Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice

Okay, I know that it's shorter than my usual chapters and I am so sorry! but I really wanted to keep my promise and update this weekend.

It's sunday! Technically it's still the weekend!

So once again I would like to thank all of my reviewers. I'm so glad that I got such a nice response for my last chapter. I really hope that you like this one too.

OH! and before I forget I would like to give a special thanks to Shinigami of Nightmares!

Thanks so much for your help! It really did give me an insight to Jason's past and how he was looked upon by everyone.

So thanks again Shinigami! I hope that you like this chapter!

So please Read n Review!

The ride to Talia's Mansion took about an hour.

Jason didn't really talk. He just stared at the snowy scenery out the window thinking about Talia and Ra's. While he owed his resurrection to Talia and her father, they were also responsible for what the Pits did to his mind. Not to mention that it was Talia who had found him, healed him, and ultimately trained him back to get back to his physical peak. She was also the one who had told him that Bruce had left Joker alive. When Jason had heard those words he couldn't believe it, he never believed that Bruce would have let the Joker live after what he had done. A big mistake that was.

A mistake that Tim had to pay the price for.

Jason's arms tightened as he glanced at the teen in his arms again. He didn't look any better, despite the extra warmth he received. There was a good chance that along with the scars, bruises and drug addictions, he was probably sick as well.

By all rights Tim shouldn't be alive. Any other person would've died from either the injuries, or addictions.

He had to hand it to the kid, he had guts. He knew for a fact that there was no way that him and Grayson could have survived as long as Tm did. Hell, he didn't even survive for one night with the psycho.

They finally arrived and like Talia promised a team of their personal doctors was waiting for them. Jason immediately ran out of the car, but he was reluctant to hand Tim over.

"Jason you have my word, on my Father's life, he will be in good hands." Talia promised and Jason knew that if she used her father's name she meant it.

He finally laid Tim down on a gurney and they rolled him out to the medical ward. The events finally took a toll on him and he sank down to one of the chairs and held his head in his hands. He reached to the back of his helmet and pressed the buttons that released the restraints and he lifted it from his head.

He ran a hand through his hair as he bowed his head. He wasn't really a person of religion, but he prayed anyway. He prayed to any deity out there that Tim would be okay.

He had been waiting for over three hours, he was starting to get restless and pacing the room wasn't helping him.

He finally noticed Talia standing right next to him.

"What do you want?" he asked bluntly.

"An explanation." she said with her arms crossed giving a look that showed she wasn't backing down. "After all, I'm risking an awful lot by bringing you here without my father's permission."

"Right, like he dosen't know." Jason snorted.

"Who was that child?" she asked deciding to ignore his comment.

"His name's Tim." Jason answered. "He's Bruce's new partner."

Talia's eyes widened.

"What? You actually didn't know?" Jason said, "There's a shock. I thought you and your dad knew everything."

"What happened to him?" she asked. "Did you-

"No." He cut in sharply. Angered by the fact that he was once again accused of a crime merely because of his past. "It was the Joker."

"Oh Dear God." She paled visibly and put a hand in front of her mouth. "Is he alright?"

"What do you think!" Jason snarled. "Of course he's not alright! That kid's been stuck with that psycho being tortured endlessly for six weeks. Why the hell would you think he was OK!"

Before their argument could escalate, one of the doctors had finally come out of the medical ward and walked towards Jason and Talia. He had a grim look on his face.

"What's wrong? Is he ok?" Jason asked as he walked towards them.

"Are you his family?" he asked. More out of curiousity than professionalism.

Jason hesitated for the briefest of seconds berfore answering.

"He's my little brother. Now tell me what's wrong with him!" he growled.

"I can honestly tell you that I've never seen such strength in one person." he said, "This has to be one of the worst cases I've ever seen. Infected wounds, six broken ribs, a collapsed lung, he's still got traces of heroin, meth, and cocaine in his system so he's suffering severly from withdrawl symptoms. He also appears to have a weakened immune system, so along with his other wounds, he is also very sick."

"How sick?" Jason pressed.

"We've already administered some antibiotics in his system, we've treated his other injuries as best as we can, the best we can do now is wait a twenty-four hour period and see how it plays out."

"That's it?" Jason asked increduloulsy. "That's all you're gonna do?"

"That's all we can do." the doctor replied, "If this boy has survived for this long, then in my personal opinion he will survive this ordeal as well."

"He better." Jason growled, "Because if he doesn't survive he won't be dying alone."

The doctor made the wise choice of leaving the room, allowing Talia nd Jason to be alone.

"Six weeks with the Joker." Talia mused, "Bruce must have trained him well."

"I doubt it." Jason spat, "It takes a lot more than just training to endure that."

"He seems to be a very special child." She said, her interest spiking higher every minute. "Especially if he has gained your attention."

Jason knew where this was leading. "Whatever the hell you're planning, you leave that kid out of it. He's off-limits, and no one but me is supposed to go into that room, is that understood."

"Really Jason you'd think that you would be at least a little grateful." Talia said, "After all I'm risking a great deal by bringing you and the boy here. Can you imagine the consequences my father would have me suffer if he discovered you were here?"

"You didn't seem to care about the consequences the last time we were together." Jason said, "Imagine what your dad would've done if he found out that we were screwing with each other."

Jason expected the slap to come so it didn't faze him when she did. He looked back and he could see anger in her eyes, anger at the fact that he actually had the balls to bring it up.

"How dare you!" she snarled.

"Don't even try putting up a victim front with me, or how grateful I should be to you and your dad." he snarled in the same tone. "You and I both know that you only trained me so you could test my limits against Bruce."

She started to protest but Jason wouldn't let her finish.

"And you and I both know that you only slept with me to punish Bruce, but you chickened out and begged me not to tell." Jason continued. "So the way I see it, I hold all the cards. I can just as easily tell your dad or Bruce exactly what you had done with me but I won't so long as you follow this rule."

He stared straight into her eyes as he said his next words. "You leave that kid alone if you know what's good for you. I'm serious Talia, if you or Ra's or any one of your goons comes within fifty feet of that kid, then I will spill everything. And Bruce and Ra's aren't nearly as forgiving as I am, are they?"

Talia said nothing. She knew Jason was right. If Bruce or her father ever discovered what she had done with Jason, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"Glad we came to an understanding." Jason said.

He walked away without another word and entered the medical ward.

(Happy Harbor)

Aqualad and the others were flying over the city in the Bio-ship. Not a lot was being said, because quite frankly they didn't know what to say. They had been apart for almost two months, and a line seemed to be crossed when Robin disappeared.

Aqualad sighed. No matter how tense things were he still had to keep the mission going.

"M'gann. Did you get a reading from the Data chip?" he asked turning his head slightly to face the pilot's seat.

"Nothing." she said focusing on the datachip levitating in her hand, "I'm concentrating as hard as I can, but I can't sense Ivo anywhere."

"A fat lot of good that does us." Roy muttered.

"Hey lay off her alright." KF said, "She's doing the best she can."

"She should've done the best she could six weeks ago when we needed it!" Roy snapped. "Maybe then we would've found Robin!"

"Hey don't you dare blame this on her!" Kid Flash said jumping from his seat. "It's not her fault that Robin disappeared!"

"I wouldn't act so high and mighty Bart." Roy snapped leaving his seat as well. "I didn't see you do anything about it either!"

"There was nothing that could've been done and you know it!" Kid Flash said, swiping his arm to one side. "The League told us to stay away! What were we supposed to do!"

"Stand up to them for once in your life!" Conner cried out joining in. "You know Robin would've done it for you! But instead of acting like the teammate you should've been you stayed behind like a sad dog waiting to be ordered what to do instead of taking action for yourself!"

"Guys please!" Megan said.

"Don't you dare lecture me on what I should've done!" Bart snarled, "And don't act like I didn't care about Robin! I've known him longer than any one of you so you can't imagine how I feel!"

"Obviously nothing since that's exactly what you did!" Roy shouted.

"ENOUGH!"

The loud voice echoed throughout the ship. They all looked to the center front of the ship and there stood Kaldur, breathing heavily and looking angrier than they had seen him.

"I cannot believe you! Any of you!" he shouted, "I've had enough of this! Standing around and mindlessly blaming each other is not helping Robin! It doesn't matter who is right and wrong in this situation! The only thing that matters is Robin! We can't focus on what might've been or who is to blame! We need to focus every thought and action to this mission and if you can't do that then leave!"

His outburst and rant shocked everyone into silence. When Roy looked as though he was about to say something Conner put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

"He's right." Conner said, "Our entire focus has to be on this mission. We have to focus on finding Robin."

Grudgingly Roy nodded his head and the rest of the team slowly agreed and went back to their seats.

Roy's seat was next to Aqualad and he spared a glance at him and smirked.

"What?" Aqualad asked.

"Now I see why Robin chose you." Roy said. "As much as I hate to admit it right now, he was right. You're the right person to lead this team."

"For the time being." Aqualad said, "I still believe that Robin is the true leader of this team. I can only hope...that I am still here to be under his leadership."

Roy knew what he really meant.

I hope Robin is still alive to take over as leader like he was meant to.

"Yeah, me too." Roy said.

"Guys! I've sensed something!" Megan's voice interrupted them. "I can sense Ivo! He's close by!"

"Don't lose him!" Aqualad said. "Go ahead of us and follow his trail. We'll follow your coordinates."

"I'm on it!" Megan said. She opened a hole in the floor of the ship and jumped through. Flying in the air following her trail of Ivo.

The team could only hope that they were one step closer to finding Robin.

(Gotham City)

Batman and Nightwing were driving through the slums of Gotham. While the Justice League searched through their sources across the country, Batman and Nightwing continued to search in their own backyard.

"We've already interrogated every middle-timer and half of the Eight drug lords." Dick said, "They all say the same thing."

"That only leaves the other half and the Big Nine." Batman replied.

"Black Mask is denying any kind of contact with the Joker." Dick pointed out. "Kon, Roy and I already checked."

"Time to see if his story has changed." Batman answered back driving faster.

They spotted a crowd of police cars, ambulances and fire trucks. They immediately screeched to a halt and jumped out of the car, rushing to the scene.

Among the crowd of cops, Bruce could see Comissionner Gordon.

"What happened Comissionner?" Bruce asked.

"It's an ugly sight Batman." Gordon answered to Batman, "It's a bloodbath in there. I haven't seen anything this bad since the war. Black Mask was the only survivor and he's not looking so good."

Batman and Nighwing looked to the right and saw Black Mask was on a gurney being pushed into the back of an ambulence.

"Any fingerprints? DNA? Fabrics?" Batman asked.

"All we've got is a few bootprints. Whoever executed this was good. Real Good." Gordon stated.

Batman could only nod, then gestured for Nightwing to follow him back into the Batmobile.

Once they were in the car, Nightwing finally asked the question he was dying to ask.

"Do you think it was him?"

Batman's fists tighted around the steering wheel.

"I don't know." he answered back, "It could've easily been him or the Joker, but we at least have a new lead."

He drove away leaving the conversation where it was.

(Back at Happy Harbor)

"Where is he!" Superboy snarled as he threw Ivo agaisnt the wall.

Ivo looked at Superboy in terror. He wasn't the least bit surprised or unprepared when the Young Justice entered his cave. He already had an Amazo and a small squadron of M.O.N.K.I'S ready for them. But surprisingly, they had all been brought down within a minute. Miss Martian had exploded all of them with her telekinetic abilites and once they were done, Superboy immediately went after Ivo.

As he looked at the rest of the team he was surprised to find cold, uncaring expressions on all of them. He realized that they were going to allow Superboy to get the information by any means necessary.

He squealed as Superboy grabbed his shirt collar and lifted him into the air.

"I'm not asking again." Superboy growled. "Where is he?"

"I don't know!" Ivo finally squeaked kicking his legs in the air, "All he told me was to build him the android. That's all I swear. He never told me what he was planning or who he was after. I just built him the android I swear!"

"Is there anything else that you did for him?" Kaldur persisted. "Anything at all?"

"My equipment!" he suddenly said. "He stole some of my equipment from my personal labs. A few beakers and test tubes, some shock cables and a metal table."

"Did you manufacture them yourself?" Megan suddenly asked.

"Yes. Why?" Ivo asked bewildered.

She did her trademark face-palm. "Hello Megan! Superboy, put him down, we've got a new lead!"

Superboy threw Ivo across the room with more force than necessary and followed Megan and the others out.

"What's going on?" Roy asked as he strapped himself in, "and why are we leaving Ivo behind?"

"We don't need him anymore," Megan answered, "Besides I've already contacted the police. They should be there shortly."

"You still haven't told us what our new lead is." Superboy pointed out.

"GPS" Megan said, "The beakers and test tubes can't give them off, but if Ivo manufactured the table and shock cables they should still have the same GPS as the Amazo and MONQI androids do."

"She's right." KF said, "They should have the same manufacturing signal."

"How did you know?" Conner asked.

Megan deflated a little. "Robin. The first time we ran into Ivo, he used the GPS to find Ivo, so I thought that it might work this time."

"Don't be discouraged M'gann." Kaldur said, "Because of you, we're now one step closer to finding Robin."

Megan visibly brightened when he said that.

"You're right. We've got something." Megan said glowing with happiness. "We've finally got something."

(Bosnia)

Jason was sitting in a chair next to Robin's bed watching his heart monitor.

Tim was completly still. His arms were rested above his stomach and his eyes were closed. Even though he looked peaceful Jason knew otherwise. The doctors had told him that they had to heavily sedate Tim. He was in a state of hysterics that they couldn't control. They had told Jason that Tim wasn't expected to wake up for another twenty-four hours. So he figured now was as good a time as any.

"Hey kid." Jason said. "The doc said that you probably won't even hear me talking to you, but there's some stuff that I gotta say."

"It's weird you know." he continued, "When I first found out that Bruce had a new Robin I was crushed. I thought he had replaced me, and for a moment I thought 'This is probably what Grayson felt.' Trust me that's a scary thought. Anyways I check you out and it turned out to be worse than I thought. You were better than me. You were better than Dick. You're probably the most perfect Robin out of all of us, and that really pissed me off."

He paused taking a long look at Tim. He was still resting, not showing any signs that he could hear him.

"Then you threw me in for a loop." Jason said, "You came to my gravesite and started talking to me. Well technically it was my grave, but you still talked to me. Like a person, like an equal. Something that hadn't happened to me for awhile. You know being Robin wasn't always the greatest thing for me. For one thing people kept comparing me to Dick. It was always, always Dick. Whether I wasn't as smart as him, or not as athletic, or I didn't have the leadership skills that he did. It hurt. More than you can imagine. I actually had a little mini-team of my own and you know what they did? They made me leader. God I hated that. I never wanted to be the leader, I just wanted to help people. But it was the same thing."

Their words echoed in his head.

Behind his back they said...

He's nothing like Dick.

What was Batman thinking?

Should he really be on this team?

Not just his Young Justice team. But the Justice League as well.

He's too rough.

He carries too much anger.

He's unstably impulsive

He's not trained well enough

He's sloppy. He lack's Dick's finesse and discipline

He's no Dick.

Does he belong here?

With every word they said, Jason's felt smaller and smaller. The final nail on the coffin was Dick's words.

(Flashback)

"Dick would you just come down and talk to him." Bruce said. His tone was on the borderline of begging. "You're the only person who can possibly relate to him right now."

"Why should I?" Dick's voice said through the phone. "It's not like you needed me to begin with. Besides you're the one who took him in, he's your problem not mine."

"Dammit Dick." Bruce growled clenching the phone in his fist. "He's practically your brother for God's sake."

"That kid is a lot of things." Dick said, "But he is not my brother."

He hung up on Bruce, who hung his head in defeat.

Jason slipped out unnoticed the force of Dick's words echoing in his head.

Not my brother.

(End Flashback)

Jason scoffed.

"It was never enough." he said bowing his head, "Nothing I ever did for them was enough. I could never live up to Dick and that killed me. God, even the Joker, on the very night he killed me, criticized me for not being like Dick. Do you have any idea what that did to me."

He raised his head to look back at Dick.

"Then you came along." he said, "You came to my grave and just talked. You talked to me, about me, asked me for advice. Not once...not once did you ever mention Dick. You never compared me to him. You always found something about me to praise. You didn't see me as Dick's replacement. You just saw me. For once in my entire life, somebody finally saw me."

He started to smooth back Tim's hair.

"You gotta stay strong kid." Jason said, "You can beat this, I know you can."

To his surprise Tim's eyes started to open. It took him a few tries but he finally opened his eyes.

Jason tensed, he didn't know how Tim was going to react to his appearance.

"Jason?" Tim asked, his voice raspy.

"Hey kid." Jason said. "How do you feel?"

Tim closed his eyes in concentration then looked back towards Jason.

"Where?"

"Somewhere safe." Jason assured him. "You're safe now ok."

Tim put a hand to his head. "How?"

Tim's eyes suddenly widened and he jolted to a sitting position looking around frantically.

"Where?" he asked hystercally looking around. "Where-he?"

"The Joker?" Jason asked, realizing immediately what he was trying to say. "He's gone."

But Tim didn't hear, he grabbed his head and started to scream and shake his head violently.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Jason said trying to grab Tim's arms. "Kid calm down he's gone! The Joker's never coming back!"

"No!" Tim struggled to get out of Jason's grip. "No! Stay Away! Make him go away!"

Jason, on pure instinct, pulled Tim to his chest and wrapped his arms around him.

"Tim listen to me." Jason said, using Tim's real name for the first time. "You don't have to worry about the Joker again I promise you. He's gone. He can't hurt you anymore, I promise. He's never coming back."

"Make him go away." Tim whispered trying to push himself closer to Jason. "Make him go away please. Make him go away."

Jason couldn't do anything else, but hold Tim and rock him back and forth.

'There's one more favor I need to ask.' he thought.

Okay what did you think?

Be honest. Again I'm really sorry about the shortness. Hopefully my next chapters will be longer.

A quick note. In my story, the episode 'Schooled' Artemis never showed up to save them. So Artemis doesn't exist in this story. I apologize to all artemis fans. Sorry!

Again Thank you Shingami. It was your information that helped me write out Jason's flashbacks and confessions with Tim.

Let me know what you guys would like to see next!