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“Boring night,” Spoiler said over the comms.
“Bruh,” Robin exclaimed
“Why would you jinx us like that,” Nightwing whined like the teenager he no longer was.
“Report,” Batman called out, grabbing their attention.
“ Diamond District is clear, bout to loop back around to Robin’s route,” Nightwing answered.
“Clear, leaving Crime Alley now. We can meet downtown if you want,” Robin chirped in reply.
“Narrows are lame, headed to the docks just cuz I’m bored,” Spoiler stated nonchalantly. “Wha–”.
“Spoiler, report,” Batman demanded.
“Ummm, BRB bat,” she rushed out before turning off her comm.
“Oracle—” Nightwing began.
Cutting him off she stated, “already on it. Sending her live location now.”
0o0o0
There was a teenager, dressed in all red, leaping through the rooftops. Running like his life depended on it as he clutched something to his chest.
“Ummm, BRB bat.”
Better to know what she was working with before calling for back up.
As the red robed male crossed the sky line she noticed the movement behind him. A hoard of assassins were hot in pursuit. Welp, she had already turned her comm, meaning they were probably already tracking her.
Jumping off the building she began over thinking the scenario, sure it would be fun to see Batman blow up at Ra’s later. But she really didn’t want to have to sit through a lecture.
Reaching up as she swung on her grapple, she turned on her comm once more. “Umm, guys.”
“DON’T TURN OFF YOUR COMM,” Nightwing all but screamed, he sounded out of breath. Like he was pushing his body past his limits to get to her as fast as possible.
“Dude, not cool.”
“Spoiler, report.”
“Ummm, yeah. So there's a dude in red robes clutching something to his chest as he races across the roof tops.” A moment of silence passed before she added, “oh yeah. And he’s being chased by the League of Assassins.”
0o0o0
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
He hadn’t thought this through.
He had hoped that he had enough training that he could just sneak past the assassins and disappear. Once he landed the helicopter it should have been easy enough to just disappear into the city, the streets had once been his home.
It didn’t help that they had apparently gotten ahead of him. Watched as he landed the helicopter and immediately bum-rushed him.
Turning his head he clocked eight of them. Eight shadows that he could see. Which means there was at least twenty hiding and watching.
This wasn’t going to end well.
Well, as in, y’know. Living.
A flash of purple caught his eye, cranking his head as he leapt from the building he saw her. A white girl, late teens early twenties, blonde, and clearly a bat, racing towards him too.
Who the fuck was she?
His brain unhelpfully supplied him ‘one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater’ as he stuck the landing. Rolling with momentum as he kept his game of keep away with the assassins.
That was until Nightwing landed smack dab (like, ten feet) in front of him, escrima sticks drawn and looking like he wanted the taste of blood.
Without a thought behind his eyes, Jason did the only thing his brain could come up with. He held up Damian, like that somehow was an explanation.
“They want the kid,” he explained.
As soon as the sentence left his mouth, Dick’s stance melted. His shoulders and arms dropped as he tilted his head like a confused dog. Furrowing his eyebrows as he tried to figure out what the League of Assassins wanted with a literal baby.
And probably why said baby wasn’t bawling its eyes out right now.
0o0o0
“They want the kid,” the red ninja explained as he ‘Simba’ed the kid, making himself Rafiki. It stunned him so bad all thought legitimately left his brain.
Then the shadows landed behind him.
“Get down,” he instructed as he began throwing WingDings. Reaching up to hit the button on his comm to turn on the microphone. Nightwing stated “Red clad teenager has a baby. The League apparently wants the kid,” as Batman descended beside him.
Spoiler was next, joining the hand to hand. Trading blows with trained killers as Nightwing and Batman finally let loose. For once they had a fight they could go all out for. They didn’t have to hold back.
Robin was the last to join, swinging his bow staff to clock a ninja in the temple hard enough to knock them out cold right before they had the chance to stab Spoiler in the literal back.
It was a difficult fight, but they were victorious, Nightwing and Batman audibly panting as they checked their younger vigilantes to make sure they were unharmed.
Seventeen shadows, Robin counted.
“What the hell would Ra’s want with a baby,” Nightwing questioned as he turned to face the red ninja.
But the roof top was empty.
“Nothing good,” Spoiler supplied as she crossed her arms.
0o0o0
“Ughhhh, I’m going home, you're taking too long. I’ll write my report tomorrow,” Stephanie said while flicking the back of Tim’s head as she walked towards her bike.
“Ow.”
“Night Steph,” Dick called out cheerfully.
Bruce grunted.
0o0o0
Fuck this was stupid. Fuck this was stupid. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuckidy. Fuck.
Taking a deep breath, he got off the stolen bike. Grabbing the handle bars, he carefully walked it off the road, ditching it in the bushes that lined the side of the road.
Luckily, he still remembered where a big rock was, less climbing meant less chance of dropping the antsy baby that was pissed he wasn’t asleep yet.
Me too kid, me too.
0o0o0
Walking up the driveway, his anxiety started to spike. Out of the, like fourty, ways this could go. Maybe five of them were good. The odds weren’t in his favor, when were they ever though.
He wasn’t Katness.
Not the time.
Taking a deep breath, holding it for the count of two, he stepped into the sight of the security camera.
He exhaled.
He was still in his league garb, not like he really had anything to change into though.
Walking up to the door, Jason shifted the fussy baby. Talia was probably going to hunt him down and skin him alive, but at least he tried to save the kid.
Reaching up, Jason knocked on the side door, the one that led to the kitchen.
It wasn’t a guarantee that Alfred was still making them post patrol snacks, but hopefully, just this once. Fate would be on his side.
And it was.
The door swung open without a moment's hesitation, it was honestly concerning how much Alfred was chill with stuff. “May I help you?”
He was still wearing his League issued domino and what he liked to call his muzzle, because apparently they thought he was rabid, or Hannibal Lector. Well, he was technically a zombie.
Alfred's eyes drifted down toward the green clad baby fussing in his arms, gently punching him in the throat as if he was already trying to kill him.
Alfred eyebrows furrowed as he gazed at the child. Before he could think better of it, he blurted out “he’s Bruce’s… and Talia’s.”
Alfred looked back up at his domino, “I see.” Stepping to the side, he waved his arm, ushering them inside. “Why don’t you both come in and I will fetch Master Bruce.”
Jason didn’t respond, simply nodded as he hopped. Jostling Damian so he was sitting higher on his hip as he walked them inside Wayne Manor.
0o0o0
As the motorcycle revved out of the cave Alfred cleared his throat. “Master Bruce, the ‘red ninja’ from earlier in the night is upstairs waiting to speak with Bruce Wayne.”
“Are we just gonna hope that this is a happy accident and Ra’s and Talia didn’t tell him you’re Batman?”
Bruce didn’t grunt, didn’t make any reaction to prove he had heard Dick. Instead he stalked towards the stairway, taking them three at a time as he went to go face the runaway League member.
0o0o0
“Who are you?”
Glancing up quickly, Jason saw a pissed off Bruce stalking towards him. He had sat down at the family table. Without thinking, he had immediately gravitated to his seat, the one he had used before… before.
He had been bouncing the angry baby on his knees, trying to keep him from crying.
The bellowing from Bruce had apparently been the last straw. Damian began to wail, clutching Jason’s tunic for support.
Jason quickly brought Damian to his chest, looking down as he began rocking him, shushing him. It was no use though, it was six hours past his bed time and he should have gotten a bottle at least three hours ago, maybe. He didn’t know how often babies needed to eat at five months.
“Good goin’, B,” Dick chastised as he shouldered past Bruce towards Jason.
He knelt down a few feet away, looking up at Jason as he instructed him on what to do. “Here,” grabbing Jason’s wrist slowly, orchestrating his movements. “Put your hand on the back of his head like this and the other under his bum. Then just stand up and bounce on the balls of your feet.”
Jason did as he was instructed, Damian quickly quieted, not used to the gentle manor of being shushed.
“Who. Are. You,” Batman asked through gritted teeth.
Jason shook his head. He was dead, they moved on.
They let Joker live.
That told him all he needed to know.
They didn’t want him.
He wasn’t their family. Apparently, he never had been.
They had found his replacement fast enough, he thought as he glanced at the new Robin. Tim Drake, standing in the doorway.
He wasn’t here for himself, he was here to get a kid out of the League's grasp. That was it.
So he didn’t speak, didn’t want to risk Bruce running a recording of his voice through the Batcomputer, listening to it again and again until he realized it was Jason.
Instead he turned, handing Damian to Dick before he gave a goodbye salute to the room.
Bruce moved, blocking the exit.
Neither spoke.
Jesus, was he really only half a foot shorter than Bruce now? He had always felt so…larger than life.
Weird.
Welp, fuck it.
Jason side stepped, throwing an elbow up in the process to hopefully send Bruce off balance and give him an opening.
It didn’t work, in any way shape or form.
Bruce immediately grabbed his wrist, twisting it behind his back painfully before Bruce roughly shoved him into a wall.
The clasp of his mask perfectly hit the corner of the wall, breaking it. It fell in slow motion, clattering to the ground as Bruce spun him. Shoving him yet again into the wall with his forearm pressed as a warning to his throat.
What the fuck. He wasn’t even resisting.
“Master Bruce, is this really necessary?”
Neither spoke, Jason staring into Bruce’s eyes as Bruce stared into an assassins mask.
Now or never.
Jason twisted, using a move he had learned from Dick now was probably a stupid move but oh well.
He didn’t get far. He had jumped over the leg sweep Bruce had done, but Tim had rounded the room while Jason and Bruce had been having their stare off. He was standing in front of the door. Fuck.
Bruce tackled him in the narrow hallway. They went down hard, Bruce kept him face down with arms pinned behind his back. He managed to keep the wind in his lungs so that was a plus.
Then Bruce moved, transferring his weight to one knee as he pulled Jason up, he wasn’t fighting anymore. There was no way for him to get out of this without them knowing who he was.
Time to bite the bullet.
As Bruce shoved him against the wall, pinning him there with one arm, he reached up with the other. Grabbing the edge of the mask and ripping it off his face.
Ow, fuck that hurt.
His eyes watered at the pain of the adhesive being forcefully removed. The only pain he could compare it to was if someone slapped a sunburn. The lingering sting that hurt way more than it should have.
Bruce recoiled, slamming his back against the opposite wall as Tim stood there shell shocked.
“Jason,” Dick managed to croak from the entrance of the small hallway, still bouncing Damian, lulling him to sleep.
Jason looked at him as Dick said his name. Quickly realizing his mistake he leaned forward, staring at the floor directly in front of him as if it was the most interesting thing to have ever existed.
It was dead silent.
He counted five seconds in his head before he couldn’t take it anymore. “Talia put me in the pit. I, I owe her my life as a shadow now,” he worded carefully. “Damian is Bruce and Talia’s, you weren’t supposed to find out it was me.”
A single, traitorous tear left his eye, rolling down to fall from the tip of his nose to the floor.
The next instant, Bruce was pulling him into his lap…and Jason let him.
Bruce trapped him in a bone crushing hug as Jason was shoved into his lap, resting his head against Bruce’s shoulder like no time had passed. “Jason?”
And that was all it took for the floodgates to open. A damn of emotions he hadn’t known he had been holding back, holding onto. Bruce, quietly rocking him and the others watched Jason crumble.
He was finally safe again.
Outside, watching through a pair of binoculars, Talia Al Ghul whispered with a quiet pride, “good job, Jason.”