AK Jason Todd

Jason had been a squire to the greatest knight in all the land. Retired from the streets, he had a bright future ahead of him. For a few months, his new life had been enough to make him forget that his parents didn't love him, that they called him useless, a burden. It had given him a sense of belonging, of family.

And then, while on border patrol, he witnessed the soldiers of the neighboring empire brutalize his own people. Jason, young and fiercely determined, defied his orders and tried to help, but all he got was himself taken prisoner.

During his captivity, he had been tortured, humiliated, and forced to eat rotten food. His innocence and loyalty had been cruelly stripped from him, replaced with a twisted sense of duty to his captors. His hope for the future had turned into an intense, penetrating hatred for those who had abandoned him to his fate.

Gone was the boy who longed to make a difference in the world, to save people, to be a hero. In his place emerged an avatar of vengeance, whose sole mission was to bring down the man who had abandoned him. To take down anyone who stood in his way.

When the court wizard, Jason's tormentor, offered to make him a dragonrider and entrust him with the guardianship of the imperial heir, he readily accepted. Such a position would bring him closer to his goal. The dragon, his steed, with which Jason had bonded. It was a majestic beast, scaled black and gold, easily inspiring fear in those who beheld it. An orphan like him. Forced into servitude, like him. Harboring a deep hatred, like him.

And the rest? He cared little for the court songs and dances, and even less for his protégé: this was a means to an end and nothing more.

"Hurry up," he said harshly to his protégé, the heir. A clumsy, fragile creature who wouldn't last five minutes in a real fight. He hated these fencing lessons.