Author's Note: Thank you to soccernin19 (He's having a couple really bad days!), Guest 1 (You are completely correct. Technically speaking he is actually fourteen, not that he knows that. As for Season 2, I haven't actually been able to watch it because it isn't on Netflix, at least not on the United States, so sadly I can't really use any of it for the purpose of this story.), and Wombo Combi (Yes Roy is Arsenal and I've hinted at a relationship with Cheshire but he still has both arms, at least for the time being. And Damian's two sets of memories are going to make everything messy!) for reviewing the last chapter! I own nothing.
After a day spent fruitlessly trying to avoid thoughts of his family, Jason found himself on the roof of Wayne Manor in full uniform. Somehow Barbara had gotten Batgirl 3.0 and Robin out on patrol. Jason had watched the two of them for a time, considering approaching them before deciding he was better off looking for Nightwing. That was how, after two hours of fruitless searching, Jason was searching for Dick's window. No one had seen any sign of Nightwing since Wonder Woman had shown up for a short time in Gotham. That meant big brother was either sick, gravely injured, or drowning in misplaced guilt in the Batcave. Jason intended to find the answer.
Dick's window was just as easy to force open as Jason remembered from his days as Robin. The problem was, Dick wasn't the person curled up in the middle of the bed. The form was too small and it had tensed the instant Jason set foot on the floor. Curious, the Red Hood approached the bed only to have the figure move, a foot smacking hard into Jason's chest. The Kevlar suit was great for blocking bullets, at least at a certain range, but it and the padding did very little to block a kick from what was apparently a very tiny ninja. Jason bit out a curse word, stumbled, and scrambled out of range of the blow aimed with deadly precision at the soft skin under his chin.
Dick's room wasn't the best place to do battle with anyone, even without the clutter scattered across the space, but Jason had learned when he was still Robin how to make do. He dodged another punch and caught the kid's leg. The plan had been to dangle the tiny figure by one ankle until the blood rush disoriented him. Instead it only got Jason kicked in the head, helmet, whatever. Jason growled as the kid wriggled free, an almost adorably angry pout on his face. "This isn't your room kid," Jason growled and the pout turned into something that was almost a sneer.
"You are the one breaking into this room," the kid retorted. "At least I have a valid reason to be here."
"Of course." Jason was smirking under his mask. The kid seemed to be under the impression that he was superior to everyone else placed on the planet. It should have irritated the older boy but instead he just wanted to be there when the little ninja's fantasy world came crashing down. The kid sneered again at Jason's derisive tone but didn't bother to respond. "So what's the perfectly valid reason?"
"As if I would tell you Todd?" the kid sneered and a light turned on in Jason's mind.
"So you're Wayne's brat then?" he taunted. "Does that make you think you have a right to break into other people's rooms?"
Damian's scowled darkened, hands clenched into tiny fists and he fumed up at Jason. "Get out," the boy demanded, voice wavering slightly as if he were trying to hold everything at bay but fury. Someone less familiar with the teachings of the League of Shadows might have bought what Damian was trying to sell. Jason knew better.
"Damian," he said, lowering his voice into something dark and demanding that he rarely used anymore, especially not since he'd been hanging around the good guy crowd more and more recently. "Where's Dick?" The kid's face, if possible, went even darker but his hands were trembling.
"Grayson is currently indisposed." Jason really wanted to smack the kid right now, possibly more than he'd ever wanted to smack the Replacement, which was saying something. A little current of fear was racing through his head, singing that first Bruce was gone and now Dick had followed headlong after him by doing something stupid like trying to avenge their mentor's death. His stomach rolled.
"Damian," he growled. The kid jerked back a little before resettling into a fighting stance, green eyes narrowed. "What's wrong with Dick?"
"Master Dick has caught the flu." Alfred's sudden involvement in the confrontation made Damian startle and Jason swear, both of them spinning towards the open door. The old butler was standing in the doorway and Jason swore there was amusement twinkling in Alfred's eyes. Then what the man said sunk in.
"Dickie bird's sick?"
"Yes Master Jason." Alfred did not seem at all surprised that Jason was in the manor. Then again, this was the man who raised Bruce and patched him up after he'd gone swinging all over Gotham. Not much surprised Alfred. "He has taken over Master Damian's bedroom for the time being," Alfred continued. Jason cast a glance in Damian's direction at that, cataloging the tense muscles and trembling fists. After his little dip into the Lazarus Pit, Jason wasn't exactly a picture of mental health but he knew what separation anxiety looked like in little kids, along with how it was brought on. He hesitated a moment, part of him wanting to be anywhere but here, and then slung an arm around Damian's shoulders, grinning widely when the kid tensed up like an angry kitten.
"So,"he drawled, smirking from beneath his helmet. "Is my bedroom unlocked?"
"Of course Master Jason," Alfred replied with the smallest hint with a smile. "Your room is just as you left it." Jason wrinkled his nose at that, despite the fact the Alfred couldn't see his expression under the helmet.
"Wanna help me clean out my room?" he asked Damian, smirk returning. The kid grumbled and nailed an elbow into a sensitive spot on Jason's side. Alfred just shook his head at them both and left them to it.
Oliver wanted to scream as he pulled up to the gate at Wayne Manor, dialing the number. He listened as it rang, the irritation from his long day making his muscles tight. There'd been not one, but two accidents on the way to Gotham City and after the second accident drivers had been afraid of even going the speed limit. A five hour drive had turned in eight, and then ten hours but finally he'd arrived. Alfred answered the phone and a moment later the gates were opened, allowing Oliver inside.
Wayne Manor hadn't really changed since Oliver had been in it last. There were a couple new dents and scrapes on the walls from boys running everywhere being energetic ten year olds who happened to know martial arts but otherwise it was virtually untouched by time. "How are things?" Oliver asked Alfred when the old butler opened the door.
"Master Roy is upstairs with Master Dick," Alfred told him. "Masters Jason and Damian are opening up Master Jason's room. As for Master Tim and Miss Stephanie, the pair of them left to see Miss Barbara this morning and have yet to return." Oliver absorbed the information, giving the man a quick nod, and made his way up the stairs. "Second bedroom on the left," Alfred called after Oliver who lifted a hand in acknowledgement.
The bedroom door Alfred had called out was slightly cracked and when Oliver pushed it open Roy startled awake, already rising defensively before he realized who it was. "You're late," the younger archer slurred out and Oliver couldn't help the amused grin that crossed his face.
"Two traffic accidents in one day," was his soft reply as he crossed the room to guide Roy back into the chair. Once his ward and former partner was settled he laid a gentle hand against Richard Grayson's forehead. He could feel the heat from what was left of a fever but other than that, the young man seemed unharmed.
"Damian came down with it the night Bruce, you know..." Roy trailed off awkwardly, unable to say out loud that Bruce was dead. Oliver nodded, settling a gentle hand on Roy's shoulder. "Anyway," the younger archer continued. "Dick caught it about the instant Damian was feeling better."
Oliver wanted to ask how they were all holding up but he could already see the answer in Roy's tired eyes and defeated posture. "Get some rest," he said instead. "We'll talk in the morning." Roy just nodded, eyes already drifting shut.
Somewhere above the shadows of Gotham, Timothy Drake brooded. Everyone believed he was in denial, that he couldn't accept the fact that Bruce was dead, but that was a lie. Tim's mother was dead and his father was in a coma from which he might never wake, all thanks to the Joker. He understood death just as well as the others did and accepted it. He simply did not believe that Bruce was dead. The facts did not add up.
It was natural that Bruce would go down fighting. They all had known, somewhere buried under the ridiculous belief that Batman was invincible, that Bruce would go down in the suit. Jason had died in one, Dick had been almost killed more times than Tim could count, and both Stephanie and Tim had experienced more than one villain taking a shot at them. It had been unlikely that Bruce would be the one of them that wouldn't die in costume. But that Bruce would be killed on a League mission? Not likely. Sure the League dealt with aliens on a regular basis but, aside from the occasional anomaly, none of the League villains were anywhere near the level of criminal genius and breathtaking insanity that Batman's gallery of rogues did. It was highly improbable that a League villain would be the one to take down Batman.
Then there was the very nature of Batman's destruction. According to Wonder Woman, a beam of light had completely disintegrated Bruce. It simply didn't compute. Particularly nasty children sometimes burned ants with magnifying glasses but the idea that a beam of light could completely erase someone from existence was absurd. The worst part of it was that everyone else believed it. Even the Justice League thought Batman had fallen. The very idiocy of it all made Tim furious.
"Robin?" Stephanie's voice pulled him from his thoughts and he turned toward her. "I think we're done here."
"Yeah," he told her and followed her off the roof. Cass was supposed to arrive tomorrow. Hopefully she would be more sensible than the rest of this family.