A/N: Here's Chapter 12. It's full of Tim and Dick brother moments, but I'm honestly stalling until I know what I want to do for their encounter with Jason. Thank you all for your patience. If any of you have any ideas about how I should proceed, just leave a review. I'm all ears!

"Tim, I have to do this alone."

I blinked, taken aback. "You can't be serious, Dick. You saw how violent he'd been with those goons back there."

"I'll be fine," he insisted, stopping in front of the hotel's entrance. "Jason and I...we go way back. If anyone can get through to him, it's me."

"Barbara tried that already," I argued worriedly, "He completely rebuffed her, and that was before we unmasked and humiliated him. I don't want you to end up like those guys in the plaza."

"Well, I'm not her," Nightwing retorted, eyes narrowing. "And why do you care? You didn't know Jay like we did. And I hope you didn't forget that you locked Bruce up. You should be tracking Scarecrow down, not trying to tag along with me."

I fought down the urge to say something nasty in return. Dick's words hurt, but I knew, deep inside, that reaching out to Jason could only help end Scarecrow's terrible reign over our city.

"I just want a chance to talk to Jason," I admitted to Nightwing's surprise. "I feel...responsible for all this, in some way." I cast my eyes down, unwilling to meet his gaze as I wrestled with my bottled-up guilt. "When I found out who you guys were, I was so eager to become Robin. I'd never wanted something so badly in my life. I didn't give much thought as to what happened to Jason." I paused, swallowing the lump in my throat. "So I pleaded with Batman, used every opportunity I could to prove my worth. And all that time Bruce wasted training me to fight crime, he could've been searching for Jason. He could've found him, for God's sake!"

Getting all of that off of my chest left me feeling numb and empty. I took several shaky breaths to calm myself down. "But, no. I had to come along and screw it all up, didn't I?" I sighed, turning away in shame.

Dick was silent for a long while. I figured he had left me in the rain, fed up with my excuses.

"Tim," Nightwing's soft voice came from closer than I'd expected. I raised my head, looking into the sad eyes of the man in front of me. "No one ever blamed you for what happened to Jason. You gotta understand that, for all we knew, Jason could've run off on his own. From what I heard, he and Bruce had a falling out and that was the last time he ever saw him."

"Did you try looking for him?" I asked as Dick led me through the hotel's entrance.

"Barbara and I followed any lead that we could find on our off time," he shrugged, melancholy. "But I was still in Blüdhaven and it looked like Jason had fallen off the grid. He grew up on the streets, so he knew how to hide himself pretty damn well."

"If only that had been the case," I murmured, Joker's horrendous video resurfacing from the darkness of my subconscious. I smartly decided not to mention it; no one even knew that I'd seen it.

I glanced around the silent, dark lobby for any signs of danger. The only objects that stood out were some suitcase racks and a few scattered bags. I pitied the tourists who'd been staying here; their impression of Gotham would likely be forever tarnished by this calamity.

Nightwing hummed thoughtfully, scanning our barren surroundings. He turned to me again, face serious. "I'll let you come with me, but," he announced, holding his hand up before I could thank him. "If things go south, I need you to get out of here. Everyone is still counting on you to finish what Bruce couldn't and protect Gotham."

"Deal," I agreed with a small smile. "But talk about mounting on the pressure, man!"

"I know you can handle it," Dick chuckled, coming forward and slipping a memory card into my palm. "This was all the data I had time to collect at the mall. I'm sure Oracle will find some use for it."

I made to pull my hand away, but the older man held on, clasping it gently. I looked at him questioningly, and he reciprocated with a warm, brotherly smile.

"Just for the record, you make an amazing Robin. Don't ever forget that."

I grinned, the heat rising to my masked face. "Thanks, Dick. You weren't so bad yourself." Hearing Nightwing, a hero I had always looked up to, commend me sure meant a lot.

"Don't get too big for your britches," he warned playfully, heading towards the building's stairwell. "Damn, Jason could be hiding anywhere."

Activating the optics in my mask, I cast my eyes toward the ceiling. My enhanced vision cut through the multiple floors easily, outlining several figures who had taken refuge in the rooms. One in particular, a few floors up, caught my attention.

"Nightwing," I called, beckoning with my hand. "Up there, the suite on the third floor." The person in question paced erratically about the room, flinging the occasional object against the wall. I highlighted the target red on my mask's display.

"That's our best bet." Dick took a deep breath, opening the door to the stairwell. I followed him in, keeping an eye out for any hidden goons looking to jump us.

"Is there anything else I should know about Jason before we bust in?" I asked in a hushed tone as we crept up the stairs.

"When Jason became Robin, he wasn't as acrobatic or agile as I was," Nightwing whispered back, carefully stepping into the third floor hallway. "He had to rely on his rage and brute strength when he fought. Somehow, that made him all the more dangerous."

"So he was a loose cannon?" I surmised, keeping an eye on our red target.

"Yeah," Nightwing nodded, slowly making his way to the suite's door. "But this was before the Joker got his dirty hands on him. Who knows what kind of person he's molded Jay into?" His fists clenched in anger.

I reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure we can get through to him. You guys were 'brothers', after all."

Dick turned and stared at me over his shoulder. In the dim light, his once cheerful blue eye was iced over with fear.

"I want to believe that, Tim," he replied anxiously. "But once we open that door, I have no idea what the hell's gonna happen. I don't know what Jason's gonna do when he sees us. He isn't the boy I once knew. Not anymore."