Chapter 24

A/N: hey everyone! Welcome back. Honestly when I first started this story, I was not expecting it to go this well. So, glad to see y'all're still enjoying the story. Remember, I just own the story, neither YJ or FNAF are mine.

Also, if some of this chapter seems choppier and shorter than usual, it's because I had some serious writer's block and it seemed determined to fight me every step of the way.

/comms/

Telepathy/flashbacks/whatever else

Batcave, October 22, 16:34EDT

Bruce ran his hand through his hair, fighting the urge to slam his fist into the desk. It seemed like his investigation into Afton was going nowhere. The man was infuriatingly good at covering his tracks.

Typing on the keypad, he pulled the data from the junkyard he had been able to recover. So far, most of it was the names of more victims and the details of the horrific experiments he'd committed. Apparently, Afton had recently found a way to refine remnant production from adults and almost double the amount he obtained from younger victims. How exactly, the Batman wasn't totally sure yet. A few entries mentioned things that suspiciously sounded like occult practices. But they weren't detailed enough for him to be certain. However, regardless of his methodology, it meant that the man was going to be much, much harder to find. Afton's victim pool had not only gotten larger, but depending on who he killed the time between his kills could grow.

Right now, based on the dates in the journal, Batman had concluded that Afton would make a series of at least three kills once every two months. And, those kills would often be spaced out between cities and victim demographics, making it even harder to connect murders to the man.

Or they would have been hard to connect had Afton not decided to document his crimes.

Still, it was one thing to know the crimes. It was another to make sure their perpetrator was found and brought to justice.

His gaze wondered back over to the screen. It had taken hours of tireless work, but he had managed to recover some of the footage from the camera feed leading to the man's potential next victim. So far, none of it had the face of the target, leaving the Dark Knight to be forced to analyze the items in the room itself. At least until he could isolate the signal.

It wasn't a young child's room. There weren't many toys, save for a few stuffed animals. They were old, worn, no doubt they had been well loved by their owner. The bunny against the expensive gaming computer had a few patches sewn on it. Beside it, the Dark Knight could see a stack of schoolbooks. The footage was grainy from that distance though, making it hard to read the titles.

"Hey B." Turning away from the screen, Bruce watched as Dick jogged over, his hair already falling back into its familiar mess. A wide grin crossed the teen's face as he hopped onto the nearby counter, his legs swinging back and forth as he bit into a candy bar. "What'cha working on?"

"A case. How was school?"

"Eh, the usual," the boy shrugged. "What case are you working?"

"One you're not allowed on."

Dick pouted, leaning back on one hand as he took another bite of his snack. His blue eyes glanced towards the screen, "Is that the Afton case?"

Bruce gave his adopted son a pointed look, garnering a shy smile from the teen. Honestly, he didn't know what he should have expected. Dick had always been incredibly curious and was almost as relentless in finding answers as he was some days. He lost track of how many criminals had confessed to their crimes simply by the colorful child incessantly asking why over and over. Lord knew it had almost driven him up a wall. So, he really should have seen it coming.

"And what do you know about that case?" the Dark Knight inquired, raising a brow. "I thought it was in a file you weren't supposed to go in?"

The boy blanched; eyes wide as he realized his mistake, "…You left it open?"

"Richard."

"Ok, fine," the teen groaned, "I was bored. You were out, I finished my schoolwork, and Alfred was organizing an army, what'd you expect?"

"I expect you to listen."

"It wasn't like I took the batmobile for a joyride," he countered.

Well, he wasn't wrong. Last time that happened…well, Bruce made sure to ground the boy for at least two weeks and have him help Alfred. So, considering all the things he could have done, peeking into a few cases was not the worst. "And out of all the cases in there, you just so happen to find the one relating to a child killer?"

Dick scoffed. "You mean I happened to notice the one related to my friend," he corrected, crossing his arms. "Look, it was just after the whole mole debacle, and I saw a case that had my teammate's name on it."

"And you assumed the worst," Bruce nodded in understanding. It was a fair assumption. After that scare, it was no wonder the teen had looked into the case. Had he been in the boy's shoes, it certainly would have been more that suspicious.

The Boy Wonder nodded, suddenly looking rather solemn. "Yeah…I didn't know it was that bad."

Rising from his seat, the Dark Knight strode over to his protégé, setting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Hence why I didn't want you on the case."

Dick looked up to him, "Have you found him? Mike's dad?"

Bruce set his jaw. While Dick may have now been in the know, that didn't mean he was going to let him on the case with him. Frankly, if he had his way not even Michael would be working on it. But the older teen had already proven he was not afraid to go behind the Dark Knight's back to stay on the case. At least this way Bruce and Dinah could make sure that Mike never got within a mile of his father.

"Not yet," he answered, returning to his seat. "I almost had him a couple weeks ago."

"But he got away?"

The Dark Knight didn't respond, merely striding back to his seat to glare at the images on the screen. "Afton bugged the crime scenes. He's been following the investigation since it started. They've been removed, so hopefully, that should inhibit his ability to stay ahead of us."

"You don't sound hopeful," Dick remarked, hopping off the counter to stand beside him. "So what's with the nanny cam?"

"It's one of the feeds at his safehouse. He's hunting a new victim."

Dick's eyes widened as his head snapped to gaze at the screens, "Do you know who?"

Bruce didn't reply, merely clenching his jaw in response.

Understanding the response, the Dark Knight felt his protégé step closer to lightly press against him in a show of comfort. Who it was for, Bruce didn't really know, but nor did he mind; Dick had had a rough couple weeks, so if he needed more affection than usual, he could manage.

"Sure you don't need a second set of eyes?"

"You're not getting involved in this case, Dick," he chided.

"C'mon, I can help."

"No."

"Please."

"No Dick."

The Boy Wonder groaned, throwing his head back dramatically as he was reluctantly herded away from the computer.

-.-

Gotham, 16:52EDT

Robin could see his breath as he stood in front of the large door, the first few snowflakes of the year starting to drift down from the sky above. Taking a large knocker, he rapped it against the door, quickly shoving his hands in his pockets to warm them up.

Fortunately, it didn't take long before he heard footsteps on the other side. The door slowly creaked open, revealing an aging man that kind of reminded him of Alfred. "…Can I help you?"

"Hi, is Mike home?"

Brows rising the man gave him a curious look before stepping aside to let him in. The door clicked shut, and the butler stood off to the side, just out of arm's reach and keeping the Boy Wonder in his line of sight. "Master Michael. You have a visitor."

Distantly, Dick heard a thud, followed quickly by a few short curses and footsteps. Looking towards the noise, he watched as Mike almost slid into a wall as he rounded the corner. The older teen's hair looked messier than it had at school earlier that day, and he had paint on his arms and cheek. Blue eyes met his, and his teammate's brows furrowed. "Robin?"

"Hey."

"It's alright Efrem, he's one of my friends."

Across from him, the man, Efrem, nodded. "I'll go prepare some hot chocolate and cookies."

Mike raised his hand, opening his mouth to protest, however, by that time the butler had vanished. Sighing in defeat, Mike tapped his watch, the hologram flickering away to reveal his teammate's true appearance. Though, the Boy Wonder didn't have the chance to comment on the tech before he was met with a concerned gaze. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah."

His teammate crossed his arms, raising a brow skeptically, "You sure? Last week was pretty rough, and you were eliminated after me, I'm sure it couldn't have been easy."

Dick bit his lip. Yeah, he didn't want to think about the failed exercise right now. He was better than he had been—primarily thanks to his chat with Dinah. Though he still had the occasional nightmare about it over the week, but Bruce hadn't left him alone long enough for them to cause any serious problems. "I'm doing better. What about you?"

Mike shrugged, "I was the second to die. So, nothing much to worry about here." As if he sensed Robin didn't believe him, his friend put on a smile, motioning for him to follow. "C'mon."

Behind his glasses, Dick rolled his eyes. He didn't believe that for a second. However, he didn't voice his opinion as he followed his friend through his home. It was a nice place, not as lavish as Wayne Manor, but still impressive. Stepping into a living room, Dick flopped onto a couch across from his friend. "Nice place."

"Thanks. You sure you're doing alright? It isn't like you to just turn up at people's houses…well, at least at my house. Not that I mind, but you can't blame me for being concerned."

"I'm fine, B's just being stubborn."

He could see Mike roll his eyes knowingly. Clearly, he'd already been on the other end of the Dark Knight's overprotectiveness. "Ah. What is it this time?"

Robin bit his lip, this is where it got a bit complicated. He wanted to help, but at the same time, there was no telling how Mike would react to the knowledge that he'd been snooping through his case. Furthermore, he didn't know if Mike would even be willing to let him join from his side. There was an equally good chance that his teammate would beat him off of the case with a stick if it came down to it.

"Well…uh…it's about…"

"About what?"

Taking a breath, he calmed himself down. Ok, he just needed to rip off the band aid and get it over with. "…I may have looked into your case when I wasn't supposed to."

The sudden silence in the room was deafening.

Glancing up, he bit back a wince at the sheer mix of shock and horror flickering across Mike's face. "Y-you…what?"

Time to explain himself. "Well…it was just after the whole Red fiasco, when we heard the rumor about a mole. I was snooping, and—"

"And you saw a case relating to me," Mike finished, pinching the bridge of his nose. The older boy sighed loudly, "Ok, that's fair. I probably would have done the same thing." He ran a hand through his hair, leaning back in his seat. "How much did you see?"

"Enough."

Mike closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he massaged his temples. Leaning forwards, he rested his elbows on his knees, trying to process the information.

The event with the Red Volcano was a couple weeks ago, so Robin had known about it for some time now. It certainly explained why the Boy Wonder seemed to suddenly like sticking to his side despite the fact they hadn't been the closest beforehand. Whatever he saw must've been enough to rattle the younger but more experienced protégé.

He supposed it shouldn't be a shock that Robin discovered his history. The kid was Batman's apprentice. If anyone in the team was going to discover his past, it would be him.

Still, his father had operated under the Dark Knight's nose for years. And, now that he'd been discovered, he didn't doubt William Afton was jumping for the chance of revenge. So, he wasn't particularly eager to let Robin near the man.

"Sorry you had to see that," he said, reaching over and patting the other boy's shoulder.

Robin's head snapped up to stare at him, his brows raised. "Why are you sorry? I'm the one who snooped."

Mike gave the younger a pointed look, "It's fine. Like I said, I would have done the exact same thing in your position. In fact, it would've been stupid to not look into it."

The younger boy shrugged.

With a sigh, Mike leaned back, crossing his arms. "So why come to me?"

"Bats isn't letting me on the case."

"And he's right to do so," the older boy stated.

Robin grit his teeth. That was the exact reaction he didn't want. Still, he was more than prepared to coerce his friend into letting him help. Another set of eyes wouldn't hurt. "So, I take it you've seen the junkyard evidence?"

That got his teammate's attention. "The what?"

"Batman visited some junkyard your dad owns in Utah a few weeks ago. Apparently it was one of his hunting grounds," he answered. "He didn't tell you?"

"Fucking hell!" Mike shot up from his seat, storming out of the room. And, for a moment, Robin wondered if he pushed too far. However, that train of thought was quickly derailed as he came back into the room holding a tablet, his fingers tapping the screen quickly as he searched the pages. "Motherfucker. He promised he'd keep me in the damn loop!"

That was a familiar feeling. "Here." Holding out his hand, he took the tablet from Mike, quickly typing on it. Bruce had shared the files, alright. But, in true Dark Knight fashion, he put a password on it. No doubt B had said he would share the information, not that he would let Mike see it. He would bet Batman had also found a way to keep notifications about new intel from being sent out either.

It took longer than he would've liked to get through the firewalls protecting the evidence. No doubt the extra measures were installed to keep Mike from hacking into it. Though even with them, Robin would admit it probably only would've taken his teammate just a bit longer than he had to get through it. The only reason he got through them so fast was because it was the same system he had learned how to hack on.

The moment the got through, the tablet practically teleported from his hands into Mike's. The older teen's brows were furrowed as he looked through the findings.

Robin himself had only glanced through the case a couple times when he thought Bruce or Alfred weren't around. But he didn't do it often. Partially because there was simply so much to go through. Partially because he did feel slightly guilty for invading his friend's privacy. Which was probably why he'd decided to come here rather than investigate on his own.

"This footage," Mike spoke up, snapping the younger boy out of his thoughts, "Bats got it at the junkyard?"

His friend's tone was tense. Suggesting that he had noticed something. Taking the offered tablet, Robin found himself looking at the recovered video from the next potential victim's room that his mentor had recovered. "Yeah. We think it's a potential target. You see something?"

Mike didn't answer. His gaze flickering between the stairs and the tablet. Without a word, he snatched the tablet away and started making his way up the stairs.

Clearly seeing that Mike had noticed something that both he and Batman had missed. Robin chased after. Following the older boy down the hall, he watched as Mike all but threw a door open and stormed inside. It didn't take long to figure out that this was his room. There were books from school stacked on the desk and Robin could even see some art supplies scattered on the bed. However, the main thing that got his attention was a scruffy plush bunny with patches sewn on it, leaning against an expensive gaming desktop. Just like the one he saw in the footage.

Because it was the one in the footage. The cameras hadn't been spying on a potential victim.

They'd been spying on Mike.