Green liquid surrounded him at all sides as his eyes flew open for the first time. Confusion evolved into pure terror when the oxygen he wanted in his lungs was instead filled by the same strange water he was submerged in. There was tight fabric wrapped around most of his body, making movement difficult. Instinctive panic made him thrash out randomly, trying to avoid potentially drowning. His bare feet brushed against the floor beneath him, and he pushed himself off of it and into the open air. People circled around, letting out unintelligible shouts as they stared at him in alarm. The colors around him blurred together, and each sound made his ears ring painfully. His throat burned from the liquid he inhaled, the wrappings covering his body made it hard to breathe, the people surrounding him radiated a readiness for battle...

Did they want to hurt him? Not good. He was far too outnumbered; he had to flee.

Letting out a warning screech, the nameless boy surged forward and towards the gap leading outside. He could find cover in the foliage away from the cave, and could hide there until he recovered enough to move to a safer area. For now, his immediate injuries needed to be healed.

The other humans surrounding him let out garbled shouts, and one of them attempted to raise their arms at him in an attack. Without much prior thought, he twisted out of the way and retaliated, knocking the man to the ground. A snarl broke past his lips as the animalistic need to shed blood rose deep inside of him, but an image in his brain stopped him. In his mind, he could see a half man, half bat glaring at him, compelling him to hold back. The frightened boy halted in his tracks immediately, though he did not know why. Who was that creature? Who was he?

A loud noise snapped him out of his puzzlement, and he turned his head just in time to witness a tiny silver sphere fly past him. 'Bullet,' his brain labelled the object. 'Deadly. Must flee.' The boy acknowledged this by sprinting towards the gap he had noticed before, and when he was close enough, he sprung forward to give himself more momentum.

Something broke as he came through the gap, and shards of a clear object flew out of the gap with him, digging into areas of his skin and creating a stinging sensation where he made contact. 'Glass...'

His feet never touched the ground, like he expected. He instead found himself tumbling through the air, the people above him slowly disappearing. He was falling... falling...

Dick jerked forward with a startled shout, managing to knock himself off balance and fall onto the carpeted floor. The sound of his own animalistic shouts echoed in his ears, making him. Why, why did he have to be plagued by the same nightmare, over and over again? Was he destined to drive himself insane? Well the vividness of his revival was new, but it still wasn't pleasant. He would rather die again than have to put up with his demons any longer.

The chime of a clock made him jump, but he forcefully relaxed after some mental scolding. A quick glance at the digits revealed that it was eleven at night, not too late to wrap up what he had started the night before. The only problem was that Barbara was expecting to see him when she returned...

He snorted. Why should he care about her feelings? She was just as bad as the others, treating his death like nothing but a statistic, replacing him with the demonic child the first chance she got. But then again, she did visit his grave, and by the sound of things, she visited often. If anyone could say they mourned for him during his time away, it would be her. And if that was the case, then maybe he could stay with her during his operations, maybe even convince her to assist him...

No, he decided with a resigned sigh, Barbara was already brainwashed into sharing the big man's warped morals. She was far too gone for his plans to make any sense to her, and she would think him to be evil. Unfortunately, he would have to work alone, which also included staying in the same building as her. It was a mistake for him to have come to her at all, but he was exhausted and it seemed like a logical choice at the time. Now that his mind was clearer, he knew that any hopes of forging an alliance with Batgirl was an idiotic fantasy.

He moved towards a closed window, but hesitated. Barbara was his best friend in his last life. He would be dishonoring who he used to be by leaving her without any answers. Not knowing if he was indeed alive or not would slowly drive her nuts, and there was a huge probability of her going to the old man with her knowledge. That couldn't happen.

Hm. He just had to figure out how to keep her from worrying over him. Since she seemed a little suspicious about his identity, it wouldn't hurt to prove himself while he was at it. But how?

The gleam of needle resting on Barbara's work desk caught his eye, and he smirked. Perfect.

xXx

"Civilians found this body lying around last night. We waited until we were sure it was important before contacting you." Commissioner Gordon smiled at the female vigilante present. "It's nice to see you again Batgirl, it's been a while since your..." he blinked at Batman. "Uh, whatever he is to you, brought you along."

Robin snickered as Batgirl smiled awkwardly and stuttered a reply. It was hilarious when she had to interact with her father while in costume. "Hey Commish," he greeted cheerfully, catching Barbara's subtle glare. "How's the family?"

"Focus," Batman snapped as he looked up from the sprawled body in front of him. "Save the small talk for later."

"Yes sir..." Jason mumbled, smiled wiped clean off of his face. He was never allowed to have any fun... and to watch Barbara squirm while her father talked about her to her face would have been the greatest!

Gordon gave him a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry kid, he was like that with the last one too, at first. He'll warm up to you eventually." A flicker of grief crossed his eyes, but it faded away quickly. Robin mentally huffed, scowling; even the Commissioner needed to compare him to the Golden Boy? Sure, he sounded like a great guy, but Jason was his own Robin! He didn't need to follow Richard's footsteps completely.

"This man used to work for the Joker," Batman said quietly, ignoring the change of conversation. "Look, there's a 'J' shaped scar carved into his hand."

"Used to?" Batgirl echoed, staring at the body in hopes of coming to the same conclusion her mentor did. "How do you know that?"

"The scar itself means that he was either killed by Joker, or he was a higher up in his gang. A 'J' on a hand usually points to the latter, but others tend to reopen the wound from time to time to keep it from fading. This man has not done so in about... two years." He nodded to himself in confirmation. "Which means he was either brought down to a lower level of command, or he simply quit. Since Joker kills anyone who displeases him in any way, he wouldn't have survived being brought down to a lower level. He had to have quit." He knelt down and picket something up. "Looks like he turned traitor."

Gordon rose his eyebrows. "How could you possibly know that?"

Batman turned around and held up a coin for them to see. "It's not Dent's, but a cheap knock off. His gang members carry things like this in order to gain entry to certain places."

Jason absorbed all of this information as best as he could, but he had to admit that he wouldn't have been able to connect all of those dots like Bruce had. He stared at the scar on the thug's hand, thinking hard. The 'J' seemed significant for some reason. "Did one of Joker's men kill him?" He asked, and everyone turned to look at him. Suddenly feeling stupid, Robin's face went bright red. "I mean... someone must have known that he ditched his old boss for Two Face, right? Gangs usually kill off any traitors they find..." Batman gave him an odd look, and he looked away again. Great, now he was showing off his criminal knowledge. One of these days, Batman will realize how much of a mistake it was to take in a thief like him, and he would fire him, maybe even kick him out...

"Good work, Robin." The rare praise startled Jason, and he looked up in surprise. However, Batman now had his gaze back to the dead body. "This body was beaten to a pulp by a long, straight object, most likely a crowbar, from the looks of it." He grimaced. "Joker and his crew are famous for beating their victims with crowbars..." Now the conversion was definitely moving towards Dick's untimely demise.

Next to Jason, Batgirl winced and looked towards her left, eyes searching the area of the Clock Tower.

"But it might not have been a Joker thug," Gordon pointed out, likely trying to avoid the thin ice they were treading on. "Anyone could have used a crowbar."

"Correct." The device in his cowl activated and his eyes glowed dimly, a sign that he was now connected to the Bat Computer. "Agent A, I'm sending you a scan of a murder victim. I need you to search for a fingerprint match for the murderer." There was a pause, and he narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure?" He glanced at the body, seeming frustrated. "Yes, thank you. Batman out."

"What came back?" Batgirl asked, looking slightly fearful, as though she knew what was going to come up, but didn't want to believe it. Robin pouted; why was it that he was always out of the loop?!

"Harley Quinn was here." Batman circled around the body, then slowly backed up to search the rest of the scene, becoming more agitated with every step he took.

Batgirl suddenly let out a sigh of relief, and her shoulders slumped. Jason narrowed his eyes slightly at her behavior. There was something fishy about Barbara...

"Are you sure?" Gordon asked hopefully, also looking around for any clues to where the villain could have ran off to.

"Of course I'm sure," Batman growled stalking back over to the body, giving it another look over. A few seconds later, he whirled around with a whip of his cape, and hastily pulled out a grapple gun. "Don't contaminate the crime scene. I'm going to the Bat Cave to analyze this further." With that, he was gone.

And now Robin had to either call the R-Cycle or walk home. He loved it when Bruce forgot about him. He turned to look at Batgirl, who was staring at the body with a mournful expression. Geez, since when did she get so emotional over the bad guys? "I have to go too. See you later Commissioner, Robin." She too shot a grapple up, and zipped away to the nearest rooftop.

And then there were two...

"Uh, I better go too," Robin said hastily, fumbled with his own grapple gun. It slipped out of his fingers and landed on the ground with a thud, only adding onto his embarrassment. Some Boy Wonder he was...

Gordon smiled and picked it up, handing it to him with a light chuckle. "Relax, son. Accidents happen."

"Not to the other Robin," Jason mumbled as he took it from him, shuffling his feet.

The Commissioner put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I know it seems like you're living in his shadow but trust me, you're not. Batman wouldn't have let you work with him just to turn you into the same person the last Robin was, trust me."

Jason nodded slowly. "Thanks," he muttered, stepping away. With a wavering smile, Robin aimed his grapple at the nearest building and felt a familiar rush as he was pulled into the air. The old Robin was his role model, but he was dead. It was time for Jason to create his own version of the Boy Wonder, a better one.

Even if Bruce did want him to become a second Dick Grayson, he wouldn't. Not a chance.

xXx

As soon as Barbara had changed out of her costume in a deserted, fogged up phone booth, she immediately sprinted towards the Clock Tower. "Damn you, Dick," she muttered angrily to herself. "You nearly had me thinking that it was you who killed that Joker thug. Why do you have to act so dangerous? I feel like you'll snap at any given moment."

The thought of her ex best friend suddenly finding the need to end someone else's life rattled her to the core, and she had to admit the revelation made her feel sick to the stomach. The boy she had grown up with had become a total stranger, and now she couldn't even tell if he held the same morals he once had. How far off was she when she thought he had sunk low enough to kill? Who knew if he had stepped over that line in his mental state?

A key was hastily pushed into her lock, and she all but threw the front door open to her small home. Her eyes scanned the living room for her not-so-deceased friend, but his earlier sanctuary on the sofa was abandoned. "Dick?!" She called out, moving from the living room to the kitchen, then hesitantly checked the bathroom, but it was empty as well. Lastly, she journeyed to her own bedroom, and thankfully found it to be deserted too. She would have torn his eyes out if he even touched any of her things. That would be just plain creepy.

But that also meant that Dick had left her house, even after she had specifically requested that he remained where he was.

"I hate you so much right now," she said loudly, as though he would hear her somehow. "When I find out where you went..." she stopped in the middle of the living room, eyes catching the glint of a familiar needle. That used to contain a vial of Fear Toxin, but she had analyzed it and dumped it out a few days ago, which is why the dark liquid present inside of it was alarming. She picked it up from her desk and inspected it, realizing that it was filled with blood. "What in the world?" She finally caught sight of a piece of paper with familiar sloppy handwriting.

"This should clear up any concerns about my identity. If this doesn't satisfy you, don't follow me. I have some work to do involving Clark, and I now realize that you would only get in my way. Sorry. -DG"

Barbara set the letter down, making note of how his handwriting matched the person who lent her a coat at the graveyard. That was a thought for another day, she decided as she held the vial of blood up to the light above her. Dick was apparently back from the dead, murdering people, visiting his own grave, and now he had to do something involving Clark?

"What mess have I gotten myself into?" She whispered to herself, closing her eyes. "I... I need to tell Bruce."

xXx

AN: Sorry for the update delay. I'm not even going to tell you my latest excuse, but know that I am working hard to update at a somewhat regular schedule.

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