For the record, reading gaybaconprincess' story isn't required, nor is seeing the movie, but I think both would improve the experience while reading this. Like I said, this is pre-slash. They're going to eventually fall in love, but for right now it's platonic. You can read it whichever way you want, it's irrelevant. Maybe if I ever write more then it will get more romantic, but who knows. Anyways, it's all pretty self-explanatory, so read on!

Oh right and I don't own any of this stuff or whatever. Bite me.

Red was starting to think that this might be more trouble than it was worth, as he grumpily nursed a nasty bite mark on his arm. He was tempted to chuck the brat into Arkham and let them handle the mess. He sighed heavily, knowing that he couldn't do that. This was a favor to Dick. Granted, one that Dick hadn't really asked for, but one that Jason knew he would be grateful for.

After years of estrangement, the two former Robins were on speaking terms again. It was still a little cold between them, but it was civil. Red had somewhat recently relocated to Gotham, considering dropping his Red X title for a Red Hood instead. He stayed far away from the Bat, of course, but he quickly noticed a new face in the city. Joker had adopted a new sidekick, who some people were calling Harley Quinn 2.0. It was a kid, around Dick's age, and he seemed beyond nuts, even for Joker's standards. He was clearly trained, too, and trained well. Red asked Nightwing about it, and it turned out to be more horrific than he'd originally thought.

The kid, Jester, was formerly a Titan, from the earlier days. Dick didn't want to talk about it too much, it clearly still haunted him, but from what little Red gathered, Jester, aka Jericho, aka Joseph, had accidentally got himself caught by the Joker. Maybe it was just the guilt talking, but Dick gave the impression that it was his own fault, that somehow Jericho had let himself get caught to save Robin from capture himself. How it all went down, Jason didn't know, but he did know better than anyone what the Joker was capable of, and it made him sick to his stomach to think of it happening to someone else, let alone another former hero.

Red had decided that he had to do something, because it seemed no one else was willing to. It was hard to blame them, though, considering Jester was an insane killing machine, known to strike out at anyone within arms reach, except for Joker himself. Oh, and it turned out that this kid was the son of Deathstroke of all people. Of course he was…

Nevertheless, Jason was extremely determined. He tried again and again, most of the time barely escaping with his life. In the end, he had to resort to being as sneaky and underhanded as the clown himself, ambushing the kid in an alley and knocking him over the head with a heavy object. The easy part was dragging him back home, and the hard part wasn't even over yet.

Red had Joey well-secured in a cellar at his current base, and he was working towards rehabilitating him a bit. If he could get the blonde to curb his newfound homicidal tendencies just enough, then he could hand him over to Dick to finish civilizing him again. That was the plan, anyway, but so far it'd been almost three weeks with no visible progress. The kid still attacked on sight, vicious as a wild animal, a broken laugh constantly coming from his mouth, despite the angry and frightened tears pouring down his face. It was a disturbing thing to see, but it only made Jason want to help him even more.

He looked up at his own reflection again, contemplating. He had to keep trying, he couldn't give up so soon. It took him a really long time to even begin to recover from all he'd been through; one could argue that he still hadn't. From what he had heard, Jericho used to be one of the most kind-hearted, sensitive people in the whole world. Strong-willed or not, there was no way he could have survived what he did without getting extremely fucked up in the process. Jason wouldn't give up, he couldn't.

With his arm bandaged up, he prepared to go back downstairs. Normally he would stay away after being directly attacked, at least until the next day, but he was starting to feel a slight sense of urgency. It was dim and gritty down there, but it was the best place for now. He didn't want the blonde getting the chance to run loose or kill anyone else again. Well, he wouldn't really mind setting Jericho lose on someone like the Joker, if the teen would ever harm a single green hair on the scumbag's head.

The lithe figure was huddled up against the wall, but Jason knew better than to get too close. Sure enough, just as the thief stopped, the blonde lashed out with a scream, attempting to claw, bite, or kick his captor, who was inches away from reach. Jericho was shackled to the wall by one ankle, still wearing the dual-colored uniform Jason had caught him in, though now more dirty and ripped.

There were a lot of bruises and scars on his body, but of course other than the blow to his head, Jason hadn't touched the kid. Almost every single mark was from the Joker. A few somewhat crude tattoos littered his otherwise pale and clear skin, something Jason was sure a Titan wouldn't have had. Aside from the broad, deep scar that ran across his throat, Jason was willing to bet that every single one was from the Joker, and seeing them all just made bile and anger rise up in his throat. Most of all the relatively fresh black eye that the kid was sporting.

"Would you please stop trying to murder me?" he asked flatly, clearly tired. "It's getting pretty old."

"Let me go!" the junior Harley shrieked, actually stamping a booted foot. "I want to go back home, let me go!"

"I'm going to bring you back home," Jason said, though he felt like a broken record. "I already told you-"

"NO! I don't want to go back there, I want to go back to him!"

"You will NOT!" Jason said, very loudly and threateningly. Almost like the flip of a switch, Jericho's expression changed, and he very much looked like he'd been slapped. He flinched back, as if expecting to be hit. Jason felt a bit guilty, lowering his voice, but stayed firm. "He's not good for you. Look, you heal pretty quick but even after all this time I can still see the all the bruises, especially on your eye. Probably fractured the socket, honestly, you're lucky there's no permanent damage."

"I want to go home," the blonde whimpered. "Please, let me go, I want to go home…"

Jason felt a lot of pity these days, and it wasn't something he was used to. He let out a sigh, tempted to step forward to offer comfort. Well, almost.

"Joseph… That's your name, do you remember? You don't belong there. You're supposed to be a hero, not a mass murderer. That man is a monster, he's done nothing but harm you."

"So what!" Jericho tearfully snapped. "He still takes care of me! H-he cares… My real family didn't care… My r-real dad let me g-get hurt…."

Jason bit back an angry retort, no small feat. Yelling didn't work. As much as he wanted to throttle this kid for thinking the Joker was even a microscopic bit fatherly, he knew it wasn't Jericho's fault. If Joker had wanted him to believe the sky was maroon with chartreuse clouds, he could have made the kid believe it. That was the level of torture he used. It was a game to him. A sick and twisted game.

"He's not a father to you," Jason said. "He doesn't care, he just tricked you."

"You're wrong!" Joey shouted back. "You're lying! He's coming back for me because he cares about me. He needs me! He couldn't do anything without me, he said so!"

Jason let out a heavy, frustrated breath. He turned around, leaving the room, knowing what to do. He came back a few moments later, holding a tablet, with a news article pulled up on the screen. Joseph had collapsed on the floor, kneeling in the ground, obviously starting to get hysterical. The teen could never stay on his feet for very long; his main source of fuel was his anger and insanity, his homicidal desires filling him with adrenaline, for about five minutes at a time. Jay got on one knee in front of him, still staying just out of reach.

"Alright, look," he said, turning the device to show the kid. "He's already off, creating mass mayhem, without you. Harley came back from wherever she was, and they're going on crime sprees like it's their honeymoon. He hasn't had a single thought about you since the last time he saw you."

Joey looked, with horror and disbelief, at the shakey, low-quality footage captured by a civilian of one of Joker and Harley's latest stunts. The two criminals were laughing gleefully, happy to be together, not a single care in the world. They weren't looking for him, or demanding to know what'd happened to him. Their lives went on, as if he'd never existed. His heart started to crumble, and his breathing grew more shallow.

"He's not coming for you. He doesn't care about you, you were just another toy to him," Jason continued, speaking softly. He knew this was hurting Joey but the sooner he could convince Joseph that Joker was no good, the sooner he could start to help him get better again. For a moment, it was silent, as the blonde processed this information. Then, the madness kicked back in, possibly as a defence mechanism.

Joseph started to make a sound. Maybe a bit like crying, as tears fell down his face, but it morphed and twisted, until he was laughing hysterically. The pain was clear in his eyes, but his mouth was stretched wide in a demented grin. Jason's eyebrows creased in concern, as well as a general discomfort at the situation. Joseph was starting to scare him a bit. Had he said too much? Was the kid finally just breaking down? Carefully, Jason reached out, hoping to get Joey to settle down.

"Jericho…"

The blonde screamed, slapping his arm away. "GET AWAY FROM ME! GET THE FUCK AWAY!"

Jason drew back sharply, not wanting to take any chances. Maybe it was best to let Joseph cry it out for now, and to just come check on him again in the morning… The dark-haired man got up, walking out of the cellar and shutting the door behind him, muffling the demented screams of laughter.

The next morning, just before the sun was starting to rise, Jason went back down. He was really very worried about the kid, and for the millionth time wondering if he'd bitten off more than he could chew with this. He wasn't exactly a doctor or anything, so he wasn't qualified to take care of someone mentally ill. But, he reminded himself, he'd gone through something extremely similar, so he felt that if anyone could help Joseph get back to normal, it was him. He felt some sense of duty to help save this kid, and finding him again in the cellar that morning only affirmed his feelings.

Jericho was curled up in a ball on the floor, facing the wall. Jason looked at him as if for the first time, once more hit with the reality of all of this. In front of him was a child. Maybe about seventeen, but still very much a child. This child was scrawny, and dirty, and covered in the marks of abuse, wearing a torn costume that only served to mock him further. This child was mentally disturbed, tortured, drugged, beaten, and God knows what else. He shivered and whimpered, but those whimpers were still caught somewhere between laughing and sobbing. A disturbing sight, for sure. Jason swallowed, his throat feeling tight, before he got down and sat on the floor, next to Joey, putting a hand on the shaking, skeletal form beneath him.

"Hey…" he said softly, pity and compassion in his voice. By now, he didn't think Joseph had it in him to cause any physical harm. He seemed very weak and helpless.

"G'way…." came a quiet, mumbled response. "Leave…"

"I'm going to help you, Joey," Jason said, firmly. "It's going to be okay now. I'm going to take care of you."

"Leave," Joseph said again, a little louder, he turned his head slightly to look up at Jason, revealing that most of his makeup had smudged away from his tears. It pained Jason to look at him, and realize how broken he was. He felt a bit bad for breaking the truth to Joseph after all, but there was no changing that now. When he didn't move, the blonde spoke again. "Go away.. You don't want me. No one wants me, so just leave me here. I don't care…"

"I'm not going anywhere," Jason said, running a hand softly up and down Joseph's arm. The teen felt cold, and Jason felt bad for leaving him down here when the weather had been so chilly. "Do you want to come upstairs now?"

Joseph turned away again with a grunt, sounding both hurt and annoyed. "No… Just leave. Everyone always has… Get away…"

"Who's left, Joseph?" Jay asked, trying to pry something new out of the kid, figure out what he was thinking.

"My family didn't want me… My friends never came for me… And now he's left me behind as well…" Joey answered, in a sad, empty voice. "You'll leave too, you don't need me… At least now maybe the laughing and the voices will stop…"

Jason didn't answer for a little while. It was all true. He'd heard about what happened when Joseph was a child, before he was a Titan. Deathstroke was a pretty shitty dad, and then his mom had left him up on some mountain all by himself before he joined the Titans. And, while Jason knew that Joey's old teammates still cared about him, Dick especially, he also had to acknowledge that in the last several months that Jericho had been with the Joker, no one had made much of an attempt to get him back. Once they all saw that he had been driven crazy, murdering left and right and laughing his ass off about it, they'd deemed him a lost cause. Sure they chased him like any other villain, but until Jason himself had gone out and kidnapped Joseph, no one had done anything to get him back or help him in any way. It all just reminded Jason of the people in his life who'd let him down.

"I'm going to keep you with me, Joey," he said, running fingers through blonde, matted curls. "I promise, I'll stay with you, and take care of you. I want you with me, okay?"

"No you won't," Joseph protested, looking up again, eyebrows furrowed and bottom lip formed into a pout. "I'm all fucked up now. No one wanted me before, why would you want me now?"

"I know what it's like," Jason offered. "Listen, let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time, I had a crappy sperm donor too. Maybe he tried to be a good dad, but he let me down. Then I found a new family, and things were pretty okay for a while. I had a new dad, right? But then, one day, Joker caught me like he caught you. He did some awful shit, the only difference is, instead of keeping me like he kept you, he went ahead and just blew me up. I died. Then I came back, and I found out that my new dad had let me down too. If Bruce had just once bent the rules and took care of Joker once and for all, you wouldn't have gotten hurt; did you know that?"

Joseph's eyes were wide and wondering, like those of a child. He stared up at Jason, slowly turning over onto his back. His head rested in the older man's lap. Jason noticed, of course, but didn't mention it out loud. He was slowly gaining this kid's trust, and he didn't want to ruin it. He kept talking, to keep Joseph distracted a little longer.

"Sometimes the family you're born into sucks, and you find a new one. Then sometimes that family isn't so great either, so then what do you do?" With the same childlike innocence, Joey shook his head, to say that he didn't know, staring up at Jason, waiting for the answer like it was the most important thing he'd ever hear in his life. At this point, it sort of was. "I became my own family, Joseph. I do what I think is the best thing, what Bruce is afraid to do. I do it so that no one else has to get hurt like I did. I should have killed that bastard before he ever even looked at you, and I'm sorry I didn't. Right now, though, I'm going to make sure he doesn't touch you ever again. I'm going to take care of you, and get you back to your old self. You're safe now, I promise. As long as you're with me, no one will ever so much as give you a nasty look."

The blonde could only continue to stare up, blank-faced with wonder. His body was no longer trembling, and already he looked a lot less like a feral cat ready to claw Jason's eyes out. Keeping his gaze calmly locked with Joey's, Jason reached down and unlocked the shackle around the teen's ankle. He spoke softly, not wanting to spook Joey or anything.

"Let's go upstairs and get you cleaned up now, alright?" he said, moving very slowly, getting both arms underneath Joey's thin and weak body. "And something to eat. Would you like that?"

Joseph let out a tiny hum through pursed lips, his head inclining in what barely counted as a nod. He reached up, winding bony arms around Jason's neck as the man stood up carefully. When the blonde closed his eyes, resting his head against the man's chest, Jason knew he'd earned his trust. It was easy enough, in retrospect. Joseph just desperately needed someone to care for him, and he was ready to accept anyone who showed him even a little kindness at this point. It was a bit sad, but Jason still didn't take it lightly. After so much previous betrayal, if he lost Joey's trust he'd never get it back, so he had to be careful.

He carried the boy upstairs, feeling again how light he was. It wasn't right; someone his age and height shouldn't be so small. Jason had never known Jericho, but he guessed that he used to be a lot more well-built than this. Son of Deathstroke, a full-time Titan; surely Jericho hadn't been so thin. He must have had muscle, and of course the strength to stand and fight, but right now Jason felt like he was carrying a doll… Joey's time with the Joker had done a number on his body as well as his mind. He was malnourished, that much was obvious, very neglected and abused. Jason would make it right again, one day at a time.

Once upstairs, Jason carried the boy to the bathroom, turning on the light and setting him on the counter, before starting to draw a lukewarm bath. He grabbed the first aid kit from under the sink, putting it next to Joey and opening it up, taking out what he needed. He helped the younger boy take his shirt off, leaving his pants for now. He tried not to react to the ghastly sight before him, not wanting to scare Joey, but it was pretty bad.

Jason knew the welts of a crowbar when he saw them.

With a damp washcloth, Jason gently wiped away at some of the dried blood and grime on Joseph's skin, frowning. He tried to be soft, but there was no way to clean the boy up without it hurting a little. He wiped the cloth very lightly under Joey's bad eye, cleaning away makeup, but making the boy wince. Instead of whimpering in pain, however, a different sound came from Joey's mouth. A sharp, broken laugh. He clapped a hand over his mouth quickly, looking upset.

"It's okay," Jason said, even though he wasn't sure what was wrong. He pulled Joey's hand away from his mouth to continue cleaning off the smeared makeup.

"I…" Joseph let out a hiccup, stopping himself from either laughing or crying, or even both. "I don't want to laugh anymore…"

"There's still some toxins in your body," Jason told him, rinsing the washcloth in the sink. "They might stick around for a while but before you know it, you'll only be laughing when you want to."

He wasn't sure if that was true, but he didn't want to scare Joseph again like last night with any harsh reality. He'd had a lot of prolonged exposure to Joker's laughing gas, for sure. It may have left some permanent damage. Hopefully, though, soon enough, Joseph really would feel happy enough to laugh and that would be alright. He deserved to be happy.

As Jason helped him into the tub, after removing the rest of his ruined clothing, Joey was thinking along the same lines. He wanted to be happy again. Really happy, and not just drugged or on an adrenaline rush. He couldn't remember what used to make him happy, before all of this. Everything before the Joker was a faint shadow, blurry and confusing. Recently, things like chaos and homicide had brought him joy, but on some level he realized that was the drugs and conditioning, the electroshock that had flipped a switch in his brain. What would make him happy now?

Joseph felt the ever-gentle touch of Jason, washing everything away with the warm water, and he closed his eyes to enjoy it, letting out a soft sigh. This was nice. Maybe this was the answer. After a moment of silence, something Joseph rarely enjoyed, he spoke softly to the man.

"Red…"

"Mm?"

He looked up, with bright green eyes, sharper than before. "You're a bad guy."

"I am," Jason said after a few seconds of weighing his answer. "Relatively."

"You kill people. Hurt them."

"Yes…"

Joseph was quiet for another minute, making Jay think he was finished speaking at first.

"Will you do that...to me?"

"No," Jason answered softly, focusing his gaze on the shower tiles. He felt a new wave of pity, wondering if Joseph had expected such a thing. He probably did, after all his time with that monster…

"Even if you're mad?"

"Even then."

"What if I do something bad? Something you don't like? Will you hurt me then?"

"No, Joey," Jason said, looking over again to hold his curious gaze. And it was just that; curious. Not afraid, just wondering. So he truly did expect the worst of people. He accepted it now. It made Jason feel slightly ill. "I won't ever hurt you, no one will. You're safe now."

Joey settled down, folding an arm on the side of the tub and resting his head there. "Can I stay with you, then?"

"Yes, you'll stay with me," Jay said. Of course, eventually he'd send Joseph to stay with someone like Dick, someone who could really take care of him. He just knew Joey wasn't ready to hear that part just yet. He needed some stability, and security.

Once more Joey closed his eyes, letting out a soft breath. "Can I have some pizza for dinner? I miss pizza…"

"Yeah," Jason said, watching him calmly, happy that he seemed relaxed finally. "You can have whatever you like."

"I like hot dogs, too…" the blonde informed him, sleepily. Jason stayed quiet, letting him drift off. As long as he didn't slip into the tub, he deserved some rest. Jay pulled out his phone, ordering a pizza.

Maybe he hadn't taken on more than he could handle after all.

And there you have it. Fun fact: as per the newer line of Harley Quinn comics, Harley was away having a baby. No joke. She got pregnant and left to have it, so Joker wouldn't know they had a kid. It was a daughter, and Harley left it with her sister. She came back after some time off. I like to think that around the time she left is when the Joker got a hold of Joey in the context of this AU. If you liked this, check out gaybaconprincess' story, you might like it! If you liked this, tell me about it in a review. Thanks for reading, see you in another story!