Chapter Text
Bruce is stupid, and Bruce is incompetent.
He may be Batman, and he may have been trained by the best of the best, and he may be the leader of the Justice League of America and the world greatest (self proclaimed) detective, that doesn’t change the fact that he’s stupid and incompetent.
Otherwise, how could he explain getting captured, as Bruce Wayne, by the very group Jason is undercover in. But here he is, and he makes eye contact with Jason, for less than a second, as they tie him up on the chair. His face have been roughed up, but otherwise, he seems unharmed.
“Bruce Wayne?” Jason asks Maxwell, the man who is in command here. “Really? Do you know there are ways to make money that don’t involve kidnapping Batman’s boyfriend?”
Behind the mask, he smile at his little joke. There are rumors, in Gotham. Bruce hates them, of course.
“He has something we want. And don’t worry, the Bat won’t have time to locate us. He will be in and out.”
With that, Maxwell shows a vial of the truth serum they developed. Jason has given the Bats a sample of that serum, but he doesn’t know yet if they had time to analyze it yet, let alone make an antidote for it.
He hates to say it but Maxwell is right. This might be very quick. Still, what do they want? They must know Bruce’s bank accounts are protected by more than a password.
Maxwell opens Bruce’s sleeve and injects the serum. He then waits. One, two, three, ten seconds.
The entire room stays silent, until Maxwell asks, “The plan for the new energy generator, where are they?”
Bruce swallows. Something passes in his eyes. Energy generator? That’s the first time Jason hears about that. Did Bruce hide a crucial mission info from him? If it’s the case he’s going to have to kill him once this is over.
But maybe Bruce didn’t even know they were interested in that. That would explain his surprised face. Maybe it’s not just a show.
“Answer the question, Wayne,” Maxwell says.
“In my office,” Bruce says, and his voice sounds like it’s forced out of him. No antidote then. “In the safe.”
“What’s the code?” Maxwell asks.
“3 2 4 1 5.”
Maxwell puts his hand on Bruce’s face and Jason has to look away. It’s Bruce. He lived trough a hundred time worse. Jason still doesn’t like to see it. “Good boy,” he says. “You, you,” he points at Jason and at a woman. “Watch him. You three,” he says to the other three men. “With me.”
And so, Jason is left alone with Bruce and the woman – Karen, he remembers. He can’t break his cover, not now, but he wishes he could ask Bruce what this was all about. Instead he looks at Karen. She’s been cordial when they met.
They stay in silence for a minute or two before she asks. “So. Red Hood. Why the name?”
Small talk. In front of a hostage. Okay. He shrugs. “Why not?”
“Don’t you think it’s kind of stupid?”
“Not as stupid as keeping your real name.”
She tilts her head. “Do you think Karen is my real name?”
“So let me get this straight. You could choose anything and you chose Karen?”
“Better than Red Hood.”
Bruce keeps a straight face but Jason knows he’s laughing. When he doesn’t say anything, Karen sighs. “She was a friend of mine. Karen. Died when we where in high school.”
“Sorry for your loss,” Jason says, his mechanical voice cold even to his own ears. “The Rogues?”
“Drank driver actually. Nothing was ever quite the same after that. She’s my origin story, in a way. And you?”
“What?”
“What’s your origin story, Red Hood?”
“The Joker,” his eyes cross Bruce’s for a second, but he can’t read anything.
Karen just watches him for a moment before saying. “Word of advice, kid. People like Maxwell… You should stop dealing with people like that. I don’t know who you lost to the Joker-” myself, Jason doesn’t say. “-but I don’t think they would want you doing that kind of things. I sure know Karen wouldn’t want me to.”
“Then why don’t you stop?”
She sighs. “I’m in too deep, now.”
“That’s bullsh-”
“You lied to me!!” Maxwell enters the room, cutting them off. He doesn’t look at them, just goes straight to Bruce. “I don’t know how you did this, but you lied to me.”
Under the mask, Jason smiles. So he had found an antidote for the truth serum, after all. Maxwell slaps Bruce, and Jason’s smile flatten a bit. “We’re going to do it the old fashion way, then. Hood!”
Jason takes a step forward. “Yeah, boss?”
Maxwell tosses something at his feet, and Jason feels a little nauseous when he realizes it’s a crowbar. Fuck.
“Make him talk.”
All eyes are on him. This time, he looks at Bruce, who give him a subtle nod.
Not breaking his cover it is then.
Not breaking his cover. He takes the crowbar. And he hits.
It’s the noise, really, that is the issue. Metal on flesh. His throat closes up immediately, feeling like he can’t breathe, but he pushes it aside.
It’s Bruce. That knowledge sits at the bottom of his stomach like a giant pit. It’s Bruce.
He’s hurting Bruce.
Once upon a time, he didn’t care. He wanted it, even, maybe. Not to hurt Bruce physically, but to make him suffer. He did, actually. He’s pretty sure he made Bruce suffer, more than any of them had.
Now, as his hands grip the bar so tight they’re painful, he’s not sure he wants that anymore.
I don’t know who you lost to the Joker, but I don’t think they would want you doing that kind of things.
Karen is right. Robin wouldn’t want him doing that. Robin would scream and cry if he saw someone hurt Bruce. Hurt his dad.
Robin, like everything else, is shoved in a corner of Jason’s mind.
As he hits. And hits. And hits.
“Enough. He’s passed out.”
Jason looks at Bruce. He’s covered in blood. His leg is twisting with an unnatural angle.
He blinks, and for a second, Bruce is younger. This is the man who saved him in that alley.
He blinks, and for a second, he sees Robin instead of Bruce.
“We’re going to ask him again tomorrow. You’re dismissed.” Jason didn’t even listen to what was asked. He thinks Maxwell said something, while he was hitting, but he couldn’t ear it over the sound of the crowbar. Over the sound of the Joker laughing.
He says he will ask again tomorrow, but Bruce won’t be here tomorrow. Jason will make sure of it.
His hand is bloody. He can’t handle doing that a second time. He knows this, at least.
Hours later, when everyone is gone, he comes back. “Wake up, old man,” he says. “I’m getting you out.”
Bruce opens one eye. So, he wasn’t actually unconscious. Good to know. “Your cover…”
“I’ll find a way to explain,” Jason says as he unties his legs. “Can you stand?”
“Of course,” Bruce says, still putting most of his weight on Jason. “You hit like a child.” But he’s limping, and his voice is slurred.
Jason drags him down the corridor. The silence is unsettling. When he can’t take it anymore, he finally asks, “What was that about the energy generator?”
“It can be turned into a weapon. No one should know about it yet. They probably have someone inside, that’s why they could check my lie so easily.”
Jason snorts. “Yeah, who does that? Getting your own people within the enemy rank.”
Bruce smiles, and for a second, Jason is thirteen again. He’s thirteen and he’s Robin and nothing bad is ever going to happen to him.
But reality comes back fast, and reality comes back with a gunshot.
Jason falls to the ground, taking Bruce with him. His left leg has been shot. Who?
A hand pulls Bruce’s face up by the hair and a gun is pointed at his face. Jason raises his head to see the shooter.
“Sorry, kid,” Karen says, and she looks like she means it. “Nothing personal.”