So this chapter is the penulitame chapter of Court Is In Session. There will be one more update and then this tale is complete. It's not what I envisioned, but I started this story with no clear direction and it's biting my in the ass as I'm finding it hard to complete this. My last two stories were fully plotted before I even started the first chapter, but this was my second attempt at writing a story and has taken way to too long to finish.

Still, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

"Bats, I need a secure line."

There was brief pause before Batman's voice came over the comm. "Line is secure, go ahead."

"Haly's dead, the kid's on his way back with some evidence you need to look at a.s.a.p and Superboy should beat him there with a body of a Talon. And one other thing, you're not going to believe who I think I just saw."

After his vague report of the action Hawkeye took off toward the Batcave after Robin. He took Batman's silence on the matter as a grave indicator of the man's move. Bringing up sensitive material never ended well when it came to Bruce, and the bomb Thomas had just hinted at was the most sensitive one there was, aside from the death of his parents when he was a boy. The trip back to the cave was a quick one. While Robin was quick, Thomas had to hold himself back to stay with the kid while they were investigating; thankfully that wasn't the case on the return trip. Once he entered the cave he was immediately notice by Bruce, even though the older man was running some kind of program on the computer.

"Tell me exactly what you saw. Now."

"Geez, Bruce, way to get all demanding."

Thomas didn't need Bruce to turn around to know that the older man was not pleased with his sarcastic remark. "Alright, here's what happened. We got to Haly's. Superboy ran perimeter while Robin and I made our way to Haly's office. On the way Robin got jumped by a Talon assassin, but before the Talon could get any further a gunman in a red helmet pumped two rounds into him. There was a little standoff with the guy, then he left. After that, we made our way to Haly's office where we found the old man dead in a pool of his own blood. Looked like the Court of Owls got to him."

Bruce sat silently for a moment after listening to Thomas speak. "That matches with what Tim mentioned, but what how he described the gunman's actions and speech patterns coupled with your initial communication leaves me staring at a conclusion that shouldn't be possible."

Thomas closed the gap and stood beside the Dark Knight at the computer. "I know. But when I told him that if he shot me I'd just come back, he brushed it off like he already knew. He called Tim, 'replacement', and his voice was way too similar. What I keep coming back to is how he knew I would just heal from a gunshot. There are only a few people in the whole world who know what I'm capable of and the only one unaccounted for is him."

Thomas's extra emphasis on the last word made Bruce turn to face the glass memorial case next to the computer. Both men looked over at the lone Robin costume before Bruce spoke again. "He died; I held his body after the explosion."

Thomas rubbed his neck, dreading his next question. "You 100% sure what you buried was actually Jason?"

Bruce turned to glare at Thomas for the suggestion, but soon his face returned to its state. He touched a button on the computer. "Alfred. Meet me on the ground in 5 minutes."

Bruce switched channels on the comm. "Robin, keep working on the book you discovered Haly's with Nigthwing." Batman clicked off the comm and turned to Thomas. "Bring a shovel."

In five minutes time Bruce, Alfred and Thomas were all on the grounds in the Wayne family cemetery. Considering Bruce was wearing numerous casts and wraps around his brutally beaten body and that Alfred was nearing his 80s, Thomas had been assigned the digging duties. For 10 minutes the tow older men watched while Thomas dug down into the earth, only pausing when his shovel hit wood. After clearing off the remaining dirt Thomas looked up to Bruce, who nodded.

"Open it."

Thomas held his breath as he opened the casket that bad been buried for 8 months, thinking a body would inside. Once the top swung open all three men let out a gasp. There, lying in the casket was a boy identical to Jason Todd. Everything about the body was exactly the same as the day he was buried, all the way down to the cuts that had been inflicted by the Joker.

"Sir, he hasn't even started to decompose. How is this possible?"

"I don't know."

While the other two men were unable to climb down into the hole Thomas lifted the body out of the casket, but hesitated when he felt the body.

Bruce noticed the younger man's pause. "What is it?"

"The body feels too light." Thomas felt the skin, shocked at what he felt. "I-I don't think this is real."

Alfred was incredulous at the claim. "What do you mean?"

"Did any of you check the body at the funeral?"

The two men shook their head. No one noticed Dick make his way beside the group until he spoke. "No. After we took him to get autopsied by Leslie we didn't see the body until the funeral."

Thomas nodded as he jumped out of the hole with the fake body. "Well that settles it."

Alfred looked up from the body to Thomas. "Settles what, sir?"

Bruce picked up on what Thomas was getting at. "Someone switched the body."

Thomas nodded. "And if he's now running around Gotham and I can think of pretty much only one man who has the resources to bring him back."

Batman glared at the fake body. "Ra's al Ghul."

Silence enveloped the group until Dick spoke up. "Confronting the Demon's going to have to wait. We found something in that book that you're going to want to see."

Thomas placed the body back into the casket and covered it with a sparse amount of dirt before following the trio back to the cave. Tim and Kon greeted them in the bowels of the cave. Without waiting for a signal Tim jumped into the briefing.

"We've gone over the book we found in Haly's office. It's pretty dark. Apparently, the circus has been the prime recruiting ground for the Court of Owls for two hundred years. They'd take kids when they turned 13 to begin training. Dick was supposed to be the next one." Time looked up surprised that shock was written on everyone's face.

"You all knew?"

Hawkeye nodded. "Yep."

"Oh, well that makes this kind of anti-climactic."

Dick snapped his finger to get Tim back on track. "What else did you find?"

"There's a name that keeps coming up in the book. I think it's a family name."

Bruce shoved the thoughts about Ra's and Jason from his mind at the mention of a lead. "What name?"

"The Powers." Tim saw the recognition on Bruce's face when he rattled off the name. "You know them?"

"Yeah. When I was a boy, I was convinced my parent's murder hadn't been just random street crime. I set out to find a conspiracy, eventually stumbling on to the Court of Owls. The trail led to an old abandoned hotel that was under the Powers ownership. I thought I'd found the Court, but when I got there, there was nothing but an empty hotel from the 1950s. After that I gave up the search, thinking the Court was nothing more than a myth. Until now that is."

Alfred was the first to speak after Bruce's revelation. "What is our next step, sir?"

"They attacked our home. We're going to burn theirs to the ground.

March 5th – 2:47 a.m.

The trio of Robin, Hawkeye and Superboy were on a rooftop overlooking the hotel Bruce had mentioned in his story. Robin looked through the binoculars to observe the building's perimeter while Hawkeye grew impatient.

"So, how we going to play this?"

Before Robin could answer a new arrival joined the team. His red helmet glinted in the moonlight. "Well, I'm thinking you should just go in and kill them all. But that's just me."

The trio stared down the gunman, but they stopped their advance on him when they saw a familiar face sneak up behind him. Nightwing procured a small knife and nicked the man just under the helmet, drawing a small amount of blood. With a cackle, Nightwing flipped over the man who had swung around to hit the former circus performer.

Nightwing smiled as he examined the knife. "This DNA sample should come in handy."

The helmeted man stared a Nightwing, his eyes just barely visible in the slits. "Well don't you feel proud of yourself."

"I do actually."

"Fucking dick."

The emphasis on the insult only caused Nightwing to laugh. "Haven't changed a bit, have you baby bird?"

"Don't call me that!" The man wiped out a large knife.

Tim, and Superboy, looked quite confused. "Wait; are you who I'm thinking you are?"

The man in the helmet lowered the knife slightly. "Took you long enough to figure it out. And to think, you're the only Robin Ra's has ever called 'Detective'."

Superboy was now thoroughly bewildered. "Would someone tell me what the hell is going on?"

Nightwing slapped Superboy on the back. "We'll tell you later big guy. Right now, we're to go bash some skulls."

Superboy cracked his knuckles at the thought. "Now that's something I'm looking forward to."

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