It was a stormy night in Gotham City. Lightning struck from the sky and made enough light to see two women making their way to a manor at the edge of a cliff. One of the females was nearly double as bright at the other and seemed to be floating. Her grey hair covered her old face. The other person was a girl, from her looks maybe in her early to mid-twenties with bright white hair. On her back was a scarlet red blade, reflecting the light from flashes of lightning. As they made their way to the door, the older one could be heard: „I know your sad daughter, but she will be safer here." The younger one nods, but then asks: "Have you seen this? Have you seen this future?" The other woman sighs before she answers: "No, not at all. I saw only death and pain, but never a child. How this happened is beyond my understanding." The girl nods again. "Why are we delivering her here? Our sources said he doesn't come here often." "We can't bring her to his current hideout. But don't worry, he will come as soon as he hears." The two arrive at the door. Then the younger one pulls her hands out and in an explosion of smoke, a tiny basket appears in her hand. She carefully puts it down in front of the door swell. "I was hoping I could speak to him again and apologize." The older one is quiet for a moment before she asks: "Do you still love him?" The girl only nods. Then the elderly woman says: "Come with me daughter, and when everything goes right, you'll be reunited again." With that, she presses the doorbell, but before anybody can open it, she and the other girl disappear in a pile of smoke. Then the door opens and a butler looks out. "Hello, may I ask who there is at this late ho…" As he sees the basket with a tied-up letter to he goes quiet mid-sentence. Slowly he unknots the piece of paper and opens it. A bolt of lightning struck again and made enough light to see what was on the paper:
Dear Jason,
It's been a while since we last saw. If I remember right, we tried to kill each other. If you read this you probably ask yourself who the baby is. Well, it's yours. I know, now you think: "That's impossible, we saw each other last years ago." I can't explain to you this in here, in case this letter is seen by someone we can't trust, but believe me, it's your child. An unspoken evil rises, and I can't risk her life, which is why I'm sending her to you. I know you can protect and raise her. I hope you can forgive me one day for the mistakes I made.
In regrets, E
Jason ducked under the bullets send his way, but he wasn't fast enough. One bullet hit him in the shoulder, but thanks to his additional armor the damage wasn't critical. Didn't mean it didn't hurt like a bitch. Jason hit one of the three henchmen in the stomach which made him drop his rifle. In a blink of an eye, the other two were down as well. With a grin, he took his helmet off and sat down as he waited. 5 seconds later two men were thrown through a window on his right. As he looked up, he could she his amazon teammate with her giant ax approaching him. "Easy Red, you could break their spines accidentally." He commented, which earned him laughter from her. "And why would the big bad Hood care about them?" "I'm not THAT bad, am I?" She rolled her eyes before she said: "No, you're the worst." "Red Her am funny." They both turned around only to see the bulking mass of Bizarro closing in. In his right hand were another three unconcise henchmen. "Hey there Big Guy, had fun?" Jason asked. Bizarro dropped down next to them before stating: "Me like hurting bad guys." Artemis looked at both of them before saying: "Really Jason? Did you teach him that line? "Oh no, I would never." Before Artemis could say something, Jason's phone vibrated. Without asking he started the call. "What is it, old man?" The voice of Bruce Wayne answered him: "Come to the manor. There was a change of events you should know about." With that, he ended the call. "Asshole!" Jason whispered to himself. "Who was that, little one?" Jason responded immediately: "My 'dad'. He wants me to come to the manor. Ar, can you bring Biz home?" "Of course. When will you be back?" Jason laughed: "By the lengths of his meetings? Probably tomorrow." "Alright, see you little one." With that, she turned back to Bizarro. Jason smiled as he pulled out his grappling hook and put his phone in his pocket. He loved his tiny family.
As he grappled from house to house, he asked himself what could have happened. Surely it couldn't be that bad, otherwise, it would be a league matter. No, this must be something in the family. Maybe Dick had gotten Barbara pregnant? No, then it would be Dick who would have called him. Maybe Someone got hurt?
As he arrived at the alley, he parked his motorcycle in he had concluded that whatever it was, it was rather a good than a bad thing. The entire ride he was asking himself what he could get Artemis as a birthday present and when he finally arrived at the manor, he had decided that a picture of him, Bizarro, and her in an expensive frame would be perfect, because what else could he give her other than good memories. As he slowly walked towards the manor, he could almost imagine Artemis look on her face when he and Biz would surprise her. As he arrived at the front door, he rang the bell, and a short time after, Alfred the butler opened the door. "Master Jason, a pleasure to see you. The others are waiting." "Thanks, Al." Jason responded as he made his way to the living room. When he entered, he could see that all of his siblings were there. "Oh, there you are Jaybird, took you long enough." Dick greeted him, "Do you have any idea what this is about?" "No, Bruce called me and said something about major events," Jason responded. As Dick wanted to say something Bruce entered the living room. Everyone looked at him. "Why is the entire family here, Father?" Damian asked. Bruce seemed nervous like he didn't know where to begin with. "Come on, spill it out already," Stephanie said. "We have a new member of this family." Everyone looked at each other before Dick said: "Did you seriously adopt another orphan?" "No. Alfred would you please?" Alfred nodded and then walked out of the living room. A minute later he came back with a baby in his arm. Everyone gasped. Tim was the first to recover and said: "So, who's the mother? I bet it's Selina." Damian stood up and shouted: "Was I not enough for you, Father? Is that why you needed a new child?" Dick stood up to and exclaimed: "Bruce seriously You got to tell us that Selina was pregnant." "Yeah right, we trusted you," Stephanie said. "I am not the father!" Bruce yelled which made everyone shut up. Then like moths drawn to light everyone looked at Dick. He seemed to be very uncomfortable. "And no, Dick isn't the father either." "Then who's is it then?" Jason asked. "It's yours." And then many things happened very fast. Dick made sounds like he would choke, Tim looked like he had seen a Ghost, Stephanie and Barbara just looked at each other, Damian made a face that no one had ever seen him doing and Cass lunged at Jason and hugged him. Jason slowly said. "Who is the mother?" "We don't know, the baby was delivered yesterday night at our doorstep, but there was a letter on top of her basket." Carefully Alfred handed Jason a letter. "Can you read … out loud?" Cass asked. Jason slowly nodded before opening the letter.
"Dear Jason, it's been a while since we last saw. If I remember right, we tried to kill each other. If you read this you probably ask yourself who the baby is. Well, it's yours. I know, now you think: "That's impossible, we saw each other last years ago." I can't explain to you this in here, in case this letter is seen by someone we can't trust, but believe me it's your child. An unspoken evil rises, and I can't risk her life, which is why I'm sending her to you. I know you can protect and raise her. I hope you can forgive me one day for the mistakes I made. In regrets, E."
"Who is E?" Tim asked. "Yeah, right I would like to know what Girl would like to have a relationship with you, Todd," Damian said. Everyone looked at Jason, who apperantly knew who E was, judging by the color on his face. "Who is E, Jason?" Bruce asked. Jason thought a moment before saying: "A girl I once knew. We had a little argument at the end of our relationship. Now, if no one minds, I would like to hold my daughter. Since there was no name in the letter, I guess she hasn't one yet. I need to think about somethings, so please don't disturb me." He got up and took the baby carefully from Alfred and then made his way out of the living room. The people left all looked at each other. "Am I the only one, or did Jason was very vague about E?" Tim asked. Everyone nodded except Dick, who seemed to suffer his own Crisis. "My little Wing had babies before me. I always wanted to talk about this with him and mock him, and now he has a kid before me." "Bruce? Bruce?" Tim asked. "What Tim?" "What are you thinking?" Bruce thought for a second before he said: "I think Jason didn't tell us the truth. Jason does not trust anybody easily, and if he had a long-time relationship with someone, we would have known. No, he must have known this Girl before he knew we were alive. He still didn't tell us everything that happened during that time. All we know is that he has been trained by someone. In the letter was said that Jason needs to believe that this was his kid, so it wasn't obviously wanted." "So, what are we going to?" Tim asked. "We are going to find out what happened during Jason's lost days."
While his family sat downstairs and asked themselves what to do now, the same question was inside of Jason's head. Of course, he knew who E was. But he still couldn't believe how that was possible. While he sat in his old room, his daughter holding in his hands, he realized the small purple tattoos above her eyes. Just another prove that Essence was the mother. He sighed before asking the baby: "Now, let's give you a name." The baby looked at him with interest, while he thought of possible names for her. "How about Sheila?" the baby looked at him with big round eyes and said, surprisingly, nothing. "No? Ok. Then how about Donna?" Still no reaction. "And how about Iosefka?" This time the baby seemed to smile and wagged his hands. "Iosefka it is then." While the baby seemed amused, Jason thought about Essence again. She would have liked the name for sure. It was a character of one of her books. He wondered where she was now. His Ex must have been really afraid of this 'unspoken evil'. Then Jason thought about his current families, as well the Outlaws as the Bat-family. He needed to decide in which he would raise her. But before even really considering the thought he had already chosen. Artemis as Mom, he as Dad and Biz as big brother, with aunt Kori and uncle Roy. He almost smiled at the picture. Maybe aunt Cass could sometimes come by. It was no secret that Cass and Jason preferred each other before there other siblings. As he made his way back to the living room he got overwhelmed with a feeling of pride. He could be a good father; he could do what his parents couldn't. With that though he opened the door to the living room. "Everyone may I present, Iosefka Todd."