I'm sorry for not updating earlier. I was trying to update Night Bird faster so I could update this story and This Mystically Found more.
Disclaimer: I do not own Batman.
Tim POV
"Why not Bruce? I already know about Jason, and I've stayed with him a whole night, it's not like he's going to hurt me. If he wanted to, he would have." I said, glaring up at him through the lens of my mask.
"I don't care. Until this whole problem is solved, you're not going on patrol, understood?" Bruce asked, leveling me down with a look that made me look at the ground with a frown.
"Fine." I mumbled, sitting down in the chair that was in front of the bat computer.
Bruce nodded, pulling his cowl over his head so he could leave with Batgirl and Nightwing. "And you still want to be Robin, why?" A deep voice asked behind me.
I turned around, and grinned up at Jason. "Because, it's a rush. How did you sneak in? The security to the Cave is hard to beat." I asked.
"It's not hard when you have Alfred helping you sneak in. Besides, I told you I would see you tonight. You know, without them seeing me." Jason said, gesturing to the exit where the others left.
"Yeah, you did. Jay... why are you doing all this?" I asked, looking up at Jason with confusion.
"Great, now you sound like B. Why do you think Timmers?" Jason asked with a sigh.
I bit my lip, thinking about all the things I've heard about Red Hood on the news. Jay's been running a drug dealing system, but... he didn't deal to children. And he only killed the people who weren't innocent. If I had still been in Crime Alley... I would have thought Jason was the best hero ever. "Your doing it because Batman won't." I said, looking down at my lap.
"Yup. Dick, Bruce, Alfred, and Barbara don't know how bad it gets. But, I know you do. And as much as I hate that, you at least see what I'm trying to do." Jason said with a distant look in his eyes.
"Robin, why is the batcave's system alerting me that there is an unknown person in the cave?" Batgirl asked through the comm system.
"Ummm, I guess the wiring got messed up." I said, hoping he would buy the excuse.
"Really? Then why is it that I see Red Hood through the camera in the Batcave?" Batman asked, his voice low and rough.
"Because I went into the cave right after you left, B. Why else would I be showing up on your camera?" Jason asked into the comm with a smirk, making me wince. I was going to be in so much trouble when they all got back.
"Is my grounding getting extended when you get back?" I asked, remembering how I was already grounded for not telling them where I was before.
"Yes. We're heading back now." Batman said before cutting off the link.
I sighed, looking up at Jason. "Your leaving now, aren't you?" I asked.
"Yeah. See you later kid. And good luck with B. Trust me, I speak from experience when I say, you'll need it." Jason said, ruffling my hair before leaving the cave.
I nodded, looking down at my lap as his footsteps faded away.
Why did Batman always have to chase him away? I haven't seen Jason in years, and Batman comes in and makes him leave. "He left, didn't he?" Batman asked, silently appearing behind the chair.
"Yes." I mumbled, anger rolling into my voice.
"Tim -" Bruce started, his voice coming out like a sigh.
"No, don't even start with whatever stupid excuse you have. Jason's my brother, and you keep on chasing him away." I said, standing up out of the chair.
I turned around and glared at Bruce, though it didn't do much since he just sighed again. "Jason is a criminal, Tim. And while I know he isn't exactly right in the mind, he needs to get help." Bruce said, making me shake as anger came over me full force.
"He doesn't need help! He's doing exactly what needs to be done, and just because you can't cross that line, doesn't mean he can't." I said, biting into my lip when I realized I crossed a line myself.
"Are you defending what he's doing?" Bruce asked, narrowing his eyes at me.
I looked up at him, slightly more nervous then before, but not nervous enough to stop what I said. "Yes. You forget, I was in Crime Alley with Jason. The people there... they don't change Bruce. I've seen them, I lived with one. Sure, some do, but that's only a rare few. Locking them up won't do anything except give them time to think. What Jason's doing... he's cleaning up Gotham in a way you never could." I said, walking past him.
"And where do you think your going?" Bruce asked, his voice cold and hard.
I bit my lip harder, blood pouring from my lip. "I'm going out." I said before running out of the cave by myself.
I know, it was stupid. Considering my talk with Jason this morning, and the fact that he did in fact die as Robin, but I needed to think by myself. And being around Bruce wasn't helping, at all. Especially when he had cameras everywhere in the Manor.
"Stupid Batman." I muttered as I ran on top of the roofs, biting my lip.
"Robin, where are you? B said that you ran out of the cave." Nightwing said in my comm.
"He was right, I did. Just leave me alone, N." I said, scowling a lot like I've seen Jason do when Bruce was mentioned and he didn't think I was looking.
"No, your not supposed to be out right now. Just tell me where you are and we can go back together." Nightwing said, sounding desperate.
"No. Why do you think I can't be out?" I asked, anger rushing into me again. Did Nightwing think I couldn't handle it?
"It's just... I have a bad feeling, alright? Just come back to the Cave." Nightwing said, sounding... nervous?
"No, I'm not going back." I said, yanking the comm out of my ear and throwing it onto the street below me. A car came by, smashing it to pieces.
Ten minutes later, I scowled, my anger rising when I didn't have anything to distract me from thinking about my argument with Batman, and how much I missed Jay being around.
Nothing was happening, not even a mugging. Usually this would be a good thing, but in Gotham, it was anything but. Every time something bad happened, there was always nothing happening right before it. Most of the time it was because they were told not to come out because something big would happen.
That's what happened with Dad. Riddler had put the word out to not come out a certain night, and Dad stayed home that night, getting drunk and tried beating up me and Jason while Mom was getting high in the bathroom. It was hard to forget.
"Help! Help!" a woman yelled, breaking the silence.
I looked down at the alley way below me, and saw a woman getting cornered by some men. "It's about time something happened." I muttered under my breath.
I launched my grappling hook at a pole, swinging myself towards both the men attacking the woman. I smashed their heads together, possibly harder than I should have. "Well, that evens things up." I said, my back to the woman I just saved.
"Not really, bird boy." The shrill voice said, and my eyes widened as I felt something hit the back of my head hard.
Dick POV
I bit my lip as the sound of Tim's comm being destroyed went through my ear. "Great, just great." I muttered.
Finding Tim wouldn't be hard, but he was obviously mad about something, so talking him down from his anger would be the issue. Batgirl was taking care of a bunch of crooks down by the docks, so she couldn't help. Considering Tim left just after Bruce went into the cave, he probably would only make things worse. That only left one person...
I looked over at the side of Gotham where it seemed to actually get darker, smog and smoke rising from the side of town Jason and Tim came from. "Well, if it helps Tim come back." I mumbled to myself, launching my grappling hook on a building to get to Jason's place fast. Thankfully, it wasn't hard to find him.
"What are you doing in my side of town, Dickie?" Jason asked behind me as the business side of a gun touched the back of my head.
"Looking for you actually." I said, a snort of disbelief coming from behind me.
"Really? And what did you want?" He asked, sounding more and more annoyed by the second.
"I need your help getting Tim to come back to the cave." I said, and I felt the gun freeze against my head.
"And why would you need my help with that?" Jason asked, his voice turning protective.
"I have a bad feeling, alright? Something bad is going to happen tonight, and Tim ran out of the cave after Bats went in. I think they had a fight. I called Tim on the comm, and he sounded pissed. I just need you there to calm him down." I said, hoping Jason would listen.
"...Fine. Where's Tim at?" Jason asked, a determined look in his eye.
"Not sure, but it's not hard to find him. B still has a tracker in Robin's belt." I said, bringing up my wrist computer up to my face.
I looked at the screen, dread sinking into my stomach when his tracker didn't show up. Tim didn't know about it, let alone how to find it, or even take it out. "Jay, somethings wrong." I said, causing him to scowl.
"What do you mean somethings wrong?" He barked.
"His tracker isn't showing. Tim hasn't been trained enough to know where it is, or that there even is one. Even if he did know, it was stuck in a place you had to be trained in order to get it out." I said, my eyes widening.
"Tim's smart. He might have figured it out. Why would he need to be trained to take out the tracker?" Jason asked, worry slipping into his eyes slowly like a poison.
"Because, it was right next to the catch of the belt. If you weren't careful enough, you hit the release button on the belt. You would need tweezers to get it out, and only Batman, Batgirl and me have those." I said, my stomach sinking even more with every word.
Jason closed his eyes tightly, his whole body shaking. "I told the kid to not be Robin. I told him." Jason said before walking to the roofs edge and jumping to the next roof.
"What are you doing Jason?" I asked, confused.
"Looking for my brother, dickhead." Jason said before continuing to run.
I bit my lip, then went the other way so we could cover more ground. "B, there's a problem." I said into my comm.
"What is it?" He asked, his voice colder and harder then the last time I talked to him.
"Tim's missing. Me and Hood are looking now. Can you call Batgirl?" I asked, fear sneaking into my voice.
"I'll call her now. Are we sure Tim's missing?" Batman asked.
"His comms gone, and the tracker inside his belt is gone too. We'll have to search for him on foot." I said, frowning as worry began to overwhelm me.
"Alright, I'll be out soon." Batman said, cutting off the link.
"Why couldn't you just come back like I said, Tim?" I whispered to myself.
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