Bruce was still reeling from the events that happened just a few short days earlier. The man he confronted and fought. That man was not his apprentice, was not his friend, was not his son, his Jason. That man was dark, so dark and cold and empty. Bruce wasn't entirely shocked he thought, you have to have some sort of emotional damage from coming back from the dead.

Bruce sighed and started to think about the funeral, about how empty and cold he felt holding Jason's cold limp body in his hands. That was the first time in a long time Bruce had cried and he didn't cry a lot. Bruce swore he hadn't cried that hard since his parents were murdered horrifically in front of him. He had failed his friend, his son. The two had a very complicated relationship; Jason had always been a pistol, sometimes taking the rebellious teen phase to another level.

It wasn't all Jason's fault though. Jason had a troubled childhood to say the least. Living and growing up in the corrupt streets of Gotham. That was something Bruce always thought about. What things Jason must have seen and done just to survive. Jason had told him a thing every now and then but never opened up. "My fault" he thought, "I always was so cold and demanding to him, more like a drill instructor than a father", why would he ever of opened up to me"

In some ways Bruce had failed Jason more than just not saving him from the hands of Joker, he had failed as a father as well.

Bruce sighed and walked over to the case he always looked at. Jason had always been on his mind since that day some 5 years ago. What Joker did to that poor 15 year old would forever haunt him.

He looked at the outfit Alfred and he had pulled off Jason's lifeless body. Alfred did a fantastic job repairing the suit.

Bruce had denied Alfred's request to take down the suit. Nothing had changed to Bruce. Quite bluntly after he had confronted Jason, he realized that his boy, his son was still dead, that boy died 5 years ago and wasn't coming back. That boy was replaced with a murderous and revenge-filled vigilante.

Bruce sped out of the cave; he needed to take his mind off of this. He wondered though driving down the road if Jason was even alive. Bruce searched through the rubble after The Joker was returned to Arkham. It took everything in his soul not to break that clown's head into the pavement. There had not been a single day since Jason's demise that Bruce had not thought of killing that murderous freak. No body was found and Bruce knew that Jason was likely alive. A body would have been in or around the vicinity.

Bruce parked the car and went up onto a building and surveyed the city, it would be nice to take a simple street thug out tonight. There had not been a lot of those in quite a while. Batman had struck fear into the common thugs but Batman had also brought out the freaks and psychotic murderers.

Bruce heard a shriek nearby and shot his grapple gun and swung off the building. He landed on a nearby building and saw a woman getting robbed, before he could intervene he saw him. RED HOOD.

He sees Jason beat the mug up, wondering if Jason will go too far, he won't know , the thief stabs Jason while he looks away and runs off

"Never look away from your opponent" he always told the boy.

Jason slumped onto the ground. Bruce was in panic mode. "Save and help the boy?" "But Bruce he isn't your boy anymore, he's a killer, let him die" "I can't" he whispers to himself.

Bruce lands on the ground near Jason and walks towards him. He hears Jason mutter "Great" and then nothing.

"JASON?!"

Bruce runs to the bo-man. Jason had to be around 20ish. Bruce checked his pulse.

ALIVE

Barley though, he examined the wound, Jason had pulled out the blade, it wasn't horrific , Bruce had seen worse, but it was still bad and the boy was losing blood fast. Bruce gently picked the boy up and started carrying him to the Batmoblie. "Why was he still in Gotham"? Bruce thought. He reached his destination and put Jason into the passenger seat and started the engine.

They Sped off.