Work Text:
Breathe. Your anger, fear, sadness. Let it all go. There is nothing holding you here beside yourself.
*
When Lena Greenfield died, she was twenty. She volounteered at a soup kitchen in the Narrows, close to Crime Alley. Jason never personally met her, but one of his workers was friends with her. They came to him the same day the girl’s body was found and asked for help. Red Hood wasn’t one to leave rapists and murderers be, especially if they messed with his people.
He investigated, but there weren’t any traces of the guy. Not in physical world, anyway.
Lena was sitting under a maple tree, tear tracks on her face. Jason sat on the ground a few feets from her. She didn’t acknowledged his presence, but he could wait.
After a few minutes she spoke up. "Who are you?"
"My name’s Jason. But most people knows me as Red Hood," he answered, to which she finally looked up at him. "I wanted to talk with you."
Lena furrowed her eyebrows. "You don’t feel right. You aren’t dead, are you?"
He smiled at her. "Nah, I’m just visiting."
The girl returned to watching the horizon and kept quiet for another few minutes. Jason just waited, breathing in the fresh air. This place was unscathed by human hand, and nature was in her prime. From the corner of his eye, he saw a few deers running between the trees.
"What do you want to talk about?" Lena asked watching him closely.
Jason turned to face her, so she had a better view of his body language before answering. "I want to avenge you, and stop the man who did this to you from ever doing it again. But back there, I can’t find out who he is."
"Oh," she started to blik rapidly "I was wondering if he would get off. But if you really are who you says you are, I guess he won’t."
"Can you tell me something about him? If you know him, it would be even better."
A tear escaped Lena’s eye, but she quickly dried her cheeks.
"Yeah, I-" she paused and braced herself before continuing. "He’s my ex. Daniel Gray. We broke up almost a year ago, but he kept harassing me. He tried to get to me a few times, bu when he didn’t get what he wanted, he started to be agressive. But I really didn’t think he would kill me."
Jason clentched his jaw tight. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t stop things like that from happening. He could only get revenge for the victims.
"You can decide what will happen to him, or leave it to me. Whatever you want, I can do it."
Lena looked at him with unreadable expression for a while before him a ghost of a smile. "Don’t kill him. I want him to suffer and live with it. I want him to with he was dead. The rest I’ll left for you. Don’t really have expirience on that subject."
"Alright," Jason got up on his feet. "I’m sorry I couldn’t save you."
"You’re doing more than enough now," she paused and tilted her head a little. "Why are you even so commited to my case? Things like that happens every day."
Jason gave her a sharp grin. "Trix works for me. And I look after my employees. Beside, you did a lot of good. I’ll take care of the soup kitchen you volounteered in."
"Thank you." Her smile became just a little bit real, and her eyes had a vicious, satisfied glint to them.
*
Daniel Gray was found by the police after a neighbour reported screams and a strong unpleasant smell coming from his apartament.
He was transported to the hospital with five broken ribs, a heavy concussion that was propable to leave a permament demage on his brain, andwithout three fingers from his right hand, which were, interestengly enough, bandaged and secured, so he wouldn’t bleed too much. He was also castrated. Brutally and very succesfully. In police databases appeared files of his crimes, enough to put him in jail for at least ten years.
Trix stood beside Red Hood watching an ambulance driving away. They had a feeling of dark satisfaction. The bastard got what he deserved, tho they didn’t really get why their boss didn’t just kill him. So they asked.
Red Hood hummed thoughtfuly considering the answer.
"I usually have a policy of not getting people like this stay alive, but I did my digging. I think you know it, but Lena wouldn’t want his death. Beside, I want him to live with consequences of his actions, and his an excellent example of what will happen to any other bastard who’ll try this shit."
Hood wasn’t wrong. Lena was too good of a peron to live in a cesspool like Gotham. And making making the rest of this trash’s life miserable was a nice thing. But they didn’t really belived the vigilante. Not wholy at all. Maybe it had something to do with Bats. Red Hood was talking about cooperating with them, and everyone knew that they were non-lethal. Not that it made them any less scary.
"C’mon, we have work to do. Did your people gathered anything about that shipments Mask was getting?"
Trix straightened up and followed their boss, who started to go in the direction of their get-away car.
"Yes, sir. We have everything in the report. They did a good job."
Red Hood hummed "Good, good," After a little pause, he abruptly moved his head, so his young face in the domino mask was directed to Trix. "And stop calling me sir! You know that’s riddicioulous."
They snickered. "Whatever you say, boss." As an answer, they got only a playful shove to the arm.
Were thay a professional criminal? Yes. Were they acting very unprofessional? Also yes. But their boss was fucking great, so who’s a winner here?