"You're sure he wasn't lying?" Bruce asked, and Dick resisted the urge to sock him in the face.

"I'm sure. It was very clear that she meant something to him. He wouldn't lie." Dick took a sip from his tea, eyes rimmed in red. They burned when he closed them.

"You can't know that for sure. Red Hood is a criminal."

"Actually, Bruce, I can be sure. Jason is a lot of things, but he doesn't lie. Everything he's said to us has been something he has truly felt, whether in that moment or all his life."

Bruce turned away from his eldest, choosing instead to gaze out the darkened east window. "The bottom line is he cannot be completely trusted."

"The bottom line is that she's dead!" The cup smashed against the counter, ceramic shards turning red with Dick's blood. Bruce whipped his head back the other man's direction.

Dick exhaled slowly. "I'm sorry. That was dumb. But I didn't come over here because of Jason, I came over here because Deathstroke needs to be stopped before someone else dies. Are you going to help me?"

Bruce was about to answer when the phone rang. He took the out and answered. "Hello?"

"Hey. It's Oliver."

Bruce's eyes narrowed. Alfred came in silently and began wrapping Dick's hand. "What's this about?"

"I was wondering if your boy was there. I have to," a pause and a sigh. "Well, I have to thank him. And tell him he was right."

Bruce looked over at Dick. "I don't know what you're talking about. What boy?"

"You know. Red Hood. Jason, I guess his name is. At least, that's what Roy said."

"Roy's with you?" Dick snapped to attention, now intently listening to the side of the conversation he could hear.

"Yeah. You don't know? The kid said he was running with you. That's why he was wearing the logo. You're telling me he's not?"

Bruce paused, assessing how to evade or ignore the question. He didn't have any eyes on Jason, but he had known rough locations and mission summaries. Red Hood was definitely not "running with" Batman.

"Hello?" Ollie said from the other end of the call. Bruce hung up.

"What about Roy?" Dick asked as soon and Bruce set his phone down.

Bruce himself was still shocked. There was a lot the detective needed to investigate. "He's back with Arrow. At least for the time being."

"Are you serious?" A smile came over Dick's exhausted face. "That's great! Is he clean? How'd he get out of jail? How did Green Arrow convince him to come home?"

"Jason," Bruce replied, as if the boy could solve everything. "Jason convinced him to go home."

Even Alfred stopped working in shock. Dick's eyes were wide with confusion, trying to understand how a self-exiled son convinced a kindred spirit to fly back to the nest. "He didn't tell me he knew Roy."

"I knew he had a team, but none of the intel told me he was with Arsenal. I assumed it was a mercenary team."

"Wow. Jaybird broke him out of that Middle Eastern prison. Wow," Dick whispered. "You think you know a guy."

Bruce eyed him from his side of the table, while Alfred looked at both of them warily. Straightening his posture, he left for the kitchen, and began making white chocolate macadamia cookies. They were Jason's favorite.

Jason was miles away in Star City, wondering why he had such a perfect idea of what was going on in the manor and watching the reunion between ex-sidekick and ex-mentor intently. He stopped wondering if that could happen to him a long time ago. The path he was on was a one way street, and it didn't help that no one was trying to get him home anymore. Capes, he thought bitterly. They're all the same. Bruce wanted him home; he was as sure of that as he was of the fact that he wanted to go home. But the Bat would never make the first step. Besides, even if he did, there was no doubt he would be subjected to some jail time before the happy ending. This wasn't a fairy tale. He may have woken up, but the only princess he knew was dead, and happily ever afters had blown up in his face years before this moment.

"I made a mistake," he whispered to the dark night sky, helmet and domino mask discarded and on the floor beside him. "But I can never go back."

"Are you talking to your god or your father?" a voice asked behind him, and he turned to see Starfire. She was there, on the rooftop, looking at him with those eyes that understood his pain. He could barely stand to look.

"Does it matter?" he asked back.

She didn't move any closer. "You are not surprised to see a ghost, Jason?" Her voice was almost teasing.

"Honestly? You're not the first one I've seen. Usually I just stay out of their way. I guess being dead yourself for a bit gives you a sixth sense." He shrugged nonchalantly and turned back to watching Roy.

Or, he should say, watching Roy and Ollie, as they watched TV as if the past few years hadn't been filled with fighting and withdrawal symptoms and prison. They were happy. Jason had been right about their relationship. They loved each other, and that was enough.

"Don't you ever get tired of staring into mirrors, Jason?" Now that he had fully acknowledged she was a ghost, her voice seemed farther away.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You see yourself in Roy. You see what you wish Batman would do in Roy's own mentor."

"I see an impossibility," he growled back.

"Do you?" she asked, close to him now. He swore he could feel her breath on his neck, warm and alluring. "Who is keeping you from returning home, Jason? Is it your father, or is it the fact that you won't even tell him how you feel?"

"How I feel?" he hissed, turning once again towards her. The flames from her hair bathed her in an ethereal light. If she were alive, Jason was sure half the city could spot them. "He knows how I feel, Koriand'r. He knows that I feel cheated, that I feel betrayed. He knows that my entire life revolves around being the unwanted black sheep, and he does nothing about it!" He wished desperately to touch her, to grip her arms and shake until she realized how much of a lost cause he was, but he could touch her, so he didn't even try. He relaxed his tensed muscles and asked her harshly, "Why are you here, anyway?"

"That is no way to talk at a reunion. Maybe that's why you won't go back, hm? Afraid they'll talk to you the same way?"

Jason stared at her, hurt evident in his eyes. Her smile, emanating mischief, faltered. She began to apologize, but he held up a hand to stop her. "It's my fault you're dead. Besides, you're right, anyway. No need to apologize."

"Actually-"

"Kori!" someone yelled, and all of a sudden the two turned and Roy was there, standing in the doorway of the roof stairwell, hair mussed and breathing heavy. Somehow, while they talked, Roy had exited his apartment, run across the street, entered this building, and sprinted to the roof.

"You can see her?" Jason asked, taking a step towards Roy. "You can see her?" he asked again frantically.

"Woah, dude, chill. Of course I can see her. This is great! How is this possible? I can't believe you're alive!" Roy ran and embraced Kori, hugging her as tightly as possible, soaking in the warmth of her skin. Kori was too wrapped up in the hug to notice Jason's incredibly angry and manic glare, to see his entire frame shaking.

A shot went off in the air. Arsenal and Starfire got into fighting positions before they realized it was Jason. He looked to be in the middle of a panic attack.

"Jason?" Kori asked slowly, "What's wrong?"

"You are dead." The hand with the gun was still pointed towards the sky, but it was shaking. "How can he touch you if you're dead? How can he see you? Tell me!"

"Dude, calm down," Roy interjected. "You came back from the dead."

His breath was wheezing out of him harshly and making clouds in the cold winter air. "Is this one of those dreams?" he managed to yell at them.

Kori and Roy looked at each other, confused. "Dream?" Roy asked.

"The dreams. Where I have to kill myself to wake up." His eyes were unfocused and crazed. The gun shook harder.

"Jason, stop this nonsense. Surely, you can believe that a person can come back from unexplained circumstances." Kori took a step towards him cautiously.

Jason trained the gun on her, and she backed right up. "Kori wouldn't be afraid. You're afraid. Kori wouldn't be," he said, mind moving a thousand miles a second, trying to make the right choice. This wasn't the first time, but he had never done it on purpose before. Honestly, he was scared.

Then the gun was to his own temple. "I don't remember how I got here," his voice croaked out, but he barely heard it over his beating heart. "I don't remember how I got here, but somehow I know things that happened when I wasn't even there. And I don't know how I know where Dick lives. Maybe I don't know. Maybe I'm dreaming and I don't know and you're dead!"

"Jay," Roy said, hands splayed in almost surrender. "You had a concussion. Please put the gun down."

"If I'm wrong," he started, and took a shuddering breath. "If I'm wrong, don't tell Bruce I killed myself. He'll think I'm insane, more than he does already. Tell him I was a hero. Make him think I was a hero."

"Jason," Kori said, but he cocked the gun. "No, wait. Jason, no!"