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Jason didn’t know what to make of the kid sitting in front of him. The boy was clearly in distress and was one second away from a panic attack. He wouldn’t normally take a kid back to his safe house or talk to them without his helmet while acting as Red Hood. However, after hearing the story the kid told him, it was useless to hide his identity.
Timothy Drake not only figured out who Jason was behind the mask, he had almost all of the original Justice League members and their sidekicks too. Which means once he has Batman civilian id, he had the formers Robin’s too. Which is what helped him make the connection from Robin II to Red Hood.
However, the kid going to Red Hood for help versus Batman was surprising, at first. He had only just started operating as vigilante Red Hood for a few months. A year ago, people saw him as nothing more than a mob boss wannabe. But, once he started working with the Bats, more people started coming to him for help. Especially kids since they knew he wouldn’t hurt them, but those kids were from the rougher parts of Gotham.
Not rich kids like Tim, who should be more comfortable with asking Batman for help. Hell, he literally lived right next door to the man. He could have just gone to the front door and knocked. Except, Tim had already tried that, and the outcome had been bad. Which is why he was here today.
Jason didn’t know what to think of Bruce now that he found out what he had done when he was mourning the loss of his son. Jason kept glancing down at the folder full of evidence in front of him, trying to keep his face calm as possible. He was afraid if the kid caught one look of rage, he’d book it out of here. And the was the last thing Jason needed, he was clearly not safe in Gotham with Bruce free to roam the streets.
Apparently, Tim had reached out to Bruce a few months before Jason came back to Gotham. The kid developed a nighttime hobby of stalking the Bats to take pictures of them. He had stopped after hearing the news about Robin but, decided to go out again after word go around that Batman was different. It took one night of observation and there was no mistake about a change in Batman’s behavior.
Bruce had not taken the death of his son well and started taking his anger out on the criminals of Gotham. Even low-level thugs were hesitant to go out because more often than not you were risking Batman beating you senseless for something as small as shoplifting. Tim even had to call an ambulance once or twice for people after they had been caught by Batman.
Tim had waited to see if anyone would step in and stop Batman. But, Nightwing never came and the League ignored it. So, Tim had confronted him, letting him know that he found out his secret and tried to offer to be his Robin. To be his light before he lost himself completely to his darkness.
But, Tim didn’t know that Bruce was too deep to be saved. Instead, he had called in the League, telling them that Tim was a threat, who knew their civilian identities. Who could and would ruin the lives of their love ones knowing their secret, since Bruce refused to take him in as Robin.
So, instead of listening to the concern of a scared young boy, they went into his mind. Suppressing his knowledge of Bruce being Batman and connecting him to the rest of the League’s ids. But, they didn’t realize how deep into his memories to erase. Because a month later, Tim came to Bruce again and they went deeper into his mind not sure what the source they needed to erase. But, they realized that the multiple sessions had the job for them, Tim was starting to forget without their interference.
They figured causing slight brain damage to one civilian child was worth it to keep their families safe. Besides, by that time Jason had shown up and Batman put his focus on dealing with that instead. Once he was reunited with Jason, his violent nature had lessened to accepted vigilante behavior once more.
Tim was all but forgotten.
Tim however, had started to notice gaps in his memory and started to have a hard time doing things he used to love. For some reason, he couldn’t do basic gymnastic moves, even though he had trophies in room telling him he should be skilled enough to do it. He had trouble remembering how to use his camera even though his parents had gotten it for his eleventh birthday, and he’d had it for a year now.
He had stumbled across a video on his camera, the screen was black like the lens was kept on but it was the audio that was important. He could hear himself pleading for Batman not to take his memories, that he wouldn’t reach out to the Bats again. His pleas were ignored and he heard what sounded like Batman tell Martian Manhunter to suppress deeper into his mind.
That’s why Tim came to Red Hood because he didn’t hurt kids, but Batman and the Justice League do.
Jason had a tough choice to make, because he was finally ready to connect to his family again. But, how could he when the heroes he looked up to justified ruining the life a young civilian boy because he wanted to help Batman be better. What other things have done, lives did they changed in order to maintain their lifestyles.
Jason had a feeling he would be opening pandora’s box by trying to go against them without people on his side. He had only been Red Hood for a little while, and the hero community was more forgiving of his crimes because they found out he was the former Robin brought back to life.
He didn’t know how much he could really help Tim without sacrificing his relationship with Bruce, Dick and the rest of his family.
Jason walked up to Tim, crouching down so he was eye level with him, “Hey Tim, you don’t have to worry. I’m glad you came to me with all of this, and your right Red Hood doesn’t hurt kids.” He pulled Tim into a hug and the boy clung on to him as he started to cry.
Tim hid his face in Jason’s shoulder and his words were muffled in his shirt as he spoke, “You believe me? You’ll really help me stop them, stop Batman from hurting me?”
Jason rubs Tim’s back with one hand to calm him down and the other taps at his ear, “Like I said Tim, you don’t have to worry about this anymore. You got that, right?”
Tim nods, but that last bit wasn’t for him.
“Confirmed, ETA thirty minutes. Keep him there, we might have to use extreme methods this time. Batman out.”
Jason taps off the comm in his ear. Red Hood doesn’t hurt kids, but there can always be exceptions.