Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Just because I was at an anti-police brutality protest, doesn’t mean I’m anti-police. We want justice, but stop shooting unarmed people.
-Quentin Tarantino

“Hey Feds!”

Hotchner, Rossi, Morgan, JJ, Reid, and Garcia all jumped as Red Hood seemed to appear behind all of them without them noticing before walking around the briefing table Oracle had asked the BAU to sit at for the Hero representative that would be talking to them about their discovery of Batman’s identity. Red Hood moved until he was where JJ typically stood.

“Give me a second.” Red Hood removed his helmet, domino, and jacket which he slung over the back of a nearby chair with his helmet. The red bat symbol stretched across his chest, was now unobstructed from the BAU’s view.

“Sorry about all of this,” Jason waved at his gear, “I was just about to head out to Patrol when O, Oracle, pinged me.”

“Right,” Morgan frowned, “Patrol. Where you run around the city, stop crime violently and then submit the criminals to the police without use-able evidence.”

Jason chuckled, “Like evidence does much good, but we do submit video of the crimes being committed to the GCPD which can land people in Black Gate for a few years if they don’t have enough money to pay somebody off. Although it’s harder to pay people off since Wayne Enterprise has put so much money into weeding out corruption and raising the pay rates of cops so they don’t need to take bribes to support their families.”

Hotchner narrowed his eyes, “Wayne Enterprise funds the police force?”

“Well not directly but they do, they provide a lot of money through a yearly charity ball for the police force where pretty much anyone with money drops a decent sized check at. The GCPD has the highest paid police work force in the country for a reason and the rich bastards know. They support the police so their workers and customers show up to work or buy things.”

“So, the elite of Gotham have monetary control over the GCPD?”

“Nah, it’s all a giant donation that goes through the Martha Wayne charity organization. It’s for all the extra stuff that the government should be paying for but isn’t. Proper body armor, good medical care, proper pensions that match Gotham’s food costs, that kind of thing. So, no one can be like I specifically paid this much so you should ignore me. Rich bastards just pay off jurors and the like without pulling on that. Nobody wants to try and influence the GCPD that way because they are the support the Bat Family needs to actually deal with all the rogues in Gotham.”

He snorted, “Hell, I drop a good-sized donation anonymously every year myself and I’m a crime lord.” He pursed his lips thinking, “That’s beside the donations I gave when I first started up to set-up all the cops with body cams and bullet proof vests.”

Garcia blinked, “You gave money to the police to better arrest your people?”

“Body cams have cut down on police violence. Harder for them to get off with ‘creative’ interview tactics on the street which they would use on criminals and civilians. Then the vest money is so if my guys get in a shootout with the police it’s a lot easier to not kill the cops.”

“You don’t want to kill cops?”

“I’m one of the vigilantes relying on police support when it comes to rapists, murders, pedophiles, and the like. Also, if you injure a cop they get pissed, and possibly their friends. You kill a cop? The entire police force goes after you. I much prefer that level of attention to be focused on Black Mask and the stupider crime lords. Cops don’t ignore my guys sometimes because of money but because they’re much more interested in whoever killed one of their fellow officers. It’s just good business practice to be nice to cops.”

Jason’s grin stretched across his face. “Also, the Commissioner’s look when he realized where those donations were coming from was hilarious. I used all as close to clean money as you can get to in Gotham for the donations at least so they weren’t accepting illegally acquired money.”

Morgan frowned, “As close to clean?”

“Eighty-seven percent of all money that circulates in Gotham has been part of a crime.” Reid explained, “The only completely legal cash comes from Wayne Enterprise pay checks, although Wayne Enterprise does make some of its money from Gotham residents so some of its profits do involve money that was involved in a crime.”

Jason nodded, “I used my profits from the apartments I rent out but those apartments can only operate because of the money I put into them.”

Hotchner glared, “Laundered money is not legal money.”

“Money laundering would generally involve me actually making a profit on those places. All of the apartment buildings I own I’m constantly losing money on as I make the housing affordable to people who live in Crime Alley. So yeah illegal money goes in but like a fraction of that comes out the other side. The money I consider ‘clean’ is the money I do directly make from rent. I don’t launder money through my apartment buildings.”

“You’re admitting to a lot of crimes right now,” Rossi narrowed his eyes, “That seems… ill thought out.”

“Eh my word versus yours as none of the surveillance equipment is working on this floor and good luck arresting and trying a dead man.”

JJ blinked, “So you are Jason Todd?”

“It would be Jason al Ghul-Todd now but yes, not that you’d ever be able to prove it, but back to you guys! I didn’t have anything special planned on patrol and I already have a rapport with some of you so I was picked to be the lead on talking with you guys.” He gave them a playful glare, “Which I am still getting shit for you revealing that.”

Rossi frowned, “For what?”

“Managing to catch me and hold me for that long. I mean I knew it would be easier to break out during transport but nobodies willing to listen to that,” Jason waved that topic off, “Anyways moving onto why I’m actually here, and you all are pretty much trapped in here. Congratulations at figuring it out, the butts do in fact match!”

Chapter Text

Rossi blinked, “Butts?”

Garcia giggled, not her normal giggle as it carried a little too much stress for that. Having one of the greatest hackers in the world completely disconnected from all of their internet access when Hotchner had said ‘Bruce Wayne is Batman’ was still freaking her out. She hadn’t even been in the room with Hotchner when all her screens were suddenly taken over by a large ‘O’ and given instructions to head to the conference room for a briefing.

“It’s a meme in Gotham,” Garica explained, “In Gotham someone took a photo of Bruce’s Wayne’s butt and using a really crappy paint program drew the ‘outline’,” She used air quotation marks for outline, “of Bruce Wayne’s butt. It wasn’t even a good outline before taking the pattern and putting it over a picture of Batman from the back. Batman is wearing a cape in the picture.”

“On the back of his cape?” Derek brow furrowed, “Can you even see a shape through that?”

“No, which is why it’s such a joke that whenever someone says Bruce Wayne is Batman someone else will be all yep the butts match and everyone will start laughing at the first person.”

“B is rather proud of that one.”

“Wait… are you saying that Batman put that out? Did he actually reveal his identity?”

Jason nodded, “Someone was putting some uncomfortable amount of links between B and B so he did that to try and deflect people’s attention and boy did it work. The fact that Martian Manhunter showed up looking like Batman a few times while B was visibly obvious at parties at the same time really sealed the idea as a crazy conspiracy theory that time.”

JJ frowned, “That time?”

Garcia giggled, voice losing some of its stress as things stayed calm, “Your siblings must have enjoyed that bit where you all gave reasons Bruce couldn’t be Batman on Twitter.”

“Yep.” Jason popped the ‘p’ grinning, “I gave my ideas to the others, since I’m, you know, dead. My favorite idea I gave was the B can’t be B because he doesn’t know how much a banana costs. Especially as I got to burn Baby Bird with that one as well as B. I mean his three dollars a pound was better than B’s five dollars a banana but seriously rich idiots.”

Leaning back Jason counted off on his fingers, “Big Bird’s favorite was B not knowing the difference between cabbage and lettuce, and he is so right. B calls anything green and leaf-like lettuce. He once called spinach lettuce, but he was at a gala at the time so he might have been playing the himbo up there. At least I hope he was.”

“Next was Baby Bird’s burn about the time B did lightly fall at a gala, not one of his himbo fake falls but a straight up fall. I need to give him shit about that again. If Big Bird hadn’t been there to catch him he would have ended up with a broken nose.”

“Then Demon Brat burned B about needing a butler to dress him, where Spoiler then added on B not knowing how a laundry hamper worked, aka that someone had to empty it and the clothes didn’t have a chute or something to get them to the laundry room. He didn’t know how Purple could have an overflowing laundry hamper. Still wish Agent A had put out the fact that B still gets lost in the manor sometimes.”

Jason clapped his hands, “But back to you guys. Congrats on figuring out who B is, that’s really impressive. You're part of a very small group of people who know and you figured it out pretty fast, since I’m thinking you started trying to figure out when you finished the Crane case with us. Which thank you for taking him to a federal asylum or whatever it’s called out of Gotham, something probably more socially acceptable or something. I mean Red Robin figuring it out is more impressive as he was like two but you’re still the fastest group to go from looking for B’s identity to figuring it out!”

“Thank you?” Reid frowned at Jason’s congratulatory demeanor, and that he admitted they were right. They had been expecting denial and push back, not this.

“You're welcome. You all figured out one of the most protected cape identities out there, and the most dangerous identity to know,” Jason rolled his eyes as the group stiffened, “Not to you, well not completely as the LOA could prove an issue but here’s Baby Bird to show you why releasing the fact that B is B would cause a catastrophe.”

The BAU again startled as a young man appeared behind Jason, “I was eight and a half when I figured it out B and Nightwing’s identity, not two.”

“Eh.” Jason shrugged, “Two, eight same thing basically, but now go all conspiracy theory on us.”

Red Robin’s mask moved in a way that everyone could somehow tell that he was rolling his eyes, before rolling out a long sheet of holographic material, covering the entire table to the point that the far corners were actually falling off. “So you learned B’s civilian identity. Which congrats as Jason said but here’s why you're never going to tell anyone.”

Hotchner frowned, “Batman is endangering children in his crusade of conducting vigilante justice, he’s essentially a cult leader and he needs to be stopped.”

Jason grinned, “Cult leader? Oh I got to tell B that one.”

Red Robin rolled his eyes, “B is not a cult leader.”

Reid broke in, “A cult is a group that requires unwavering devotion to a set of beliefs and practices considered deviant outside the norms of society.”

Jason snorted, “Then Gotham itself is a cult, because everyone considers Gotham to be deviant and abnormal of normal society.”

Red Robin frowned, “While that is the technical definition what you are insinuating is that Batman is a cult leader. Cults are characterized by authoritarianism, lack of tolerance for criticism and abuse of members. With the Cult leaders controlling the members of the group. Which does not fit the role Batman plays in what is commonly referred to as the Bat Family.”

Jason nodded, “Yeah the real rules B have are don’t kill and don’t reveal your identity. Which are basically the cape rules for everybody. I mean B has other rules but really we don’t even totally keep to those first two let alone his other ones. And if B gets through even a single briefing without at least one question it’s a miracle. Well it does happen sometimes, I mean when everyone falls asleep or everyone doesn’t bother to pay attention to him.”

Red Robin nods, “Basically, but let’s get back to why we are all here. The reasons you all are not going to try and reveal B’s identity.” Red Robin tapped something on his gauntlet at a flow chart that started with Batman and stretched out to each member of the Bat Family and also down intercrossing lines to the pictures of almost every hero in the world. “Let’s start with the Bat family and then we can spread out from there.”

Chapter Text

Red Robin took out something out of his belt that looked like a laser dot pen, but by the way he tapped something on his gauntlet before using it, it probably had more uses that just a red dot pen.

“Alright, we for the matter of this argument are saying what would happen if you revealed Batman’s identity and successfully convinced the world or at least the US government, and they can actually get into Gotham, well and Blüdhaven. So Nightwing first.”

Jason nodded, “Aka Big Bird, Nightie or N.”

“Yes, those are his most common name alternatives, but he would obviously lose his job, and any case he has ever worked on would be open for contention. N doesn’t use his cape persona to find evidence for his day job. He keeps those two areas of his life as separated as possible but the law wouldn’t care and we could see hundreds of sentences overturned and a rather horrifying amount of rapist, murderers, and other violent criminals back on the streets of Blüdhaven which has a horribly high rate even in comparison to Gotham with everything the officers in Blüdhaven have to manage with their limited resources.”

Jason frowned, “Maybe I should donate some money over there, I mean D has most of the corrupt officers out now, although those he mostly caught as N as police corruption was N and not D’s job.”

Red Robin frowned, “I’ll run some equations and tell you if it would help, and the amounts needed to help.”

“Cool.”

Morgan stared at Jason, “Now you’re planning to donate money to a police force outside of Gotham? Isn’t that even more dangerous for your… business? I mean other crime lords and criminals aren’t going to react well to that.”

Jason rolled his eyes, “Our most basic instinct is not for survival but family. Paul Pearsall. D is far more important to me than anything I might have as a crime lord, and anyways that’s what anonymous donations are for.”

Red Robin snorted, “Right.”

Jason turned fully to look at Red Robin, “I spent my last few moments trying to save my birth mother after she literally sold me to the Joker. Family has always been one of the greatest things that drive me. Or do you not remember what I was like when I was still pit crazy? Attacking you for taking my place, trying to get B to show me he loved me in the way I needed? I mean not all of S’s scholarships are from B. She’s less cranky about mine even. There’s a reason your fridge is full of home cooked meals. Agent A is passive aggressive about wanting everyone to eat at home so you know it’s not him.”

“Right,” Red Robin blushed as Jason turned back to looking at the BAU, “So yes N would lose his job and a lot of criminals would escape justice, and N wouldn’t stop acting as N in Blüdhaven. It’s the place he’s claimed so he’d be forced to literally be on the run while trying to keep crime controlled in Blüdhaven. Which would take up so much of his time, and the BPD that crime would skyrocket again.”

The pen light went to the several lines leading away from Nightwing, “We will come back to the effect on the wider cape community, let's make a quick side track to the idea of Robin, and the reason N became Robin and why he stayed Robin.”

Hotchner glared, “There is no reason good enough for a man to put a child at risk. Robin should never have happened.”

Jason shrugged, “I have to agree and disagree. Gotham has her own ways that are far too different from your world and mine.”

Red Robin again rolled his eyes and they still weren’t sure how they could tell, it wasn’t something they were aware could be shown in body movement, “Nightwing became Robin because it was the only way short of locking D up for life that B could prevent him from attempting to murder a man with a trapeze wire.”

Morgan blinked, “A trapeze wire? That doesn’t seem practical.”

Jason shrugged, “The man was behind why the wire D’s parents were on broke causing them to fall to their death. I still don’t think D would have managed to kill the guy with a trapeze wire, gun sure, but trapeze wire?”

“To strangle a man to death it takes less than minutes of prolonged obstruction,” Reid started explaining, “With optimal use of leverage and the average arm strength of an adolescent athlete it would have been possible.”

“Possible and successful are different things, but let’s do the whole child soldier thing later as it will be easier to do that in one shot.”

Red Robin nodded, “Sounds good, let’s move onto the next person in the core family group, as I don’t think you’ve figured out the identities of the other bats so next the second Robin, Red Hood. Since he is currently legally dead the worst he would face is someone trying to make him legally alive so he could be tried for things.”

Jason grinned, “Good luck proving that with the autopsy photos I got. No ones going to buy that I came back from the dead unless I admit it and even then there would be no way to completely confirm the ID. I’m just Red Hood, RH or Hood. I don’t have any other names.”

“Yes, yes, you're dead. Stop bragging so we can move on to me since you're so boring. And you forgot Little Wing in your name list.”

“Alright Red Robin,” Jason glared, “Aka Baby Bird, Red, or RR.”

“So I am emancipated so you wouldn’t affect my living situation and quite frankly I have five different plans to protect my identity even if B did get burned so I’d just face the did I know my adoptive dad was B. Which I only lived with B for a short time so it's completely conceivable that I wouldn’t have a clue. I mean with my birth parents’ neglect why would I think he was doing something other than avoiding me. Like my parents would go to different countries to do it when they were alive.”

Jason nodded, “Makes sense. I knew you had to have plans beyond all the plans you have to prevent a reveal, like this one that we're doing right now.”

“Shush, now Robin.”

“Aka Little Bat, R, or Demon Brat.”

JJ blinked, “Demon brat? You call your brother Demon Brat?”

Red Robin glared at the ceiling, “Since he kept trying to kill me to take my place at Robin, yeah. And then N went and gave it to the brat after he cut my line!”

“Wait,” Jason sat up, “D cut your line? While you were grappling?”

“Yeah, came very close to dying that day, but back to Robin. If B really lost his identity his mother would sweep him right up and return him back to the LOA where he would end up losing his no-kill streak. So that’s the shit that would happen to us now back to the other heroes.”

Chapter Text

“So going back to those branches you saw coming off of N and everyone else’s photos, this is where we are going into conspiracy theory zone and how dangerous successfully revealing B and the Robins, past and future is. If you follow these,” Red Robin used his pen to follow a branch, Nightwing is openly friends with the cape and civilian IDs of all his friends, so if N’s identity is leaked, all of these identities will also be revealed.”

Red Robin circled the many circles, “Now you’ll notice each of those people has their own branches where their identity would be extremely vulnerable. Which if you look at each Bat, including B you’ll see many lines, and many that overlap each other.”

Placing the pen back in his utility belt Red Robin grimaced over the range of photos, “To best show you how vulnerable this would put the cape community I’ll hit this,” With a tap on his gauntlet an stick rose from each heroes face that was on the map, and another tap had the reveal lines appear in the air between the sticks.

Jason gestured at the mess of interconnecting lines and almost a mesh like appearance the lines made, “You reveal B, you will reveal the identities of almost every superhero on earth, and possibly all of them if people realize shape and age shifting are things.”

The BAU looked over the map, and all of the different heroes whose identity would be vulnerable, or outright revealed, if they revealed Bruce was Batman. The sheer number of superheroes that would be vulnerable or outed is horrifying.

“How,” Reid’s eyes ran over the holographic boards projections, “Could you allow this to happen? Surely you could have done something to prevent this domino effect.”

Jason snorted, “Nightwings a bloody social butterfly and by the time he linked himself in his civilian lives to his titan friends it was too late. B tried to get Nightie to keep it secret, but teenage boy rebelling from father figure, with the addition of wanting to date someone and you can’t really do that with the mask. Well, that ship sailed a long time ago.”

“On the flip side,” Jason literally flipped a hand over, “In the entire league only three people know B’s identity.”

Red Robin frowned, “Only Superman and Wonder Woman know, who else do you think knows?”

“Martian Manhunter, telepath and B used him to fake a B and B at the same time sighting thing a while back.”

Red Robin nodded, “Okay three.”

“Then the rest of them have between one to two who know, most of which are Supes so they practically don’t count with the big Supes knowing B is B. Same with Wonder Girl and Wonder Woman. Except for Red here he has what four?”

Red Robin glared at him, “I have a time traveler and a mind reader as well as my Superboy on my team and four is only if you count Spoiler and she’s a Bat now so that shouldn’t count.”

“What about your former bf and gf.”

“I never told him, which is why we broke up as you know, and she’s the daughter of Batman’s gear supplier, she already knew before we started dating and that wasn’t because of me!”

“Excuses, excuses. I wouldn’t reveal anyone.”

“That’s because you're legally dead! You have no civilian identity to link to anyone. Even if they connect you to the second Robin N’s the source of anyone who could have figured out who you were.”

“What can I say, being legally dead has its perks. That aren’t just avoiding galas.”

“I’m going to make your helmet play nothing but the Barbie song whenever you try to talk.”

“Hey! That is uncalled for! I didn’t do anything deserving that.”

Hotchner grit his teeth, “Bruce Wayne, Batman, is endangering children. Jason, you died for his cause and he didn’t stop!”

Red Robin snorted, “He tried, but I didn’t give him the option to say no.”

“You were, and still are a child. He should have stopped you, should stop you now!”

Jason had to grab the table to stop himself from falling from his chair as he laughed.

Red Robin sighed, “It’s not that funny.”

“Baby Bird, you were stalking and taking pictures of B before N was even Robin. The idea that anyone could stop you from doing what you want is hilarious.”

“At least I didn’t try to steal Batman’s tires.”

“Hey! I succeeded at stealing them!”

“Three out of four stashed behind a dumpster down an ally isn’t successful.”

“Three out of four is far better than anyone else… wait, how did you know where I stashed them? B barely wrote anything about me stealing his tires in the Batcomputer files.”

“Batcomputer?” Garcia blinked “He actually named it the Batcomputer?”

Jason snorted, “Nightwing decided to rename things when he was Robin and he’s not the most creative at naming things. If he ever has a kid hopefully his partner picks the name. Now, Replacement. How did you know where I stashed the tires?”

“If I give you a copy of you nailing B with a tire iron will you let it go?”

Jason hummed for a moment, “Did you get B’s face?”

“Yep.”

“I want a framed copy for my apartment.”

“I’ll deliver it as soon as I get a chance.”

Morgan looked between the two bargaining brothers, “You,” He waved at Jason, “Hit Batman. With a tire iron as a pre-teen took pictures?”

“We didn’t know RR was there but yeah, I called him a big boob too. I mean if RR doesn’t want you to know he’s about, you won’t.”

Hotchner scowled, “You were children.”

Jason rolled his eyes, “Yeah, we were but there is only one of us he could have ever stopped and that would have been me, which he would have never done. I mean he put us through all sorts of shit before going out. I mean you heard about me complaining about reading Rossie’s books. That was just a fraction of what he put between me and being Robin.”

Rossie frowned thinking back to what he had been alarmed to learn when the BAU had worked the Crane case. “It appeared the current Robin was reading my books that weren’t age appropriate, did he at least keep you, and the others, from reading… ahead?”

Red Robin broke in, “Activating noise canceling ear sets.” Before physically turning away and closing his eyes.

Morgan frowned, “Why did he do that?”

“Theories and inferred facts,” Jason explained, “Is different from hearing the actual facts. O log out of this camera and our mics, wait for Red Robin to cancel his noise canceling to reconnect.”

Hotchner narrowed his eyes, “Explain.”

Jason rubbed his forehead, “Right, the beginning is as good as place as any to start.”

Chapter Text

“So my dad was a minor criminal, for Gotham at least, and a drunk that beat me and my mom until he got arrested and then killed. That was followed shortly by my mom ODing which left me homeless in the most crime ridden city in the US in the part of that city with the highest crime rate. Cops still won’t come unless given really specific reason to.”

Jason put his feet up on the conference table leaning back so he could stare at the ceiling, appreciating that no one was commenting on his obvious defensive behavior, “Wasn’t looking to get trafficked so I ran before the so-called CPS could grab me and sell me off, and well, Winters in Gotham are hard. Homeless, especially kids, freeze to death every year, and I’m still booting people trying to traffic people from shelters, so obviously that was never an option. Wasn’t looking to be some freak’s play thing, I’d have rather died so I stayed far away from the shelters.”

He felt himself get a little detached from what he was saying, as of all the shit that had happened to him, and the distance of time from his childhood it was something he didn’t think of often. 

“Human trafficking in Gotham was both for labor and sex, but sex is a lot better, or it was back then. Some pimps back then actually recruited kids straight from the street and they went with them willingly as those pimps would let people go once they aged out of whatever their clients where interested. It was an almost guarantee to be able to get to eighteen alive.”

“Personally, I liked to keep my options open. I was cute enough to make cash without the help of a pimp but I mostly stuck to boosting tires, and the batmobiles tires would have made bank,” He grinned, “Well they kind of did still, being adopted and all of that let me go back to school and I could bite anyone that thought they could still touch me.”

JJ blinked face pale, “People tried?”

Jason stopped staring at the ceiling, smiling, “Alfred made me cake in reward after he figured out why I had bit that bitch and then he said something. Bruce also canceled all deals Wayne Enterprise had with her company. Which caused her all sorts of problems.”

Morgan frowned, “Bruce knew that she did that and only withdrew deals?”

“He never knew, knew. But a lot of companies and the like went bankrupt after Bruce mentioned the owner was not of ‘good moral character’ as Alfred said. If Bruce had tried to see the people persecuted, one we would have had to talk about it and all the reporters would be focusing on us, not the person that assaulted me. Probably try and claim B only adopted me to abuse me, or maybe that I offered myself to B because I had been a prostitute.”

Jason shook his head, “No, Bruce disapproving and removing all the connections the bitch or bastard had destroyed them in a way they couldn’t pay off, or focus the attention to me because who would dare to accuse Gotham’s Prince’s son of being anything but perfect? They would have been made into a laughing stock.”

“So, no Rossi,” Jason met his eyes, “I didn’t read ‘ahead,’ I lived ahead. I just needed to catch up and get a more professional point of view of things. Now I’d appreciate any of the information I gave of what happened before being adopted kept between us, the others are smart enough to have ideas but as I said theories and hearing facts are different things. Now,” Without looking, Jason tugged on Tim’s cape but not enough to set off the safety detachment, “This one I’m not sure.”

Red Robin turned around glaring at Jason as tapping on his gauntlet so he could hear again, “What?”

“When did you read Rossie’s books?”

“I stuck with most of the reading restrictions but when Ra’s started hitting on me I ignored those and read all of them in less than a day.”

Jason grimaced, “You were at least sixteen before you started then.”

“Seventeen and three months. In the course of three days, I read every piece of literature I could find about someone older and or more powerful than me acting like that so I knew what to do and what to watch out for.”

“Ra’s?” Rossie frowned, “That sounds familiar.”

Red Robin grimaced, “The next time I saw Ra’s he gave a signed copy of your ‘Eyes of a Predator’ you wrote a note, addressed to my civilian identity in it.”

“Your stalker,” Rossie’s forehead furrowed, “Gave you a signed copy of a book about stalking that often ended in the victim dying.”

“Pretty sure he found my research… funny. He did say that he would never kill me, which isn’t really comforting.”

Jason nodded, “I hate that you're still in contact with him.”

“I prefer the monthly chess match to constantly having to monitor my phone, equipment, safehouses, and apartment for bugs, or for actual assassins following me around and reporting back to Ra’s.”

Jason’s head jerked to look at Red Robin, “You said he couldn’t get into your apartment.”

“I said it was almost impossible for him to get in, but nothing’s completely secure.” Turning to the team again he continued “Ra’s and his daughter are both reasons to be careful with the knowledge you now have.”

Hotchner narrowed his eyes, “Is that a threat?”

“It’s a fact. You now have the attention of the leader, Ra’s al Ghul, and the right hand of the League of Assassins. Although Talia is more concerned about keeping Jason and the Demon Brat safe. Luckily they both prefer the hands-off approach, as long as you don’t actually endanger the lives of Jason, Robin, and myself they should leave you alone. Your names have been added to the hot words for any LOA communications we, the cape community, happen to get but we can’t guarantee your safety from them. Now let’s go back to the reason you don’t want to expose B’s identity. The people he’s trained.”

“You mean the child soldiers Batman trains.”

“The children you think he’s requited.”

Morgan narrowed his eyes, “There’s a difference?”

Red Robin looked to the laughing Jason, hoping he’d have a better way to phrase what he was trying to say as he couldn’t seem to get the BAU to understand what he was saying.

Chapter Text

Jason looked over the room, “B doesn’t have a child soldier making problem. Gotham has a child-vigilantism problem. B’s doing his best, which isn’t enough, to try and control the problem.”

Morgan frowned, “What do you mean?”

“As we said, Nightwing became Robin because B needed a way to prevent him from murdering a man with a trapeze wire, and direct the rest of his rage issues as well.”

“It’s also,” Red Robin added, “Probably the only reason that the Court of Owls didn’t grab him and turn him into a Talon before he was ten. I mean B was already training him so they didn’t have to deal with the raising a child bit that training N would have required.”

“Talon?” Morgan leaned forward, “I thought you said the Court of Owls was a myth.”

“We all thought it was, until they abducted N and tried to turn him into one of their undead assassins.”

Jason grinned, “They’re sure a myth now.”

Red Robin snorted, “Well after the arrest of Tony Zucco, B was pretty much doomed. He tried to stop N but well,” He shrugged, “There’s a reason there’s almost as much security keeping people in than out in B’s home and when B finally had enough and put his foot down, N ran away from home to be a hero on his own and well, he ended up leading the first iteration of the Teen Titans but B no longer could keep tabs on, and make sure N was safe, or at least as much as a vigilante slash cape can be.”

JJ frowned, “Di-”

“Nightwing,” Red Robin glared at her, “Or one of his other aliases we gave you like N. If we’re talking about cape business we use cape Ids, it’s too easy to screw them up if we mix them up at any time.”

Jason nodded, waving at Red Robin, “Red Robin has his domino so he’s either Red Robin, Red, or RR. I took off my mask so I’m Jason al Gul-Wayne, not Red Hood, Hood, or RH.”

Red Robin nodded, “I know you avoid using titles or monikers but that’s for unsubs, it is not appropriate for Capes. So, you were asking about N.”

JJ bit her lip but nodded, “Okay N, he left B when he was eighteen? To be a hero without B’s protection?”

Jason nodded, “There’s a reason he doesn’t hard stop us, or well he didn’t try after me at least, and as I said the second Robin is the only one he could have stopped.”

Hotchner narrowed his eyes, “Why didn’t he then?”

Jason looked him in the eyes, “The only thing that B could have used to stop the second Robin was by saying he couldn’t go to school if he kept being Robin.”

Morgan broke the staring contest that seemed to have formed, “School? That’s what would have stopped him?”

“Homeless kid from Crime Alley. Who was willing to risk Batman’s wrath by stealing his tires so he could afford a way to fake a home so he could go back to school. So yeah, that was the only leverage B had and he wasn’t willing to use it. Later on, B again tried to put his foot down on Robin two stopping and well he ended up running off and getting killed before B could reach him.”

Red Robin broke the awkward horrified silence, “Then Robin three happened, and B actively tried to force me to stop but when I threatened to keep going out without him or Robin’s armor, he folded.”

Hotchner frowned, “He should have found a way.”

“How? I wasn’t his kid, he had no say over what I did.”

“He should have told your parents then.”

“Again how? It’s not like they would believe an email that their perfect little heir,” Red Robin’s voice dripped with sarcasm, “Would do anything that would risk the family name.”

“Then he should have gone and talked with them.”

“What? Flown to Bolivia just to tell them I was running around at night? That wouldn’t have been suspicious at all.”

Morgan blinked, “Bolivia?”

Reid frowned but added, “The Drakes were three months into a six month dig in Bolivia at the time of the third Robin’s appearance.”

JJ stared at him, “Surely someone could have called them or talked with whoever was watching the third Robin.”

Red Robin scoffed, “The Drakes never picked up the phone while on digs. They left them wherever they were staying so they wouldn’t be distracted, and to avoid being woken up they were set to silent.”

“The caretaker?”

“He wasn’t a baby; he was fine without one.”

“Okay,” Morgan shifted gears, “B should have contacted the CPS.”

Jason broke down laughing, “Gotham CPS? Right pull the other one. I mentioned running from them earlier, right?”

“What’s so funny about CPS or running from them?”

Reid answered, “Until very recently Gotham CPS was one of the most suspected origins of many child trafficking victims. They openly accepted bribes and almost always returned a child to their home without any home visits.”

JJ stared, “And no one did anything?”

“Wayne Enterprise tried but they were also trying to combat rampant police corruption, including the local FBI office. They actually closed that down because it was causing so many issues.”

Rossie frowned, “You said until recently.”

“There was a massive turn over a few years ago. Basically, overnight almost everyone in the Gotham CPS quit. New employees now have to go through an additional background check before being approved after the governmental background check clears.”

“Overnight?” Morgan frowned, “They all just quit? Was it a protest? How did the CPS cope before new hires could be hired, let alone trained in?”

Jason chuckled, “A lot of people rethought about their careers and life choices after getting a personal visit from Red Hood.”

“Yo-Red Hood,” Rossie corrected at Red Robin’s glare, “killed a department’s worth of people?”

“No, he didn’t kill anyone that night, the high level traffickers and pedos had their own visits the day before that. Helped a few people the next day to have a change in their moral compass.”

Red Robin sighed, “Wayne Enterprise offered assistance. Mostly all of the children involved in CPS cases were temporarily moved to Wayne orphanages until their cases could be reviewed, with visitation left up to the child, but let’s move onto the current Robin.”

Chapter Text

The BAU exchanged looks but went with the conversation change as they weren’t focusing on the actions of Red Hood or Gotham CPS at that time and wanted to get back to the kids.

Jason snorted, “Now there’s your actual child soldier, but becoming a child soldier happened well before he came to Gotham.”

“Before?” Hotchner questioned.

Red Robin nodded thinking, “His body count is probably lower than your average unsubs actual body count, but not by much.”

The BAU froze, Jason merely checking his nails as he waited for one of them to speak and Red Robin thinking about an adjustment he was now considering on doing to his utility pockets. Sliding the pen back into the pocket hadn’t gone as smoothly as he expected it to.

JJ was the one to finally break the silence, “Body count?”

“He was ten when he started as Robin!” Garcia felt the need to add.

Jason nodded, pulling out a nail file to smooth out a spot on his pinkie, “He made his first kill at five. It was a mercy kill but,” Jason slid the file away grimacing, “I still hate Ra’s for ordering that Damian to be the one to finish off the assassin that had attempted to kill Damian.”

Morgan stared, “You were there?”

Jason gave him a grim smile, “I was the one who stopped the assassin but left him alive at Ra’s orders. Even if it would have only delayed the inevitable, I wish I’d just taken the beating for killing the woman against Ra’s orders.”

“Beating?”

“The LOA aren’t a nice bunch. If I didn’t have a healing factor my back would not be as smooth as it is. Fresh from the pit my healing factor was a lot stronger but Demon Brat hasn’t tried to kill almost anyone since shortly after entering Gotham because he’s listening to B’s rule.”

Garcia blinked, “Almost?”

Red Robin took a sip from the coffee cup he was now holding, “Me, I was the only exception as he was trying to take my place in the family or as Robin. We are currently going on six months since the last attempt which was barely an attempt. He called my name before even throwing the knife.”

Reid frowned at all of that but focused on the thing that was now confusing him, “Where did you get the coffee from?”

“Your machine. You really should get a new one, it’s got some build up inside giving the coffee an off taste.”

Jason snorted, “Probably not to the point that anyone but you and your coffee snobness would notice.”

Reid broke back in, “But you didn’t leave?”

Red Robin blinked, “I did. You must not have noticed.”

Jason rolled his eyes, “Black Bats wearing off on you, which she’s also a former LOA child soldier and hasn’t killed or attempted to kill anyone since she ran from the league. Robin and Black Bat were already child soldiers when B got them. He’s trying to give both of them as much of a normal childhood as he can, and as much safety as he can as a cape, since he can’t stop either one, and the two times he tried it did not go well.”

Red Robin waved at some of the other capes on the bat line, “The first Batgirl was completely independent from B and he was barely able to get her in armor let alone anything else. Then with Spoiler, again no link to B when she started out, he really tried to stop her as she was first starting but she kept coming out. Only after she nearly bled out did B start to train and supply her with armor. She is more under O’s attention though.”

Jason smiled at the BAU, “So yeah, Gotham has a child vigilante problem, B is just trying to keep all of us alive.”

Red Robin’s cup clicked as it was set down on another table, “So in summary. You can’t say anything because it would expose the entire super hero communities identities, you can’t do anything about the child vigilantes because B can’t stop us, despite his best attempts, and you would also be at risk of LOA counteraction if you attempted. We also have multiple shape shifters and enough people in the community to have the entire Wayne and Bat Family stand next to each other and make you a laughing stock.”

Jason snorted, “Tell them what Lucius Fox said to that one idiot that tried to say they were going to black mail B with his identity.”

Red Robin pressed a spot on the holographic pad causing it to roll up and play a voice recording, “Let me get this straight, you think Bruce Wayne, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante, who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands. And your plan is to blackmail this person?” Red Robin continued after it finished playing “Fox is a force and I’m glad he works for us. So if you guys really want to reveal B’s identity? Good luck convincing anyone of that when we have shapeshifters and the Goddamn Batman on our side.”

Jason grinned, “I’m telling B you said that.”

“Do it and no printer will work for you for a week. Now I just got a tip on one of my cases so you can ask Jason any follow up questions as I need to go.”

Something fell loudly outside the conference room drawing the BAU’s attention momentarily, Red Robin was of course gone when they looked back to where he had been standing next to the still sitting Jason.

Jason shrugged at their expressions, “It’s like a requirement for a Bat to do that whole vanishing into thin air bit, somehow something always happens just when we need it too. Although Black Bat does it mostly on accident. You guys have any questions? I’ll answer what I can but this is basically a one-shot time and I do need to head back to Gotham soon. I need to swing by the girls to make sure no one’s messing with them.”