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Jason wakes to black light, which seems like an oxymoron, but it really isn’t when you’re surrounded by stark white satin. He doesn’t know what’s happening, doesn’t know where he is, and his name is only being held onto by the tips of his fingertips. The light surrounds him, growing and engulfing the small space. Someone shouts something, yells a passionate chant, but Jason can’t quite tell what it means.
Then he senses it.
Death.
He smells death seeping through the walls of what must be his coffin. It’s in his flesh, writhing and entangling through his bones. He tastes it in the mold that must have grown from his drying tongue and the calculus surrounding his teeth. He hears it groaning, yelling, screaming, Wake up! Wake Up!
And then he sees it. Death itself, in the palm of his hand. Not a grinning, rictus smile or a reaper, but a triangle with five rectangles extending from it. Like a hand. William Hand, a voice whispers. It’s almost comforting.
Jason takes the ring and shoves it on his limp ring finger. The ring glows and the light fills the coffin through his mouth, his eyes, his ears, piercing the bones of his finger. He sighs, and black smoke froths from his mouth, and he feels——
Nothing.
🦇
Jason loses himself during Blackest Night. He feels death, sorrow, grief, pain, and rage. The pounding in his brain intensifies when he’s given orders from the Anti-Monitor. He’s not sure how many he’s killed, who he’s killed, but he doesn’t feel particularly sorry. He misses Bruce, wonders how Dick and Alfred are doing, but then there’s this wave of apathy and he finds that they don’t matter anymore.
Eventually though, on one of his more lucid days, Jason searches up Bruce Wayne on a library computer. He regrets it, in the end, even though it’s what makes him claw back to consciousness.
🦇
Jason’s energy surges from the deaths caused by Chemo. He draws from the grief and anger and pain and sorrow pouring from Bruce. Jason doesn’t sense love, never has Bruce since he first revealed himself as the Red Hood. It’s not a surprise, not really with the Joker alive, but still, it hurts.
The Joker will be dead in one hour.
Jason doesn’t want to feel the emotions radiating off the Joker, the smugness, the hate. And the strongest emotion, Jason can only assume it’s love.
Love for Jason’s costume, his actions, Batman. It’s the first and only time Jason has ever felt love since his resurrection, yet he doesn’t feed on it. Not from the Joker.
Jason points the gun at Joker’s head, gives Bruce an ultimatum, declares that the Joker would be the last one to die by Jason’s hands and the only one to die by Bruce’s. All he has to do is say yes.
But he doesn’t. Because of course not. Because Jason’s a Black Lantern.
Bruce says that Jason’s emotions are being manipulated, that maybe Jason isn’t truly alive, not really, just a construct created by the ring. A sacrilegious symbol that uses Jason’s memories but isn’t the real him.
And after that spiel Bruce turns his back on him, sending only waves of disappointment, grief, rage. Jason rips out the Joker’s heart.
He gets a batarang to the throat for the trouble.
Jason’s still alive though. Despite what Bruce says.
🦇
Blackest Night ends as a failure, as evil is wont to do in their world, but Jason doesn’t die. Or, well, return to the dead like the other Black Lanterns.
Jason decides it’s fun to terrorize his family, so that’s what he does for a while until the Anti-Monitor’s final order is to locate Duela Dent. The ring urgently pulses when near her. Jason tries to protect her, tries to like her, tries to redeem her, despite the face she wears.
She still dies by the hands of a Monitor. At least they cremate the mask. He never hears from the Anti-Monitor again.
Jason meets Donna Troy while hiding in the back of the funeral.
“You’re Jason Todd,” she says. “Nightwing’s brother.”
Jason can only nod. He isn’t surprised that Donna recognizes him. Although he never spent much time with the Titans, he had worshipped Wonder Woman and her apprentice. He still does, to some extent.
“I remember when you visited,” Donna recalls with a bitter smile. “My sister spent the entire day raving about how you were such a wonderful child. She wanted you as an apprentice more than she wanted me.”
Jason blushes and stammers because, while she may not be Diana Prince, she’s close enough.
“What happened?” Donna asks.
Jason tugs on Donna’s emotions and thinks that it’s the first time he tastes compassion, the first time he is treated as a human being instead of a puppet of William Hand.
So, Jason tells her. Not everything, but the grave, the ring, Batman, and Duela Dent, enough for her to talk about her own resurrection (by some weird Greek god) and her own brief stint as a Black Lantern.
They agree to team up to form the Challengers.
Eventually, the Monitor that Jason has started to call Bob recruits Kyle Rayner, Green Lantern and Donna’s ex.
Kyle doesn’t hesitate to point his ring at Jason, who mockingly raises his hands as if surrendering but tilts his head back with a grin.
“Surprised?” he asks.
“Jason,” Donna hisses.
Kyle stammers, “How do you have that ring?”
“I died,” Jason admits with a shrug. “Thought everyone knew that by now.”
“William Hand. What does that name mean to you?”
Jason hums. “That’s the voice that talks in my head sometimes. Hasn’t in a while though.”
“Donna?”
“He’s a good person,” Donna says, pushing Jason aside to stand in front of him. “I can vouch for him.”
Kyle’s hand wavers. “Jade came back, after Blackest Night. Donna . . . I know your history. But I still had to bury two people. If you ever——”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jason scoffs. “I don’t wanna be with you either.”
“Oa will kill me for this,” Kyle mutters, but joins the team.
🦇
“What the hell, Jason!”
“What?” Jason reloads his gun, boredom evident in his voice.
“Why did you shoot a Monitor?” Kyle screeches, creating a medieval shield construct around them to protect against a flurry of energy beams flying toward them.
“He tried to kill Bob! What do you expect?”
“For you to not shoot an all powerful being?”
“Fuck you! It was Bob!”
“Maybe inform us of your plan beforehand!” Donna yells above the din of battle, twirling her sword and using her lasso to catch an unfortunate alien trying to flee.
Kyle releases the construct and Jason uses it as his opportunity to create black shards and hurl them at their enemies. He fires with his gun again, but his bullets only ping off their armor.
“Why aren’t the bullets working on the goons?” Kyle asks, creating his own space gun, with interlocking gears and a laser mechanism forming around his hand. He shoots at the alien rushing toward him, but the bullets are absorbed by the metal. The alien slams into Jason’s bubble that he conjures and falls to the floor.
“I shot Solomon in the head,” Jason says. “Maybe we have to do the same with these guys?”
Kyle tries, with the help of some half hearted shots by Jason. They do nothing.
Suddenly, there is a whirlwind in the side of his vision, and Jason sees Donna charging forward with her sword raised, screaming as she stabs an alien. The sword pierces the armor, and she repeats her movements, cutting down the enemy one by one. When she finishes, she stands in front of them with her bloodied sword resting on her shoulder, looking smugly at the two conjured guns, green and black.
“This certainly goes through the armor well enough.”
They stare before Kyle breaks the silence. “We should probably go check on Bob.”
“And make sure Solomon is dead,” Jason adds. “Double tap, you know?”
“Totally agree,” Kyle says as they run away.
🦇
“Remember Soviet Superman?” Kyle asks as he lays down his Uno card.
Jason snorts. “Kind of hard to forget.” He plays a plus two card.
“Damn,” Donna mutters as she draws the cards.
Kyle creates an abstract bust of Soviet Superman. “Do you think he’d be friends with Murder Batman?”
“Murder Batman?” Jason exclaims. “He was perfectly reasonable!”
“Sure, Jason,” Donna says, playing a reverse card.
“Haha. Uno.”
Kyle groans but slaps down a generic card. Donna rolls her eyes and does the same.
“Yes!” Jason cries, slamming his card on the pile then making triple middle fingers at Kyle. “Suck it, bitch!”
Donna passes over the chips for herself and Kyle, muttering, “You are such a child.”
“I just turned twenty!”
Kyle snickers then leans into his chair. “Who wanted to gamble with Uno instead of Poker, again?”
Jason doesn’t tell them that it’s because he never had gotten the chance to learn how to play Poker. Doesn’t admit that his first game of Poker was supposed to be with Bruce once he hit legal age because B was a hardass. Doesn’t tell them about the time Alfred started to teach him how to play Poker but was interrupted by a disapproving Bat-glare. Instead, Jason scoops up the chips, glowering at Kyle who summons up a bottle of green beer that he pretends to chug.
“You’re barely older than me,” Jason says.
“But I can drink.”
“Me too!”
“Not legally.”
“We’re in space! And when has that stopped me before?”
“Ugh, you’re insufferable.”
Jason slams the table. “You’re pretentious!”
“Says the one who acts like he’s a first year drama student.”
“Oh, is that because you think you’re such a great artist compared to everyone else?”
“I am!”
“Then why do you wear that ugly-ass suit?” Jason shouts.
“Have you seen yours?”
“Guys!” Donna interrupts them like the only responsible adult in the room that she is. “This, your fourth argument of the week!”
🦇
“That’s Earth,” Jason muses, looking through the window of their spaceship. “Weird.”
“We’ll arrive soon. But can you imagine it?” Kyle stands beside him. “That’s all your friends, all your loved ones, everyone you’ve ever known. On that one small, insignificant marble.”
“That’s the sort of pessimistic thing I’d say, not you, Rayner.”
“It’s not pessimistic,” Donna says. “It’s true, and it’s beautiful.”
“The ocean blue, the wisping clouds, the green flora, surrounded by this vast darkness,” Kyle breathes, looking out into space. “Beautiful.”
“Yeah,” Jason mutters, not looking out, but looking to his side. “Beautiful.”
🦇
Jason arms himself in his Batman gear. He’s ready to show the others that he’ll do what it takes to stop crime in Gotham. He’s chosen not to make his suit out of constructs and instead wears heavy bulletproof armor. Batman didn’t have a power ring after all, so Jason won’t use his either.
He places his guns in their holsters and admires his suit. It’s different. He’s never made a physical suit before, but it works. His helmet was handmade, sure, but his jacket was thrifted and the rest of his Red Hood regalia was made by the ring. He’s only been out a couple times so far, but he’s been carving his way through Gotham’s underworld, without a suit to not leave a trance.
Today, Jason’s ready for more extreme actions.
He spots something moving in the corner of the mirror.
Jason whips around, raising his guns, ready to shoot. A Green Lantern and Amazon are in front of him, both looking distinctly unimpressed.
“What do you want?” Jason growls through the cowl, voice moduled deeper than his previous helmet.
Donna raises her hands up. “We just want to talk.”
“Convince you to give up this madness?” Kyle says in a slightly strained tone.
“Do you think this is madness? Do you know how long I’ve planned this?”
“Err, maybe we should have gotten rid of that ring. How much do you think it scrambled up his mind?”
“Lots,” Donna says solemnly.
“This isn’t about the ring!” Jason explodes. “This is about Batman! Gotham needs Batman and I am the only one who can be him. Do you think Dick can be Batman? Batman is an urban legend and his showmanship will kill it. Tim doesn’t actually want the suit and Damian is just a kid. It has to be me. I know you called him “Muder Batman” but I saw his methods and it worked. I’m going to do the same.”
“So your best plan is to give out little slips of paper saying ‘I am Batman’? That’s dramatic. Even for you, Jay.”
“It’s not dramatic! I’m trying to prove a point.”
“And it’s ‘I’m Batman’ not ‘I am Batman.’ Everyone knows that.”
Jason ignores him, continuing, “And Tim——”
“You’re planning to attack him,” Donna interrupts him. “It’s obvious, that’s why we came.”
“Well, you’re not going to stop me.”
“How long was it again?” Kyle asks Donna. “He leaves Challengers and then suddenly he goes crazy.”
“Less than a year.”
“Exactly.” Kyle claps his hands and takes a step forward. “So, Jason, you have two options. Either you come with us to space and we give you some intense therapy that you desperately need, or you stay, and we tell the other Birds. Then, you get your ass kicked by me and Donna, and we pick you up once you’re unconscious. What’s it gonna be?”
Jason feels a surge of anger. Of course even his so-called friends will betray him too. Everyone betrays him in the end. Jason flicks the safety off his gun. “I’ll fight you, just like how I’ll fight them.”
“Pendejo,” Kyle grumbles. “I really don’t want to do this, Jay.”
“Then leave!” Jason snarls. The ring’s energy is swirling around him, ready to be used.
Donna starts twirling her lasso. Kyle’s ring is growing brighter and brighter. In the end, the fight can’t really be called a fight at all.
🦇
When Jason opens his eyes, he feels like he’s floating. He’s been stripped of his Batman gear, with an old leather jacket and a pair of jeans haphazardly thrown on him. Jason straightens his clothes then checks his ring.
He’s drained. When he scans for life he can only find Kyle and Donna, and he doesn’t want to feed on their emotions even though he’s pissed. They might be in some isolated place in the middle of nowhere, but they’re probably in space. That would explain the floating.
Jason tries to hack the cell door but it’s too high tech so he settles on playing with the hem of his leather jacket until Kyle comes down to greet him. He gives a faint smile but Jason glares in return. The smile drops and he turns on the gravity to stop floating.
Jason raises an eyebrow. “Where’s Donna? I like her better.”
“Sure you do. She’s upstairs, piloting the ship. I suck at it.”
“You don’t know how to pilot a ship?”
Kyle shrugs. “It’s always been more of Hal’s thing. Plus, I can fly.”
“Me too,” Jason deadpans. “But I can pilot a ship. Also Donna has a pegasus.”
“Discordia.”
“What?”
“Her name. The pegasus.”
“O, Discordia,” Jason murmurs.
There’s an uncomfortable silence at that, until Kyle says, “I’m sorry.”
Jason bristles. “For what?”
“Kidnapping you?” Kyle laughs sardonically. “What else?”
“You being an ass? Or was that all me?”
“That’s not the ring?” Kyle winces. “Or I mean, trauma?”
“I . . . don’t think the ring has anything to do with me. I mean, this has been my entire life. Literally. At this point it’s just who I am. There’s no outside influence.”
“Oh,” Kyle mutters.
“I’ve just always been destined to be fucked, you know?” Jason stares at the ceiling and lets out a bitter laugh. “Have I told you how my father turned out? It’s in the blood. ‘What is the son but an extension of the father?’”
Kyle clicks a button and the walls of the cell disappear. Jason rolls his eyes at the sentiment but Kyle still takes one of his hands. The one without the ring. “You know that’s not how it works right? You’re not destined on one arbitrary path. You can make your own choices in life.”
Jason stares right into Kyle’s glowing green eyes. “Then why do I always fuck up? I make the wrong decisions as a choice? I have burned bridges with everyone I’ve known and you’re telling me that it was——”
“Not with me,” Kyle interrupts. “Not with Donna.”
“Really? You think you’d need to kidnap me if I wasn’t like this?”
“Jason. I’m not the greatest with words, I’ve always been better with art and that shit, but we’re here for you. Just stay for a while.”
Jason buries his head into Kyle’s shoulder. “But Gotham needs me.”
“You sound like Batman.” Jason lets out an annoyed grunt at that. “I’ll tell Donna to tell Nightwing. He can handle it. Just focus on yourself for now.”
Jason sighs. “Okay.”
It’s enough for now.
🦇
“I don’t think that’s a good thing,” Donna remarks as she starts clicking more buttons.
“Who the fuck said this was supposed to be a peaceful retreat again?”
“How was I supposed to know we were going to run into aliens on the third day?” Kyle squawks.
“Oa reports,” Donna answers.
Kyle groans. “Should I go out there and do my job? I mean they’re not aggressive.”
The three silently watch as the spaceship slowly approaches. Suddenly, there’s a flash of light and a vibration wracking the ship. Jason immediately jumps into the copilot chair as Donna starts assessing the damages.
“Say that again, Rayner!” Jason snarls as Donna pulls up a hologram of the ship’s damages.
“Left wing is damaged,” Donna reports. “Minor crack in the hull!”
Jason uses his ring to imagine a repaired wing and creates a black bubble around the ship.
“It wasn’t my fault!” Kyle creates an astronaut suit adapted from his Green Lantern one. “I’m going to go speak to them.”
Another rumble, and Jason’s shields falter. He recreates them and grinds out, “Sure, great idea. Go get vaporized while you’re at it.”
“Put down your shields,” Kyle tells him. “Your ring is too low. I’ll make new ones. Help Donna with piloting.”
Donna grits her teeth as she makes a hard right to dodge another beam. “I’m perfectly fine by myself.”
Jason reluctantly puts down his construct and has to squint at the new neon one replacing it. Jason rolls his eyes once he realizes what Kyle made. “Seriously?”
“What? It’s cool.”
Jason rolls his eyes. The Transformer’s eyes mock him. “Is this one Optimus Prime?”
Kyle gasps. “Not all Autobots are Optimus Prime, Jay! This one’s Hot Rod.”
“Where’s the orange?”
“Fuck you.”
Jason rolls his eyes again. “Just go.”
“Rolling out!” Kyle responds as he jumps out of the spaceship.
🦇
“Humans! Surrender. We have already caught one of your own,” says the lead bug-faced alien with two backwards legs and what must be an arm sticking through its frog-like body.
Kyle somehow convinced them that it would be a good idea to parley with the aliens on their spaceship. Jason is realizing how bad of an idea it is.
“We’re just passing through,” Kyle explains. “We meant no harm.”
Another bug-faced alien waddles, because that is what it is, forward. “You humans should stay on your planet.”
“So should you. Your ugly-ass face hurts my eyes.”
“Jason,” Donna hisses, but the aliens look confused.
They tap their translator in their ears and are in silence until one of the aliens in the back pipes up, “Yes, Humans are very vulnerable.”
Kyle takes the reins again. “How about this? I know prisoners cost a lot, so why don’t we take your prisoner and we go our separate ways. You won’t ever see us again.”
“Our prisoners are prized possessions. Trophies in your culture.”
“Well then how about I show you something cool and then you show me your trophy in return.”
“Why?”
The alien in the back speaks again. “Humans like to show their personal possessions to other humans. I believe they call these showcases ‘Museums.’”
The other alien narrows its many eyes. “Fine, but keep it on a tight leash. And cover its face. Humans use that as identification.”
“What the hell do you guys use?” Jason asks, more out of curiosity than anything else.
The alien hmphs but doesn’t say anything. “Show me your trophy.”
“You don’t want to wait until the others come back?” Donna suggests.
“No.”
“Ah okay.” Kyle powers up his ring and conjures up a bust. Suddenly Jason has a feeling that things are about to go very wrong.
“Oh Hera,” Donna whispers, “not again.”
“This is Gurren Lagann!” Kyle gushes. “A thousand year old mech, who’s stories of greatness span the vast expanse of TV Tokyo, Toonami, and Netflix.”
The aliens’ eyes are wide. “And did you defeat this beast?”
“What? No it’s a——”
“Yes!” Jason exclaims. “He did defeat this great beast! Very . . . biggly! Strong, powerful defeat.”
Donna is nodding her head. “A hard battle, one worthy of the legends.”
“And you captured it in your ring?”
The alien moves closer, tries to use its weird arm thing to touch the construct, but Jason intercepts it. “Nuh uh. No touching.”
The alien looks sad but its eyes turn to Jason’s hand and light up. “You too, are ring wielder! What monster have you defeated?”
Jason panics for a second and summons the first thing that comes to mind. He can barely catch Donna muttering, “I’m on a team full of idiots.”
“But she looks so normal?” the aliens murmur.
“Normal! Excuse me, Jane Austen is not normal! Have you read Pride and Prejudice? A masterpiece of literature. A deep character study that interweaves humor and modern criticism! And don’t even get me started on Sense and Sensibility or Emma or Persuasion——”
“Um, excuse me,” coughs one of the aliens. “We have the prisoner, sir.”
The prisoner is pulled in, gagged and growling through her iron mask, dressed in a raggedy potato sack. The alien drops the prisoner on the floor and she tries to stand but the alien pulls her up by her flaming red hair. The alien cuffs her arms behind her, and they are distinctly orange.
“That’s not a human,” Kyle mutters.
“No shit,” Jason hisses.
“Tamaranean,” Donna growls.
🦇
“Well, since you dishonored your deal, I think we should take the prisoner as remittance.”
“That is not the right word, Rayner.”
“Shut up!”
“How have we dishonored the deal?” the alien growls. “You asked to see the human, we have shown you a human.”
“But that’s not a human,” Kyle says like he’s explaining something to a five year old. “That’s a Tamaranean. Sure, she’s humanoid, but she’s not genetically human, you know? You wouldn’t say a tabaxi or an elf is a human.”
“What’s the difference?” The lead alien asks and a bunch of aliens in the back start murmuring answers.
Kyle interrupts them. “Look, don’t you guys have Green Lanterns on your planet that we could talk to?”
“No.”
“Oh. What about Blue?”
“No.”
“Oh for Hera’s sake.” Donna exclaims and pulls out her lasso. “The Lasso of Persuasion compels you to release your prisoner!”
The alien drops the prisoner and Kyle scrambles to undo the restraints. Jason throws his guns up and fires a few warning shots. “Anyone who moves dies!”
Kyle pulls off the mask and gag, dragging the prisoner out of firing range.
“Kori?” Donna gasps.
Starfire, Kory Anders, Dick Grayson’s girlfriend or maybe not, who definitely knows who he is and will not like him, blinks then breathes out, “Donna?” before fainting.
“Okay, we’re leaving, bye!” Kyle yelps before creating a bubble around the four of them and flying into the spaceship.
Once they’re inside, Jason takes the job of creating the shield as they fly away while Kyle tends to Kori’s wounds.
“Are we not going to talk about the lasso?” Jason asks once he’s a safe distance away.
“Yeah,” Kyle says, “why didn’t you do that first?”
“It was funny seeing you blunder your way through that negotiation,” Donna answers immediately.
“Okay rude.”
“But I did not know how much willpower the aliens had. It fluctuates throughout species. Once they said they had no Green Lanterns, I assumed they didn’t have enough willpower to withstand the Lasso of Persuasion.”
“Wait,” Jason asks. “Doesn’t that mean we’re immune to the lasso?”
Donna hums. “Kyle, most definitely. Probably not you, though.”
“Rude,” Jason says.
🦇
“What is he doing here?” Kori growls as soon as she wakes up, hair puffed up and frizzy.
“Love these reactions I’m getting. Kyle, make a tally or something.”
“Kori, he——” Donna tries to say but is interrupted by Kori snarling.
Kori leaps and before the others can react, she has Jason in a choke hold. Jason creates a brace around his neck, but it doesn’t do much to ease the pressure and Kori doesn’t have the intent of letting go.
“Donna, he helped cause Chemo! Do you know how many people it killed?”
“Chemo?” Kyle asks.
“A bomb. The entire city of Bludhaven was destroyed for some thing’s revenge. It should be put down.”
“Jason?” Donna’s voice is on edge, hardened. “Kori let him talk.”
The pressure releases a tiny bit and Jason sucks in a breath. He glares then spits. Kori wipes it away, green eyes never leaving his face.
“I’m a person, you know. And I sure as hell would never work with Chemo and kill thousands of people.”
“So it was just a coincidence then?” Kori increases her pressure. “Dick’s city was destroyed by coincidence? Your ill achieved revenge with Batman just happened to be on the same day?”
“No,” Jason admits. “But I was never part of it.”
“You could have warned someone! You could have stopped it!”
“I didn’t know if the rumors were true or not. The Society would have killed me and no one would listen to someone like me anyways.”
Kori drops him, and Jason stays down, gasping for breath. “You are selfish. It is disgraceful to be rescued by you. No wonder Batman refuses to redeem you.”
She stalks away, but after her, Jason yells, “Batman slit my fucking throat! Of course he never tried to redeem me!”
Kori pauses. Kyle gasps and he can feel Donna freeze.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Jason sneers, legs wobbling as he stands up, feeling emotions swirl around him. His ring sucks in the power, uses the pity and astonishment and hatred to wrap his black suit around him.
Kori clears her throat and says, “I don’t believe I have heard the entire story.”
🦇
Once they get back to Earth, the team ends up disbanding as teams are wont to do when Jason is a part of them. Donna goes back to Paradise Island and Kyle has a new mission from Oa. Jason teams up with Kori and they recruit Roy Harper from prison because that seems to be a theme with them. Jason ends up on another spaceship and things are good for a while.
Until, of course, it isn’t.
🦇
“Hey, Boy Wonder, why are you sitting there all alone?”
“It’s been a while since someone has called me that.” Jason moves to make space for Kyle to sit on the ledge. He raises an eyebrow. “You’ve been promoted.”
White swirls around Kyle, who lets out a laugh. “Yeah. It was weird. All these rings randomly started harassing me and I almost got killed by blue people. . . .”
“Want this one?” Jason points to his ring. “You’re missing it from your collection.”
Kyle knocks into Jason’s shoulder as he leans against him. “I think I’m good.”
They watch the Gotham skyline in silence until Kyle whispers, “What happened, Jay?”
Jason just shrugs. “Team broke up. Again. I mean, I knew it wasn’t going to last, but . . . yeah. Roy’s back with the Titans and I think Kori’s in space again.”
Kyle winces. “Hopefully her ship doesn’t get ambushed again.”
“Yeah,” Jason agrees.
The lights of Gotham flicker. The foggy atmosphere twirls and wisps into smoke. Jason breathes in, takes in the smog and cigarette smoke and it smells like shit. But it also smells like home. He hears rumbling in the background, the sound of gunshots, screaming in the distance, and decides it’s just the right amount of chaos.
Kyle breaks the silence. “I’ve always thought Gotham was beautiful in its own way. I want to draw more of it.”
“Really? What’s stopping you?”
Kyle shivers. “Batman. Too scary.”
Jason smirks bitterly. “Join the club. He’d kick me out if he knew I was here.”
“You know what else I want to draw?”
“What?” Jason asks, thinking of anything that could be off limits with Kyle’s powers and coming short of answers.
“You.”
Jason turns towards Kyle, raising an eyebrow. “Really, Rayner? That’s some corny shit, even for you.”
“‘There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned.’”
Jason pauses. “Antony and Cleopatra. Act one, Scene one. You learn that for me?”
Kyle smiles. “Maybe.”
“You know they both die at the end?”
The smile is wiped off of Kyle’s face. He stammers, “Well, you know, we’re both going to die too?”
“That’s offly pessimistic, Lantern.”
“It’s not pessimistic, Lantern.” Kyle smiles again. “It’s true, and it’s beautiful.”
Jason leans in. “Beautiful?”
“Yeah. Beautiful.”
And their lips touch. The black light explodes from Jason’s back and it engulfs them, swirling and interlocking with the white light around Kyle. It twirls like a whirlwind, a tornado, colors fighting, blooming, absorbing and reflecting around them. Jason kisses harder, grabs Kyle’s back, who returns the embrace. Jason stares into Kyle’s glowing white eyes and Kyle is staring into his black ones and he feels——
Everything.
For the first time since his resurrection, Jason feeds off of love.