#but they take robin! bruce takes away Dick Grayson. like his birth name. gone for the agent 37 stuff

[hinokas-abs]

my number one flaw as a dc fan is that i’m a dc fan. my second is that i’m just a massive hater

[bluejaysandblackbats]

Eyes and Ears

Fandom: DC Comics, Batfam

Summary: An AU where Barbara finds Jason instead of Bruce.

Chapters: 3/?

Characters: Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon, Jim Gordon, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Sheila Haywood, Original Character(s)

Relationship(s): Jason Todd/Original Character(s), Past Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson

Additional Tags: Canon Divergent AU, Older SIbling Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd-centric, Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Jason Todd is NOT Robin, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Has a Crush, Adopted Siblings

Chapter Three: Michigan Style

When Barbara and Jason got home, Jim was gone. He'd left a note saying that he would be back late. Jason and Barbara had dinner, and she went out as Batgirl. Jason tried to sleep, but he found himself tossing and turning. Jason rolled out of bed and went to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea. He warmed the milk on the stove, and he read through one of his library books. Jim came in from work and locked eyes with Jason. "Oh, hey there. I wanted to talk to you..."

Jason's heart dropped into the pit of his stomach, and he swallowed hard. "You want me to leave?" Jason asked. Jim shook his head.

"No, I don't want you to leave, son... I just wanted to know if you knew where your birth certificate was," Jim replied. Jason shook his head. "Well, Jason... The thing is, I went looking for it, and I found it. Eleven-forty-nine p.m. in Gotham City Hospital—."

"Yeah," Jason interrupted to move Jim forward.

"What is your mother's name?" Jim asked.

"Catherine," Jason answered. Jim took a deep breath. "That's her name. I'm not lying," Jason raised his voice slightly, and Jim gestured for him to keep his volume down.

"No, I know you're not lying. I just wanted to make this easy on you... I just don't know how to put it. Jason, your mother's name is Sheila Haywood—."

"So what if she went by a different name? It doesn't mean—."

"I don't think you understand. Sheila Haywood is a different person, and that after a bit of digging, I found out that she has been missing since you were a baby," Jim whispered, "Jason... Look—."

Jason's head started to spin, and he turned the fire off on the stove and went back to his room to lie down. Jim turned the milk on and finished making the tea. He made two cups and knocked on Jason's door. "Jason, it's chamomile," Jim whispered. Jason took a shaky breath and wiped tears from his eyes. "I'm so sorry, son..."

"Catherine is my mom," Jason cried as he faced the wall. Jim crouched by Jason's bed and sat the mug down on Jason's nightstand.

"Yes, yes she is. Jason, nothing changes that... It's just that I wanted you to know because if I do find her—."

"Why do you think she disappeared?" Jason asked as he sat up and wiped his tears away. Jim waited for Jason to take a sip of his tea.

"I don't know," Jim whispered. Jason continued to sip his tea, and Jim wrung his hands. "Babs said you went to work with her. How was that?"

Jason shrugged. "What'd she say to you? How'd she make you let me stay here?" Jason asked. Jim smiled.

"She said that someone has to look out for you... You know she must see something special in you to fight for you like that," Jim answered him. "I want you to know that this can be your home too if you want it to be."

Jason set the mug on the nightstand and lay down facing Jim. "We'll see, Commissioner... We'll see," Jason mumbled.

"Goodnight," Jim murmured.

Jason drifted off to sleep only to be startled awake by Barbara. "Hush... Jason, shh," Barbara whispered. Jason clutched his chest and grimaced at her.

"What?" he mouthed angrily.

"I thought you were crying, so I came to wake you up. I'm sorry," Barbara apologized. Jason closed his eyes and sank back into his pillow. Barbara fixed his blankets and went back across the hall.

Jason slept until noon the next day, and when he woke up, he searched for Barbara but found Jim instead. "Babs is at work, so it's just you and me for right now," Jim explained. Jason's face went grim. "I was just about to sit and watch tv... D'you like action movies?"

Jason nodded. "I'm gonna go brush my teeth," Jason replied. Jim nodded. "Hey... If you find her, would it be okay for me to meet her?"

Jim nodded. "If I find Sheila, I wouldn't think to keep you from her," Jim replied. Jason grinned and turned back, and went to the bathroom. Jim went to the kitchen, boiled hot dogs, and put on a can of chili. He wasn't quite sure what to say to Jason, but he had to admit it did feel nice to have a child in the house.

Jason stepped out of the bathroom and met Jim in the kitchen. "Can I help?" Jason asked. Jim nodded.

"Wanna get the chips and put the sodas on the table?" Jim requested. "You look a lot like him."

"I know... Everyone says I look like him," Jason mumbled. He hated to hear it most of the time, but he had to admit it was nice for Jim to acknowledge that Jason had a family before he got there. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"You're just a kid... And I know how easy it can be to get into trouble as a kid when there's no one to look after you," Jim explained. Jason cocked his head. "Don't look at me like that. I got in my fair share of trouble when I was your age." Jim chuckled, and Jason grinned. "What'd you say to Babs to get her to like you so much?"

"I don't know... I wish I did. She sort of tricked me into coming here, but I'm glad she did," Jason answered with a sweet-natured shrug.

Jim stirred the chili and shrugged in return. "Is the movie rated R?" Jason asked, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.

"PG-13," Jim held back his laugh as he made their chili dogs and put them on a platter. "Do you wanna get two plates for the table?"

Jason nodded and grabbed the plates, and set them down on the coffee table. Jim set the platter down and turned the movie on. Jason started eating, and Jim poured a few chips onto Jason's plate. "He's odd, isn't he?" Jim asked, and Jason giggled. They both started laughing. "Wanna finish off the chili?"

Jason nodded, and Jim got up and went to the kitchen. "Want me to pause the movie?" Jason asked. Jim shook his head, and Jason poured a few more chips onto their plates. Jim gave Jason a bowl of chili, and they went back to watching the movie.

When they were more than halfway through the movie, Jim got a call from Barbara. "Hey, Pumpkin," Jim greeted her.

"Is Jason okay?" Barbara asked. "I didn't want to wake him up again... Otherwise I would've taken him with me—."

"We're just watching a movie," Jim paused and glanced over at Jason. "It's Barbara. She wants to know if you're doing alright." Jason smiled at him.

"Tell her I'm having fun," Jason smiled. Jim grinned and nodded.

"He said he's having fun," Jim repeated for Barbara.

"That's good... Um, I'm sorry you had to watch him on your day off," she apologized.

"Don't worry about it. Jason's great," Jim reassured her. She let out a sigh of relief. "Don't worry. He's fine. Enjoy your lunch."

"Thanks, Dad. See you later," Barbara replied before hanging up. Jim looked over at Jason.

"Like it or not, I think you've got yourself a sister," Jim joked, "She was worried about you."

Jason looked up from his bowl of chili, and he wanted to say something, but he couldn't find the right words. "You said I was great," Jason whispered, "Is she worried that I'll get on your nerves?"

Jim shook his head. "No, I think she's worried that I'll get on your nerves. Or maybe she's afraid she'll come back, and you'll be old and boring like me," Jim joked. Jason snorted before letting out a laugh. "See, I told Babs I was funny." Jason shook his head.

"Just old," Jason joked, and Jim playfully nudged him.

They finished watching the movie, and Jason offered to do the dishes. Jim said no at first, but Jason insisted. While Jason cleaned up, Jim started preparing dinner.

"This is nice... I wasn't sure if I should say anything at first, but with Barbara being so busy sometimes, it's nice to have another kid in the house," Jim confessed. Jason frowned, and Jim thought that he'd said something wrong.

Jason wanted it to feel normal, but he knew how good new things could seem. He knew how horrible things could get once the newness faded, so he said nothing.

[soulmate-game]

Part 2: The same prompt, but Siblings this time

Tim paused the video on his computer, the red figure on it in mid-leap off of a building. Be rewound the video, played it, paused again at the same time stamp.

No, his eyes were not deceiving him. The video was not doctored.

So what the hell was going on?

“Hey Timmie, find anything on that Paris situation Bruce asked you to look into?” Dick’s voice made Tim startle, nearly spilling his coffee all over the keyboard and possibly deleting his hard-earned research. Rescuing his lifeblood from certain doom, he hugged his mug to his chest and glared at his older brother for a second. Dick was not in the least bothered, used to this sort of reaction from the younger detective. Dick just grinned, leaning on the back of Tim’s chair and looking up at the images on the large computer screen above them. He whistled lowly, impressed. “You’ve made a lot of progress, nice! Anything you wanna share with me before the debrief tonight?”

Tim clenched and unclenched his jaw, weighing his options. Dick waited patiently, knowing that sometimes Tim needed a minute to sort through his rapid-forming thoughts. Finally Tim sighed, setting down his mug grimly.

“Actually, yes,” he admitted. Tim’s tense tone immediately made Dick stiffen, straightening up. His eyebrows pulled down, and he returned his gaze to the computer.

“Okay, that’s your serious voice. What is it?”

“I… need your confirmation with something,” Tim turned around and looked straight at Dick. And he hesitated again, because certain… past interactions with his eldest brother once again flashed through his head. The entire Bruce-is-alive and being threatened with Arkham interaction, to be specific. But Tim needed to know the truth, it was his fatal flaw he supposed. He couldn’t back away in fear of how Dick might react.

“Ohhhhkay?” Dick just grew more and more concerned the longer that Tim took to actually speak.

“So, just to recap. There are only four people in history who have been able to do a quadruple somersault, right?” Tim asked, knowing full well the answer. Dick, predictably, shifted and grew even more on alert at the inquiry. He knew that couldn’t mean anything good. His jaw clenched, and his hands formed tight fists. But Dick also remembered the Bruce incident with Tim all that time ago, and he didn’t want to repeat his mistakes. So he forced himself to take a deep breath, and shake himself away from jumping to conclusions.

“Yeah,” Dick nodded. “Me, my parents, and my sister,” he confirmed rigidly. Tim nodded, and then rewound the video on the screen again, nodding to show that Dick should focus on it.

“Okay. But watch this,” Tim suggested, starting the video again. Dick watched as the red and black-spotted heroine of Paris, Ladybug, zipped through the air and around buildings with her yo-yo. He watched as she let go, at a height that even a normal person could manage, and executed four perfect somersaults in mid-air before landing nimbly on the ground. Tim paused the video again, his eyes never leaving Dick’s tense face.

“It isn’t doctored,” Tim said, filling the silence and preemptively answering the questions he knew he would get. “I checked. Magic is involved, but Constantine and Zatanna both confirmed it would have no hold over basic physical abilities like flexibility or… gymnastics. Only specifically combat styles used by past Ladybugs can be transferred magically to the next Ladybug, not this.”

“Tim,” Dick’s voice was terrifyingly blank. “What are you suggesting?”

“Nothing yet,” Tim was quick to hold up his hands in surrender. “I’m still doing research. It’s possible, though extremely unlikely, that she managed to teach herself how to do that. You tell me, Dick, how likely is it?”

Dick swallowed, not wanting to say it but knowing he had to look at the facts. “... At her age? Next to impossible,” he admitted. “She could learn it, theoretically, as young as seven or eight, but only if someone who knew what they were doing taught her since she was about three.”

Tim nodded again. He knew those numbers, he knew where they came from.

“Then— and this is only a theory right now— we have what I think is the more plausible scenario,” Tim swallowed. This was the hard part. “Your sister was kidnapped after your parent’s death, but the body that was found wasn’t actually her’s. It wasn’t in a state to be physically identified, so—“

“I know what state it was in, Tim!” Dick snapped, forcing himself to take a few steps back and just breath. Even now, the image of a tiny body burned beyond recognition was burned into the inside of his eyelids, there to taunt him whenever he blinked or slept and let his mind wander in just the wrong direction. She would be… what, Jason’s age, now? She was seven… only seven, when their parents died and she ran off into the Gotham streets in despair. When she was kidnapped, as is what happens in Gotham.

When Dick was presented with a body he could not say WASN’T her’s a week later.

“The DNA…” Dick tried. “They said…”

“I know,” Tim’s voice was carefully soft. “But the records on your family’s DNA were all kept by the circus back then. The Talons had access to those files. It’s very possible they were tampered with. Switched. It wouldn’t be hard for them to burn your sister’s actual medical files and replace them with forged copies that had someone else’s DNA on them. The data of the girl who actually died.”

Dick closed his eyes, shaking his head. He didn’t want to hope, it would hurt too much if Tim was wrong.

Tim had been right about more unlikely things than this, a voice in the back of his head whispered. And yeah, that was true. But Dick was still too scared to hope.

“Finish your research, Tim,” Dick’s voice was strained with suppressed emotion. He couldn’t even look at the younger vigilante as he left the Cave. “Find out who Ladybug’s civilian persona is, and then we’ll talk.”

Tim could only sigh in relief when Dick was gone. That could have gone much worse.

—*—*—*—*—*

A week later, the entire family was gathered. This was the full debrief on the Paris case, rather than the progress update that they had had to do before. Research took longer than Tim had expected, he had years of data to go through after all. But he had come away with exactly what he had been looking for.

After running through the overall situation and where the fight against HawkMoth was at in the present day, Tim licked his lips and took a deep breath. This was it, the Who-Is-Ladybug part.

“I was able to get security footage of her detransformation, just one lucky shot from ten years ago, when this whole thing began,” he prefaced. “She was thirteen years old, and untrained as far as heroism goes, so it stands to reason she didn’t know yet how to be properly careful about transforming. This is that security picture,” he carefully put the enlarged picture up on the Batcomputer, as well as sliding a physical copy onto the table for everyone to pass around.

Dick didn’t even try to grab it, his eyes glued to the computer, expression unreadable. The picture was a little grainy, but most of the girl’s face could be made out. Pigtails, dark black hair that shimmered blue in direct light, blue eyes.

But it was the next picture that Tim pulled up that pushed everything over the edge.

“These are the official pictures of her that I was able to get from Paris records. This first picture is of her at the same age at the security footage, thirteen. The second picture is her now, age twenty-three,” Tim said, before the side-by-side came up on the screen. Tim’s eyes slid over to Dick, who was frozen in his seat, just staring at the images silently. He wasn’t even breathing.

“Dick?” Bruce asked, immediately noticing the behavior. His eyebrows furrowed. “Are you alright?”

Dick’s next breath came in with a shudder, and he clenched his eyes shut in a futile attempt to stop the tears that came out. He choked out a broken chuckle, shaking his head and giving out a lopsided, watery grin.

“Heh. Another point for Timmy being right,” Dick jokes weakly, rubbing at his eyes.

“What do you mean? Tim?” Bruce turned to the younger of the two insistently. “What’s going on? Who is she?”

“Currently, according to Parisian records, she is Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Tim told them. “More specifically, her full name is Marinette Gray Dupain-Cheng. Which I believe is what she chose to change her name to after she was kidnapped sixteen years ago from right outside Haley’s Circus, and illegally transported to France,” Tim clicked another button to bring up a third picture in the side-by-side. It was of someone who was clearly a younger Marinette, but in the very familiar costume of the Flying Graysons, standing right next to a twelve-year old version of Dick. “Because her birth name is Marie Natalia Grayson. Dick’s younger sister, who until now was presumed dead. But I was able to confirm that the medical records back then for Marie were forged, and the information on them could not actually belong to her. The body that was presented as Marie’s… was a red herring to hide that Marie was no longer in America at all.”

Dick’s sob-laugh drew everyone’s attention back to the first Robin, who was now silently, openly, crying. Nobody really knew how to deal with that, and the room descended into awkward silence as Dick tried to regain his composure a little.

“Marinette… Gray,” he whispered, chuckling again and shaking his head as he wiped at his cheeks. “That idiot… her ability with subtlety hasn’t gotten any better, that’s for sure,” he was smiling now, still staring at the pictures of Marinette on the screen. Of his beautiful little sister, all grown up and not buried six feet under like he had thought for far too long.

Because this was different from Hope. This was certainty. The face, the far too on-the-nose name, the somersaults, Dick had even noticed it in the way she swung on her yo-yo. The body memory from years of Trapeze, those little quirks he recognized as belonging to his sister that he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge. But now, all together, he could admit to himself that it was her. It was really her.

Could it be a clone? Maybe. Maybe. But that was why Dick snuck out to France the very next day, informing absolutely nobody.

Because he had a test that only the real Marie would be able to pass.

—*—*—*—*—*

"How did you- No, nevermind, I don't want to know, plausible deniability and all that,” the deep, unfamiliar male voice made Marinette squeak in shock, nearly dropping the phone in her hands. She leaned so far to her right that she almost fell over, but her nearly perfect balance (that only failed her when she was nervous or self conscious) kept her upright.

Her eyes darted down to her phone screen, where an app that Max had helped her create was opened. It utilized at least five hundred little fly-shaped drones that Markov managed and kept track of to scan the city for corrupted butterflies and recognize the level of stress or other negative emotions that civilians were experiencing. It cut down severely on patrol time that the crew had to do, making it easier for them to balance their hero and civilian lives and also allowed for them to arrive at the scene of Akuma attacks twice as fast as before— along with helping with the original purpose of catching evidence to use against Hawkmoth, of course.

Marinette straightened her back, smiling sheepishly and closing out the app. She had just been making a routine check, it had only been open for a minute. How had he managed to sneak up on her in that time? Only chat could do that anymore.

That is, until Marinette turned around the rest of the way and got a good look at the man. Her eyes widened— what was Nightwing, a vigilante from Gotham, doing there?

“I don’t see what plausible deniability has to do with anything,” she replied in easy, unaccented English. She might not speak it often, but she did stay in practice. Even now a lot of her fashion notes and thoughts were in either English or Romani. “It’s just a game app that my friend created,” the practiced lie flew easily past her lips, and she was able to even smile confidently and begin to happily ramble about Max’s (public) achievements like she would in any normal situation. “It is still in the test phase of course, but it uses virtual reality and mapping technology to create a treasure hunt sort of adventure game that people can do as they walk around. Like Pokémon go, but with real-time footage of the city— with people not included besides the game characters of course— and it rewards caution as well as keeping active,” she explained their cover story for the app happily. But Nightwing only smiled easily at her with his arms crossed, clearly not believing a single word.

“Ah— but that probably isn’t interesting,” Marinette purposely stuttered, turning her face into one of (surprisingly genuine) confusion as she looked at the vigilante. “What are you here for anyway, Monsieur? This doesn’t seem like—“

“I have a riddle that a friend of mine told me to ask you,” he interrupted, instantly putting Marinette on guard. She took a step back, eyebrows pulling down at the odd request. But still, she chuckled nervously and shrugged. She had to maintain appearances after all.

“Uh, sure..? Riddles are fun, in the right circumstances I guess.”

Nightwing beamed happily, nearly blinding the poor girl. “Awesome!” His next words came out in fluent Romani though: “If a Hummingbird ever gets lost, what kind of animal will track it down?”

Marinette’s mouth went dry, her shoulders dropping. Her mouth opened and closed, the shock of the question leaving her unable to even pretend she didn’t understand exactly what was said. Nightwing’s gaze grew more intense, yet his smile got impossibly soft.

Marinette swallowed thickly, and she took a deep breath before responding in Romani: “You shouldn’t— only one person—“

“That doesn’t answer the riddle, ma’am.”

Marinette’s confusion turned into a harsh glare. “He would never tell someone else to ask me that. What are you trying to play at, Nightwing?” She hissed harshly, still in her native language.

“Listen, Marinette,” Nightwing held up both hands to try to calm her down. It did the opposite, making her take another step back. “Batman and the rest of our team has been looking into the Hawkmoth security—“ Marinette cursed, clearly seeing where this was going. “— We believe he found out who Ladybug is. But, we also found signs that your real name is—“

“Shut up!” She yelled in English, fists clenched tightly. Luckily she had gone into an alleyway to check her phone, or else they would be attracting attention by then. Her eyes sparked with anger. “You don’t get to use that name. And if you’re so smart,” Marinette tucked her phone into her purse and scaled the wall next to her nimbly, perching on the roof as Nightwing cursed and began to follow her. “Then try to predict my moves, birdy.”

It only took a few minutes and crossed rooftops for Marinette to call on her transformation and pick up speed. She knew by then that Nightwing, and probably the other Bats too, already found her out. Not ideal, but manageable. Now she wanted to show him why he shouldn’t come into her territory and dig into her past and think he could get away with it.

Somewhere during the chase, more Bats appeared one by one. Judging by what Ladybug was able to overhear, they had come as soon as they realized where Nightwing had snuck off to.

That made Marinette pause from where she hid behind a sloped roof, in the middle of a call to her own teammates. Nightwing hadn’t come on his team’s orders?

Why the hell had he come, then?

She shook thought thoughts away, focusing on her plan. Paris was her city, and she would make sure the Bats learned their lesson when it came to sticking their nose in Parisian business.

“Bug?” The soft, concerned call came from her yo-yo and pulled her from her contemplating. Max, in full Pegasus attire, was frowning at her in worry on the small screen. She just shook her head at him.

“I’m fine, Peg. Just don’t like how this feels like Gotham ruining my life again,” she remarked sourly. “But I’m fine. Start plan We’re Not Kids.”

Max nodded, but rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like; “even though we made this plan when we actually were kids…”

A portal opened in the air a few seconds later, releasing Honeybee in all her gold and black glory. The winged hero zipped through the air, immediately putting team Miraculous at an advantage since team Bat didn’t want to actually harm them.

It took a glorious five seconds for Honeybee to paralyze them all before Tortoise dropped out from another portal and surrounded the temporarily paralyzed vigilantes in a dome shield that kept them in just as easily as it kept everything else out.

One by one, Marinette’s teammates dropped out of more portals until Pegasus himself joined them. Ladybug took that as her que to come out, leaping over her hiding place to land in front of her friends, who had formed a half-circle in front of the trapped dome.

“Vixen,” she called to the fox-themed hero, whose ears twitched before she straightened to attention. “Create an illusion to hide us. The last thing we need are any pictures or anyone asking questions.”

“Got it!” Vixen agreed easily, raising her flute to her lips. A short melody later, and their surroundings warped. To those inside the illusion, it seemed as if the world merely ended off of the rooftop they were on, into only blankness. Outside, that very rooftop appeared empty.

It was then that Chat Noir stepped up to take Ladybug’s side, his acidic green eyes scanning over the Gotham vigilantes trapped inside Tortoise’s protective barrier.

“You can release the paralysis, Honeybee,” his order was noticeably softer than Ladybug’s clear commands. It was obvious that he was the deputy in this situation, the flexibility to Ladybug’s iron leadership. That was when the red clad hero crossed her arm, resuming control of the situation wordlessly. The Gotham heroes briefly glowed gold as Honeybee let their paralysis begin to gradually wear off.

“Paris is my city,” Ladybug’s voice was at a normal volume, but came out with such auditory steel that it was clear she expected to be listened to, or she’d know why. “If I needed or wanted your help, I would have asked for it. Now, if you had come here normally to offer aid, then we might be having a different discussion right now,” her eyes narrowed further. “But you dug into my past. You violated my privacy. And Nightwing, you crossed a line,” she would have continued if the blue and black clad hero didn’t use his sudden ability to move to rip off his mask.

Marinette’s voice died in her throat, and for a while she thought she might be hallucinating. Those eyes, that face— she knew them. She knew them, because she saw them whenever she dared close her eyes. Because the dreams she had, the dreams that made her never want to drag herself out of bed because she wanted to believe those dreams were real so badly, always contained those eyes. And that face, though it had been much younger in her memories.

She stumbled, and only Chat’s presence at her side kept her from toppling right over.

“Bugaboo?” He asked frantically, distraught. She just shook her head dazedly, pushing herself back to her feet and away from her partner.

“I’m fine, Chat. Just…,” she assured her partner, but her eyes never left Nightwing. She licked her lips nervously, before continuing; “... Bluebird,” she whispered, making Nightwing’s eyes widen. Her brother’s eyes. “That’s the answer to the riddle, right?”

Slowly, a wide smile split his face before he began to laugh happily, despite Robin slapping Nightwing’s mask back on his face with a furious grumble.

“Ladybug?” Tortoise asked, stepping up to her other side cautiously. Seeing as they were all adults now, none of them had to worry about time or power limits anymore. “Are you..?”

“Release the shield,” she ordered instead of answering, her eyes clearly damp behind her mask. “I need to strangle my idiotic older brother for scaring the hell out of me.”

That made the rest of her team make their various exclamations of shock, but Chat and Tortoise stayed silent. Chat just put a hand on Ladybug’s shoulder in support, while Tortoise zipped his wide gaze back to Nightwing before sighing and releasing his ability.

“Only you, Bug,” the green clad hero groused playfully. “Only you.”

If Marinette Dupain-Cheng suddenly introduced her long-lost brother to her closest friends and family that same night, nobody voiced the coincidence out loud.

—*—*—*—*—*

Part 1: Romance

Part 3: Bio!Parent

[fancyfade]

so ive been debating editing chapter 3 on my fanfic to make 1 scene line up more from canon. (chapter 3 is this one, where the characters deal with the aftermath of battle for the cowl, Tim finds out Damian’s Robin, and Dick and Damian move to the penthouse)

I’m debating making the Tim finding out Damian’s Robin scene a little more canon compliant along what happened in Red Robin (link) for a few reasons, the main of which is in the scenes that I’m writing next (like... chapter 47 lol), Tim and Dick do have to talk about what transpired when Dick made Damian Robin. Potential reasons for change

In my fic Tim kind of just left on his own without a push, but I’m not sure if Tim would have left on such bad terms if there wasn’t the complication of Damian antagonizing him and him feeling as if Dick was picking Damian over him (even though in the comic we saw Dick trying to de-escalate and get Tim’s back, it still felt that way to Tim)

I dislike the way some of this was handled in the comic and I can’t really comment on it in my fic if I just retcon it out

it seems fair-er I guess if Tim is allowed to have flaws just like Cass and Damian and Dick all have flaws in this fic. i know many tim stans think otherwise, but punching a ten-year-old victim of child abuse in the face out of anger is wrong.

the con side is obviously this involves Damian getting hit and that kid has been through so much already. I’m really trying to figure out how it works with character dynamics vs like. give the poor kid a break-ness.

anyway if I did decide to replace the current chapter 3, this is what it would be replaced with (only the first scene, the second would be the same). If you are a reader of the fic feel free to leave your comments. I would do an “oh and I edited chapter 3″ note before the relevant stuff was mentioned if I go through with this, I wouldn’t like expect everyone to know what happened. Some of the dialogue is not like exactly like in canon (cuz thats boring and also to match with what I wrote the first time) but the feeling/ beats should be similar

Gotham’s finally had a bit of lull in the violence, and Dick is just wondering how he’s going to do this.

He’s accepted that Damian’s his responsibility – seeing the kid shot in the chest made that perfectly clear, as much as he would’ve liked it to be otherwise. He felt like he was way too young to be watching out for a kid in any capacity other than cool older brother, especially a kid who’s as difficult to get along with as Damian. He was a great fighter, of course, and he knew it – Dick’s not sure he’s ever heard the kid be humble about anything. To make things worse, Dick feels like he’s constantly stuck in the middle between Damian and the kid he actually views as his younger brother – Tim, who Damian tried to kill. Evidence in point:

“Robin?!” Tim asks once he’s gotten back on his feet and Dick's explained his plan – away from Damian, who's still recovering from surgery.

“You made Damian Robin?!” Tim asks again.

Dick sighs. He’s in the cave, in a Batman costume he feels doesn’t fit right at all with the cowl off, and Tim’s still in his regular clothes. He has no idea how to explain this to Tim – no idea how to make him feel like he’s not being replaced. Dick never wanted to be the one doing the replacing – he remembers how much it hurt to find out that Jason was Robin from the papers, and that was after he officially stopped being Robin. Tim never quit – and Dick’s not about to make him – but he has to come home to the guy who tried to kill him getting his name.

“Tim, I know this looks bad, but Damian needs this.”

“Remember when we thought Bruce was going to retire after Crisis?” Tim asks. “Batman and Robin was supposed to be us. You and me. Not you and the psychopath that tried to kill me.”

“Tim, you’re not my sidekick, you’re my partner – ” Dick takes a step towards Tim with his hand out, prepared to offer sympathy, but Tim shakes him off angrily.

“Obviously not!”

“And Damian needs me way more than you do. If we don’t keep an eye on him, he’s going to kill again.”

Tim scowls intensely. “That should really not be an endorsement for being Robin, Dick! He’s a killer! He belongs in jail!” Tim swallows a little and then lowers his voice out of shouting range. “Dick, he didn’t try to kill me because he for some reason thought it was the only way to stop me from doing something bad, as far as I can tell he just wanted to replace me. We’re talking about someone with absolutely no sense of right or wrong.”

“Of course he doesn’t have a sense of right or wrong. He’s a ten-year-old child who was raised as an assassin from birth!”

“Lots of our villains have really sad or sympathetic reasons for doing crime, that doesn’t mean we team up with them.”

“Are you serious?” Dick asks. “This isn’t the same, Tim.”

“How not?”

“Well for one,” calls Damian's voice from the stairs, and Dick can't help but cringe and think not now – “I'm a lot better than them.”

Dick's cringe only intensifies when he turns around to see what Damian is wearing. His new Robin costume.

Tim's hands clench into fists the instant he sees Damian. Dick knows he has to de-escalate things quick before Tim and Damian have another fight.

“Damian,” Dick says, trying to keep himself carefully neutral-sounding. “Shouldn't you be resting?”

Damian lifts his head up slightly so his nose is in the air, and walks down the stairs almost normally. There's only a little hesitation in the twist of his torso, a little stiffness of his right arm.

Either he's zoned out of his mind on painkillers or depressingly good at masking his pain for a ten-year-old.

“Please,” Damian says. “I was trained in the League of Shadows. Do you really think an over-the-hill ex-Robin could put me down?”

Tim's fist clenches further, and so Dick says, letting a bit more urgency slip into his voice, “Damian, shut up. Now.”

Damian puts his left hand on his hips and looks intentionally at Tim. He adds, “I'm not Drake – ”

He's barely got the word out before Tim leaps forward and punches him in the face. Dick's out of his seat, grabbing Tim to hold him back, who is still distressingly struggling against him, like he wants to keep up the assault despite the fact that Damian fell to the floor.

“My name is Tim Wayne!” Tim shouts as Dick is still holding him back.

Damian gingerly sits up. Dick prepares to release Tim, prepares to stop Damian if he has to, if he decides to get revenge. But he doesn't. He just briefly braces his right side with his left hand before wiping the blood off his face.

“I let you get that shot in, Drake,” Damian says, again dropping intentional emphasis on Tim's original last name.

As he does, Tim struggles forward.

“Tim, back off!” Dick says, because Tim still isn't cooling down –

“I want you to feel good about yourself,” Damian continues.

Tim seems to relax his stance slightly, so Dick, possibly in an error of judgment, lets Tim go. But Tim doesn't try to attack Damian again, he just shakes Dick off and starts stomping away. “You want me to back off? Fine.”

He's going for the exit.

If he leaves –

Dick can't chase him. He's not sure that he can leave Damian alone –

“Tim, wait!” Dick says, taking a step forward. “Bruce is gone. But I still need you.”

“For what?” asks Damian and damn it is there anything this kid isn't going to try to ruin?

“Shut up, Damian,” Dick says again, even though as far as he knows he's just going to wind up pushing Damian away too –

And Tim leaves.

Dick turns to look at Damian. The kid's already back to his feet, like nothing happened, and Dick takes a step forward to inspect the injury – though he's really more worried about the gunshot wound than Tim's punch. Both Tim and Damian had wound up injured pretty badly during the chaos that gripped Gotham in the rumors of Batman’s death. As his new and not-improved version of Batman, Jason had tried to kill them both, which Dick is way less than pleased about. He’d been kind of hoping that they could talk Jason down, but this seems like a line he doesn’t know if Jason can ever un-cross. He shot a ten year old in the chest.

Damian grabs Dick's wrist as he reaches out.

“Are you all right?” Dick asks.

Damian scoffs. “You're worried about Drake? I've been hit harder sparring my mother.”

“I was thinking about the gunshot.” Alfred had said the primary damage was blood loss and a punctured lung (well, traumatic pneumothorax, but Dick knew what he meant) and given the kid a minimum of four weeks downtime to heal.

It's hard to tell due to the domino mask, but Damian adopts the position of a kid who's rolling their eyes, head slightly tilted to the side with a loll. “It's not enough to impersonate Batman, now you want to impersonate my mother?”

Dick doesn't know how to approach the mother thing, so he doesn't even try. He just explains the logic for being Batman – (and there is logic behind it. It's not like he wanted this). “Someone has to step up and convince Gotham things can get back to normal,” Dick says. “And serial killer Batman wasn't going to cut it.”

“Did you at least take care of him?” Damian asks.

Dick knows that Damian isn't actually worried about Jason's wellbeing, so he says, “Do you mean 'did I kill him'?”

“Tt. Obviously.”

“Obviously not.”

Damian presses his lips together in a thin line.

Dick might as well get this out of the way now. He's going to have to sometime. “Alfred wants you out of the field for four weeks.”

“That's preposterous!” Damian shouts, and as he shouts, he coughs. He rubs his chest quickly and then glowers at Dick when he sees him staring.

“Damian, you could have died.”

“I didn’t.”

Jeez, doesn’t this kid have any sense of his own mortality? Though, Dick supposes, growing up around Lazarus Pits and a centuries old grandfather might make that impossible.

“I’m not a fool, Grayson, I know I’m not capable of healing instantaneously. I’ll take a break for one week,” he offers, like it’s a huge concession on his part.

“Four weeks,” Dick says.

“What about you?” Damian asks. “Didn’t you get injured?”

“Not as badly.”

“Are you taking a break?”

“Someone needs to convince Gotham that Batman’s not dead,” Dick says. Also, he doesn’t want to take a break. He doesn’t want to be alone with his thoughts. Losing Bruce. Failing Tim.

“Tt. Then I don’t need one either. I’m younger. I heal faster.”

Dick actually has no clue whether that’s true, because he’s not a doctor, but he knows that people usually say kids heal faster.

Dick swings his arms a little, trying to feel them out. They’re still stiff, and as they move, a jolt of pain shoots through him. Even when he’s not moving, his shoulder is still sore. He knows that he might get injured going into the field like this and that it’s not a smart decision – last time he went into the field while still healing, he wound up blowing his secret identity to Blockbuster.

He decides that at least if he’s going into the field, he won’t tell Barbara and Alfred about it. Okay, so that’s probably not the smartest of his plans. Most plans that you have to hide from people who care about you aren't smart.

“I’ll take a week long break with you,” Dick concedes. “And we can see how fast you���re healing.” The second part is a lie, of course. He's not going to supersede Alfred's orders on medical matters.

Dick sighs a little. He figures that while they’re both on bed-rest duty, though, he can try to figure out how to set things up so they can operate effectively once they get a clean bill of health.

“How do you feel about not living in the manor?” Dick asks.

“Kicking me out already?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I wouldn’t be living here either,” Dick says. It’s true. He’d rather not feel like he’s living in all of Bruce’s old places, wearing Bruce’s old costume, … replacing him, essentially. He needs a place he can clear his head.

“Where would you live then?” Damian asks skeptically.

Dick shrugs. “The penthouse, maybe. Bruce already made a bunker nearby, so we could operate out of there pretty easily.”

Damian narrows his eyes. “Why do you keep saying ‘we’?”

Because you are ten and not ready to live on your own. But Dick just says, “Well, you’re Robin now, right? That means you’re pretty much obligated to team up with Batman.”

“Batman isn’t here, Grayson. He never will be again, no matter how much you play dress-up.”

Charming kid. Like Dick didn’t already know that.

“You know I operate effectively alone, right?” Damian continues. “I don’t need to be hand-held and babysat like all of Father’s previous partners.”

Dick figures that it’d be a jerk move to remind Damian he just almost died and therefore really shouldn’t be on his own. Instead, he says, “Well, Alfred’s staying with me, so unless you want to get all your food and clean the house by yourself, you have to put up with me.”

“Tt . I don’t need a servant. I’ll just eat at restaurants.”

“On who’s money?”

“In the event of his death, my father’s assets should have transferred to me. His blood son.”

Oh boy. Dick rubs his face. “Does this have to be a thing, Damian? No one’s doubting your capacity to take care of yourself but I think it’d really be easier if we were operating out of the same building. “

A long silence on Damian’s part. “Fine,” he says eventually. “I’ll allow you to stay at my penthouse.”

My penthouse. Of course. But Dick takes it. “All right,” he says. “Let’s move in.”

[multiversecarnavep]

Her role in Harvey Dent's past was updated into the currently prominent Two-Face origin: Batman Annual #14 (1990), a story called "Eye of the Beholder."[9] In this story, it is revealed that Dent's father was an abusive alcoholic who would nightly play a game with his young son: "I'll flip a coin: if it's heads, I beat you. Tails, I don't." Dent spends a lifetime burying his rage and resentment, only to discover that the coin was two-headed all along. While Dent is torn between loving and resenting his father, Gilda clearly despises him; she scoffs that after a lifetime of abuse and cruelty, the only thing Dent's father ever gave him was a coin.

Gilda tries to comfort Dent as his sanity deteriorates. She pleads with him when, upon awakening from a nightmare, he races out of their bed in the middle of the night and goes to his office, "where it's safe". After Harvey is disfigured, Gilda visits him in the hospital to try to give him back the coin. It was in his pocket during the trial, and was also hit by some acid, scarring one side of the coin. She last appears in this story right after Two-Face murders his corrupt former assistant, Adrian Fields, tearfully explaining Dent's abuse history to Batman.

Gilda does not reappear until Secret Origins Special # 1,[10] where she (here named Grace) appears on a TV talk show focusing on Gotham's villains. She talks about a time when one of the criminals Dent put away as D.A. returned for revenge by taking her hostage. Two-Face eventually rescued her, beating the ex-con to the point of death, but holding off because Grace demanded he stop. This represents a rare case where Two-Face is not influenced by the coin, but rather by someone else's welfare. She tries once again to appeal to his "good" side, but fails. At the end of the interview, she professes her belief that, one day, Dent would return to her.

Gilda returns in Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice.[11] Here, she finds herself at odds with her now-ex-husband, as he believes their marriage failed because he was unable to give her children. She later marries Paul Janus, a reference to the Roman god of doors who had two faces, one facing forward, the other backward. Two-Face attempts to frame Janus as a criminal by kidnapping him and replacing him with a stand-in, whom Two-Face "disfigures" with makeup to make it look as if Janus has gone insane just as Two-Face had. Two-Face is eventually caught by Batman and sent away, and Gilda and Janus reunite. Years later, Gilda gives birth to twins named James and Luke, prompting Two-Face to escape once more and take the twins hostage, as he erroneously believes them to be conceived by Janus using an experimental fertility drug. The end of the book reveals a surprise twist; Batman learns from Gilda that Janus is not the father of Gilda's twins - Dent is. Some of his sperm had been frozen after a death threat had been made against him, and she used some of it to get pregnant. Batman uses this information to convince Dent to free the twins and turn himself in.[12]

Post-Zero HourEdit



Gilda Dent destroying incriminating evidence against her husband Harvey Dent in Batman: The Long Halloween. Art by Tim Sale.

After the events of Zero Hour: Crisis in Time, Gilda's entire history has been revised. She has a larger role and story arc in The Long Halloween,[13] a maxi-series that is part of Two-Face's origin in Batman Annual #14. During the nearly year-long story, a serial killer called Holiday systematically murders prominent gangsters. During the series, Gilda's marriage to Dent shows signs of strain; she wants to settle down and start a family, while he is obsessed with capturing Holiday. In a private monologue at the end, Gilda states that she was the original Holiday killer, having committed all of the murders up until New Year's Eve. Gilda indicates that Dent murdered Alberto Falcone on New Year's Eve, taking her place, and that he was the one responsible for the crimes from that point on. The confession is only known to readers, since Alberto confessed to all the Holiday murders upon his capture. Gilda destroys the evidence of her crimes and leaves Gotham City.

Due to the success of The Long Halloween, the events of the story have generally been accepted into continuity as the "official" story of Batman's early years, given that Zero Hour retconned the events of Batman: Year Two and rendered them non-canonical. In Batman: Dark Victory, the Calendar Man is about to reveal Holiday's true identity, but an enraged Two-Face cuts him off.

In Greg Rucka's novelization of Batman: No Man's Land, Dent thinks that Gilda is dead.

Post Infinite CrisisEdit

In the "One Year Later" story arc Batman: Face the Face, Dent mentions Gilda when recalling his past life, but the Two-Face persona states "No, Harvey. She's gone now".

During Dick Grayson's tenure as Batman, she appears standing over a wounded Harvey Dent. The Riddler reveals that she faked her death and was institutionalized following The Long Halloween, where she met Mario Falcone, who suffered a similar breakdown following the event of Dark Victory. After getting involved upon their release, Falcone kept Gilda like a prisoner, and she conspired with the Riddler to steal Two-Face's coin and entice him to rescue her. Knowing that Falcone was on Dent's tail, Gilda faked Harvey's death by appearing to shoot him at point-blank range. When they were finally reunited, she explained how much she missed him, and that she now believed in Two-Face as well as Harvey Dent. Feeling betrayed and manipulated, Two-Face tried to kill her, but hesitated, only to be stopped by Batman. To save Harvey, she shot Batman with a .22, knocking him out and allowing them both to escape. Her ultimate fate remains unknown, and Dick even expressed doubt that she was in fact the real Gilda Dent.[14]

New 52Edit

In the New 52 reboot, Gilda is a socialite that Bruce Wayne introduces to Harvey at a graduation party. She is killed in front of Harvey by Erin McKillen.

Other versionsEdit

FlashpointEdit

In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Harvey Dent has a wife and twin children. When the Joker kidnaps Dent's children, Mrs. Dent is emotional while her husband asks Thomas Wayne (the Batman of this timeline) for help in their search.[15]

In other mediaEdit

FilmEdit

A Victorian era version of Gilda appears briefly, without dialogue, in the animated adaptation of Gotham by Gaslight.

Gilda appears in the two part animated film Batman: The Long Halloween, voiced by Julie Nathanson.[16] In this version of events, Gilda takes the blame as the Holiday Killer, motivated by her anger at the Falcones after she had a past relationship with Alberto that ended with Falcone ending the marriage and forcing Gilda to get an abortion of her and Alberto's child.

TelevisionEdit

A character analogous to Gilda, Grace Lamont, appeared in Batman: The Animated Series, voiced by Murphy Cross. In the episode "Two-Face", she is D.A. Harvey Dent's fiancée. Alongside Dent's best friend Bruce Wayne, she watches helplessly as Dent loses his grip on sanity while going after gangster Rupert Thorne. After Dent is disfigured and becomes Two-Face, Thorne plots to use Grace against his new rival. A couple of Thorne's men disguise themselves as police officers and offer Grace a handheld tracking device, in case Two-Face ever approaches her. Two-Face eventually does, bringing her to his lair and wearing a scarf to cover his scars. She nearly succeeds in persuading Two-Face to reform, when Thorne's men show up, revealing that Grace inadvertently betrayed him. Nevertheless, Grace helps Batman and Two-Face fight off Thorne's men, and remains by his side as he is taken into custody with Thorne.

MiscellaneousEdit

Grace returned to animated continuity in the comic series The Batman and Robin Adventures issues # 1 and # 2, where the Joker manipulates Two-Face into thinking that Grace and Bruce are having an affair.[17] Two-Face abducts her and tries to kill Robin, but is ultimately thwarted when Grace jabs the jagged edge of the scarred coin into the disfigured side of his face. The story ends with the implication that their relationship is now damaged beyond repair.

Grace appears again in The Batman and Robin Adventures issue #22, in which Two-Face's life is thrown into chaos when he loses his coin during an unplanned breakout from Arkham Asylum, and is forced to replace it with a quarter. Little Jonni Infantino, the mastermind behind the breakout, threatens to hurt Grace if Two-Face doesn't provide information on one of Rupert Thorne's thugs, Weird Tony Hendra, whom Two-Face prosecuted as Harvey Dent.

[winterwolf0916]

{Nightshade} ☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

Dick Grayson x Nightshade! Reader

Requested by @palechick: Hi! Can you do a Dick Grayson Fluff for 31 ”You’re Alive!?” on the prompts list you reblogged? I’ve had the idea of the (S/O) being nightshade and disappearing for two years them coming back. I always thought it would be cute if she went missing when he was Robin and then came back to him being Nightwing. I’ve never had the guts to write it though.  This is such a long request sorry. 💕

Warning: Fluff and angst. 

A/n: ooooh! Love the angst requests <3 Forgive me if it isn’t the best or what you hoped. And forgive me that I took a while. I wasn’t too sure if she was a villain or hero, but I went by what I searched up. Hope you enjoy it love. 

Word count: 1768

“Hey bird brain.” You could tell he was rolling his eyes under the mask.

“What are you doing here?” You shrugged.

“Can’t say, snitches get stitches~”

As you lifted your hand, your powers formed large dark claws, hovering above your fingers.

“Don’t do this.” His hand was hovering over his utility belt. Your smirk grew as you threw your claws towards him.

You were in Gotham’s bank. And why were you there in the first place?

Harley

Ducking

Quinn

You both snuck out of the Suicide Squad facility for a “little fun.”

And by fun, she meant heading to Gotham’s bank and taking out cash.

Apparently she left you for her sake of escaping and not getting caught.

So here you are now, having a show down with one of the batbrats.

Well… your favorite one at least.

Dick Grayson.

Yep. You knew his identity and he to yours.

A few years ago, you both met at the library. A funny place to meet when he’s a hero and you’re a villian(ish).

You were the new girl and he was your guide that soon became to be your best friend.

That is until night time. That’s when things get intense and slightly (very) flirty.

Until one day, clay face barged into gotham academy because he needed a rich/young hostage to trade for cash.

And as Robin came into the picture, you knew he needed assistance.

It would sure ruin your reputation with the other villians in Gotham. But screw it because you can easily cover your tracks and its just one day.

So you helped/kicked ass.

After clayface was taken away, that’s when you both revealed who’s behind the mask.

~

“I really don’t want to hurt you, Nightshade.” He twirled his bostaff.

“Aww don’t get too soft with me-*sniff*- shit.”

He frowned before taking a whiff as well, causing his eyes to widen.

Fire

“You’ll take the two floors, I get everything above that.” You ordered. Sure you’re a bad guy but you couldn’t lie to yourself that hurting people isn’t your style. Especially infront of your crush. Dick.

Before you could teleport, a hand grabbed onto your forearm.

“Be careful, y/n.” He whispered, making sure no one hears.

“I’ll be back, I promise.” You grinned then left to the top floors.

After the hostages and the people were out of the building, Dick felt something was wrong.

Very Wrong

You weren’t coming out. And the building was in large flames.

As he was about to barge inside to save you, the building exploded.

He was shocked.

And his heart clenched.

After the explosion, he searched for you.

Highs and lows.

He called your name so many times.

And there was no answer

Until he found your costume under a pile of rubble. Torn.

His heart dropped.

You couldn’t be gone.

And he didn’t stop from there.

He searched even more.

At the school, the suicide squad facility, places you both like to talk, your hiding places, even the damn Arkham Asylum.

But so far, he couldn’t find you.

You were wiped off of the face of the Earth.

That’s when he-

He couldn’t believe it.

You were gone.

Oh how his heart broke.

How he blamed himself he couldn’t save you back then.

He grieved.

He deeply regrets from letting you go.

The first couple of months wasn’t easy.

He would sometimes ignore Bruce.

Becoming harsh and violent while being Robin.

Straying away from his friends and family

Locking himself in his room, thinking that he knew he couldn’t save everyone.

But why does it have to be you?

Why couldn’t he save you?

He didn’t care that you were evil.

Because he knows you.

You hate hurting others for fun. You hate using your powers to destroy instead of creating, You hate sitting in your cell, listening to Walker giving you orders, and treated harshly under her care.

You hated being evil and wanted out.

At the end of the year, Bruce fired him.

Dick felt all kinds of emotions as he left to Bludhaven.

And he wasn’t feeling better.

He still felt numb and thinks about you everyday. Thinking of scenarios about having you here.

He would visit your grave in Gotham. Talking to you about his day, how he misses you, and dropping off roses.

In the beginning of the second year he changed his vigilante identity.

From the Robin that witnessed your death to something quite new.

After talking with Superman onto the legend from his birth planet, he figured a new name.

It was perfect as well.

In order to honor your death, he took a part of your vigilante name.

Instead of Nightshade it was Nightwing.

During the second year, he would still visit your grave. Your death still left a scar on him.

As he was leading the Titans, his teammates were quite curious to know who you were. Smiling in the small picture with Dick in your student uniforms infront of Gotham Academy.

They would see the small photo when they would walk into his room and call him for diner or for a meeting.

But Dick just quickly changed the subject and say you were an old friend.

That is until the anniversery of your death came along.

The Titans would be lying if they didn’t notice Dick acting odd.

He was harsh in training and when there was a meeting or the team invited him to join an activity, he rejects it.

Not only that, he was spending most of his time locked in his room. They were concerned about him and sent Raven.

As she placed her hand on his shoulder, she saw the reason why Dick was upset. He have every right to be.

“I’m so sorry.” Raven apologized wiping the tears from her eyes from feeling Dick’s pain.

“What were you doing in my head?”

“We were worried and they thought I could be some assistance to you since you’re upset…but I understand now and…I’m so so sorry for your loss.” Dick just rubbed his temples and let out a sigh.

“Just…I-I need a moment to myself.”

As he left to the city for cool himself off, he decides to go to the library that you both used to visit when you were younger.

It was a place of quiet and where worries don’t exist. He headed up to your favorite book section. As he found your favorite book he began to smile.

Everything was at peace, that is until a shadow was thrown through the large windows and cashed onto tables and chairs.

Dick rushed to the scene to investigate as civilians were rushing out.

He could hear the figure groan in pain and mutter curses.

As he stepped infront to have a better view of who was thrown in to the window, his entire being froze.

He couldn’t believe of what he was seeing.

He thought he was having an illusion but no…. you were there.

As you look up to see the handsome pedestrian, you caught your breath as you recognized who he is.

“Dick…LOOK OUT!” you threw yourself around him and teleported in time before Grundy was about to throw his fists down to crush him.

As you both reappeared outside of the building and letting Dick go, you were about to teleport back inside to stop Grundy until-

“You’re Alive?!”

“Um…Am I not?” You teased hoping he would calm down.

“Don’t joke around on this! I thought you were dead!”

“Well I’m here now aren’t I?” He still couldn’t stand your teasing. He needs answers.

"Cut the shit and tell me what happened."

"Now that's a funny story-"

“Y/N.”

“Oh I’m sorry! Walter putting me on lock down for a damn year isn’t enough for you? Plus another year of hiding while she’s hot on my tail!”

“Walter caught you?”

“Didn’t she tell you?!”

Judging by Dick’s silence, y/n figured Walter lied to him about you. Well why wouldn’t she? That old woman could see you getting distracted with Dick and she needs to get rid of it.

"Why didn't you tell me? Or at least see me?" He was hurt. Angry. And confused. But at the same time...He felt relieved, excited, and hopeful because...you're here now.

"I was trying to protect y-" The next thing you know, your back hit the wall and you fell to the floor. And the hit was quite powerful that you blacked out.

Hours later you were on something soft. A bed? It wasn't yours because its always hard and thin back in the suicide squad facility. 

 As you opened your eyes, you were for sure you weren't in your room. And it wasn't the hospital either. 

As you sat up and gazed at the window, you were in a building apart from the city and surrounded by water. It was beautiful and calming to the sight.

"You're awake." You snapped your head to the door to find Dick with a tray of food. He was suprised as well.

"And you're-You're hurt." Your teasing tone shifted into a worried one. There was a bruise on his arm. You threw the sheets off, stumbled trying to walk to him, and trying to ignore painful spots around your body.

That is until your leg let out a hurting sting causing you to fall. But of course, Dick wouldn't allow that to happen. He caught you in time before the rest of your limbs could meet the floor.

"I'm alright. I got you." He knew for you it would be too painful to drag you back to the bed so he slowly helped you down, with you in his arms.

"You're such an idiot. A handsome one but stupidly reckless." You wrapped your arms around him and gave him a tight squeeze. 

Finally Dick let himself go.

He gave a squeeze as well and gave a long kiss to your temple. It was a warm reunion. And the right way to do it instead of bickering behind the library building.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Dick-"

He had enough of it. Enough of the apologizing from different people and he didn't want to hear it from you because it wasn't your fault. A nasty woman was tearing her down and she had to escape and hide. But certainly not with him or else Walter would've destroyed or controlled Dick in a merciless way.

You let out a gasp as his lips pressed onto yours. It was soft at first then it quickly went deeper as you kissed back. You both waited ever so desperately to do this and now you are.

As you both pulled apart slightly heaving, you gave another hug.

Dick burying his face in the crook of your neck, peppering with kisses, while you breathe in his scent.

"I love you." You confessed. Dick froze and pulled back to face you.

"I love you too." He placed his hand on your cheek, rubbing your face with his thumb while smiling softly. You took his hand and kissed it.

"I won't leave you again. And that's a promise I'll keep."

With a pause and a kiss to your forehead he said, "You better."

FIN~~

[nightwingfangirl]

So, I'm going to try writing one of my actual stories here. It will be updated after this as separate parts, so look out for it. You can also find it on Wattpad, A03 and Fanfiction.net

Bloodlines

Dick Grayson, it turns out, was adopted by the Graysons as a baby. That leaves a few questions; Who are his real parents? And how will he react when he discovers their identities?

*I own nothing but the plot! All images used are not mine. *

Part 1

Bruce Wayne stared at his computer screen, scanning the document before him for any sign of it being fake. For all his effort, he couldn't see any.

He had begun his search into Dick's background due to the many remarks made by guests and friends at Dick's likeness to both himself and his father, Thomas Wayne. He himself had noticed a few things, but had waved them off as coincidences. There was no way that he and Dick were blood relatives, although he had adopted the 15 year old recently, 7 years after taking him in.

Still, he had been curious, so he looked up Dick's records and, most importantly, his birth certificate.

As it turns out, Dick's parents weren't actually the Graysons. He had been adopted on the day he was born by the pair. His real birth certificate read that his birth mother's name was Enlisa Kley. He had been born in France, as expected and his father was listed as "Unknown", but, judging by his real mother's unscrambled name and the time of his birth, Bruce had some suspicions as to who it could be. He just needed to run some tests first.

…::-::...

The results came back positive, just as Bruce had expected. The only problem was telling Dick, but he needed to speak to Dick’s biological mother first.

…::-::...

“Selina,” Bruce said, as she entered her apartment that night.

Selina jumped slightly in surprise, “Bruce, what a pleasant surprise. What are you doing here?”

“16 June 2004? Does that ring a bell?”

Catwoman’s eyes widened, “What about it?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I couldn’t keep him.”

“So you gave him up for adoption?”

“Not exactly. I met the Graysons at the hospital. Mary had just suffered a miscarriage and lost her child. I had just had a child that I couldn’t keep, so I let them adopt him.”

“But you still didn’t think to tell me? Even after I took him in myself.”

“It was too late by then.”

“Don’t you think it’s too late now?”

There was a pause in their conversation.

“Are you going to tell him?”

“We can’t not tell him. He has to know. It’s only fair. I’m certain that he won’t like it at first, but he will accept it eventually.”

Selina sighed, “Alright, when are we going to do it?”

“Now.”

Part 2:

“Master Dick, Master Bruce wishes to see you in his study.”

Dick looked up from his algebra homework as Alfred spoke.

“Alright, Alfred. I’ll come now.”

The immortal butler gave a slight nod before vacating the doorway. Dick finished off his equation before heading to the study.

He entered through the open doorway, and was surprised to find Selina Kyle there as well.

“Alfred said you wanted to see me?”

“Yes,” Bruce said, vaguely, “I have something important to tell you, that I’m not sure you’ll like.”

Dick stiffened slightly. What was Bruce talking about? What wouldn't he like? And what did Catwoman have to do with it?

“I was looking into your background,” Bruce explained, “and I found out that the Graysons weren’t actually your parents. You were adopted by them as a baby.”

Dick’s blood ran cold. The Graysons weren’t his parents? He was adopted? But then…

“Who - who are my real parents then?”

Bruce took a deep breath, and told him.

Dick’s eyes widened with every word in both surprise and shock. Bruce was his father. Selina was his mother. The Graysons weren’t his parents. He hadn’t watched his parents die. His whole life was a lie.

Bruce finally stopped talking and waited for Dick’s reaction.

Dick didn’t speak, couldn’t speak. He stood in shock, slowly shaking his head in denial. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Bruce to be his father, he just couldn’t believe it.

He slowly backed out of the study, which neither Bruce nor Selina noticed until it was too late.

Dick bolted.

He ran from the study, flew out the doors, and away from the manor. Grasping his cellphone in his hands shakily, he dialed a very familiar number as the tears began to stream down his face.

“Hello?”

“Babs?”

“Dick? Where are you? What’s wrong?”

“W-would your dad mind if I come to stay the night?”

“I’ll ask him, hang on.”

Barbara could be heard talking to her dad in the background.

She soon came back to the phone.

“He says that’s fine. But what’s wrong?”

“I- I’ll tell you when I get there, thanks Babs.”

…::-::...

“So, Dick,” Barbara said as they sat down on her bed, “What caused you to leave the manor in such a rush? And what’s got you so upset?”

Dick explained everything to her. She did, of course, know about Bruce, Dick and Selina’s secrets. She was a vigilante herself.

When Dick had finished, she lay back on her bed and sighed deeply.

“I see,” she said, “Why you were so upset.”

…::-::...

Meanwhile, back at the manor, Batman and Catwoman were suiting up to go and look for their son. They had been unable to find him on the manor’s grounds, and even though they knew that he was well trained, they were worried for his safety. It was late at night, at a time when Gotham rogues were usually about. He did, luckily, have his belt with him, as he had been told to have it on him at all times, so he wasn’t completely weaponless.

The pair climbed into the Batmobile and drove out into the night.

Part 3:

Bruce wasn’t sure why he hadn’t thought of looking there before. Of course that’s where Dick would go.

Barbara’s house.

Barbara had been Dick’s closest friend since they’d met when they were eight years old. The pair had been inseparable ever since.So, naturally, that’s where Dick would go if he was feeling vulnerable.

It was Bruce Wayne who rang the Gordons’ doorbell, not Batman. Commissioner Gordon answered and seemed to not be surprised by the billionaire’s appearance.

“He’s in Barbara’s room,” he simply said.

Bruce went and stood outside the closed door, listening to the sounds from inside. It seemed as though the teens were playing cards, as faint cries of frustration and intermittent laughter could be heard. Taking a deep breath and feeling bad about interrupting their game, Bruce opened the door

…::-::...

Barbara looked up as the door opened, not at all surprised to see Bruce there. Both she and Dick knew that it would only be a matter of time before he thought of looking there. He was the Batman after all.

As Barbara looked at him, and now knowing his connection to Dick, she began to see the similarities between them. She wondered why she hadn’t noticed it before, although she supposed she hadn’t really had a reason to think about it.

Dick also looked up at Bruce’s entrance, and Bruce noticed that he wasn’t as tense or hesitant as the night before, more worried or scared. Bruce could understand that. It wasn’t everyone who had their whole life turned upside down like that.

…::-::..

Dick couldn’t help himself. When he saw Bruce in the doorway, he smiled. It was good to know that Bruce was his father.

Part 4:

It was about a year later, a few months after Jason had been adopted, that the thing that became known as "The Argument" happened.

The end result was Dick quitting as Robin, storming out of the cave, packing up his things and leaving the Manor while Jason could do nothing but watch helplessly.

He and Dick had become close in the few months since they'd met, and he did, at least, have the decency to say goodbye, but Jason was going to miss his big brother.

…::-::...

It was about half an hour after Dick had left the Manor that Barbara got a knock on her front door.

She had only recently got back from her own patrol, and was slightly surprised to see Dick there.

"I just came to say goodbye," Dick explained solemnly, "I'm leaving for a while, I don't know where to, but Bruce doesn't want me anymore."

"What? Dick, why?"

"You know things have been pretty tense between the two of us for a while now, and tonight was the final straw. We both lost it and ended up shouting at each other, and then he tried to fire me, so I quit before he could, packed my things, said goodbye to Jay and Alfred before coming here"

"Oh, Dick," Babs sighed, wrapping him in a hug, "I understand, but, I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too, Babs. I promise I'll keep in touch, okay?"

…::-::...

After Dick said his, very emotional, goodbye to Barbara, he wandered the Gotham streets until he got to a particular apartment building.

Leaving his bags in a very well hidden alcove, he scaled the side until he got to a certain balcony and climbed inside.

He found Selina on her sofa watching television. She looked up at his entrance.

"Dick! What are you doing here so late?"

Dick sighed and explained to her the same story he had told Barbara previously. His mother looked just as upset.

"I understand why you're going," she said sadly, "Bruce shouldn't have spoken to you like that. And, don't worry, I'll keep an eye out for Jason."

"Thanks, S," he said, "I'll keep in touch, okay."

"Alright, kitten," she replied.

Before exiting the way he had come, Dick gave her a two-fingered salute before climbing down over the balcony. Selina simply shook her head at her son's antics.

…::-::...

It was about 3 months later that both women realized where Dick had gone. He had messaged the pair simply with a "Watch the news tonight - N" and they had no idea what "N" stood for, but it soon became clear.

They did as he'd asked, finding nothing of interest until a report on a new vigilante in Bludhaven known as Nightwing. Both women smirked. That was definitely Dick.

Part 5:

3 years later, a 19 year old Dick Grayson sat on his sofa in his Bludhaven apartment watching the news. He had it turned to a Gotham channel, feeling nostalgic for the city he had grown up in. It was then that he heard of the tragedy.

"It has been confirmed," the news woman said, "that the second adopted son of Bruce Wayne has been killed."

Dick swore his heart stopped beating.

"The 16 year old was kidnapped by the Joker while on an overseas trip, and was beaten before the warehouse he was being held in blew up. Bruce Wayne, who had been unable to get there in time, is heartbroken over this tragic loss. Our condolences to the family."

Dick switched off the TV. It couldn't be true. Jason couldn't be dead. Not him. Not Dick's little brother. He had to see for himself. He had been away for too long.

…::-::...

There was a loud knocking on her apartment door that woke Barbara up. She checked the time wearily. Who would it be at 04:20 in the morning?

Putting on a top and slippers, she lumbered to and opened the door. She nearly had the fright of her life when a 19 year old Dick Grayson stood worriedly on her doorstep.

"Babs," he said urgently, "Please tell me it isn't true, that Jason isn't…"

"Oh, Dick," Babs cried, all signs of tiredness fading instantly, "I'm sorry, but…"

Dick, realizing what that meant, grasped her tightly in his arms as the both of them cried, cried for the loss of their little brother.

…::-::...

The next morning, Dick awoke bleary-eyed on Barbara's sofa. It took him a moment to realise where he was and why, and, as soon as he did, a huge wave of sadness overcame him.

He got up, changed into a clean set of clothes from the suitcase he had brought with him, and went to check on Barbara.

Seeing that she was still asleep, he decided to let her be as she needed the rest.

Leaving a note beside her bed, he left the apartment quietly, locking the door behind him.

…::-::...

Climbing back into his car, he drove in the direction of the apartment he had last visited three years previously.

Deciding that, while he was there, he might as well make his presence in Gotham a surprise, he left his things in the car and scaled the side of the building once again, climbing over the balcony to enter the apartment.

Selina, this time, was not seated on the sofa, but rather preparing herself some breakfast in the kitchen. She got quite a shock when Dick suddenly appeared in the doorway, probably because she didn't recognise him at first.

Seeing him there again, she was stunned at how much he really did look like Bruce; with the same raven hair and bright blue eyes.

"Dick," she said, walking immediately forwards and embracing her son in a hug, "What are you doing here? When did you get back?"

"I got here last night," he replied, "drove from Bludhaven immediately after I heard about Jason. Spent the night on Babs' sofa, and here we are now."

"He was only 16," Selina uttered, quietly, "far too young to die."

"We all know what we're getting into when we start," Dick agreed, "We just don't really believe it's going to happen."

…::-::...

Dick and Selina spent a good portion of that morning catching up, Dick explaining about his job as a Bludhaven police detective. She listened with interest, but they both knew that it was just an excuse not to talk about Jason.

Soon, Dick said that he needed to leave, knowing that if he was going to talk to Bruce again, it would be better if it was sooner rather than later.

…::-::...

It felt strange, Dick thought, driving up to the familiar iron gates after three years.

He drove up the drive, got out of the car, and stood for a moment before the large mahogany doors, taking a second to build up his courage before knocking.

The doors were opened almost immediately by Alfred, who took one look at the man on the doorstep and gave him a small smile.

"Master Dick," he said, "Welcome back."

Part 6:

"Master Bruce is in his study, with Master Tim," Alfred informed

"Okay, thanks, Alfie."

Tim, Dick knew, was Bruce's latest adopted son, his youngest brother.

Dick walked reluctantly up the stairs to where he knew the study was situated. Knocking briefly on the door, he opened it and went inside.

Both occupants looked up at his entrance, one of surprise and the younger of confusion. Bruce and Tim.

"Dick?" Bruce uttered, "You're back."

"I'm sorry I stayed away for so long."

"It's my fault."

"Not entirely."

"Truce then?"

"Truce."

Apparently, I have almost reached the maximum length, so the rest will be a separate post. I have, however, only written up to part 7, so the parts after that will follow on separately.

Please let me know what you think 😊

[darkxknight]

IC INFO

Character Name: Bruce Wayne Alias: Batman Age: 45 Face Claim: Matt Bomer Species: Human Home Earth: Earth-49

History:

▸ Born the only son and child of Dr Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne (nee Kane) in Crest Hill, Bristol Township, Gotham City, New Jersey. His parents were well respected within the community and gave Bruce a life of privilege as well as tried to instill a good moral code within him. His early childhood was quite idyllic until one night when his parents took him to the Monarch Theater where they saw The Mark of Zorro. After the film, a mugger named Joe Chill attempted to rob them at gunpoint, and panicked, shooting both Thomas and Martha dead.

▸ After the death of his parents, Bruce was raised by the family butler (and Bruce's godfather), Alfred Pennyworth. He was also checked in upon by one of Thomas' friends and co-workers, Dr Leslie Thompkins. He was allowed to remain in Wayne Manor under Alfred's care. He continued to attend school and excelled in his studies, but Bruce's primary focus was no longer that of a young boy. Tragedy had stolen what innocence he had.

▸ As time past, he became obsessed with learning the meaning behind his parents death. At the age of 18, Bruce used the relationship he had with a girl - who was the daughter of a mob boss - to locate Joe Chill. Bruce learned that there was no deeper meaning to his parents' deaths, Joe just simply needed money.

▸ Bruce took an avid interest in martial arts and sword fighting and after discovering what he had from Joe Chill, he decided to travel the world and expand his knowledge. At 21, he spent a great deal of time studying martial arts off masters like Shihan Matsuda in the Himalayas. He studied the ins and outs of technological gadgetry under the guidance of a brilliant inventor, Sergei Alexandrov. He also learned how to drive cars in life-or-death situations from Brazilian criminal, Don Miguel. Bruce also delved into criminology, chemistry, and even acting to hone his skills in becoming a one man army to bring justice back to his home city. He was gone for three years before he returned to Gotham.

▸ Upon his return to Gotham, Bruce wanted to keep it a private affair but his Uncle, Philip Kane, had other ideas. While Philip appeared happy his nephew had returned home, he was also dubious of the young Bruce and plotted against him behind his back. Bruce was able to obtain his inheritance, which was not only the Wayne family fortunes but also controlling power over the family's main corporation, Wayne Enterprises. Bruce had idealistic goals on how he wanted to run the company, which was a huge shake up to how the business had run since his parents death.

▸ Bruce Wayne became Batman. He took the fight to the Red Hood Gang and was immediately successful in defeating the criminals at the A.C.E Chemicals factory. During the fight, Bruce's Uncle, Philip Kane, was found out to be a secret member of the Red Hood Gang and was unfortunately killed in the battle. Red Hood One was also believed to be killed in the fight, falling into a vat of chemicals below where he and Batman had fought. 

▸ Despite leading a double life, Bruce kept up many public appearances so people were completely unaware of his nightly habits. One such outing was to The Haly Circus, where a fun night out turned into tragedy for the acrobat family known as the Flying Graysons. The only survivor of the family being the Grayson's son, Richard (or, as he preferred, Dick). Being able to sympathize with Dick's tragedy and knowing that the crime committed against the boy's family was no accident, Bruce came forward with an offer to become Dick's legal guardian.

▸ The relationship between Bruce and Dick didn't get off to the easiest of starts and one night Dick ran away to try and solve the case of his parents' murder on his own. Bruce went out as Batman and managed to pick the boy up and brought him back to the cave, where he then revealed himself as Batman. Bruce offered Dick the chance to become his partner and train with him but Dick had to play by his rules. Dick accepted and took on the mantle of Robin.

▸ Over the years, Batman and Robin were a formidable duo against the criminals of Gotham but one night Robin was shot by the Joker. Despite all they had been through, Bruce called an end to Dick's career. This put a huge strain on their relationship, which had grown more than that of partners but also father and son. Dick left - he would still return to Gotham as needed but there was a definite tension in the air.

▸ Sometime later, Batman catches a bold kid trying to steal the tires off the Batmobile. Jason Todd was a little punk but Bruce was impressed with his spirit, cleverness, and tenacity. After an attempt to place Jason into child protective services failed, Bruce stepped forward and took Jason in as his ward and later adopted son.

▸ Bruce trained Jason to be the second Robin and it is clear from the very beginning that Jason was a completely different style of Robin to Dick. Jason was a fighter and knew how to handle himself in a brawl but his finesse and detective skills needed work. When Jason was 15, he ran away after hearing that his birth mother was still alive. Bruce was too late in working out that it was a well laid trap for the young man and barely arrived in time to see the building Jason was held captive in explode. Devastated, Bruce took Jason's body back to Gotham and buried him in the Wayne family's plot - vowing to never take on another Robin.

▸ In the wake of Jason's death, Batman became more ruthless. Just teetering on the edge of the "no kill" rule he had established for himself. Several allies the Batman had worked with along the way (including the Justice League, which he had founded along with Superman, Wonder Woman and other heroes) noticed the change in Bruce but seemed to be clueless on how to curb the rage the Dark Knight felt.

▸ Tim Drake had been following Batman's career as long as he could remember and it was the 13 year old that picked up on the problem. Batman needed a Robin. After a failed attempt to get Dick to come back and be Robin, Tim offered himself for the role. Bruce refused - afraid that tragedy would strike again. Eventually though, Tim - with the assistance of Dick and Alfred - stole the Robin suit and managed to save Batman. This action spurred Bruce into considering Tim to be the third Robin.

▸ Out of all the Robins, Bruce trained Tim the hardest, sending him off to exotic places to develop his martial arts skills and partnering him with other Batman allies to push him further. Tim never backed down but he also had a level head and a maturity that was beyond his years that made him a valuable partner. Unlike the other Robins, Tim still had parents when he started in the vigilante life but as was the way with heroes, tragedy has its way of catching up. After Tim's father was killed by Captain Boomerang, Bruce made the offer to adopt him. Laws had changed that he couldn't just make Tim a ward like Dick and Jason had been, so adoption papers were filed and Tim became Bruce's legal son.

▸ Talia al Ghul, daughter of the demon and long time enemy of Batman's, Ra's al Ghul, dropped the 10 year old bombshell of a son in his lap. 10 years before, Batman and Talia had a lustful affair which ended abruptly and with Bruce having no knowledge that a child had been conceived. Damian was an assassin without remorse, a fact his mother took great pride in, and was originally unimpressed with Bruce and didn't understand the "no kill" policy his father had adopted in regards to his enemies.

▸ Things have returned to normal for Bruce and his family for the moment. As normal as they get when you're a family of vigilantes. As always, Bruce has several different cases on the run and as long as crime doesn't sleep, neither will justice.

Positive Traits: Focused, strong moral compass, protective, extremely sharp mind Negative Traits: Closed off, secretive, rarely shares true emotions or feelings

[bigskydreaming]

Hey remember that time pre-nu52 when Dick Grayson was so depressed he was basically suicidal because of a) Blockbuster systematically hunting down and murdering everyone close to him, blowing up his apartment building, burning down the circus he grew up in, etc, b) feeling responsible for Blockbuster’s murder, c) being dumped by Barbara in large part because of actions taken by his stalker, Tarantula, d) being raped by Tarantula, e) being effectively kicked off the Outsiders, his own team (by his own dad), and f) the Society of Supervillains literally nuking his city and killing thousands just when Dick had finished putting in place a months long strategy that was meant to safeguard Bludhaven from outside influence for years to come.....

....with this all happening pretty much all at the same time?

And how Bruce’s oh so effective parenting strategy for helping Dick deal with all this was.....to do absolutely nothing. Not a single thing for the six months Dick spent infiltrating the Society as a rogue mercenary while having what Bruce in his own words described as an active deathwish. Until Dick finally collapsed in the aftermath of Bludhaven’s bombing, sick from radiation poisoning because he’d run BACK into Bludhaven after said bombing, with zero expectation of making it back out alive. At which point Bruce FINALLY decided to say something, with that something being “hey so I’ve noticed that you’ve been pretty much suicidal for the past six months because of everything that’s happened to you, what the fuck is wrong with you, how dare you lose sight of the value of your own life, y’know...that thing I’ve done absolutely fuck all to remind you actually has value, until just now, when I decided this was the perfect time to finally confront you about all of this by like....yelling at you while sick and grieving over the thousands of deaths you feel personally responsible for?”

Just saying, none of the Batkids have a monopoly on being victims of Bruce Wayne’s A+ parenting and the idea that Dick gets preferential treatment from Bruce and is his golden boy and favorite son who never does wrong in Bruce’s eyes has absolutely zero basis in canon. Like where did that idea come from, I literally do not understand. 

Yes, Bruce has failed Jason and Tim and Damian all in epic and terrible ways but this ‘better’ relationship so many people seem to think Dick has with him involves Dick being a) the only one to ACTUALLY be fired as Robin, twice (Jason was only benched, never fired, and Dick didn’t actually fire Tim so much as try and PROMOTE him to his own solo hero, even if Tim didn’t take it that way), b) the only Batkid to ever be kicked OUT of the Manor, as in told he COULDN’T live there anymore, and to leave his key with Alfred (this also happened TWICE), c) hit by Bruce in moments of anger on more than one occasion, not while sparring or anything like that, just full on punched in the face cuz Bruce was pissed, nothing nearly as bad as what Bruce has done physically to Jason, but I mean...still very much part of their canon history d) the last person to know pretty much every single time Bruce added someone new to the family, with Dick not even rating a phone call when Bruce adopted Jason, having to be told by Tim himself that Bruce had offered to adopt him, not having a clue about Bruce’s intent to adopt Cassandra until Babs told him 

e) Giving Robin away to other people without ever thinking Dick deserved to even be consulted, like look I know I harp on this one constantly, but its because even when its acknowledged I don’t think most people ever acknowledge just HOW shitty this one is, like, Robin was literally crafted to be a memorial to Dick’s parents in every way, from the name to the costume to just the wise-cracking, cheerful public persona that was Dick’s way of continuing the family tradition of being entertainers whose JOB and livelihood was to make people happier. Like people talk a lot about Dick’s past with the circus to point out how he was raised as an acrobat since birth and that gave him an edge on his training, but nobody really talks much about the fact that hand in hand with this is the fact that Dick was raised from birth to be a performer, an entertainer, someone for whom cheering people up no matter what he was feeling himself, was like...a way of life. That’s what Robin was to Dick, only for it end up being taken away from him like he’d only ever had it by virtue of Bruce’s benevolence, and with it ultimately being coopted as an extension of Batman’s identity, like its real purpose was just to be what Batman needed it to be. The way Robin keeps trading hands with Dick almost never having a say in what happens to his memorial to his parents is a constant slap in the face that really doesn’t get enough attention IMO. 

Anyway, my point isn’t to diminish the shit Jason and Tim in particular have gone through because of Bruce’s A+ parenting, and god knows they have more than enough cause for their issues with him. But I will die on the hill that Dick’s gone through just as much because of Bruce and I really really hate this tendency to gloss over the stuff he’s had to endure because of him, usually just because writers don’t bring up his issues with Bruce and past history as often as they do the others.

(Also, I hate the tendency of fandom to JUST focus on Tarantula when referencing that part of canon, as though there wasn’t a shit ton of other trauma happening to Dick all at the same time, amplifying every aspect of the issues with Tarantula. I know everyone plays fast and loose with canon and picks and chooses what to focus on because you basically have to create your own version of canon from various timelines in order to make sense of well, anything....but like...yeah, there was so much shit happening in the Nightwing title around the Tarantula storyline that its always bothered me how people make a point to bring that element of canon into whatever patchwork version of canon they make, while usually leaving out every other aspect of that original storyline).

[harveywritings92]

Dick Grayson x Older!reader ch 2 [2/2]

The next morning was hell for Y/n first she wakes up with a splitting headache in one of the guest rooms of Wayne manor, she felt her stomach churn trying figuring out how she gotten there...when Alfred entered the room.

"Oh miss Y/n you're awake..." the girl winced feeling her head pulse in her ears "Alfred...How did I?" the old man frowned obviously disappointed and put some clothes down for her, the h/c recognized them as Dick's "Go take a shower and meet Master Bruce downstairs, he has matters to discuss with you." Alfred said sharply the H/c swallowed hard as she went into the room's adjoining bathroom,

after getting cleaned up Y/n nervously made her way downstairs to the den where Bruce and Dick were waiting for her both were pretty tense as she appeared in the archway. Bruce motioned for her to sit on the love-seat next to Dick who was looking at anywhere else but her, While his foster father cleared his throat. 

"So, I've been told you had a rather interesting night." Bruce said jarringly keeping his sharp eyes on her, Y/n felt butterflies in her stomach as she tried to find her voice only for Bruce to speak up again. "How long?" he asked eyes narrowed the h/c shivered at his cold tone. 

"I got the fake ID from some dude, my friend Lacy..." the rave haired man frowned and put his hand up "We'll talk about that in a moment, I'm talking about Batman and Robin." Y/n blanched realizing she must've ran into one of them while she was drunk and called them by their real name.

"Oh, that...This is gonna be anti-Climatic, But I've known since I was thirteen." She said nonchalantly both Bruce and Dick both gawked at her stunned she shrugged. "You guys aren't very subtle,Robin gets a broken wrist, Dick has a broken wrist...Batman takes a cane to the face by Riddler and Bruce has a broken nose and a poorly concealed black eye."

 She pointed out with a shrug as the adoptive father and son flushed thinking they had hidden it so well. "Though... I'll give you props, I was a whisker away from reporting you to CPS before it clicked..." A long tense pause filled the air before being broken by Bruce coughing.

"Yes, I suppose that would hard to miss...have you said anything to anyone about this?" 

"Noop.."

"And why's that?"

"It's not my business, why should I ruin your life for a few fifteen minutes of fame?"

With all that said Bruce decided to move on to a more pressing matter "Dick would you leave the room? Y/n and I have adult matters to discuss." Dick blinked and looked between his adoptive father and friend obviously confused. "Adult matters? I'm three years younger then her! what--" the h/c girl sitting next to him grabbed his hand and shot the raven haired boy a look that begged him to listen.

Dick huffed and stomped out of the room and when they were sure he was gone. Bruce gave Y/n a look a concern father could muster "Dick told me what happened with Blaine, I'm sorry Y/n..." The h/c haired girl let out a shaky breath and ran a hand through her hair.

 "I should be the one apologizing there's no excuse for-" the raven haired man wasn't having it. "It was irresponsible, but not your fault... You were heartbroken and vulnerable, which leads me to the current matter." He cleared his throat unsure of how to approach this.

"I've noticed you've been sickly the last month or so, have you and Blaine been active?" She didn't have to answer the look she was giving Bruce was enough to confirm his suspicions. "I had Alfred leave a test in the guest room..did you use it?" Y/n nodded biting her lip, unbeknownst to either of them Dick was listening in on the conversation, His mouth felt dry as the seconds ticked by in what seemed like hours, Y/n spoke up.

"It was negative." Dick felt like a huge weight had just been lifted off his back, He heard Bruce sigh in relief before speaking... "is another reason for your symptoms?" Y/n explain how it was probably PMS mixed stress from exam week and amenorrhea caused by her birth control pills, apparently it's pretty common to get the symptoms mixed up for pregnancy.

 She apologized again Bruce told her it was fine just as long that she was alright. "Also give up the ID..." Dick heard Y/n sigh and assumed she had her wallet on her. "...and the other one." Bruce huffed the h/c sucked her teeth "thank-you, Audrey Hepburn and..Judy Garland?" the billionaire questioned "Hey what can I say, I have love for the classics." Y/n joked Bruce didn't find the humor in it just hummed before letting her leave. 

later

Y/n and Dick were at her place watching TV occasionally the boy's eyes would wander to Y/n's lips...then down towards her chest she was wearing his black v-neck East 39 shirt and teal swim shorts, damn she looked good in his clothes....

he swallowed hard before awkwardly turning back to the TV if she moved or turned to look at him. "Dick is everything alright?" the h/c asked concerned glancing at him in her peripheral, Dick's ears turned red "Uh...it's j-just this movie gets me all the time." he stuttered trying to sound sad.

Y/n looked at him funny "We're watching Corner Gas??" she said bemused the boy looked at the screen and saw Hank baking to death in a snowsuit telling Brent how to fix an air conditioner. 

Dick felt his stomach churn what the hell was he supposed to say?! *hey...I don't want to like freak you out, but you drunkenly kissed me last night! and I want to know what was up with that?!* But told her he was still angry that she had gotten drunk and hid the fact that she knew about Batman and Robin,y/n apologized again which frustrated Dick more.

She could get in big trouble anyone ever found out that kiss he sighed, and fell back on to her bed..."Dude you're laying on my bra.." The older girl pointed out the boy yelped and rolled off her bed, Causing Y/n to giggle at his flustered face.

 before asking if he wanted to go get some pizza and two of them pretty much the day together talking and catching up on things, when it was time for Dick to go home Y/n dropped him off. "Thanks Dick." the raven haired boy leaned into the driver-side window to look at the h/c girl curiously.

"For what exactly?" he asked wondering for last night or today in general? "For being here." without thinking she leaned over to the younger teen and kissed him...Before Dick could respond Y/n recoiled and looked horrified as he gawked at her "I-.." She couldn't say anything and drove out of the manor's driveway, leaving a red face flabbergasted Dick behind. 

When she was far away from the manor the e/c eyed pullover and started slamming her head against the steering wheel. "Stupid,stupid,Stupid!.." She berated herself, Why did she do that? Y/n wanted to feel disgusted she wanted to be ashamed of herself, But she couldn't she'd been denying it for god damn long...She was in Love with Richard Grayson.

Adopted son of Bruce Wayne and boy wonder of Gotham! At first it was subtle Dick was always clingy, protective and affectionate towards her and he felt like a little brother to her! And Then one day he wasn't...she wasn't sure when it happened, maybe it was when she noticed he was getting taller or his voice was getting deeper but, at some point her feelings started changing. 

the awkward little boy she use play Mario bros. with or debate whether or not Batman could kick Iron-man's butt was growing into a very strong, determined man...

At first she felt gross and ashamed for being attracted to a boy three years her junior, So when Blaine started showing false interest in her Y/n seize to opportunity to try and make those feelings go away and for time it worked...or so she thought!

Her stomach felt like ball of prickly ice when she heard Dick was dating Zatanna, the h/c couldn't stop feeling jealous and avoided Dick when she could but being his...well nanny, not matter how much Dick insist she's his tutor.

Something always came up; Dick broke his arm on patrol and needs a scribe for homework. Alfred's on vacation or sick and someone needs to take care of the manor's up keep, there was no staying away! and now she's probably ruined their friendship! 

Y/n debated whether to go back to manor and try to apologize or just go home and cry into tub of (fav Ice-cream/froyo) she looked at the dash clock 21:42 both Batman and Robin were on patrol...So, there was no going back with a forlorn sigh Y/n started her car and went home...to wallow in her misery.

[dibs4ever]

From his View

The first time Barbara spends time with Dick Grayson she’s 13 years old. He had come home after a particularly lengthy shift, it was one of the first times he allowed her to be home alone and she was getting ready to go to bed.

“Hey sweetie” he smiled

She shot him a grin “Hey dad, glad you made it home okay”

He nodded “I talked to Bruce Wayne this afternoon”

Barbara rose an eyebrow at his random conversation starter

“Ya know the boy you met at the gala last week? His new ward?” He continued

Barbara nodded

“Well Bruce was wondering if you’d go to the Manor after school, tutor the boy and spend some time with him maybe” he explained

Barbara shook her head “You didn’t tell him I would did you? Dick is 10 years old. The last thing I want to do is spend all my free time with a 5th grader”

Jim smiled picking up a cup she had left on the coffee table and set it on a coster “He’s actually in 6th grade, he tested a grade above”

Barbara sent him a glare

“It’s not babysitting, the kid knows nobody his parents just died and Wayne enterprises keep Bruce busy. Plus honestly, I’d feel better knowing you aren’t here alone for such long stretches” he sat beside Barbara on her bed

“So it’s babysitting for me? Dad, you just stopped making Mrs.Andrews watch me” she waved

Jim shook his head “He said he’d pay you for your ‘bus fee’” he used air quotes “Which means in Bruce Wayne code it may be worth your while” he nudged her

Barbara thought for a moment before letting out a sigh “Fine tell him I’ll be there tomorrow” she reluctantly agreed

It doesn’t take long for Barbara to grow fond of Dick. Two weeks later Jim is sitting across from Barbara having dinner listening as she goes on and on telling a story Dick had told her about how he had helped the elephant tamers birth a baby elephant that he even got to name.

She continued to spend time with Dick for another 6 months. Bruce pays her $200 a week but after 3 months Barbara finds herself enjoying spending time with the younger boy so much that she tells Bruce not to pay her to hang out with him, that she’ll do it for free. He thinks she’s slightly disappointed when Bruce tells her he doesn’t need her to come over anymore because Dick has joined an after-school club. Jim doesn’t have time to question her though because he has work issues to focus on. It seems that The Batman added to his crime-fighting in the form of a kid dressed in Red, Yellow, and Green.

He meets new sidekick “Robin” as Batman seems to be calling him one night on the rooftop. Unfortunately, this is also a night that Barbara comes to the station with her. She runs up to the roof startling both him and the spandex-clad youth I front of him. Barbara stops talking mid-sentence and just stares at the boy. Do his demise the boy stares back at her, both of them silent. Feeling uncomfortable with the “Staredown” Jim quickly rushes his daughter off but not before mumbling under his breath “Not on your life Boy Wonder”

A year later a new vigilant makes it on the scene, this one a female. Batgirl her name is. Or so hers heard. He hasn’t actually seen this one. He figures Batman thinks he’ll start questioning his motives, smart move on the Dark Knights part.

At the Wayne Christmas Benefit gala, he notices how Dick and Barbara seem closer. Their ages are still quite different, she’s 15 almost 16 and he’s 12 going on 13 in the spring. He’s in 8th grade she’s in 10th. He doesn’t understand what it possibly could be that has brought them closer as friends but he’s happy she at least has someone to pass time with during Galas. He chuckles to himself when he notices the secret glances Dick is sending to his daughter. A cute little childhood crush he thinks to himself “In your dreams boy, she’s far too old for you”

That same year Barbara gets her first boyfriend. Charlie a blonde haired boy in her pre-calculus class. It doesn’t last long. He breaks up with her when she won’t “Put out” at first Jim is outraged but then he smiles when Barbara tells him she gave him a black eye.

Not too much changes over the next year. Gotham is crazier than ever keeping Jim very busy and away from him most days. Which is why he’s startled when he comes by the apartment really quick to grab his back up glasses. He pauses when he hears voices coming from Barbara’s room. He knew Barbara was home but figured she’d be asleep by now. He listens in from the other side

“Would you relax?” He hears Barbara say with a giggle

Who is she talking to? He thinks to himself

“Are you sure your dads not home?” He asks—-he is the voice of Dick Grayson

What’s he doing here? He’s about to open the door when the conversation continues

Dick shakes his head “Your right I thought I head something. I just can’t believe you’ve kept this from him as long as you have.”

“Admitting I’m better at you at something”

“Never” Dick responds with a chuckle

“Why don’t you prove it” Barbara responded lightly

Dick chuckles “Oh believe me I will”

What is going on? Barbara is 17, Dick is 14. Yeah he knew they had gotten closer after he started high school and they began going to the same school but he didn’t think they were- he hears a squeaking and quickly flings the door open

But what he sees is not what he expects. He catches the tail end of a black and yellow cape. The curtain now flapping in the wind. He walks over and shuts the window causing the squeak to come again. Five minutes later an officer over the radio reports a possible Batgirl and Robin sighting

My daughter is Batgirl, Dick Grayson is Robin

Jim decides not to let on that he knows.

Barbara begins college the next year, Dick is 15 but a junior in high school. Robin, Batgirl and Batman are still going strong. They’re at the Manor for a private dinner Bruce is hosting. Dick doesn’t join them, something about not feeling well Alfred mentions.

He buys it until he overhears Barbara and Dick in the living room after dinner

“Hey Dick calm down,” she says softly

They’re both sitting on the couch

“I can’t Babs I don’t know how much more of this I can take. We fight constantly about everything” he says his face in his hands

Barbara shakes her head resting a hand on his back. He’s grown a lot over the last year but she is still taller than him. “Hey it’ll pass you two care about each other”

“I’m always going to be in his shadow” he stuffs his face further into his hands. “I feel myself turning into him and that’s not what I want to be”

“Hey” Barbara touches his cheek causing him to look up “You are not living in his shadow, and you aren’t turning into him. Dick, you are kind and sweet. You make me laugh. You might up the room when you walk in” she leaned forward pecking his cheek lightly

“I better go, my dads, gonna be looking for me” she stands

Dick nods “Yeah, thank Babs for everything”

She nods and walks out the living rooms other exits

6 months later Dick is gone. “Boarding School” is what Bruce tells Jim and the public. But Jim feels it probably has something to do with his Robin duties. Barbara doesn’t say much about it but Jim knows she has to be upset about her friend's sudden leave of absences

It doesn’t take Batman long to find a new protégé. Six months later a new Robin is on the scene. Batman doesn’t introduce him to this one.

It’s not for 2 years that Dick Grayson returns. He’s 18 now and grown quiet immensely in the past 2 years. He’s taller, broader and more masculine.

“Dicks taller then me now,” Barbara says with a smile. She’s sitting at the table across from him at the cafe they met at for lunch. With his job at the department and hers at the library, they don’t see each other much. Not to mention she lives in her own apartment now. She’s 21 and recently gotten out of a relationship with Jason Bard. Jason worked for the department, he was an alright guy but Jim wasn’t too devastated when they called it quits. Jim nods “Oh yeah?”

Barbara smiles “Yeah but only by an inch. He’s grown a lot don’t you think?”

Jim nods “Yes he has he’s not that scrawny boy anymore”

Barbara laughs “Dick was never scrawny, but I agree he’s grown into his features.”

Jim takes a swig of coffee “Where is he living? With Bruce again?”

Barbara almost chokes on her coffee cake “No he’s uh staying in Bludhaven. Actually, he is joining the police academy “ she explains

Jim nods “Wow well tell him if he needs any help I’d be more then willing to give my advice”

Barbara nods “I definitely will”

It’s a few months later that he is at a Gala. Everyone beautifully dressed. Dick and Barbara are attached at the hip. Just like old times. But now it’s different. They are laughing and giggling and there’s a gleam in both their eyes. They’re both exchanging glances. Barbra is touching Dick's bicep and occasionally running her hands through his hair,  He catches Dick checking out his daughter more than once. He wants to be mad but he catches her doing it to him too. This isn’t cute like it was when Dick was a child. No, it worries him. His daughter now has feelings for Dick Grayson and he can’t do anything about it.

[cloudparadox]

Remnants || Chapter 2 - Robin

Summary: AU in which Tim can see things others can’t. (Aka Ghosts)

Tim learns pretending makes things a lot easier. Especially when you watch as one Robin leaves and the other dies and you have to make sure that Batman doesn't go off the deep end.

Tim knew he wouldn't ever be Robin, not like his predecessors, but he'd damn well try, if only for other people's sake and not his own.

Words: 1855

Warnings: Angst, death, ghosts, mental health issues, bad parenting

Pairing: Tim Drake x Jason Todd (eventually)

Notes: So this chapter also kind of just happened?

I really like how this is going so far. There might be a few more typos seeing as I'm posting this from my phone so sorry in advance.

Taglist: @sweeetsummerchiild 

Chapters: one,

As Tim grew older, he learned to pretend. Pretending almost came naturally to him. He had days where he didn't feel comfortable in his own skin and so, he wore someone else's. He borrowed the best parts from those around him, and carefully crafted a new version of himself.

As such, he also started getting better at acting as if he was normal. What defined as normal was beyond his reach, but most times, normal was living up to his parent's ideals and expectations. With each passing year though, Tim realized there was more to it than that. Still, he now was somewhat capable in sending spirits away, looking away, acting oblivious to their presence unless his attention was specifically demanded by a spirit in dire need.

He was too soft, as father told him a lot. Mother had expressed the same worry. One night, now long ago, when she'd tucked him into his bed, she'd brushed a hand through his messy hair and smiled. "You're too good for this world, Timothy." Back then he hadn't quite understood what she meant, but now he was sure it was a mix of admiration, love even and a warning. To be stronger, not to leave yourself so vulnerable and trusting.

Tim tried. He really did. But some of them, he just couldn't ignore. So he helped in subtle ways, did research and discovered things that sometimes weren't things meant to be seen by a child. But he was good at that. Knowing stuff and learning more and more each day. So he did just that.

With his parents barely around, it was easy to sneak out and do whatever needed to be done. There were also his nightly adventures as he followed Batman and Robin. Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. It hadn't been hard to figure out, after seeing that move, the puzzles pieces clicking together, one by one until it formed one big, glaringly obvious picture. Tim didn't tell anyone. Wouldn't tell anyone. Especially not after what happened the last time he confided in someone about something so big and important of his life. Fat load of good it did him, the last time.

There were days when the guilt was eating him alive, concerning Dick. He'd promised Mary that he would make sure her son was safe.

She did say 'at home', didn't she?

Tim pushed the voice back towards the deepest parts of his mind. He felt bad, but what exactly was he supposed to do? Tell on Bruce and Dick so they get discovered and Gotham loses what looks to be the city's only hope? No. That wasn't an option. Dick was doing really well anyways. He was smart, strong and just good, perfect for everything Robin stood for. The Drake boy admired him, practically worshipped the very floor he walked on. Yet not once did he dare reach out to him.

'I met you the night your parents died.' or 'Your mother visited me in ghost form and asked me to look after you' weren't exactly great conversation starters. So he just let it be. It was probably better that way.

He was content with following the dynamic duo around at night, snapping picture after picture and filling entire photo albums. It was better than anything else he could've collected. This was his, and his only. Nothing he had to share, nothing he was going to be judged on since no one knew. Not even the big bad Bat himself, nor his Robin.

As all good things come to an end, so did Dick's time as Robin. It saddened Tim incredibly, but another night in Gotham during the particularly hot and humid late summer, Tim learned that the end of something could mean the birth of something new.

One quote stuck out the most as he was reading through a book.

"What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from." - T. S. Eliot

It reminded Tim of a supernova. A star's life comes to an end, and one last time it glows bright, billion times as bright as before. Maybe even brighter than an entire galaxy. And out of that, new things are born. A neutron star, or perhaps even a black hole.

That was a good way to describe how he felt about Jason. He was lured in, and from then on unable to get out. Not like he wanted to. Where Dick was seemingly flawless, a bright and endless supernova that demanded everyone's attention and fascination, Jason was a black hole, something brash, dark and mysterious to the point where Tim wanted to know more, his curiosity and thirst for knowledge dragging him out to the rooftops at night more often than ever.

Black holes are so dark because they don't let any of the light inside them escape. And while Tim had never spoken to Jason before, he knew there was a lot of light in the new Robin. He saw it when Robin took his time to talk to some kids, gave them candy or even walked them home to make sure they were safe. Behind all the anger and frustration he took out on the thugs and criminals of Gotham, there was a good, genuine person.

It didn't take Tim long to fall for that. Trust him to crush on someone he never talked to. He couldn't help it, no matter how much he tried. Jason was just so...perfectly imperfect. He was a mess, but Tim could relate to that in so many ways. Dick had never given him that feeling since he seemed so utterly perfect all the time.

Tim knew that was bullshit. Dick wasn't perfect, after all, no one was. But Jason was different. He was perfect in spite of all of his faults and flaws, at least to Tim. Now more than anything, he wanted to meet Robin and he actually began hoping for it, unlike before. Optimism wasn't exactly his strong suit.

Still, Tim continued to capture snapshots of Batman and his Robin.

Until Robin was gone. Until Tim found out. Jason Todd had died. His parents expressed the obligatory condolences to Bruce and then already forgot about it a few days after.

Tim wished he could've gone to the funeral. Wished he could've done something to save Jason. Wished he had been more confident to actually get to know Jason. They could have been friends. Maybe. He'd never find out. He didn't deserve to be there, anyways. It wasn't his place to have demands.

Regrets and more guilt plagued him, only getting worse when he saw how it began affecting Batman. Someone needed to do something. This couldn't go on. This wasn't how things were supposed to be. Batman needed his Robin. Bruce needed Jason.

Tim felt ashamed for thinking that he needed Jason, but as it was, he couldn't bring himself to feel all that much.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered, staring at the grave and feeling his insides clench painfully, invisible hands tugging at his heart until it felt like it was being torn apart. "You deserved so much better, Jason. You could've done so much more-" he choked on a sob, hastily wiping at his face with the sleeve of his thin hoodie. By now it was almost summer again, and it hurt to remember the past summers. It had only been a year since the last one, yet it felt like an eternity, an entire lifetime ago.

He felt the presence before he saw it and whirled around to see a girl standing near him, only a few paces away. She didn't look much older than Tim, maybe a good four years, if at all. Not even an adult yet. Her hair was brown, a warm color that shone under the sunlight. Her green eyes were twinkling with something akin to mischief. The only thing that told him she wasn't alive was the way her presence felt.

"Hey. I noticed you around. I almost believed you couldn't see me. Good acting skills." her voice was both soft and strong.

"It comes from years of practice," he responded dryly.

That made the girl crack a grin at him. "I like you." she gave him an all-over,  then looking left and right, eyes raking over the empty graveyard. "I'm really sorry to bother, but this kid's ghost isn't hanging around here."

"I know." Tim had pondered what it meant. Why Jason's ghost wasn't present. He'd come to the conclusion he'd simply moved on right away, though that felt wrong. As if Jason would give up that easily. In the beginning, Tim suspected his weakening powers were the source of confusion but now he had another ghost's knowledge and insight.

The more he concentrated, the more it felt like Jason was neither gone nor here. Tim couldn't explain it and that bothered him.

Once more, he felt utterly useless.

"It sucks, huh? Being stuck like this sucks too, but from what I can see you look like shit, sorry to tell ya."

"S'okay" his voice was raspy from misuse and he cleared his throat. "I didn't even really know him. Still, it feels like I've lost someone close, kind of like a best friend." Tim really hoped no one was seeing him "talking to himself." That was always awkward.

"It's okay to be sad. I am. A lot. It's lonely."

"I get it." And that he did. Loneliness had long since becoming an unswerving companion of his.

Somehow, they ended up talking to each other the whole day. Her name was Maia. It was easy, talking to her. And he did for many more days and nights before she too moved on. It was a tearful goodbye, but Tim knew that he wasn't enough to keep her here. Maia promised him that he was enough, and he was reminded of what Mary Grayson had told him all those years ago. He actually believed her. Both of them. They had meant what they said.

Now only he needed to believe in it, too.

Tim knew he'd have to, especially with his plans to become the new Robin. He'd struggled with the thought for a long time, weighed out the cons and pros and made up dozens of plans when it came to the approach. Then it was all only a question of gathering up enough courage.

Batman needed a Robin. Dick didn't want to be Robin. That really only left Tim as an option. So he steeled himself for the rigorous training, the endless hours of lost sleep and pain that came with it and pulled through. He wouldn't tarnish the symbol that was Robin, couldn't, didn't want to. He fought tooth and nail to achieve what the Robins before him had.

And as he got dressed for his first real patrol together with Batman, he promised he would do his best to make Jason proud.

He might never be more than a pretender, but he was fine with that. Pretending was how he got through life, after all.

[thebatmarino]

The DCEU’s next Batman should be played by Dick Grayson

Batman and Robin.  Words that have gone together like Peanut Butter and Jelly for around 80 years.  Everybody in the world knows that Batman’s younger sidekick is Robin. Many know that Robin is Dick Grayson, fewer know that Dick grew up to become Nightwing, and even fewer still that he has spent time as Batman. With the recent activity in DC film, I want to talk about my favorite superhero, what makes him great, and most importantly, why I believe Dick Grayson is the answer to the DCEU’s Bat situation. To start, we’re going to rewind to 1940, when Robin was introduced to the world in Detective Comics #38.

Batman was created in 1939.  A grim figure of the night, Batman spoke very little, a trait that has held through to this day. At the time however, legend has it that Bill Finger and Bob Kane were tired of drawing thought bubbles for him, so they needed to give him someone to talk to.  But who? Well, Batman was a Sherlock Holmesian figure, it was Detective Comics after all, so they needed to give him a Watson.  A character who’s intelligent, capable, and a proxy for the readership so they can join Batman on his adventures. The readership at the time (target readership, we know girls love and read comics too, but this was 1940) was 12 year old boys, and who might they look up to? Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn came out in 1938, he seems pretty cool. And a Robin keeps up the motif of flying animal that Batman started.  And there you have it, Robin the Boy Wonder was born.

The creation of Robin is also the birth of the Teenage Sidekick. Since then, every teen sidekick from Bucky to Kid Flash owes a debt to the creation of Robin.  As more and more sidekick characters populated the comic scene, something happened at DC Comics in particular that is one of my favorite things about the brand: the idea of Legacy Characters.

Consider the Justice League for a moment. Let’s look at the big 6: Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Aquaman.  These characters are the Greek Gods reborn.  They are iconic, they are mythological.  Each one of them proudly displays a symbol that they adhere to.  “I believe in love and equality”, “There is hope for everyone”, “I will drag myself through Hell for justice”, “by force of will, I will overcome all fear to save the world”, “I will always make time to help people”, “I will be the great uniter of disparate people”, or whatever you interpret the thesis of these characters to be. They are perfect embodiments.  The problem with perfection is that real people can’t attain that.  We can try.  We can stumble and fall. And that is exactly what the Legacy Characters attempt to be. These characters are absolute representations in ways that humans are generally not. They are aspirational.  That’s why there’s merchandise out the wazzu (do people still say that?), so you can see a person on the street with that Green Lantern symbol and know that person wants to overcome fear.

Dick Grayson was the first.  For many years Dick was happily Robin, going on strange adventures with Batman and friends, whupping ass in green short pants. He even formed a team of sidekicks, known as the Teen Titans along with Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Speedy.  All teenagers struggling to live up to their “parents”.  These perfect people who’s symbols they have taken as their own and sworn to uphold.  Then something interesting happened.  In 1984, in Tales of the Teen Titans #44, Dick Grayson debuted his Nightwing persona.

Dick Grayson had been growing up.  Which is a thing yet again, never done in comics before.  For some time now, a rift had been growing between the Dark Knight and his Squire. Dick had gone off to college, formed his own super-team, and was going through the typical growing pains of a young person trying to step out on their own. No longer feeling the identity of his 12 year old fancies were fitting, he picked an adult, darker name that still reflected and honored where where he came from (the origins of this name are toyed with and retconned, but the connections between Bats and Wings of the Night cannot be denied).

As Nightwing, Dick Grayson was his own man, ran his life and heroics how he saw fit, and most importantly, didn’t answer to Batman.  Until Knightfall happened.  In the events of this story, Bane broke Bruce’s spine, resulting in Bruce choosing a man named Jean-Paul Valley as the new Batman.  Jean-Paul went nutso and nearly killed Bane and begun a reign of hyper-vigilante terror in Gotham, so Bruce badassed his way back to walking because comic books, and whupped his ass.  Before restoring himself as the one true Batman, Bruce asked the one man qualified in all the world to take up the mantle to do so: Dick Grayson.  Yet again, we have a comic book first: a legacy character fulfilling their legacy. This didn’t last long however, Bruce did what he had to do, and Dick dutifully (and reluctantly) filled in as long as required.

Nightwing then got a brilliant solo series by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel, which to this day is probably the most influential run on the character. Before we move on in his publication history though, I think it’s important to understand WHO Dick is, and WHY he is.  After all, what makes this 12 year old boy so special that he becomes Batman’s right hand man in a war on crime?

Richard John Grayson, aka Dick, was born to John and Mary Grayson of the legendary Flying Graysons of Haly’s Circus.  The reason they were legendary was because they flew without the safety of a net.  Dick grew up on the trapeze with no net.  No fear, no cares in the world, except being a child star performer. After a mob boss tries to unsuccessfully extort money from the circus, they murder the Graysons by tampering with the trapeze before Dick’s very eyes. The young orphan was observed by another orphan in the crowd, Bruce Wayne, who took him in.  It wasn’t really successfully explained why a 12 year old seemed okay to take out fighting crime until the two part episode of Batman: The Animated Series, Robin’s Reckoning. Like a young Bruce, Dick was consumed with his parents’ murder.  Each night, unfulfilled by the guardianship of an absentee Bruce Wayne, Dick would sneak out and try to track down leads on his parents’ killer.  Eventually he got in over his head and Batman bailed him out and returned him to the Batcave. This boy knew no fear.  He would return to the streets night after night.  He would get himself killed.  Unless he was trained how to not die by a certain… bat themed expert at not-getting-killed-by-criminal-scum.  Bruce revealed his identity to Dick, which also explained why he was busy so much of the time, and in the Batcave, Dick swore an oath by candlelight to uphold justice and everything Batman stood for. The training was gruelling. Probably inhumane. But eventually Dick was allowed to accompany Batman on the streets as his sidekick.

Dick Grayson was saved by Bruce Wayne. Where Bruce was in uncharted territory sorting his rage, vengeance, and pain, Dick Grayson had a guide.  A Mentor.  Someone who had been exactly where he was, and could keep him from being consumed by darkness.  And that’s reflected in their uniforms.  The bright boy and the dark man. Adding to that, the Wayne’s murderer got away. There will be no vengeance or justice for Batman, just a gaping wound.  Dick got justice for his parents. He saw that what they did worked, and that he could keep doing it for other people.  Whereas Batman is driven by a desire to hurt those who hurt others, Dick is here to help.  That’s something Tom King wrote into his character over and over during his run, the words “how can I help”.  And if you look at the jobs he’s held down since striking out on his own: Police Officer, Guidance Counselor, Personal trainer, even bartending at a cop bar where he could give these guys relief (as well as pick up some leads) are all acts of service towards others.  Which when the time came, made him a very different Batman.

The time eventually came.  Bruce Wayne was “dead” (as dead as anyone is in comics), and Gotham City was in chaos. Initially Bruce left instructions for Dick not to become Batman. Because Nightwing was strong enough.  He was his own man and Bruce believed in what he was doing.  However, Gotham needs Batman, the symbol.  And for the first time truly, not just putting on the cape and cowl, but deep in his bones, Dick Grayson became Batman. Fulfilling the legacy.  He is not Bruce Wayne, just like we cannot be Bruce Wayne, but he can do his best to live up to what the symbol of The Batman means to him, just like us.  Which brings me to where Dick Grayson is the future of the cinematic Batman franchise.

Over the last few years, we are experiencing a massive shift in how our male heroes are percieved.  In the 80s which gave birth to Dark Knight Returns, a huge influence on the DCEU Batman, we saw a trend of hypermasculinity in our heroes.  They were JACKED, strong, fearless, .50 Cal from the hip, Macho Men, stoic badasses that were too busy punching out teeth and blowing shit up to feel sissy-ass feelings.  And that is where Batman has lived for years in comic continuity. He doesn’t say I love you, he doesn’t hug, he doesn’t feel feelings, he’s a rage-powered badass dressed all in black that kicks in criminals’ kneecaps because he probably kind of likes it.  At the end of the day, you read enough of these comics and question whether or not Batman is actually a good man. Is he doing this to save the day, or inflict pain? Probably some of both.

As we survey the current landscape of masculinity, of heroism, of feminism, it’s important to question our heroes. It’s important to question, is this the ideal that we want people to strive for? In Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, we saw that Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns in all his glory.  In my opinion, Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Batman was my favorite thing about that film. He was deliciously brutal, he was stubborn in his righteousness, he was extreme in his methodology, he was....murdering people? He was losing himself.  He was so caught up in his need for violence, his need for war that he attempted to murder superman with a freaking spear. I suspect Justice League was intended to have a more redemptive arc for the demon he had become, but in any case, he has still become a monster.  He has dwelled in hell so long that he has become the very type of devil he sought to destroy.

The best thing for Bruce Wayne would be to leave this life behind somehow. Pass the cowl on to the man who he trained for this very purpose. A hero that exemplifies modern healthy masculinity.  Who can say “I love you”, who wants to seek justice more than vengeance, who can maintain healthy friendships and relationships, who believes in kindness, friendship, and laughter.  I think it is time for Dick Grayson to take his place in cinematic history as Batman.

That doesn’t even touch upon the fact that the DCEU Batman is around 45 years old.  While incredible and imaginative, they’ve set him at a natural age to retire from jumping off rooftops and withstanding repeated head trauma. If you look at Batman as a pro athlete, you simply do not see them at his age and doing tremendously well.  Which when your sport is dodging gunfire and acting as bait for super aliens so other super aliens can clobber them, is not great.  I think DC Entertainment is looking for ways to have a more youthful Batman, and I believe Dick Grayson is part of that natural path.

And that doesn’t mean we won’t have Bruce Wayne stories.  As the news has just dropped, Matt Reeves is telling his own young Bruce tales.  But as far as the Batman that stands shoulder to shoulder with Wonder Woman, and Superman?  Here we have a young man in Dick Grayson coming into his own as a hero on the world’s stage, just like Diana and Clark.  A young man with the strategic mind of Batman, the physical training, the gadgets, resources, but without the blinding rage, pain, and cynicism.  A superhero that looks at the world and wants to genuinely help people. Not out of a deep psychological need to harm those who harmed him, but because he was broken and then saved, and he can do that for other people.  Being a good person is all the superpower you need. As a culture, I believe those are the heroes we need right now. And as for Dick Grayson, he’s a born showman, and I think it’s time for him to take the stage.

[dontfeedthebabytigers]

You’ve Got So Much Heart: Chapter 7

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Thursday was a quiet day. The halls in Wayne manor held a fragile calm that had been unseen by the scratched hardwood since before Damian’s arrival many years ago. The only commotion came from the den as Bruce and Dick raced to see who could discover the Scooby Doo culprit first. Dick won every time, even if only because Bruce let him. Dick’s prize was sneaking desert in before dinner--- a risky move in a house where Alfred seemed to lurk behind every corner. They made ice cream sundaes with chocolate sauce, bananas, and rainbow sprinkles. If Alfred had found them out from the depleted ice cream supply, he didn’t say anything. Just this once.

Bruce posited the idea of Cass coming over the next day and possibly bringing along Barbara. Dick beamed at the idea and Bruce almost had to resort to bribing to get the boy asleep. Barbara was Dick’s only friend both his age and outside of the family. Out of everyone in the family, Dick had always been the people person, and Bruce knew that being stuck inside with only three other people had been starting to get to the boy. He almost broke Bruce’s ribs when he told Dick that he was ready for a friend. Did the fact that she also had a cape make Bruce feel more secure about introducing Dick to a social life, without a doubt. He also knew how suffocating the family could be--- himself especially. Having a fresh face that Dick could relax around had been a necessity.

They arrived at noon, right on schedule. Dick hated it when people arrived earlier than expected, got anxious when they were late.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Cain, Ms. Gordon.” Alfred couldn’t contain his glee at seeing Cass and Barbara. “Lunch will be ready within the hour. Master Wayne is waiting for you in the study, Ms. Cain. He looks forward to hearing about your latest trip abroad.”

Cass nodded her thanks and left to find her father.

“Do you know where Dick is, Alfie?” Barbara asked looking around the large lobby. He usually met her when she arrived, usually couldn’t wait to see her.

Alfred smiled down at young Barbara, only a few years older than Dick and with all the intelligence that Jim Gordon bragged about every time he passed by. “I believe Master Dick is in the room with us, Ms. Gordon, or maybe above us.” They both looked up to the beams that cross the high ceiling.

Alfred gave a merry laugh. “Good luck on this round, Ms. Gordon. Do try not to break anything from the fifteen century or earlier this time.”

“No fair,” Barbara said, arms crossed with a wicked grin on her face. “Those are all the most breakable antiques.”

“How will you ever survive,” Alfred said as he made his way back to the kitchen to finish their meal. He seldom got the opportunity to prepare a meal for so many people these days, the food had to be perfect.

Barbara surveyed the room for any sign of her friend, but, of course, Dick left no clues.

“You heard Alfred, Boy Wonder, no breaking the really old stuff. Now, we know that is going to happen if I have to start chasing after you.”

A soft footfall announced Dick as he dropped behind her. First thing Barbara noticed when she turned around was his comfy clothing--- a baggy sweatshirt over a leotard. He must have been working out, Barbara thought. Then she noticed that Dick smiled at her, but not a happy Dick Grayson smile. Just as Dick had many names--- Richard, Dick, Robin, Talon, the Gray Son--- he had many smiles that he put on like a show. Right now, Dick’s smile seemed stretched, taut with an inner turmoil.

“I knew where you were.” She joked, trying to see where his level of humor fell today.

“No, you didn’t” A subdued glint in his eyes, usually he enjoyed sneaking up on people. He made a game out of it, and he always loved surprising people. Right now, he didn’t look like he had won another game. Dick looked like he had already lost but didn’t want anyone to know.

“Try and prove that I didn’t.” Barbara gave him an easy smile to help him unwind. She could read Dick Grayson like computer code. His mind was a puzzle, and Barbara loved puzzles. “I’ve missed you. How have you been?”

Dick looked torn; he glanced down the empty halls for any prying family members. “Not good.”

“What happened?” Barbara asked.

Dick looked at her. His hands tapped out nervous energy in the only way his training knew how. “Let’s go upstairs.”

“Come in,” Bruce called when a firm, yet polite, know resonated through the study. That was Cass’s knock. When Dick did actually knock it was hesitant and soft, afraid to ask. Jason was firm, confident, and a little too loud. Damian didn’t knock.

Cass entered with a smile and a wave, and Bruce’s heart soared to see his daughter again.

“Cass, it’s been too long.” Bruce used his most Brucie voice and crossed the room to give his daughter a hug. “How was Bruges?”

“Educational.” Was her response. She pulled a vinyl a bag she carried on her shoulder and handed it to her father. “For you.”

“Brahms,” Bruce remarked. “A good choice. Why don’t we give this a listen?” Bruce went over to the turntable and set up the record. Once the music began playing, Bruce’s façade faded with the lost silence. “What did you find out?”

Cass handed him a USB drive which he plugged into the computer. There were notes and documents, including blurred pictures of Talons dating back decades. Even more, evidence that the Court had influence spreading further than the borders of Gotham could contain.

“Your writing keeps getting better.” He noted as he read the notes that she had written to connect pieces of evidence. “

“I had a great teacher.” She smiled at him before pointing at a single file marked HC. “You need to see this.”

Bruce clicked the file open and was met with an old photograph taken in Bruges almost a century ago. In the photo, there was a man in his twenties shaking hands with a well-dressed older man with a boy standing at his side. A striped circus tent was in the background. The twenty-year-old looked familiar, so Bruce pulled open a file that contained a sketch of William Cobb that Damian had made with Dick’s help. There was an irrefutable resemblance.

“You found him.” A few years of searching and they finally found evidence that William Cobb existed before the Court. His indoctrination couldn’t have been long after the photo had been taken. However, Bruce’s joy at their first lead was sucked away when he remembered the backdrop of the photo.

“He’s at the circus.” Bruce didn’t believe in coincidence, but he wished that he did.

Cass nodded, grief in her heart. She took the mouse and zoomed in on the young boy standing next to the ringmaster. “He is Mr. Haly.”

Bruce had to pace around his study to avoid throwing the computer against the wall. When Dick had first moved in, all he could talk about was the circus and Mr. Haly. Dick saw that man as a grandfather like he saw Alfred. Dick loved that circus, and if they were working with the Court this whole time, well, Bruce didn’t know what that would do to Dick. Even now, the circus was his life.

“You know what this means,” Cass asked, but it wasn’t really a question.

“It means that the Court didn’t pick him at random. They were grooming him, probably from birth.” Bruce had planned to take Dick to the circus when it came back to town later that week. Would they take him back to the Court if they saw him? “What I want to know is why they chose Dick.”

Cass nodded, she had her next mission.

Bruce ejected the USB after making an encrypted copy for his own records. “I assume that I don’t need to tell you that not a word of this leaves the room until we have indisputable proof that Haly’s Circus was working for the Court.”

Cass agreed. She knew Dick, saw herself in him. This news would only bring him pain, and even if there were no collusion he would never feel safe around the circus again. She turned away to leave but stopped when her father spoke again.

“Can I expect you at the Gala next week. I know Dick would love you there.” He could never just ask someone to stay.

She knew this, and she nodded before she left him standing alone with the music.

“Have you talked to Bruce about this?”

Did shook his head. “Bruce doesn’t like talking about Tim.”

Barbara didn’t blame Bruce for that one, at least not completely. She had been there when they found Tim, saw the crazed look in his eyes and heard the sickening laugh play like her dreams original soundtrack. Then with everything that happened after, Tim had always been one of those untouchable subjects within the manor walls. Barbara didn’t even think Bruce had referred to Tim as anything other than Red Hood in years.

“You miss him, don’t you?” Barbara asked the question that everyone knew the answer to because they all had the same one.

“When I came back,” Dick paused to gather his thoughts as he often did when he spoke in longer phrases. “When I came back, Tim was gone. No one would tell me why. Until you. I never got to say sorry, or goodbye.”

She never got to say goodbye either, none of them did. Tim was a dead man that still walked around a Gotham as broken as himself all because she couldn’t get the intel fast enough. Bruce said he didn’t blame her, that the Joker was a madman and a genius, but Barbara couldn’t see how that was supposed to matter. Not when Tim could have been saved from that.

“Hey Dick, can I ask you something?” She waited until he nodded, and her throat almost closed up. “Did he look okay? Healthy?”

Dick observed her like he always did when he couldn’t understand the message behind someone’s words. His gaze passed over her fists and her down-turned eyes. “He looked good.”

Barbara let out a breath and smiled. “Good,” She said. “That’s good.”

[outlawintheredhood]

Post-Flashpoint Bio: Jason Todd

Faceclaim: Sam Witwer Age: 28 Codename: Red Hood Occupation: Vigilante (formerly assassin) Sexuality: Heterosexual Status: Anti-Hero

BIOGRAPHY:

Past: Jason Todd was not born into the best of circumstances. His parents were dirt poor, his father an abusive alcoholic who spent his time trying to make it big with the local gangs in Gotham’s slums. His mother, Catherine, became dependent on drugs as one of the few escapes she had from Willis’ Todd’s abuse. Even with both of them in his life, Jason quickly had to learn to grow up, and look out for himself.

It didn’t take long for Willis to get in over his head, drawing the ire of an employer who made sure he was never seen again. Jason thought perhaps his life might turn around then - but Catherine had been too long downtrodden by the world and died of an overdose shortly after. Forced out onto the streets to fend for himself, Jason had resigned himself to an early grave or following the same path as his father.

Things changed one fateful night when Jason was trying to strip parts from a car that had been parked in the aptly renamed Crime Alley. What he had assumed was an easy steal, had in fact been the Batmobile, and Jason was caught in the act of trying to take its tyres by none other than the Batman himself. Instead of punishment, however, the Batman seemed amused by Jason’s attempts at stealing from him, and took him under his wing.

The Batman revealed himself to be Bruce Wayne, and took Jason in as a ward, giving him a roof over his head and access to so many things he had been deprived of before. During this time, he also trained Jason to be the young vigilante known as Robin, taking the place of Dick Grayson who had moved onto a new moniker and city to escape Bruce’s shadow. However, Jason tended to be more hot-headed than his predecessor - growing up surrounded by criminals, he was sensitive to the strife so many in Gotham faced because of the various kingpins and supervillains that called it home, and felt a need for vengeance.

Eventually, Jason found out that the woman he had been raised by was not in fact his biological mother - she had left him with Willis shortly after his birth and moved away long ago. Feeling lost between his shortcomings as Robin, and still mourning his mother’s death, he was desperate to connect with this woman he might be able to call family and tracked her down on his own. He had hoped he was gaining a family, that he might heal from the loss of Catherine Todd.

But it was a trap. The Joker had used his mother as a lure, blackmailing the woman to bring Jason close before capturing and torturing him. The Clown Prince played one last cruel joke on them both, tying them up together with a ticking time bomb and a cryptic message to Bruce to attempt to save them. Unfortunately, even Batman was unable to reach them in time - they both died in the explosion, Jason being only fifteen at the time of his death.

That, however, was not the end of Jason Todd’s story. Learning of his death, Talia al Ghul along with her father Ra’s al Ghul exhumed Jason’s corpse and set about an experiment. The Lazarus Pit that Ra’s had access to had long been used to advance his healing, give him strength, and extend his life beyond normal means. But the legends of it being able to revive the dead had never been tested under the reign of the the current Demon’s Head.

Jason was exposed to the Lazarus Pit - but he did not quite come out the same as before. While his body reanimated, his mind was initially lost to him, his actions feral and uncontrolled, killing a few of Ra’s assassins in his animalistic state. Ra’s was ready to deem the boy a failure and put him down, but Talia was able to somewhat tame Jason even in his wildest of moments, and refused to give up. She never revealed to Jason how she healed the trauma the Pit had caused his mind, but she insisted on training Jason on her own, spiriting him away from Nanda Parbat and providing him with all the tools and knowledge he needed to forge himself into a weapon, so that he might never fall again.

The years he spent under Talia’s tutelage made him stronger, but they also instilled in him a deep rage and unquenchable desire for revenge. He was not merely content with killing the Joker, however. He convinced himself that he would not know peace until he had reaped revenge on all that he deemed responsible for what had happened to him, and who had forgotten the tragedy of his death - including Bruce Wayne, and Tim Drake, the boy he had chosen to take Jason’s place as Robin.

Donning Talia’s final gift, the Red Hood, he waged a war on Gotham, taking on some of the city’s most high profile criminals with lethal methods. The war had the desired effect, drawing the attention of Batman. Jason revealed himself to his former guardian, laying the blame for his death and the Joker’s continued existence at the older man’s feet, and gave Bruce an ultimatum - to take Jason’s life, or to finally kill the Joker. In the end, Bruce refused to make such a choice, incapacitating Jason before he could kill the Joker without taking his life. Bitter over Bruce’s indecision, and what he perceived as Bruce valuing the Joker’s life over his, Jason fled Gotham back into the arms of a place he had sworn never to return - The League of Assassins. He pledged his fealty to Ra’s al Ghul, in exchange for leniency against Talia for having aided his escape from Nanda Parbat, and to allow his own life to continue. He was given the name of Al Hayim - Wanderer - and resigned himself to spending the rest of his life with The League, sure that he would die at the hands of one of his fellow assassins.

When Oliver Queen upset the balance of the League, slaying Ra’s al Ghul and handing the title of Demon’s Head to the traitor Malcolm Merlyn, Jason saw an opportunity to escape the Purgatory of Nanda Parbat and took it. With Talia gone, he felt he had little reason to remain, and decided to set out once again into the world outside of The League and perhaps find a new purpose since his failed attempt at revenge.

Before Flashpoint: Jason settled in Central City, deciding the surge in metahumans and crime within the city, and its sister city Star City, would give him a good start in figuring out what he wanted to do after the League. He was content to remain alone throughout his tenure in Central City, devoting his life to being the vigilante that the shining heroes of the modern day could not be and resorting to the methods they refused to. But he did not count on a number of different factors.

Many of the Batfamily found themselves migrating to Central, and despite himself, Jason gravitated back towards two in particular - Dick Grayson, the boy he had once idolised and wanted to emulate, and Barbara Gordon, the closest thing he had to friend growing up, and who he had harboured a crush on. Over time, they slowly broke down his walls and he grew close to them again, welcoming them as friends and then eventually family. They were his siblings, and while he struggled greatly with Bruce and Tim returning to his life, slowly he began to overcome the hurt and feelings of abandonment that had plagued him since he first awoke from the Lazarus Pit.

There were others who came into his life and affected him in ways he did not expect. Leonard Snart, despite being a known criminal in Central, became one of his closest friends through various hard times that found them saving each other again and again. Their friendship was not without flaws, but still they found themselves stuck together. Then there was Aurora Jett, a younger woman Jason could not help feel protective of due to obvious signs that she had suffered abuse from a former partner, and who Jason became fond of. He came to view her like a sister, wishing to keep her by his side and protect her whenever necessary.

But one of the greatest changes in him was because of one woman: Sara Lance. What had started as a simple one night stand slowly began to grow into something more, something Jason tried to deny. But in the end he was forced to admit to himself that he had grown to care for Sara - more than that, he had fallen in love, something he had thought himself incapable of. Jason continued to struggle with his own sense of worth, battling a belief that he was unworthy of the people slowly worming their ways into his heart, including Sara, but he could not resist forever. Eventually, Jason and Sara had a son together, Aden. The existence of his son made Jason insistent upon trying to change himself, to better himself and resist the bloodlust that kept him killing and resorting to lethal methods. He was not always successful, but trying as best he could for his son.

After Flashpoint (Present): Jason was slowly coming to terms with the fact that he had developed feelings for Sara, but admitting them to anyone, let alone her, was another story. In the end, he spoiled any chance he had of doing so. When Sara told him that she was pregnant, Jason ran scared. He couldn’t imagine himself ever being a father, not with the amount of blood on his hands, and the prospect of becoming one terrified him. Those doubts inevitably destroyed what was slowly growing between them. Sara walked away, and Jason being the fool that he was let her. She never told him what happened to the child they might have had, and he never asked. Even over a year later, they are still barely able to speak to each other.

Distraught over losing the first chance he had at a real relationship, and the knowledge that he was entirely responsible for the pain it caused both of them, he gravitated to the few people he had left. He could not erase the memories of hurt between him and Bruce, or the things he had done to the other man because of it, but he attempted to reconcile, not wanting to spend any more time tearing open wounds if there was a chance they could let them heal. He also attempted the same with Tim Drake, realising that the way he had treated the younger Robin was cruel at the best of times and trying to atone for it. He still needed some independence from the family though, choosing to move in with Aurora Jett and becoming her roommate while they both figured out what paths they were meant to be on.

He continues to act as the Red Hood in both Central City and Star City. While he does not always resort to the most lethal method for every criminal, he still continues to kill those he deems deserving of it or too dangerous to be left alive. It is a fact that sets him apart from the other Batfamily members - and perhaps always will.

Positive Traits: Loyal (to a select few), principled, determined Negative Traits: Impulsive, pessimistic, quick-tempered

Major Connections: Barbara Gordon, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Bruce Wayne - Adopted Family Sara Lance - Ex lover Aurora Jett - Best friend, current roommate Leonard Snart - Friend Harley Quinn - Enemy

@centralcitysfinest-rp @whitecanary-lance @auroraxjett @i-am-batdad