Chapter Text
It had been a year since Jason had left the Clinic, and Dick had accepted that Jason was not going to come home.
They weren’t enemies, not like when he first debuted as Red Hood, but they weren’t friends. Dick probably wouldn’t even call them allies.
But that was not Dick’s primary concern right now (he thought about it all the same). The Light was planning something. Again. It was beginning to get seriously annoying that they kept on coming back, no matter how many times the Team managed to shut them down.
The Team had been trying to figure out what they were planning, but so far they hadn’t had any luck.
Babs was trying to hack into their systems, not looking for any specific, just something that might give them an edge. Something that could help them predict the Light’s plan.
But she was having trouble, and he was starting to think that maybe they wouldn’t be able to get information from the inside. But the other options were worse.
The first option was sending out spies. Sending his team members, his friends, into danger. If Barbara couldn’t hack into the Light’s systems then this would be their next move. But the Light always seemed two steps ahead, and he was worried about what would happen if he sent people out to spy on them, the Light had demonstrated that they were willing to kill them if they got in their way.
The second option was waiting until the Light struck and doing their best to improvise. This was a worst-case scenario. The times when this happened were usually the hardest for the Team, and would result in people dying, both vigilantes and civilians.
Dick hasn’t had to worry about the second option the entire time they’ve been fighting the Light, before every major fight they’ve had with them there were smaller ones leading up to it, this was the Light trying to gain either information or resources.
But so far they had had none of these battles. The Light had gone concerningly silent, and they had no clue what could happen.
Jason had been investigating the Light. It was not going well.
He had information about the Light, their history, the members, what they were trying to achieve, but that was from his past records and some information he had gotten from Barbara.
He… was on fairly good terms with Barbara.
It was a surprise when she reached out to him, it was a week after he had stormed out of the hospital, and so far Nightwing had been in Gotham, hovering on the edge of Crime Alley every night, Batman had attempted to talk him once, but once Jason shot at him and told him to fuck off, Bruce seemed to get the idea.
He hadn’t seen Robin out yet, if Jason had to guess he would say that Bruce was making sure Tim was staying in bed, and he wouldn’t be on patrol for a few weeks.
He had seen Spoiler and Orphan patrolling once or twice, but they hadn’t spoken, both pretending the other didn’t exist. They were probably informed about what happened by Dick or Tim, or at the very least given orders not to interact with him.
He ended up interacting with both of them at some point, the most memorable occasion being when Spoiler threw a brick at him, said somethings that Jason wasn’t going to repeat, before getting dragged off by Robin.
But Jason hadn’t spoken with Barbara since he came back. He hadn’t been expecting to either. They weren’t particularly close before he died, she tutored him, taught him how to hack into computers, and patrolled together. So, they were friends. But that was before he was a Crime Lord, before he attacked Tim. He had made his position clear.
So, it came as a surprise when the comm in his helmet crackled to life.
Jason had installed a comm because Roy had reached out again (reached out, broken into his apartment, same difference), and had invited him on a mission. A child trafficking ring in New York.
He figured that he would need a comm for that mission, and he was trying it out, seeing if it worked by connecting to different frequencies, but tonight it was off. He had heard that one of the local gangs was going to try something tonight, and he needed his full attention to make sure nothing was going to happen.
“Red Hood.” The voice was modulated, much like his own, but he recognised it instinctively.
He never knew Barbara as Oracle, but he could tell it was her.
“Oracle.”
“You know my identity and I know yours.”
“It would appear so.”
“I would like to meet with you.”
This was why Jason liked Barbara. She got straight to the point without any beating around the bush.
“You don’t think I’m under surveillance?”
It was a rhetorical question, but Barbara had answered it.
“You don’t think I control the surveillance?”
And so after Oracle had given him the address he made his way to the Clocktower.
She was sitting at a computer, a good one, with security camera feeds across several screens, comm channels on another, and some code Jason didn’t even try to decipher on the remaining screens.
Barbara was sitting in front of the screens, but she turned around when she heard Jason.
Jason had known about the Joker escaping again and paralysing Barbara before Batman caught him. But for some reason it was different seeing the effects of what the Joker had done in person.
Before it was almost like he was convinced that he was the only person the Joker hurt.
Babs broke him from his stupor by speaking.
“Looks like we both changed a lot.”
“Yeah. Looks like we did.”
They stood in silence for a few moments, a silent acknowledgement that had both been hurt, that they had both changed.
“You really fucked up.” Barbara said, breaking eye contact.
“I know.”
“You did the right thing not going back to the Manor.”
“That’s what I was trying to do.”
She pushed her glasses up and levelled him with the same look she used to give him when he came by to her apartment after school instead of the Manor. The look that said be honest, I don’t really give a shit, but I’m going to help you anyway.
“I’m not Bruce. I’m his kid, and I don’t follow his rules. I don’t know the details of what happened last week. But we were friends. Before all this. And I believe it would be more beneficial for all of us if we worked together.”
“We like you and me, or we like me and the Bats?”
She gave him a look that told him he was being a child.
“I meant you and me. I won’t try to get you to work with the others, if you want to do that you have to figure it out for yourself. I won’t tell the others that we’re working together, but I won’t lie to them either.”
“And if I say no?”
“Then I’ll leave you alone, and only contact you when absolutely necessary.”
Jason considered it.
“And what would it look like if we worked together?”
“I watch all the gangs in Gotham. Black Mask’s, Terry Sheppard’s, all of them. I could inform you of what they’re doing, and you would stop them. Occasionally when a Bat’s case leads them into Crime Alley, you take care of it.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah.”
And that was how he started working with Oracle.
She kept true to her word and gave Jason information about the gangs, and he kept true to his, and on the rare occasion a case lead into Crime Alley he cleared it up.
Barbara was helpful, and when she wasn’t on comms with the others, she was on private comm line with him. She was good company.
But Jason didn’t know what the Light was planning, and didn’t know what he’d do once he found out. He couldn’t risk his actions affecting anyone else, he knew better than anyone what they were willing to do for their plans.
That was why he had to get his information by himself.
The chances of that happening were becoming increasingly low. Barbara was having trouble hacking into their systems, and if she couldn’t do it then he had no chance.
He didn’t know where their base was, and from what he heard from Barbara the Team hadn’t had any luck either.
There were no leads, no clues, nothing. They were being unusually quiet, and unless they all somehow died, then they were definitely planning something. Something top secret enough that no one outside of the inner circle could know.
And that was when Jason had a realisation.
If he wanted information about the Light then there was only one way he could get it.
Someone had replaced Deathstroke as a member of the Light.
If it was coming from any other source then Bruce would question it, Deathstroke had a reputation, he had the respect of the other members, it would be very difficult to replace him.
But Oracle had spent weeks getting this information, checking and double checking it, and Barbara was rarely wrong.
Barbara hadn’t managed to figure out who it was, and she was more than ready to, but she hadn’t slept in five days and Bruce had sent Dick to the Clocktower to make sure Barbara got some rest.
Besides, if Tim hadn’t started trying to hack into their systems by now then he’d be damned.
But something was worrying him. Barbara was acting strangely, as if something was bothering her, something important.
She had started acting a little strange about a month ago, a few weeks after she started investigating the Light, but had refuse to talk about the subject when Bruce asked, brushing it off as personal matters. He knew when to leave things be, so he didn’t ask anything else, but was concerned all the same.
He pushed the issue out of his mind. There were bigger problems at hand.
Tim helped Barbara find out Deathstroke had been replaced. He helped a bit. Okay, he mainly watched. But in his defence, he had offered to help, and Barbara had just laughed, downed another cup of coffee, and started working.
So, Tim sat down next to her and watched as she hacked into their systems. He was a quick learner and had learnt how to hack into their systems just by watching, Tim didn’t know if Barbara planned that, but it worked out in his favour.
And so, he was here now, attempting to do what Babs had done, using what he had learnt from her, trying very hard to remember how she had done it.
It wasn’t that Tim was bad at hacking. Tim was excellent at hacking, but Babs was better.
He quickly got to work, disabling the first few firewalls with minimal issues.
But it kept on getting harder, and it took him almost a day before he managed to get into their system. A lot less time that Babs, but most of her time was spent finding it. After all, you can’t hack something if you don’t know how to find it, and the Light had made it very hard to find.
Tim quickly located the identities of the members, and felt his stomach sink when he saw the newest one.
Barbara knew that Bruce had picked up on her strange behaviour, but between trying to hack into the Light’s systems and fending off Dick’s attempts to get her to sleep, she hadn’t had much time to worry about what he might be thinking. This was none of his business.
It started a month ago when she received a text from Jason.
She hadn’t told anyone from the family about her helping Jason (though she suspected Cass knew), and so she couldn’t tell anyone why the text that read “We can’t work together anymore. Can’t explain. Sorry.” hurt her.
Barbara found out about Jason coming back when Dick told Steph and Cass about the new Crime Lord.
He went over what he was doing and why they couldn’t patrol in Crime Alley anymore (which were already familiar topics for both of them), but then moved onto something new. His identity.
Barbara listened as he explained shakily that the dangerous Crime Lord known as Red Hood was Jason Todd. She listened as he said not to get try and get close to him, they didn’t know what he was doing yet. She knew Dick well enough to know he was lying.
By the end of it Steph looked like she was going to throw up, and Cass was watching her curiously. No doubt she already knew what was going through Barbara’s mind.
By the time they had left Barbara had already made up her mind to get in contact with Jason. She didn’t care how badly things had ended between him and the rest of the family, or whatever stupid rules Bruce tried to lay down, she was getting in contact with her little brother.
And she did. She thought that they were becoming closer but apparently she was wrong. She seemed to be wrong about Jason a lot, it turned out. Because not only did she find out Deathstroke was replaced, she found out who replaced Deathstroke, and she was stuck staring at a very familiar face.
Tim had talked to Red Hood exactly once after the warehouse explosion.
It had been about two months, and Tim had grappled on to a rooftop only to see that Red Hood was already there.
“Sorry.” Tim said, “I didn’t see you.”
To his surprise the only response he got was a, “It’s fine.”
And then just as he was about to leave, “I really am sorry for attacking you.”
That caused him to pause.
“Doesn’t make it better,” Was his response.
“I know. I was… I was really messed up at the time,”
“The Lazarus Pit.”
“Yeah. It’s not an excuse, but I thought you should know that I would never ordinarily do that. And I’m sorry I did.”
Tim didn’t really know what to say to that, so he didn’t say anything, and instead chose to grapple off the roof, making his was back to the Diamond District.
The next time they met Red Hood was shooting at him again.
Him and Spoiler were busting an arms deal Red Hood was involved in, and during the fight Red Hood and sent tow shots Tim’s way. His back was turned, but he spun around fast enough to see who sent them.
Neither shot had even grazed Tim.
After that he had stopped believing Red Hood would seriously injure him again. But when he saw the name listed he couldn’t help but regain some of the fear that had kept him up all night.
Tim stared at the name listed.
Red Hood. The newest member of the Light.