After a thorough chewing out of his father for springing this on him, the following day saw Jason reluctantly driving the usual group to a high-end boutique in the heart of the Fashion District, where Dick would meet them. Named The Menagerie and managed by a severe businesswoman and fashion designer named Callie Ferguson, it was the premier provider of formal clothing for Gotham's upper class. This included the Waynes, who had been long time clients of The Menagerie since it was first founded; it was their patronage that allowed the owners at the time, Callie's great-grandparents, to expand their clientele to the rest of Gotham's one percent. Because of that, the Waynes were always given top priority for appointments. Their own appointment this afternoon ensured that there would be no other clients catered to for the rest of the day.

The Menagerie had started out as a tiny boutique hidden on the corner of a street, but had expanded to cover the entire bottom floor of the small building where it had originated from. An open hardwood floor hosted racks of dresses and tuxedos, some of which were on full display on faceless mannequins. Stephanie, like Cass and even Damian, could help but look around the moment she entered the shop. She spotted one of the price tags and resisted the urge to blanch. She doubted her mother could afford even one of these after an entire year of wages — from all three of her jobs.

At the end of the shop, where an obscenely large three-panel floor mirror stood opposite a red, circular sectional couch, was Dick. He was conversing with a tall, middle-aged woman with dark brunette hair. She had a pair of sleek, rectangle glasses and a tape measure wrapped around her neck. It didn't take a genius to figure out she was Callie Ferguson.

She was the first of the two to catch sight of them, though other than a slight rise of her brow her expression was largely neutral. By contrast, Dick had adopted his classical smile the moment he spotted them. "You made it!" he squealed happily.

Jason glared at him, though there was no heat to it. "It's not like we had much of a choice."

"Yeah, yeah," Dick waved him off, then gestured them over. "Come on, come on! Jason, you remember Callie, right?"

Considering Callie has remained in charge of The Menagerie up to his early years as Batman, yes. Jason did, in fact, remember her, along with her son Bryce. Bryce had been the one to inherit the shop after Callie retired and served as the Waynes' personal clothier for formal events up until Jason's death. Last he remembered, Bryce had been grooming his twins, a son and a daughter, to succeed him in a couple of years.

"I do," Jason said firmly, grabbing Callie's hand to give it a firm shake, "Mrs. Ferguson."

"Callie, Jason," Callie bluntly stated with little reverence.

"Callie," Jason corrected. "Let me introduce you to the others. This," he stood to the side and gestured to Tim, "is Timothy Drake, the son of Jack and Janet Drake. Call him Tim."

"It's nice to meet you, Callie," Tim said politely, taking her hand as well.

"Timothy," Callie gave a short nod, "I've been expecting to see you eventually. I was wondering how long it would take your parents to purchase my services."

Tim had no visible reaction to the unintended slight. Dick and Jason, meanwhile, had a collective wince. It hadn't come often, or at all for that matter, but there was a reason why Tim's parents were rarely ever in Gotham. Or why Tim attended Brentwood Academy instead of the far more prestigious Gotham Academy prior to Jason's return to the city. While Jason had no love for Tim's biological parents, he knew that their neglect was not entirely due to some form of self-absorption. They were outcasts too, in their own way.

"And I take it this is Cassandra?" Callie looked at Cass, who shrunk away a bit even as she held her hand out for her own handshake.

"Yes," Jason quickly cut in, "But call her Cass. And don't be offended if she doesn't say much; she isn't much of a talker."

Callie gave another nod, and then moved on to the scowling Damian, who put on his most neutral look. "Damian," he uttered.

After his brief acknowledgment came Stephanie, who was even more nervous than Cass and studiously more quiet than usual. At the sight of her, Callie raised an eyebrow. "And you must be the new addition. Stephanie Brown, correct?"

Stephanie confirmed her statement and received her own greeting. The introductions finished, Callie gestured to the three-panel mirror, where a stand stood.

"Who's first?"

As it turned out, Dick was first. Which was probably for the best.

"What do you think?" Dick gave a little twirl, showing off a garishly yellow tuxedo with black accents that made him look like a bumblebee.

Everyone stared.

"No," Jason was the first one to cave.

"No," Damian agreed.

Cass merely shook her head, while Tim gave a visible thumbs down. Stephanie struggled to stifle her laughter.

"But why not?" the eldest son whined.

"It's black tie, Dickie!"

"But I have a black tie!" Dick took out his bowtie, which was, indeed, black.

"Dick…" Jason groaned. "I refuse to associate with you if you're dressed like that. I will disown you if I have to."

"Jay!" Dick gasped, faux-offended.

"Okay, maybe I won't actually disown you, but you get what I mean! No means no, Dickie!"

"Fine," his older brother pouted.

The yellow suit was quickly discarded. His siblings subsequently vetoed a lime green suit, a dark brown suit, and a pink suit that made more than one pair of eyes bleed. Finally, they settled on a deep navy blue suit with white and black garnishes. Technically it still wasn't black tie but Dick had a reputation and honestly this was the best they were going to get. Jason sighed in relief as Callie took the suit and marked it to be later fitted to Dick's measurements.

One down, five more to go.

Next was Jason, followed by Tim and Damian. Tim already had a suit for these kinds of events, but it had been a while since he'd worn it and he had grown up a bit in the interim. Rather than have it refitted, his father ordered him to get a new suit instead, which was probably for the best.

Unlike Dick, all three opted for traditional black tie. Jason did consider getting a gray or maroon colored suit, but had opted otherwise. He didn't need to call too much attention to himself. As the man of honor, he'd have enough of that when the gala actually started.

That left the girls.

Stephanie went first. She already had a color on her mind — eggplant purple, of course — so it was just a matter of dress design. Eventually they decided on a long-sleeved ankle-length dress with an intricate lace pattern stitched into the bust line. A little too form-fitting for Jason's tastes, but nothing too revealing, so he counted that as a win.

Cass is where the problems started again.

Like her three brothers, Cass opted for black. A nice, neutral color that no one could look bad in. However, for the designs…

"Too short."

"Too tight."

"Bust line is too low."

"Too see-through."

"Too—"

"Jason," Stephanie cut him off, tone flat. "Really?"

"I just don't want anyone to get any ideas," Jason quickly defended himself.

"They're going to get ideas no matter what you do," Stephanie argued back, "Besides, you know she can take care of herself."

Jason glowered at her, then sighed. "Fine. But the next one should at least have straps for the shoulders."

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"What?"

Wednesday saw a quick trip to an equally fancy shoe store for both the boys and the girls. The boys had it relatively easy, with Dick only getting his choices vetoed five times. The girls took a little bit longer, mostly due to Cass debating between black and white for her heels. She had decided on the former at Jason's suggestion (black was less likely to get stained). It was after the trip that they started on the real task for the day: a full lecture about the Gotham's elite class.

"I thought we were done with school for today!" Stephanie complained as Jason passed down blank notebooks to both her and an attentive Damian. Cass was there as well, but as her ability to write was minimal at best, she was just allowed to watch and listen.

"Don't worry — there's no homework, just a practical on Saturday," Jason snarked at her as Tim set up the projector. They were inside the main library of the Manor, which was usually Jason's domain. The second Wayne son had consented to loaning it out for the sake of the endeavor, spending the day clearing out his books and notebooks and transferring them to his room for the time being.

"Do we really have to know all this?" Damian couldn't help but ask, sympathizing with Stephanie, "I mean, we are the Waynes, are we not? The First Family of Gotham? Why must we grovel to those beneath us?"

"We're not groveling to them, Little D," Dick protested as Tim plugged in the USB drive Jason had given him. He quickly clicked on the sole file on the drive, titled 'History of Gotham'. "We're socializing with them. We might be the most powerful family in Gotham, but it's not our money and efforts alone that are keeping the city afloat. We need to acknowledge that, and these galas are our way of doing that."

Plus, a lot of these families are associated with the Court of Owls, and we need to reinforce our cover with them, Jason couldn't help but think to himself. He wasn't entirely sure if the Court was aware of their double lives yet, but it didn't hurt to throw them off the trail anyway and plant some doubt. Thankfully, some heckling from Dick and Jason had convinced Bruce to ask for the help of J'onn, who would be playing the part of Batman Saturday evening for a couple of hours. Hopefully no one would try to set him on fire while they were schmoozing with the rest of the one percent.

"Plus, a lot of these families have a stake in Wayne Enterprises or are frequent donors of the Wayne Foundation. Some are even both," Jason said instead, continuing where Dick left off. "We have to keep them happy somehow."

"But why do I need to know all this?" the girl in question asked, breaking Jason out of his self-reflection. "I'm not one of you. I'm…" she trailed off.

"And so was I at one point," Jason pointed out drily. "Then I got adopted by Bruce Wayne, and things changed."

"I thought you didn't attend these galas often," Damian said skeptically, "Or at all, for that matter."

Jason shrugged, "Still learnt it, just in case." He just didn't bother to mention he learned it in a previous timeline.

"Hello, someone please my answer my question!" Stephanie jumped in, face distraught.

"Because you are one of us now, Stephanie," Tim, finally finished with the technical set-up, answered. He turned around and leaned against a nearby bookshelf, face serious. "You're our friend. You got kidnapped because of one of us, and you decided to stick with us regardless. You're attending Gotham Academy, and you're attending Jason's gala. You might not have the networth, but you have the connections, and that makes you a player, even if a small one."

Stephanie blinked. "A player?"

Jason was about to make a reference to Game of Thrones, but then realized that the show wasn't a thing yet and that there was a good chance Stephanie hadn't read the books. "Of a sort. You know politics? Think of this like that. Like it or not, you have our ears, and, to an extent, Bruce's. In this world, that gives you power — and that makes you a target. Some people are going to try to butter you up, to use you, while the others are going to try to humiliate you, to tear you down. We're going to teach you how avoid all that."

He sympathized with Stephanie. Truly. But these were lessons she needed to learn. It wasn't like the last timeline, where Stephanie went a normal school, where her relationship with Tim hadn't lasted and she could content herself with being Cass' best friend and Jason's friend without all the actual trappings that came with being associated with the Waynes. Stephanie was a student at Gotham Academy now. She was publicly known to Gotham's elite as a close friend of the Waynes, and was now attending what would be the society event of the year as one of their guests. Her days of relative anonymity were long gone; she was now, whether she liked it or not, a socialite of considerable clout and standing, and needed the customary bearing to match that. That included knowing who was who in Gotham's upper class.

Jason knew better than anyone what that was like. For a time, he managed just as Stephanie — content to be a relative unknown in his family's world of glitz and glamor. His brothers and sister could deal with the patricians, let him spend his days working at his diner and his nights beating down criminals. Even after Bruce's death, he had continued to manage as such, and had no reason to change.

Then he became the oldest son and then he became the only son and suddenly, staying out of the limelight was no longer an option. Wayne Enterprises was one thing, but the Wayne Foundation? His natural aversion to galas and balls and fundraisers couldn't cut it there. No matter how much he hated the other members of the upper class, charity was charity and he could not neglect the Wayne Foundation for anything, not even his own his prejudices. The Wayne Foundation had been Martha Wayne's legacy, Bruce's pride and joy. Philanthropy had been the way Waynes had helped Gotham for generations, long before their last son saw his parents get shot in alley and decided to become a bat-themed vigilante to avenge them. He certainly wasn't going to give up on it just because the Waynes had dwindled down in number again.

So he threw the parties and grinned and tried to build up something of a respectable reputation. Mostly, he just stayed in the background, letting the other members of the Gotham elite take the lead while he just listened and smiled and nodded. He didn't want to play these games, especially when he didn't have to. The Court of Owls was gone, as was most of Gotham's organized crime (at the time). He could stand by the wayside and let the rich screw around with each other while he took their money and used it to help the truly needy.

Helena changed that. It was one thing when he adopted Carrie; Carrie was a normal girl, a peasant much like him, and just as equally uninterested in these games. But Helena? Helena was daughter of Selina Kyle, a fairly well-known socialite. Worst than that, she was the only living child biological child of Bruce Wayne, the natural heir to his company, his fortune. The blood of Gotham's oldest families ran through her veins. It didn't matter what she wanted, she was going to play the game because the other families wouldn't allow otherwise. They wanted a piece of her, of everything she would one day inherit. And Jason, Jason had to protect her. And that meant playing the game himself.

He had to play the game, had to dominate Gotham's high society if he had any hope of keeping Helena away from these leeches. But he wasn't stupid or ignorant. He would have to play from the most inferior position someone of his status could have. His brothers had been better off than him in that regard: Dick was handsome and charming, Tim was brilliant and accomplished, and Damian? Damian was Bruce's biological son. Jason had been the penny among diamonds and now he was the shiniest diamond of them all, but he was so rough and uncut he might as well be worthless.

He was handsome like Dick but hardly as charming. Dick could let veiled insults roll over him with a simple laugh while drawing people into his web with just a couple of words. Jason just grit his teeth, trying to stop himself from retaliating with his own sallies.

He was almost as smart as Tim (no one as smart as Tim, he was Tim) but the only public accomplishment he had to his name was a small diner in the middle of Crime Alley. Before he died, Tim had been running Wayne Enterprises since he was sixteen and had elevated it to the point that it was eclipsing LexCorp (and then Lex Luthor died, which WE reign undisputed until the day Jason died over twenty years later).

More than anything else, however, is that he didn't have Damian's pedigree. Damian was the blood son, the one who, like Helena, had generations of Waynes flowing through his veins. He was descended from all five of Gotham's First Families if you traced back far enough. Jason wasn't entirely sure who his grandparents were and didn't realize his mother wasn't his actual biological mother until he saw his own birth certificate.

In short, he was the last person that should've been the public face of the family. But life had decided otherwise and Jason wasn't going to shirk his duty when it was so pivotal to helping the city. Batman treated the symptoms and protected Gotham; the Wayne Foundation, however, treated the source of its ills, the poverty and abuse that drove so many to crime. If he wanted to save Gotham, then he had to make do.

And that meant playing to his strengths. He might not have Dick's charm but he did have a sense of humor. He wasn't accomplished as Tim but his knowledge was more geared towards classical arts, like literature and theater, the kind of culture that these high society types held in higher regard than Tim's proclivity towards anime and video games. And while he'll never have the blood of the Waynes, he still had the name.

It may be all he had as far as his detractors were concerned, but he still had it, and it gave him control of the family fortune, of Wayne Enterprises, and, most of all, of Helena. Helena is what they all wanted, but she was under Jason's guardianship. He was the one who decided where she went to school, who she had play dates with, what clothes she was allowed to where — essentially, he held the key to her entire social life. If they wanted Helena, they needed to ingratiate themselves towards him, and Jason was not above using that.

But first, he had to really fit the part. He had to become the next Prince of Gotham, the nom de guerre Bruce himself had borne before his untimely death. And in order to do that, he needed knowledge. Knowledge of Gotham's history was one thing — there was an entire week dedicated to it during freshman history at Gotham Academy. But that intricate web of family history and tensions, that unspoken social code that defined where a family stood on the hierarchy — that had to be learned. Bruce had grown up with it, as had Tim to an extent, but the rest of them…the rest of them had to learn it on their own. Jason was no different.

That's where Bette and Lucius had come in. Bette was a born and bred Kane, and Lucius had been running Bruce's company on-and-off for decades. They both had different experiences with the Gotham elite that allowed him to get a full view of what he was dealing with. They had taught him how to navigate that web and not get caught into it. They had taught him about the sheer power of the Wayne name, and how to use it to his advantage.

If it hadn't been for them, then Jason would've never gotten as far as he did. Would've lost the game before it even began. He was lucky, he knew that, and he would forever be grateful to them for that. He'd be sure to talk to them at the gala on Saturday, compliment, acquaint himself with them again. But for now…

The projector flickered to life. The first slide appeared.

"What can you tell me about the First Families?"

In the wake of the American Revolution, Gotham had suffered significant damage from the previous battles and was in desperate need of money for recovery. While the citizens all pitched in, the five richest families provided most of the money and resources to complete the city's restoration. Those five families later invested heavily into Gotham's government and infrastructure, buying up properties and starting up lucrative businesses that brought them exorbitant amounts of wealth. This combination of good will and fortune caused them to be nicknamed the First Families of Gotham.

"Their names were Crowne, Elliot, Cobblepot, Kane…" Stephanie looked up to meet Jason's eyes, "…and Wayne."

Damian blinked, looking up from his notes. "Kane? But is that not Grandmother's maiden name?"

"It is," Jason confirmed, "Martha Kane was a member of another of Gotham's First Families. Her and our grandfather practically grew up together. They traveled the same social circles, attended the same schools, and when Martha married Thomas, she brought her own portion of the Kane fortune with her and merged it with the Wayne fortune that Thomas inherited. And, as you can see by the size of the Manor, Thomas inherited all of the Wayne fortune."

"Because he was the only Wayne?" Damian asked slowly. He wasn't blind, after all — the Manor was a big house, and the many rooms of the family wing made it clear that it hadn't been built for a small family.

"Yes," this time it was Tim who answered. He fingered the keyboard, changing to the next slide, showing an animation of family tree with gradually disappearing branches. "Two hundred years ago, the First Families were thriving. But then time passed on and disasters struck. Wars, disease, murders, and even just plain old accidents gradually dwindled each of the families and their fortunes. With the exception of the Waynes, each family is now a mere shadow of themselves."

The Crownes were the first to die out. Or, at least their family name was. Each of the First Families had intermarried with each other at least once, so the blood will live on as long as at least one of the descendants of those five families is alive. But as far as family names go, they're disappearing one by one. The Crownes were the first to go, their last branch only producing daughters who either remained spinsters or married into the other families. Other than the occasional building that bore their name, the Crownes were long gone from Gotham, their once grand fortune diminished and splintered away.

The Kanes were now in the same position as the Crownes. There were only three remaining Kanes left: Colonel Jacob Kane, his daughter Kate Kane, and his niece Bette Kane. Jacob once had two daughters, but one who had died with his first wife in a car crash and while he had remarried since then, he and his second wife had no interest in having another child, content to raise Kate and later Bette together. To top it off, Kate was gay; so unless she adopts a child or Bette marries and has her husband to take her name, the Kanes would officially go extinct in the next generation.

"Other than the Gordons and the Foxes, the Kanes are our closest associates, if only through blood. Jacob Kane was the brother of Martha Wayne, thus making him our great-uncle. His daughter is Kate Kane, and a huge party girl. She used to be a top cadet at West Point but was discharged because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell — do not bring that up. The last Kane is Bette Kane, the daughter of the deceased Bob Kane. She was orphaned when she was young and was taken in and raised by Jacob and his second wife Catherine Hamilton since then."

"I suppose we'll see them at the gala, then?" Damian frowned when he saw his brothers exchange uneasy looks, "We will, won't we?"

"We don't know," Dick admitted for the three of them. "Bruce and Jacob Kane have never really got on. Jacob blamed Thomas for the alley and that passed on to Bruce, if only to a much lesser extent. Kate and Bruce however get along fine, and Bette is acquainted with the both of us. I guess it depends on whatever mood they're in this week."

"I think they'll come, if only to check on me and meet you two," Jason pointed two fingers at his youngest brother and only sister. "That's a good enough reason as it is, seeing as we are family, if only distantly."

Damian grunted. That was about as close to approval as they were going to get.

"Right then, moving on." The slide changed again, revealing the picture of a handsome redheaded man around Bruce's age.

"This is Thomas Elliot, the sole heir of the Elliot fortune and an old childhood friend of Bruce's. He's a world-class surgeon who is currently traveling the world." And a first-class sociopath who hates Bruce's guts.

Tommy, as he likes to be called, is probably Gotham's second most eligible bachelor after Bruce himself. One would figure he would be the most eligible, considering that Bruce already had heirs and thus no reason to get married, but Tommy was, much to his misfortune, a inferior option for many reasons. The primary one was the size of his fortune; while it was still quite large, the Wayne fortune was far more vast.

Part of that was due to merger between Elliot Pharmaceutical and Wayne Enterprises, an event that occurred a few years before Roger Elliot, Tommy's father, died in a car accident. While that increased the Elliot fortune substantially that also meant that future Elliots wouldn't have a stable source of income to fall back on in case something happened and the fortune was depleted. They had a diverse investment portfolio, but such a thing was only manageable with good business sense. Many of the women that would want to marry Tommy Elliot aren't exactly interested in having good business sense.

Of course, then there was Tommy himself.

"Tommy rarely ever visits Gotham these days. He might appear at the gala for Bruce's sake but don't expect to see him much afterward. It's for that reason that people don't take much interest in him, not helped by the fact that he's shown no interest in romance. No notable relationships, few flings reported, some even rumor that he's gay. He isn't, Bruce himself will confirm that for you, but regardless, he's a harder target than Bruce, which is why most women won't go after him."

Clicks of pens and scratching paper followed that statement. After a few minutes and the scratching subsided, they moved on to the next slide. What followed was the very familiar mugshot of a face every Gothamite knew on some level.

"The Penguin?" Stephanie asked incredulously.

"AKA Oswald Cobblepot. The last scion of the Cobblepot family. He was an outcast of the family due to his…distinctive looks. Now he's the last member." Jason adopted a deadpan look. "You can probably guess why."

"So I take it we won't be seeing him at the gala."

Dick snorted. "No, definitely not. Other than the obvious, he hates Bruce. He's not gonna care that Bruce's son is alive."

"Then why bring him up at all?" Damian asked, face confused.

Why indeed. There had been a time when the Cobblepots were only second to the Waynes, but that time was long gone. By the time Oswald Cobblepot was born, the Cobblepots were a mere shell of their former selves. Their fortune had been heavily mismanaged by Oswald's father, Tucker Cobblepot, leaving them in heavy debt and eventually forced to sell their ancestral home to make ends meet. Combined with the heavy bullying he suffered under his family's care, Oswald grew up to be a man desperate to make something of himself — by any means necessary.

"Everyone knows what he does but he's never been successfully nailed down in recent years, partly due to his family name and fortune," Tim explained, frowning at the picture. "And since he's a descendant of the First Families, it's customary for many of the minor families and even some of the major families to invite him to their functions. And sometimes, he accepts and actually shows up, and people fawn all over him while ignoring the fact that he's a publicly-known supervillain that only gets off because Gotham is so corrupt."

"All because he's a Cobblepot?" Stephanie and Damian both sounded aghast, while Cass was quite visibly frowning.

Jason shrugged. "And because he has sole access to the Cobblepot fortune. He's a viable marriage candidate for that alone. However, his prospects aren't the best. Not just because of his looks — trust me, you can be amazed how much the most shallow can ignore when there's so much money on the line — but because how he rebuilt his family's fortune."

"The Cobblepot name is permanently shamed because of him," Dick added after Jason finished, "No matter how many generations pass, the Cobblepots will, from now on, always be remembered as a family of crooks. And with the First Families gradually diminishing in prominence, that status doesn't really mean much unless you're a Wayne. Not to mention Cobblepot himself is not exactly ideal husband material. Looks are one thing, but his personality…" There was a collective shudder. "Anyway, we're bring him up so you know there's a possibility of him showing up. That way you can avoid him if you have to."

"Which just leaves one last family — the Waynes," Jason flourished his hand among all of them, before the powerpoint followed up with another picture, this time of Bruce — or Brucie, as the public knew him, followed by individual pictures of Dick, Jason, Cass, and Damian. "The First Family."

"Because we're the most powerful of all five families," Damian said, this time definitively.

"Yes," Jason nodded, lacing his fingers together.

In all of Gotham, no name was more respected than Wayne. The Waynes contributed the most to Gotham's rebuilding, even among the First Families. Gotham's famous Gothic aesthetics were at the behest of a Wayne. Wayne Enterprises was its most powerful company, the Wayne Foundation its most prolific charity. And of all the buildings that bore the names of the First Families, those with the name Wayne were the most beautiful, the most well-kept, the most beloved. In Gotham, to be a Wayne was to be royalty, and three hundred years had done little to change that. The fact that their fortune, unlike the fortunes of the other First Families, had only grown instead of diminished, certainly helped.

Thirteen years ago, however, the Waynes were in the same boat as the other families. No amount of money was going to change the fact that there was only one person alive who had the Wayne name. Bruce Wayne was brilliant and generous but also an irascible playboy who had never shown any interest in settling down. No settling down meant no heirs. No heirs meant no outside access to the Wayne fortune. And if Bruce were to die without an heir, that meant the greatest fortune in all of Gotham would no longer be up for grabs, and that was an idea that no member of Gotham's high society could hope to bear.

Then, one night, Bruce Wayne took one of his dates to the circus.

And everything — everything — changed.

"By adopting me, Bruce had an heir. Then he adopted Jason, and then Jason died and came back with Cass, and most of all, you Damian. And suddenly the Waynes were a family again. We weren't going to die out any time soon. The Wayne fortune would remain intact, and now there were four more avenues to access it from."

"And that makes all of us targets for them," Dick continued on, gesturing to every single person in the room, "Jason and I are the oldest sons so we'll be the primary targets, but don't be surprised if some of the guests bring their younger daughters to throw at you Damian. As Bruce's only biological child, you have the blood of all five families running through your veins. You'll be a real prize once you hit puberty. And Cass, consider yourself the bell of the ball. If the girls aren't trying to befriend you in hopes of getting to us, all the boys will be trying to hit on you for your own inheritance. Which is why Jason is so…" Dick winced as Jason snapped a pencil he had been holding, "…worried about you."

"And us?" Stephanie asked, gesturing to herself and Tim.

"Same reasons as Cass. They'll either try to befriend you or seduce you to get to us."

"Then why not do it at school? Why here?"

"Because Gotham Academy has a strict rule against PDA," Dick rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "It's not worth getting expelled from the most prestigious school in the city, especially when all your peers from your social circle attend there. Balls and galas, however, are free game as long as you can escape from your parents long enough — which isn't particularly hard when your parents are doing the same schmoozing and maneuvering as you are."

Stephanie frowned but said nothing.

Finished with the First Families, the rest of the conversation moved on to the other major families. Those not quite as old or distinguised as the former but still rich and powerful all the same. The Vreelands, headed by Veronica "Ronnie" Vreeland, a contemporary of Bruce; the Galavans, headed Theo Galavan, the maternal uncle of Bruce's ex-girlfriend Silver St. Cloud; the Vanavers, headed by heirs Hugo and Samantha Vanaver (the latter of whom was the current Grandmaster of the Court of Owls, unbeknown to everyone except Jason); and the van Dahls, headed by Charles van Dahl and his sister Sasha van Dahl, who were also contemporaries of Bruce.

Then came the Mob families.

"You guys invite the Mob to your galas?"

"We used to," Dick corrected. "We didn't have much of a choice. As powerful as the First Families were, they weren't ones to indulge in crime, murder, and violence like the Mob was. We couldn't afford to offend them. It was usually only the Italian Mob though, and even then it was just whatever family was the top one at the time."

"Decades ago, back when Bruce was kid, the major mob family in Gotham was the Calabreses. Then Rex Calabrese got arrested and his family was supplanted by the Bertinellis. Then the Bertinellis were slaughtered by other families outside of Gotham, and were usurped by the Falcones. The Falcones then entered a silent war with the Maronis that gradually escalated and threatened to consume all of Gotham," Jason listed the families one by one, explaining their fates.

"And then Batman happened," Dick finished for him, smirking. "Batman broke the hold the mafia had on Gotham, and diminished their power significantly. Combined with Two-Face killing Carmine Falcone and Sal Maroni, they're no longer a major threat. These days they're too busy trying to maintain what little power they have left to be threatening any of the Gotham elite, which allows us to get away with not inviting them. Which is a relief, I can assure you," Dick shivered, no doubt remembering the few times Bruce still had to invite the mobsters to their parties.

"Other than the Mob, that leaves us with the minor families and the individual socialites, including some city officials. Most of them are people who came into their fortunes relatively recently — within the last three generations or so."

"This includes the Drakes," Tim piped up. "The Drakes are new money. Our fortune began with a general store my maternal grandfather started. My mother is the one who expanded it into an empire before she died. Technically, the company and fortune is mine as her child, though my father is maintaining it until I reach my majority."

And then he squandered it, Jason thought to himself. "The Drakes were just another minor family until Bruce took guardianship of Tim after Janet Drake's death and Jack Drake's coma. Since Tim now has a personal connection to Bruce, that makes them more notable than other minor families. Some even speculate that Bruce might arrange a marriage between Tim and Cass so he can merge our families."

Both Tim and Cass adopted disgusted looks at that, as did Damian. Stephanie, meanwhile, simply laughed.

"Other notable minor families include the Sionises, the Madisons, and the Beaumonts, though the Sionises have been blackballed thanks to the antics of Black Mask. Notable socialites include Jezebel Jet and Selina Kyle, and city officials like Commissioner Gordon. You don't need to know all of them, it's understandable you wouldn't recognize them, but the major families are a different matter. They're the biggest danger to us."

"While some like the Vreelands don't particularly care about their status, others like the Galavans and the van Dahls are different. They've lived in the shadow of the First Families for generations, and have sought to usurp us in the past and become the new ruling class, so to speak. And while the Waynes are secure for now—"

"—the other families are not," Stephanie finished. "The Crownes have died out. The Kanes only have female descendants and one of them is gay. The last Cobblepot is a criminal and he, like the last Elliot, hasn't shown interest in marrying and having an heir. They're ripe for destruction. So if any of the major families marry into the Wayne family, they can easily claim a portion of your fortune, merge it with their own, and stand at the top of Gotham's high society now that they're kin to the most powerful family in the city."

"Yes." Jason confirmed. "Now do you see the danger?"

Stephanie slowly nodded.

For some people, having so much would never be enough. Not until they had it all. And in Gotham, that means standing at the top — or, at least, at the same level as the Waynes. And Gotham…Gotham was corrupt.

Gotham was corrupt, and that meant these people, while not quite willing to outright break laws like the Penguin, were more than willing to bend them. To use whatever it took to snake their ways into the lives of the Waynes, to take whatever they could grasp from them that would give them the edge. But the Waynes were the Waynes; they had all the power, and one word from them and their suit would be crushed and their reputations tattered.

Stephanie was not a Wayne. She wasn't even a Drake.

Stephanie was simply their friend, and that made her the most vulnerable of them all.

She picked up her pen again, face attentive.

"What else do I need to know?"

Jason smiled.

I had to rewrite this chapter to make it flow better. That was a pain to do, but there was a lot of copying and pasting so it wasn't a total chore. Exposition is still exposition, after all.

I hope you like my rendition about how Gotham high society works here. With so many adaptations, I tried to incorporate a bit of everything. The First Families come from both post-Flashpoint and the Gotham TV series. The Galavans also come from Gotham, but they aren't an embittered first family here and won't play a major part. Same with the van Dahls. The Vanavers come from the Batman vs. Robin animated movie, while the Vreelands and the Beaumonts come from Batman: The Animated Series. The succession of mafia families combines both pre- and post-Flashpoint continuities.

Next chapter: the gala!