What Would Buzzfeed Unsolved Look Like In The Dcu?

I don't think Tim would kill the Joker, not even after Joker Junior.

I do, however, think he could manipulate someone else into it and retain the moral high ground, instead. After all, if someone else does it and he doesn't directly tell then to- well that was their decision, and he need not worry.

Tim, to Shiva: yeah but loads of people have defeated The Bat at this point. Just look at the Joker. I mean, Joker's basically unkillable. There's not a single assassin or vigilante or hero that could kill him. He just keeps on living and causing chaos.

Shiva: I cluld

Tim: no, no you really can't. But it's OK! Lots of people can't! It would take only the best to kill Joker. I mean sure, a LoA member might be able to...

Shiva: I will.

Tim, shrugging: whatever! You can do what you want but don't say I didn't warn you...

A week later, Joker's dead and Tim is biting back a grin as Bruce glares at them all.

Bruce: "Alright, who did it?"

Nightwing: you need to face it, B, it wasn't any of us.

Bruce, glaring at Tim: the wounds looked similar to that of a bo staff-

Tim, rolling his eyes: I was busy at Joker's ToD. Besides. I'm the best, but not the only bo staff user in the world. Lady Shiva rivals me as well- could have been her.

Bruce, scowl deepenign: and how exactly do you know Joker's ToD?

Tim points at the screen, wordlessly. The phrase "Time of Death: 22:19" were written in bold.

Bruce grimaced. : and what exactly where you doing? I don't believe you were with us which gives you no alabi-

Tim: I was with Bernard.

Bruce: doing what?

Tim: Bernard.

Steph snorts in response.

Steph: let it go, B. Clearly it wasn't any of us. Maybe some assassin with a grudge took him out- honestly, we should be celebrating!

Jason cheers in the background and starts grabbing the most expensive bottles from Bruce's alcohol collection.

Au where Tim get revenge on his family by “dying.” His moral compass was shaken loose due to time with the league and he had enough festering anger that his internal voice wasn’t loud enough to tame his more feral tendencies. He didn’t plan on staying dead forever, just enough for his siblings to know how he felt.

His death was public, much like Bruces was. The League saw it happen as did the Bats. There was a body left behind and all tests showed it was absolutely Tim.

(Bruce was the first one to pick up on the similarities between his death and Tim’s, the first one to track him down, and the one who held Tim while he cried because he was so tired and Bruce realized there were not a lot of people Tim trusted to hold him back from his more extreme ideas. At his core Tim had always been a curious child with a lack of self restraint, a fact that was only further showcased during his time as Robin. Bruce would call the whole thing off if his son went to far, but honestly, Tim needed it out of his system now that he started so Bruce set ground rules and made Tim check in with him regularly).

The general plan was to convince the bats he was still alive. Outside of Cass and Bruce, Tim was the quietest. He was the hardest to spot. Damian was stealthy, yes, but his strongest skill was mimicry. So on night when certain bats were out and about he would dust off his stalking skills and follow them, keeping just in the corner of their sight and ducking into the shadows when someone turned to look towards him.

He would wordlessly step in the save his siblings who were overwhelmed and then disappear in a blink.

It was driving the bats out of the loop up the wall. Was this hallucinations or was this actually Tim? What was going on? And the JL who were checking in because it seemed to be one loss after the other for the bats were growing increasingly concerned.

Eventually Tim shows his hand. He’s had his fun, his self appointed isolation allowed him to reflect, and he figured his brothers had suffered enough. He just wanted them to know what it felt like.

After that, Bruce forcefully brought them into family therapy because that’s a healthy option and his time lost in time space allowed him to reflect.

Long story short, the bats eventually learn positive communication methods, and Tim got his revenge.

Who tf is cutting onions?

Tim calls a family meeting and everyone is assuming he’s got a big case he needs help with, which is alarming for someone who refuses to admit that some cases are beyond him.

So, everyone shows up at the cave only to be ordered upstairs by Alfred. For those who only showed up to make fun of Tim for needing help, this is confusing because case work ain’t allowed upstairs.

All do them figure out quickly that this means it’s not to do with Gotham or Ref Robin, but the man behind the mask.

Bruce and Dick were there first and because Damian is always with one of them, so is he.

Steph picks up Barbara and Cass, with Duke already at home and Jason showing up at the same time as Kate and Lucius.

When they all get into the lounge room used for when people are over, just two doors down from the actual family room, they all find themselves chatting casually as they stave off their own worries or confusion. Some of them try find out if anyone knows what’s going on, but when Alfred and Barbara reveal they have no idea, they give up and make a few guesses but no more.

When Tim finally comes in after Alfred received him, he looks tired.

It’s not usual for Tim to get distracted with work and not sleep for a while, but he will conk out for hours when he decides to and wake up alright.

The bags under his eyes, the redness within them, and the way he looks close to tucking himself into a ball…

Bruce is immediately leaning forward, opening his mouth to make sure his son is okay but Tim just raised a hand to silence him. “Just… just let me speak, okay? I need to do it now or I’m not going to be able to.”

Everyone gives him a nod or look of understanding, making him twitch a smile before inhaling deeply and psyching himself up.

“I have cancer.”

…

Nobody speaks as Tim exhales shakily.

Everyone is staring wide eyed at the young man before them, who just reached the legal drinking age, and trying to asses his physical form for an understanding of what he just said. They’re all trying to gain X-ray vision to see exactly what is hurting him all while trying to convince themselves they heard him wrong.

Tim closes his eyes and speaks automatically, leaning into facts like he always does when he’s freaking out, “I noticed I was getting by more tired and fatigued around last year. My doctor said I have a low white cell count but he wasn’t alarmed as it was still in the normal range. But a few months ago I started to note that bruises were taking far too long to heal and I was getting a lot of pain around my joints and bones.”

He inhaled again, shakier than before at the same time that Alfred sits himself down with a hand over his mouth.

“It’s stage 2 and because of my lack of a spleen it’s going to be a harder process for treatment but fortunately I own a medical company so there’s that at least.” He makes a sort of joking smile that falters immediately, falling into a pulled back frown that comes with someone whose about to sob as he adds, “But it’s also aggressive so I-I don’t know how-how to-fuck-“

Dick and Cass are immediately moving off the couches they are on and catch him as he finally crumbles into himself.

Bruce is next to follow, the stoic man openly crying for the first time in years.

Jason and Damian are in shock, both frozen in place as dread takes over their minds.

Steph is looking out the window, as if staring at some kind of his or deity and demanding an expiration as to why they have to hurt her loved ones so badly. She’s crying, but it’s silent which is all the more harrowing.

Lucius places a hand on Alfred’s shoulder to comfort the elder even as he himself itches to go comfort the young boy who helped him run the company when he was at his worst.

Kate leaves the room to go call Bette, needing her mentor because this is just something she can’t handle.

Duke is sobbing into his hands as he leans into Barbara’s lap. Barbara who is clinging to him like a lifeline as she feels her world shift once again, feeling so angry and confused at how one of them could be threatened like this. Of all the ways they could go out, was it really going to be cancer?

It was a harrowing experience for all of them to remember that they were human in more than just their flesh being able to bleed and be wounded, but for it to grow sick. For it to age and attack itself.

They were human at the end of the day and Tim…

In Metropolis, Clark Kent rushed into the bathroom at his work to throw up as he heard a conversation miles away.

Headcanon that the bats are the only people in Gotham who don’t know about Joker Junior.

The only people who know JJ’s identity are Bruce, Barbara, Jim Gordon, Joker himself, and Harley Quinn. Tim made Bruce promise not to tell Dick, and that continued when Jason came back, with him not wanting to be one of the older man’s triggers. The trend followed with Duke, Cass, Steph, and Damian, with him being more and more certain that if he told them, they would hate him.

Nothing lasts forever, though, and the batkids soon notice how differently Gotham treats Red Robin.

Rogues like Riddler, Harley, and Poison Ivy refrain from hurting him too much. Seasoned thugs quickly take away any electrocution devices from the newer ones, stating that “we don’t electrocute Red Robin”. When it comes to RR, Gotham’s citizens can get very peeved with the Bat.

The kids also notice the odd closeness between Jim, Babs, and Tim. Hell, there are times where they invite the older man to dinner and he goes off to whisper with Tim. The one time someone tried to subtly follow them, Babs stopped them in their tracks.

Everything comes to ahead when Dick goes deep into the bat computer archives for a case he assumes is tied to another. And lo and behold, he finds something titled Junior. He assumes that this is about a child villain and is curious, as the date tells him this happened while he was off in Bludhaven so many years ago.

It’s not.

He calls in the other bats(Tim is somewhere else) and they read through the files and watch the videos. God, the videos.

Dick is angry. Him and his siblings are fuming. Everything comes together and makes so much sense.

How some Gotham citizens treat RR differently. How Jim Gordon always makes sure RR is okay. How Babs knows how to calm Tim down better than anyone else. How Bruce always looks so guilty when he looks at Tim, a scarily similar look as the one he gives to Jason.

Their brother had been keepinh this secret for years, probably because he didn’t want them to hate them(Jason shakes his head furiously. “Stupid kid”.)

When Tim comes home, lo and behold with Babs, he immediately clocks onto their thoughts and makes a break for it. Babs blocks the door for everyone else. She says nothing.

Thats as far as I got.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO LOOK AT HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON UNTRAINABLE THE STAGE PLAY RN

Like does the high guard know about what’s been going on or

Technically a continuation of this

Jason: Hey, Alfie! Which of us was the least crazy as a kid?

Bruce: Let’s face it. None of us were easy children. I dropped out of college and then dropped off the grid. Dick was a menace—

Jason: Nah, Dick’s the Golden Boy.

Bruce: He wanted to single-handedly hunt down a powerful criminal and thought the entire manor was a trapeze.

Dick: Well, Jason was like the perfect kid.

Bruce: He ran away, died, and started murdering people.

Jason: Fair. But the Replacement’s your perfect little soldier, isn’t he?

Bruce: He stalked me, he says incredibly concerning things with no idea how concerning he sounds, he started YOUNG JUSTICE, I—

Damian: Batgirl III is boring. Surely she was easy to deal with?

Bruce: Are you kidding me? She got pregnant and started a gang war!

Steph: Guilty as charged. But Duke’s the normal one, so—

Bruce: You started a gang war? Duke started a gang!

Damian: I’m the perfect heir.

Bruce: You’re an assassin who is currently attempting to turn my house into a zoo. And you keep trying to murder Tim.

Jason: Eh, we’ve all been there. Except Cass. Cass hasn’t tried to murder anyone.

Bruce: Cass tried to fight Lady Shiva to the death, despite refusing to kill. Cass is not well-adjusted either.

Cass: Barbara is good.

Bruce: No, she keeps hacking the Batcomputer. And she’s dating my son. Honestly I have no idea how I’m still sane.

Alfred: I’m afraid your sanity is very much in question, Master Bruce.

As Told By The Gotham Citizens

Since we all agree that people of the Alley of Crime adore Red Hood and believe in him, I think it is time to imagine Jason in a scene similar to the one from OG Spiderman, where his identity is accidentally outted in front of crowd of people, and they all are just choose to protect him and help him out.

So maybe Gotham is facing especially nasty trouble, and vigilantes are on the receiving end this time. So maybe Jason is thrown at the dirty Alley in his part of town, wounded, with helmet flying off, and there is just a crowd of people staring as bleeds out, astonished. And Jason thinks, oh, that's the end — he can go and shoot himself, honestly, because he just failed the man rule every vigilante have: never show your face, never reveal your identity.

But people are... helping him? His eyes are half-open, breath laboured and pained, but all he hears is gentle murmuring:

'God, he is just a kid...'

'He must be younger than my son.'

'Poor child...'

He feels soft elderly hand against his cheek as someone from the crowd, an ex nurse, comes closer to bandage his injuries, while a kid, barely with the size of his helmet, brings it back, sticking out their tongue as they try to place it back on his head, to hide his face.

'It is okay,' the old woman reassures him. 'You are safe with us, son. We hadn't seen anything.'

Jason's eyes sting, because, oh.

It is his people. He loves them. He will die for them.

And they love him just as much.

He still waits for someone to out him, though. But the week ends, the villain is out of the picture, and no one says a thing. The only proof that it ever happened is civilians, who keep waving at Jason — not Red Hood, just Jason — when their paths cross somewhere in the shops or streets.

And that's how he knows that it is them; it is them, and they keep him safe as much as he keeps safe them.

Dinah, who somehow got roped into being the batfam counselor: And why did no one explain to Jason that the Joker was nearly killed twice by the two people he originally called family and only third party interference stopped him from permanently dying, not only giving the young man closure but also opening a line of communication???

Bruce and Dick trying very hard not to look at a bewildered Jason: It just never came up.