The chaos that followed went in slow motion for Starfire and Arsenal. Those connected to Gotham became a flurry of black and red. There were calls made, satellite feeds hacked, anger taken out on anything around them. Arsenal noticed that Red Hood had only taken a few steps to grab for his gun and his mask. Roy went to join him by the table.

"Are you working with him?" Batman bellowed, and the chaos stopped around him.

Red Hood looked at Batman silently, the hood not hinting at any emotion. The two of them stood just a few feet away from each other, but their positions seemed so far apart. Jason fought every urge to shoot the man. 'This is his city,' he reminded himself. 'He cares about the city more than anything.' But his even deeper heart yelled at him, accused him. 'He's right. This is your fault. Run before they kick you out. Run!'

Nightwing moved swiftly from Batman's right, turned toward the man, and punched him. Jason's eyes widened. He was completely confused, and maybe a little amused.

"Are you done?" Nightwing asked, and Batman glared at him. "Because I sure as Hell am. Jason called us. He wears that symbol on his chest even though you barely acknowledge him. He plays by your rules when you're around even though it looks like you've given up. He tells us what that assassin is planning, and you ask him that? What's wrong with you? He finally looks like the son you failed to save and you ask him if he's working with the guy who almost killed Starfire!" Dick moved to stand by Jason, and looked right into the younger man's eyes. "We're in your territory. What's the plan?"

Jason blinked. Once. Twice. Three times before he finally found a voice. "You and Bats should go back to Gotham, and take either Arsenal or Starfire with you. If we can corner him there then we can stop him, but we still have no idea what he's planning with this drug, or why he was watching us in the first place. Whoever doesn't go with you to Gotham will investigate here with me at the place of first encounter."

Nightwing nodded, then turned to a very angry and very silent Dark Knight. "We're going, and we'll take Starfire with us. She seems fully healed, right, Kori?"

Kori's eyes blazed with fighting spirit, while Roy muttered, "Oh, Dickie, I'm so shocked you chose her."

Dick rolled his eyes. "We'll touch base once we get there. Once this is over, you and I are talking though, Jason."

"Yeah. Sure."

Roy glanced from first Robin to second Robin and could not for the life of him figure out why Jason hadn't turned into that which came before. Was he on that path before he died, or did he never have a chance to experience happiness the way Dick Grayson does?

Did they write him out of the family history, or did he erase his own name? For Roy, it had always been the former, and he had left in a flurry of rage and betrayal, never looking back. After he got clean, he made a deal with himself: he loved Ollie, and he would always be open to being loved by Ollie, if Ollie made the first step. After the crap he's waded through, he deserved family on his terms.

Jason loading his gun carefully snapped the archer out of his thoughts. "You forget how to do that or something?" Roy laughed.

"No," Jason defended quickly. "I'm just making sure I know what I'm doing, since you never have any clue."

"That is pretty true," Roy conceded.

Jason put his gun down and looked at his hands for a second. Roy had seen this happen only a few times, and came to the conclusion he was looking for blood there. Roy inwardly sighed and Jason put down his hands. "Once we're done here, we're going to figure our pasts out. You, me, Kori. We're going to deal with everything." Jason looked directly at Roy. "You're going to call Green Arrow and tell him how you feel."

Roy felt alarm bells go off in his head. Last time Red Hood tried to deal with the past, he had almost burned it to the ground. "Why?" Roy asked him.

"Because when the future gets rough, the past is what you turn to for comfort. We have good memories back there somewhere, Roy, but they're buried by the six feet of crap we're too stubborn to sweep away. If something were to happen to me, wouldn't you like to remember us sitting on the beach and not the past day or however long it's been?"

Roy didn't answer. Later, much later, he would wonder if maybe Jason had known what was going on all along.