He owed it to the version of himself he couldn't get out of his head.
Next: Protégé