Chapter Text
Nº 2620
Antarctica
February 13, 2015, 01:45
Project Lazarus was officially a failure.
It could have been a true medical miracle. Creating a formula from the water of Ra's al Ghul Lazarus Pit to raise the dead could have been the secret of immortality, but Ra's and Talia weren't interested in bringing average humans back to life. No. They wanted worthy warriors who could serve them, but it all went horribly wrong.
The dead could walk and fight, but their minds and souls were gone. They were no more than mindless zombies who attacked everyone that got in their way, thus they had to be taken down once more. Ra's had been so disgusted that he terminated the Project, but one of the doctors saw an opportunity. What if he could control the zombies somehow? Why bring back their minds if they could be such an amazing weapon with just their bodies?
The doctor disappeared with the formula and Ra's al Ghul ordered the complete destruction of the facilities along with the remaining zombies, corpses, and anyone who knew about the project.
Talia al Ghul was overseeing the wipe out herself, ignoring the screams and the blood and focusing on the matter at hand. It was bad enough that one doctor had managed to escape with the formula and she wanted to make sure no one else was going to repeat his feat. They would have to deal with Dr. Robb later in the most painful way possible.
Talia watched as her men went down to the twentieth floor of the facility and effectively killed the employees and burned the pods were the zombies were resting. She was about to alert the warriors about a separate pod when she noticed the readings of the zombie's vitals in the computer and frowned. They were... normal. If she didn't know, she would have thought they belonged to a living person.
Silently, Talia walked towards body nº 2620 and gasped when she saw his face. She ran to the computer and quickly read all the data on him.
At first, nº 2620 was just another mindless zombie staring at nothing from his pod until the doctors decided to give him a different dose of the Lazarus formula and wait for the results. His mind was blurry and it was difficult to think, but he started to take notice of his surroundings. However, what made the doctors remove him from the other experiments and consider him a special case was that he could talk. Actually, he jabbered and wasn't able to keep a normal conversation for long. Often, he either asked where he was despite being given an answer or he called for someone named Bruce over and over before breaking into tears.
When nº 2620 woke up with the sound of the shootings, he was too drugged to care. Besides, he was restrained so he couldn't do anything but lift his head and try to understand what was going on. When a dark-haired woman appeared over his face, he frowned. Her face was familiar. He had met her before, fought her…
"Ta… Talia?" the teen asked, watching her shocked face.
"Robin? Robin, is that you?" Talia asked.
Robin. That's right. He was Robin, the Boy Wonder. The second person to wear the black and red costume. He was Batman's sidekick…
"I can believe this…" Talia mumbled. "I can't believe Father actually brought you too…"
"Batman" the boy interrupted. "Where's Batman?"
Talia bit her lower lip and glanced at her men, then she pressed the controls on the computer and the boy's body fell limp against her.
"Commander!" she yelled at a muscular man who immediately came to her. "Tell the men to finish the job and come with me to the surface. We're leaving."
The man looked at the battered body of the boy she was holding. "What about this one? The orders were not to leave anything behind."
"I'll make an exception. He's special" Talia answered bitterly. "My Father will support me on this decision."
Nodding, the Commander took the boy in his arms and the three of them left the facility into the cold of the Antarctic night. The boy was shivering terribly and when someone wrapped a blanket over his body, he felt a rush of panic because he realized he wasn't wearing his costume or his domino mask.
"Calm down, Jason Todd" Talia said, forcing his blurry eyes to look at her. "It's alright. We all know who you are. It doesn't matter anymore."
Even though he was drugged, the boy reacted to his real name. He knew no one was supposed to know his name was Jason Todd. Both Bruce and Dick and told him not to reveal it and never use it on the field.
"Where's… Batman?" he asked again.
Talia lowered her eyes. "Forget about him, Jason."
"Where… is… Batman?" Jason went on, his voice growing more desperate. "Where…?"
Talia grabbed Jason's shoulders. Her touch was almost gentle.
"He's not coming, Jason."