Hush (Talia al Ghul & Jason Todd)

[shauds]

Title: Hush

Fandom: DC Comics

Prompt: #010 Hush

Character/Pairing: Jason Todd, Talia al Ghul

Rating: A

Word Count: 698

Summary: The pit reverses more than just the damage done to Jason's mind, now instead of helping a skilled, physically capable teenager get away from Ras' coumpound, Talia has to escape with a small child.

Authors Notes/Disclaimer: Requested by Anonymous on tumblr.

Talia's plans, with the little time she'd had to arrange them, had accounted for only so much. She'd counted on the shock from both her father and his guards to allow her the time she needed to get the boy into and out of the pit. She'd mentally mapped out a path through the compound with the lowest possible chance of interference from both simple staff and higher trained agents. She'd gotten a single man to wait at the foot of the cliff, the small blindspot the only route that offered even the chance at escape. She hoped as much as she dared, that the pit would sharpen the skills months of inactivity had dulled when she threw the boy over the edge.

As plans went it was laughable, had one of her people suggested something so sudden and hinging so on something so intangible as hope when the outcome was so dire, she would have dismissed them out of hand. There is so much that hasn't been accounted for, so many points where it could turn to disaster and Talia has to fight against agonizing over them even as she leads Jason to the pit.

Later, she'll realize that even if she'd has the foresight to plan something of this sort months ago, though, that even had she been granted months in which to plan, there was likely not the smallest of chances she'd have foreseen this.

Out of the pit does not come a boy, almost a man, trained and nurtured by one of the greatest individuals on the planet. The screams that knock off the green tinged walls are too shrill, too panicked, too little of the rage and the madness she'd prepared herself for.

Jason doesn't pull himself out of the pit as instinct should have driven him to, by the uncoordinated way the thrashes in the waters, it's unlikely a lack of instinct is the problem.

It's that he's small, too small, smaller even than he'd been going in. It's not impossible, as much as she's seen in her lifetime, Talia knows there is nothing impossible in this world. This isn't the time for thinking, for altering her plans, or even wondering if there is any amount of altering that could fix this; her father has already noticed he's not alone in the pit. Talia grabs the hand that thrust out of the water, she ignores the screams, what he's screaming, and how easy it is to haul him up out of the waters and into her arms.

She runs. She makes better time this way than if she'd been dragging him through the compound as she'd thought, but the screaming draws too much unwanted attention. She makes it outside with her pursuers not a minute behind, she makes it to the cliff, looks to where the boat will be waiting. She can't see it, but she trusts it will be there the within seconds of something hitting the water.

Ras al Ghul appears at the doorway, he marches at her, fury plain on his face as the terror she knows she'll find on Jason's if she dares to look.

The child's shrill screaming has died down into whispered pleas, no less frantic for how quiet they are. There's no point in asking if he can swim, it doesn't matter. In this state there's no way he'll survive the fall. If Talia's father sees what the pit has done, he won't merely send the boy away, he'll want to learn how. Even using the same methods he has previously… in such a case, sending Jason to see the mother he's so fervently begging for would be kinder.

"Hush now." Talia tells him, she wraps her arms tighter about his shivering form and for whatever reason it calms him. She holds him close giving him as much warmth as she can despite the knowledge that in seconds it will prove pointless.

But Talia's not thinking now, there'll be time for thinking later. Now, all Talia can to is clutch the child tightly to keep the current from ripping him away. She sucks in as much air as her lungs will hold, then she jumps.