(I have used some lines from Batman Forever in this chapter – JoBO)

(Thanks for the reviews - To sportzbabe – I'm interested; Did you read Phoenix I: From the Ashes? I have been thinking a lot on making a summary of the first story to start this story with. Would that had helped? – JoBO)


Revenge

John Grayson Jr. offered Robin his hand.

"Call me Jake. That's what everyone calls me."

Reluctantly Robin took his hand.

"Jake… why do you want me to train you?"

Jake looked down.

"I want to stop my brother."

Robin could feel the coldness in the words.

"But why?"

Airmid broke in.

"Jake, you can tell Robin the Dick's story while we eat."

Both the boys felt their stomach rumble by the mention of food, so they sat down at the table and Airmid served the casserole. Jake began to tell Robin the Dick's story as they ate the food.

"I know, that in your world you are what you can call a good guy, but here… well, let us just say that my brother certainly isn't a good guy."

"I don't understand."

"Well, I better start at the beginning. After what Airmid has told me, then I think our stories is almost identical. Here we were also theFlying Graysons, when the alleged accident happened."

Robin looked down on his plate as the memories came back to him. That evening had changed his entity life. He felt the tears coming up in his eyes, but was able to hold them back by concentrating on what Jake was saying.

"I wasn't there, but Dick was and it changed him."

"Why wasn't you there? Wasn't you a member of the team?"

"I was, but I had felt down from the trapeze just a week before… I had been lucky and had only broken my back, but mom and dad…they…"

"So, that is why you know sits in a wheelchair?"

Jake nodded.

"Yeah, I was lucky. I'm only chained to this damned chair, while Dick is a prisoner in his own body."

Robin was surprised over the hate and the love, which were in Jake's voice at the same time as he talked about Dick.

"Bruce offered us a home, but that wasn't enough for Dick. He wanted revenge so badly, that it was the only thing he could think off."

He took a spoonful of the casserole.

"So, when he found out, that Bruce was Batman, he was so…"

Jake shook his head in despair.

Robin knew the feeling. He had also been very keen on avenging his parents' dead. It had been all he had thought about until one awakening day.

He had been chasing Zucco in the backyards of Gotham, when he had walked right into a trap. He had tried to fight them off, but they had been too many. He had then felt such a rage, which had giving him the extra strength to fight them off. He couldn't remember, what exactly had happened then. It was all just a big blur, which still frightened him. He had been so far out there, that he didn't even had recognized Batman, when he came and helped him. Maybe because he didn't wanted to, but somehow had Batman been able to calm him down.

Bruce had taken him back to the Batcave. He had been so sure, that Bruce was going to tear him apart, but he hadn't said anything. In the end the silence had almost killed him. He wanted Bruce to know why he had done it. He needed Batman's help.

"All I can think about every second of the day is getting Zucco. He took my whole life. And when I was out there tonight, I imagined it was him that I was fighting, even when I was fighting you. And all the pain went away. Do you understand?"

Bruce took the mask off.

"Yes, I do."

Bruce walked over to the wardrobe to take the rest of the suit off.

"Good, cause you gotta help me find him. And when we do, I'm the one who kills him."

Bruce looked over at him.

"So, you're willing to take a life."

"Long as it's Zucco."

"Then it will happen this way: You make the kill, but your pain doesn't die with Anthony, it grows. So you run out into the night to find another face, and another, and another, until one terrible morning you wake up and realize that revenge has become your whole life. And you won't know why."

"You can't understand. Your family wasn't killed by a maniac!"

Bruce had turned his back to him as he took the last parts of the suit off.

"Yes, they were. We're the same."

-

She called and called, but no one answered her. She felt the hope drop and was just about to go back to Cyborg, when she saw him. Even though he was standing far away from her, then she recognized him at once. Her heart jumped up in her throat as she flew over to him.

"Robin!"

She quickly activated her communicator and told Cyborg the news.

"Robin!"

He didn't move, but was still standing at the top of the cliffs and was looking out on the ocean. She hugged him even before she really had landed. He didn't respond to it, but almost pushed her away.

"Robin, I'm so sorry. I should never…"

His eyes made her stop. They were so different – so full of hate. It was like he was a totally different person.

"Who are you?"

He had asked her the question with words, but it hit her like an arrow in the heart. Luckily Cyborg came in just the same moment.

"Hey man, are you all right?"

-

"Robin?"

He looked up and saw, that Jake and Airmid were looking worried at him.

"Sorry, what were you saying?"

"Are you sure, that you are alright?"

He just nodded, which satisfied them, and Jake continued his story.

"Dick became Robin. Bruce thought he was able to help him, but then it all went wrong. Zucco came back. Dick was like he was… possessed. He wanted to take revenge."

He held a rhetorical pause.

"One evening he caught up with Zucco and… and… he killed him."

"What?"

Jake looked down.

"Dick killed Zucco in cold blood."

Airmid broke in.

"It was a accident, but it taught him…"

Jake pushed his plate away and cut her off.

"…how to deal with problems!"

He quickly turned the wheelchair around and drove out of the kitchen.