Hey Brother

Chapter Twenty Three

This chapter gets dark real fast and the ending is going to most likely make everyone hate me even more for what I am doing to Jason and Damian...I'll prepare my own funeral.

Jason slumped against the wall in the laboratory, watching his mother's retreating form with his blurry eyes, her words playing over and over in his throbbing head.

"I'm moving the timeline up."

Jason shuddered, his body aching from the motion. He stumbled to his feet, grabbing the cleaning supplies from where he and Damian had left them before getting back to work cleaning the faux explosion marks on the walls and furniture.

He and Damian had faked the bomb going off, knowing their mother would want to see their creation when she got home. But she can't see what has been destroyed. So, they started a small fire and extinguished it quickly, letting it burn long enough to give the impression of an explosion. Then they showered to explain why they weren't covered in soot, hiding what they were really working on in Jason's room. Simple as that.

"Decide how you want to do it. You have two weeks."

Jason shook his head, trying to get his mother's voice out of his head. That was the last thing he wanted to think about right now. For the moment, he just wanted to pretend everything was okay, that he didn't have to-

No.

He wasn't going to go down that road until he absolutely had to. Right now he had to focus on perfecting the compound he was going to use for Damian's escape. That meant he had to test it out and the only two test subjects he had were his mother and himself. He obviously couldn't test it on his mother so that left using himself as a guinea pig.

Jason decided that later that night, after Talia was asleep, he would test it on himself. He was debating on whether or not he should let Damian in on the testing when the door flung open and his mother stalked back in. She saw Jason scrubbing the walls with an intense look on his face and she clucked her tongue.

"I hope you are thinking about what we discussed."

"I am, mother. I am putting a lot of thought into it. I want to make you proud."

Talia knelt next to Jason and stroked his face with one hand. She kissed his forehead. "That's my boy. And remember, if you don't, I'll do it myself."

Jason nodded. "I won't back out, mother. I promise."

"I'm glad to see those months you spent with your father didn't soften you too much." Talia chirped, patting Jason's head as she stood back up. "All it took was a few weeks of a mother's touch and you are back to being my good little boy. I've missed you, my son."

"I missed you too, mother." Jason smiled at Talia. "And I won't let you down. I will be the heir you deserve."

"We'll see." Talia smirked. "Now get back to work, your failure won't correct itself, you know."

"Yes, mother."

That night, Jason waited until about half past two in the morning before he crept out of his room and into Damian's. He shook his brother awake, pulling him back to his bed room and closing the door behind him.

He turned the bedside lamp on and pulled out a notebook, writing down what he needed Damian to do. Damian nodded, sitting next to Jason on the bed. Damian pulled up the stopwatch option on his watch, the one thing his mother let him keep, before nodding again towards Jason. Jason sucked in a deep breath. He pulled out a syringe, counted silently down from three before plunging it into his neck and injecting the chemicals into his body.

Jason bit back a groan as his veins felt like they were on fire and freezing at the same time. The world began to spin despite him laying down on the bed. He felt sluggish so he closed his eyes, knowing what was coming.

Ba-dumb...ba-dumb....ba-dumb

Ba-dumb...ba....dumb

...ba...

....dumb...

Damian felt a surge of panic go through him before he remembered this was exactly the desired effect that Jason was going for. He started the stop watch and kept his hand on Jason's pulse, making sure it was still there.

Barely noticeable, only if you were really looking for it and were holding on for as long as Damian was would you notice his pulse.

Perfect.

Damian sat there for three hours, his hand unmoving from his brother's wrist until his pulse began to quicken to a normal pace and Jason began to stir. Damian stopped the timer and waited for Jason to fully come back to the world before he tackled him in a hug.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again." Damian whispered in Jason's ear, his head nuzzled in his neck.

Jason wrapped his arms tightly around Damian. "I wouldn't dream of it, little brother." He pulled out of the embrace to write once more on the note pad.

This is the same formula I am going to use on you to sneak you out of here.

Damian furrowed his brow.

Why do you need to pretend I am dead to sneak me out of here?

Jason screwed his eyes shut, his conversation with their mother playing over in his head.

"I need you to prove to me that you are loyal to me and me alone. Can you do this for me?"

"Of course I can."

"Good. To do this, you need to purge all weakness from your life. You need to destroy what makes you weaker, and in your case, it is love."

"Love?"

"Yes, love. I am talking about the love you hold for your brother, Damian."

"And how do you propose I destroy that?"

"To prove your loyalty to me and to strengthen yourself, to purge yourself of weakness and to make yourself a more suitable heir...you must kill Damian."