A little privacy can go a long way
It had been thirteen months since anyone had seen red hood, he hasn't been seen or heard of and it had the whole family in a full on manhunt, batman, nightwing, red robin, batgirl, and robin had been tearing Gotham apart trying to find him but their efforts were to no avail, It was like Jason had just fallen of the face of the earth, they all feared he got himself killed again and the thought of burying the fallen bird was too much to bear, but still they kept searching, after another night of endless scavenging they all returned to the cave to report.
(Bruce); I searched through the city's underground, trying to the get the gangs that still worked under him to give any hints, they all said that he just vanished and disbanded his network.
(Dick); I tried to reach roy and kori so I could ask them If they knew anything, they both said that he needed some time to think, and that something had been on the back of his mind, it's been six months already where could jaybird be?.
(Tim); batgirl and i hacked into all the major security agencies, we searched for any red hood sightings but we found nothing, there has to be something we're missing.
(Damian); of course there's something we're all missing, captain obvious.
(Tim)(Glaring); I haven't seen you doing anything on this, baby Satan.
Damian glares right back at Tim before sneering "because it's obviously another one of his temper tantrums, if he wanted us to know where he was he would make it obvious for us to see".
Dick just smacks him in the back of the head "why would you say that little d, it's our brother, he may not be in the best of speaking terms with us,…..literally but he still should tell us where he is.
Damian rubs his head and gives him another glare "it's him, remember?
Barbara nods at Damian's statement, "he has a point Bruce, maybe he's really trying to get some alone time and sort things out, can't he get at least the benefit of the doubt?
Bruce thinks of her suggestion before nodding "you're right, but this isn't him, Jason is usually a very vocal person, but it's just not him to be this quiet and invisible, this worries me.
"Well he did travel around the world for four years while we all thought he was dead" Tim states nonchalantly, Bruce narrows his eyes before responding "two in which he was in a catatonic state before being picked up by Talia, so again, this worries me.
Dick gets in the conversation, "we all are Bruce, but that's the reason we shouldn't stop searching, he may be in danger, have you considered bringing the league into this?
Bruce quickly shook his head at Dick's suggestion "this is a family matter and if we bring more people it could tick him off"
Tim intervenes "maybe but it could really help, how about we go to zatanna, she could help us out, I know magic isn't really our forte but it could be our best chance to find him".
Bruce considers Tim's idea, even if the supernatural wasn't a thing he was particularly fond of it was best choice to track Jason without alerting him. Plus zatanna was a longtime friend and therefore she was trustworthy, "Alright we'll ask her if she can help with a tracking spell, but until then none of this gets out of here, understood?
Everyone nodded and left the cave. After a few days and several failed attempts at finding Jason, Bruce was able to contact zatanna and explain his situation; zatanna agreed to help and asked if he had any type of memorabilia that she could use since the spell would require her to have some type of object or souvenir that Jason was attached to. Bruce immediately thought about Jason's room since it hasn't been changed nor visited since the day he died, Bruce took zatanna to the cave where everyone was waiting and made her wait while he got to Jason's room and took out a photo, Bruce then went back to the cave and handed her a photo of Jason falling asleep on his arm the night he got sick and couldn't go on patrol, "aaaaaaaw that's adorable Bruce" Bruce silent, "alright let's do this" she took the photo and put it on the ground and started to recite the spell, that's when mist started to form around them and a vision started to appear, it was very dim but they could see a shadow that resembled Jason but the vision suddenly faded and the cave became enlighten once again.
What happened? Dick asked "I don't know but I felt some kind of disturbance as I was conjuring the spell, maybe the photo isn't attached to him that much anymore" Bruce felt saddened by that state, of the very few happy memories of Jason's tenure as robin that night was one that he truly cherished "is there any chance that it can be done again? he said "I suppose but It would take more than a piece of his past, we need a blood sample or a hair" everyone looked at each other trying to find someone who could be of any help to obtain a piece of his DNA "I think I can contact kory and roy again and maybe they could have something" dick commented, didn't they tell you that Jason wanted to be alone in the first place? Tim asked "yeah but we know that they're not really a very open group so maybe they could be holding something that could help us find Jason" Bruce nodded and said in his ever low monotone voice "alright contact them and we'll be here again next week, maybe by that time we'll have something".
A week passed and Dick returned from meeting the outlaws in hopes of finding a blood sample from Jason, he came back with a bloodied cloth that Jason had that he left in the outlaws' ship, but he also found something that he thought was worthy of sharing with the rest of the bat family.
"Turns out that Jason messiness paid off" he says handing out the cloth to Zatanna "but Bruce there's something else" he says in a more serious tone and turns to Bruce and gives him bottle containing a piece of paper, Bruce then carefully removes the piece of paper, it's a very dark yellow and the edges are burned but there's a code in the center of it, there's a leg with the foot sticking out to the left, the word epsilon, the number 12, the letter o, the syllable ru, epsilon again an arc with the curve sticking out to the right and finally the word chronos. "This is a code with various symbols of different iterations of the alphabet" he says "what do you mean, father? Damian asks "whoever sent this to Jason made it in a code that only he could understand but it seems to resemble various letters from the alphabet in different cultures" he explains while walking up to the bat computer "we need to find the papers origin and what cultures do the letters belong" he then places the paper on a scan and starts typing furiously and the computer starts to analyze the paper. Scripture made in papyrus. Code analysis starting.
The computer starts to run every part of the code through a global net of information and starts to figure out the original words, while the computer is doing that Bruce and the rest are staring at the computer in total silence for a few minutes until Bruce breaks the silence "wait, papyrus comes from a plant that mainly grows in eastern Africa, specially Egypt" "Egypt? That's league of shadows territory" Tim says "why would Jason want anything with the league of shadows? Damian snorts and responds "you're all forgetting that Todd has some kind of loyalty towards my mother, since she was the one who brought him back" Bruce starts to think of every possibility to Jason being in contact with the league of shadows, could he be in danger? Has he reverted back to his evil ways? Is he trying to start a one man war against Ra's? There isn't any certain answer but a beeping sound snaps him back to reality and soon the computer displays the words hidden behind the code, and what is displayed leaves everyone in shock and confusion.
BELOVED, IT'S TIME