The Joker and the Harlequin
A Word: It's not in order, but did you expect anything from madness to be in order or make sense?
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Jason dies and Bruce buries his son. He grieves and blames himself and nearly goes off the edge into place that he always swore he'd never go to. He almost loses himself, and then a stubborn boy marches into his life and tells him how he should be. A boy who tries his best to fix them all and ends up being exactly what Bruce needs. Tim is bright and eager and incredibly loyal. Enough to keep Batman in check and Gotham safe.
Then the Joker disappears and no one notices until Bruce realizes how very long it has been since he least dealt with a threat from the man. Arkham is a dead end and every inquiry he puts out leads to nothing. Harley Quinn goes nuclear and that more than anything lets him know how very wrong things are when they finally put her down in Arkham.
"Is it really that bad?" Tim asks when she's safely out of earshot. "If he's dead," Tim breaches the possibility that none of them have said yet, "the world is safer. Right?"
It's callous but Tim doesn't mean it that way and Bruce knows it, but he says nothing as he leaves. The Joker being gone -which he will only believe when he sees the body- will only leave a void waiting to be filled. Perhaps by whoever was dangerous enough to kill him in the first place.
It's another year and Harley escapes twice more before she too disappears. Tim take the opportunity to follow her trail out of the city to gain some more training, and Bruce approves of his initiative. Gang war breaks out for the fourth time in six months and Bruce is busy enough that he only notices Tim has missed his check in by three days when Alfred pointedly reminds him of it.
Tim misses the fourth day and the fifth and by the sixth all of Bruce's resources are reporting the boy was last seen in France before going stale. Dick and Babs follow up in person and Bruce patrols Gotham with more violence than is needed until they report back in.
Tim is gone, and he stays gone until a rumor of an explosion in Hong Kong leads them to a small bit of burnt remains. So burned that it's only luck that allows the DNA match to be made. The story comes out slow and fragmented afterwards. Harley had apparently never wanted to be found, and had been willing to do whatever was necessary to stay gone.
Bruce buries the blackened remains. He graves and blames himself, but he doesn't go off the edge like he had before. It would be an insult to Tim's memory if he allowed himself to do that.
Bruce finds Stephanie Brown after that, and he keeps finding the girl despite how many times he warns her off. Her stubbornness to not be like her father refuses to allow her to quit even when it becomes obvious how very untrained she is and how that will kill her one day. He takes her on just to try and prevent another death more than anything else.
Cassandra finds Barbara but it's Bruce who talks to her language, and it's not long before the new Robin and Batgirl are flying across the city. Babs gives her blessing on it, and Bruce is just getting used to Cass being his third official ward when Damian finds them.
Damian is bright and demanding and arrogant in a way that screams Talia, and Bruce knows even before the testing is done what he will see. The names shift again and Bruce almost thinks he can be happy like this. With Dick coaxing genuine responses from Damian as Cass and Steph play tag in the Cave. Babs' voice wry as she talks to Alfred. Even with the cases watching silently from their place of prominence, and Bruce likes to think that Jason and Tim would approve of this if they were here.
Rumors start. Slow and insidious but shilling all the same about the return of the Joker, and shatters the ease Bruce had been feeling.
It's not long before the rumors become fact. Joker gas is being used as the Joker extracts his rage on the city with a bubbly Harley close at his heels. They hit fast and hard before melting away in a corner of the city Bruce can't find, and Bruce is tense. Tense and more than a little obsessed at the return of the two people who took two of his own from him. Even with Dick's assurances and Babs' eyes they can't catch them, and Bruce has to reel his children in.
Damian chafes to be allowed to 'prove' himself against them, Cass doesn't fear them the way she should, and Steph just isn't cautious enough to not be hurt. They resent it and resent him, but Bruce will be damned if he allows any more of his children to fall.
He get reckless himself instead, he chases shadows and rumors all around the city until he sees the plan far too late to stop it.
Dick was taken last night, Cass shortly afterwards. Steph sometime around lunch just before they took the Manor by force to get Alfred and Damian. He doesn't know when Babs was taken. Her reports have been short and expertly edited clips played out from the supposed safety of her Clocktower while her Birds chase ghosts in another city.
The scope of the planning is astronomical and mind boggling. Nothing less than what he expects from the Joker.
Bruce follows the signs pointing him to the dock and doesn't even bother hiding his presence as he enters the ship. The explosives aren't hidden, but the device controlling them is. Bruce grinds his teeth and follows the messily painted arrows below deck. The ship is empty of the usual henchmen and Bruce hears him before he sees the light coming from what has to me a mess hall.
His children are all there. Awake and alive, tied to chairs placed delicately over more explosives. They're placed evenly around a table filled with food. Alfred sits at one end and his eyes are filled with pain as the Joker's crazed laughter cuts off when he realizes he's not alone. "Well, well, the man of the hour is finally here!"
It's not the Joker who spins around to face him.
The face is pale, the grin mad, and the clothing the same but this is not him. Bruce knows that because he knows the Joker. He also knows his own son.
"Jason," Bruce says and fails to dodge the blow to the back of his head. He falls to the ground and manages to roll over enough to find someone who isn't Harley Quinn standing over him. "Tim, no-"
"Ah, ah! No protesting," Tim says brightly as he raises the heavy hammer over his head. His grin is not sane and Bruce feels paralyzed with despair. "Not after we went through so much trouble to make this day special for you, Brucie."
The hammer comes down and Bruce has enough time to regret that he'll be waking up in a worse position before he loses consciousness.
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