Inspired by a near forgotten scrap of ideas from Communication Arts.

Prologue:

Richard stood in the grass in front of the grave, rain soaking his tuxedo all the way through. He had extreme déjà vu as it did, seeing that it had been just like this when his parents had died. Hot and bitter tears streamed quickly from his blue eyes and sobs were hard enough to rack his whole muscular but small frame. He wanted nothing more than to shrivel up and die, but his friends that surrounded him would never allow that. Kaldur set a warm hand on his shoulder and tightened his grip just enough for it to be comforting.

"I am sorry," he apologized, his voice soft and slow.

Richard made no attempt to wipe away his tears as they streaked down his face with the rain, soaking him further.

"First KF," he sobbed, his heart broken and the world seeming to free fall around him, "and now… and now…"

He sank to his knees, his face level with the soaking grass, his head beside the headstone with the all too familiar name printed on its front. The others stood beside him, unsure of what to do.

"Robin, do you… would you like us to…" Kaldur was at a loss for words.

Seeing Robin frown was common and seeing him happy was a regular sight, but never was a sobbing heartbroken boy a good sight.

"You can… leave if y-you… want," Richard sobbed, hugging his stomach hard to try to ease the hurt.

The others seemed hesitant, but one by one, they all turned away and started to walk off. Richard just sat alone in the grass, sobbing his heart out, the familiar pain rising up from the depths of his mind. He had nothing left. His whole world was gone now. Anything and everything that he loved was gone now, only a shell of a boy left to suffer in this world. Through bleary eyes, Richard weakly reached up and traced the letters on the headstone with his thumb, his breath ragged in his throat. As he did so, anger bubbled up from deep within him. He turned his head to the sky, fat rain drops pelting his already wet face.

"I swear," he began, his voice faltering and broken as it passed over his lips, "that even if it's the last thing I do, I will avenge the lives of all those I lost…"

Thunder cracked hard in the background, but Richard didn't care.

"I will keep on searching and fighting…" he let out a soft sob, "until I see your body hit the floor, your blood staining the ground beneath you! I will kill you the worst way I know how, and I won't stop trying until you wrench the idea from my cold, dead mind."

Then he dropped back to his knees, his eyes reading over the gravel again, his sobs harder now. He set a hand over the name; his tears hitting the fresh dirt, the man's face clear in his mind. On the headstone was a name recognized by any and all people who have connections to the outside world: Bruce Wayne. His body shaking, Richard pulled a Sharpie from his pocket which he had stored there hours before and drew a small bat on the corner of the grave, matching Batman's old symbol of many years.

"Goodbye… dad…" Richard whispered, letting his body fall onto the grass beside the grave.

And then slowly, he felt a longed for darkness take him under and the rain was free to strike his body as hard as it pleased.

Oooh! Dead KF and Batman! How dare I? What is wrong with me? Review and maybe you'll see… in a couple chapters (:

-FJ3