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Something’s wrong.
That was Jason’s first thought as soon as he opened to doors to the manor. He could have never believed that he would end up living in a place like this someday. Yet this gigantic house managed to become his house somehow and Jason knew his house.
Someone’s here.
There wasn’t supposed to be anyone home right now. He should have been at school, but the book club teacher didn’t show up so he went home. Bruce would be at work and Alfred would be grocery shopping. Jason took the bus, he’d taken it multiple times in the past before his adoption, so he knew the ways around the city, no need to inconvenience someone else in picking him up.
Jason controlled his breathing. Evaluating from all the things he knew he could definitely recognize the danger he was in.
One: this person managed to evade all the security measures in the house, most likely turning off the cameras and alarms in place.
Two: it would take significant technical skill to be able to do that. More than that of your average civilian or criminal. This individual must have had a grudge.
Three: given the previous two, it would not be outside of the realm of possibility that this person knew. That this was personal. A direct attack against Batman in his own home.
Four: whomever it was, probably knew that they weren’t alone in the house anymore.
He could only hope that the person didn’t try to seek him out. Criminals were often skittish and ran away when discovered. Though given the circumstances, Jason found it unlikely that this person wouldn’t resource to burning down the manor or even killing him to get away.
Jason decided to pretend that he was unaware of the intrusion. Make his enemy underestimate him to hopefully raise his odds at survival.
He went on his usual routine as if nothing was wrong. Jason went to the kitchen and put some water in the electric kettle to make himself some tea. The slightest sound of shuffling was heard from upstairs.
Gotcha!
Upstairs was where the bedrooms and guest rooms stood. The criminal was probably rummaging through their things.
A thief.
While he waited for the water, Jason made his way to the library. He wasn’t going to stupidly get into a book while an intruder was inside his house. He needed something however. He looked around and found a huge book that would certainly help. It was a hardcover book about architecture, filled with sketches and drawings along detailed descriptions.
He took a peek out of the hallway to find it still empty. He decided to go to Bruce’s study, not the cave though. There was a possibility that this individual didn’t know the location of Batman’s lair and that was precisely what he might be trying to discover.
Not a thief then.
Though that might mean that this criminal could be more dangerous. From all the neat organized things in the study, Jason’s eyes caught on something shiny. The letter opener. No more lethal than a butter knife, but still useful as a weapon in the hands of someone like Robin.
As he prepared his tea, he continued to make his plan. He needed to get to the second floor without the intruder noticing. He grabbed his tea and went towards the TV room.
The TV room was an excessive and frankly ridiculous show of wealth. The huge room had priceless paintings hanging from its walls. A big sofa that must have cost more than what an entire family in crime alley would make in their lifetime and of course the TV. The TV and sound system were ridiculous. A screen larger than Jason himself and so many speakers.
All of these would be useful, though that wasn’t Jason’s focus. What this room had that was currently most useful were the French windows. Specifically, new French windows, recently renovated, and they didn’t creak. From there, Jason would be able to grab onto the second floor’s balconies and enter without ever touching the stairs.
He turned on the TV and put it in some channel that talked about history. He turned the sound up, just loud enough for the intruder to listen, but not too loud for the intruder to think that it was a distraction to catch him.
From there. Jason put down his tea and prepared the ambush. He opened the French windows and went outside. No sign of anything amiss.
He gripped the corner where two walls met and crawled upwards. Letter opener in his pocket and big book held between his legs.
He held onto the edge of the balcony and slowly set himself on top of the railing. Still nothing amiss.
When his feet touched the balcony floor, a sound emerged from one of the windows. Jason promptly discarded any attempt at subtlety and ran towards the source.
He managed to slip inside of the room where the intruder was, just as his hands disconnected from the window, closing it down. He swung upwards and managed to hit the criminal square in the face with the heavy book, driving him backwards.
The criminal was a tall, muscular man. Not as tall and as muscular as Damian or Bruce, but certainly stronger than Jason.
OK. I’ll have to use my size to my advantage.
The man picked himself back up in less than a second. He wore a black and gray costume alongside a striking red helmet. The contrast of the black with the red made Jason’s eyes widen as he made a realization.
The Red Hood, an old name used by The Joker.
Taking advantage from Jason’s shock, the man in the red helmet hit Jason’s abdomen with a backhand punch and jerked away as the teen recoiled.
He’s gonna get away.
There was no way Jason would let this stand. He rushed up and sprinted off of the side of the bed to try and intercept him. The man was getting to the hallway as Jason kicked him in the back.
The man stumbled forward and swung back a knife at Jason. Using the huge book, Jason blocked it from hitting him. It was in that moment that Jason realized that the man was inside of the Tim’s room. The door that never opened. How dare he. How dare he defile his dead brother’s room. Jason quickly grew furious at the man.
Jason brought the underside of the book back down at the intruder, knocking him to the floor. The man kicked Jason backward with great strength and picked himself back up again from the floor. He continued to run towards the stairway. Several of the items and papers he was carrying falling to the floor.
He padded his pockets and found the letter opener and sprang towards the man with the “weapon” in hand leaving the book behind. Jason managed to aim right in on one of the pants’ seams and struck the intruder’s leg, piercing the clothing and skin.
The man grunted and his demeanor changed entirely. He was previously only trying to avoid Jason’s attacks and striking back in a way that sent Jason away, so that he may be able to flee. Now he was attacking properly.
Gloved hands yanked the letter opener and Jason’s hand from the man’s legs, a tight grip held Jason up by one arm, much the same way Bruce did when he first met him. He couldn’t see any expression in the helmet, but he believed the man to be fuming with rage.
As Jason continued to struggle, the man grabbed him by one of his legs and slammed Jason’s body into the floor. Jason felt all the air leave his lungs. He wasn’t able to struggle anymore.
The letter opener in Jason’s hand fell away into oblivion as the man swung Jason’s entire body again, this time striking it against a wall. The fear within his veins was making his entire body shake as the world started spinning.
He thinks he might have heard the man mutter something under his breath, though Jason couldn’t tell. The man rummaged in one of his pockets to find something. What he pulled out looked kind of like an EpiPen, he drove it to Jason’s arm and everything faded to black.
—
Bruce was rushing back home. He absolutely refused to be too late once again. There was a call from Alfred notifying Bruce that Jason was not in school. There wasn’t any book club today as the teacher had gotten ill due to food poisoning, so therefore couldn’t make it. He quickly saw the unread E-mail sent by the school and tried to calm himself down.
Alfred presumed that Jason had gone back home, though he didn’t respond to the message or call that Alfred made. Bruce’s panic began to grow as those words entered his brain. He drove dangerously rushing back home.
The main doors to the manor were custom-made by an old artisan, personal friend of Thomas and Martha Wayne, though that fact didn’t matter as Bruce brutally kicked open the priceless craftsmanship.
“ALFRED!”
The butler was nowhere to be seen.
“ALFRED!”
Bruce shouted again as he made his way towards the cave. There were trackers inside of Jason’s clothes. He had put them there without his knowledge and had a very nasty argument with Jason about them. Ultimately, he decided to respect Jason’s choices, but not before begging on his knees for Jason to keep them. A horrible act of manipulation that Bruce himself wouldn’t tolerate for any parent to put their child through, though Bruce had already lost a son and Jason understood his fear.
Jason kept them.
“ALFRED!”
He continued his panic as he went downstairs. No immediate sign of anything wrong. As Bruce made his way towards the Batcomputer he heard the clearly shaken voice of Alfred coming from the med bay.
“Master Bruce.”
Bruce ran towards the source in great speed. The butler was alright, even if some semblance of distress still littered his face.
“Where?”
He was panting as Alfred slowly put his hand in Bruce’s back.
“He’s here, Master Bruce.”
And there he was indeed. Filled with horrible bruises in his torso, but alive. His son was alive; he wasn’t too late.
“What happened?”
“I found him upstairs unconscious in the corridor. He was beaten up and left on the ground.”
Bruce still stood frozen, looking at Jason while Alfred continued.
“Several items were thrown around. I believe he may have been attacked by a thief.”
“A thief?”
Bruce looked at Alfred, as the man hesitated. Alfred, never hesitated. This was not good.
“I’m afraid that Master Timothy’s room has been ransacked Master Bruce. Most of his possessions have been taken.”
Someone had violated his dead child’s room and beaten up his son. Anger was rapidly rising within Bruce.
“What else?”
Alfred hesitated once again before continuing.
“The criminal also took documents and papers pertaining to Tim, as well as the photo album and destroyed them in the fireplace.”
Bruce made an unnatural guttural sound, as if some had shot his gut. Whomever it was, had tried to erase his baby’s existence.
“The crime scene has been left intact outside of removing Master Jason and bringing him to the med bay.”
With all the anger underneath his skin, Bruce did some breathing exercises so that he wouldn’t end up destroying anything important.
“Thank you, Alfred. What is your prognosis for Jason?”
“None of the injuries will harm him in the long run. However, he will most likely end up being in a lot of pain for the following weeks while he recovers.”
Bruce suddenly stood up. He wouldn’t let this situation stand. Whomever it was that had the audacity to enter his home, hurt Jason and steal what little remains of Tim, would be caught. He had to make sure of it.
“Call Damian.”
“Alright Master Bruce, what should I tell him?”
“Tell him that the manor has been invaded, Jason has been knocked out by the intruder and several items were stolen or destroyed.”
Alfred nodded as Bruce went to the Batcomputer to pull up camera footage. To his surprise, there was no indication of anything that might have happened. The footage was tampered with.
With ease, Bruce had managed to determine the footage was that of last week. Attempting to recover anything was fruitless as all the cameras were disabled. That made Bruce’s fury grow even stronger, given what can be deduced from a criminal with such abilities.
He stormed up towards the crime scene, ready to discover everything from this criminal.
The first thing he noticed was a bloody letter opener thrown behind one of the hallway’s vases. He didn’t remember Jason having any sort of stab wound, tough he had to check. It was possible that this letter opener would be the key to the intruder’s identity.
He made his way back downstairs to Alfred, as the old man still stood by Jason’s side.
“Did Jason have any stab wounds?”
The butler looked up.
“No, he did not sir. Why do you ask that?”
Bruce showed the him the blood.
“I will perform a test. Have you heard from Damian?”
“He is making his way here sir.”
Bruce went to perform the test. It would be a while before the results should come, but he had to try and find him.
The sound of a bicycle echoed in the cave as Bruce made his way to greet Damian.
“Son-”
“Where is he?”
Damian was sweating, and nervous.
“He’s in the med bay.”
Damian immediately took off away from where he hastily deposited his bike.
Bruce went upstairs again to investigate.
There were signs of the struggle in the hall. Footprints, damage in the walls and several items in the floor. Tim’s room was truly destroyed. Nothing of him remained there anymore other than the bedding. Bruce left feeling a horrible dread, he went towards the old living room.
In the fireplace stood unrecognizable burnt papers, the remains of the documents Bruce had of Tim, alongside the photo album. One of his most prized possessions. It was full of photos of Batman with Damian as Robin. They were sneakily taken by Tim, hiding from them. On the final page of the album sat an envelope. Inside it was a photo. Bruce standing tall with a smile. The Drakes, holding a tiny Tim with the biggest smile in the world looking at a very young Damian who scowled at the photographer. Bruce had that photo memorized alongside the message written in its backside.
Thank you very much for the invitation,
Tim has had the time of his life.
He begged us to send you a copy of this photograph.
He looks forward to seeing both of you again.
Happy holidays,
Janet Drake.
Tim had remarked that the original one went missing, probably destroyed, and only the copy remained. Bruce and Damian were the only people in this photo who were still alive.
He didn’t even notice his hands were shaking as he held the remains when Damian came to admonish him. Damian had just opened his mouth when he noticed a tear falling from Bruce’s eye, the man brought an ash filled hand to wipe it away and what remained of the album fell on the floor.
Damian looked and recognized what those burnt pages were and shook slightly. He opened his mouth and spoke softly.
“Jason is awake, father.”
A son accompanied his father. Bruce was clearly struggling to put himself back together again after what just happened.
They calmly made their way toward the med bay, where they found Jason crying.
“Dad…”
Jason said in between sobs. Bruce hugged him lightly as to not aggravate his injuries.
“I couldn’t. I-I’m sorry. I tried-”
Bruce shushed him.
“It’s not your fault. It will all be okay.”
“No, it won’t, I tried. I did; I really did. I promise you.”
“I believe you Jaylad.”
Bruce continued to stand with Jason is his arms. He slowly pulled away and began to tell what had happened.
“I knew something was wrong when I got home… I-I should have called you and stayed away. But I thought that he was stealing something, and I couldn’t let him get away with t-that.”
Jason told the three of them what happened. The discovery of the intruder. Grabbing things to defend himself and getting to the second floor. Alongside the confrontation, his sudden change in demeanor and the moment he lost consciousness.
“A-And Alfie told me-”
Jason said between sobs.
“What he did to Tim’s stuff. A-A-And…”
Bruce held Jason as he cried hard.
“I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry.”
Damian went to the other side and held Jason’s hand.
“It’s not your fault.”
A small notification sound alerted all of them. Damian went away towards the Batcomputer.
Bruce continued to assure Jason when he heard Damian gasp.
“I’ll be right back. I love you, you know that?”
A small smile appeared on Jason’s face.
“I love you too dad.”
Bruce left to check the identity of the monster who did this. Damian stood there frozen in front of the screen. Bruce froze too as he read what the screen displayed.
DNA match
99.98%
Surname: DRAKE
Name: TIMOTHY JACKSON