Chapter 2
Waking up in the morning was… odd. He didn’t remember getting home. He didn’t remember anything after shooting that guy. Jason hadn’t actually planned to come back to this safehouse again last night. He was planning to go to the one on the other side of the alley so that way he could swing by the library and return those books before they got overdue. And the neighbors were fighting again, which wasn’t exactly unexpected in the Alley, but… It sounded an awful lot like the argument they’d had yesterday. Maybe exactly like the argument they’d had yesterday. Still, just like yesterday, it didn’t sound like it was escalating. No danger, no need to put his nose in. It was late enough in the morning that it wasn’t like they were going to wake up any kids going at it right now. Under other circumstances, maybe they wouldn’t have woken up Jason.
Jason rolled out of bed and dragged himself to the kitchen, trying to balance how much he didn’t want to go to the Cave against the likelihood that he’d been drugged. He seemed fine? A quick check didn’t reveal any new damage and he’d woken up in his own bed, in reasonable clothes, alone. Those were all good signs. And more importantly than the oddness, Bruce would probably be at the Cave. Or would want to know why Jason was running his own bloodwork there. Jason could try to work it out on his own, but the time commitment and calling in favors that he wanted to keep for a rainy day…
In the end, he decided the tried and true “walk it off.” Only walking it off turned out to be odd too. Walking it off revealed that things really were exactly like yesterday. When he passed the stand where some newspapers were out, Jason was unable to stop himself from letting out a truly heartfelt “what the fuck.” When the gruff man working the stand lifted an eyebrow at Jason, he shrugged a little and jabbed a finger towards the paper. “Those from today?”
“Of course they’re from today. Nobody wants yesterday’s news! Kid, you’re too damn young to be fucking yourself up so bad you don’t know what the date is.” Jason grumbled as he walked away and scrubbed at his jaw with his hand. He appreciated the sentiment, he did, really, but this wasn’t exactly a case where Jason had decided to get so fucked up he didn’t know what the date was. This was… what? He dreamed yesterday? Today already happening? Sure, it could happen. Weirder things happened in Gotham. It was detailed though, really detailed. Detailed enough that Jason would be hard-pressed to call it deja vu. He could try to go about the day and confirm what he remembered happening? He remembered everything up to the moment his bullet hit the guy with the arm. Parts of his day would be something he could verify and other things needed to get done if he hadn’t actually already done them.
Plan in place, Jason spun around and headed back to the safehouse, ignoring the guy from the stand yelling at him to make better choices. He made fine choices, or, at least, survivable ones. Ones that meant he didn’t need some guy old enough to be Br- he cut the thought off and focused on putting his gear in place.
He wouldn’t say he was spooked, exactly. Maybe a little curious, but mostly just irritated that everything he did yesterday had to be redone today. Sure, some of it could wait, but parts of it… He wasn’t exactly unhappy to stop that robbery again. And while that firefight still happened, Jason found himself in a much better position. He had hoped from this angle in the building across the road he’d be able to find out where the magician had gone after Jason lost track of him the first time, but no cigar. Still, he was able to vent some of his frustrations by shooting at the idiots who had been working with him. And he got a pretty good view of when those guys showed up again, the archer and the one with the arm.
They were pretty, Jason allowed, as much as he let himself think such things while he was working. But they were in his way again. Still, when he had shot the guy with the arm before, his… dream had ended. So maybe… A moment’s hesitation and Jason shot the archer instead. As soon as the shot was made, the guy with the arm was turning towards the sound and looked furious. That one was definitely exactly the kind of threat that made Jason shoot him the first time. In his dream.
The bullet made impact with the blond archer, and everything went dark.