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He finds out that Bruce is back when Dick texts him hey can you come to the 'Cave? We need to talk
They don't meet at the 'Cave. They meet at the Penthouse - and normally that 'they' doesn't include Jason. Dick texts him sometimes, but if they need Red Hood, Oracle contacts him. That Dick is texting him, and during the daytime, asking him to come to the Cave . It's hard to tell if it's mask business or not. It should be mask business, they never talk about anything else, but several things aren't adding up.
His stomach drops. If someone- if Alfred had died. They wouldn't be able to invite Jason to the Manor, because he's legally dead.
He pulls out his burner phone, the one he uses for shit like this, that can be hacked by O and has nothing of value on it at all, and he pulls up the status information for everyone.
- Agent A : status : alive, in Gotham
- Batgirl : status : alive, in Hong Kong
- Batman : status : alive, in Gotham
And then halfway down the page,
- Nightwing : status : alive, in Gotham
Nightwing hasn't had a status that isn't currently non-operational since he took over as Batman.
He taps Batman's status for more information. And there, in black and white, instead of RG , is BW.
Please. Please.
He's out as Tayir right now, not as Hood, not even as Peter - one of Hood's men, or fucking any of the identities that he uses that could deal with this better. They all know how to grit their teeth and keep going, even when it hurts.
Instead, he's out as Tayir, who is the softest version of himself, who reads books and talks to Barbara. Tayir, who when he hurts, bleeds.
And now, clear as day, right there on the Batcave's operating network, there is the information that Bruce is back.
The part of him that's Robin squalls with joy. The street rat hisses the bat is back. And the rest of him, the part that's Jason, that remembers watching his dad leap out the window, Joker in hand, while he bled out on the floor-. That part freezes for a heartbeat, and then Jason can't breathe.
Bruce has been dead for a year. He hadn't really known how to feel about it - but Damian had been with Dick, and been happy, he'd been having a real childhood; and Dick had started working with him, 'cause they'd moved to the Penthouse, so Jason didn't even have to go to the Cave or the Manor, and fine, they hadn't really been getting on, but they'd been working their way towards it; and Barbara had been making jokes with him over the comms, and giving him information on things he could deal with as Red Hood; and he'd even worked with Steph as Batgirl; and Alfie had started inviting him to dinner, though he doesn't really get why-.
And now Bruce is back.
He'd been out on patrol once, working his way out from the centre of the Alley. He'd landed on the roof of a building that overlooked the Sprang - one of the buildings that he occasionally used as a rest stop. He'd landed - and rolled to disperse momentum, because his knees are fucked enough already, he doesn't need to add joint damage from hundreds of poor landings on top. And then Batman had appeared out of a shadow and growled "Red Hood. I won't let you kill in my city-" and he'd run. It was a small building, and he'd dived right off the edge and grappled away as fast as he could, stopping and starting, changing direction often, just to make it hard to follow him, until he'd wound up in one of his boltholes, half blind with panic.
Bruce had cut his throat open. Bruce had saved the Joker's life. And all Bruce had had to say to him was that he wouldn't let Jason kill in his city.
He'd pressed his hand against his throat all night, holding it closed, until dawn broke and he managed to remember that that had been months before.
And now Bruce was back.
And all the Red Hood has done in the last year-. He's killed a lot of people. And he's killed them in Gotham.
Dick probably wouldn't go after him, not unless he killed someone in front of him, in which case, who the hell knew. But B had hunted him down on his own turf, and told him that he wouldn't tolerate Red Hood killing in Gotham.
And Jason doesn't know how strictly B's going to enforce that. Oh god.
Because B didn't go into Crime Alley, even when he knew they needed help there more than anywhere else, he just didn't go there.
But the Red Hood's territory expands beyond the Alley now. He expanded into the Bowery while B was still alive, but he barely cared about there either, so it was fine. But last year, he'd started expanding into Otisburg and the Village, when he knew B wasn't going to come after him for it.
And now he is.
He can't-.
And Tayir is hurting right now, but the street rat part of him, that part knows that if you don't want to get shanked, you have to make sure they can't get to you.
With Oracle, he can leave it, because she didn't come after him even when B was still alive the first time. Especially because while yeah, he talks to her in person as Tayir, he only talks to her as Hood over comms. She can't take him out herself unless he goes to her, and she's not the kind of person to put that responsibility onto others if she could do it personally - and she might think that he would come to her eventually.
The others? He didn't know them then. He doesn't know how they'll react.
And Dick-. Dick hadn't been around when B had. He'd been around after, sure, and hadn't come after him. But B is around now. The rules are different.
And there's no goddamn way he's risking going anywhere near them if there's any chance that Dick might take exception to what he does, the same way that B did.
And there is that chance. So Jason's not taking it.
Don't trust anyone until they prove they can be trusted, and once they prove they can't be, avoid them always. He'd forgotten that lesson, while he'd been with Bruce - and learnt it all over again with Sheila - and then once more with B, just to hammer it home.
He's not gonna talk to any of them unless he has to, not in person.
Tayir is bleeding and crying, but Red Hood is burning that bridge before they cross it.