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[cat_13145]

Series Title: Renegade Part 2: Under the Hood
Part Title: Robin's crash
Author: cat_13145
I finally have a beta (does little dance) Green Galands
Rating: Pg-13
Disclaimer: If I owned them, you think Battle for the Cowl would have happened?
Summary: Dick didn't like been replaced by Jason, so how do you think he's going to react to Tim?
Some spoilers and dialogue from Teen Titans 29.

Chapter 4

“What are you still doing here?” Jason asked, looking up from the computer in the Batcave. “It’s Sunday. Titan’s night.”
Tim shrugged.

It had been nearly a week since they had discovered that Renegade was Dick Grayson, the first boy wonder, and things had moved fast. His parents had been “Persuaded” to take a holiday to Europe. There was definitely traces of Marie and Oracle in their sudden departure.
Jason had been coming to the cave more, meeting them there before patrol and coming back for debriefing at the end of the night, as he had when Tim was first starting out. He looked grimmer, and the couple of times Tim had seen Marie, she looked on the point of collapse.
“Marie said she wasn’t going, with everything that’s happened, I thought…”
Jason got up and walked over, dropping into a crouch so he was virtually the same height as Tim. There was only two years between them, but Jason was tall and Tim’s short, so the age gap appeared greater.
“Go to the Tower.” he said, softly, and glancing around for Bruce. “You’ll be safer there.”
“Safer?” Tim repeated. He was the first to admit it, he was confused. Confused by his parents being sent to Bororo, Confused by Oracle sending Steph and Carrie to Metropolis, confused by everything at the minute. O.K. Renegade was killing drug dealers, thugs, ect, but so far, since the fight with Bruce, he’d left them alone. they’d seen his work, but never the man, which seemed to be making Jason, Oracle and Bruce more nervous.
Jason looked pained. “Look, Dick…didn’t like me taking on the mantle. We clashed pretty badly over it, and that was before he started killing. I don’t…I think you may be on his target list.”
“And you figure the tower is safer?”
“Safer than here.” Jason said, glancing around. “Safer than patrol. there’s five people there, minimum. That’s extra eyes and security that we don’t have.” he ran his fingers through his hair and wandered over to look at the glass case. “I always thought that losing one of us, me, you, Babs or Bruce would be what killed Alfred, now I’m thinking it might be getting one of us back. Please just…go.”
and because even with Alfred’s training, Jason saying Please was still a rare event, Tim agreed.
*
“I don’t care. Call in every hour.”
“You still haven’t explained why.” Gar moaned, leaning over Cyborg’s shoulder. Marie sighed. “I don’t have time to, It’s nearly nine. If there’s going to be an Arkham breakout it’s going to be in the next few minutes so I need off the line.” She sighed. “look we’ve got a minor problem in Gotham that may target Robin. So keep the system at maximum and check in regularly.”
Vic nodded. “Donna just called in an issue. We’ll have to go; Speedy, Kid Flash and Wonder girl have already left.”
Marie’s face creased. “O.K. Take Robin with you. I’ll get the others to meet you there.”
She sighed off, as the com buzzed into life again. “Nightwing.”
Jason’s voice was soft and angry as he reported. Another body, drug dealer this time.
“Least we know he’s still in Gotham.” She said, trying to joke. Jason shook his head. “This one’s a couple of days old, it’s been frozen.” There was a pause. “there’s no sign of him tonight.”
Two weeks of hell, then vanishing off the map completely. That made no sense. Marie surveyed the large Map of Gotham displayed on the Cave’s wall. “where are you Grayson?” she muttered softly.
*
Vic and Gar had always been inseparatable. But with everything that was happening recently, even if the bats were too caught up with him to pay much attention to it, everyone’s breaking apart. They were arguing as he headed towards them. A quick electrical stun dealt with that.
Slipping not Raven’s room and sung a sleeping gas on her took no time.
It had changed a lot since the last time he was here. They had to rebuild, he guessed. But no one had bothered to update the security protocols, and if they had, someone had left his DNA in the system. Sloppy, but then again Jason always had been.
He half wished his younger brother was there, two for the price of one on Imposters, but he’s in Gotham.
Speedy, Kid Flash and Wonder girl have left. The older members, Ollie’s son, Red Arrow and Supergirl didn’t come tonight.
It was just him. Just him and the imposter.
“Look Kon, I’m sorry, I can’t talk about.” he watched as the young man in the costume leant away. “it’s Bat stuff.” A sigh. “I know. I’m sorry… Hey Listen to me. You are not him. You are nothing like him. What do I have to do to convince you?” a brief laugh. “think I can run to that.” A sigh. “yeah it’s bad. Tell you about it tomorrow, but trust me; you’re not going to believe me.” He hung up, putting the cell phone carefully in the gym bag.
With Marie believing the Titan’s to be on a mission, it would be a while before anyone realised something was wrong.
“hey Tim.” He smiled beneath the hood, as Tim spun around, the yellow unlying flying. For a second it looked like the old costume. “I was here first.”
He had to hand it to the kid, he kept his cool, withdrawing the bow staff and getting into the attack position. “You’re Renegade.” He said, firmly. “You’ve been cleaning up Gotham the easy way.”
“easy?” he was taking the hood off, watching the kid’s face. “What do you know about easy, Tim? You had a father. A home. You went to private school right? I slept in a wagon. Never set foot inside a school.” He tore through the thin undershirt, “trying to survive. To impress everyone. Until Bruce took me in.” the pants were on the floor. And he stood there. In the old costume.
A brief part of Tim’s mind wandered where he’d got it from.
“I trained as hard as I could. Did whatever he asked. But he fired me. Said I wasn’t good enough to be Robin. But they say you are.”
He leapt at him. “SHOW ME TIM! Show me what you have that I didn’t!”
Tim had figured he was ready. But he had forgotten the most basic rule, the one that Jason had hammered into when they were training. Never underestimate a Robin. Or a former Robin. It was rule number two for Robins, right after “Batman is not always Right!”
The force of the attack sent him flying. Through a wall and down on to the lower levels.
“you were the kid who spent weeks tracking the dark Knight.” Dick was coming down fast towards him, and he rapidly dropped two smoke bombs and went for the attack.
“Solving a mystery that no one else could.” Dick blocked the first blow from the staff easily. And the second. “you discovered who he was behind the mask. Millionaire. Bruce Wayne.”
“If You Let Your Opponent Chose Your Battle, You’re Going To Get Your Butt Kicked.” Jason’s voice, paraphrasing Confucius ran through his head. He jumped, heading as quickly as he could for lower levels. He had forgotten that Dick used to be an acrobat.
“Let me tell you something kid. I know Bruce Wayne. And,” He ahead of Tim, running wasn’t going to help. “If someone was trying to find out whom batman really was. IF someone was trailing him for weeks, he’d know about it.”
Jason had said something similar. But that was before he’d seen Tim sneaking around. Then he’d admitted the possibility.
“you can’t be that good.” He was able to duck the fist barely.
“I am.” He yelled. Others had frequently said that he was the quietest of the Robins. Jason had called it creepy. But he knew when to speak.
“He let you find him.” The kick from Dick sent him flying back, hitting one of the trees that Kara insisted on. Marie had always said they’d kill someone.
“and I bet he told you the same thing he told me didn’t he? That you had the talent to make a difference in Gotham. That he needed someone he could trust in his war on crime. That you were one of a kind.” Briefly Tim wandered where he got the batarang, but then remembered that they drop them all over Gotham. Jason has one from before he was Robin that he picked up. It was easy to deflect the batarang. But the attack that came towards him… he wasn’t sure how it happened, but suddenly he was kneeling on the floor and the bow staff was in Dick’s hands.
“Now…” Dick’s voice was frightening. “Let me show you what the Joker did to me…”
*
“Oracle can you take over here?”
“something wrong?” Marie forced herself to stay calm. “Probably nothing. Just Vic and Gar said that Donna was having some trouble, and that Vic was heading over to help. Speedy just called in, they’ve dealt with it, but there was no sign of the others.”
“I’ll call Bruce_”
“No!” Marie was too quick. “I don’t want to embarrass them if I’m making a mountain out of a molehill.” She forced a laugh. “Probably just Gar and Vic were arguing so much that they forgot about the mission.”
It’s a lie and they both know it.
“Alfred should be back in an hour, you just have to hold the fort until then. Marie out.”
She swallows, and steps inside the tower. The lobby is deserted.
“hello?” she calls out softly. “Cyborg? Beast Boy? Robin?” There’s no response and she felt her hands reaching for the weapons she’d taken before she left.
As she walked, she could see evidence of a fight. There was a broken plant pot, and the scent of the chemical smoke that the Bat’s used still hung in the air.
She swallowed, trying to tell herself that she and Jason were wrong, that Bruce was right and Robin was in no danger.
A flick of something disturbed her, and she spun around, just in time to see a flash of yellow disappearing out the window. She was about to follow it when a soft sort of groan grabbed her attention.
She span around.
“Pico!” she ran over. Tim lay still, body beaten and bruised. Praying rapidly, she felt at the neck and offered a prayer of thanks as the pulse beat strongly beneath it.
“Marie!” Oracle’s voice came strongly over the comm. Link. She must have called her without thinking.
“Get an ambulance to my location.” She said firmly. “The Tower has been compromised.”
*
“How the fuck did he get in?” Cyborg asked, as they stood waiting outside the hospital doors. “I thought Security runs a DNA check.”
“It does.” Marie muttered. Fighting the desire to pace, she trying not to look at the doors. Jason was arguing with Bruce on the phone.
“Then how…?” Donna asked, looking confused.
“Renegade is Dick Grayson.”

A volley of yells and protests broke out from the Titans’, Causing Jason to send a bat glare at the phone.
Marie held up her hands, for quiet.

“We’ve only known for two weeks. The Titans and Little League had been through a lot, and his attention seemed to be focused on us and Gotham, we decided not to tell you guys. I’m not denying we were stupid, and it’s not that we don’t trust you. It’s…” she sighed and shook her head. “it’s family. I don’t know how to explain it any more than that.”
There was silence for a moment, before Cassie spoke up.
“I kinda get it.” She said softly. “If it was Donna, or Wonder Woman…I think I’d feel the same.”
“Doesn’t make it right.” Marie said, sighing, as the other Titans voiced their understanding. “We’re in charge of you guys. We’re supposed to set a good example.”
Connor, Red Arrow as he usually went under, shrugged. “You’re bats.” He said firmly. “Secrets from your team come with the territory.”
Jason looked up from the phone.
“I’m not Batman.” He said, firmly, before turning his attention back to Bruce.
“I don’t give a dam about the Coffin, Bruce. Grayson attacked my team.” A pause. “Yeah. Well if you can’t handle it. I will”