This has been bugging me for so long I had to write it down, even though I have a few loose ends to tie up with other fics. Oh I am sorry if I make people upset that I left Damian out. This family is so friggin complex and I am not that skilled of a writer for that.
It was like walking on eggshells after Tim Drake came back from being Joker. A lot of questions were raised that were never fully answered, not even by Gordon. There were subtle changes in Bruce too. For one, he usually had the database open to those who knew the access codes, and that was just him and Terry. Suddenly certain megafiles that he never paid any attention to because they weren't relevant at the time were blocked. He typed up Nightwing a few times and ran into a few road bumps on that little bit of research, especially after Gordon mentioned him in passing. Boy does he have stories. Well now he wanted to know.
Bruce didn't say why he changed the codes, but he did reason with Terry that after the break-in he had to be sure. The general code he knew, but there were new safeguards. He didn't want Terry to know. He didn't think Terry needed to know. It wasn't necessary. That didn't stop him from asking. Barbara didn't say much either or didn't say anything at all. She did say it was a matter of security for Nightwing who had left Gotham a long time ago.
"And then what?" he asked.
"It doesn't matter anymore," she responded, fixing her glasses and leaving the manor.
Tim Drake fell off the radar thanks to those skills as Robin.
Anything he could dig up was in recovered news files he had to find the old school way, at the library. He took the night off, telling Bruce he had an exam. It was a lie and knew Bruce would figure it out, but he needed the time. It was fairly easy to figure out who Nightwing was there though.
Dick Grayson. Adopted by Bruce when his parents were murdered. A year or so later Robin shows up and videos of their work, grainy visuals he might add, only proved him right. He flash forward a few years and Nightwing showed up. That didn't take long to figure out. Flash forward a few more years and Mister Grayson still kept him bachelor status as Commissioner of Bludhaven. Terry made a mental note that he would have to make a trip and hear those stories when he got the chance and his driving privileges back from his mom. The curfew rules were killing what was left of his social life, he mused.
Tim Drake wasn't hard to figure out either, but there was no way he could have remained so young looking after Nightwing came into play. A little more deeper diving and the ages and dates weren't adding up. Google could only do so much these days despite being a mainstay in Terry's recreational research. Terry then typed in the search bar three words that in his mind should never go together. Bruce Wayne children.
At least three different names came up. Red Flag. Richard Grayson and Tim Drake were accounted for but there were only a few tabs on the second. This was already getting interesting. Wiki is a great tool after all. He clicked down to a very small paragraph about the second kid in Bruce's life. His name was Jason and he wasn't around for very long. A few years and then suddenly runs away to the middle east only to get killed by Joker there. Terry took note of that and opened a new tab. Jason Todd. Not long after he died that's when Tim became Robin. Terry erased the browser history and left for Wayne Manor. He knew he was going to get caught in his lie, but he had questions and they were going to be answered. He knew Bruce was responsible for some deaths as Batman, but this was entirely different from the others.
/ / /
"I need to know what you have been hiding." Terry said, dropping his notebook on the keyboard.
Bruce looked at it briefly and went back to the computer screen. "I thought you had an exam."
"That's not the point. You had another Robin besides Dick and Tim, didn't you. That's why you changed the codes and blocked one of the megafiles."
"It was to protect them first and foremost. You wouldn't understand. It was very different for them."
"Dick Grayson turned out fine and Tim was hidden in plain sight. Barbara also faired well. What made Jason so different?" Terry learned how to interrogate from the best and it was best to stay as cool and calculated as possible, especially with his mentor.
Bruce turned and looked at his protégé in a manner that would normally stop Terry from pursuing for more. "Because it is a mistake I would much rather not relive or explain. There is nothing I can do to rectify what happened before, during, and after."
"After?"
"I have said enough on this subject," Bruce said with finality. "Go home."
/ / /
A week later Terry resumed his Batman duties and Bruce acted as if the conversation around Jason never happened. It pissed off Terry but he had a few ideas up his sleeve. He was going to have to hunt down Dick at some point, rather sooner than later, to get some stories.
It was a rather quiet night in Gotham. Most of the criminal syndicates went underground trying to regroup after the Joker incident. Rumors flew and he spent most of the night spying on the opposing force's grunts in high places. Bruce went offline earlier than normal these last few nights, still weakened by the Joker toxins. Terry expected that and used it to his advantage. Tonight he was going to head to the criminal underground.
Crime Alley was still one of those places you only heard existed in third world countries. Bruce only sent him out there a few times. Bigger fish to fry, he said. You have to start from the top to get to the bottom, he also said. Tonight, Terry decided to see if it was really true. Over the last twenty or so years there had been a few bombings, too many shootings, enough murders, and petty crime to make it a war zone. Long before he was born the place lost all the businesses there and poverty became the disease with criminal side effects. He parked his aircraft in a safe enough distance to get away but far enough to not tip off anybody who doesn't want Batman. That was everybody. The streets were quiet though on this night. That was already a bad sign.
Then he heard the gunshots and he sprung into action. He followed the action to an empty lot across that otherwise house a small three-story building. The firefight took place both inside and out, but mostly out. Batman took out the gunmen on the outside with ease. There were only three of them and weren't very big. He knocked them out and they dropped like lead. What was strange was that the shooting from the inside of the building stopped as well. They were originally coming in from the first floor window and he went in to investigate.
The door fell apart leaving him stuck with the doorknob in his hands. "A lesson in irony," he mumbled to himself. The room otherwise was empty save for the obvious artillery a few feet from the boarded up windows. Batman looked in further and took note of the weaponry.
"Automatic, multiple rounds, old school though." These guns were your classic AK-47's. the thing about those is that you needed actual manpower to make them work. They went out of style years ago and were considered déclassé even by the minor felons. Everything was more high end, light, and exceptionally dangerous. Getting guns was harder than it was years ago, but the way they made them now made it impossible to track. Right to privacy and bear arms, blah blah blah. These gun he was looking at though were computer backed so he could trace it, but alongside those computers were some insanely high end security devices as well. It was like a cheap, homemade knock-off of what Wayne Corp produced to the military and intelligence agencies. It was what he was using right now.
"Shouldn't be hard to figure out who you belong to," he said. Batman was careful about what key to touch first. The rest of the system was motion rigged, mostly to identify with the original owner. Motion security was the new thing. It would recognize its owners patterns and create a lock system, otherwise you would have to type in a long password to log in. Before he could even get started the computer screen turned bright red and showed a countdown clock. He had ten seconds to get out of there. "Crap."
Batman bolted out of there and made it to the same distance, at least thirty yards from the building, to the gunmen, one of which was regaining consciousness. "Get down!" he yelled.
The first floor blew up and was engulfed in flames. Batman knew the rest of the building was going to go down soon as well. Batman grabbed the two down gunmen by their shirts and started to drag them away. The third guy however got up and began to make a run for it. "Hey!" Batman dropped the other guys and ran after him. He wasn't too far behind and the guy was still feeling the hits. It was a pretty close call to grabbing him but the runaway dropped dead. Gunshot, only two feet away from Batman. It was a standard to bullet to the back of the head. For Batman it wasn't something he hasn't seen before, but for Terry it was a first. He had only seen it long after the hit happened, not as it was happening.
Batman stopped dead in his tracks. He heard the building behind him begin to falter. He ran back to grab the other two guys. If he didn't they would get caught in the destruction. Batman would be responsible for three deaths in one night. Terry would be responsible for three deaths.
Before he could get close enough the front side of the building leaned forward. The roof was the first to slide off. Terry wasn't going to get there on time. The physics and landing of the debris would kill him too. He had been in buildings that went down, it seemed so slow. On the outside it seemed so fast.
"No!"
He just watched the rest of it go down thus consuming the two men under the crushing destruction. He could have used Bruce on the other end to tell him what to do next. He needed Bruce now. It was just him and silence.
Batman made his way back to his aircraft as quickly as he could. The less he was seen the better. The last thing he needed was to be seen and have the media turn on Batman (again). He stuck to small alleys and dark curbs. He was getting closer and his ride was within sight.
Out of nowhere he was hit in the head knocking him off his feet. Batman did what he could to collect himself and keep going. He had to get back to the cave. He didn't see the perp who did it. That wasn't the focus at the moment. Batman had a bigger and new mystery on his to-do list. Another hit came slamming him into the pavement from above. Another force had him pinned to the ground. Batman caught a glimpse of the assailant and saw a glint of red. He would have seen more if the guy hadn't pushed a small gun against him head. Both were breathing hard, both were fighting each other to make a move but to no avail. The gun was pushed farther on his head. "There's a reason you don't come down here, Wannabe."
Batman heard the click of the trigger and stayed as still as possible thinking about his next move. He wasn't going to go like this. He was the goddamn Batman and was to live on. That was the point. He felt the assailant move above him, like he was sitting up to get a different view.
"Are you kidding me?" the red headed figure said. "He…Yes…Understood." The guy removed his gun from Batman's head but changed it to his hands, still pushing Batman's face into the ground. "Stay out of here and don't return. Go back to your cave and your own turf. This is how it is. Batman doesn't work here."
Batman felt the weight being lifted and when he got up and found himself alone. He knew he had the recordings of the night and reluctantly backed it up to the cave computer. He was going to have a lot to explain to Bruce. He was going to have Hell to pay on all fronts and collectors. This wasn't the worst night of his life, but it was on his top ten. He got people killed, almost got killed, and for what? Curiosity supposedly killed the Catwoman.
Any and all errors are mine. Let me know what you think.