This a warning that things get a little creepy in this chapter. I don't think anything gets too bad, and nothing below the belt happens, but I just wanted to let you all know. I don't think there's a need for any trigger warnings, but please let me know if I need to add one.

In better news, I can now roughly estimate that the story will be about 14-15 chapters in total. I'm currently writing the climax of the story and only have a few plot points to hit after that - which shouldn't be more than a chapter - before the story comes to a close. Just thought I'd let you all know in case you were curious.

Olivia stared as Stephanie finished ordering her drink.

The blonde paid and turned to Olivia. "Are you going to get something?"

"Depends, does mine need to be pure liquified sugar too?"

Stephanie rolled her eyes and turned back to the barista. "My friend just wants a boring black coffee."

Olivia knocked their shoulders together and said, "A medium green tea, please. Two pumps of honey."

Once she paid, the two grabbed a table to wait for their drinks.

"You know," Stephanie said as Olivia pulled out her phone. "Some of us like to have fun with our food."

"You can have fun without overdosing on sugar," she snorted as she double-checked that nothing was going on nearby that might make them late for their movie. "I think Dick is the only person in the world who gets more syrups in his coffee than you."

"So what you're saying is I need to up my game?"

The two laughed before discussing the movie. When Stephanie left to grab their drinks, Olivia checked her phone again.

"Nobody move!"

Olivia's head hit the table with a groan as a few other noises of annoyance filled the air. She peaked up to see people scowling at the front door, the baristas with resignation. The one at the register was already opening the cash drawer. Stephanie was crouched at the counter giving the front door a death glare that Olivia could relate to. If these guys made them late for their movie, Robin and Spoiler would be hunting them down that night with extreme prejudice. They'd already had to miss the movie five times for various Bat, Titan, or Hood reasons.

There were four men, all dressed casually with hoods up over their heads and cheap skull masks covering their faces. Two made their way toward the register, wielding a pistol and a large knife respectively. The one that stayed at the door had a shotgun and was relaxing against the glass and keeping watch. The last had an excessively large handgun and was waving it in the faces of anyone he thought looked a little too annoyed as he walked around the tables. It was pretty clear he was all bark and no bite, though, so Olivia turned her attention back to the ones at the register and mentally requested they hurried it along.

They had just finished up when she felt a gun against the back of her head.

"Looks like we're done here. You're with us, jeva."

Standing up, Olivia met Stephanie's gaze to see hellfire blazing in her eyes.

Well, Robin was going to tear these guys a new one sooner than she'd thought.

Compensating dragged her out in front of his buddies and shoved her into a van that pulled up. She was stuffed between Knife and Shotgun while Pistol shut the door behind them and yelled at the driver to go. She watched all four carefully as she kept track of where the van was going. Subtly, she pressed the panic button hidden on her ring. Then, after a moment of thought, she also pressed the panic button hidden in her bracelet.

Hood would kill her if he found out about this and she didn't use the bracelet he'd given her. He might even suggest constant check-ins or something like Bruce had done that one time she'd accidentally forgotten her panic button at home before getting kidnapped as Tim Drake.

Hopefully Hood wouldn't give anything away if his rescue bumped into the Bats' rescue.

They weren't on the road long before they stopped and Compensating dragged her out of the van to find a parking garage. There were two cars and an SUV waiting for them. Knife and Pistol got to work swapping the plates on the van for new ones while Shotgun and the driver left in one of the cars. Compensating brought her over to the SUV and waved his gun in her face.

"Joyas y celu, ahora."

Olivia gave him her burner and pulled off her ring, bracelet, and necklace.

Bruce was going to be so smug that the subdermal trackers paid off.

"You won't get much for them," she said, making her annoyance very clear.

Ignoring her, he took the jewelry and said, "Earrings too."

She frowned and brought her hands up. "They're just the cheap freebies from when I got them pierced last week," she lied. She had just gotten them pierced last week, but they were actually trackers that Hood had given her disguised as simple red steel ball studs.

"Take them off or I'll do it for you," he snorted.

"Maldita sea la madre que te parió," she muttered just loud enough that she knew he'd hear as she pulled off the earrings and handed them over.

Hood was probably going to load her up with subdermal trackers too now. She hoped Robin showed no mercy.

"Watch it," he growled and shoved her against the SUV. He gave her stuff to Knife and started patting her down as Pistol drove off in the Van. She watched Knife leave in the second car, then slapped Compensating's hands away when he started getting too personal.

"You watch it," she snarled.

He snorted then opened the SUV's backdoor and shoved her towards it. "Inside."

She took a step towards the door, planning to get his guard down then knock him flat and run for it, only to freeze when she saw who was waiting in the back seat.

"Hello, Little Red," Ray Cortés said with a wink.

She stared at him. "Did you seriously have your guys rob a Robin's Roast and kidnap me just so I would talk to you? You need to learn the definition of the word no."

He smirked and relaxed back into his seat, patting the one next to him. "I think you'll find the word no doesn't apply to me."

"I'm starting to wish Steph had stolen one of Hood's guns," she muttered as she climbed in.

They traded vehicles three more times before arriving at a warehouse in the Northern section of the Bowery.

Marisa Cortés was waiting for them on an armchair in the main office and she greeted them with a shark's smile. "Hello and welcome. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Not long enough," Oliva snipped. She tried to sit down in the other armchair, only to get dragged over to the couch with Ray.

"Tell me, do you prefer Little Red or just Red when you're apart from Hood? Or would you perhaps prefer Olivia Draper?"

"I'd prefer your son keep his hands to himself," she growled, pressing into the furthest corner of the couch and glaring at Ray when he tried to scoot closer.

If Marisa thought that knowing her name would earn her any kind of shock, she had another thing coming. She and Hood had already anticipated that someone would eventually connect Olivia and Little Red given she barely wore a mask - if the scarf could even be called that - and she'd used Olivia's name a few times while meeting up with Hood before he'd given her the Little Red outfit. It was why he'd been so insistent on getting her apartment secure. She was pretty sure he was even crafting a new identity for her in case she needed to disappear.

Mostly because she had already started putting together a new undercover alias as a precaution and Hood could be very Bat-like when it came to things like that.

"Funny," Marisa said, turning away to grab a tablet off the table next to her.

"Not kidding. If he tries to touch me again, I'll feed him his own hand."

"I think you'll be quite a bit more friendly when you see what I have here," Marisa said and held out the tablet.

Olivia narrowed her eyes at the device and accepted it. "And what is this?"

Had they figured out she was Tim Drake? She figured there'd be more restraints involved if they'd figured out she was Robin and planned to tell her. Did they find out something about Hood that they thought would turn her against him? She couldn't imagine what. He might have been secretive about his identity, safehouses, and ultimate plan, but everything else he did was purely about the theatrics of it. Everyone and their mother could put together a list of all the people he's killed and the crimes they should have been convicted for. His safe houses weren't big enough a find for these dramatics and she wasn't sure how the Víboras of all groups would have managed to suss out his identity or plans. Olivia Draper didn't have loved ones aside from Stephanie and Hood himself while Tim Drake's loved ones were fine the last time she checked, so they couldn't have connected her to some hereto unknown victim of his. Did they think they'd turned up some proof that Hood was cheating on her? Because that was laughable. Even ignoring the fact that Hood and Little Red's pretend relationship was purely physical and they'd never pretended otherwise, she was pretty sure Hood wasn't even into girls.

Wait, did they catch Hood with a guy and think that was going to turn her away from him? If so, wow! Just wow!

"This," Marisa said, looking far too pleased with herself, "is proof that Red Hood is your father."

"What?" she choked out. If Jack Drake was Hood then she'd voluntarily clean Beast Boy's room for him for a year.

Misreading her shock, Marisa nodded and leaned forward to press play on the tablet.

A video showed Little Red and Hood sitting on the edge of a roof, legs hanging into the open air with Hood's arm wrapped around his back. Hood spoke, but the audio was slightly off from the visuals in a way that Olivia assumed meant something else had been used to capture it - likely a long-range microphone given the video's poor quality made it clear it had been zoomed in a lot to get the shot - and the two had been poorly edited together.

"Did you get your homework done?" Hood asked, voice soft as he stared down at Little Red.

"Yes, Dad, " Little Red groaned and leaned into Hood. He did something in his lap, then smiled up at Hood. "Guess who got 110% on their book report?"

"Nice job."

"Yeah. Does this… like y-"

"Brat."

The video ended as Hood pushed him back.

Olivia stared at the tablet for a moment, then looked up at Marisa. "I'm sorry, was that supposed to prove something."

"You called him Dad, sweetheart," Ray pointed out.

"I was being sarcastic, obviously," she said, not looking at him as she grabbed his wrist before he could wrap his arm around her. "He was being a nag so I called him Dad."

"A rather familial reaction towards someone you're supposedly in a sexual relationship with," Marisa noted. Before Olivia could say anything, she continued, "Which does seem rather questionable, in my opinion. You see, I've been keeping an eye on you two. As much as you may talk, you never give him more than a kiss on the helmet, and the only places his hands ever touch that's lower than your hips are your knees."

"So you've got a video of me sarcastically calling him Dad and the fact we aren't exhibitionists. Congrats." Olivia rolled her eyes, then narrowed them. "So this is why you decided to throw in with Hood. You've been poking around for a way to blackmail one of us."

"Mask is a known quantity. Hood is a mystery. I've never been one to buy into the whole devil you know belief. Someone with something to hide is someone who will pay to keep that something hidden. You were the obvious weak link. He never lets anyone else near you except his most trusted lieutenants, you always disappear or were never there to begin with when things get dangerous, and you look awfully young to be dating someone so adamant about adults not touching minors. This all just proved I was on the right track. A mother's intuition, you could say."

"Your mother's intuition needs to be brought into the shop, but even if your crazy conclusion was right, what did you plan to do about it? Ransom me back to Hood? I don't think you've considered the ramifications of this."

"I'm not stupid," Marisa chuckled, leaning back, "and I don't want money. The deal I want is rather simple. I'll join up with Hood for real. I'll even kick up part of my profits like all of the others. I won't be following his rules, though, and neither will my men."

"Why would he ever allow that?"

"Simple. I'm sure he'd be willing to make some allowances considering the territory will one day be the responsibility of his daughter."

"Not his daughter, and you're not seriously suggesting you're going to make me your heir?"

"Of course not. Ray is my heir, but as his wife, you would have some duties at his side."

Olivia stared blankly at her and tightened her grip on Ray's wrist enough that he flinched. "No. Hell no! I know you are not suggesting an arranged marriage like this is the dark ages and I'm some captive princess! I especially know you aren't suggesting I marry your creep of a son!"

Marisa's eyes narrowed. "Careful. You're in a very perilous position."

"You -"

The door to the office slammed open and a Víbora stuck his head in. "We've got Bats!"

Marisa nodded at the door and two of her men left with the new guy, leaving only Marisa, Ray, Olivia, and one guard.

"We need to move," Marisa said, starting to stand.

"You got a lot of things wrong about me," Olivia said as she and Ray stood up as well, his wrist still in her grip, "but do you want to know your biggest mistake?"

Marisa's eyes narrowed.

In one smooth movement, Little Red yanked Ray forward into a punch that knocked him out, then she grabbed the gun and knife tucked into his waistband. She flipped off the safety and shot the guard in the wrist before he could get his gun up. She turned the gun on Marisa as she dropped to the ground to hold the knife to Ray's neck.

The crime boss's hand froze inches from her gun.

"I am not a wink link," Little Red said with a smirk. "You're right that we're not together, but it's because Red Hood just needed a pretty little distraction as arm candy and I was the one smart enough to point it out to him. I don't participate in fights because I don't like how Hood ends them, not because I'm incapable of joining in. Plus, it gives me a chance to snoop around when he sends me off. No one ever questions the arm candy." Her smile grew as Marisa's eyes widened and face paled. "Yeah, I'm not his daughter. I'm his Robin."

Speaking of Robins, there was the smallest creak of a vent shifting and Olivia tossed her weapons to the side and flipped behind the couch.

"OH PLEASE, DON'T HURT ME!"

"You little b-"

The vent cover fell open with a clatter and the sounds of a fight filled the office.

She peaked out to see not Robin, but Batgirl taking down Marisa and the guard. She quickly snuck out of the office, then up to the roof. Her plans to disappear were stopped when Nightwing flipped up in front of her.

"Hey, I was just going to get out of here before the police could try to question me. I figured B wouldn't want Olivia to show up in any police reports."

He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Little Red."

Oh.

"… incredibly reckless! What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I was perfectly safe," Tim huffed.

"Hood is a serial killer. He's been blowing up cars and buildings around the Northside and is just short of going to war with Black Mask. He's attacked Nightwing and me multiple times. He has made many threats against Robin in particular!" Bruce growled.

"I'm not saying he's not dangerous, but Hood only kills the worst of the worst and he never hurts kids. He won't hurt me and his threats against Robin are just talk. He says all that to get under your skin because he doesn't like Robin being out there. He didn't do anything to Steph when he ran into her at the docks."

"Because he knew she wasn't you and didn't consider her Robin."

"He called her newbie! She was a Robin, and he didn't do anything! Besides, he doesn't know I'm Robin so it doesn't matter! Today was the first time I was in any danger, and I didn't even get a scratch!"

"Hood is a wild card who's lashing out at random! You can't -"

"He is not! Hood has a plan! A very detailed plan!"

"Which is?"

"I don't know," she growled, rubbing her face. "He's not stupid enough to tell me any of it considering he thinks I'm an information broker or something similar. Or maybe he's worried I'd get involved and end up hurt. Probably both. But he's told me he's got a plan and I believe him because I've seen how he works. He acts impulsive and like he's just a big brute shoving his way into power, but he never moves without a plan. He's a nerd and a theater kid under all that bravado and gunpowder. And he cares about the Narrows, especially Crime Alley. He wouldn't be risking Mask's retaliation if he didn't know he could swing it in his favor."

His eyes narrowed. "How much do you know about him? Under the mask? Have you seen his face?"

A brief glimpse, just a flicker of salt and pepper hair paired with pale skin, flashed through her mind before Tim scowled and stood up. "You think I wouldn't have said something if I had found out who he was? I told you, he trusts me more than most, but he doesn't trust me that much. He's never taken his helmet off around me. All I know is that he grew up around the Alley, he's younger than most think (probably mid-twenties at the oldest), and he's got at least one brother and a father figure, one he's not close to but probably used to be."

His eyes narrowed even further, but Dick stepped forward before he could comment.

"How'd you figure that much out?"

"If the accent wasn't obvious, he knows the Alley the way only locals do. Especially the working girls. Honestly, the way they talk to him and about him, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them might have an idea who he could be under the mask. Not that they'd ever say anything to us, obviously. The way he talks and moves just makes him feel closer to your age than anything, maybe even younger. And he mentioned his brother and dad before. Something about his brother dropping out early and his dad being a workaholic. He stopped himself from saying dad, though, and corrected to Old Man. Makes it feel like the guy isn't biologically Hood's father, but they probably used to have a close enough father-son relationship that he'd called the guy Dad."

Bruce looked away with a blank face and Tim assumed he was cataloging the information for later alongside whatever else he'd managed to dig up on Hood. He turned back to Tim, saying, "You're still missing key details. He is dangerous."

"You know who he is."