Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.

Maggie Smith (Good Bones)

“So what’s up, kid? I’ve really got better things to do th- shit! This looks bad.” Constantine’s mouth twisted as he barely glanced at Jason Todd. Apart from the fact that the boy was obviously not dead, he looked as if he would be better off dead.

John didn’t know the boy knew his phone number (probably got it from Batman, the old loudmouth - ha!), and hadn’t expected a call at all, which was probably the only reason he’d turned up. Curiosity.

“Ignore it. It’s not important.” Jason’s voice was raspy, and looking at his neck injury, it was clear to John that he probably shouldn’t be talking at all. But John couldn’t care less. It wasn’t his neck that was stitched up.

“If it’s not about your wounds, what do you want from me?”

“A new life.”

John just shrugged his shoulders and reached for his cigarettes. A healing spell would go a lot easier, but it still didn’t sound like something that would take several hours.

“That’s what we all want. What did you have in mind? A life under another millionaire?”

Jason rolled his eyes and pointed to the bags of money in the corner of the room. Life as a crime lord paid somewhat, but if John gave him what he wanted, it wouldn’t be hard to part with it.

John whistled appreciatively and as he took a drag from his cigarette, he bent down and glanced at the bills.

“All right, we’ve pretty much got a deal.”

“What else do you want?” asked Jason, but he didn’t really care. Batman had destroyed all his plans with one decision, one batarang. There was no family that wanted him and the Joker was doing better than Jason. If Jason was to be honest, he had probably expected it all to end with his death again because he had never thought about what would come after.

Jason didn’t know what to do with his life.

He couldn’t act as the Red Hood at the moment. He was weakened and Batman would lock him up before Jason could even say “Arkham”. So the only thing left for him to do was to turn to someone like John Constantine if he didn’t want to go back into Talia’s lap (which was definitely not an option).

“Just a small favor,” Constantine replied, and Jason didn’t have the energy to disagree. He should have negotiated, because this was definitely not a fair deal, but something told him that Constantine knew that Jason had no other choice. It was probably the same for a lot of people who approached Constantine.

“What kind of favor?” Jason asked anyway, but John just shrugged.

“I’ll tell you in a few years, when I need your skills. Until then, what do you have in mind for your new life?”

Magic could achieve some things, but not everything. What John’s spell did was simply make Jason’s new IDs look as good as real, and anyone who wanted to take a closer look would be tempted to let it go. It would be the same with people researching Jay Peters. The goal wasn’t to create a new life, but rather to ensure that no one would question Jason’s new identity.

In the end, though, it was nobody’s business what Jason would do with it. This new start belonged only to him, not to Bruce (when he had taken him in) and not to Talia (when she had sent him on his mission). This was his decision.

It actually took three years for Constantine to contact Jason, and no one could have expected Constantine to resort to a favor to avoid dealing with the FBI.

“The bureau could finally establish contact with the Justice League,” JJ told the team and sat down with the others in the conference room. Penelope was connected via a screen and only paused her research when JJ arrived. ”They’re sending a member who has knowledgeable about magic as soon as possible.”

“Let’s hope this contact confirms that it’s an amateur and we don’t need any further assistance,” Derek said, voicing what the entire team was thinking. They had traveled all the way to LA only to find out that the police had contacted the FBI about these ritual murders and no further action had been taken.

“No matter how annoying it may be, if this unsub is a magic user, we’ll pack our bags and leave it to the Justice League,” Hotch reminded his team. You couldn’t work for the government without developing an aversion to vigilantes. But the Justice League fought threats they weren’t trained for, and Hotch wouldn’t let his team get hurt just because they didn’t want to lose their case.

“In my day, we arrested vigilantes. We didn’t ask them for help,” Rossi said.

“Even with institutions like the Justice League and other recognized superhero groups, our profiles result in the arrest of up to 20 vigilantes per year. Not all of them are serial killers, but they are still a danger to society. Since the official recognition of the Justice League, arrests of so-called supervillains by the FBI have dropped dramatically.” Spencer could have quoted the exact statistics, but it would have been inappropriate to mention how many supervillains were arrested by the Justice League each year when they were currently afraid that their case would end the same way.

“Did the bureau also say which magician the Justice League is sending over?” Emily asked JJ, who turned to Garcia for her answer. Penelope was already itching to find the file.

“John Constantine.“

Penelope started typing while Emily already groaned.

”I really hope it’s not the one I’ve heard about,” she told the others. She didn’t talk much about her time before the BAU, and even though she had never met this magician, she had heard more than one bad story about him.

“He’s cute, though. You have to give him that,” Penelope said, sharing a few pictures of someone who apparently had no interest in owning more than a trench coat.

“I’m afraid I have to disappoint you,“ said an unfamiliar voice from the door. Heads turned and they saw a black-haired man in his twenties. He seemed calm, but couldn’t hide how reluctant he was to be there.

”Jay Peters. I don’t know exactly what you were hoping for from Constantine, but he obviously wasn’t interested.”

Hotch didn’t bat an eye, but JJ was already on the verge of contacting the bureau and the Justice League again. That wasn’t what had they agreed to, and if they were being asked to identify likely victims of magic, then they could at least expect the magicians they had sent to actually show up.

“As long as you know about magic, that shouldn’t be a problem,” Hotch said, and Jay laughed loudly and muttered to himself, ‘Shit, this guy is really messing with me.’

With a little more compassion, he took another step into the room and glanced briefly at everyone before introducing himself more formally. Jason had never forgotten the favor he owed John, but he certainly hadn’t expected the bastard to use him to drag him into an FBI magical investigation.

“My knowledge of magic should be sufficient, but I haven’t investigated a magic case in years,” Jason said, lifting his leather jacket slightly, which was probably much too hot in the California heat. But underneath it, a police badge appeared. “I’ve been working for the LAPD’s Major Crimes Division for almost three years. I was supposed to be on vacation today, but when you owe John Constantine something, you’re glad to get it over with.”

Derek raised an eyebrow but refrained from asking for details. If Jay Peters worked for the LAPD, it made things a little easier, as it would be easier to cooperate with the local authorities, but it didn’t sound promising for identifying real magic.

“So, I say you tell me what you hope Constantine would have done, and I’ll do his job.”

“Good. It’s best if we go to the last crime scene together,” Hotch agreed before briefly introducing everyone on the team and calling JJ outside.

“We’re running out of time; whether Jay Peters is a good replacement or not is irrelevant. Still, let the bureau know and get everything ready in case we need another JL magic user.”

JJ nodded and dialed the number. This could be interesting.

Jason was lucky that Constantine had asked for such a small favor, but he could still think of better things to do with his week off than visit a crime scene. He would have loved to finish his book.

“Rossi and Morgan, you’re coming with us,” ordered Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner, and Jason wasn’t naïve enough to believe that this assignment wasn’t intentional. Something told Jason that Hotchner wanted to keep an eye on him and get an impression of him. His companions were male and not as petite as Dr. Reid, who seemed content to tinker with his map.

“Geographical profile,” he heard Batman say and immediately had to tear himself away from this memory. He hadn’t thought about the bat for almost two years, but as soon as Constantine came back into his life–even if only through a phone call–he was back.

Jason tried hard to focus instead on Emily Prentiss, rolling her eyes, as if she had come to exactly the same conclusion as him. It was probably one of Hotchner’s habits to want to protect his team members, even though Prentiss would probably have a better chance against Jason than Rossi. But then again, Jason could kill them all if he wanted to.

The black SUV was thankfully parked in the underground garage, sparing Jason and Morgan from the unbearable heat as they sat in the back. Rossi made himself comfortable in the passenger seat and Hotchner started the engine. Jason tried not to pay too much attention to Morgan, but had the feeling that he wasn’t used to not driving himself, let alone sitting in the back seat. Welcome to the club.

“So, what are we dealing with?” Jason asked, looking straight ahead. Rossi turned to him from time to time as he summarized the case, apparently focusing on the details that had intended for Constantine.

“We received a request for assistance from the LAPD yesterday. Yesterday, the third body of a girl was found who, like the others, had been reported missing by their parents twenty-four hours earlier.”

Jason grimaced. After all these years, he still couldn’t handle it when children were hurt or even killed. As Robin and as Red Hood, he had tried to save as many as possible, but no matter what you did, it was never enough. In recent years, he had put some of these killers behind bars, but it still gnawed at him every time. Why did these people get a trial while their victims had their lives cruelly taken from them? It wasn’t fair, but while he would have sought justice himself in the past, he now tried to accept that it wasn’t his job to kill these people. Jason had a life now, and he didn’t want to give it up. Even if it was just reading and working.

“So we have less than a day to find this bastard, otherwise we’ll find another dead body?” Jason asked, and Morgan nodded. Jason didn’t miss his serious expression. Apparently, he didn’t like the fact that children’s lives were at stake either... or maybe he took every case so personally. It was hard to tell when you’d only known someone for less than an hour.

“Garcia is currently going through all the missing persons cases that fit both the victimology and our time frame. So far, she’s found no matches, but traffic surveillance is trying to trace where our confirmed victims disappeared,” Morgan summarized.

Rossi saw this as his opportunity to mention further details. “The special thing about the crime scenes is that our unsub wrote occult symbols on the floor and walls with the victims’ blood. According to protocol, we have consulted with the Justice League and must first verify whether this is real magic or absolute nonsense before we can continue our investigation.”

Jason snorted contemptuously and received a dark sideways glance from Morgan. “Do I want to know who created this protocol? Does it even matter if it’s real magic when you can save children’s lives?”

Jason couldn’t see much of Hotchner’s face in the rearview mirror, but his gaze was as dark as ever. Jason didn’t even want to think about who that look reminded him of.

“The lives of the victims are our top priority, which is why we are continuing to search for possible victims and have instructed the police to be more vigilant about the safety of children, especially girls between the ages of ten and fourteen, on their patrols. Nevertheless, it is my responsibility to protect my team, and if we are dealing with a real magician, our options are limited.”

Jason understood these arguments, but it was only when he joined the LAPD that he learned what it meant to work as part of a team, and he still found it difficult to think about having to protect others when he himself had no problem risking his life if it meant saving an innocent life.

Instead of sharing these thoughts, he remained silent for a moment. Hotchner pulled into a parking lot, and Jason finally brought himself to share some of his knowledge.

“I know it may seem that way from the outside, but magicians aren’t as invincible as you might think. Zatanna, for example, can’t cast spells when she can’t speak. Constantine, on the other hand, is allergic to cats. Everyone has their weaknesses.”

Jason got out of the car and saw Morgan’s look when they stepped onto the sidewalk together.

“Are you allowed to just share this information with us?”

Jason shrugged. “I don’t work for the Justice League, so it’s not my problem if you tell anyone else.”

Rossi wasn’t sure what to make of Jay. It was good that he worked for the LAPD, because at least they didn’t have to worry about the Justice League emissary having a nervous breakdown at the sight of the crime scene. Still, he was hard to read, and Rossi felt that he could say more about Jay from what Jay didn’t say than from what he did say. For example, they had learned almost nothing about his life, but had been told about the weaknesses of superheroes, which they hadn’t asked about. Maybe Peters had just wanted to reassure them, or maybe he had tried to show that he trusted them with this information, even though that was definitely not the case. After all these years, Rossi knew which people gave their hearts away lightly and which kept them so close to their chests that only once every ten years did anyone get a glimpse of them.

“Does it just look like a lot, or how much blood was spilled here?” Peters asked as he pulled shoe covers over his sneakers. They had all seen worse crime scenes, but knowing that this chalky surface was soaked with a child’s blood made it one of the worst.

“Reid calculated it for us earlier, but the important thing is that he could confirm that it probably all came from one victim,” Morgan explained, unable to remember the square footage calculations. “Casey Williams was only ten years old, so we estimate a maximum of 1.5 liters of blood. It’s probably less, since the perpetrator stabbed repeatedly to get extra blood instead of letting the victim bleed out for the purpose.”

“So the perpetrator lacked the patience or experience to approach it intelligently?” Jay Peters’ voice didn’t tremble, but it seemed more like Hotch’s emotionless mask than indifference. It wasn’t uncommon for young investigators to focus on the facts instead of letting the case get to them.

“That’s what we have in our profile so far, yes,” Hotch agreed, frowning. “I don’t mean to be rude, but we’re not here to rehash the case, we’re here to determine if these symbols mean anything we should be aware of.”

Peters snorted and then bent down to the circle in the center. Instead of being inside the circle, as they knew from other cases, the pentagram was outside. If the unsub had also drawn a pentagram inside, Casey’s pool of blood had long since covered it. It was clear that the girl had been lying here while someone had tried to use her for their own purposes.

Can you feel that crackling in the air? Faint, but a sign of magic.

Jason banished Batman’s voice from his head, but still tried to concentrate. But either it had been too long ago, or no magic had taken place here. At least he couldn’t sense anything. The Al-Blades weren’t making themselves felt either, which suggested that no evil had been lured into the mortal world here.

“Has the crime scene been photographed?” Peters asked, looking over his shoulder at the team, who had given him some space. Yet they watched him intently.

“Yes. We’re the only ones still interested in the crime scene, otherwise the LAPD would have already released it to the crime scene cleanup crew,” Hotch replied.

Peters nodded and then put on a rubber glove before running his ring and middle fingers over the blood. Several hours had already passed, and because of the small amount, it was only thinly spread. That meant not much stuck to the rubber, but it was enough for Jason. Aware of the others’ gaze, he held his fingers under his nose and was relieved when he couldn’t detect a slight sulfur smell.

“If you’re dealing with a magician, he has no idea what the correct formula looks like and hasn’t performed any real magic yet,” Peters concluded, straightening up.

“How can you be so sure?” Morgan asked, and the man in front of them shrugged awkwardly.

“The tests I just ran were all negative.”

“Any idea what the symbols mean?” Rossi asked, and Jay raised an eyebrow.

“Agents, I’m not a magician, and I don’t know anything about semiotics. A few of the symbols are commonly known, but the rest are as confusing to me as they are to you.”

“Reid has already connected some of them, but he also said that they are a confused collection from different cultures and times,” Morgan said, not mentioning that Rossi had asked, even though they had already investigated in that direction.

Jay Peters had examined the crime scene, and they had their answer, yet no one made any move to ask Peters if they should drop him off at the station.

“I don’t know how much I can say, but if you need further confirmation, I can look at the bodies and see if I can find any signs of magic there.”

Something in Jay’s gaze said that he definitely didn’t want to look at the bodies of young girls, but everything about his posture screamed that he was already involved in this case and wouldn’t rest until it was closed.

“All right. The medical examiner should soon finish the autopsy on the last victim. Maybe there will be new findings.”

Hotch had no problem having someone from the LAPD tap along. The team was used to working under the scrutiny of local authorities, so it made no difference whether a non-magician or another police officer was present.

“Garcia, have there been any new missing persons cases, especially around Griffith Park?”

Spencer continued to stare at the map while Garcia worked her magic. Emily was getting coffee for JJ, him, and herself while JJ was still busy briefing the local authorities on the whole Jay Peters and John Constantine story. Spencer didn’t envy her.

Since most of the victims so far had presumably disappeared in Griffith Park and the bodies had been found not far away in abandoned apartments, the LAPD had agreed to position more patrols around the park. On the one hand, that was good because it might allow them to catch the perpetrator in the act, but on the other hand, Spencer feared that their unsub was too smart to try again with the police so present. Someone who managed to organize themselves so well that they could perform a ritual with blood in an empty room for several hours every twenty-four hours would have already thought of a contingency plan or would resort to other desperate measures.

“I’m sorry, or to be honest, I’m not, but we don’t have any new reports.“

“But that doesn’t mean the unsub hasn’t already snatched someone,” said Emily from the door, holding Spencer’s coffee in the air with a half-smile. He smiled and grabbed it. It was going to be a long day if they wanted to catch the perpetrator before his next victim. Time was of the essence, but as always in such cases, Spencer feared they wouldn’t make it in time.

“Parents usually notice within the first twenty minutes when their child is missing. If it’s not noticed within that time frame, it can take up to four hours for a report to be filed with the police.” Spencer bit his tongue before he could add that there were, of course, parents who didn’t consider it necessary to alert the police even after a day had passed. However, this was more often the case for boys than for girls of such a young age.

JJ reentered the conference room and grabbed the last cup Emily had brought with a thank you. “I just spoke to Hotch. He went to the medical examiner’s office with the rest of the team. He’ll call again if they find anything important, otherwise they’ll come back to the station.”

“So, no signs of magic?” Emily asked, and JJ shook her head. ‘It doesn’t look like it so far.’

JJ didn’t know if that was good or bad. Of course, it meant they could at least work on this case, but then again, it meant that someone was doing all this without gaining anything from it. Not that there was anything that would justify this kind of violence.

Dr. Morales raised an eyebrow when he saw Jason standing next to the BAU agents.

“The vacation didn’t work out, did it?“

“Apparently not,” Jason replied, without going into too much detail. No one needed to know that he hadn’t traveled much and that his forced vacation (for some reason, it seemed, you had to take a vacation at some point) had consisted of buying new books just to read his favorites for the tenth time.

“Have you been able to find any new information?” Agent Hotchner asked, and Jason was honestly grateful that the small talk was over. Nevertheless, he had to prepare himself mentally to inspect a child’s corpse, and he could have kicked himself for not simply disappearing on vacation again. Whoever was responsible for this deserved to die. It just couldn’t be in Jason’s hands anymore.

“The blood test results for this girl are still pending, but I have confirmation that your second victim was also sedated. Looking at the various stab wounds, I’m sure that neither girl was conscious when they were stabbed. The first stab wound was always to the heart.”

“A small mercy,” Rossi muttered, but his gaze betrayed pure hatred.

“Any signs of sexual abuse?” Morgan asked, and Jason could see him relax slightly when Dr. Morales shook his head.

“As far as I can tell, the perpetrator was only interested in the blood.”

Jason took another deep breath before putting on rubber gloves and approaching the body.

“Do you want to smell the blood again?” Morgan asked, and Dr. Morales raised an eyebrow.

“That would be the first time that would happen in my room.”

Jason sighed. “It’s not that I particularly want to, but if you want to rule out magic, especially in connection with incantations that contain a pentagram, it’s necessary to know whether a sulfur smell has remained on the body or other organic tissue at the scene.”

“If that’s the case, then I can reassure you. No one gets as close to the body as I do, and I haven’t noticed anything of the sort.”

In the past, Jason would have gone through with it anyway, and that low voice of Batman’s, which Jason desperately tried to ignore, urged him not to trust others. Jason mentally gave the voice the middle finger. Batman could go to hell!

“Good,” Jason replied, hoping no one noticed how raspy his voice sounded. But since he was in a room full of profilers, that was unlikely.

A few more questions were asked, but Jason took the opportunity to step out of the small room with Rossi.

“You already have experience with profiling, right?” Agent Rossi asked, and Jason didn’t know how to answer without making the conversation awkward.

“Honestly, no. It’s rarely necessary in my work, but my mentor, my trainer, forced me to read your book, and some of it probably stuck.”

Rossi nodded. “It’s not uncommon for people in law enforcement to read such books.”

Jason was glad that Rossi asked no more questions about Batman. He would probably have been shocked to learn at what age Jason had been confronted with the deeds of serial killers. It was part of his training as Robin that Jason didn’t like to think about.

They had all gathered in the police conference room. The drive to the station had been quiet, but Hotch had shared their new findings with the rest of the team and concluded by saying that they could now release the profile.

Jason wasn’t sure whether he should stand with the BAU or the rest of the station, so he leaned against the door and hoped that it wouldn’t earn him any strange looks. Officially, he was still on vacation and was only acting as a consultant representative for the Justice League. Something told him that the Justice League would lose their composure if they found out, but Jason was sure that Constantine would skillfully deny everything, so hopefully, no one would notice anything. Jason was particularly afraid that Batman would find out. They hadn’t seen each other since Batman slit his throat, and Jason really hoped it would stay that way.

“Our unsub is most likely a weak man or a middle-aged woman,” Hotch began to reveal the profile, which Jason was also hearing for the first time. “The choice of victims suggests that the unsub was looking for easy prey, but also that the girls were considered necessary for their purpose.”

Morgan stepped forward and took over from Hotch to reveal further details about the victimology. “In many cultures, virginity is considered something pure. Since the crime scenes are left behind like ritual sites, it can be assumed that the unsub considers this purity to be an appropriate sacrifice.”

Doctor Reid hesitated briefly, but then continued, his words flowing more quickly than those of his colleagues. “The victims were girls between the ages of ten and fourteen, all of whom were abducted in or around Griffith Park. Patrols should continue to keep a close eye on this area, even though the unsub may now be using a contingency plan to keep to their schedule.”

Emily nodded briefly to Reid, as if to say, “Good job,” before continuing with the profile. Jason had the feeling that the BAU agents had done this a thousand times before, which was probably true.

“The girls were all found dead less than twenty-four hours after being abducted. Currently, it appears that the unsub wants to claim at least one victim every day. Our arrival in LA, combined with the police force’s increased vigilance, may have disrupted this schedule, as we have not yet received any missing person reports that fit this profile.”

She obviously wanted to hand over to JJ, but JJ was looking at her cell phone, which had started to vibrate. With a nod toward the door, she disappeared, while Rossi took her place.

“Our unsub firmly believes that their rituals serve a purpose and bring them a reward that justifies this form of violence. Our contact with a Justice League emissary ruled out the use of magic. Nevertheless, it is advisable to remain vigilant. This false perception of reality makes our unsub unpredictable. They would never surrender in a hopeless situation.”

Before anyone could say anything, Agent Jareau rushed back into the room.

“A woman just reported her 11-year-old daughter missing,” she explained, and immediately a heaviness seemed to settle over the room.

Hotch nodded and addressed everyone present. “Your captain will lead the search. Stay alert and thank you very much.” With that, he turned to leave, and Jason was sure that the BAU would take over the questioning of the mother.

“Mr. Peters, you can come with us,” Hotch said as he passed him, and it didn’t sound like a request. But a girl was missing, and if there was a chance he could help find her, he would take it.

Hotch quickly divided up the team. Garcia was to focus her efforts on finding Eva Hubbard, or at least finding out where the little girl had been abducted. Her mother had apparently sent her to school, but began to worry when she was back home in time for lunch.

“Morgan and Prentiss, I want you to assist the police in the search. We have more experience with situations like this than the local police, so let’s take advantage of that.“

“Hotch, I have a few vacant houses that the unsub may have chosen as ritual sites this time,” Reid said quickly, marking several locations with a pin.

“Good. Grab some police officers and drive to the first location. JJ and Rossi, I want you to find support as well and check the others. Peters and I will take care of questioning the mother.” Normally, Hotch would make sure that one of his female team members was present for the interview. He knew what it meant to be a parent, unlike many on the team, but most single mothers felt more comfortable with other mothers or women. However, they had to act quickly, and Hotch preferred to have his magic expert with him in case new information came to light. And perhaps there was this urge to keep strangers close to him.

Rossi turned briefly to Peters. “I’m sure Brenda has taught you a lot about interviews, but just a little advice: in our unit, we try to build trust with suspects and witnesses. I advise against lying.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. Perhaps he should have expected Rossi to inevitably assume that his earlier remark about his mentor referred to his department head, Brenda Leigh Johnson. In itself, this was not a problem. Better than anyone knowing that his mentor was Batman.

Nevertheless, Jason was surprised that Rossi knew his boss and not only that but also her interrogation methods. Jason hadn’t always felt comfortable not telling victims’ relatives the truth right away, but it had been effective. Just like Batman’s fear and Talia’s training. Jason had always acquired effective weapons. This time, however, he would have to play by the BAU’s rules, so he nodded to show that he understood.

The team split up. The hunt for the unsub and the search for Eva had begun.

Hotch had actually wanted to drive to Mrs. Hubbard’s house, as conversations of this kind were always easier in a place where the relatives felt comfortable. It was also unusual for a mother who was missing her daughter to voluntarily come to the station. Normally, they all hoped that their child would come home soon, and in that case, they didn’t want to be anywhere else.

“Did you drag her here?” Jason asked a police officer, who shook his head grimly. Mrs. Hubbard sat in the empty cafeteria on the second floor of the building and stared at them through the glass windows with tear-stained eyes. Fortunately, it was unlikely that she could read their lips.

“No. She insisted on coming with us. She wanted to be where the orders were being given so that her daughter would definitely be found.“

Jay furrowed his brow, and Hotch couldn’t blame him. Something about it made him feel uncomfortable.

“Mrs. Hubbard, I’m SSA Aaron Hotchner, and this is my colleague from the LAPD, Jay Peters. We are doing everything in our power to find your daughter safe and sound. Could you perhaps answer a few questions for us?”

Jason noticed that Hotch’s expression was the same as always. It didn’t radiate warmth, and Jason couldn’t wait for the BAU to leave LA. He wouldn’t be able to stand it for long. It reminded him too much of someone else.

“Yes, of course. Anything you need,” the woman promised, gesturing for Jason and Hotch to sit down opposite her. Jason felt a chill run down his spine when he looked into her eyes. Now he would love to throw his arms around Hotch’s Batman if it meant he could avoid having to talk to this woman.

“Mrs. Hubbard, does your daughter go to school alone every day?” Hotch asked, and the woman nodded and even smiled slightly.

“My husband used to drive her, but after he died... Eva preferred to go alone. She wouldn’t let me drive her, either.”

Hotch said nothing, but Jason knew that he had noticed how Jason had clenched his hand into a fist next to his chair. Hotch couldn’t blame him; after all, it was more than irresponsible to let an 11-year-old go to school alone, especially when there had been warnings about a serial killer.

“When was she supposed to arrive home?”

The woman didn’t even look at a clock, but replied immediately, “Two hours ago. At first I didn’t think anything of it because she likes to dawdle and has been known to help teachers prepare for cultural festivals and things like that. But with the news, I did start to worry.”

So she was well aware that a serial killer was on the loose in LA and yet had taken no precautions. No matter how many tears the woman shed, Jason found it difficult to feel sympathy for her.

“Does your daughter have a cell phone?” Jason asked, without waiting to see if Hotch had another question.

“No, she’s too young for that.” The woman looked at Jason in horror.

“But not too young to be out alone in a city like LA?” Jason’s tone was sharp, and he ignored the stare he got from Hotch.

“That’s not important right now,” the woman said desperately, but with an angry undertone. “This isn’t about interrogating me, it’s about finding my daughter.”

With that, Mrs. Hubbard stood up, and Jason followed suit. But before he could ask another question, Hotch had also stood up.

“Peters, please come with me. Mrs. Hubbard, I apologize. A colleague will come by soon to ask you some more questions, should you feel ready to answer them.”

The woman shook her head and turned away. She seemed to want nothing more to do with them. Jason knew better; she couldn’t keep up her act any longer and had to pull herself together.

“What was that?” Hotch asked sternly. In recent years, Jason had gotten his anger under control really well, but this time, it slipped out a little. He didn’t yell, but he was close.

“I know what a woman who sent her own child to her death looks like. Those tears? They’re not for her daughter, but for herself, because she sees herself as the victim. She was forced to do something terrible.”

Hotch looked at Jason for a long time. He couldn’t know that Jason was currently thinking about his biological mother and how she had lit a cigarette while the Joker was beating him up. Maybe the BAU had put the worst of the worst behind bars, but Jason had lived through the worst. He wasn’t going to be fooled by an amateur.

Hotch took a deep breath, and Jason forced himself to do the same, cooling some of his boiling anger. It wouldn’t do him any good to yell at this agent. It wouldn’t bring Eva back, either.

“I am aware that Ms. Hubbard is not telling the truth, but if she wants to see herself as a loving mother, it means we can get information from her. But now she is irritated and feels attacked. It will be difficult to get any more information or evidence out of her that can be used against her.”

Jason swallowed. He should have known that the BAU didn’t hire amateurs. They knew what they were doing and were definitely more skilled at interrogation than Jason. Jason’s interrogation technique had always consisted of violence or the threat of violence. He didn’t know any better, and apparently you learned very little from watching your boss obtain a confession during an interrogation now and then.

“I’m sorry, I should have kept my feelings in check.”

He hadn’t learned to apologize from his mentors either, but when he thought about the people in his life who would never apologize to him, Jason was proud that he could.

Hotch looked at him as emotionless as ever, but Jason couldn’t detect any anger. “I should have found out about your experiences beforehand.”

Jason didn’t take it as criticism and shrugged. Everyone had their strengths and weaknesses. “I could have mentioned that it’s easier for me to detect lies than to elicit the truth in an interrogation.”

Before Hotch could decide what to do next, his phone rang. Jason pricked up his ears, but Hotch disappeared with him into one of the empty offices and put the call on speakerphone.

“What is it, Garcia?” he asked, and almost immediately the room was filled with Penelope Garcia’s voice. Jason had only seen her once on screen, but he still felt that she was an indispensable member of the team, even if she wasn’t out in the field.

“I tried to retrace Eva’s route to school to see where and when exactly she disappeared, but I couldn’t even find any evidence that she ever arrived at school. Over the last few days, I was able to find her regularly on surveillance cameras, but today it was a wasted effort. So I called the school, and they assured me that Eva’s mother had called in sick for her today.”

Hotch's and Jason’s expressions darkened, and Garcia took advantage of the silence. “Do you think Mrs. Hubbard has something to do with this?”

Jason definitely assumed so, and from the look on Hotch’s face, he was now certain that there was no other explanation.

“Thanks, Garcia. Please connect me to a judge. I’m trying to get a search warrant for the Hubbards’ apartment.“

“Hotch, wait a minute. Emily is calling me right now,” Garcia typed briefly and then added, “Emily, Hotch is also on the line.”

“Good,” Prentiss replied curtly, and you could already tell from her voice that she didn’t have good news. ‘We found Eva. She was stabbed just like the others.’

“Garcia, how far is Prentiss’ location from the Hubbards’ house?” Hotch asked, and they heard the familiar typing again before Garcia replied.

“Not far, just like Griffith Park. I’m trying to find out where Mrs. Hubbard was at the time of the kidnappings over the last few days. Garcia out.“

“Are we suspecting the mother now?” asked Prentiss, who was still on the line, and Hotch nodded grimly.

It was a few hours later before the entire BAU team was back in their conference room. Jason had taken it upon himself to get everyone at least a snack, but Prentiss didn’t seem like she would be able to eat anything anytime soon.

“How could someone do something like that to their own daughter?” JJ asked quietly, and Jason wasn’t sure, but he was certain that JJ had a child of her own, probably even a daughter.

“We factored into our profile that our unsub is desperate. With the stricter patrols in the park, it was the safe option for her to take her daughter,” Reid concluded, and Jason grimaced. The fact that a mother was willing to take other mothers’ daughters was bad enough, but that she didn’t even shy away from her own... Jason would like to be surprised once in his life when it came to the evils of this world.

“You mentioned earlier that her husband died some time ago?” Jason asked, and Garcia confirmed this with the exact date. “Then it’s likely that she’s been reading up on occult rituals in recent months to bring him back from the dead.”

“Children for her own husband?” Rossi asked, but didn’t seem to have any objections.

“Dead people stay dead. Why would she rather kill her own daughter in the hope that the spell will work the third time, instead of focusing on giving her daughter a good life?”

Reid had to disagree with Morgan here. “There have been cases of people coming back to life. It’s more common in the superhero community, but it also happens with civilians.”

Without meaning to, Jason laughed briefly. “But those were all coincidences. There’s no such thing as a surefire recipe for bringing someone back. The question is rather, what did her husband do that made the woman think she could make a deal with the devil?”

No one had yet considered that the rituals had more to do with hell than with a ritual directed at heaven. But in the end, it didn’t matter.

Hotch turned to the team. “JJ, I want you to be present during the interrogation.”

Jason wondered if they even needed an interrogation. The Hubbard’s house had already been turned upside down, and along with a murder weapon, several books that fit the profile had turned up. In addition, Garcia had compared the surveillance cameras around the park with the image of Mrs. Hubbard and had indeed found some matches. The woman had carried a tired child, whose face was turned to the side, out of the park in her arms, and no one had suspected anything, after all it was not unusual behavior. Mothers often carried their children home after they had exhausted themselves playing.

They had enough for an indictment, but perhaps a confession was more necessary for the BAU than for the files. Perhaps profilers couldn’t help but extract the most knowledge from each case in order to recognize the signs earlier next time.

They had taken Ms. Hubbard to an interrogation room, using the excuse that it was quieter there. Beforehand, a patrol officer had dully read her rights, stating that he always had to because he had forgotten once. But as nervous as she was, she didn’t seem to buy it entirely, but she hadn’t asked for a lawyer and had even waived that right so as not to waste any more time.

“Ms. Hubbard, I’m Jennifer Jareau. My colleague told me about your unfair interview earlier. I know you’re not a bad mother.”

Jason was surprised that the woman jumped on that immediately. Around him, the people who were also watching the camera feed didn’t seem nearly as surprised.

“This woman sees her actions as justified. She doesn’t see herself as a monster,” Rossi explained, and Jason nodded, even though he didn’t know exactly why that was important.

Ms. Hubbard nodded vigorously in the interrogation room. “No, I really am not, no matter what your colleague thinks.”

JJ smiled, and Jason wondered if he was the only one who noticed that it didn’t seem genuine.

“But I also know how exhausting children can be, especially when you’re taking care of them on your own. Even if you shouldn’t say it too loudly, I wished more than once back then that my child had died instead of my husband.“

“A lie?” Jason asked in the room.

Morgan nodded. “If I hadn’t known, JJ could have fooled me. How did you notice?”

“She didn’t mention any names. As if she didn’t want to associate her family with this lie.”

“Yes, that’s a dark thought, but I won’t judge you for it,” Hubbard promised JJ, even managing to smile proudly.

Now it was Hotch’s turn to clear his throat. “Tell us, Mrs. Hubbard: as soon as your husband is back, will you bring your daughter back too?”

Instead of being surprised that the FBI was implying her daughter had died, the woman didn’t seem to notice that her house of cards had collapsed. “But of course. The little one will endure a few minutes in the dark. My husband has been down there far too long. He can’t make it any longer.”

Jason’s face contorted. There was no remorse to be seen. Everything that had happened over the last few days, the girls lying in the morgue, didn’t interest this woman at all.

Jason left the room before the spark of green in his eyes could gain the upper hand.

It would be a lie to say that no one in the precinct was happy that the BAU was leaving LA again. Some of the police officers would probably even celebrate with a drink. One case closed before the madness continued tomorrow.

“If you’re ever in Quantico, let us know. I still have so many questions about magic that I can’t ask anyone else.” Reid seemed genuinely sad that he had hardly talked to Jason in the little time they had had together. Jason, on the other hand, was quite happy. Reid reminded him of someone he didn’t like to think about.

“Peters, even if there’s room for improvement, you’re a better profiler than some of our recruits,“ Rossi said, and Jason raised an eyebrow.

“Thanks, I guess?“

“I agree with Agent Rossi. If you ever want a career within the FBI, the BAU would be a good place for you,” Hotchner said, which surprised Jason.

“Even though I was a disaster in the interrogation?”

Hotch actually laughed sincerely and then shook his head. “Your instinct was right. If the woman had been innocent, it would have been a different story, but as it is, you just need to work on your interrogation technique. Nobody is perfect, and we all have our weaknesses.”

Jason nodded, even though he could hardly imagine that anyone on the team had been part of an assassin group and had killed over sixty people in recent years.

He had a group of profilers in front of him who were saying goodbye and who didn’t know all the terrible things he had done.

Images flashed through Jason’s mind. Joker. Batman. Robin.

Jason forced them into the background.

“I’m happy with my position right now. Have a good trip to Quantico.”

“Thanks,” JJ said, and Jason watched the black SUVs grow smaller and smaller before heading back to his apartment.

Two months later, his boss quit, and Jason saw it as a sign that he should also pursue a new career. Why did he choose the BAU? Jason didn’t know exactly, but he just couldn’t forget this case. Closed or not, there were so many other people who would continue to kill if they weren’t stopped.

Maybe it was wrong for a serial killer to want to hunt down other serial killers, but Jason preferred this job to a carefree life. He could never have that.

This place could be beautiful,

right? You could make this place beautiful.

Maggie Smith (Good Bones)

Chapter Text

When you’re breaking
Your mind goes back to default
Telling you you’re alone
And that you have to be alone
Because that’s how you were raised

- Lost Boy (When You’re Breaking)

Hotch was surprised when he saw Jay Peters’ name again two months after the case in LA. It was an official application, supported by letters of recommendation from the LAPD and Special Agent Fritz Howard.

Even though Hotch had encouraged Jay Peters to apply, he hadn’t expected this. It wasn’t hard to imagine that something must have changed for him to apply now. Wanting to be fully prepared before making his tenth request to Strauss this year for an additional profiler on the team, he sent a quick research request about Jay Peters to Garcia.

Hotch already knew it would be difficult to convince Strauss, but the cases they were asked to work on were piling up, even if they didn’t fly out for every single one. It was long overdue for them to get some support, and even if Peters still had a lot to learn, he had an intuition that Hotch would like to make use of. Besides these aspects, he had seen how important it was to the man to solve a case. He wasn’t interested in recognition or a quick climb up the career ladder, but in the victims and justice.

There was a knock at the door, and shortly thereafter, Penelope poked her head into the office and sat down across from him. She had several printed sheets in her hand, and Hotch took them and looked at the brief profile of Jay Peters.

“I didn’t find much. No registered criminal record, but he’s originally from Gotham, which means a lot could have been lost.”

Hotch knew that Gotham had been corrupt for a long time, and even though it had improved, the attacks on the GCPD were so numerous that files and evidence were often burned or destroyed. Gothamites were tough, but when they moved to a new state, you had to accept that their past was virtually untraceable. Still, Penelope’s failure to find anything was a relief, because if there had been anything, she would have found it.

“I couldn’t find anything that would explain his connection to John Constantine or the Justice League, so I assume this happened during his time in Gotham.”

Hotch nodded. In fact, Peter’s knowledge of magic was one aspect that ultimately convinced Strauss to approve additional funding.

“Any reason you found for his sudden interest in the BAU?”

“It’s complicated. His boss has now been transferred, which is related to a charge that didn’t make it to court. So neither acquittal nor conviction. This charge was directed primarily at his boss, but also at everyone on the team.”

Hotch motioned for Penelope to continue.

“Apparently, there were some concerns about how a few cases were handled. The prosecution believed it was a case of vigilante justice.”

“Anything that can be traced back specifically to Peters?”

“No, nothing.”

Hotch nodded. From his point of view, there were no problems. He could well imagine that there were some in this team who would consider striking out in a new direction if he were to transfer. One change often inspired others, and perhaps Peters had not wanted to work under the new leadership.

Nevertheless, Hotch informed Peters in a later phone call that he would not tolerate vigilante justice in his team. If Jay Peters was surprised that Hotch brought it up, he didn’t show it.

“Which hurts more? A or B?”

“You will remain unavenged. Batman has replaced you.”

“It’s him, or me! You have to decide! Decide, NOW!”

“Hey!”

Jason snapped out of his thoughts, but it took him a few more steps before he stopped running. He had spent the last few months not only working out but also taking a profiler training course, which didn’t stop the FBI from assigning Derek Morgan as his trainer to check if he was really ready.

“We said two miles, no need to go the extra mile.”

Jason tried to smile. While running, he had inevitably drifted off into thoughts and memories that had fueled his desire to escape faster. How stupid.

“Sorry, I wasn’t counting. Are you out of breath?”

Derek Morgan was obviously not out of breath, but it was clear that Jason had not held back on his speed as much as he had on everything else. It would have raised too many questions if Jason had openly and honestly disclosed all his martial arts training from the League, combined with Batman’s detective training and Dick’s acrobatics lessons (the latter of which had been sporadic and, in Jason’s opinion, of little use).

“I didn’t, but you should have. If you’d run those two miles at the same pace as at the end, we would have set a record.”

Jason blew air out of his cheeks loudly. “Don’t be ridiculous. If I’d run at that pace, I’d be lying in the grass right now and you’d have to call an ambulance.”

Derek’s expression clearly showed that he didn’t believe him, and Jason didn’t like the mistrust that came with it. It was probably part of profiling to analyze the surrounding people, and it was part of being an FBI agent to become suspicious when someone lied about themselves and their abilities. Jason hoped that this moment of suspicion would be the only one, because then Derek would soon forget about it. If they started to pile up... then Jason would have to consider whether he really wanted to stay on this career path, not that he had any idea where else he would end up.

“So what’s the deal? Do you have one more test for me?”

Derek shook his head and handed him a bottle of water. “It’s clear to me that you’re fit for field work, otherwise the police wouldn’t have taken you on. You’re probably fitter than Rossi or Reid.”

Jason took a few sips so he wouldn’t have to say anything. Otherwise, he would probably have called bullshit. If Derek knew all this, it was to get to know Jason better and be able to assess him more accurately. Yes, maybe his superiors had a hand in it, but Jason had no doubt that Derek was doing this for that very reason.

Jason had gotten used to the fact that police work meant you were rarely alone and almost never had a quiet moment to yourself. But he still had to get used to the fact that the attention of profilers was something else entirely. They not only paid attention to whether you were tired, but could also assess whether you were uncomfortable and why.

Nevertheless, Jason tried to analyze Derek as well. If he had the team correctly in his head, he was the most athletic of them all. His dig at Rossi and Reid had not been malicious; instead, he had said it with affection. He recognized his teammates’ weaknesses but looked past them and was probably always ready to compensate for them with his own strengths.

Without thinking twice, Jason hooked his fingers into the high collar of his sports top to get a little more air. But the next moment, he remembered why he had bought such an impractical piece of clothing.

“Damn, that looks like it hurt a lot. What happened?”

Jason immediately let the collar fall back into place. Fortunately, he was sure that Derek hadn’t seen the whole scar from the angle he was looking at it. Enough, but not enough to realize that this wound should have killed Jason.

“An accident,” he explained, but wished he was sure of that himself. Had it been an accident? Jason could only remember the pain, not whether he had moved irrationally and perhaps even run into the blade. But then again... When had he ever seen Batman miss his target? Maybe the Batarang had hit exactly where it was supposed to. And maybe it was good that Batman assumed Jason was dead. Again.

Derek raised his hands, as if to make himself look less threatening. “I shouldn’t have asked. You don’t have to tell me anything.”

Jason nodded and then disappeared into the changing rooms. He and Derek had barely finished showering and dressing—in clothes far too formal for his taste—when they encountered Agent Hotchner.

“Hotch, the kid’s doing really well. Have they stepped up the fitness training at the academy?”

Hotch seemed to ignore the question, because everyone knew it wasn’t meant seriously, but he had noted the statement, nonetheless. As had been the case almost half a year ago, the man never seemed to smile. The man’s eyes revealed more emotion than Batman’s masked visage; otherwise, Jason probably would have quit Quantico that week.

“Peters, profilers are not required to carry a service weapon. I just want to make sure you know what that means. I will not send you to places where it is clear that a shootout is likely to occur.”

“You didn’t take a weapons test?” Derek asked in surprise, and Jason nodded.

In fact, this surprised him, too. The first time he heard that he didn’t need a service weapon, he had just laughed mockingly. It was difficult to defend himself without a gun, and it was also dangerous.

But then Jason had started reading old case files to gain a better understanding of profiles and to name a few behavioral patterns, even if he already knew them. It was no joke when people said that those hunted by the BAU were often candidates for the death penalty.

Jason had gotten himself under control in recent years. He had started making conscious decisions that came from him and not out of defiance toward Batman or Talia’s manipulation. It had been his decision to join the BAU, and it had to be his decision to follow the rules. He couldn’t kill these serial killers, rapists, and arsonists. And because he didn’t currently trust himself to make that decision, he had to restrict himself.

Jason hoped that he would reach a point where he no longer needed this restriction. Where he no longer felt like he was punishing himself a little with every murder, even if it was the only right thing to do.

Jason knew his victims, and he knew that not absolutely everyone deserved it. That couldn’t happen again.

“I’m sure,” he replied to Hotch. “As long as it doesn’t interfere with the team and the work, I’d like to do without a service weapon, for starters.”

If Hotch thought it was strange, he didn’t say so. Jason was sure it was strange. How many profilers had ever given up their weapons? If there were any, it certainly wasn’t voluntary.

“Agent Prentiss is currently on vacation, but otherwise, the team is complete,” Hotch said on the way to the offices. The elevator doors opened and Jason got his first impression of where he would be working for the next few years (if all went well). Although similar to a police station, the building was noticeably cleaner and the people more serious.

They walked through the glass door to the desks together, and Jason immediately spotted some familiar faces. JJ was standing next to Dr. Reid’s desk and smiled at them before taking a few steps toward Jason and extending her hand.

“Peters, it’s good to see you again.”

“Likewise,” said Jason, nodding briefly to Reid, who simply raised his hand in greeting.

“I hope you didn’t overexert yourselves,” said Agent Rossi, leaning over the railing. Behind him was an office door, and Jason assumed it was his.

“I didn’t, but the kid had quite a sprint the last half mile.”

“Great, then you finally have someone to run with,” Reid muttered, as if he wasn’t sure whether he would be dragged along to training if he was too loud.

“Is he here already? Oh... He is! Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Jason heard the sound of high heels next to the voice and turned around in surprise. He could still recognize the voice, but he was surprised at how happy it sounded. It was as if Penelope Garcia had been waiting for him to join the department.

“The team was pretty useless for profiler when I asked them what would be a nice welcome gift. So I hope a little desk decoration is just the thing.”

Penelope held out her arms and presented him with a small bobblehead dog wearing a pink sweater. Jason’s smile was genuine as he accepted it. He hadn’t expected to get anything at all, and even though he wasn’t much into decorations, he was glad that it gave his desk a little personality. Without it, his desk would probably still look like it didn’t belong to anyone in three months’ time.

“Thank you. We haven’t met in person yet. I’m Jay.”

Penelope’s eyes widened when she realized she had rushed in without introducing herself. She quickly made up for it by hugging him instead of opting for a handshake like JJ.

“That’s enough, baby girl, or I’ll get jealous.”

Jason glanced briefly at Morgan’s face before deciding that the two were not a couple, but that this teasing was part of their relationship.

“We don’t have a case to go on right now. Get settled in first, then we’ll talk again,” Hotch explained, and then disappeared into his office. As the boss, he probably had a few bureaucratic things to take care of, especially when a new member joined the team.

“Have you heard from Emily?” JJ said, glancing briefly at her cell phone.

Penelope shook her head and pouted. “Even if she claims otherwise, a Wayne gala is a top event. She should be glad her mother dragged her along.”

Jason had to try hard not to grimace. If Prentiss had anything to do with the Waynes, it could be a problem for him, but since Jason knew how many people were on the guest list each year, it was more likely that Prentiss was the daughter of politicians. Jason would have liked to ask and find out more, but he felt that his aversion alone had already been noticed and he really didn’t want to start a conversation about the Wayne Gala.

He was grateful when Reid changed the subject. “We usually get new cases pretty quickly, so it’s a stroke of luck that you can ease into things. Your desk is over there. Hotch will probably pick out an old case for you so you can get a feel for how we write profiles and how the paperwork generally works. At the academy, they like to go into detail about how profiling works, but if I’m reading your expression correctly, you’re already doing it automatically.”

“We don’t profile each other, pretty boy,” Morgan scolded, and Jason raised an eyebrow.

“We don’t?” he asked, and Morgan shook his head, laughing.

“Some things you can’t turn off, but we try not to do it. When you spend all day looking into the minds of criminals, it’s good not to have to do it with your own team as well.”

“Noted,” Jason promised, but he already knew it was a cold-hearted lie. He had spent the last few months researching the team and their previous cases.

Much could be learned from newspaper reports, but not everything. If he ever wanted to trust this team, it was inevitable that he would have to decide for himself whether he could or not. But he didn’t want to become like Batman, who had a contingency plan for every member of his teams. Jason just wanted to make sure he didn’t put his trust in the wrong people again.

Jason felt good about how his first day went so far. JJ had explained a few things to him using a case they were just closing before Hotch had to throw a spanner in the works. Jason didn’t kid himself; as soon as he read the name on the file Hotch choose for him, his facial expression slipped and he was neither quick nor skilled at hiding it.

“Problems?” Hotch asked, and Jason would have been happy to see a spiteful smile on his lips, but it was a neutral statement. His boss hadn’t specifically chosen this case to annoy Jason.

“No.”

“Good, then I’d like to hear your impressions and thoughts on this old case before the end of the shift. Jason Gideon wrote a profile on it back then, which we can use for comparison, even though, of course, it’s not certain that it doesn’t contain any errors.”

Jason was pretty sure that Hotch didn’t assume there were errors in the original profile, which meant that anything that differed in Jason’s profile was a sign that he wasn’t ready yet. It was a test.

As Jason returned to his desk with a grim expression, he realized that he had immediately assumed the worst. Yes, Bruce and Talia had loved their tests, but that didn’t mean Hotch was like his old mentors.

“Everything okay?” Reid asked, rolling his desk chair next to Jason. He kept enough distance, but it was clear that Jason had his full attention.

“Is Agent Hotchner someone who tests his agents without officially declaring it a test?” Jason asked directly, without responding to Spencer’s question.

Spencer furrowed his brow and seemed to think seriously about the question before shaking his head. “Not that I know of, and never to new recruits. Why?”

Jason took a deep breath. Agent Hotchner had given him the Red Hood case. Now, Jason was not someone who believed in coincidences, but if Hotch had anything on him, he would have handcuffed Jason instead of handing him a file.

“I got an old case from Gotham. Red Hood.”

It didn’t take long for Reid’s eyes to reveal that he remembered the case. Much more than that, in fact. “You’re from Gotham, right? Garcia mentioned something about that, without any ill intent, of course. Hotch is a pragmatist. He sees no point in giving you a case that has already been solved. But if you’re from Gotham, it makes sense to give you an unsolved case of this area and see if you can spot something that outsiders have missed.” Jason had to admit that he relaxed more with every word until he realized that he was still expected to go over his own case. Eventually, it had to happen. Spencer seemed oblivious to his panic and continued talking. “Red Hood? Mhm, Gideon investigated that case and even mentioned it in a few of his lectures. It was one of the few cases where the GCPD had no objection to a profile, as both they and the local vigilantes were having trouble catching him. If I’m not mistaken, he just disappeared one day and no further crimes were attributed to him.”

It was impressive how much Spencer knew without even having to look at the file. Jason leaned back slightly and made sure Spencer understood that he wanted to say something. He was reluctant to interrupt the man, and fortunately, he didn’t have to, since he caught the glue. “Not that I don’t appreciate your knowledge, but isn’t it cheating if I let you help me?”

Reid frowned again before looking at Hotch’s office door and back at Jason. For a moment, Jason had felt that he had also looked at Rossi’s door. “There’s a reason we’re a team. Together, we can achieve more and consider most factors. I’m done with my office work for today, so if you want, we can work together. Otherwise, I’ll just grab a few files from Morgan that he’s been putting off for two weeks.”

Ah! Now Jason understood the look. Hotch had nothing against teamwork, but something told Jason that Rossi wasn’t always the team player, he seemed to be in LA. Jason figured it was time he practiced that too.

“Let’s go through it together. I don’t know how much the GCPD shared with you, but this Red Hood...” Jason leafed through the file, which had a blurry camera image of him on the front. The helmet was tightly fitted to the body, and you could just make out the leather jacket, but there was nothing to reveal that it was Jason. Jason wasn’t even sure he would recognize himself if he didn’t know. “...isn’t the first Red Hood Gotham has seen. There was the Red Hood Gang and several people who decided to work with red helmets as a signature... and then there was the Joker.”

When Reid noticed how his voice trembled at the name, he said nothing. Instead, he listened intently to the information, his eyes sparkling.

“No, no one told us that, and it’s really hard to find out anything about Gotham. We would have noticed if we had flown there, but... it’s Gotham, so the police made it clear that they didn’t want us in their city.” Jason could well imagine that. While Spencer spoke, he continued to leaf through the pages, pretending to see some things for the first time while pretending to recall others. If the BAU knew he was from Gotham, then it was reasonable to assume that they thought he had been in Gotham during Red Hood’s time and should know at least a few things. “But that actually changes our profile. If it’s a well-known name, it not only reinforces Gideon’s assumption that our unsub is a Gothamite, someone born and raised in Gotham, but also an intelligent strategist. I mean, the fact that the GCPD has nothing more than a photo, hearsay, and the bodies is proof that he’s smart, but he specifically chose this name and earned respect with it. He knew that names mean power and wanted to use it to his advantage. When was the Red Hood Gang around?”

Spencer seemed visibly excited about the progress they had made in just a few minutes, while Jason hoped he wasn’t giving too much away. His gaze wandered over the file and he thought about it.

“I was maybe eight years old?”

Spencer nodded and seemed to calculate it for himself before clapping his hands. “Let’s assume that someone was connected to this gang. Maybe a teenager who admired them or even had a family member who belonged to the group. If that teenager prepared himself to reach the same level, then seventeen years later, he would have been in his early thirties. That fits with the skills and ages that Gideon has established.”

Jason glanced down briefly and realized that they were assuming a male unsub between thirty and forty years old. Somehow, he didn’t know how to feel about the fact that he seemed to have acquired skills that were not expected at his age.

“What I actually wanted to ask you, but has nothing to do with the case, is about your hair.” After a minute of silence, Spencer seemed uncomfortable that he had brought it up, but it actually took Jason that long to understand what he meant.

“Oh, you mean the white streak?”

“You didn’t have that in LA.”

Jason shook his head. “I did, actually, but I always dyed it black to match the rest of my hair. But at the training academy, it was impossible to dye it regularly with the strict schedule, so I just left it alone.”

“Poliosis, right? May I ask if it’s congenital or...”

Now Jason interrupted Spencer. “No, I’d rather not talk about it. It is what it is.”

With that, Jason looked back at the file, which he realized wasn’t as full as he had thought. He definitely didn’t want to tell Spencer that the white streak had appeared after his bath in the Lazarus Pit and had never disappeared. In fact, Jason didn’t know what poliosis was, but he didn’t need to know. It had nothing to do with him and his magical rebirth voodoo.

“I’m sorry,” Reid apologized, but Jason waved him off and instead picked up one photo showing the bag with the severed heads.

Jason didn’t feel sick, but he was close. When he thought back on it (which wasn’t often), he had always tried to justify it. They had been drug dealers, but not the ones who had to make ends meet, but the ones who earned well and still weren’t happy. The ones who made sure that dirty stuff got into schools and who didn’t shy away from taking their anger out on innocent family members when they wanted their money back.

When Jason thought back to how he had severed the heads, it had never been bloody, which didn’t make sense. He had seen a lot of green, and of course there was blood, but it hadn’t been disturbing. Jason had even felt joy. Some of those feelings had certainly been his own, but the Lazarus Pit had evoked and intensified others. It was hard to classify. A therapist might have been able to do it, but a therapist would also turn him in to the cops.

“Do you know how much strength it takes to sever a head from the rest of the body with a garrote?” Spencer asked, and Jason didn’t answer. He didn’t say much in general until evening, but when Spencer noticed, he didn’t say anything.

Jason had murdered all the people in that file. On the one hand, because they deserved it, but more importantly, because he wanted to send a message to Batman. Some of these people could have changed. For some of them, a prison sentence would have been enough. But Jason had denied them that, and he knew it was a debt he could never repay. On good days, he tried to remember how many potential victims he had saved by doing so, but on bad days, he knew that those potential victims would have been also safe if he had just put the guys behind bars instead of putting a bullet through their heads.

Emily cursed Gotham. She couldn’t understand how people could actually live here.

The evening at the Wayne Gala had actually gone well, and Emily had even enjoyed one or two conversations before everything went wrong and security evacuated the guests.

Emily herself had been lucky and had been handed a gas mask by a teenager (apparently these were something everyone had?), but her mother had been exposed to the fear gas for several minutes. No matter how much the doctors assured her that she would soon be better and that the antidote had taken effect quickly, it was still a shock to see her mother in a hospital bed, especially in a city where fear gas attacks were considered a regular occurrence.

“Don’t worry, Emily, we understand. Take care of your mom,” JJ had said, and Emily had smiled slightly. JJ was clearly worried, but tried not to overwhelm Emily with it.

Now, a week later, Emily had missed two cases outside Quantico and hadn’t even been able to greet the new guy. He had already gone home while the rest of them had met up with Emily at a restaurant to celebrate the conclusion of the case, but also to welcome Emily back with open arms.

“A fear gas attack... How awful, and I was actually jealous of you,” Garcia murmured, and Emily smiled slightly. She had been texting Garcia repeatedly over the last few days to reassure her that everything was okay.

“I would have brought you souvenirs, but Gotham’s souvenirs are a little too morbid for you, Penelope.” At least Emily hadn’t had much to laugh about when she found “Congratulations, you survived” cards in the hospital shop. Her mother even less so when she found them next to her bed.

“No wonder Jay doesn’t have anything from Gotham on his desk,” Garcia muttered, and Emily raised an eyebrow, unsure whether she should ask. She did anyway; after all, her team had been working with someone she hadn’t been able to assess herself in recent weeks.

“How’s the new guy doing?”

Hotch replied after a moment’s thought, keeping his answer professional. “As expected, his instincts are well developed. But he’s only been with us a short time and still has to get a feeling about how we work as a unit.”

For Emily, this meant that, just like her when she first started, he hadn’t integrated into the team yet and kept to himself. The fact that Peters wasn’t sitting at the table proved it. Nevertheless, she could see from her colleagues’ faces that they didn’t think badly of Peters. So even if he was a private person, he seemed to be able to work in a team.

“The kid isn’t the biggest fan of coffee, which is why we started drinking tea more often when it’s not too hot outside,” Morgan told her, and Emily briefly considered complaining, but then noticed his sideways glance at Reid. It wasn’t just about Peters, but apparently also about controlling Spencer’s caffeine consumption. Emily could do without drinking tea, but she figured it was a small sacrifice.

Spencer openly grimaced, but shared his own story. “Gothamites are really special. I’m sure you made some observations during your short trip, and I’ve already read some research on it, but it still surprises me that he immediately realized that the old lady in Florida wanted to poison us.”

Emily raised an eyebrow and looked at JJ, who hadn’t told her about it. “I thought you’d find out soon enough, but nothing happened. It was just a witness interview that Reid and Peters were supposed to conduct at the witness’s home, but the lady seemed to have had murderous thoughts.”

“Peters and I just wanted to be nice. I didn’t plan on drinking any of it,” Spencer tried to justify himself, and something told Emily that he had had to do it more than once in front of Hotch. Protocol was protocol. Don’t accept food or something to drink.

“Anything else unusual that you haven’t told me?” Emily asked the group, but she knew it would be difficult to get more information. The team didn’t try to profile themselves, and no one would feel comfortable revealing private details behind their backs. So far, Emily only knew that Jay kept his private life private, had picked up some crazy skills in Gotham, and had an instinct for who could be trusted and who couldn’t.

“The closeness he can build with street kids or prostitutes is impressive,” Morgan shared. “I thought that people would shy away from him because of his size and obvious muscular strength, but they opened up more than they usually do around police when talking to him alone.”

Emily knew what that meant. To be accepted in that way, you had to have had the experience yourself or grown up in that environment. Like recognized like, and it was hard to fake it. But that was such a private insight that Emily preferred not to probe further.

Rossi now shared his assessment. “I’ve seen many young agents. The many bloody crime scenes that await us usually shock even agents who come from homicide departments. Peters doesn’t seem shocked. He’s not a sociopath, but his gaze always seems to say, ‘I’ve seen worse, I’ve experienced worse.’”

“That’s enough!” Penelope interrupted the conversation. “You’re not supposed to profile your colleagues. It’s not okay!”

“Sorry, Penelope,” Emily said immediately, steering the conversation in a different direction. She would have to find out the rest for herself.

Jason didn’t know if he had made a mistake when he returned to his lonely apartment. He hadn’t taken many things with him from LA, but then again, he hadn’t really settled in LA either. He was far too used to not staying in one place for long, and when he thought about never setting foot in the last place he had considered home again, it was hard to put his trust in a new home.

That was a problem.

Jason knew exactly what was going on, but he didn’t do anything about it. Sighing, he left the apartment, only to return an hour later with a hand-knitted blanket he had bought from a street vendor. The woman had just been about to pack up when Jason seized the opportunity. It was only a small thing, and if he was honest, he didn’t even like the colors, but it radiated a warmth that he had come to love from Penelope.

It was a start.

Feeling better, Jason set about cooking something. The last week had been exhausting, and if he had interpreted the others’ expressions correctly, it was not uncommon for him to be back on a plane to a new case within the next twelve hours. Who would have thought that there were so many serial crimes that could not be stopped by superheroes or the local police?

Jason was about to sit down at the small table in his kitchen with his soup when his phone rang. Carefully setting down the bowl, he answered the call without looking at his cell phone.

“What’s up?” he asked, confident that they had a new case. It wasn’t as if he had given out his phone number to everyone. No one but his colleagues would contact him.

When had he become so naïve?

“Jason?” Jason froze. It had been so long since anyone had said his real name. It had been even longer since anyone had said it with so much hope and affection. “Is it really you?”

Jason should hang up or pretend he didn’t recognize the voice. But that wouldn’t do any good. If he hung up now, eventually someone would be at his door and then he wouldn’t be able to avoid it.

“What do you want, Barbara?” Barbara, not Barbie. They hadn’t spoken since his death. There was no reason to pretend their relationship was the same as it had been a few years ago.

“I... Penelope told me about her new colleague, and when I had a quiet moment, I took a look at your file... Do you know how shocked I was that you’re still alive?”

Jason pursed his lips, already knowing that he could forget about his soup. Any appetite he had had had given way to a feeling of ash in his mouth.

“You didn’t answer my question,” he said in an icy voice, without responding to anything she had said. He would have loved to ask her how she knew Penelope, to ask her if it was such bad news that he was still alive, but some questions were better left unanswered.

Barbara seemed to still be in shock and didn’t know how to respond to his tone. Jason sighed and decided to cut the conversation short in the hope of getting rid of her as quickly as possible. The last thing he needed was for her to send Batman after him.

“Listen, I don’t want to hurt the team, I don’t want to hurt Penelope. We work together and you can count on me not to stab anyone in the back.”

“Of course not — what? Why would you think I would assume that? I just saw that someone I considered my little brother was still alive and wanted to hear his voice.” Barbara sounded clearly irritated, but that irritated Jason. Instead of openly admitting these feelings, he covered them up with anger. It was easier, and it was what people were used to from him. He had been the angry, uncontrollable Robin.

“You’ve known for several years that I’m still alive. So why are you contacting me now? Why are you acting like this is news? Are you trying to win my sympathy? Do you think that maybe this way you’ll find out what my secret evil plan is? That’s what Batman thinks of me now, isn’t it? That I’m only good at causing problems.”

“What are you talking about?” Barbara asked, and a moment later she asked a question he hadn’t expected. “Batman knew you were alive?”

Batman hadn’t told anyone.

For the past few years, Jason had assumed that not only Batman had turned against him, but everyone else in the family as well. Dick. Barbara. Alfred. No one had tried to find him, no one had contacted him.

No one except Batman had known that he was still alive.

Jason believed that this meant something, but ultimately it didn’t change anything. He had fled Gotham and was desperately trying to build a new life for himself. Why should he take back his old one? Jason Todd should not be a part of Jay Peters.

It was better to burn the bridges before Barbara could build them.

“Barbara, I was the Red Hood. I’m not anymore, and if you ever really considered me part of your family, you’ll give me this second chance.”

Jason waited, and it felt like he was waiting for hours. For someone who thought as fast as Barbara, five minutes was an eternity.

“Okay,” she whispered, and Jason hung up.

Barbara felt the tears silently flowing down her cheeks. The screens in front of her blurred, and she found it difficult to think clearly.

She’d been so busy with the Arkham breakout a week ago. So much damage had been done, and there had barely been a moment’s peace. Before she could finish chatting anonymously with her favorite FBI hacker (despite suspecting Penelope knew Oracle had her figured out), her curiosity prompted a search for a picture of Penelope’s new coworker.

She’d been so close to calling Jason so many times, and now the call was over, and Barbara didn’t know if she’d ever get a second one.

Barbara should call Dick or Tim, should tell someone that she’d found Jason—that he was the Red Hood—but she couldn’t. Instead, she put her fingers to the keyboard and independently went through what Batman had recorded about Red Hood back then. Should she have known it was Jason? Could she have done something?

It was hard to say, and she couldn’t change the past.

And then she saw the video of Red Hood’s last appearance. Saw the blood flowing, and how it wasn’t the Joker’s blood.

“B, what did you do?”

When you’re breaking
You don’t see how much people care
How much love is there for you

- Lost Boy (When You’re Breaking)

Chapter Text

Lost in darkness, I fear
the past is our resting place.

- Michael R. Burch (Ghost)

The man was bored and tense at the same time. In recent weeks, days, hours, there seemed to be nothing in between. There was something inside him that just wouldn’t go away. Sadness? Someone said he looked sad. He wasn’t so sure about that, but he didn’t have another name for it, either.

The midday sun was shining and blinding him, but he just bit into his sandwich and continued to stare straight ahead. In twenty minutes, he had to be back at the shop, but until then, he was alone with his thoughts and feelings.

It just wasn’t right. Nothing was right. Nothing would ever be right again.

And then he saw a teenager in a green shirt, and everything was a little better.

“Scooby,” the boy called, and when the man saw the dog, the world was perfect again.

He had twenty minutes left. That was enough to grab a piece of that perfection.

No sooner had JJ lain down than her cell phone rang. Will groaned softly, but turned onto his side and kissed her on the forehead.

“I hope it’s quick,” he muttered, but they both knew that JJ would soon be on a plane to another state. Hotch wouldn’t call her so early if it wasn’t an urgent case.

JJ got dressed, grabbed her bag, and glanced into her children’s room. They were still asleep and looked so peaceful. JJ hoped it wasn’t a case involving children. She had hardly been in Quantico last week and didn’t want to miss her children any more than she already did.

To her surprise, Hotch had told her to come straight to the plane. The others were already waiting there, and none of them looked like they had slept much. Not even Peters, who gave her only a nod without a smile. JJ grabbed a seat next to Reid, who had positioned himself by the window. Hotch and Prentiss sat across from them. Morgan, Rossi, and Peters had positioned themselves on the side for the briefing, while Penelope was on the screen. She had a steaming cup in her hand and seemed to be on the verge of falling asleep.

Since Hotch was the only one privy to the details of the case, he took over the briefing while Penelope tried to pull up relevant images and transfer them to the tablets during his explanations. However, it was clear that she hadn’t had time to look into it and find additional information.

“An hour ago, we received a request for assistance in the missing person case of Thomas Wilcher. He was reported missing several hours ago in Easton by his parents after he took his dog for a walk and did not return.”

“What breed?” Reid asked, and Penelope answered almost immediately.

“Oh, he’s cute, but to answer your question, a beagle.”

“A hunting dog?” Morgan asked in surprise. “It’s unusual for a perpetrator to dare to do that. Even if the dog isn’t dangerous, a barking dog attracts a lot of attention. That makes it difficult to kidnap someone.”

Hotch nodded and added a few details. “Neither the boy nor the dog have turned up yet. Even though Thomas is almost seventeen, the police called us in so quickly because they fear it could be related to other missing persons cases in their area.”

Images appeared on the tablets, and Prentiss frowned. “What makes them think that? The victimology differs significantly from this missing person’s case. We’re dealing with young men who were abducted in pairs.”

“So we not only have the age difference but also the fact that we’re dealing with a human and animal abduction, while the other cases were only human abductions,” JJ summarized, equally confused.

“I could understand if the perpetrator started with animals first, but this order? It must make sense to him that we don’t yet understand,” Rossi thought aloud.

“Is there a signature that leads the police to conclude that?” Jay asked, but Hotch shook his head.

“We can’t say yet whether the cases are related. But the intervals between the abductions and the dumping of the bodies suggest that they are. We need to build our profile as soon as possible after landing. Thomas Wilcher doesn’t have much time left.”

The team nodded. They were all aware that the Unsub was hoping to get something from his victims. This was usually the case when more than one person was abducted at the same time. It was unlikely that the Unsub would ever find what he was looking for.

“It’s a bit unfortunate that our reunion starts with a case, but I look forward to working with you,” Emily said to Jason. He just mumbled his agreement without really looking at Emily. She raised an eyebrow, but it was actually JJ who turned to Jay and asked if everything was okay.

Jay looked up and saw the concerned faces. Sighing, he tried to force a smile. “It’s nothing serious, just some family problems I didn’t expect to have to deal with.”

“Normally, I’m always willing to give you a few days off to deal with these matters, but in this case, we’re going to need all hands on deck,” Hotch said sympathetically.

Jay just shrugged. “Honestly, I’m glad for the distraction. There’s nothing I can do about it, anyway.”

Hotch nodded understandingly. They probably wouldn’t get much more information from Peters, but it was a start that he shared so much about his personal life.

The team split up, with Rossi and JJ heading straight to the coroner’s office to gather initial information about the perpetrator’s M.O. and victimology.

The coroner had already prepared the four bodies for them, and everything about his expression seemed to say that he hoped he wouldn’t have another body soon. Apparently, the police had already informed him about the missing teenager.

“Gentlemen, let’s get straight to the point.”

JJ raised an eyebrow but decided not to say anything, as time was indeed of the essence.

“We’re dealing with four men here. Each team had one who was significantly stronger and one who was weaker.”

“So the unsub is probably subconsciously looking for a dominant and a submissive team,” Rossi concluded, frowning as he saw the differences in the victims’ injuries.

The medical examiner joined the thought immediately. “The petite men have hardly any injuries, except for the shot through the back of the head. However, the others appear to have been tortured with knife cuts and blows. The bruises are mainly on the upper body and are not old. The perpetrator disposed of his victims quickly.”

“Were there any signs of sexual assault?” JJ asked, and the man shook his head.

“I also couldn’t detect any sedatives in the blood, but none of the men appear to have been knocked out.”

JJ nodded. “That means our unsub is probably athletic if he can overpower four men, even if he uses a tool that can’t be detected afterwards.”

“All four have bondage marks,” Rossi noted, glancing at the victims’ wrists.

“These are probably from iron chains and not rope,” said the medical examiner, and the two agents nodded before saying goodbye.

“These men are stand-ins for our unsub, and whatever fantasy he has for them, it’s not sexual in nature,” Rossi summarized. But it was hard to say what that meant for Thomas if the unsub’s habit of hunting men in their twenties and thirties had changed.

It was never pleasant to arrive at his parents’ house a few hours after the first missing person report. They had been distraught since the first call to the police, and now FBI agents were arriving to ask the same questions again, with no success in sight.

“Where is our son?” asked Mrs. Wilcher, tears in her eyes. Her husband seemed to want to cry too, but he put his hand on his wife’s back and seemed to smooth it over.

“The police have already set everything in motion, are questioning the neighborhood, and we are doing everything in our power to find Thomas safe and sound,” Morgan promised in a calm voice. But that was little comfort to the parents.

Emily spoke next, trying to mimic Morgan’s tone without losing her authority. “The police called us because we are the best at understanding the perpetrator. But to know who has your son, we need to get a better picture of what happened.”

“Thomas took Scooby for a walk,” the father began, his face contorted with pain. “He wanted this dog so badly and always took good care of him, but I’m usually the one who takes him out at lunchtime so Thomas can do his homework.”

Morgan nodded encouragingly. So he and Emily could rule out the possibility that the unsub had planned the abduction. And if he had planned the timing, he hadn’t selected or observed the victim beforehand.

“Is Scooby friendly toward strangers?” Emily asked, tensing slightly when she saw that Mrs. Wilcher was about to explode, but she seemed to swallow it down. The questions appeared unimportant to her; a few more, and she would have broken down.

“There are a lot of children in the neighborhood, which is why we deliberately chose a dog that was well trained. Thomas should have him under control and nothing should happen. I... I don’t know how Scooby would have reacted if he had realized Thomas was in danger.”

“Dogs are often very smart. We’re already on the lookout for people with dog bites, especially in emergency rooms,” Morgan tried to reassure the family. It wasn’t unlikely that Scooby had bitten the unsub, but it was extremely unlikely that he would go to an emergency room or hospital.

“Can you tell us what Thomas was wearing when he left the house?” Prentiss asked, watching as Mrs. Wilcher immediately took out her cell phone. Her hands were shaking, but she still managed to open Instagram and pull up her son’s profile. Thomas had apparently posted a selfie of himself that morning, and nothing in his beaming face could have suggested that it would be the last time he would upload a photo.

“According to his parents, Thomas Wilcher always walked through this park,” Reid muttered, looking around. The park wasn’t very big, but you couldn’t overlook it all at a glance, and there weren’t many people around. That was probably because the police had been searching for clues until half an hour ago. They had only found Thomas’ cell phone, which had been smashed, and left next to a trash can.

“So what? The unsub sees the boy with his dog and decides to overpower them both?”

“Maybe Thomas knew the unsub. This is usually the case in child abductions, and as a teenager, it’s quite possible that Thomas wasn’t being vigilant, but curious. After all, he had his dog with him.”

“So the unsub somehow caught his attention and probably seemed trustworthy because they knew each other?” Jay rephrased it, but no matter how much he thought about it, it didn’t make sense. “It wasn’t planned. No one would kidnap a teenager in broad daylight.”

Spencer nodded. “I’m afraid our unsub was very lucky. He acted rashly, despite that, no one seems to have seen him.”

Spencer’s cell phone rang, and the two briefly listened to what JJ had to report and what Emily had written to them in a brief message. They were all already returning to the police station, but Spencer said he wanted to check with Jay to see if any surveillance cameras in the area had recorded anything.

“If Thomas knew the unsub, it’s likely that he also knew the area. Are you sure he didn’t know how to avoid the surveillance cameras?”

Spencer bit his lower lip. “It’s worth a try. Even if we only end up with pictures of cars that were in the area at lunchtime, it’s a start.”

Jay didn’t disagree. It wouldn’t do any good to sit around at headquarters and puzzle over it, anyway. It was better to make themselves useful. The park was surrounded by family homes, but a few strategically placed stores also dotted the landscape, where they hopefully would get lucky.

“I love Halloween,” Spencer muttered, pointing to a costume shop. When he saw Jay’s disapproving look, it didn’t take him long to understand. “Oh, sorry. I forgot what it’s like in Gotham. I guess there are some villains who like to claim this day for themselves.”

“Too many,” Jason admitted before pointing to a jewelry store. “If you want, you can try your luck in that store. I’d rather try my luck back there. If there’s something valuable to steal, there’s bound to be a camera nearby.”

While Jason was already in the shop, he took the opportunity to make sure the store owner hadn’t seen anything. Apparently in vain. The guy had a view of a park, but thought it was more exciting to clean his display cases.

“If you could send the recordings to this email address, it would be a great help to us.”

Penelope could make much faster progress and check the license plates at the same time. He warned her with a quick message and tried not to think about Penelope talking to Babs. Somehow, Jason couldn’t imagine that the two knew each other personally, but the fact that they had any contact at all made him nervous. Penelope hadn’t said anything, and she didn’t seem like someone who could keep secrets for long.

“Now is really not the right time to look at costumes,” Jason muttered irritably, but he entered the store as well. He couldn’t imagine Spencer was out shopping, so if he hadn’t returned from the store yet, he might have found something out. But before Jason could even react properly and berate himself for his lack of caution, he was tackled from the side and felt a needle prick his neck.

“Fuck,” he hissed, but it sounded weak in his own ears. His punch hit his opponent’s chest, but it was nowhere near as strong as he had hoped. Jason really hoped Spence was okay, but he wasn’t that naïve.

It was too soon. He knew it, but he couldn’t help himself. Not even a day had passed since he regretted taking the boy and that dog with him. Not even twenty-four hours. Not even a week. He had lost control, and it could mean his downfall, but at the same time, he felt like he had finally found the perfect pair.

The moment he looked out the window and saw the men, his worries were forgotten. He knew this might be his only chance and didn’t want to miss it.

He looked at the two of them with a smile. It had been difficult to drag them to his secret place, but it had been worth every bit of effort. This time, everything would go well. This time, he would get what he wanted. The man could feel it.

While Hotch’s team was already handling the case, he quickly set himself up in a conference room at the local police station and called Garcia to discuss additional information.

“Where were the victims last seen? Did they know each other?”

Garcia typed before answering. Meanwhile, Hotch glanced at the crime scene photos. All the victims had been carelessly dumped in an alleyway. All within the city, but varying distances from the park. It was safe to assume that the unsub lived in the city, but it would be difficult to narrow it down further. If anyone could do it, it would be Reid and Garcia, but for the moment, Hotch couldn’t see a pattern.

However, he could see that some aspects of the bodies were strange. While some items of clothing had been cut up with a knife, the Unsub had left the T-shirts untouched on one pair of victims. Something about the Superman and Batman shirts had deterred him. It wasn’t a general aversion to clothing, because this hadn’t been the case with the other pair. Instead, a magnifying glass had been found on one man (the glass wasn’t damaged, so the unsub had taken care of it) and a hat on the other man. This had also been important to the unsub, because otherwise he would not have bothered to keep it. Another unsub might even have kept it as a trophy.

“All the men were abducted in different locations, but the duos were not far apart. Mr. Henriks was last seen on a surveillance camera in a cafe. The waitress testified that every morning after he emptied his mailbox, he came to the cafe and examined the stamps under his magnifying glass. He had told her at some point that his wife gets jealous when he can’t give her as much attention as he gives stamps.”

Hotch nodded. So the magnifying glass had belonged to the victim and was probably the reason he had been chosen by the unsub. Garcia confirmed that the hat also belonged to the other victim. So it wasn’t something that belonged to the perpetrator himself, but something that caught his eye and that he treated with more care than his victims.

“If we’re dealing with the same unsub who kidnapped Thomas, Thomas must have been wearing something that interested him. Did Prentiss and Morgan get a photo of the boy?”

Garcia nodded and immediately sent it to the tablet, but it didn’t help. Whatever the unsub saw, Hotch didn’t see it. He didn’t have enough information yet, and time was slowly running out.

“Agent Hotchner.” Hotch knew from the tone of voice what was coming. Something heavy settled on his shoulders, but he forced himself to turn to the captain, anyway. “We just received a report of a human and dog corpse in an alley.”

Hotch closed his eyes briefly and then nodded to show he understood. Garcia gasped loudly, and he felt sorry that she had to go through this terrible news.

So far, the unsub had taken more time with his victims, but with the media uproar, it was likely that he had wanted to get rid of the victims before they became a problem. But there was something else: there was a reason he had always chosen two people before, and whatever role one of the people had played, it couldn’t be replaced by the dog.

The bodies would reveal whether they were hunting one or two unsubs.

Jason’s head was throbbing as he slowly came to his senses, but he was alive. Small mercy. Almost automatically, Jason switched to his Robin training. He acted as if he were still unconscious and sharpened his other senses.

His heart beat faster when he thought about how he had to hurry. If someone had caught him, then they had also caught Spencer, and Jason didn’t want any of his team to be in danger. They were all strong, but they were also all good people and didn’t deserve to suffer. Although there were probably very few people who deserved to be kidnapped by a serial killer.

Jason felt a tingling sensation in his fingertips, probably because he hadn’t moved them in a while and his hands were tied above his head. His legs didn’t seem to be weighed down by chains, so he could move them freely if he wanted to. Jason was also relieved to find that he could at least stand up straight. Anything else would have quickly become uncomfortable.

Besides his own breathing, he could hear another person breathing, but they seemed to be asleep. Reid?

Only when Jason noticed the smell of a musty basement and the feeling of slight cold did he open his eyes. As he had suspected, there was no one in the room except Spencer, who was slumped over, his weight resting on his bound hands, which were stretched upward.

Jason grimaced. This would soon hurt if Spencer didn’t wake up soon. With a glance upward and a jerky movement, Jason tried to see if he could get free, but the pipe was firmly anchored and the chains would not give way. Maybe Jason could get free if he dislocated his thumb, but with another glance around the room, Jason realized he couldn’t risk it.

Not all corners were fully lit, and if the unsub had installed a camera, he might panic if he noticed that Jason could free himself. The last thing Jason needed was a guy wildly shooting a gun and accidentally hitting Spencer.

Reid groaned softly, and Jason immediately turned to him. He noticed how Spencer tensed when he realized what had happened and saw exactly where Spencer’s gaze fell when he opened his eyes.

“Not a fan of needles?” Jason commented on Spencer’s glance at his elbow. Jason doubted that the unsub had injected Spencer there, but Jason had known enough junkies and had even lived with one long enough to know that it was a part of Reid’s past and not his present.

Spencer just nodded at the question, and Jason knew exactly that Spencer was afraid of having to justify and explain himself. So he just said, “Me too.”

Spencer’s eyes widened in surprise, and then, as if to test his voice, he asked, “How long have you been awake?”

“A few minutes. I woke up alone in the room with you. I assume our unsub would rather work than spend time with us.”

Jason realized that Spencer was retreating into his head and going through a few thoughts that would probably have been too fast for Jason to follow. Jason didn’t know how typical it was for FBI agents to be kidnapped, but he was glad that Spencer was calm, for now. He wasn’t fooling himself; eventually, Spencer would remember what had happened to the other victims, and then things would get uncomfortable. It was good that the more petite people had suffered less damage, according to JJ. Jason just feared that Spencer wouldn’t see that as good news.

“I still have my gun,” Spencer suddenly exclaimed, and Jason couldn’t help but stare at Spencer’s hip with his jaw dropped. The weapon was of little use; Spencer couldn’t reach it, and Jason was pinned to the opposite wall. Yet, its presence was unusual for an unsub. How could he leave his victims behind with a gun, especially a pistol?

“Are we dealing with a narcissist, or why is he so arrogant?” Jason asked aloud.

Spencer shook his head. “I doubt it. The gun must mean something to him, and more than that, I think it’s the reason he chose us both. It’s part of his fantasy, and he can’t do without it.”

Jason nodded. “Okay... So how do we proceed?”

“It would be best if we could somehow free ourselves, but that’s hardly possible. So if our team doesn’t find us, we have to be careful what we say to him. There’s a reason he’s doing what he’s doing. He wants to achieve something. As soon as he realizes he can’t achieve it, he’ll kill us. But we have some time before that happens.”

“You mean he tried to force his fantasy on the other victims with a few knife stabs first,” Jason commented dryly, and Spencer froze.

What Jason didn’t know was that Spencer was more worried about Jay than himself. Spencer never wanted to be in a situation like this again, but it helped that he wasn’t alone. It helped that he had to be strong for Jay and come up with a plan for them. Jay had great instincts, but Spencer had been around longer and had survived a kidnapping before (more or less). He would get them both out of here, but right now, Spencer didn’t know if he could do it before Jay got hurt.

“Jay, I know this is a scary situation.”

Jay frowned as if it hadn’t occurred to him to be afraid. That was the problem with Peters sometimes. Spencer knew his team must have noticed it, too. When it came to others, Jay felt so much and showed it, but when it came to himself, it was sometimes hard to tell what was going on in his head.

“Spencer, I’m not scared,” Jay replied, and his expression made it clear that he meant it. “No matter what this psycho has in store for me, it can’t be worse than what I went through last time when I was held captive by a sadistic psychopath.”

Spencer shouldn’t have asked, but he knew he would never get the chance again if he didn’t do it now. “What happened?”

“A lot, and I died. Even though I’m alive now, part of me never came back.”

Spencer nodded. He knew what Jay meant. A part of him was still in the cabin and would never come back to Spencer. Spencer wished that no one could understand that pain.

“What about you? How long did your psychopath have you?”

Spencer didn’t go into what the profile had actually said about Tobias. It wasn’t important. What was important was to repay Jay’s honesty. They would make it out of here, but if not, Spencer wanted to at least have done his best to make them feel less alone.

“Several days, but it won’t come to that here.”

No, they didn’t have that much time, but this time, the BAU was in town. Spencer had faith in his team. He just wished he could see that faith in Peter’s eyes.

Hotch called JJ and Rossi on their way to the police station and sent them in a new direction. When they arrived, Emily and Derek were already at the scene, and judging by the looks on their faces, they had already broken the news to the parents. So there was no mistake.

Something inside JJ clenched at the thought that Thomas had been so young. She probably shouldn’t have, but it was hard not to think of her own boys when faced with the body of a child, even if he would soon have turned 18.

“Looks like Hotch was right,” Rossi commented on the sight of the dumping site. The bodies had been thrown down ruthlessly, but the dog’s collar and the boy’s T-shirt were undamaged. “The unsub seems to have no desire to damage certain items.”

“But why? Why these things in particular?” Morgan asked aloud, but none of them had an answer.

“Have you informed Reid and Peters yet? Spencer is usually good at recognizing patterns.” Emily frowned as JJ shook her head.

“Penelope said that the two of them had started sending her surveillance camera footage, but so far without success,” Rossi replied, but he took out his cell phone anyway to call them. With the boy’s body, it would be better to leave this task to the police officers and gather for a meeting, but neither Peters nor Reid answered the phone.

“Maybe they found a witness,” Morgan mused aloud before turning his attention back to the current case. “The park isn’t far from here, but after several hours have passed, it’s likely that the unsub held the two somewhere else before dumping them here.”

JJ nodded and added, “These bodies seem to follow the pattern of the others. The stronger of the two, in this case the boy, was obviously beaten and cut on the legs with a blade. The dog, however, was killed with a single gunshot and seems to symbolize the submissive one in this dynamic.”

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Emily objected. “The intervals between the abductions and the fact that the unsub is doing this in broad daylight suggest that he is evolving and becoming bolder. But choosing an animal instead of a human victim suggests the complete opposite.”

“I think the unsub quickly realized it was a mistake,” Derek agreed. “The sudden media hype may be one reason he spent so little time with his victims, but I’m almost certain that a key reason was that one of his victims couldn’t talk. He kidnaps two because he needs some interaction from them, and he’s not getting it.”

Rossi frowned, and his voice was serious as he concluded. “If the unsub didn’t get any satisfaction from these murders, it won’t be long before he strikes again. He can’t wait.”

The agents were torn from their thoughts when Rossi’s phone rang. Rossi switched directly to speakerphone when he saw Aaron’s name.

“Rossi, we have a problem. Reid and Peters haven’t been in touch, and Garcia couldn’t locate their cell phones. We have to assume they’re missing.”

Jason could see exactly when Spencer’s thoughts were drifting in an unpleasant direction. His arms were probably hurting, but neither of them had complained so far. Instead, Jason had briefly enjoyed the peace and quiet, but now he had to intervene before Spencer had a panic attack or shared one of those terrible thoughts with Jason. Jason really didn’t need to think about what this bastard was going to do to them right now.

He had briefly considered dislocating his thumb and trying his luck with Spencer’s gun, but somehow he couldn’t imagine it being loaded. And once he was free, he wouldn’t be able to free Spencer from his bonds without a key or lock pick, and the door to this basement was probably locked as well. No, for the moment, it was better to stay calm and not react rashly. Let the unsub feel safe and think he had broken them.

“What was the last book you read?” Jason asked, knowing full well that Spencer saw it as the distraction it was. Nevertheless, his eyes lit up, and Jason remembered a time when others had mentioned it to him. Barbara, in particular, had always liked and supported his love of books. But also... No, Jason wouldn’t think about that. It would be better to think about the torture that lay ahead instead of him.

“I got the newly published biography of John Zatara. Even though he doesn’t reveal any of his secrets in it, I feel like I’ve developed a better understanding of magicians. Stage presence is very important for stage magicians, and even though I’ve learned a few tricks over the years, I doubt that this is something you can learn. Sure, you can try to appear confident, but sensing the audience, paying attention to details, and still pretending that you have everything under control and that nothing is special is difficult.”

Jason couldn’t help but smile as he listened to Spencer. At least he had learned something new about his teammate. It didn’t even surprise Jason that Spencer was interested in magic. Something told him that it was precisely what couldn’t be explained scientifically that attracted the man. Jason almost missed that Spencer had stopped talking and was instead asking him a question.

“Is there anything you’re reading right now?”

“I haven’t started a new book, but I’ve started Jane Austen’s Emma again. But I’m not sure if fiction is your genre.” That was perhaps poorly worded, because Jason was pretty sure that Spencer read everything from sci-fi. Instead of being judged for his statement, Spencer’s eyes widened, as if he hadn’t expected Jason to pick up a book at all. Jason knew that look.

“If you keep staring at me like that, I’ll have to start charging rent.”

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, that was rude. I just didn’t expect that kind of response.”

Jason shrugged, reminding himself of his uncomfortable position, but he ignored it. “You’re not the first, and you wouldn’t be the first to make fun of it, either.”

Spencer furrowed his brow in confusion. “I’m not making fun of it. I’m going to get a copy just so I can join in the conversation. It’s rare to have someone join the team who picks up a book for entertainment outside of work.”

“I could lend you mine. Knowing you, I’ll have it back in a day.”

Spencer nodded gratefully, and there was a brief silence before Spencer asked something Jason hadn’t thought about in a long time.

“Who made fun of it? Don’t take this the wrong way, but I thought you were one of the cool kids, like JJ.”

Jason laughed listlessly. “Of course I was cool, but I came from the wrong social class. I missed a few years while I was on the streets, and as soon as I had the opportunity to go back to school, I didn’t care that it was such a snobby private school. I didn’t fit in there. The people there didn’t understand what a privilege education is, and I didn’t understand their snobby attitude.”

Jason had just shared more about his teenage years than he ever had before. He hadn’t wanted to upset Babs or bother Bruce with it, and he had assumed that Dick didn’t care. The main thing was school; it didn’t matter that he wanted to break the noses of everyone around him.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said so much. Maybe you’ll forget this tragic part of my life.”

It was difficult to interpret Spencer’s expression. Jason thought he saw pity, but also something like understanding. Now that Jason thought about it, Spencer certainly hadn’t had a pleasant school experience.

“I won’t tell anyone about this, Jay, but you shouldn’t feel like you have to keep this part of your life a secret. We’re all a team, and I’m sure no one would use this knowledge against you.”

Jason noticed the choice of words. Spencer didn’t assume that Jay was embarrassed—because he wasn’t—but had recognized that Jason still subconsciously didn’t trust the BAU. Yet Jason would rather entrust his life to all these people than to Batman.

What a sad world.

“How long have you suspected that I was a street kid?” Jason asked, and Spencer didn’t pretend not to understand the question.

“Derek noticed it before I did, but once I noticed it, I couldn’t miss it. The way you interact with street kids or kids in general. The way you’re willing to ignore adults and take children seriously. The fact that you sometimes protect your food with your arms so that no one takes it away from you. Your snack rations at work. It’s a lot of little things, really. But none of them are bad things. I’m just sorry you had to go through it.”

So much for not profiling each other. But strangely enough, Jason didn’t feel offended. Instead, he was glad that this one part of his life had found its way to another person. It wasn’t much, but he felt a little more connected to Spencer.

He couldn’t screw this up. No matter what happened, Jason had to hold back and not kill the unsub for what he had done to these people and what he was planning to do to Spencer. But Jason would do anything to make sure Spencer survived this.

“Thank you very much for your help,” Derek thanked the shop owner and went back out onto the street. As Penelope had already said, Peters had looked at the surveillance cameras here and then left again. The owner had not seen any other agents and had not noticed which direction Peters had disappeared in, but willingly repeated all the questions and answers again.

Sighing, Derek joined Rossi, who was just stepping out of a costume shop. It was hard not to think about what had happened the last time Reid disappeared. Derek tried to stay calm and remember that it wasn’t like last time. This time, they didn’t know if their unsub had taken the two of them, but the similarity in victimology was hard to miss.

“No surveillance cameras, and apparently Reid was there but left,” Rossi summarized what he had found out.

“It fits Reid that he started with this place,” Derek agreed, then frowned. From his position, he could clearly see a camera hanging above the door. “A dummy?” he asked, nodding toward the camera.

Rossi’s gaze darkened. “Must be, otherwise he would have mentioned it...”

“Unless he has something to hide,” Derek concluded, dialing Garcia’s number the next moment. A lie alone would hardly help them obtain a search warrant, but if anyone could find additional evidence, it was Penelope. At the latest when JJ and Emily also had no success in the other stores on the street, it could be assumed that Reid was here last, which was enough for Derek. He wasn’t going to put Spencer and Jay’s lives at risk just because the rules got in his way. From the look on Rossi’s face, he felt the same way, even more so when the man in the store closed up shop at 5 p.m. sharp.

“I think I figured it out,” Spencer said excitedly, and Jason immediately looked up. In previous cases, he had already recognized the look that indicated Reid had found a solution to the case. Just like now. “We’re dealing with someone from the costume shop, and if we recall the pictures of the victims, they’re wearing disguises.”

Jason thought back to the pictures he saw on the plane, but could only remember the Batman shirt. “Batman... and Superman?”

“Exactly. And then Sherlock Holmes and Watson, if we recall the hat and magnifying glass.” Jason had to admit that what Spencer was saying sounded logical. But what good would that do them in this situation? “The boy was wearing a green shirt and was probably calling his dog by name in the park. So we have Shaggy and Scooby.”

“And we are?” Jason asked, but he could already imagine what the answer would be.

“Two FBI agents?”

Jason hung his head, then raised it again when he heard a key turn in the lock and the iron door open shortly thereafter. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Spencer form the words “Let me do the talking” with his lips, but Jason already knew that he would ignore him if the unsub took a step too close to Reid.

“You drugged and kidnapped two FBI agents. If you let us go now, we can put in a good word for you.”

Jason didn’t let it show, but he was confused by the choice of words. It didn’t sound like Reid trying to negotiate with a psychopath, but more like an FBI agent from a TV show or movie. Spencer tried to put them in the role intended by the unsub.

“No, you’re an FBI agent. The one over there still needs to be convinced.” The man pointed at Jason, and there was something in his gaze that reminded Jason very much of despair. Jason felt no pity.

Spencer nodded slowly, and his gaze slid to Jay’s hip. Jason didn’t have a service weapon like Spencer, so he didn’t count as an FBI agent? The unsub always chose partner costumes, so if Jay wasn’t an FBI agent, was he a villain? No, that made no sense. The previous costumes had been friends and allies, not enemies. If Spencer was right, then the unsub wanted Spencer to convince Jason to put on his costume.

“Come on, say it,” the man demanded, and only now did Spencer notice the bloody knife in his hand. He hadn’t even cleaned it, that’s how unimportant it was to him. But Spencer didn’t doubt for a second that he would use it. Only... only that it was never a good idea to give the unsub what he wanted. Spencer was sure that the others had also understood eventually what was required of them, and it had cost them their lives. But if Spencer didn’t play along, it would hurt Jason.

“Jay... I want to go to Halloween alone this year,” Spencer finally said, knowing that no other victim had ever acted this way when the unsub pounced on him.

“Pierce Strickland, 27 years old. Heir to the costume shop that’s writes more red numbers than my old math teacher. Except for his regular childhood injuries, which point to abuse, there were no abnormalities. Oh... Wait a minute, I just saw that his older brother died a few months ago,” Penelope informed the team of her findings. She didn’t like that she couldn’t do more and was stuck in Quantico while her friends were hurt and in danger.

Morgan and Rossi hadn’t moved from their location near the park. If this man was really their unsub, it wasn’t unlikely that he used this place for his crimes. There probably weren’t many customers, and Garcia had already discovered that the house had a basement.

“A possible stressor,” Rossi agreed, before another thought occurred to him. “If Pierce had an older brother, then it’s likely that he sees himself and his brother in the victims. He wants to act out something he didn’t manage to do with his brother before.”

“Why isn’t he part of the act himself? Why does he need two people?” Derek wondered aloud, while Penelope was already looking for evidence that Strickland had purchased any illegal substances that had helped him with his kidnappings.

“He sees something in both victims, and if the costume shop is any indication, he has a penchant for theater. He’ll force his victims to perform something for him, just so he can convince himself that it really happened.”

Penelope’s phone rang, and as soon as she saw JJ’s number, she put it on speaker.

“Derek and Rossi are listening in,” Penelope quickly informed her.

“Good, we found something. Penelope, I just sent you a license plate number that was captured by a traffic camera around the time the bodies were dumped. Who is it registered to?”

Penelope gasped audibly. “Pierce Strickland.”

“Let’s get that bastard,” Morgan growled, kicking in the store door the next moment.

“That’s not right. You have to say it correctly. Beg him to go with you, like he promised,” whined the man as he held the knife closer and closer to Spencer’s throat. Spencer didn’t dare breathe, but tried to nod slightly. He didn’t take his eyes off his attacker for a second, and no matter how much this situation frightened him, he was glad he had found a way to prevent the unsub from hurting Jay. Spencer never wanted to think again about how sober Jay had sounded when he realized what was coming. As if he was already used to people torturing him. No big deal. Just a normal weekday.

“Hey, you bastard! You better put that fucking knife away before I ram it so deep into your throat that you wish I had stabbed you in the heart.”

An icy shiver ran down Spencer’s spine. He had never heard Jay so angry before, and even though it often seemed as if he wanted to swear, he had always suppressed it. He had apparently overcome that inhibition, and it worked. The unsub let go of Spencer and instead strode toward Jason.

Spencer screamed at the first cut. The man had only scratched Jay’s arm, testing whether Jay would dodge or whether he was too slow to do so. When the second cut was also successful, he became bolder, and Spencer could have sworn that he hadn’t blinked for a second, but from one moment to the next, Jay had spun the man around with the momentum of his feet and wrapped his thighs around his head. The unsub was already turning red, but still tried to stab Jay with the knife in his hand and get him to release the headlock.

“I don’t know what your fucking problem is or what’s going on in your sick brain, but whoever had a problem with wearing partner costumes with you made the best decision of their life,” Jason growled before letting go of the man, who slumped to the ground. After a few moments, Spencer realized three things. First, the unsub was still breathing, albeit unevenly. Second, the knife had also fallen to the floor, but blood was dripping from Jay’s thigh. And third, the revolving door swung open and Spencer was so glad to see the faces of his team.

“Jay needs an ambulance right away.”

Jay looked like he needed everything except an ambulance.

Hotch had distanced himself from the group, and judging by his expression, he was not having a pleasant conversation with Strauss. It was always difficult to defend workplace injuries, but explaining the kidnapping of two agents was probably one of the most challenging tasks for a unit chief.

JJ did not envy him for a second. She would have preferred to be with Spencer to make sure that every injury was examined, but Morgan had grabbed that spot, and the doctor had made it clear that not even one babysitter was necessary.

“Excuse me, can you tell me which room Jay Peters is in?”

JJ raised her head in surprise when she heard the name. A young man was standing at the reception desk a few feet away, genuine concern in his eyes. JJ had known that Garcia had informed Jay’s emergency contact according to protocol (even though Jay was conscious and would certainly have said so if he wanted to, but there was no getting past Garcia), yet she was surprised that someone actually lived near Easton.

“Are you related to the patient?” the woman at the desk asked boredly, but JJ had been watching her for the last half hour and knew that she liked the man, because she had ignored everyone else several times before responding.

As if the man had come to the same conclusion, he gave her a bright smile, but the concern did not leave his eyes for a moment. “He’s my brother.”

Since JJ had been eavesdropping for far too long, she cleared her throat and ignored the nurse’s dark look for interfering.

“I can take you to Peters. You said he’s your brother?”

The man nodded gratefully and smiled again. If he had noticed that JJ was hoping for information she would never get from Peters, he didn’t say anything.

“Yes, my little brother. I’m Dick Grayson. Jay and I haven’t talked much over the last few years, but Babs got a call that he was hurt, so I couldn’t just stay away.”

JJ nodded understandingly. They had reached the room, and JJ was about to suggest that they wait until the doctor was finished when Emily emerged from the room with the doctor. The man disappeared quickly, but she glanced briefly at Dick in confusion, and JJ signaled that it was okay.

“How does it look?” she asked, hoping for good news. Morgan hadn’t sounded like the wounds had bled badly, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any serious injuries.

“The scratches on his arms were bandaged and didn’t need stitches. The wound on his thigh was worse, but fortunately it didn’t hit an artery. Four stitches, which should heal well, and a recommendation not to go on outdoor duty for the next few weeks.”

“That... that sounds good. Can I see him?” Dick asked, relieved that it wasn’t anything worse. Most family members would panic if they were told that a wound needed stitches.

JJ nodded and watched as Dick entered the room. The next moment, she regretted her decision, because through the glass in the door, she could see clearly that Jay was anything but happy to see his brother.

“What are you doing here?” Jason growled, and Dick stood rooted to the spot. It was clear that Jason didn’t want to talk to him, and no matter how much it hurt not to hold him in his arms, he had to listen to what he saw. Jason didn’t even want him in this room, let alone near his bed.

Jason had already sat up, and if Dick hadn’t been in his way, he probably would have left the room long ago, without thinking that this would strain his stitches.

“Babs didn’t like the idea that you didn’t list anyone as your emergency contact, so she put herself down. Don’t hold it against her.”

Jason’s expression remained grim, but it was clear he wasn’t angry with Barbara. Dick really wished his little brother wasn’t angry with him either, but that was probably wishful thinking. Dick hadn’t been there for Jason during his Robin years, or when he came back, or when he took off the red helmet. Dick tried to convince himself that it wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t known, but the truth was that he should have known. Dick should have been there. The hostility between them was his fault.

“What are you doing here?” Jason rephrased his questions, and Dick swallowed.

“Babs called me because she was worried, but she can’t just leave Gotham and... Jason, they said you were in the hospital and I didn’t know what was going on. Is it so hard to believe that I wanted to make sure you were okay?”

Wally had actually wanted to accompany Dick to the hospital as soon as he dropped him off, but Dick had refused. He was already grateful to have a speedster for a friend who didn’t mind playing taxi sometimes (and only in emergencies).

“Yes,” Jason replied briefly, and Dick held back his tears. Instead, he looked at Jason’s body again before his gaze lingered on the scar that protruded slightly from under his shirt collar. Batman had done that. Barbara had found the video, and even though she hadn’t shown it to anyone else, she had been so distraught that Dick had urged her to tell him what was going on.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Dick finally said in a quieter voice, “I’m glad you’re alive.”

And from the way Jason looked away and bit his lip, as if trying to keep tears from falling, Dick knew that no one else had ever said those words. No one had ever told Jason that his resurrection was a stroke of luck. What had he been through these past few years? What had caused him to walk the streets as Red Hood and feel like he couldn’t come home?

“Can I give you a hug?” Dick asked, taking a step forward, but Jason shook his head and Dick respected that. He just needed a hug himself.

“I told Barbara that I want to live my life and you’re no longer part of it,” Jason explained, but his voice was so cold that it was meant to hide his true feelings.

“But I could be. Jay, I want to be a part of it.”

Jason laughed silently. “Oh, really? So you don’t want to lock me up for what I’ve done? You can just overlook it? All the dead bodies, all the violence?”

Dick frowned. He hadn’t given a second thought to what Jason had done. It didn’t seem important to him now that he knew Jason was still alive and had even chosen to live as a civilian and an FBI agent.

“Yes, Jason, I can, because you’re not that person anymore. And even if I couldn’t, what am I supposed to do? There are no witnesses in the Red Hood case who saw your face and are still alive, and even if there were, they would never testify. Should I put you in prison without a trial? How am I supposed to do that?”

Dick knew Batman would find a way, but this was about Dick and the fact that he didn’t want to resort to illegal means to put Jason behind bars, nor did he want to do anything that would further destroy Jason’s life.

Jason slowly stood up, grimacing as he was reminded of the wound on his leg, but took a step toward Dick.

“Dick, I slit Tim’s throat.”

Dick’s eyes widened, and he shook his head. “No, that was Clayface.”

But Dick knew very well that Jason was telling the truth and realized that Jason had been alive even back then with Hush, and Dick could have figured it out if he had only thought about it. Clayface and Jason had switched places after Jason had given his speech and injured Robin.

“See? Even you can’t overlook everything, and I wouldn’t want you to.”

“You regret it?” asked Dick, because everything about Jason’s posture screamed that it hurt him to think about it.

“Of course, but regret doesn’t heal physical or emotional wounds.” Jason sighed, and Dick hadn’t even noticed that he had walked past him and reached the door. “You’re still my brother, and we can’t change that, but I’ve made mistakes, and I don’t want you to overlook them. I’m not going to change my emergency contact, but tell Babs to call next time before she sends someone.”

Emily stared out the window a little longer before JJ gently guided her away to give the two some privacy. Regardless of whatever disagreements they had, Dick had shown no signs of becoming violent, and Jay was strong enough to defend himself or call for help.

“Who’s with Jay?” Spencer asked, and JJ immediately turned around to pull Spencer into a hug. He wasn’t usually a fan of physical contact, but when he was injured in the field, he had no choice but to accept this form of affection.

“Just a scratch, but it’s been properly disinfected, and as long as our genius here keeps it clean, it should heal quickly,” Morgan summarized what the doctor had said. But he, too, glanced toward Jay’s room and could hardly hide his curiosity.

“Dick Grayson,” Emily replied, and something about the way she said it seemed to suggest that she knew something the others didn’t. Shortly after, she added, “Jay’s older brother.”

Morgan seemed surprised. “Jay never mentioned his family, did he?” He looked at Spencer, who would surely have remembered if Jay had ever talked about his brother. But Spencer shook his head. He also didn’t mention that Jay had shared some things about his childhood; after all, Spencer knew how to keep secrets and wouldn’t just break Jay’s trust.

“Reid, what’s the situation? Can you be discharged?” Hotch asked as he joined the group. The case was closed, so they could all go home, at least if the hospital didn’t have any objections.

“I’m fine. He barely touched me, unlike Jay.”

As if he had heard them, Jay opened his room door and joined them. Dick Grayson was still standing in the room, looking like a beaten puppy.

“We can go,” he said coldly, ignoring the curious glances of his colleagues.

“According to you or according to the doctors?” Hotch asked, because he knew by now that there was a difference and he certainly wasn’t going to risk the health of his team members.

“According to me and my doctors. The stitches can be removed in Quantico. I don’t have to stay here for that.”

“Is everything okay between you and your brother?” JJ asked cautiously as they set about obtaining and signing the final discharge forms.

“Nothing will ever be okay between us,” Jay muttered, but there was no energy behind his words. It was as if he secretly wished it weren’t the case.

“I know it’s not my place to say anything, but you’re obviously important to each other. I would give anything to talk to my sister again, and I think you might regret it if you continue to act like strangers.”

Jason looked at JJ for a long time. She had never mentioned Rosaline in his presence, but it didn’t take much to conclude that JJ’s sister was dead, and had been for some time. And yet it was still an open wound. Jason had to make an effort not to use the wrong tone. He was upset by his conversation with Dick, but that was not JJ’s fault. She didn’t know what he had done and how non-existent his relationship with Dick had been.

“But I’m sure you didn’t miss your sister’s funeral,” Jason wanted to reply, because Dick hadn’t been at his. Even in death, Jason hadn’t been important to him. Instead, he folded the documents and looked at JJ for a long time.

“We’re not really brothers. Dick was my adoptive father’s foster child before I even joined the family. He was never officially adopted, so we’re not related by blood or by law. I don’t know what you think is between us, but it’s not good feelings.”

JJ nodded slowly and lowered her head. She shouldn’t have shared her thoughts before she knew Jay’s side of the story. Sometimes you could be wrong. How long had she been watching Dick Grayson? Three minutes? That wasn’t enough time to form an opinion. Instead, JJ had been thinking more about herself and her own feelings.

“I’m sorry...”

“No need, just forget it.”

With that, he turned away, and they met up with Reid, Prentiss, and Rossi in front of the hospital. Morgan and Hotch were getting the cars, and they could head to the airport right away.

“Don’t ever do that again,” Spencer said to him. “Don’t ever put yourself in danger for me.”

Jason just smiled. “You first.”

Emily had agreed to drive Spencer to his apartment so that he wouldn’t have to take the subway alone after a long day, but when they reached the apartment and Emily entered, he knew she had something else on her mind.

“What did you find out about Jay?”

Spencer frowned and was about to reply that he wouldn’t disclose anything private when he realized that Emily had come to her own conclusion and needed a second opinion.

“What did you find out?” he asked, filling two glasses with water and handing one to Emily.

She shrugged. “You know, when my mom drags me to a gala, the least I can do is find out who the hosts are. The name or face didn’t mean anything to the others, but Dick Grayson is Bruce Wayne’s ward, and if you do a little more research, you’ll come across a picture of Wayne’s late adopted son, Jason Todd.”

Emily took out her cell phone and showed Spencer a picture that looked suspiciously like a picture of a young Jay. He was thinner, almost malnourished, but that fit with what Jay had told him. Little food from life on the streets and then a private school because he had come into wealthier circumstances. Otherwise, the eye color didn’t seem to match, but that could also be because of the poor quality of the photo.

“I mean, I understand wanting to escape the press, but faking your death requires another reason.” Emily was the last person who could say anything when it came to keeping things from the past a secret, but she had put her team in danger back then, and she didn’t like the idea that this secret could also harm her team. She didn’t want to think that Jay’s faked death had anything to do with a criminal past, but as long as she didn’t know anything for sure, anything was possible.

Spencer took a deep breath before handing Emily her phone back. “I don’t think Jay’s death was faked.”

There’s no such thing as a surefire recipe for bringing someone back.

Emily’s eyes widened in surprise. “What do you mean? Do you think it’s like it was with me back then?”

Spencer shook his head. “Back in LA, he didn’t doubt for a second when I said there were cases of civilians rising from the dead. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but if he really died, it would make sense. ... Emily, you should have seen him today. He was completely calm and unafraid, as if he had been through it a thousand times before.”

That wasn’t quite it, Spencer realized, but he didn’t say so. To him, it seemed as if Jay didn’t mind dying. He wasn’t afraid of what happened after death. It was as if he were just greeting an old friend in death. Jay even told him that he died before.

But it was difficult to put this into words. Luckily, Emily was a profiler and had learned to trust Spencer’s instincts. If Spencer had this suspicion, it was very likely that it was true.

“Fuck,” Emily cursed, making no apology for her tone. This whole story stank to high heaven, but she already knew that Spencer would ask her not to tell the rest of the team, especially Hotch.

“If he really died, he deserves this new life, this new identity. It won’t hurt the team.”

“I hope you’re right, but if I feel it puts us in danger, I don’t care that it violates his privacy.”

“All right,” Spencer agreed immediately. He wouldn’t let anything happen to the team, either.

Make new friends, but keep the old;

Those are silver, these are gold.

- Joseph Parry

Chapter Text

I am a hacker, enter my world...

- Mydriasis Aletheia (The Hacker Manifesto)

Jason wasn’t looking forward to the upcoming conversation. Right at the start of the day, he had had to talk to the office therapist, who seemed from the outset to have already given up on ever finding profilers “unfit for duty.” Jason didn’t even want to know what had happened to the rest of the team that had led to this attitude. But precisely because the therapist couldn’t do anything about his job, it was so important that the current conversation went well.

Jason had hardly exchanged words with Aaron Hotchner after the hospital, but Jason wasn’t fooling himself: if Hotch considered him a liability, he would kick him off the team. Maybe it was silly to worry about it, after all, Spencer was still on the team and they had both screwed up by letting themselves get kidnapped, but during the last few days that Jason had been confined to bed rest, Jason’s mind had automatically replayed every conversation with Batman in which he was criticized for his mistakes.

“Peters, come in.” Hotch pointed to the chair in front of the desk, and Jason sat down. The desk between them felt like a distance that was meant to make it easier for Hotch to fire him.

“Hotch, I know I screwed up, and I’m going to work on myself. It won’t happen again.”

Hotch looked up from his papers in surprise and seemed to only now notice how tense Jason was. Jason wanted to jump up and pace around the room, but he forced himself to remain as calm as possible and not reveal too much of his nervousness.

“Peters, what exactly are you talking about?”

Jason swallowed. Batman had never accepted an apology just like that either. It was always about Jason understanding all his mistakes.

“I let an Unsub overpower me, couldn’t help Spencer, almost strangled the Unsub.”

Hotch raised his arm, and Jason bit his tongue. “I didn’t call you here to scold you for any of that. Of course, it doesn’t reflect well on the BAU when agents are taken, but that’s my responsibility, not a mistake. Our work is dangerous, and situations like this are inevitable.”

Jason couldn’t help but stare at Hotch. He had been so expecting to get a lecture that he hadn’t thought for a second that Hotch wasn’t Batman.

“I’m very glad that you and Reid are okay, and if you had to achieve that safety through Strickland’s death, I would have completely understood.”

Jason frowned. That didn’t sound right. Sure, Jason felt likewise. He prioritized his team’s safety above all else, even if it meant killing a suspect; however, a nagging voice criticized his actions.

“This conversation is only to determine whether you are ready to return to duty. Even though I need confirmation from a doctor for field duty, there is more than enough paperwork to do.”

Jason nodded. “I’m ready.”

Jason managed to concentrate on his tasks for the first two hours before he noticed that Spencer was acting strangely toward him. Perhaps Jason was being suspicious, but something seemed to have changed in their dynamic. While Spencer treated him like everyone else, he seemed to regard him as a puzzle when Jason was focused on something else. Jason had probably given too much away during the last case, because Reid had found something out, and Jason didn’t know if that was a good thing.

Jason clenched his jaw when he thought that it might have something to do with the fact that Dick’s face was anything but discreet, and if anyone on the team put two and two together, Jason would soon be facing charges of document forgery. Lying on an application for an FBI career was a criminal offense.

It took a lot for Jason not to laugh out loud, but it was hilarious. Murder wouldn’t land him in jail, but his honorable second life would.

Fortunately, Hotch grabbed Reid shortly thereafter to drive with him to an interrogation of a prisoner.

“Members of the League of Assassins. It would be a miracle if the two of them got anything out of him, but then again, it’s not often that these guys are caught alive,” Rossi shared more information with Jay before bringing him into his office.

Jason had never been there before, but it suited Rossi. The fine pieces that adorned the wall and desk spoke of style, but also of a personal touch that was still missing from Jason’s desk.

Taking all this in was easier than thinking about the fact that Jason had hoped never to have anything to do with the League again. He doubted that the lower-ranking members would recognize him, but there were also a few of his mentors whom he hadn’t been able to kill. Fortunately, it was unlikely that any of them would ever see the inside of a prison. Jason was reluctant to rely on luck, but he was glad that he was so useless in interrogations that Hotch hadn’t dragged him along.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Jason asked, certainly not expecting to still be sitting in the office three hours later listening to Rossi’s lecture. Something told Jason that he often gave this lecture in a lecture hall, but this time it was just for Jason. It dealt with the inner workings of serial killers, and Rossi went into aspects that Jason had not been aware of or had ignored until now. Perhaps Jason should have been surprised, but in fact he wasn’t. Rossi had been one of the founders of the BAU, so it made sense that he had noticed that Jason had no problem understanding that people did evil things, but failed to empathize with their motives.

“Don’t get me wrong, Peters. No one wants to feel empathy for the monsters we deal with, but there are many situations in which we need to fake that empathy. Especially when we want to get a hostage out of a hostage situation unharmed, our best option is to build a bond with the unsubs.”

Jason nodded slowly. Negotiating with hostage-takers. Batman had liked to quietly free the hostages while the police took care of the negotiations, but that hadn’t always been possible, and his negotiation methods had consisted more of surprise attacks than kind words of understanding.

“Do you want to try?”

“What?”

Rossi held up a file, but in such a way that Jason couldn’t read the name on it. Jason didn’t have a good feeling about this, but just because the task promised to be difficult didn’t mean he had no choice. He was sure Rossi would accept it if Jason got up and left. But Rossi wasn’t Hotch, and this was clearly a test. Jason doubted that anyone would use him for a negotiation in the near future, but if Jason really had no other choice, it was better to be prepared.

“You can read this file to learn about the unsub’s past and think about which things you sympathize with and which aspects you’d rather ignore.”

“All right.”

Jason wanted to take it back when he read the name on the file. Pierce Strickland.

“Are you kidding me? This guy killed four men, a teenager, and a dog, and would have done the same to Reid. And now I’m supposed to show empathy for him?”

Jay’s anger did not surprise Rossi. It was more than justified, and as soon as Morgan found out about this, Rossi would probably get a lecture too. But Rossi had never gone easy on his team, and if Peters could manage to sympathize with this man, then Rossi would have a better feeling about future cases.

“I know. These are all things that cannot be forgiven, but instead of confrontation and insults, it would have been an option to show sympathy toward him if you had had more information. This could have bought you valuable time.”

Jay snorted loudly, but let himself be wavered by the information he was seeing about Pierce for the first time. Penelope had gathered more than enough material, and it didn’t paint a pretty picture.

“Let’s go through it: what things can you not forgive?”

“The murders, the child abduction, the torture, the kidnapping of a team member.”

Rossi didn’t comment on the fact that Jay had once again failed to mention himself. As if his own kidnapping wasn’t important compared to the rest. As if Reid’s scratches were more significant than Jason’s cuts could ever be.

“Fine, ignore those things. Our unsub is not a good man, but we want to understand him. What do we understand about his past, about his pain?”

Jason took a deep breath before slowly beginning. “I understand that he couldn’t stand up to his father and was afraid of him. I’m sorry he was abused as a child.”

Jason thought of Willis and how he smelled of alcohol when he came home angry and took his rage out on him or his mother. But Strickland hadn’t been an only child.

“I understand that he admired his older brother and was deeply affected by his death.”

Jason thought of Dick and how much he had hoped that Dick was proud of him. He had seen Dick so rarely, and yet every time he saw him, he hoped that Dick would praise him this time. That he would tell him he wasn’t a disappointment as Robin.

“I understand that it hurt him to be rejected by his brother for years, and I understand that all those years, he just wanted to hang out with him once. That chance was taken away from him.”

Rossi nodded and took the file back. “Very good. I know it wasn’t easy.”

Jason said nothing in response to the praise, but wanted nothing more than to stand under a stream of ice-cold water until he couldn’t feel anything anymore. Sympathizing with someone who was responsible for so much suffering and death felt wrong. But then again... Jason had killed far more people than Pierce Strickland ever could.

“Shouldn’t we believe that every unsub deserves a second chance?” Jason asked aloud, and Rossi shook his head.

“Rehabilitation is not an option for almost all of our unsubs. Most face the death penalty, and if one of them got out, they wouldn’t be able to stop themselves. They would kill again.”

Was that what set Jason apart from the others? That he had been able to stop? But what if he had to kill again? He had almost done it in the basement. He had almost lost control. Would that have been a step too far?

Batman had said something similar to him. Assured him that it wouldn’t stop with the Joker. If he killed one villain, he would have to kill them all. He wouldn’t be able to stop.

Jason hadn’t understood, and he wished he still didn’t understand.

Penelope was glad that Jay was back at work. She would have loved to send him a gift basket to his house, but she had stopped herself at the last moment. She didn’t know how Jay would have felt about it. It would probably have been an invasion of his privacy; after all, he had never shared his address, even though he should have known by now that Penelope had access to his file. He was a profiler. Of course, he knew.

ORAKEL LOGGED IN

Oracle: How are your colleagues?

Penelope stared at her screen for a moment before replying. Oracle hadn’t been around when she first started hacking. Had she been active earlier, the BAU would have likely recruited her over Penelope. Oracle was terrific when it came to gathering information, and since she had been officially listed as a member of the Justice League (one of the few without photos), the bosses had set up an official channel between Oracle and the FBI’s technical analysts. Penelope was still not allowed to disclose sensitive data, but the director appreciated the quick access to a competent person who could put them in touch with virtually any superhero in a matter of seconds.

Penelope didn’t even know if Oracle was female, but she imagined so. She didn’t know if the other analysts wrote to Oracle as much as she did, but Penelope knew at least that Kevin had no contact with Oracle at all. So, Penelope treated this as a solid friendship, and since she knew that Oracle could probably even hack into the Pentagon, she knew that the question was genuine interest and not a tactic to get information. That’s why Penelope had told her that two of her colleagues were in trouble.

P.G.: Both workaholics are back to work :)

Oracle: That’s good. Do you have anything for me I can help with?

Penelope thought for a moment. Unless she received orders from Strauss, she wasn’t allowed to ask Oracle for help with official matters. Penelope was sure that Oracle had some information about the League of Assassins that could help Hotch and Reid with their interrogation. But what Penelope had found out would have to suffice, which was a considerable amount, but unfortunately it was mainly superficial information that revealed nothing about the structure of the organization.

Penelope probably shouldn’t mention private matters either, after all, this was work time. But Oracle had asked, and Penelope did have something on her mind.

P.G.: Any chance a hero has time to show up at a birthday party on Saturday?

Oracle: Your birthday isn’t until next month.

P.G.: Not for me. I’m asking for a friend’s child.

Penelope never revealed names, but she didn’t have to. With an approximate date of birth—Henry’s birthday was actually this Thursday, but with work and school schedules, JJ had decided to celebrate it properly on the weekend—Oracle would be able to find both names and addresses.

Oracle: Who is his favorite hero? Please don’t say Batman.

Penelope had to smile. Oracle was really quick if she had already figured out the gender and probably everything else. Not that Penelope had made much of a secret of it.

P.G.: No, don’t worry. Superman.

Oracle: Classic. I’ll see what I can do.

P.G.: Really?

It wasn’t that Penelope doubted Oracle’s abilities, but she could hardly imagine that Superman had nothing better to do than drop by a party. Besides, it was a big favor, even if Penelope had asked for it so boldly.

Oracle: Really. It’s no big deal. He usually likes to do this, but I still have to check first.

P.G.: Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re the best! Even if it doesn’t work out, thank you for your efforts.

Oracle: You’re welcome, Penelope.

“Hey, Peters! You want to spar? My training partner has canceled at short notice.”

Jason had actually wanted to head home when JJ held the elevator doors open and jumped in. Jason hadn’t exactly neglected his training in recent months, but he had scaled it back. It was enough for him to stay fit and in shape, but it was no longer necessary to train until he felt every muscle in his body. That was too risky for his job. When it mattered, he had to be able to move and couldn’t be hindered by training injuries.

“My doctor would kill me,” he replied, because that was the answer people expected from him, but the truth was that he could hardly feel his wound anymore and it was almost healed. Since the Lazarus Pit, he had been healing a little faster. It was hardly noticeable, but an injury that normally took a week to heal was sometimes cut in half. Not that Jason had tested it extensively. As Red Hood, he had simply taken the hits and kept going, no matter what his body said.

“I box, so if you don’t mind, you can just stand there and take the punches.”

They both knew it would still affect the wound, but Jason suspected JJ was only asking because she realized he needed to release some energy. Working in the office could sometimes be more exhausting than working on a case out in the field. JJ knew all too well how stress and frustration could build up.

“Okay,” Jason relented, and half an hour later, he didn’t regret it. He was wearing foam gloves that cushioned JJ’s blows well. She put a lot of force into the blows, and Jason really didn’t want to take any of them without protection between them.

“Do you do this regularly?” Jason asked, responding to JJ’s footwork to get some movement going. If his doctor saw him, he definitely wouldn’t be thrilled.

“Not as often as I did a few years ago. It helps relieve stress, but now spending time with my family also helps.”

JJ emphasized her words with two punches before stepping back again. Her usual partner would probably launch a counterattack now, but Jason stuck to what they had agreed. Not only because of his wound, but also because he didn’t want to accidentally hurt JJ.

“It’s Henry’s birthday this week, and Will and I are throwing a little party over the weekend.”

“That sounds nice.” Jason didn’t even want to imagine how difficult it must be to combine work and private life. Jason hadn’t even managed to get a library card, but JJ had to be there for her family on a regular basis. But she didn’t see it as a bad thing; no one did. Only Jason saw family as a burden he didn’t want to think about.

“We’d love for you to come too. If you can’t, that’s fine, but Will works for the local police, so you’ll meet him sooner or later. So why not sooner rather than later?” JJ smiled and lowered her hands. Beads of sweat ran down her forehead, and Jason reached for the water bottles and handed her one.

If Jason said yes, it would be the first private event of his team that he would attend. It had felt like too much of a challenge before, but now he even had to smile at the thought.

“I’d love to come. Any chance I can take a look at the birthday wish list?”

JJ laughed. “Ask Penelope. She’s already busy organizing and knows who buys what. But it’s not necessary. Henry will be happy whether you bring him something or not.”

Hotch had rarely left an interrogation feeling as frustrated as he did today. What made it even worse was the fact that Reid felt the same way. Normally, there were always things that the second person noticed while concentrating on asking the right questions during the interrogation. Something in the facial expressions or gestures. But as expected, the man had nothing to say and skillfully pretended they weren’t there.

“No matter how they train their people, it’s characterized by discipline and loyalty. I don’t want to know how many lose their lives as bad examples during training so that those who make it can develop in this way.”

Hotch just nodded and started the car so they could get back to the city before rush hour. The League of Assassins was normally the responsibility of the Justice League, but the government was interested in conducting its own investigation and assessing the threat independently of superheroes. No matter how much the connections between the parties had improved in recent years, there was still mistrust. For this reason, it would be difficult to write their few findings into the report in such a way that it looked like more and did not put the BAU in a poor light.

“He seemed to have already given up on his life,” Hotch summarized his findings. “The League will probably have set death as the punishment for failure.”

Hotch hoped he was wrong. They would share this insight with the prison, but Hotch almost feared that it would not change the end result. The few cases Penelope had linked to the League of Assassins had been carried out by high-ranking members. Superheroes might have a chance against this cult, but many prison guards would be no match for them.

All that remained was to hope that this would be their last encounter with the League for the time being. Hotch was reluctant to pit his team against this kind of people.

On his way home, Jason ignored his phone as soon as he recognized Barbara’s number, and since it went silent again shortly thereafter, it was definitely not an emergency. Not that it would have been Jason’s problem if there had been an emergency in Gotham. He wasn’t a vigilante, superhero, crime lord, assassin, or whatever else. Let the others deal with it. He would make himself something to eat first, and then he could always call back before Barbara sent Dick after him again.

After eating, he even took the time to do the dishes before he really couldn’t put it off any longer. He had had a reasonably good day, so hopefully this one phone call wouldn’t end in disaster.

“Hey Barbie,” he greeted Babs and began to pace slowly around his apartment. It felt good to be moving after a long day at the office, and, above all, it helped him keep his nerves calm.

“Hello, Jay. It’s nice to hear your voice.” The bad thing was that it sounded like Barbara was serious. As if she would like to be in touch with him more often, if only he would let her.

Jason sighed. “You can call me Jason. It’s okay.”

To be honest, Jason sometimes regretted choosing a new name. It was only a small change, but there were days when he missed being called Jason. On those days, however, he tried to remember why he had made that decision. Jason needed more distance from Gotham and his old self, and this had been a good way to achieve that.

“Okay, Jason. I’d like to ask how you’re doing and hear more about your day, but if you’d rather get right to the reason I called, that’s fine too.”

Jason appreciated this offer. It showed that Barbara didn’t think he was stupid and knew that he was well aware that there was a reason she was calling. In fact, their minimal interaction was due to Jason’s wishes. If he’d changed his mind, Barbara would have been happy to engage in more than just small talk. Had he changed his mind?

“Will I hate you afterwards?” Jason asked. He didn’t want to have a conversation only to experience a 180-degree turn in his feelings a moment later.

“No, I don’t think so,” Barbara replied.

“Then tell me about your day,” Jason decided, and when he heard Barbara’s stifled laughter, he knew she definitely had a story to tell, but it probably wasn’t the most positive one.

“Gotham is Gotham once again. For months, I’ve been bugging the city about the rusty windows at the library, but of course they don’t care. So we stopped ventilating the library. Apparently, some students overlooked the warning signs and thought it would be cool to open the windows. I have no idea how he managed to open those rusty windows, but I definitely couldn’t close them once it started raining inside. We probably can’t save some of the books, but at least this incident should have made the city take our request more seriously.”

Jason hadn’t even noticed that he had sat down. He had missed the stories from the library and was very happy that Barbara had told him about her day job and not her job as Oracle. Maybe this could really work. Maybe she could get Jason to agree to be in regular contact with her. Jason thought about how happy JJ was with her children and Will. Could just talking to Barbara be a stress reliever for him?

“Why didn’t you ask Bruce for a donation?” Jason asked, wishing he could bite his tongue. Why did he have to mention Bruce of all people? Why did he deliberately mention something that could lead to an argument?

“I don’t want anything to do with Bruce right now,” Barbara explained, her voice no longer sounding so cheerful. Jason ignored it because he apparently still hadn’t gotten his self-sabotage under control.

“Why? Did he act like a total asshole again?”

“Jason... He didn’t mention a word about you being alive. He kept everything he knew about Red Hood a secret. In other situations, I can deal with that, even if it sucks, but when it comes to something that affects the family? I don’t see why I should demand anything from him or support him in anything when, after all these years, he still can’t put his family before his mission.”

The profiler in Jason told him that Bruce would never get it, but Jason pushed that voice back.

It was bad enough that Bruce now thought of him more as Batman than as his father; he didn’t need a profile that would paint an unflattering picture. Some things were better left hidden.

“Why did you call?” Jason changed the subject, not even bothering to find a clever transition. He had brought up Bruce and now had to accept that he had ruined the mood.

“Penelope is planning a birthday party for the child of one of your colleagues.”

Jason raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment on Barbara pretending she wasn’t a stalker and hadn’t already found out all the names.

“I know. I’m invited.”

Should Jason be afraid? He had no idea where this conversation was going, because he could hardly imagine that Penelope’s companion would be Barbara. Barbara valued her secret identity far too much for that.

“Penelope asked me to invite a hero for the little one.”

“If you’re about to say that Batman is coming to Henry’s party, then I swear...”

Barbara interrupted him immediately: “No, Superman! Don’t worry.”

Jason sighed. Superman wasn’t ideal either, but he was probably better than one of Gotham’s heroes. Besides, it was Superman. Jason couldn’t imagine anyone better for a child’s birthday party and didn’t want to take that away from Henry.

“But Jason, if you don’t want him to come, I’ll tell Penelope that unfortunately it wasn’t possible. She knows I still have to check, but she doesn’t know that I checked with you and not with Supes.”

Jason bit his lip. So it was his decision, but at the same time, it wasn’t a decision. Jason would rather cancel than know that a hero didn’t show up because of him.

“It’s okay. Thanks for asking.”

“Of course. It’s sometimes frightening how few boundaries there are between us Bats, but I’m doing my best to change that.”

“You should still ask Superman and not force him to do it,” Jason said, after all, it was his free time he would be sacrificing.

“Jason, if I tell Superman you’ll be there, he’ll come. He might hate having to treat you like a stranger, but he would never miss seeing you alive again.”

Jason would only believe it when he saw it.

“How did the interrogation go?” Emily asked as Reid entered the office looking tired. His tardiness implied they’d worked late with Hotch the previous day, and were now catching up on sleep during this slow period without an active case.

Jay joined them while Reid groaned as he made a new pot of coffee in the kitchen.

“Don’t look at me like that. I decided to have tea, like Peters,” said Emily, admiring the fact that Jay didn’t bat an eyelid. Of course, Emily had grabbed the last cup of coffee. There was no universe in which she would prefer tea in the morning. But the fact that Jay not only didn’t call her out, but also showed no sign of suprise, even though she hadn’t warned him... He was an excellent liar, and that didn’t make it any easier to trust him.

As the coffee machine began to hum, Spencer finally seemed to register her first question. “The interrogation was frustrating. He didn’t say a word and didn’t give anything away. We only have a general assessment of the training of people from the league, but we had that before.”

Emily nodded and understood the frustration, because she had been feeling it ever since Jay had returned to the office and she had been trying to outsmart him. Luckily for her, she seemed to be able to hide it much better than Spencer, because while she was sure Jay had noticed his glances, he hadn’t noticed hers.

Jay Peters worked hard and clearly enjoyed working at the BAU, but he was secretive and a good liar. Emily wasn’t sure if she would recognize it in time if he was planning something bad.

“Good morning, everyone,” Morgan greeted the team, coming over to them instead of stopping by his desk or Penelope’s first. Strangely enough, that was the moment Emily first noticed something odd about Jay. Everything about him tensed up, as if an Unsub had appeared instead of a coworker.

“Morgan, can we talk for a minute?” Jay asked, and if Emily hadn’t just seen his reaction, she would have thought he wanted to talk to Derek about some football game. No... that wasn’t right. His tone sounded friendly, but his smile was a little too tense to be genuine. So he wasn’t quite as good at hiding his feelings as Emily had thought. Unfortunately, that didn’t help at the moment, because Emily had no idea what was going on.

“Everything okay?” Spencer asked worriedly, looking back and forth between Jay and Derek in confusion. Strangely, Derek didn’t seem to have noticed anything that had been going on with Jason’s face.

“Of course.”

Something inside Emily screamed that she should stand between the two of them, but Morgan didn’t seem to sense any danger, and Jay didn’t even have a gun on him. Besides, Emily didn’t even know how she had come up with that idea. Was it because she had sworn to herself since the Dick Grayson thing to take a critical look at everything concerning Jay so she wouldn’t regret it later? But that didn’t mean she should jump to conclusions.

She should have listened to her instincts, because by the time she lunged at Jay and pinned him to the ground, it was already too late. In the blink of an eye, he had a flaming sword in his hand and rammed it into Morgan’s stomach.

While Emily held Jay down, Reid rushed to Morgan in shock.

“What is that?” he asked, and Emily glanced up briefly before freezing. Pitch-black veins had spread across Derek’s face, extending all the way to his neck.

“An Untitled possessed him,” Jay explained, and only now did Emily notice that he hadn’t fought her off, nor was his sword anywhere in sight.

“And that’s why you killed him?” Reid asked, shocked, staring at Jay as if he didn’t recognize him.

“Of course not! The All-Blades can only eliminate mystical dangers. Derek should wake up soon, even if he will feel like he’s been stabbed.”

Emily didn’t even consider believing a word of it, and her grip tightened slightly before she let go of Jay when Derek actually opened his eyes with a groan. The black veins slowly receded, but they were still faintly visible.

“What’s going on here?” Hotch asked in his commanding tone. It was obvious that he had rushed out of his office as soon as he realized something was wrong.

“Something... was inside me. I... I had no control over my body.” Derek sounded confused, his face fixed on Jay. “But you saw it. You knew what it was.”

Jay slowly sat up, almost as if to show that he posed no danger, and Hotch helped Derek to his feet.

“Yes. I was trained to defeat these things. By now, they should be nearly extinct.” Jason was less than thrilled that an Untitled had made it into the FBI. He didn’t know what he would do if more than one of them showed up. Jason didn’t want this life anymore, and the All-Castle had never asked him if he wanted to fight this war. Jason had only been interested in training his abilities, not getting involved in magical stuff. He really hoped Essence would take care of it. “I’m really sorry you had to go through that. Magic stuff like that is never pleasant.”

“Magic stuff?” Hotch asked. He was only slowly piecing together what had happened, and it wasn’t a pretty picture.

“It shouldn’t happen again, but you should take it a little slower, Derek. The phantom pain of a burning sword can really take it out of you.”

“Morgan, get yourself checked for injuries and take the day off. The rest of you report to me now,” Hotch demanded. It was one more thing he had to take care of, and once everyone had given their side of the story, Hotch wasn’t sure if he should report it to his superiors at all. Once they found out that Jay could defeat enemies with magic swords that others didn’t even notice at first, they would transfer him out of the BAU faster than Hotch would like.

“Not a word to anyone,” he finally decided, and everyone nodded.

“I’ll tell Penelope to take care of the surveillance cameras,” Emily said, leaving the open kitchen. Fortunately, no one else was in the office because of a training session.

“I need to know how likely it is that something like this will happen again.”

Jay thought for a moment before shaking his head. “It’s the first time in four years that I’ve seen one again. I can’t promise anything, but it should be a one-off.”

That seemed to satisfy Hotch. He nodded and left Peters and Reid alone for the time being. It was chaos, but no one had been seriously injured, and after what Peters had told them about the Untitled, they could consider themselves lucky that this thing hadn’t done anything worse. This incident left a bitter aftertaste, as was always the case when something happened that Hotch couldn’t do anything about, even if he wanted to. If Jay hadn’t had magical swords—whose existence he didn’t even want to know more about—then he would have had no choice but to shoot Derek if the Untitled inside him had started running amok. But it hadn’t come to that. It was important for Hotch to remember that, even if he wasn’t sure if sweeping this event under the rug was really the right decision.

Rossi would stop by later, listen to the descriptions, and agree with him that Strauss and everyone else didn’t need to know about it. In the worst case, Derek would be examined and considered a research subject, and no one really wanted that.

Reid, on the other hand, spent the rest of the day questioning Jay about the All-Blades. Despite his patience, after three hours Jason limited Reid to three more questions. Jason had never thought so much about his swords before, and he couldn’t even count how many questions he hadn’t been able to answer.

Jason barely had time to get a gift before the party on Saturday, but he managed it in the end. Penelope had whispered to him with a smile on her face that there would probably be a surprise guest for the children, which confirmed to Jason that he had done the right thing in his conversation with Barbara. It wasn’t just the children who would be happy; Penelope was also delighted to have arranged it. Jason didn’t know anyone could not like Penelope.

Hotch had discussed the incident with the Untitled with Jason several times, and whatever Hotch had hoped to gain from those conversations, Jason feared he had not gotten it. But Jason could hardly tell him that the Untitled were mainly after him because he had made a brief detour to the All-Castle (the enemy of the Untitled) during his training with the League of Assassins. No, Jason would keep all this information to himself, but he had nevertheless asked Barbara to pass this incident on to the Justice League. And in the end, Jason’s promise that he would report the incident to Constantine (Ha! Definitely not, but it was a name Hotch knew and raised fewer questions than if Jason admitted he had other contacts) convinced Hotch to let the incident rest.

“Hello, you must be Jay,” Will greeted him when Jason rang the doorbell on time. At least Jason assumed it was Will, if JJ’s photos on her desk were any indication.

“Pleased to meet you,” Jason replied, raising an eyebrow as he saw Will eyeing him up and down.

“I’m sorry,” the man apologized quickly. “It’s rare to see someone so well-trained, even in the police force.”

Jason wasn’t stupid. If he were the father of two children and a strange man built like a tank showed up, he would be suspicious too. It wouldn’t matter what JJ had said about Jay so far. The protective instinct took precedence, and Jason respected that.

“You can’t see the strength in everyone. JJ has been beating me up pretty badly this week.”

Will laughed, and something told Jason that he had also trained with JJ before and had taken quite a beating. Unnoticed, Will had led him to the terrace, where Emily and Penelope were already waiting. The two had probably helped with the decorations. The doorbell rang, so Will disappeared back into the house to let the next guests in. If Jason knew his colleagues well, Spencer would be on time for his godchild, and the rest would follow soon. Rossi would probably be the last to arrive.

“We probably have three minutes before the kids start running around our feet and begging for games,” Emily said, and Jason couldn’t help but smile sincerely.

“Ah, look at that. Someone likes children. Take a cue from him, Emily,” Penelope said, and you could see how free she felt compared to work. This job was probably overwhelming for most people. He saw it in many of the team, but not yet in Emily.

“Where are the presents?” cried an excited voice, and a boy ran towards them. Behind him were JJ and a smaller boy.

“Henry, be patient a little longer. The rest are still coming.” JJ smiled, and Jason crouched down so he wouldn’t seem quite so tall.

“If you don’t tell any of the latecomers, you can open my gift now.”

Henry beamed at him and took the gift. He was still beaming a few minutes later when he recognized the book Jason had picked from his wish list.

“Thank you very much... uh...”

“Jay,” Jason prompted him, as he had completely forgotten to introduce himself.

The rest (including Jack, whom Hotch brought along) also showed up within the next half hour, after Will, as expected, first appeared in the garden with Spencer. Spencer had to perform more than one magic trick before Henry excitedly pointed to the sky.

“Superman!”

Jason had to suppress a smile when he saw Clark dramatically sink to the ground. He wasn’t as subtle as Batman, but he loved his appearances, even if he liked to act more modest.

“I don’t believe it,” JJ whispered. Jason knew that Penelope had asked for her permission first, but presumably no one had really expected Superman to actually find the time.

“Did you pull some strings?” Hotch asked Penelope, who grinned sheepishly but nodded excitedly. “Jack is definitely going to tell all his friends about this.”

Jason was well aware of how divided opinions were. Everyone on the team was happy that the children were having fun and could play with Superman for a while, but at the same time, they were all profilers and very protective. They knew what Superman was capable of, and even though nothing in his profile suggested that he would hurt children, the knowledge that there was nothing they could do about it was still an uncomfortable feeling.

Jason became painfully aware that as a profiler, he had the worldview of a bat. Which was probably one of the reasons why Jason didn’t feel out of place when he showed up for work.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Will asked, and Jason admired how normal he sounded, even though his body language clearly showed that he was excited to be talking to Superman.

“No, but thank you. You have wonderful children.”

Clark smiled before his gaze lingered on Jason. Jason swallowed, but he knew that Barbara had told Clark that he had a new life now. When Clark embraced him, Jason remembered that Clark was Clark and not the best at following such instructions.

“It’s so good to see you again, Jay,” he whispered, but if Jason interpreted his team’s look correctly, everyone understood anyway. As if Clark knew he hadn’t done the right thing, he broke the hug, but kept his hands on Jason’s shoulders and looked him straight in the eye, as if he couldn’t believe Jason was standing in front of him. “No matter what’s going on between you and your father, you can always come to me.”

When Jason was still Robin, he had seen Clark as an uncle. The coolest uncle Jason could ever have. Who wouldn’t want to hang out with Superman? Jason realized that those feelings had never completely disappeared. He had forgotten them, suppressed them, but they were still there. When Superman said he could come to him, Jason knew he meant it. Their relationship was not dependent on Jason’s relationship with Batman.

“Don’t you have a crisis to prevent?” Jason asked, instead of saying any of this out loud. He didn’t even want to think about what his team was thinking. At first, it had been so easy to just be Jay Peters, but slowly the worlds were blurring together, and Jason felt like he couldn’t stop it, even if he tried.

Superman listened briefly to sounds only he could hear. before nodding. With a smile, he said goodbye to the children before disappearing again.

“Jay Peters, in all the time we’ve known each other, you couldn’t even mention that you know Superman?” Penelope asked, her eyes wide, and Jason rolled his eyes.

“I last saw him when I was fourteen,” he explained with a shrug. It was the truth, but the profilers in the group knew that he was still leaving out the main part of the story.

Emily relaxed for the first time since she learned that Jay Peters was actually Jason Todd. He may have lied about his name, but if Superman greeted him so warmly, that was enough for Emily to be sure that Jay was not a threat. It might sound naïve, but considering that Emily had no evidence that Jason was a threat, it was more than fair.

“You’re full of secrets,” she said anyway, looking forward to them becoming fewer.

I can't always see oldself, it's buried
beneath six feet of dirt, gossip and rumors

– Harsh (My{old}self)

Chapter Text

Darkness comes early

This time of year

Making it hard

To recognize familiar faces

In those of strangers.

– Charles Simic (Hide and Seek)

Sometimes it was like an illness. Seeing things that weren’t obvious to normal people. Rossi didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to discover any deeper meaning, but he just couldn’t stop it.

Jay Peters had never mentioned any other superheroes or people from the superhero world besides his connection to John Constantine. Rossi only vaguely remembered a comment about Zatanna from several months ago, back when it was uncertain whether they would be working together in the long run.

Peters was also a very private person, but Rossi would have assumed that he would have mentioned it if he knew Superman.

The thing was, any normal person would have assumed that Superman had saved Peters’ life and that they therefore knew each other. But Rossi had seen so much more emotion between the two of them. There was a story, and it had nothing to do with a simple rescue. If that had been the case, Peters would have shared the story with them after that day. It would have been a small story that would satisfy the natural curiosity of profilers.

Peters had done the opposite. He had acted as if there had never been a hug or a conversation between him and Superman. Peters hadn’t brought it up, and when others had tried to mention it, he had changed the subject so quickly that it was almost impressive.

“Do I even want to know?” asked Hotch, who had entered Rossi’s office and could clearly see that Rossi was brooding over something. And judging by his expression, it wasn’t anything good.

“What did Peters’ file say about his previous combat experience?” Rossi recognized people from the military, and he recognized even more easily people who had seen a battlefield. Peters hid it well, but you could tell from his posture that he had trained for years and had experience taking orders.

“Police and FBI academy,” Hotch replied, which was when Rossi decided it was time for his expensive whisky. “Why?”

“Because my thoughts are drifting in a direction I don’t like.”

“It’s about Peters?” Hotch asked, and Rossi wasn’t surprised that Hotch had guessed correctly. Their new team member was surrounded by many secrets, and Rossi feared that many of them would rather remain in the dark than be solved.

“Once you start to doubt the theory that Big Blue and Peters don’t know each other from a rescue, there aren’t many possibilities left.”

Hotch nodded. Discovering Peters’ experience with magic and could wield magical swords stirred a quiet thought: Peters likely lived a childhood of heroism that no child should have to endure.

“If Peters was trained at a young age to be a hero, that would explain a lot,” Hotch said as carefully as possible, earning himself a dismissing look.

“We can call it what it is. These kids may be heroes, but they are also child soldiers, and if it didn’t put these children in even more danger, I would support the government to do everything in its power to prevent anyone under the age of majority from entering the hero business.”

They had dealt with cases in which children had been re-educated as soldiers. This reprogramming was despicable, and Rossi was sure that it was no different for some sidekicks. They were promised an exciting life, a shiny costume, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it was almost never mentioned how quickly one could get hurt on this path in life.

But without violence, the government would not be able to prevent it. Laws had never deterred heroes, and it was difficult to stop the children and talk them out of it. The whole matter was complicated, and Rossi had never liked it.

With Jack on his mind, Hotch couldn’t approve of sending children into battle against aliens and other threats.

“So Jay Peters was a sidekick?” Hotch asked, and Rossi shrugged.

“I hope I’m wrong, Aaron. I really hope there’s another explanation that I’m missing, because Peters just doesn’t share anything about himself that he doesn’t have to.”

Hotch nodded before smiling. “That is not entirely true. Reid has figured out his favorite reading material. It may be a small step forward, but it’s there, Dave.”

The fact that Peters had accepted JJ’s invitation proved it. Their little family had a permanent addition. That was also the reason why Rossi was so upset by his theory. It was always hard when you knew what a tough life a family member had had.

“Dick and Clark are idiots,” Barbara summed it up in one sentence. Jason was finally back within his own four walls after a case in Texas and glad not to have to worry about awkward questions or people listening in on his phone calls with Barbara. “I can maybe understand Clark’s behavior, but why exactly did Dick introduce himself as Dick Grayson at the hospital?”

Jason sighed. It was nice that Barbara was concerned about his false identity, but that was exactly why he had Constantine’s spell. Only it was slowly becoming clear that this spell was having more effect on searches for Jay Peters than on searches for Jason Todd.

“Just so you know, I went through the search history from a month ago of all your colleagues, and both Emily Prentiss and Spencer Reid came across an article about Dick Grayson and the Wayne children for more information about Jason Todd.”

Jason swallowed. He had already suspected that Spencer knew something he wasn’t sharing with the rest of the team, but he hadn’t noticed anything unusual about Emily’s behavior. He probably should have expected it, though, since he knew she had attended a Wayne gala.

“No one has mentioned it to me, so I guess it’s okay.”

“Nothing is okay, Jason. Lying about your identity in a public office is a crime. If one of your colleagues ever tells your boss and he decides to take action, you could be in serious trouble.”

For some reason, this didn’t cause Jason to panic. “If they haven’t shared it so far, they’ll continue to keep it to themselves. Besides...”

“Besides?”

Jason knew his thoughts were stupid, so he didn’t voice them right away. But as stupid as they were, they were a certainty to him. “I’m sure Hotch wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. He might kick me off the team, but he wouldn’t want to see me behind bars.”

Because Hotch, like the rest of the team, didn’t know he was a murderer. Lately, this was something that was on Jason’s mind less and less. Part of him warned him that it was dangerous to forget who and what he was, but the larger part of him was glad that Jay Peters existed and that at least Jay Peters wasn’t a mass murderer.

“I understand. I would still feel safer if you listened to the story I’ve prepared for you.”

Jason sighed. “Barbara, thank you, but if I ever have to explain a part of Jason Todd that I’ve tried to keep secret until now, I don’t want to lie.”

Barbara was silent for a moment, as if considering his words. “Fine, then I’ll come up with a story that’s closer to the truth than you’d like.”

“I won’t need it,” Jason declared, but the truth was that with every hour he spent with his team, he did consider revealing an additional part of himself to everyone. He was just afraid of the waves it would cause. It was easier if everything stayed the way it was.

Things never stayed the way they were.

The seats around the round table filled up, and Penelope waited patiently until Rossi had sat down before beginning her presentation. Once again, the bodies were not a pretty sight, but at least this time they weren’t children.

“Walter Shelton, found dead 32 hours ago. Killed with a baseball bat. The same applies to Theo Larson, who was found 20 hours ago. Glen Tucker was found dead two hours ago, also beaten to death, but this time not with a baseball bat. The coroner is still trying to identify the murder weapon,” Garcia summarized as quickly as possible without looking at the screen behind her. She really didn’t need to see it again. The images on the tablets were enough for her, even if she was only aware of them out of the corner of her eye.

“No sexual component, but the unsub seems to have a lot of anger toward the victims,” Morgan said. The victims had been beaten dozens of times, many of the blows delivered after the victim was already dead.

“Not just anger. The unsub must be strong to keep going for so long and strike with so much force,” JJ agreed with the observation. There wasn’t much left of the first victim.

“We’re not dealing with kidnappings,” said Reid, who had glanced over the times the victims were last seen and the times they were found.

Emily added her thoughts: “He’s using the element of surprise? His victims were found near busy streets, and yet no one heard cries for help. So they must have been taken by surprise.”

“Not necessarily,” Hotch disagreed. “The victims are all from Blüdhaven and were also found there. Given what’s been reported about this city, it’s not unlikely that cries for help were ignored.”

“What?” Jay asked, and everything inside him seemed to tense up suddenly.

Reid thought it best to pretend he hadn’t noticed, so as not to offend Jay, and shared a statistic: “Blüdhaven is the city with the most crime after Gotham, but I wouldn’t trust those numbers. While Gotham has a lot of crime, allegations of corruption have declined in recent years, while Blüdhaven is said to have nine out of ten cops who are corrupt. So, it would be fitting for Blüdhaven that the statistics don’t reflect the truth.”

Normally, this would have been enough time for Jay to compose himself and hide his feelings, but something seemed different today, because he was still tense, and if Morgan didn’t know better, he would say he could see panic in the eyes of their newcomer. Something he had never seen before.

“We’re flying to Blüdhaven?”

“Yes, the police have invited us to take on this case,” Hotch confirmed, before his voice softened slightly. “Is there a problem?”

Of course, there was a problem! Jason wanted to scream. Not only did his stupid brother work for the Blüdhaven police, but there were also plenty of Gothamites who had fled to Blüdhaven, and with Jason’s luck, one of them would recognize him, even if he no longer looked like his younger self. Or Dickface would slip up, and then Reid and Prentiss would reveal his real name, and Hotch would be forced to make a decision.

“That’s exactly why we prepared the story,” said a voice in his head that sounded like Barbara.

It was just that Jason wasn’t ready yet. He had always hoped that it would be his decision when he shared it. But he should have known that sooner or later there would be a case that would lead him to a superhero city.

“Before we take off, I have something to tell you. I don’t want you to hear it from my idiot brother.”

Most of the people in the room seemed confused as to why Jason had suddenly mentioned his brother, but Prentiss seemed to know what it was about, even though she was clearly surprised that Jason had brought it up. She cautiously got up and closed the door so that they at least had a sense of privacy. It would be unpleasant if Strauss took advantage of this moment to join them. What Jason was about to share was relevant only to the people in that room.

“We’re not going to like it, are we?” Rossi asked, and judging by Hotch’s expression, he was less than enthusiastic about this conversation. Probably because he already knew it would mean trouble for him.

“Whatever it is, you can tell us,” Penelope said, her smile encouraging.

Jason took a deep breath. “When I left Gotham years ago and came to LA, I did so under a different name.”

“What was so terrible about your birth name? Don’t tell me you had Lexington or something stupid like that as your first name.” Morgan tried to joke, but it fell flat. Presumably, the hope that Jay had legally changed his name was rather naïve.

“No, Jason Todd or Jason Todd-Wayne.” Jason was surprised at how much hatred he felt when he said the last part of his name. It wasn’t part of him, not for years. He used to say it with pride, after all, it distracted from the name Willis had given him, but now he even preferred that to bearing Bruce’s name.

“I don’t think I need to tell you that my superiors expect me to report this matter,” Hotch said in a serious tone, but his eyes softened a little when he saw how devastated Jay looked. “But I assume there was a better reason for the name change than not wanting to be associated with your rich father.”

“He’s not my father,” Jason growled, then apologized the next moment when Penelope flinched. If anyone in the room had already suspected that he had daddy issues, it was now clear just how deep they went.

Jason took a few deep breaths and didn’t speak again until his voice was calmer. “I know it’s a crime, Hotch, but I left Gotham because Bruce slit my throat.”

Jason didn’t hate any of his scars. They were part of him, but there were two scars he didn’t like. The autopsy scar on his upper body was the scar of a dead man and couldn’t be healed by the Lazarus Pit. On a bad day, it reminded him that he was a walking corpse. The scar on his neck, which he now revealed by loosening his tie, unbuttoning the top of his shirt, and holding the fabric away from his skin with one finger, was the scar he hated the most. It symbolized a broken family, a home that was no longer a home, and a man who was no longer his father.

Penelope gasped sharply, and Jason could see tears in her eyes, while Morgan’s eyes reflected anger.

“I have no idea if he knows I’m still alive, but I don’t want to find out. A friend of mine got me a new identity, and I used it.”

It wasn’t entirely true, after all, Jason left out the whole story about Constantine, but it didn’t change the fact that Barbara had done everything she could in the last few weeks to give Jay Peters a digital life. Jason had tried to convince her that the spell would prevent anyone from looking too closely at Jay Peters, but Barbara didn’t trust Constantine, which was probably fair.

“Impossible. I checked you out. I would have noticed,” Penelope muttered.

“Penelope, my friend is Oracle. You’re fantastic, but she knows what she’s doing.”

That seemed to ensure that Penelope no longer blamed herself. Jason wondered briefly how simple the world would be if everyone recognized a more skilled or talented person like Penelope did.

“So you decided to disappear rather than report Bruce Wayne for his crime?” Rossi asked, and Jason snorted loudly. As if the law could do anything against Batman.

“What good would that have done? He’s the richest man in Gotham, one of the richest men in the country. Even if the law in Gotham weren’t so corrupt, the trial would have taken years. I’m not sure it would have decided in my favor. It would only have led to Bruce finding another way to destroy my life. Maybe I was a coward, but my new life was more peaceful than I had ever known, and there isn’t a second that I don’t regret not having spoken to Bruce in years.”

Jason knew it was a lot to take in. When Barbara had presented him with this story, he had argued that it made Bruce Wayne out to be a monster, which he wasn’t. Barbara had wanted to hear none of it. She had no interest in separating Bruce Wayne from his actions as Batman. Bruce had hit Jason with a Batarang, and there was no denying that fact.

“And your brother?” Reid finally asked, after all, he was the reason Jay was telling this story.

“He works as a detective with the BPD, so the chances of us not running into him are zero. Dick only recently found out that I’m still alive, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he told some of his colleagues about me.”

Hotch exhaled audibly before turning his gaze to Jason. “You should have told me sooner.”

“I know.”

“Garcia, how likely is it that this story will ever reach our superiors?”

Penelope looked up in surprise. She didn’t seem to have expected to be addressed. “If Oracle took care of the identity, no one will be able to recognize it as a fake.”

“Good. I’m not going to force anyone in this room to keep quiet. It’s your decision, but if you want to report it to the higher-ups, you have to do it now.”

No one in the room made any move to get up.

Hotch nodded once and then turned back to Jason. “SSA Jay Peters, to the best of our knowledge, Jason Todd is dead. We’re flying in 20 minutes. Pack everything up.”

It was only when they were on the plane that Hotch took the opportunity to bring Jay over to him. Even though there was hardly any privacy on the plane, he did not regret his decision to have this conversation here. They sat across from each other, while the others were further back in the plane at the table for four and the small kitchen. Jay had kept a lot to himself, and this affected the whole team. Hotch would not allow him any more privacy than that.

“You told the truth earlier, but you should be aware that we are all trained to see when someone is leaving out parts of a story.”

Jay pursed his lips, but Hotch greatly appreciated that his expression was not blank. If Jay had decided to shut himself off emotionally, Hotch couldn’t say whether he would have gone ahead with his dismissal or transfer. Secrets could harm the team, and no one needed a team member who saw himself as a lone wolf. It would only lead to losses.

“Those parts aren’t relevant,” Jay explained, not seeming happy with his choice of words. But even if he had expressed himself differently, it probably wouldn’t have changed the message.

“I’m not going to pretend I like this,” Hotch replied, unable to help thinking about his conversation with Rossi. Even though it probably made little sense, Hotch asked, “Where did you get your military training?”

Jason looked up in surprise before narrowing his eyes in confusion. “I was never in the military. Police and FBI academies only. That’s it.”

Hotch just stared at him intently. “If you don’t want to say, that’s fine, but there’s no reason to lie.”

“I wasn’t in the military, Hotch.”

“But you have training that goes beyond the academies.”

There was a brief silence before Jason nodded.

“What did that training involve?” Hotch didn’t need to know, but Jay had abused his trust with his lie about his identity. Hotch knew that answering a few questions truthfully wouldn’t restore that trust, but it would at least show Hotch that Jay was willing to reveal more about himself. Jay had to take a step toward Hotch, otherwise, Hotch would make it his personal mission to only assign Jay to groups that Hotch was part of.

“Handling various firearms, close combat experience with hands and various weapons, bomb disposal, poison analysis, minimal gymnastics.”

“Minimal gymnastics?” Hotch asked, and Jay shrugged. It was clear that this was the part of his training he liked the least. But the picture revealed by this wide range of skills was not a pretty one. It took more than a few years to learn all that, and since Hotch knew where Jay had been for the last few years, that meant Jay had learned most of it when he was a minor.

When Hotch and Jay joined the others, Rossi nodded briefly to him. He seemed to feel vindicated in his theory. Jay Peters, or rather Jason Todd, was a former child soldier, and at that moment, Hotch wanted nothing more than to punch Bruce Wayne, even though he had never met the man in his life.

Reid had already met people who assumed that he processed things faster than other people because he could read and think faster than average. But that wasn’t true. Just like Garcia, Reid hated change because he had trouble processing things on an emotional level, and even though he might think faster, he used that ability to think in many directions that others would ignore.

Reid was therefore very glad that Emily had prepared him a month ago for who Jay Peters was, because that meant he could now deal with the fact that the rest of the team knew, and above all, that Bruce Wayne was a terrible father. Reid was not stupid: he knew how much good the various Wayne foundations did, and the technology developed by Wayne Technology was groundbreaking. But that didn’t make Bruce Wayne a better person, and if Reid interpreted Morgan’s looks correctly, he felt the same way.

“You already knew, didn’t you?” JJ asked quietly, standing next to Spencer in the small kitchen of the plane. They would be landing soon, so Spencer had taken the last opportunity to grab another coffee before the seat belt signs lit up.

“It was actually Emily who could make sense of Jay’s brother’s name and draw conclusions from it.”

“And you didn’t want to share it with the rest of us?”

Spencer pursed his lips. He hated it when the team kept secrets from him, but then again, it was always difficult when it came to secrets that weren’t your own.

“I would have told you right away if there had been a reason to, but as things stood, I didn’t want Jay to feel like the whole team wasn’t on his side.”

JJ sighed. “I’m not angry, don’t worry. I just wish he didn’t have to build a new identity to lead a normal life.”

“Oh, working for the BAU is normal?” Spencer joked, and JJ playfully nudged him in the ribs with her elbow, without actually touching him.

Shortly thereafter, they landed and made their way to the station in downtown. Due to the high crime rate in Blüdhaven, Hotch wanted to greet the local police first and make sure that every team that moved outside the station had at least one patrol officer with them. Their unsub was extremely brutal, but the other villains and petty criminals in the city could also harm the team. Hotch had already had to justify two kidnaped agents this quarter, and he didn’t want to add a funeral to that.

“Jay! Awesome, you’re here!” Dick Grayson grinned from ear to ear and motioned for him to follow him with quick hand gestures. Jay just rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything.

“We have prepared a small room for you. The captain is currently in a meeting, but he will definitely stop by later to greet you as well. In the meantime, I’ll be happy to show you around, and my partner will join us shortly.”

The room was cozy, but a little cluttered around the edges. Still, Reid welcomed the small enclosure, because the station had been unusually loud, and here the noise was at least somewhat muffled.

“The medical examiner called earlier. It’s very likely that our third victim was killed with a hockey stick.”

“So our unsub has only minimally changed his M.O. It’s not far from a baseball bat to a hockey stick. Maybe his baseball bat broke.”

As Hotch dialed Garcia’s number while Reid nodded in agreement. “If the unsub was in a rage and not only hit the first two victims but also missed and hit the street or walls, that’s not so unlikely.”

“Garcia, please find out which stores in the area sell sports equipment and send me the addresses.”

“Aye aye, Captain!” Garcia replied, and you could hear that she was glad to have something to do. She had probably spent the last hour desperately trying to process what Jay had told them, only she had no one to talk to about it.

However, before anyone on the team could come up with any further theories, a brown-haired woman rushed into the room.

“Several shots fired near Melville Park! Probably a sniper. Grayson, come with me!”

The FBI agents glanced at each other briefly. It was unlikely that this was related to their unsub, but they were here to support the local police, nonetheless. Besides, it wasn’t unlikely that their unsub might show up nearby to find out what was distracting from his headlines.

“Peters, Morgan, and Prentiss, you accompany the detectives. Watch out for each other,” Hotch ordered. He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake by sending his agents into such a situation.

Shooting people in broad daylight was nothing like the feeling you got when you stood face to face with someone and swung for the first blow. Three shots, three hits. The man felt a sense of pride in his work, but it was a fleeting pleasure, and he knew why he avoided using firearms. For him, there was a certain sporting spirit missing. But his job was done, and fortunately, he could take his time with his next target.

Not that the man understood why someone was in such a hurry to get rid of someone else. If it had been an impulsive decision, they could have done it themselves, like real men did. But no, whoever had given this assignment not only had a lot of money at their disposal, but had also thought it through and decided that their impatience was somehow his problem.

“Reminder to myself,” he said to his cell phone, which was supposed to make a note, “Cancel clay pigeon shooting with Deadshot. If he enjoys it so much, let him do it alone. The sport is too stupid for me.”

If you could even call it a sport.

Only after they had helped the BPD clear the area and were sure that no more shots would be fired did Prentiss call Penelope.

“You have no idea how happy I am to hear from you. Wait, I’ll put you through to the others. You’re all okay, right?”

“Yes, we’re all fine, Penelope. But our victims were all killed with one shot to the head.”

Jason turned around once, and Dick followed suit. They both glanced at the surrounding buildings, and it became clear that Dick already knew which buildings were out of the question. He must have been living in Blüdhaven for quite some time.

“From the angle of the shot, I’d say the shooter fired from the roof of the east building.”

“Central Bank,” Dick added, hearing Penelope start typing through the speaker.

“From the distance, I’d guess we’re dealing with a professional if they were all headshots,” Reid began to think aloud. “Normally, people don’t move when the first shot is fired. After a minute and a half, they realize they’ve heard a shot, and after almost another second, they start to react. Our shooter must have fired quickly and accurately to hit so many people in such a short time.”

“If it’s a professional, who was his target?” JJ asked, and Jason frowned.

“Could it be that all three were his targets?”

“Can we identify the bodies yet?” Hotch asked just as Morgan returned with several wallets. He didn’t hesitate and gave Penelope the names so she could begin her research.

“I think it’s highly unlikely. Past cases have shown that additional victims tend to serve to conceal the real victim,” Rossi said to the group, but he didn’t stop the research. If there were any connections, Penelope would find them soon.

“The bodies don’t look like they were standing together. Maybe two of them knew each other and were talking, but the third person managed to run away,” Prentiss told the team, already knowing that Reid needed to see the photos from the crime scene to get a better picture of what had happened. But she couldn’t blame Hotch for sending Peters and Morgan with her instead.

“How many people do you know who could have fired those shots?” Dick asked Jason in a joking tone, nudging him lightly in the side. Jason rolled his eyes but seemed to take the question seriously. “Too many, Dickie. But the ammunition used could fill in some gaps in the profile.”

Snipers tended to love their sniper rifles, and those in the professional league in particular found it difficult to part with their weapons. If their man had already struck before, the ammunition could indeed be helpful.

Before they could think further or head for the roof of the bank, Garcia spoke up. “Two of our victims were stock traders and must have seen each other regularly. Our third victim worked at a bank and... Wait a minute, I’m getting a message.”

Emily tried to ignore it when she saw Dick mouth the word “Oracle” out of the corner of her eye. If Oracle had helped Jason start a new life, it wasn’t unlikely that Dick knew the hacker too, but Emily still didn’t like how obvious it was to an outsider that the FBI had contact with Oracle. She was certain that the information was not widely known, even within the FBI.

“Oracle has provided me with several bounty notices from the dark net. It looks like not only our three current victims but also our three other victims all have high bounties on their heads.”

“Garcia, can you find out who accepted these bounties and who posted them online?” Hotch asked, and Penelope nodded, even though no one could see her.

“I’ll do my best, but it would help me a lot if someone could contact our superiors. I need permission to work with Oracle, then it should go faster.”

“Understood. I’ll take care of it. JJ and Rossi, please make your way to the morgue and find out something about our first three victims. The team at the park, please examine the roof and send some of the evidence to ballistics.”

Everyone agreed, because no one wanted to just sit around twiddling their thumbs while Penelope did her work. If she didn’t find anything, which was highly unlikely, then they would still have to rely on their profile.

It was already dark when the BAU reached the hotel. Dick had double-checked that they were staying in a safe part of town, and even though nothing in Blüdhaven was really safe, they were better off there than driving through the night and working on the case.

Jason almost had to smile, because even though it wasn’t Gotham, it was close enough to home that it surrounded him like a soft baby blanket. Jason had the single room on this case, even though everyone had seen that Hotch would have gladly given it to Rossi to keep Jason close to him. But Rossi had suggested this arrangement himself, as he felt that Jason had already shared too much of himself today and needed a break.

Reid apparently hadn’t gotten the memo, because after a few minutes he knocked on Jay’s door and Jay let him in with a sigh.

“I’m not going to like this conversation, am I?” Jason asked, and Reid shrugged as if he didn’t know himself.

“I just have a few more questions. If you don’t want to answer them, that’s fine, but I won’t tell anyone else. It’s just something that’s been on my mind and doesn’t seem quite right to me.”

“It’ll probably keep you awake if you don’t get it off your chest, so let’s get started. I want to get some sleep tonight.”

Spencer was almost beaming before he became more serious again. “You said you left Gotham when... well, when that thing with Bruce Wayne happened. But if the articles in the Gotham Gazette are to be believed...“ Reid paused briefly as Jason laughed loudly, as if to say that you couldn’t believe anything in the tabloids. ”...then you died at fifteen, which doesn’t make sense chronologically, because you didn’t attend the police academy until later. So during the time you were publicly dead, you were somewhere else.”

Reid didn’t want to think about Jason having lived on the streets as a child and probably ending up there again afterwards. Just because some rich guy who was supposed to take care of him enjoyed hurting him. Jason might not like it, but Garcia had shared some sealed files with the team at the station about his and Dick’s childhood injuries. Some teachers had brought it up, but nothing had ever happened. The system had failed.

“Yes... I don’t like to think back on those lost days, Spencer. It wasn’t a good place, and I wish I could undo some of what happened during that time.”

“Was that when you learned how to use the All-Blades?”

Jason nodded slowly. The others on the team had never been as interested in magic as Spencer, but no matter what Jay had said, he had never revealed much about where and when he had learned magic.

“I know you’d like more details, but that’s all I can tell you. But you should know, and you can tell the others, that the person I am at the BAU is someone else. I’ve learned from my mistakes, and I’ve decided that I want to help others.”

Reid nodded slowly. “We all have a past or something that haunts us, but the most important thing is the time we spend together. The rest—our past—isn’t important as long as it doesn’t catch up with us.”

Jason knew that this implied the question whether there was anything in Jason’s past other than Bruce Wayne that could catch up with him, but he ignored it. Instead, he opened the door for Spencer and, once he was sure Spencer had joined Morgan in the room, he left his own. By the end of the conversation, all his muscles were tense. He knew when someone was watching him, and he knew even more when it was Batman. To his surprise, he ran into Bruce as he stepped out to the pool area.

“Nightwing just dropped Lawrence Crock off at the BPD.”

Jason knew the name. Lawrence Crock, also known as Sportsmaster. He was a member of the League of Assassins and, in Jason’s humble opinion, a complete idiot. He used sports equipment to kill people, something Jason would never understand. Killing someone is not a game and should never be fun.

“Really, that’s the first thing you tell me? No, “How are you, Jason? You look good, Jason”?”

Even though Bruce was standing in front of him, he had put on his poker face, and only the missing cowl separated him from Batman. Jason wasn’t standing in front of his father, and Jason stuck his fists in his jacket so Bruce couldn’t see that they had started to shake.

“Is that still your name? I assumed your current name was Jay Peters.”

Jason clenched his teeth. He didn’t like what Bruce was implying. He was practically shouting that he had found out everything about Jason’s last few years. Knowing Bruce, he not only knew his current address but also knew how his flat was furnished. He knew Jason’s workplace, with his welcome gift from Penelope. All these little things that should have belonged only to Jason, but were now also stored in Batman’s database. There was no privacy, and Jason would never be able to escape his compulsion to control.

“My life is none of your business anymore, B.”

Outwardly, Bruce’s expression didn’t seem to change, but Jason could see that this statement made him angry.

“You’ve killed, you’ve taken almost a hundred lives. So, I think it’s very much my business. Should you show even the slightest sign of falling back into your old patterns...”

“Then what? Then you’ll finish the job? Then you’ll really let me bleed to death this time?”

Jason hadn’t even noticed that, in his anger, he had defiantly thrust his face toward Bruce, but a moment later, when Morgan placed his hand on Bruce’s shoulder, he stepped back slightly and tried to maintain the distance between them. He was almost grateful when Morgan placed himself between them.

“I don’t think Jason wants to talk to you. So, with all due respect, I suggest you leave this property now.”

Bruce didn’t seem intimidated by Morgan for a moment, but his gaze shifted to the doors leading into the hotel, where Hotch and Rossi were standing.

“What exactly did you tell them?” he asked in an icy voice.

“The truth,” Jason blurted out. His heartbeat had quickened without him noticing, and he felt as if he were losing control of his own body. But this time it wasn’t the green of the Lazarus Pit, but rather a panic he had suppressed for a long time.

“No, you didn’t,” Bruce replied, but turned away and left without another word. Only when he was out of sight did Jason bend down and press his hands to his knees. The moment he knew Bruce was here, he should have called Dick, Barbara, or even Superman. He shouldn’t have gotten involved. No matter how nonviolent this conversation had been, it didn’t feel like a pleasant conversation to Jason.

“Calm down, we’re here. He won’t hurt you anymore. Never again,” Morgan murmured reassuringly, and Jason forced himself to believe him. He lost track of time, and when he was ready to stand up again, he looked at Morgan. Rossi and Hotch had already moved away, and Jason felt briefly guilty that he hadn’t controlled himself better before he noticed Morgan’s posture. Derek had been worried, but nothing about his posture suggested that he had found it annoying.

“What did I miss?” Jason asked, not liking how rough his voice sounded.

“Your brother contacted Hotch. A vigilante took care of our professional killer, so we’re supposed to come right away to assist with the interrogation. Hotch also grabbed Rossi and Prentiss to arrest the client. Penelope could finally trace the money.”

Jason nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

Hotch was glad to see Jason with Derek. The two seemed to be getting along well, and Hotch would have loved to stay at the hotel, but something told him that it wouldn’t have helped Jason to be reassured by several people. It would probably have been too much all at once.

“We have a confession, but he doesn’t want to reveal anything about the League of Assassins. Our client confessed much more quickly, but seemed to know nothing about the League. He was just glad that someone had accepted his offer and taken out his enemies,” Hotch summarized the progress made so far.

Derek stood next to him and looked through the mirror at Sportsmaster, who ignored JJ and Prentiss’ questions with a broad grin and instead talked about how great he was.

“He talks more than the last one, but we’re still not getting much information,” Reid realized, who didn’t seem happy about it.

“Oh, right. You and Hotch questioned someone from the League a few weeks ago.”

“He was found murdered in his cell last weekend,” Hotch said with an unhappy expression. Something screamed that they could have prevented it, but their warnings had apparently fallen on deaf ears at the prison. “I’m going to request that Crock be placed under closer observation.”

They watched as Prentiss tried to convince Crock that the League would eliminate him because he had failed and allowed himself to be captured.

But Crock seemed very confident in his role in the league. If the agents didn’t know better, they would say that he assumed he would be freed rather than that anyone would harm him.

It was hours later when the two agents finally left the interrogation room and two cops grabbed Crock to take him away. Crock, however, seemed to have no interest in exercising his right to remain silent, as he turned his head toward them while being dragged away.

“You’re going to regret messing with the League,” he promised, but Jason had the feeling that his gaze was mainly directed at him.

You don't have to look for trouble. It will find you. And when that happens keep up that great spirit and make a plan, because nine lives is just a state of mind.

― Chris Kurtz (The Adventures of a South Pole Pig)

Chapter Text

You can't run from your past. You will end up running in circles. Until you fall back down into the same hole you were trying to escape from, only the hole's grown deeper.

– Max Payne

“I’m a master when it comes to cooking something in a few minutes,” Dick said excitedly after hearing JJ sharing with Reid that she was upset that had to leave the food to her husband again because their plane was going to land late at Quantico. The two of them turned to him with interest, but unfortunately that was also the moment when Jason had to interrupt the conversation. He seemed to be out of it, but also heard Dick’s comment.

“Cereal and milk doesn’t count as cooking or dinner. JJ, Reid. Got everything packed up?”

Jason already had his bag in hand, but the two of them shook their heads and headed off to get their things from their room. Their plane still needed time anyway, but they felt that the brothers needed some privacy.

Dick waited a few minutes before following Jason to his room.

“You seem distracted. If it’s about Bruce, I’ve taken care of it.”

Jason raised an eyebrow before dropping his mask the next moment and sinking into himself a little. His shoulders sagged as he ran a weary hand over his face.

“I don’t feel like deciphering what that means right now, Dick.”

“It means I punched him in the face for interfering in one of my cases and then daring to show up at your motel without checking if your team was nearby. He admitted it: He didn’t know what you told your team. He just realized you were here and wanted to make sure you wouldn’t be dangerous to me or anyone else. That self-righteous asshole. He doesn’t usually show his face, even when Deathstroke is acting out his obsession with Nightwing.”

Jason blinked several times. Dick realized that Jason must be really tired, and that Bruce was weighing on him more than Dick would have liked. Dick had always argued with Bruce, and those arguments had gotten mostly heated, but a part of him had always hoped that he was the exception and that his little brothers had it better. When Jason was little, he’d hoped it so hard, and then Jason had run away and died, after an argument with Bruce Dick still didn’t know the details of.

For now, though, it was all about making Jason feel better. That was also the reason why Dick made it sound like there were multiple reasons for his fight with Bruce, when Dick had only been messing with him for Jason. But Jason didn’t believe that others would fight for him and would have argued against Dick doing anything just for him. At least if Dick still knew his little brother, and he strongly assumed that he did.

“What happened? Is there anything in particular that’s upset you?”

Jason took several deep breaths, which didn’t exactly help Dick not to assume the worst. What exactly had Bruce done before Dick had been able to talk to him? If Barbara hadn’t let him know, Dick wouldn’t even have known Batman was in town.

“We were having a conversation, and I was distracted, not paying attention to my surroundings. Bruce mentioned a few details, I said a few things ... and I don’t know how much my team heard.”

“Were they acting weird?” Dick asked, but he was already working on sending Barbara a text message.

Jason shook his head, but then shrugged his shoulders. “They’re profilers. Sometimes I’m not sure how well I can really read them.”

“Okay, we can solve that problem, but you don’t have to worry. Bruce hates outsiders, and he would never let them find out anything from him that would force them to get involved. I can’t imagine he would have said anything if anyone was within earshot.”

Dick dropped onto the bed with a dramatic twist and motioned for Jason to follow him. Jason approached the bed normally, and instead of joining him, he sat on the edge. Sighing, Dick sat back up so they could look at his cell phone together.

“Barbara got me the security cameras from the hotel. No sound, but who needs it?”

Jason simply started the video instead of dwelling on Dick’s ramblings. He knew Dick was just trying to calm him down by pretending everything was fine, but his nerves were on edge and he just needed clarification before he lost his mind. It was bad enough that his team was now on the league’s radar, he didn’t need to worry about that too. Jason fervently hoped that the League wouldn’t see the BAU as a threat, but Nightwing, after all Nightwing had made the arrest. Something Jason normally wouldn’t have been happy about, but Blüdhaven was still Nightwing’s city, and Jason had no right to stop him.

“Okay, your conversation was heated, but you didn’t yell, as far as I can tell. And here comes your team out the door. You’re talking right now, being a little louder, so they definitely got that, especially since Morgan comes running right at you like he’s about to push Bruce into the pool.” Dick’s voice was full of admiration, and it almost sounded like he was only too happy to see it. But all Jason could concentrate on was exhaling with relief. If he remembered the conversation correctly, Bruce had wanted to make a threat, and Jason had reminded him of the scar on his neck. His team already knew that. It was nothing new. No one had heard anything about Bruce accusing him of being a murderer.

“Thanks, Dick.”

“Thank Barbara, she has-“

“Yes, I know, and I will, but thank you for doing your best to consider my boundaries during this case and over the last few weeks. I didn’t know what our relationship was after all these years, but currently it feels like you’re still my brother and like you still care about me.”

Dick had to pull himself together not to start crying. It was one of the hardest things not to pull Jason into a hug or not to want to talk to him on the phone all the time. Dick wanted Jason in his life, but that was something you couldn’t force. It still didn’t change the fact that he was jealous when Barbara told him that she had talked to Jason on the phone again. He wanted that too!

“That’s never going to change, Jay,” Dick whispered and was glad when he actually got a brief hug. It lasted only a moment, but it was a start. “You have my phone number. Call any time, I’ll be there.”

Jason nodded and then made his way to his team. They were already waiting, as the conversation had been longer than expected. It was time to fly back to Quantico.

“Why exactly did you want me here?” Jason asked a week later, after Penelope had asked him with puppy-dog eyes to accompany her, Prentiss and JJ to a bar. Jason would normally have declined, not wanting to disrupt the girls’ night out, but Emily and JJ had stood behind Penelope, clearly symbolizing to him that he wouldn’t survive if he turned down Penelope’s invitation.

“You’ve been tense since the case at Blüdhaven. We thought it might help,” JJ explained.

Although they hadn’t had an active case since then, they’d hardly had a moment’s peace. Training, seminars and accumulated office work. JJ could well imagine that Jay would rather have disappeared into his apartment, but something told her that he needed to get between people. Morgan, Hotch and Rossi hadn’t said much about what had happened at the hotel, but one thing was clear: Bruce Wayne had been there and no matter what Jay had discussed with Dick, it wasn’t enough to work through a childhood of trauma.

“I’m so jealous I wasn’t there with you,” Penelope moaned, deliberately trying to change the subject to less painful topics.

“Blüdhaven has a high crime rate. I don’t think you would have felt comfortable there,” Emily said with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, but I’ve seen pictures of Dick Grayson, and if the pictures look that promising, I don’t want to know what it’s like in real life.”

Jay almost choked on his beer, but managed to maintain a reasonably dignified posture (not).

“Oh, I’m sorry. He’s your brother. I shouldn’t have said it out loud. Why did I say that out loud?”

Emily showed compassion and put a hand on Penelope’s shoulder. “I think that’s it for alcoholic drinks today. But I believe Jay was already aware that people think of his brother as a hot guy. What was that? The hottest bachelor in Gotham: father or son?”

Now it was JJ who showed compassion for Prentiss after seeing Jay’s spirit threaten to leave his body. “I think you both don’t need any additional drinks, but send me the article. It sounds like absolute garbage, but now I want to know who won.”

Jay buried his face in his hands, never so glad that Gotham’s press never had the chance to write anything about his coming-of-age self.

Almost the entire team had already left the office. Hotch could only see one light still burning from a desk, suspiciously coming from Spencer’s corner. Knowing him, he was probably still working on a file and had lost track of time. Hotch was preparing to get up and drag Spencer out of the office with him when his office phone rang and he was reminded that working fixed hours at the FBI was a fairy tale.

“SSA Aaron Hotchner,” he answered and had a sinking feeling. Something you could never get rid of.

“Agent Hotchner. Bill Williams here, from the New Jersey State Prison. It’s probably not relevant, but you were right with your warnings. While we had no problems transferring Sportsmaster, we found him dead today, along with two of our men who were supposed to be standing guard on his block.”

Hotch took a deep breath and exhaled silently. How skillfully the League of Assassins covered their tracks was almost impressive, if it hadn’t given Hotch cause for concern.

“I appreciate this information.” Hotch didn’t waste time with any empty phrases, but said goodbye and left his office to join Reid. He seemed to know immediately that something unpleasant had come up.
“Lawrence Crock was murdered in prison. Call Penelope and see what she can find out.”

Reid hesitated, probably because Penelope had gone out today, and Hotch could well imagine that she either didn’t have a computer handy or was too tired from alcohol to get anything done.

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

Hotch pondered the question. According to protocol, he would have to get Erin’s permission to pursue this case first, but he thought about Crock’s threat and his uneasy feeling. Ever since the BAU had targeted the league, he’d been afraid something might happen to his team.

“Try to get a hold of her, and if she’s in good shape, then ... What’s wrong with your screen?”

With many of the lights in the office already off, the green glow that suddenly came from Reid’s screen immediately caught his eye. He turned his head and frowned before flinching as a mechanical voice rang out.

“Agents, I apologize for my intrusion, but I need you to place Jay under protection immediately. The League has just placed an internal bounty on his head.”

Jason had a smile on his lips, but it slipped from his lips as he entered the hallway outside his apartment. An uneasy feeling that screamed danger spread through him. It was the kind of sense you develop when you live on the streets for too long, when you spend too much time swinging across the rooftops of Gotham as a sidekick or when you spend too much time wandering in an assassin cult. Or if you’ve been through all that and are still alive.

Skill, luck and emotion. It was thanks to these three qualities that Jason was still alive, and it was also thanks to these qualities that he reached for a knife, which he always carried with him in a hidden pocket in his jacket. Before the case in Blüdhaven, Jason had occasionally toyed with the idea of applying for an official service weapon and doing without this concealed weapon - to be more normal, but he had rejected this idea. Bruce certainly wouldn’t have let him get away with it if he’d been carrying a gun. That wasn’t how their game of cat and mouse worked.

Jason should probably just leave his apartment building, move into a hotel for the night and reassess the situation tomorrow, but he’d never been one for running away. If you turned your back on danger, it would only find you again, and at an even more inconvenient time.

No, Jason knew something was wrong, and that knowledge had to be enough for him to survive this. He took a deep breath before turning the key in the lock and letting the door swing open inwards.

Immediately, a shadow rushed into the place where Jason would have stood had he entered normally. Instead, Jason’s field of vision turned slightly green as he recognized the uniform of the League of Assassins and lunged at his attacker with the knife. As he stabbed once more, he could make out more figures in the darkness and, for the first time in a long time, he didn’t fight his instincts - the green was taking over.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when he regained control of his mind. Jason forced himself to look at his own body first, though, before paying attention to the rest of his surroundings. He appeared to be unharmed, and considering how little protection and weapons he had been carrying, he could thank the Lazarus water for that. He hated blacking out for several minutes, but the green in his veins had only one purpose: to keep him alive. So it had been less worried about killing all those assassins than Jason would have been.

These men deserved it. He saw the blood around them and the blood on his clothes. They would have had no mercy on him and had already had countless people on their consciences. No, he had no sympathy for them. Jason’s problem was that he counted four dead men in his apartment, and that didn’t paint a pretty picture for the rest of the world.

Before Jason could sink into his thoughts, he turned his head in surprise when one of the men actually moved. His stomach was slit open, but he looked directly at Jason as his mouth moved weakly. “You ... have and may have ... won this fight, but you’re dead. All ... traitors will die-“

Jason closed his eyes after the man slumped. The League had only sent a first wave, more would follow. And next time, Jason might not be alone. Maybe someone from his team would get hurt, maybe the League would attack them directly to get back at him in some twisted way. Jason knew what Talia could be like, what Ra’s could be like. He had hoped they were in his past.

What was the saying? Hope dies last, but still before Jason Todd.

It took longer than Hotch would have liked to send a small SWAT team to Jay’s apartment. Something it normally wouldn’t have taken had anyone been able to reach Jay, but Prentiss had confirmed with JJ that he’d made his way home alone.

Hotch motioned Spencer to stay further back while he placed himself behind the first man. But they didn’t need any of that, because when they arrived, the door was already ajar and the smell wafting from the room was coppery.

Hotch felt his heart grow heavy. Please don’t. Please.

The man in front of him pushed the door open wider. Instead of armed men attacking immediately, they could only see several people lying on the floor. Pools of blood were already spreading, giving the pale floor a new color.

“Secured!” the man shouted after examining a partitioned room, which was probably the bedroom. But Hotch took no notice. Instead, he allowed the other three men from the SWAT team to secure the apartment as well, while he knelt by the first body and glanced over the remaining bodies.

“Jay’s not among them,” Reid breathed out in relief, but Hotch’s tension didn’t ease.

The man in front of him had been stabbed four or five times, hitting a fatal spot each time. Another man was hanging across the kitchen counter, his face barely recognizable and a dent in the counter. Someone had banged his head against it until his skull had given way.

They all had experience with bad crime scenes, but this one suggested that someone had taken a lot of emotions - probably anger - out on the armed men who had broken into this apartment.

“Fuck! What the fuck happened here?” Morgan gasped, and the two agents turned to him. Rossi was standing next to him. They had both been alerted by Hotch and had only just made it to the area.

“Peters?”, Rossi asked the more important question and everything about Morgan’s look screamed that he didn’t want to deal with any bad news.

“Not here,” Hotch replied before pulling out his cell phone and dialing Peter’s number again. Somewhere in the apartment it rang and a moment later someone from the SWAT team came and held up the cell phone.

“If he’s not here, then he must still be alive,” Reid said aloud, but it was hard to tell if that conclusion was a statistic or a hope.

“Those bastards! Just because we put one of their people away doesn’t give them the right to go after our youngest.”

Rossi’s ears perked up at Derek’s words. “Maybe he’s not the only target.”

As if Hotch read his mind, he quickly replied, “I’ve already taken care of personal protection around Jack and JJ’s family as well. If you need protection, I’ll take care of it right away. We can’t underestimate the League.”

“You underestimated Peters, though. Everything around here is screaming that it was him.” Rossi didn’t know what to make of that. He had already seen his suspicions confirmed that Jay had been trained as a sidekick as a child, but this now contrasted with the fact that he had had no trouble defending himself with lethal means. Rossi could not reconcile this with the training of sidekicks. As far as he knew, there were hardly any recognized heroes who killed - especially not in Gotham, the territory of the Bat.

“He was defending himself,” Reid objected, because it was an important point. No matter how bad that apartment looked, it had been Jay’s apartment, and those people would have killed him without hesitation.

“No matter how good he is, he’s probably hurt,” Morgan said, his mouth agape.

“Let Garcia know. Have her check all the cameras in the area. If the League took Jay to a second location and he’s injured, we’re running out of time.”

It had been ages since Jason had jumped from rooftop to rooftop, but the feeling was familiar and less scary than what he had yet to face. Even if it was only for a brief moment, he felt safe up here. In Gotham, people had learned to look not only at the streets but also at the rooftops, but in other cities this didn’t seem to be the case, especially in the dark Jason felt protected. But he didn’t have to fool himself. The group in his apartment had only been the beginning, and assassins had no problem fighting on rooftops.

Taking advantage of the short break, he grabbed his burner phone and called Oracle. Barbara picked up almost immediately. She had been waiting impatiently for Jason to get back to her. Earlier, she had tried desperately to reach him as soon as her contacts had revealed that several members of the League had been spotted near Quantico.

“Finally! Please tell me you’re not hurt.”

Jason sounded out of breath, but she didn’t hear any pain in his voice, which was a good sign. “I’m all right. I need you to do me a favor and make sure the League isn’t after my team.”

Oracle sighed. This family of self-sacrificing heroes didn’t make it easy to keep them alive. It wasn’t that Barbara didn’t understand priorities, but she’d rather know Jason was safe before she continued to worry about his team. Good thing she was skillful at multitasking.

“As far as I know, you’re the only one with a bounty on your head. Right now it’s only an offer for members of the League, but if they don’t see results soon, I wouldn’t put it past them to extend the reward to outside contract killers as well. Your team should be safe. You should be with them.”

He should be somewhere safe. But Barbara didn’t add that. As much as she wanted to trust the FBI, there was no place that was truly safe, but their headquarters was still better than in the middle of the city on some rooftop.

“J, I can set up a secure phone line to them if you want.”

“I can’t ... Babs, I’ve lost control. There’s no way they won’t recognize me for the murderer I am.”

“You were just defending yourself, Jay. They know that. I know that. You know that. Go back to them. It’s not too late.”

Even before she heard the call sign, she knew Jason would hang up without another word. When she got the location of his cell phone moments later, she also knew he’d gotten rid of his phone.

“Can someone tell me what’s going on?” asked Strauss when the BAU returned. The women on the team were still in casual attire, while the rest were wearing bulletproof vests after returning from a mission Erin had to quickly approve. Hotch had insisted on going without a SWAT team or backup if she didn’t agree.

“The League of Assassins grabbed one of our men,” Hotch said, looking at her grimly. It was always hard when it involved one of the team, and even though Erin hadn’t talked to the new guy yet, she’d read nothing but good things in the reports. He was still young, and he had a future in this department.

“The League of Assassins is nothing the BAU can handle,” Erin said, because she knew the reports and even with ten more men, they would still be at a disadvantage. There were other groups for that, and if Erin had to call Amanda Waller to keep her team out of harm’s way, she would.

“Then it’s a good thing we’re here now,” said a voice familiar to the members of the BAU. Superman stood at the end of the hallway, and next to him were both a speedster, who was unrecognizable through his vibrations, and a man in black and blue, who the BAU recognized as Blüdhaven’s vigilante Nightwing.

“I was able to arrest Sportsmaster with their help, which is why the League was supposed to be after me. It’s my responsibility to make sure I recover their man unharmed.”

The team glanced at each other. None of them were stupid and they really wondered how a mask could ever fool other people. Dick Grayson had a very distinctive face and even if his hair was different, it was exactly the same color as it had been a week earlier in Blüdhaven. That had probably been the reason why Nightwing hadn’t shown himself to them and had only cooperated with the local authorities. They wouldn’t be surprised if one or two of the police officers already knew the secret identity.

“It might already be too late for that. The fight was brutal,” Reid said, his mouth tightening as he thought back to the crime scene.

“Jay’s strong,” Superman tried to cheer him up, but looked to Strauss a moment later.

“It’s your decision if you want to work with us. We will do everything in our power to stop the League, but it is not our responsibilty to let you in on what we are doing. We’re offering anyway.”

Erin’s mouth twisted, but then she nodded. “Twenty-four hours. If I don’t see results by then, I’ll have no choice but to alert higher levels.”

“You look tired,” Talia commented as she stepped out of the shadows. She had been waiting for some time for Jason to cross her path. The city wasn’t small, but she had trained him and some of his teachers: she knew exactly which escape route he would choose. Always over the rooftops and always away from the family homes. It was almost too easy.

Instead of running away, Jason turned towards her. His body screamed that he was ready to fight, but the fact that he hadn’t attacked her yet and was showing restraint told her that he would prefer to settle this whole matter peacefully. How naïve. A few years earlier, and they would already be crossing swords instead of talking.

“Were the assassins in my apartment the missed birthday presents of the last few years?” asked Jason. Always a joke on his lips. Talia already knew why her father was about to sew his mouth shut. She just couldn’t remember why she had stopped him. Perhaps she had been blinded by his young charm. She had seen him as a unique tool. Something that could, like nothing else in the world, ensure that her beloved proved that he was ready to take care of Damian. But Batman had disappointed her and had not resorted to lethal means even for his son. How could someone like that ever protect her son?

But Jason had also dashed her hopes. She had gone to so much trouble to turn him against Batman’s new Robin and yet he was still alive.

“The League trained and supported you financially. All the Demon’s Head asked in return was to end the Bat’s reign over Gotham. You failed.” Talia couldn’t care less about this. If her father had assumed that Jason Todd was capable of killing Batman, then he had gone mad. But why exactly had Jason not even been able to kill Tim Drake?

It would have been easy for Talia, but her father had taken a liking to the boy and she wouldn’t be able to disobey his direct orders. Even if that meant the threat to her son’s future as the Head of the League continued.

But with one look at Jason’s face, she knew he was unaware of these inner goals and hidden manipulations. He should have cared about something other than his revenge then, but he hadn’t and now he only saw the surface of it all.

“I turned my back on you years ago, and yet you’re just now showing up.”

It was phrased as a statement, not a question. Talia hated it, and she showed it with a sigh. Slowly, she walked towards him, but stopped shortly after when he took the same steps backwards. He put distance between himself and her, as if that would help him in any way. Jason possessed neither his former armor nor a good weapon. The dagger he had taken from one of the assassins would not help him for long.

“Renegades and ungrateful assassins are a dime a dozen,” Talia began to explain, but Jason interrupted her with a shake of his head.

“You just didn’t want my body to put Batman on your trail. As long as he didn’t know where I was and whether I was still alive, he was busy looking for me instead of dealing with you.”

Talia’s mouth tightened. It was true that even the League avoided taking action against one of Batman’s little toys. Even if Jason was no longer his son in Batman’s eyes, he would have destroyed everything and everyone who dared to kill him a second time.

That’s how sentimental her beloved was.

“Your betrayal the League can accept, but for you to start arresting our people and going against us... Jason, did you really think we wouldn’t take this personally?”

Talia felt her time was being wasted in this conversation. She should have finished it long ago, like her father asked her to, but she was sentimental too. Talia had taken this boy from Gotham, had trained him, had pushed him into the pit and raised him all over again. He was hers, and it was only because a trifle like Sportsmaster had been arrested that her father was calling for his head.

So it wasn’t because of her inability that she hadn’t gotten rid of Jason yet, but simply because she hated it when her father asked her to get rid of her pets. It should be her decision.

“I don’t care what you take personally or not. Sportsmaster was an idiot who got himself caught. I don’t owe you any loyalty, and I certainly don’t owe you putting his ridiculous life before my new one.”

Talia nodded. “So be it.”

With that, she drew her sword and lunged at Jason. It was plain to see that it had been years since he had fought anyone with a sword. Jason was still strong, but his footwork had gotten sloppy over time, and in the end, it didn’t take much for her to plunge her sword through his torso.

Not through the heart.

Talia placed her lips on Jason’s forehead before turning away. “Now it’s up to you whether you survive or not. The League is done with you.”

Wally stayed with the agents while Superman disappeared from the hallway and the building without much warning. He must have heard something and Dick instinctively followed him shortly after, even before Superman could inform them of the situation.

It would have been easy for Wally to follow Superman, but the League was a large organization and at least one person should make sure the agents were okay.

“What the?” asked Morgan in confusion, looking in the direction where the two superheroes had disappeared.

Wally was about to explain the situation, but stopped the next moment and put a hand to his ear to better understand the information. He would have loved to stop vibrating, but his identity was more valuable to him than it seemed to be to Dick. He had to know that these people were practiced at drawing big conclusions from the smallest of facial expressions.

“I’ve got Jason. I’m taking him to Stafford Hospital right now.”

Sometimes Wally cursed how quickly he could think. Because even as Superman was probably traveling at top speed and Dick was trying to formulate an answer, Wally was thinking about what that statement might mean. It meant that Jason was hurt, and the concern in Clark’s voice suggested that it wasn’t just a scratch. Wally hoped fervently that Jason would come through it okay. He’d barely been able to help Dick the first time, he didn’t want to find out what would happen if Dick lost his brother again.

“Please tell me he’s still breathing,” Dick whispered.

There was silence on the line and no answer.

“What’s wrong?” asked Agent Hotchner, and Wally realized that even his vibrations couldn’t hide the fact that he had just received bad news.

Fortunately, Superman spoke up again at that moment. “He was still breathing, but he’s lost a lot of blood. The doctors have just disappeared into the OR with him, and I’ve informed them of all the internal bleeding I could locate. Sorry for the radio silence.”

Dick exhaled audibly, but Wally had a good idea of how tense he must still be. “I will make my way to the hospital soon, but first I have to take care of someone. Wally, can you take care of the agents?”

“Of course.”

Wally tried to keep as positive an attitude as possible as he finally turned his attention back to the agents.

“Superman has found your agent,” Wally began and could already see the relief on many of their faces. He hoped that this would not soon give way to despair. “He’s currently in the operating theater. You won’t be able to do anything, but I can take you all to the hospital.”

Wally was almost relieved when Hotch declined this offer. Penelope Garcia behind him had already put a hand over her mouth in shock after learning of Jay’s condition. Something told him that she and a few other of the agents were bound to throw up after a ride with him and that was never a pretty thing.

“We’ll go by the book and take the official cars. I’d appreciate it if you’d accompany us so we can be immediately informed of any new developments.”

Without hesitation, Wally nodded. Even though it would have been easy to establish radio contact with the agents with Oracle’s skills, Wally wouldn’t have let the cars out of his field of vision, anyway. He was glad he’d been convinced of Nightwing’s abilities often enough, otherwise, he’d probably be worrying about Superman taking a second person to the hospital by now.

“Any news on the League?” Agent Rossi asked as they all stepped into the elevator.

Wally shook his head, but got a message from Dick as they reached the parking garage.

“Situation is dealt with. The League is leaving Quantico and the United States for now.”

“Roger that.” As Wally relayed the information, he wondered if instead of the fastest man in the world, he wasn’t a simple but fast homing pigeon today.

Jason slowly came to. It took time for his eyes to focus, but from the smell and the hardness of the mattress, Jason already knew he was in a hospital. But it was only when he glanced at Nightwing, who, judging by the darkness, was next to him after visiting hours, that he remembered how he had ended up here. A fight with Talia and the certainty that he would only survive if he was lucky.

“How much time has passed?” Jason asked, and Dick sat upright almost immediately. He looked at him with wide eyes, as if he couldn’t believe that Jason could talk. Jason couldn’t believe that Dick was actually here.

“You got out of the O.P. ten hours ago. Actually, I should call a doctor now, but ... I think you’d rather know what happened first.”

Jason nodded and allowed Dick to bring a water cup to his lips before asking. “My team?”

“They’re fine and safe. They’ve been taking shifts, and currently Garcia, Reid and Morgan are outside the doors. They would have loved to be in here, but I acted like an asshole and denied them. There are things your team doesn’t need to know.”

“Like my brother being Nightwing?” Jason inquired, but that wasn’t important right now. He had to prioritize what information he got before sleep caught up with him again. “The League?”

“Talia and the rest of her men are leaving town. I reminded her that I have no problem mobilizing the Titans, the Justice League, and the entire FBI when it comes to protecting my family. She understood.”

Jason laughed silently. Somehow, he couldn’t imagine Batman not putting obstacles in his way. But then he thought about how he’d fuzzily seen a red S on the way to the hospital and maybe it wasn’t so far-fetched after all that there were some people who would fight for him. “She understood because she was only acting on Ra’s orders. If it had been her fight, you would have taken wounds too.”

“Jay, believe me, I’ve never liked Talia, and I’ve spent a lot of time imagining myself beating her up. I let a lot of that flow into today’s fight.”

Jason just nodded, lacking the strength to drop a quip. Instead, he made a hand gesture he’d used often as Robin. Get to the point.

“Officially, the FBI was supported by Nightwing, Flash and Superman in the fight against the League of Assassins.”

“Then your secret identity is less secret now.”

Dick just shrugged, as if it didn’t matter to him. Like he’d rather be at his brother’s side instead of pretending as Nightwing that a civilian meant nothing to him. “They’re your family, right? It’s alright then.”

Before Jason could remark that maybe he didn’t count as part of the family anymore after what he’d done, there was a light knock on the door and Reid stuck his head in. Almost immediately, his eyes lit up when he saw that Jason was awake.

Dick stood up a little straighter, but lacked some of his Nightwing charm, which was probably because of the lack of sleep. “Thanks for the statement. I’ll take my leave now and wish you a fast recovery, Agent Peters.”

With that, Nighwing disappeared, and judging by the look on Reid’s face, he wasn’t fooling anyone with this charade.

“May I bring the others in?”

Jay nodded without hesitating for long. It was probably best to get it over with. But instead of disgust, Penelope almost fell into his arms, while Derek seemed relieved to see him awake and alive.

“I’ve let the rest of them know too, but they’re working on closing this case right now. Working with superheroes is a lot of paperwork, but as long as you’re okay,” Spencer murmured to himself, and Jay nodded gratefully.

“I’m really glad to see you, kid. After seeing the state of your apartment, I was expecting worse.” Jason’s mouth tightened as he thought of the bodies he’d left there. As if Morgan read his mind, he added, “Don’t worry, it was clearly self-defense. Internal Affairs will ask questions, but since it was your apartment, and the bounty was on your head, there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“You should have called us. We could have helped,” Penelope stated indignantly, but the tears in her eyes revealed that she was far too happy to be able to talk to him for the anger to take over.

“I ... I thought it would be better to fight alone. I didn’t want to get anyone involved.”

The group looked at him for a long moment before Derek sighed.

“Whatever the case has been for the last few years, we’re with you now. No more fighting alone, okay?”

Jason nodded slowly. Batman would have sent him to Arkham. One body would have been enough, but these people honestly seemed happy that he was okay. Principles didn’t matter to them; he did.

“I guess I owe you all a few explanations.”

Reid could only agree. “Does your brother really assume no one recognizes him?”

Jason laughed. Maybe this conversation wasn’t going to be as bad as he thought.

A home isn’t always the house we live in. It’s also the people we choose to surround ourselves with.

- TJ Klune

Chapter Text

Honesty cost's nothing, but it makes a friendship strong,

Honesty's a virtue, for without it friendship's gone,

- Justa-Geezer (Truth, Trust and Honesty)

Jason hadn’t been able to stay awake long enough to say hello to the rest of the team or talk to the doctors. But it didn’t matter, because even upon waking again, Hotch assured him that there would still be time later to talk and explain. Jason didn’t know what to make of that. He himself would not have prioritized his own health, but apparently there were now seven people who did.

“Be honest: did Penelope organize a party?” Jason asked Derek, who was suspiciously slowly carrying Jason’s few belongings up the stairs. His team had picked up a few things from his apartment to make his week-long hospital stay more comfortable, and apparently they had also taken care of installing a new door and removing the bloodstains from the floor. Jason didn’t even have to ask; they simply did it.

“Do you really think that if that were the case, she would forgive me if I told you?” Derek asked, his vague wording saying it all. Jason couldn’t help but smile, even though his body still ached with hasty movements and a small part of him was probably hoping he could just lie down in his own bed.

“Welcome back!” the people in his apartment shouted, and Jason actually smiled a little wider. It was nice to see that his team was doing well, and that they had survived the paperwork. But his apartment was nice too. He almost didn’t recognize it with the little details that had been replaced and added. His couch had probably been beyond saving with the blood of two people, so he now had a larger one in the room that was perfect for visitors. On his kitchen counter was a fresh fruit bowl that was even filled, and on one wall Jason saw pictures that he definitely hadn’t hung up. There was a picture of his younger self and Dick, but also pictures of him and the team. Will had taken it on Henry’s birthday.

“Do you like it?” Penelope asked with a broad grin, and he knew immediately that it had been her idea. She had probably asked Dick for a few children’s photos, and Jason was glad that he had only handed over one. The rest would have been hard to bear with the thought of Bruce.

“Very. You’ve outdone yourself.” With that, he pulled her into a quick hug before giving the rest of the team a smile as well.

“Thanks for the friendly welcome. I’d cook you something, but my fridge is probably empty.”

“That’s not quite true. I’ve been taking care of the more stubborn renovations and may have spent the night here a time or two.” Which was probably Derek’s subtle way of saying that he’d also done the grocery shopping on that occasion so he could help himself whenever he wanted.

Jason, strangely enough, didn’t mind. It should have felt wrong to come into his home and know that colleagues had used the last week to come in and out, but Jason was glad of it. The league had attacked him here, in a place that should have been safe. He knew Dick would take care of better security systems with Tim’s help (even if Jason didn’t know how he’d convince Tim of that), but these slight gestures and that his team had spent time here made it feel like home, again.

“Still, I’ll deal with cooking later. If I remember correctly, your doctor advised you to take it slow,” said Rossi and shortly after, Emily got a dreamy look as she gushed about Rossi’s cooking skills.

“You like cooking?“ Jason asked, surprised, a question that earned him a disapproving look from Rossi, seemingly confirming it. “Then I’ll probably have to ask to trade recipes later.”

“Don’t do that,” Emily warned. “If you vary even a little, he’ll go ballistic.”

“A little? Emily, you’ve changed more than a little.”

Jason couldn’t help it and burst out laughing, and Spencer followed suit before Penelope started laughing too. After a while, it got quiet again, and Spencer cleared his throat.

“There’s a question that’s been on my mind for a while. I think I already know the answer, but... were you Robin?”

“What happened to bringing it up carefully?” asked Emily with a raised eyebrow, but she only meant it jokingly as Jay didn’t look like he was about to flee the room. In fact, his shoulders relaxed a little, as if he’d just been waiting for the question game to start.

“I’ve been one of them, yeah,” Jason actually admitted, leaning against the kitchen counter. From this position, he could see the entrance area of his apartment and the living room.

Rossi, Reid and JJ had sat down at the dining table, while Penelope and Morgan had taken the sofa. Hotch stood next to them, while Prentiss sat on the edge of the sofa. It kept the mood relaxed. He could pretend it was just a story and not his life and woes.

“Then Bruce Wayne is...” Hotch didn’t even finish the sentence before Jason nodded.

“Yes. He’s not someone you can easily avoid.”

Rossi thought for a moment before shaking his head in frustration. “He’s someone who saw his parents die at a young age and hasn’t been able to escape that day since. When he took you in, he was in no shape to look after a child, and he still isn’t. That he turns his self-proclaimed fight into the fight of children proves it.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “Are we profiling Batman now?”

Reid looked as though he had done this in the past and would welcome the chance to add more information, but Morgan stopped him with a look and a shake of his head. Jay wanted nothing to do with his father, and nothing they would put in the profile would help him. Besides, he probably knew best what his father’s profile looked like.

Jason sighed. “I know what it looks like to outsiders, and you’re probably right. But I thought then, and I probably still do, that I wouldn’t have been able to reach the age of twelve if I hadn’t met Batman. In the end, it didn’t save me from dying at fifteen.”

Jason ran his fingers through his hair as if he couldn’t believe he’d actually said that out loud. “Fuck. I probably shouldn’t be talking about this.”

Emily got up from her position to put a hand on Jay’s shoulder. “I know it’s hard, but I think it’s better if you talk about it. You should tell someone about it.”

JJ nodded in agreement. “We’re here for you. You don’t have to tell us everything, but we’re happy to carry some of your burden for you.”

Jason took several deep breaths. He had never actually talked to anyone about it before. Sure, he’d brought up his death a few times, used it to torment the Bats, but never more than that. Even in his conversations with Barbara, he hadn’t brought it up. Jason could never tell a therapist, so he should probably be grateful to have that option.

“The Joker saw me as a chance to get under Batman’s skin. I won’t go into details, not today, but he used the time he had with me to break as many bones as he could. After that, he blew me up, and that was the end of my childhood.”

“But you came back,” Reid concluded, from the conversations they’d had together and also from the fact that Jason was obviously standing in front of them. Breathing. He had never faked his death like Prentiss, but had actually survived death.

“How?” Hotch asked, only to receive a shrug.

“I don’t know. But I wasn’t really ... there. Something the League of Assassins us-“

“The what? You were in contact with them?” Morgan interrupted, stunned. This was information that was foreign to everyone present.

“Oh God,” Penelope murmured as she thought about how young Jason had been when the League found him.

“Yeah... The League and Batman go hand in hand. They saw me as a weapon to use against Batman, and I had no allies, was confused and ... full of hate. Most of my training comes from my years with the League. So that’s why they attacked me and didn’t bother you. They saw my interference in the Sportsmaster case as outright treason.”

Rossi nodded slowly, as if it made sense. “But you managed to get away from them?”

Jason’s mouth twisted. “More or less. They sent me to Gotham to kill Batman, but I just wanted to take out the Joker. It’s more complicated than that, but to cut a long story short, what happened is exactly what you already know: Batman slit my throat and I escaped to LA. Questions?”

Jason didn’t really want to look into the room, but he still raised his head. The team needed to process the information, that was obvious. It was also clear from the looks on their faces that they understood what his training with the League had entailed. Jason had taken out the attackers in his apartment with ease, and this talent for killing had not been intuitive. But none of them seemed to be disgusted. They remembered how they had experienced Jason. How he cared about the team instead of himself. How he dealt with victims and how much empathy he could muster for them. With his experience - with the Joker - the feeling that there was no justice for his death, it was clear why he did what he did and why he found it difficult to empathize with unsubs.

“Life is a hell of a thing to happen to a person,” Rossi said, quoting a line that occurred to him, a momentary filler that didn’t even scratch the surface of Jason’s experiences.

“I’m so glad you found your way to us. Whoever wants to hurt you has to get past me first,” Penelope said with tears in her eyes, and when she stood up and came towards him with open arms, Jason allowed the hug. He didn’t expect the others to actually join in the hug, but they did, and it didn’t feel awkward.

“I’m glad to be with you too.”

It had been a rocky road, but for the first time in a long time, Jason felt like everything was going to be okay. He was finally where he was supposed to be.

I'm stronger now

I can laugh again

feel again

breath again

love again

live again

I'm stronger now!!!

- Andrea Baker (I’m stronger now)