Disclaimer: Batman does not belong to me. It belongs to DC Comics.

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Chapter Seven (The Voice of Reason)

Nightwing leaped off the Bell Tower. He and Babs had a little chat. He told her about what Bruce was up to, and not to contact him for he had an errand that concerned one Jason Todd. He roamed the rooftops, knowing that he would run into Shadow sooner or later. Finally, as he was about to grapple himself onto another higher rooftop, a dark blur descended down, fired a grapple and landed right in front of Nightwing. He seemed surprised to find him.

"Hi, Jason. Long time, huh?" Nightwing said.

"Don't call me Jason. I'm Shadow now." Shadow said.

"Shadow, huh? Guess you're more like the old man than you thought." Nightwing joked. He stopped laughing quickly when he saw the murderous look in Jason. "Sorry. Look, Jason, we need to talk."

"If Bruce sent you, I don't want to hear it." He started to walk away.

Nightwing grabbed his shoulder, something that would reassure Jason back in the day, but that was then, this was now. Shadow turned and punched him square in the jaw. "Sorry." He said sarcastically. "Reflex."

"Reflex my ass." Nightwing said as he got up. "What've you been doing? You never used to be this strong." Nightwing decided the Kiss-Ass maneuver was his best shot.

Thankfully for him, it worked. Shadow seemed to smile ominously. "Did a little training here and there."

"And Catwoman? Since when were you two an item? I think you pissed Batman off... you know... going with his girl and all." Nightwing joked.

Shadow's shoulders shook as if he was laughing. "Catwoman and I aren't doing anything. Partners, nothing more. When my funding ran short, I decided that Vigilante work wasn't for me. So I did some odd jobs."

"Odd jobs?" Nightwing stood up straight. "As in criminal activity?"

"You could call it that." Shadow laughed. "You have more to gain in that business."

"And everything else to lose." Nightwing said sternly.

"You don't have to pull a Bruce on me, you know." Shadow challenged.

Nightwing sighed. This Jason was so different, but also the same. How could he accept that his surrogate brother was a criminal? "The Jewel in the Museum?"

"The Penguin." Shadow answered without hesitation.

"The Bank?"

"Rupert Thorne." Shadow.

"I don't suppose I can tell you to stop?" Nightwing asked hopefully.

Shadow looked at him for a second and laughed. "Dick, I'm not the Jason you remember. I remember the days when I worshipped the ground you, Batman, and even Superman walked on. All of you were above me. Those days are over. I'm my own man. I make my own decisions. I can take you all."

Nightwing's breath was stuck in his throat. "And now?"

"Now, I do my own thing. I'm independent, like I always wanted. I trained like you and Batman, I'm as good as you two and if not, better. I do whatever I want with my life and it's great. Now that I think about it, the green and red really wasn't my color."

"You do your own thing by stealing, is that it?" Nightwing said a little angry.

Shadow looked disappointed. "Don't be like this, Dick. I don't have anything against you. You didn't leave me to die."

"That wasn't anyone's fault, Jason. Babs said that she checked the vital signs, you were dead before they left. But that wasn't you, was it?" Nightwing said a little disgusted.

"They would've let me die. Don't you see? The good guys will always lose."

"I understand where you're coming from, Jason, but you're a bit confused--"

"I'm not confused, Dick." Shadow said matter-of-factly, "in fact, I have never been less confused in my life."

"What?" Nightwing asked.

"All my life, I wanted answers. I never got them from anyone I trusted, so I turned to the ones that I didn't. They gave them to me."

"I understand that, Jason. That's just how Bruce is. He does that with everyone, not just you. When I was Robin, that whole thing was an issue. A big one. That's why I stopped being the Boy Wonder in the first place. I remember you asking me that. Yeah, Bruce and I were a team, we were the dynamic duo... well so were you and Bruce, too! When you put on that costume, you were Robin, not me. Being his partner means you have to put up with his good side and his bad one too."

"Bit of a hypocrite, aren't you?" Shadow shot.

"I came back, didn't I?" Nightwing reasoned. "I didn't carry a grudge. I knew being the sidekick wasn't for me. I donned my own suit, like you did. But unlike you, I stayed on the good side."

"You'll lose." Shadow said.

"Maybe. But that's not the point. We're a team, Jason. We were, and we always will be. Each night, we roam the rooftops to make our cities a safer place to live, to strike fear in the minds of the crooks. We fill up Blackgate Prison, and our names strike fear in the Gotham Underworld."

"Nice speech." Shadow commented wryly.

"Yeah, see you some time, Jason. I'm sorry I wasn't more help, but I simply can't help someone who lives in their own little shell. You're an adult now, stand on your own two feet and suck it up. Bruce had to, I had to, Babs had to."

"I can't." Shadow looked down.

"You can. And I hope you will." Nightwing got up and walked to the ledge. He turned, "For your sake." He jumped off the roof and made his way back to his Nightcycle. No one followed him.

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A/N: All chapters to ten are done. I'm just waiting some time to post each one of them.