Disclaimer: I don't own the characters

Now before this, Nightwing had been suspicious.

It had started when Crime Alley seemed to be fine-ish in his younger brother disappearance. That in itself was also weird because usually Jason would send some kind of signal or something if he left Gotham. But, he decided to ignore it.

And that was his first mistake.

Now Nightwing was watching a dangerous trade go down. Apparently a gang had somehow acquired a time travel device. How they did it, the world may never know. But he didn't really care. Batman would probably find out later.

As he was about to jump down though, he heard a shout. He then saw what they had all turned to look at.

A giant red X.

Nightwing immediately resumed his attention to the crate holding the device. His eyes narrowed as he saw the lid somehow come off on its own. Then, an invisible force grabbed it. Nightwing followed as it slinked back into the shadows.

He followed silently until they were a few rooftops away. As the figure now made himself seeable, Nightwing gaped.

It couldn't, it can't be, Nightwing thought.

But alas, it was. A person that he hadn't thought about in years. A person he honestly thought was dead.

In front of him was Red X.

By accident, in his astonishment he moved his foot and made a quiet creak. Red X's figure went rigid. He then turned around and his eyes widened. The time they were staring at each other seemed to go on forever until-

"Huh, hi kid. Haven't seen you in a while."

That knocked Nightwing out of his stupor. He immediately took a fighting stance, escrima sticks in his hands.

"Red X. What are you doing here. I thought you disappeared," he said.

He couldn't see it, but Red X rolled his eyes under his mask.

"Well, see you haven't lost your seriousness, unlike your girlfriend Starfire."

Nightwing winced at the statement. Red X smirked and waved his hand in a careless manner.

"So kid, unless you got a question for me, I got to go-"

"Wait."

Red X looked at him curiously. "Hmm?"

Nightwing looked a little uncomfortable then asked,"Why did...why did you come back?"

Jason froze with wide eyes at him. Out of all the questions, that one was unexpected. As he tried to think of an answer, his thoughts went to the night it all went wrong. When the Red X had disappeared.

Red X looked over the city. It was a relatively quiet night and he had decided to just relax. Have a day off from stealing.

But then he heard a scream near him. He reluctantly got up and ran towards the scream. When he got there he was horrified.

On the ground were two dead bodies. And beside them was a child with a man with knife in hand hovering over him. About to kill him.

Red X jumped down and furiously beat the man. He couldn't control this new feeling in him. A sense of madness in his blood. Before he could even realize what he was doing, he had the assilent's knife in him and stabbed him in the heart.

Red X then saw what he had done and quickly got up. He heard police sirens nearing to his destination. He turned around and saw the little boy laying next to his parents, crying.

Red X's eyes widened. He touched his teleported onto a roof. He started running. And running. And running.

What a night off.

The next few nights he felt something in his blood and soon his mind urging him to kill. Especially those who had wronged him. Eventually it became too much. He had to go back to Gotham.

He stood in an alley, his duffle bag on his motorcycle. He briefly looked at the city he could see. He was going to miss it. Though not seeing the Titans would be good.

He was disrupted from his musings when he heard a voice.

"Red X."

Red X froze and looked down the alley. Towards the back of it was Robin. Red X immediately got into a fighting stance.

"Robin. Why are you here?"

The other boy scowled. "You killed someone."

Robin then added,"Why?"

Red X's eyes widen at the question. "What?"

"Why did you kill him? Your usually just a thief."

Red X could feel the blood in his veins boil. "Because, Robin, he was about to kill an innocent kid. I mean, he already killed the kid's parent." Red X then looked down. "No one should go through that," he added quietly.

When he looked back up, Robin had taken a step back and frowned. He seemed to be thinking.

"Ok look. Since you killed him I can't have you be in Jump City anymore. But, I will let you leave," Robin said finally, still frowning.

After a minute, Red X finally replied,"OK. Just make sure that happens to no one else."

Red X then got on his motorcycle and drove off.

That was the last they would see of each other. Until a few months later, as Jason as Red hood of course.

Jason was brought back to the present by Nightwing saying,"Hey, Red X. You there?"

He looked at his older brother and nodded. "Uh yeah, I came back because I have to do something. Don't worry, I won't be here for long."

Jason turned around and jumped down to the next roof. He walked towards his motorcycle. He didn't look back.

And from his spot, Dick watched as the former thief stalked away, leaving him to think,

What the hell just happened?