Chapter Text
“I've been trafficked.” Jason says, “Hell, I got trafficked by Batman.”
“You did not.”
“I did. I don't think he realised he was doing it, but.” He shrugs.
“What happened?”
“He busted me stealing tyres, and he dropped me off at Ma Gunn’s School for Boys. I guess he'd heard Bruce Wayne endorsing it the week before.” His gaze is heavy on Mia. (Because Bruce Wayne was Batman, and he should have known better.)
“And what Ma Gunn did was coerce the boys dropped off at her orphanage into joining her gang, and helping her steal things. A week or so after I got there, she got busted for tryna rob a museum. And I got moved onto the next place.
"But because Batman put me there, put me in a situation where-
"Hang on, I'll tell you the textbook definition of human trafficking.” He closes his eyes, recites, “A criminal activity in which people are recruited, harboured, transported, bought, or kidnapped to serve an exploitative purpose, such as sexual slavery, forced labor, or child soldiery.”
He smirks mirthlessly. “Batman transported me to serve an exploitative purpose, such as forced labour. He didn't mean to, but ehh. Intent doesn't mean much.”
“You've never told anyone this.” Mia says.
“Nope.” He pops the p. “Kinda fucked me up when I realised.”
Then he says, “Uh. Maybe don't-”
He squishes his face in consternation, turns to Mia and says quietly, “If people start saying Batman is a trafficker, and the Bats hear about it- I don't-”
…Ah. What Batman had done did fit the definition, but- She gets his point. Batman was dead, and the Bats were closing ranks around his memory.
She says, “Hey, Anna, do you remember last week, when Ollie and I talked about abuse? We said that even people that are trusted in the community, who are kind and generous, who we should be able to trust- even they can be abusive.
"And it can be difficult, in a situation like that, to convince people that it's happening.”
“I remember. You said that the people here would believe us, if we said that someone was hurting us, no matter who it was.”
“Yeah,” she smiles. It's good that Anna remembers. “But when something like that happens, they might not want to talk about it, in case they don't get believed. Because of who they're-” She- how is she supposed to explain this.
Jason says, “Batman is a hero. He's a pillar of the hero community. That shouldn't matter, but it does.
"So I know what he's done, and now, you know what he's done. But it wasn't deliberate, and I would prefer it if you didn't talk about it too much, y’know? I don't wanna have to deal with anyone coming at me about it unless I have to.”
Anna nods. “Okay.” There's a chorus of quiet agreement echoing her.
One of the other kids -Penny- asks, “But what about after? The next place? You weren't trafficked there too, were you?”
Mia watches Jason's hands twitch.
And he says, “No. Maybe. I don't- I don't know.
"…The guy I ended up with was really into. Uh, charity work. He was into hardcore charity work, tryna help the people who don't wanna be helped.”
His hands twitch again, and he's avoiding Mia's eyes.
Oh.
He's talking about Batman.
“He took me along with him. I guess he figured ‘cause I'd been homeless for a while, I'd seen some shit, and wasn't gonna see anything worse when I was with him.
"An’ I enjoyed going with him. It was good work. I liked it. But-” his hands twitch, “But there was one time I didn't wanna go. I didn't wanna do anything, I just wanted to be left alone.
"But he insisted I come with him, so I did. An’ it didn't go great, an’ naturally that was my fault. An’ after that, I didn't always handle it great, until eventually he didn't want me helping at all.
"So I left. He didn't- He didn't come after me, ‘cause I'd stopped helping out with the charity work. I wasn't wanted there if I wasn't helping.”
Penny frowns. “Was that trafficking too then?”
“I don't know. I don't. I don't think it was, but the fact that I don't know for sure is enough, isn't it?”
Quiet, Mia says, “Yeah, it's enough. If you're not sure, if you want out of a situation- that's enough.” For what they're trying to teach these kids right now, it has to be. (Just… Batman. And Robin. Fucking hell.)
She stops thinking about it for now, and takes over for her part in this. “I was trafficked too.
"For me, it was much closer to the textbook example. My father trafficked me when I was nine. After three years, I ran away.
"I survived by continuing the job my father started. After a while, I met Richard. We started dating, and I moved in with him. And I thought it was good, y’know?
"He started off real nice. He took me in, and loved me. Showed me that not all men were bad, taught me to make love, and paid for everything. And then he started making me trick.
"He fed me, and clothed me, and gave me a place to live, and all I had to do was have sex with strangers for money.
"Eventually, if I said I didn't want to, that I hated it -because I did- he got angry, and mean.”
He'd threatened to kill her. And that had been the last straw.
“…I got lucky. I had somewhere to go.” That's stretching the truth a little, she hadn't had a place for sure. But Ollie had let her stay, even though she was a stranger.
And she'd known how to defend herself. She'd hit him, and she'd cut him, and she'd threatened to kill him. If she hadn't done that- if she hadn't had somewhere safe to go-
She tells the kids, “In most situations, trafficking victims know and trust their traffickers. A lot of ‘em get trafficked by their romantic partners, or by their family. Not by strangers.”
Jason picks up the next beat, just like they’d planned, “The important thing is to know that there are places to go. If you realise you're somewhere you don't wanna be, doing something you don't wanna do, there are people who will help. There are places that will help. This is one of ‘em.”
“And if you can't get there, if you have access to a phone, you can call for help. The national hotline is 1-888-373-7888. If you don't wanna call, they can be emailed at [email protected].”
They sound like an advert on the telly. And these kids -sure they're closer to teenagers, but they want to get their information drilled into their heads so they know it, and that means they've gotta start now. But these kids have pretty clearly never memorised a phone number in their lives.
So she says, “You can always come here, and we will help you. Okay?”
If that means the community centre does it, or if one of the Arrows does it, or both (it's most often both) - it will get done.
She'll make sure of it.