Yes. I know. This is extremely late. I just read Red Hood and the Outlaws 17 and… dear goodness I was dying. I think I may have cried. Maybe. It was what motivated me to start writing these again… that and a few well-written reviews.

SPOILERS AND RANTING (semi) RHATO: I had to tweet the writer and tell him about this cool spray-on-skin thing the medical community has developed and that if Jason's face is not restored through the use of this (you know, Bruce is freaking rich, right? So he should be able to afford this shit) I'm just gonna stop reading the issues. Seriously I can't even believe this?!jkndhfbefhaefh nejkfhweFJA

**anyways, read, enjoy, and please leave a review if you would like to read more. Thanks!

Chapter 14

Gianni Valencie stood very still behind his desk. His men had suggested it, they had sworn up and down that this was what they needed. Now, though, looking straight forward into those black, soulless eyes… He wished he had never come to this godforsaken city.

A maniacal laugh rippled through the blood-stiffened air.

His men were all dead. All those that had followed from Florida. Gianni's eyes narrowed, it was a sad day when he had to associate with a madman.

A smile ripped across the man's face, flashing bloody teeth. "Well. Now that we have the blood flowing, good afternoon and welcome to Gotham!" He laughed again, raising a hand to clasp the purple suit he wore.

Gianni's eyes fell to the decaying bodies of his executives scattered across the floor. "let's dispense with the cordialities. What do you want?"

The man let out an insane little giggle, sounding infantile and irreverent in a way that Gianni had never been spoken to. "What do I want? Oh…" He smiled again, sending waves of nausea through Gianni. "I want the same thing you do. To be rid of the Bat family." There was something altogether more menacing in his voice now. "All the birdies are back in town and I think it's about time Uncle Jay gives them a visit."

The man was psychotic. He had to be. A complete nut job. "You're a psychopath."

The Joker's smile returned full force, lit with insanity. "Oh, come now. I don't call YOU names, do I? Well, it feels like we just met!" He broke into intense laughing fits, and then straightened – completely sobered. "So, dear mobster… Why so serious?"

Gianni, for the first time in his life, felt truly afraid. Turns out, it would be a night filled with firsts. Gianni sucked in a deep breath as he mentally braced himself to make a deal with a deadly demon.

…

Dark shadows clung to his figure, even as he tried to step into the light. He anticipated his son's anger, the boy's fear. Immediately after Alfred's contact, Bruce had recalled his soldiers – Jason and Tim. From the rooftop he could clearly make out his two boys shifting from building to building in their personas of the Red Hood and Red Robin.

When they landed before him, Bruce's anxiety tripled. All his logical theories, all the heavy-handed ideals went out the window when Jason's eyes met his through the masks. Honesty was the best policy right? Bruce had lied to the boy before, it had never worked well. So, should he tell him the truth now? What would happen to Jason if he did?

"B? What's going on? We were almost to the warehouse when you wheeled us around." It was Tim who spoke, his voice logical and analytic as ever.

In the end, Bruce was never really logical when it came to Jason Todd. He blurted out the information. "Joker is on the loose."

Whatever reaction he had been expecting from his boys never came. Jason went very still; no tremors, no angry outburst, just deadly calm. His hands were flat at his sides and no emotion broke through to the surface. Bruce could only assume that his time with the All Caste had allowed Jason the mercy of compartmentalizing.

It was Tim who spoke. "When?"

"Alfred contacted me shortly after we separated. The Joker broke out the minute he heard the Wayne family was back together in Gotham." Bruce chose his words carefully, unsure whether Jason would make a move, and wary of the consequences.

Tim looked back and forth between his father-figure and Jason. There was something altogether more violent about Gotham now. The air seemed thicker, the clouds gathering dangerously above them. Everything inside them was rebelling, telling them to run away before something could tear apart everything they had built.

They didn't move, though. Bruce and his boys stared at one another, waiting for one of them to say or do anything.

"Well. What are we going to do? Have you warned Nightwing and Robin?" Red Robin insured he used their persona's, calling their attention back to the hero façade the men needed to uphold, for now.

"I haven't had the chance. I felt you needed to know first," Bruce looked pointedly at Jason as he spoke.

Still, the Red Hood said nothing.

"What's our next move?" Again, Tim brought the attention away from the family's personal drama and back to their city.

Batman took over immediately, possessing Bruce and pushing logic to the forefront. "I want the two of you to patrol the south side, keep an eye out for clues that the Joker is back to his old tricks," He paused, a piece of Bruce breaking free momentarily. "Be careful. Contact me if anything goes wrong."

Tim nodded, prodding Jason to get the older boy's attention. Jason shook himself, as though he were coming out of deep water – his breath hitched in his throat. Tim stepped back, looking at his older brother with something akin to worry. "Look, whatever is going on, you two need to work it out before we go any further. If you need me, I'll be waiting for you on the adjacent rooftop." Tim hopped away, clearly going out of earshot.

Jason's eyes fell to the ground, more in defiance than the shy emotion it seemed.

Bruce surfaced then, shoving aside the rational side momentarily. "Are you alright?"

The boy shifted, his blue-green orbs coming up to meet Bruce's beyond the masks. "Why didn't you kill him, B? You put this city at risk by doing nothing."

And there it was. The elephant in the room – the main question that had been eating away at both of them for far too long. Bruce couldn't answer him the way Jason deserved, the way the father hiding deep inside wanted him to respond. So, instead, he deflected by asking an equally serious question. "Why do you kill?"

Jason's eyes narrowed in what was the first real show of emotion Bruce had seen so far. The shadows intensified all around them, growing greedy at the sight of their tension. Soon it was just the two of them, father and son, staring each other down in an impossible battle of wills. Jason seemed to sober, the anger dissipating as he spit out a small parcel of words. "Because it's permanent."

Bruce froze, staring into his son's face as the young man began to tremble. In that moment, he looked so much like the lost little boy from so long ago. Vulnerability clawed at his insides and tore his defenses to pieces. The despair in his eyes burned past the red domino mask, lighting up the sky in their childish fury. The father in him screamed at the Bat, cried out for action, cried out that the injustice done to his son could be rectified now, here.

But he couldn't move. In the end, Batman had his pride and Jason had his. Both respected the other, and neither would allow any sign of comfort to shine through – one of them was sure to break if that were allowed.

They both understood, both could see the pain enriching the shadows. It was too much to handle.

Then, Jason was gone. The young man launching off the rooftop with reckless abandon.

…

Damian put one foot in front of the other, moving with lightning speed across the rooftops of his city. Grayson had been left behind in his dust. The boy began to smile just thinking about it, the moment Nightwing had walked into the main hideout for Black Mask's employed peddlers, Damian had been off. "babysitting" Father had said. The thought made him shake with anger – he was no child. He was the son of Batman, and he would not be assigned to menial tasks such as this. No, he'd go straight to the source – he was going to go with Drake and Todd, he was going to be there with them when Jason did his work. Whatever his qualms with the older man, Damian wasn't about to lose an opportunity to watch the second Robin work. That way he could decide once and for all whether or not Damian Al Ghul enjoyed the presence of Jason Todd.

But when his feet landed squarely atop the warehouse, his heart all but stopped. He heard the charge of electrocution beneath him, felt how the air became hot and hard to breathe. Damian was no fool, he knew exactly what this meant, there just wasn't enough time to angle his body away from the trap.

"shit," He hissed out.

Blue waves of electricity arced through the boy, dancing across his skin and singing in his bones. He'd felt this pain before, but now it seemed so much worse. He was about a mile away from the selected rendezvous point with Drake and Todd. He was alone. No hero could help him now.

Damian shook with the agony, feeling the waves of lightning burning him up inside. He cried out, too much.

Finally, the convulsions subsided. Black dots spread across his field of vision, widening further and further until he could see nothing.

"Father…" he whimpered, his voice dying along with his body.

…

"what do you mean gone?" Batman growled into the receiver.

"He took off the minute I walked into Black Mask territory. I was jumped by goons, there was no way I could get after him right away… This was supposed to be a clean surveillance, no guards involved… When I managed to shake them…"

"Out with it!" He barked. His nerves were already fraying after the confrontation with his second child, now Damian was missing too.

"I tracked him to the warehouse where J and T were supposed to be, but they weren't there. What I did find, however, was not good." Dick paused, unsure of how to break the news even as he frantically searched the neighboring rooftops for his brothers. "I found evidence of a trap. A good one."

There was a sinking feeling forming deep in Bruce's gut. It had been there when he had left the theater that night with his parents, it had resurfaced when he had left Jason, and now…

"What did you find." Not a question, an intent demand, coming from a separate line – Tim's voice. There was no accusation in that steady tone, no rough anger towards Bruce for recalling them and possibly putting their youngest member at risk.

"I found Little D's utility belt. And…" Dick swallowed audibly over the connection, "A joker card."

"I knew it. This was a setup!" Jason's voice, now. Gruff and full of fear.

Gun shots echoed wildly on one end of the com link. Bruce made out the whisper of pain and uncertainty. Fear slammed into him hard and fast, words repeating in his head like a mantra. No, no, no…

"Shit!" Tim. Tim and Jason were in danger. Bruce changed course, heading towards them immediately. He couldn't lose them. He couldn't lose any of them.

"B? Tell me where to go!"

"Tim!" Jason's voice, panic stricken, pained. Jason was using his son's real name, not the alias of Red Robin.

Bruce's feet hit the pavement faster, the urgency in Jason's voice mixing with the fear swirling in his belly. "Southside. I'm sending you coordinates."

How had it all gone so wrong so quickly?

"I'm on my way. Hold on, all of you!"

The com link went very quiet, the gunshots stopping abruptly as a single sound stole their attention. Bruce cringed inwardly, his insides boiling with hatred and fear. The ghastly laugh of a demon, the sadistic cackle of the Joker.

The silence in the aftermath was shattered when he heard a sound terrifyingly foreign to his ears – it was Tim.

It was an agony-filled scream.

Quite the cliffhanger, no? what can I say, I live to please. 8D Now leave a review. Please? If you want more?