Chapter 1
Realistically, there was a chance the whole thing was partially Jason’s fault. He was man enough to admit that sometimes he might be a contributing factor in an overarching problem and it wasn’t like he was shy about trying to be part of the solution. Even if sometimes what he thought was the best solution didn’t necessarily align with the solution others were hoping to work towards. Most of it wasn’t his fault. He absolutely was not at fault for who his dance partners ended up being or the part of it that got weird. Just the part of it that got bloody.
In his defense, Jason had no reason to think they were on his side. They showed up overarmed to a gunfight in his part of town and knowing Roy meant that Jason couldn’t bring himself to underestimate the threat of an archer in combat, especially one who seemed to be working with someone who moved like he was a weapon himself. And there was that, too. Jason didn’t recognize them, which he absolutely stood by. Why would he have expected them in Gotham? Especially in Crime Alley? So, yeah. Jason stands by the reasoning, even if it wasn’t exactly a shining hour for him.
And it’d been a weird day, even by his relatively low standards. Fucking magic was not supposed to be part of his gimmick. He was here for the people making everyone else’s life worse, trying to make his streets just a little safer. Magicians, or whatever this guy wanted to call himself, were supposed to be the problem of Constantine or someone else who had signed on to deal with that. Jason’s limited interactions with magic had had their uses, but he wasn’t all that eager to renew the acquaintance. He wasn’t holding a grudge, exactly, but he didn’t think returning him to life and making him claw his own way out of the grave exactly balanced the equations. So, yeah. He would confess to being a little distracted.
So when the guy who moved like a living weapon (and Jason was sure he was allowed to make that distinction for someone else, at this point, having spent time with the literal League of Assassins) turned out to have a metal arm and looking like he planned to bring it to the fight, Jason didn’t really hesitate in his judgment call. He didn’t recognize them and didn’t think they were on his side. He shot the guy in his head.
And everything went dark.