Don't Fear the Reaper

9) Name Drop!

Dick sat down at the dinner table, a stack of files in his arms. He slid the pile to Jason who was next to him, gesturing for him to take one and pass it to the next person.

"You too Reaper," Dick said after the kid just passed the stack without grabbing one. 

Damian shared a glance with the assassin before looking to Dick. "He can't read."

Dick froze. "What?"

Jason just shrugged. "He can't read— at least, he can't read English well. I was gonna read it out loud to Cass later, so he can join us"

Dick added that new information into his mental file about Reaper before nodding and moving on. "Okay, so these files have everything we currently know about Bruce's disappearance."

Tim flipped through the pages. "What are the file names for?"

"Those were the cases he was working on or reviewing both in Gotham and for the Justice League. We're going to go through all of them and see if maybe one of the cases could be related to what happened." Dick's face was serious, but he felt like he was drowning internally. He had no idea what to do. He was grasping at straws. "Tim, you're in charge of running WE while Bruce is gone. Babs, I need some manufactured pictures of Bruce from Bora Bora. Steph, you're in charge of his social media accounts— but don't do anything crazy. Damian, we need to stage a phone call from Bruce while you're in public. Everyone else, going through these cases are our top priority."

Duke cleared his throat slightly. "And what is... I mean, what do we do with— that sounds wrong-"

Dick cut Duke off, saving him from himself. "Reaper will remain at the manor, out of sight."

"If Ibn al Xu'ffasch  leaves the manor, I leave the manor," Reaper said quietly, his voice sounding almost painfully rough. (Son of the Bat)

"Who?" Steph said with a confused blink.

"Me," Damian said, a look in his eyes that Dick couldn't quite name. "It was what I was called in the League of Assassins."

Dick pursed his lips, not sure what to do. "You can't be seen in public. It'll cause too many questions."

Reaper stared down Dick, a chill going through him at the uncanny familiarity.

"We can create a cover story," Damian said, breaking their stare off. "I can claim he is my cousin on my mother's side."

Dick didn't like it. It left too much for interpretation by the media. They could try to say it was a lie to cover up that Bruce had another son, or it could spark more questions about who Damian's mother was. They didn't need people looking into Damian's family history.

"No, he'll be Jason's cousin," Dick said, making a decision and looking to Jay. "Your uncle's son. He was taken in my his maternal grandmother after Ray's death. She passed earlier this year and Bruce is fostering him until he is placed with another family member."

Jay nodded, a spark of hope shining in his eyes. "Ray died when I was 10, so Reaper would be 5 when it happened."

The boy nodded in acceptance of the cover story.

"What about the name?" Steph asked. "I don't think the media would get over the fact that his name would be 'Reaper Todd'— it sounds like a D-Rank Gotham Villain."

Damian and Jason glanced at Reaper, receiving a hesitant nod, before the youngest said, "Nico DiAngelo."

Dick wished that the name was familiar. He desperately wanted it to ring a bell and solve the mystery in his head about how he knew the kid, but he was coming up empty.

He looked to the kid and saw something flash in his eyes at the sound of his own name, but it was wiped away just as quick as it came.

"Okay, so Nico DiAngelo, son of Ray Todd, is staying with us for a little while until he is placed with another family member, after the death of his grandmother," Dick said, repeating the cover story. "Anything else we need to cover?"

Tim shrugged. "People might question why Bruce left town while he had a foster kid. Usually foster parents can't leave unless they have a registered caregiver present in the house when they go."

Dick ran a hand through his hair. "Okay, then that'll be me, I guess. Babs, can you create a paper trail of all of this?"

"He'll need a birth certificate created," Jason added, surprising the family. Most people, even if they erased any traces of themselves from the internet, at least had some record of their birth. "He's never technically existed."

Dick let out a breath. "Okay, while Babs makes the Foster Care paperwork, Tim, can you make him... exist?"

Both nodded.

"I'll need your birthday," Tim said, looking to Reap— Nico. "I can make up some numbers for birth weigh and stuff like that, but it's best to have the truth for birth day since it's the only thing that might actually come up in a conversation." 

"I don't have one," the boy said quietly.

Dick's eyebrows drew together. He was about to ask a follow up, when Jason shook his head. "Just pick a date Tim."

The 17 year old nodded, though it was clear in his eyes that he had just as many questions as Dick did.

"Anything else we need to discuss?" Dick asked the table, only receiving silence as an answer. "Okay, we'll meet back here at dinner time and go over what we've found."

Everyone nodded before standing up, Cass and Nico following Jason out of the room to get read what the files said. After a minute, the only ones left in the room were Dick, Duke, and Tim.

"Nico DiAngelo," Tim said quietly.

Dick nodded. "I doubt we'll find anything, but do a complete search on the name. I ran his face through our system using the security footage of when he took his mask off to eat, but I didn't find anything. There's no online record of him."

Tim nodded. "I'll see if I can match his face to any security footage we have on the servers from the last few years, but it'll take a while for the system to complete."

With that, Tim left.

"He doesn't have a birthday," Duke said, looking to Dick in concern. "I know he's an assassin or whatever, but... he doesn't have a birthday?"

Dick nodded, his mind racing with all the new information. "He can't read, he doesn't have a birthday, and he never technically existed." He tried to make sense of it. "He has powers from an unknown source. His family is assumably dead. He's been an assassin since he was ten... and I've met him before."

"The name bringing back anything?" Duke asked hopefully.

Dick shook his head. "I wish. I know that I know him— or at least, that we met once." His voice trailed off in thought. "When Damian said his name, he got a look in his eyes. It was this pained look and it felt familiar."

"Does he not like his name or something?"

"It wasn't that kind of pain... it was like hearing his name hurt— like he hadn't heard it in a while." 

A/N: teeeeeea. IDK what to put for these at the end. I'm considering making the chapters longer since I have so much stuff that I've written, but I'm not sure rn. 

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