“Get up, nobody's coming to save you.”

A phrase he's heard dozens of times, one that's so deeply instilled in his mind, he found himself telling himself this over and over again in everything he does, Red Hood or not, up until recently.

His first time hearing this was when he was still tiny; wandering the streets and being around his parents. He's well over that by now, he tells himself, but everytime he found himself reliant on something then, upset about anything, he'd hear that from his parents.

Second and many other times was from Bruce himself. In training or on patrol while he was Robin, it didn't matter. He had to fend for himself every now and then.

Third and most memorable was with the Joker. That was the most upfront anyone's been about it. Joker knew, and deep down, Jason did, too, that nobody was coming for him anymore. He's trying to forget that, but apparently not hard enough, because he finds the memory of his experience with the Clown Prince of Crime weighing on how he's speaking to you, a new little sibling Bruce just took in.

He can imagine you've heard the phrase yourself. And you're just so tiny. He fears that you're going to be torn apart—an irrational fear, he's sure, but a fear nonetheless—while you're on patrol.

“You'll want to believe that someone is coming, but,” he adds cautiously, trying to make himself feel less like an a*ss for talking to such a young person like that, “there will come a time where you'll have to save yourself. Do you understand that?”