A Family

by BaconYourFace

What happens when two girls enter the Bat Family? Follow Christine Carter and Autumn Cross on their experiences as part of the family. Yes, Tim, Damian and Alfred are in this too (major characters, yes) Warnings: contains some gory scenes, swearing, and NO SLASHES. There are a few funny and fluffy chapters later on. Sucky summary but you get the point. Please read and review!

9. Family, Meet Phoenix

Chapter 9: Family, Meet Phoenix

Damian's POV

"Who is she?" I ask. Father, Grayson, Drake, Carter (I decided to listen to her), Pennyworth, and I are all gathered in the Batcave standing in front of the BatComputer as it lists all of Jason's/ Red Hood's connections. I thought we were all going out on patrol, but I guess Father thinks revealing the identity of this "mystery girl" is more important.

"Dick, what else do you remember about her?" Bruce asks him while examining the photos popping up on the screen.

"Ummm...she's about Chris' height, she looks like any average girl, she was wearing all black and a hood over her head so I couldn't see her face and when the lightning flashed I thought I saw green eyes...that's it, I think."

"Thanks Grayson, all that information you just gave us will surely narrow it down!" I say sarcastically.

He just gives me a disapproving look that I return as to mock him. We end up having a staring contest (that I dominated Grayson at) which ends once Father abruptly stands up and places his hands on the computer.

"So tell me about her...I wasn't updated." We all turn to Drake (except Father) "I was working on...stuff, and my Red Robin uniform!" Drake excuses. "We don't know her name yet but...she's killed 20 people within the week, she's been handling The Red Hood's drug ring, and she's been sighted fighting along side with The Red Hood...Jeez Tim!" Carter explains. "Hey, I was only recently put back on the job!" He excuses.

"Shush" Father suddenly catches all of our attention. On the BatComputer, a blue line suddenly appears on a black screen, a recording. At first there is only gun shots and yelling, then a man's voice echoes in the cave. "Please...don't...don't kill me...mercy...please" I can tell that the man is slowly dying. "P...please...mercy," the random man whispers as he slowly dies. A cold hard laugh suddenly echoes the Cave: Todd's voice...followed by the voice of a young girl. "Mercy? MERCY? Did you show mercy to those children you killed? Or to the women and men that you killed? Why should I pity you? You don't deserve it." The child's voice is cold and hard, it sends a cold feeling up my spine "Wh...who are you?" The man whispers breathlessly. "I am The Red Hood's partner...I am Phoenix, it is the last name you will ever hear," then a haunting scream echoes in the cave and I sense almost everyone tense at the sound. A short silence. "CONSIDER THIS A WARNING TO ALL YOU SCUMBAGS...ANYONE THAT DOESN'T WORK UNDER THE HOOD, ALL WHO CROSSES OUR PATH, WILL DIE." The girl's voice is venomous, loud and...can strike fear into anyone's heart...anyone but mine.

There's a heavy silence in the Cave, then Father speaks up. "The recording was found in a club of drug dealers. The man that died in the recording was one of the lieutenants. The club was full of 117 dealers, and only 48 made it out alive... When I was questioning some of the dealers in Gotham General, he gave the recording to me. He said that most of his "friends" have already spread the word. The dealer gave me the recording before he went into shock." Father says.

"So she's Jason's partner?" Grayson makes sure, but the silence of Father answers him.

"The BatComputer can't identify her, so maybe they met recently. Everyone get in the Batmobile. There's only one way to find out who she really is."

We all hop in, and I end up sitting next to Carter in the back. She ended up not being so bad. I realized that she wasn't some incompetent, foolish young lady when she found me trying to pull a prank on Grayson. Instead of busting me, she made the prank even better. It was worth being grounded for two months when we saw Grayson super-glued onto the highest part of the trunk of the 50 ft tree on the property. He was covered in shit and cat litter while trying to scratch every part of his body (I'd like to personally thank the man (no way a woman would have had such an ingenious idea) who invented itching powder) as all 7 of my cats tried to get to him.

"I bet that girl is working with Todd because he's such a pedophile and he's threatening her somehow." I whisper so softly to Carter that I barely move my lips. I hope no one else heard me. The smirk on my face dies when she elbows me roughly in my side. Damn, that hurt. I thought she would ask me what pedophile means...wait...she knows what pedophile means?! If Father is overprotective of his three sons, then he is super Super SUPER overprotective of Carter. One time she told Father that she wanted to hang out with her friends, which consisted of some boys, and Father didn't just say "Absolutely NOT" to her, he locked her in her room, took away all of her electronics and gadgets, and ordered Pennyworth to stay in her room with her to prevent her from trying to sneak out or contact her friends. I'm surprised Father even let her become Nightingale, but I guess he justified that by training her way longer than she trained the three of us.

"I would not want to be in your mind." She whispers back. HOLY SHIT! Either I'm going completely insane, or my entire family has been lying to me about my sister's personality the entire time I've known her (they all say she's just a sweet, loving, innocent little girl)! She understands all this shit! WTF? I look at her again in disbelief, and then I swear I am going insane. She's trying hard not to smile!? There's no way the family knows that she understands all this "mature" stuff, and they definitely don't know that she's known it for a while, because only people who have known this crap for a certain period of time would laugh at inappropriate jokes. How does she know all this shit?! I guess Father hasn't protected her well enough... Now I like my sister even more. She found out about this stuff without Father or Grayson knowing, she's been able to deceive everyone for God knows how long, and Father, the Batman, has absolutely no idea! At least I think he has no idea, he might have a hunch... but if he did, then he would've done something about it... okay, okay...calm down before you explode and guts and blood and skin and flesh fly everywhere...

I guess no one is truly innocent.

Autum's POV

"Suit up, we're infiltrating a laboratory" "we gonna blow it up?" "First...we're gonna take out the hostages they're experimenting on, then we'll blow up the damn place". "Okay" I jump out of the couch and I walk to my bed room.

I put on my suit, it's actually not too tight, I've worn much tighter clothes. it's completely black with a fiery Phoenix insignia on my chest, my sleeves reach up until my wrists, and my clothing is until my neck, I'm armored to the teeth. I put on my leather gloves and my boots that has a slight heel with a hidden compartment big enough for a knife, I strap on my two brown belts around my waist. I wear my wrist computer, then my shiny leather jacket that has 3/4 sleeves, that reaches only until my stomach, and has hidden compartments everywhere, I wear my other belt like a sash. I load two guns and stuff them in the holsters on my thighs, I hide my knives in the hidden compartments and my favorite shiny dagger is hidden in my sleeve.

I hold my mask as I stare at myself in the mirror. Why did I chose the name Phoenix? It brings back memories...I had a friend, she was a kind and loving woman, she could have been a good mother even...she understood me, because she was a meta like me...but then...she couldn't control her powers, she was killing everyone and she didn't want to...so she killed herself to save everyone else she cared about...she called herself...The Phoenix.

Childish laughing echoes in my mind and I'm pulled into a memory. "Describe me" I told my best friend...Jake "what? Why?" He sounded alarmed that time "can't you see? I'm writing a story! My character looks exactly like me, I can't describe myself, so I'm asking you to do it, now describe me." I said when I was eleven years old "what like your face?" "Yup, just the face...oh and do it in a third person way" I said not looking away from my notebook "well...um...her skin is as white and soft as snow, her eyes are hard, full of thoughts, but callous and still sparkling with wonder and ideas...her smile comes once in a life time so when she does smile...everyone must watch...her lips are dry and pink, her hair is dark brown, silky and smooth but still wavy, the cut of her hair is right in the middle and her bangs fall right down the sides of her face, split in half. She's-" "Woah, woah Jake, not too descriptive!" I looked at him "I'm a very detailed writer" he crossed his arms and I remember rolling my eyes.

I'm pulled back into reality once I blink my eyes. Jason says that whenever I'm on a mission...dim and mild fire starts to ignite around my body, on my arms whenever. I run or punch, around my feet whenever I step on the ground...but the fire doesn't burn, it doesn't burn me or my enemies...it's just there...like the ghost of my friend, the ghost of my father, my mothers, my little brother, I don't feel the heat but I know it's there.

Whenever I put on the mask...I become...different, everything goes away, the pain just goes away, all the happiness and all the sadness just goes away...all that's left is my mild rage (it's better than pain and sadness right?) Whenever I put on my mask...I feel...numb, like a ghost haunting the halls of a mansion, I'm not sure if what I'm feeling is freedom or, whatever...in fact, it's as if I'm feeling...nothing...as if the beautiful redness of rage has taken over and spread from my chest. Maybe I shouldn't have taken this mantle...but it's too late to back out now.

****Break****

"Remember the plan" I don't like remembering..."yeah, I got it" I walk up to the wired wall where many guards are standing. A bright spot light, guards and guns point to me. "Hey, kid what the hell are you doing here? And why are you dressed up as a hero?" One of them mocks me, I only narrow my eyes. "One, I'm not a hero, and two...I'm here to kill you all." I run towards the gate and take my guns, I shoot every guard in sight as I jump over the wired fence, my boots hit the fence and I use the fence as a launching pad, and I jump higher, I shoot every one of them right in between their eyes.

A large military truck advances towards me, and a man with a huge machine gun shoots at me as the truck forwards. I keep my guns and I simply jump over the truck and touch it with my gloved hand. My glove doesn't burn but the truck does from top to bottom. I land on my feet right behind the bright red and black burning truck, I can hear the screaming of the men inside the truck. I simply hum in response as I walk towards the gate and open it up. Another military truck comes in through the gateway and Red Hood pops his head out the window. "Get in," he commands and I hop in the passenger seat without a word. "Buckle up." I simply roll my eyes at his statement

The truck drives into the newly painted white wall. We crash through it and run over a few scientists; I jump out of the truck.

20-30 Guards advance at us, I'm surrounded so quickly but I simply smirk. I kick the guard's face that's about to push me down. I elbow the guard in the nose next to me, I throw a punch on another man, I do an overhead kick on a man's face, I punch a scientist and take out my guns, I shoot all the men with my hands in an X as I jump across the room, I elbow the man then shoot him. I shoot everyone in sight, I flip and kick, I punch then crouch then shoot.

I take the man by his head and head butt him. I jump and kick two people at the same time, I shoot everyone until there's nothing but crimson red blood on the floor. Red Hood walks beside me as we walk in the elevator after taking a good look of the chaos we just caused. Elevator music starts to play as we go down deeper into the building. I look at the camera at the side of the elevator, I give a small venomous smile before I pull out my gun and shoot the camera. I keep my gun and pull out my knife as the elevator door opens. A man is about to enter the elevator before I take him by his neck, and throw his face against the wall, holding his hands behind his back and putting my knife on his trachea. Red Hood only looks at me, I can tell he's smirking under his helmet. "WHERE ARE THE HOSTAGES" I growl "d...down there...8c23" I smile "thank you...for your cooperation" and I cut his neck and leave him to bleed to death on the floor.

"I'll plant the bombs, go get the hostages" Red Hood says moving the other way in the hallway. I walk down the hallway to room 8c23.

Cages...large cages, and crying. Children crying to their mothers in each cage, fathers trying to get out, the scent of blood and death filling the hallways of cages. I stab the power box right next to me with my knife and the lights go out and the bars suddenly open. The wailing of the children gets louder as the families walk out of their cages, quietly and slowly. There are about twenty families in each cage. "Everybody listen up!" I yell and I sense the families tense. "Who...who are you? Where are you?" I hear a woman exclaim. "P...please help us..." A man says. "Don't worry, you're all getting out, today." I snap my fingers and flames start to come up and light my face. "We're rescuing you." I walk out the door. "Follow me and be quick." As we all step out of the room the alarms are blaring in my ears.

We all run, "Go, go, go!" I stop in my tracks as the people run down the halls "Up the stairs! Now!" I kick down the door of the stairs and they all run up. Dozens of guards are already nearing the door, but I shoot them with my guns until I'm all out...just to buy us some time. "Bombs are set." Hood's voice runs through the com. "I'll meet you upstairs."

I run up the stairs after the frantic families and I kill anyone who tries to stop me from going up. A child trips and nearly falls but I catch him and carry him up the stairs. Finally, we reach the door, and every single person gets up the stairs. I hold the door in place and use my powers to close it shut. I put the kid down, and he runs to his mother. I meet up with Hood and before anyone could react to seeing the man, we run towards the door. "Everyone out now!" We all frantically run out the door and through the gateway where dead bodies await us, Red Hood runs right beside me.

We run out of the open gateway where another huge truck awaits us. The guards are still after us as Red and I load the families into the very large truck. Red Hood steps on it, I can still hear the crying and wailing. "Call GCPD." I throw one of the fathers a phone and he starts calling immediately. Once we're far enough, Red Hood stops. He brings out a small trigger from his jacket and presses the button before anyone can stop us. We get out of the truck as we watch the explosion happen right before our eyes. I open the back of the truck and let the people out. "You're safe now, they won't hurt any of you again." They all get out and some mothers suddenly burst into tears. Hood and I stand side by side with all this...crying. "Must've been traumatizing huh?" I tell him and he nods "I know traumatizing." We hear police sirens come our way and we take out our grappling hooks and shoot them upwards at the same time.

Bruce's POV

I stop the car and we end up right in front of a building of ashes and flames. Commissioner Gordon walks up to me. "I see you've brought your family...although you are all a bit too late." "I can see," Robin says. "What happened here?" Nightwing asks. "Apparently, hostages were taken and experimented on secretly in this facility right here," he gestures to the ashes. "No one knew though, but somehow, the Hood found out and rescued the hostages and managed to blow up the building." "Was anyone else helping him?" Nightingale asks. Gordon puts his hand on the back of his neck. "Uh yeah, the witnesses say that he was with some girl that's somehow able to burn things just by touching them..." "Phoenix..." I mumble. "Yeah her, she's The Red Hood's new partner apparently," Gordon says and I turn my back on him and head for the car. Dick mumbles a quick "thank you" before following me. "We were too late." I grumble.

****Break****

It's already three in the morning and none of my children seem tired with all the surprises The Red Hood is giving us. The only way to find Jason is to follow the destruction and frightened drug dealers.

"TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!" I choke the dealer, slowly and painfully as I clench my teeth. "P...please!" The man chokes, "I'll talk!" I let go and he breathes heavily. "They...they blew up my gang's hideout...last I heard they were in Crime Alley." I narrow my eyes at the scumbag and turn around and leave him with Red Robin and Nightwing. "Father, I think we have a trace on him." Damian's voice blows in my ear over the com. "Where are you?" "Crime Alley, Batman...and you might want to take a look at this."

After Nightwing ties up the man, we head to Crime Alley in the Bat Mobile. We stop by an old construction site where NIghtingale and Robin are waiting for us. Nightingale walks to me. "Batman...you should take a look at this." She turns around and walks into the building that's still under construction.

I narrow my eyes even more with the sight before me. Dead bodies...everywhere, all over the wooden floor, hanging over the window, on top of crates, some are coated in cement, others are in the construction site elevator laying in puddles of blood. There are bodies with no heads, some heads simply roll on the floor in puddles of blood, there are bodies that seem to have their skin burned off, others have cuts on their necks left to slowly die. Some have knives stuck in their hearts and others have bullets in their heads or stomachs...the lucky ones that were murdered quickly. "The Red Hood has just hit a whole new level of brutal." Chris comments.

I crouch down where a decapitated head lays in a large puddle of blood. On the head's forehead is a bloody note taped to it. "Gross..." Tim states. I take the note and I easily recognize Jason's hand writing.

I hear you've been looking for me, well then, see all of you in the Gotham Docks, where I'll just be dying to introduce you all to my new friend.

-JT

"Let's go." I command as I drop the note and walk away. "Where to?" Damian catches up with me. "Gotham Docks."

Tim's POV

We drive to the docks in silence.

Whoever this girl is, I'm guessing she's in trouble with The Red Hood, whatever Jason's doing to her, forcing her to commit these crimes, we'll help her get out of this, whoever she is...she needs our help. I never knew Jason would go this far and force a young girl to commit these crimes and force her to sound insane like she did in the recording, and force her to be his partner. Why would Jason even need a partner? I thought he was more of solo act. Why would he force a young girl into this kind of life? Stop her from living a normal life? I know The Red Hood's evil and insane and all but would he really go this far? I can only imagine how scared this girl is right now...but if she was some kind of hostage then why would she come up with a name and all if Red Hood's forcing her to do these things? Why would Jason even want a partner? Why would he force an innocent girl into killing criminals, and talking like an evil person would? Gaaah, this is a frustrating mystery!

I look out the window and at the dying trees that we're passing by to get to the docks. Whatever happened to this girl, we're gonna help her, and she's gonna come with us even if we have to fight Jason for this innocent life. We'll save her, I mean why wouldn't she want to be saved right?

The car stops and we get out. Gotham Docks is really dark and cold, right by the sea, surrounded by a lot of creepy boats...it's quiet, too quiet. "Stay close," Batman says. We walk forward together, examining the area, waiting for an attack. "So glad you could make it!" We all turn our heads to the left, where Hood is standing on a boat with his hands crossed over his chest. I can practically see the smirk behind his helmet. "Hood." Batman growls as we all turn to face him. Batman steps forward and points at him. "Where is she?" he spits, but Jason only cocks his head. "Where is who?" "The girl, Phoenix!" Nightwing steps in. "Huh," Red Hood breathes and jumps down the boat. "She's right there." He points to someone behind us and I turn to the left where there are a huge bunch of wooden crates. Then out of the shadows, a girl steps out of the shadows. She's about Chris' height, like Dick said. She has dark hair and white skin. She's wearing a black suit that covers from her boots, to her wrists until her neck, a black leather jacket that has ½ sleeves, a red mask, two belts and a sash, plus a bright red orange Phoenix insignia plastered on her chest. She has a small grin on her face as she simply walks around us and to Red Hood's side. "Family, this is Phoenix, Phoenix, this is Family." Jason introduces. "Now...I heard you were looking for us?"

I can see Batman narrow his eyes. "Look, we're not here for a fight," I say as I step forward. "I see..." Jason says sarcastically. "Then what are you here for?" Damian steps forward and points to the girl. "For her," he implies. "What about me?" Her voice is cold and hard, she's a pretty good actress.

Nightingale moves closer to Phoenix. "Listen, we're here to save you." Phoenix's face is emotionless with a small frown tugging at her lips. "Whatever he's doing to you," Chris points to Jason, "we can help you. Come with us. You'll be okay, he won't hurt you anymore. We know he's forcing you to do these things, we know you don't want to do these things." "We can help you." I reason, while I imagine how much fear this girl is hiding right now, I'm imagining that she'll run to us like a kid and tell us all that happened. None of us move when the short silence occurs, even Red Hood looks uncomfortable with the situation at hand. Then Phoenix speaks up, "Then what? You'll send me to the social services?" For a second I see Jason tense, but I think I was just imagining it. Batman narrows his eyes. "No, we're going to help you, just come with us." "And what are you going to do to him?" she gestures to Red Hood who seems really tense now. A longer silence and I'm sure that Bruce is still debating whether he should send Jason off to Arkham. There's no way Jason could handle us all at once. Wait, why does she care about what's going to happen to Jason? He's the one that forced her into doing this, how could she still care about him?

The girl doesn't move, and now there's a strong silence. Then she grins. "I can see the confused look on your faces, even you Batman," she gestures to Bruce. Suddenly Jason relaxes his shoulders, and I can feel his smirk return.

"You know, for a supposedly smart family...you guys a pretty stupid!" Damian starts to step forward and clenches his fists. Phoenix continues, "You guys think that Jason here, forced me into doing this?" Uh oh... "Hell no! This was my choice, all my idea, my path! I chose to kill all of those criminals, no one forced me into any of this!" I don't know what to say...looks like there is someone out there as crazy as Jason. I may not know what to say but Batman does. "What happened?" Looks like Bruce has already considered this happening. I guess he already formed a 'what if this girl is evil' contingency plan. The girl raises an eyebrow "Why?" Batman asks. Phoenix answers, "You asking what happened to me? Why I turned out like this? Well, new flash, I was always like this, from the day I was born...I had no choice." "We all have a choice," Nightwing says. "True...well, this was what I was taught...actually, I didn't understand it at first, why the criminals had to die. Then I realized...it was because it would never end if you simply throw them in jail." I glance at Chris who has her eyebrows furrowed. "Actually, now that I think about it...it was HIS fault!" She points to Batman.

What did he do to cause this? What happened? Am I missing something? Does Bruce know what she's talking about? "I doubt any of you know what I'm talking about, but it's true. Batman's partially the reason why I turned out to be...insane," she growls. "You'll never know what I'm talking about, you probably won't remember. Besides, you'll never find out, not while I'm wearing this mask." She smiles, she seems to be enjoying our confusion.

Jason steps forward. "See, I didn't do anything this time" Batman narrows his eyes and starts to get into a fighting stance and the rest of us follow, but Hood and Phoenix stand proud. "So I guess this is the part where you all go like 'this has to stop.'" "Precisely," Damian growls. She cocks her head and narrows her eyes at Damian, and she mumbles something beyond my hearing range.

She looks up at Red Hood, and there's a very short silence before Jason nods, as if there's an unspoken communication between the two partners. Her frown comes back as she gets into her own fighting stance, I can tell that Phoenix has gotten some training...how much training?
They advance. Phoenix heads for me, Chris, and Damian while Jason runs towards Batman and Nightwing. She doesn't even pull out her guns when she jumps towards us. She kicks my face and punches Damian in the gut. She crouches down avoiding Chris' punch and punches her stomach. Damian and I move towards her, but she turns and elbows Damian in the nose, I jump from behind her but she does and over-head kick and hits my head. Nightingale jumps up and kicks Phoenix in the face, but Phoenix quickly recovers as Nightingale perfectly lands on her feet. Phoenix grabs Damian's hair and head butts him. She punches my chest, and flips up and puts her hands on Chris' shoulders like a launching pad then lands on her feet right behind Chris. She elbows Chris' right shoulder and Chris grunts. Damian runs towards her with his sword slashing about but Phenix swiftly dodges his attacks. I notice sparks of fire surrounding her as she dodges, while I come up from behind her and kick her back. It's as if she doesn't feel any pain because immediately she turns and kicks my head while dodging Damian's attacks. I fall on a bunch of crates as Chris jumps towards Phoenix and hits Phoenix's neck. I get back up and run towards the insane young girl, but she flips up and does a split in the air kicking both me and Damian in our faces. Damian drops his sword and I recover still rubbing my jaw.

Nightingale punches Phoenix, up, down, right, left, but Phoenix blocks and dodges like she's as quick as Uncle Barry. Nightingale lands a hit on Phoenix's stomach and Phoenix nearly flies back, but instead she does a backflip and gets back on her feet, with a small grin on her face. Damian and I already look frustrated but I can see Phoenix and Nightingale still full of juice and excited about the action. "That all you got?" Nightingale taunts. "Actually, no. I'm just not allowed to kill you guys, Hood's orders." She got all that from a glance?

Damian runs towards her. "Tt. what a stupid excuse." He attempts to punch and kick her but she dodges and hits Damian's temples with her palms. She grabs Damian's arms and his body twists, now her mouth is in Robin's ear as his arms are held behind his back. I can see her whisper something in his ear as his eyes widen. She kicks his back and jumps up. She does a backflip in the air, almost similar to Dick's triple somersault and she kicks Chris' face and lands right in front of me. I kick and she blocks. She punches my stomach and I crouch to make the pain stop, but she doesn't waste any time and kicks my neck and hits every single pressure point a human has. I fall on the crates and black out.

Damian's POV

"Gaaaah!" I run towards the girl and punch her face, but she knees me in the stomach. I punch left and then I kick her neck, she jumps back and her feet touch the crates and she launches towards me. She kicks my abdomen and I stagger back. Carter suddenly comes up from behind her, but Phoenix elbows her and she grabs Nightingale's hands and head butts her. Phoenix jumps up and does a flip while kicking Nightingale in the face. Carter falls back towards where Drake lays. Phoenix turns to me and punches my face, but as her fist comes towards me, flames surround her arm. I fall back and wipe the blood out of my mouth. I run towards her and I punch, she blocks, I head butt, she ducks and punches me in the stomach and I spit out blood over her. She stands up and kicks my face, I stagger back then move back forward again but she moves back with much speed as fire surrounds her and I punch and kick but it's as if I'm hitting nothing but air. She punches my face with the fire surrounding her fist. My jaw hurts but I don't feel any burns. She kicks my temple and I fall to the floor. I hadn't even noticed that the rain had begun to pour and our hair is drenched in cold wetness. She stands over me. "I asked you a question Damian. How is Talia?" She mocks. "How…?" I breathe, "how do you know her?" "What? How do I know who she is? Or how do I know that she's your mother?" "Both." "I met her myself, she wouldn't, and you're asking me how I know that she's your mother?" "Yes." I hiss. "That's simple, you told me!" Lightning flashes from behind her. "Who are you?" "Come on now Damian, just because I know your little secret doesn't mean I'm gonna tell you mine," she grins. "Did Todd?" "Oh no, I figured it out on my own, when I was about 8 years old. No worries, Jason won't sell you guys out." She runs towards me in the wet rain as mild fire surrounds her, fire that doesn't go out, and doesn't burn. Then, her mask is the last thing I see before there's just blackness.

Dick's POV

I try to stand up as I watch Jason and Bruce fight...Jason's losing under the rain. Jason punches and kicks but Bruce is fast and hits Jason's helmet, and it cracks. "Stop this now!" Bruce kicks Jason and he falls to the floor. The rain pours harder as Batman stands above him. "You are coming with me." Batman says. "And what? Send me off to Arkham!?" Jason spits blood. "No! I'm not going to that hell hole!" Jason yells. "I don't want to take you to Arkham, Jason, I want to help you...come home-" "So you can have another chance at being my father!? You were never my father! From the day you chose not to avenge me!" Jason gets up and tries to punch Batman in the face but my dad sidesteps and Jason misses and falls to the ground on his hands and knees. I look to my left where Chris is trying to wake up Tim and Damian...great, this has just went from bad to worse. Wait, where's Phoenix?

Suddenly ninja stars come out of nowhere, I dodge them, and I jump up even with my bad injuries. Suddenly I feel a warm hand on my throat and the face of an angry girl...lightning flashes right behind her face, and now I perfectly see the darkness surrounding her despite the dim fire on her hand that doesn't burn. She clenches her teeth as the blood drips down her forehead. Her hair is completely drenched and strands are covering her face. "Let...us...help…" I choke. I yell once I feel something burning hot on my neck. She lets go of my neck and I slide to the ground holding my neck, coughing for air. "Help? You don't get it! I DON'T WANT YOUR HELP! I DON'T F***ING NEED IT!" I touch the light burn on my neck and I see the small grin on her neck. "You know...that burn on your neck will grow bigger by the second until it consumes you and burn you from head to toe." I feel it and as it slowly grows I yell, then it stops and cools down. The pain subsides and I clench my fists. "You're in luck. I learned how to make sure it doesn't burn right through you. I also learned how to stop the pain of the burn," she crouches down and whispers, "but that's not the only thing I learned about my powers, Grayson." My eyes widen but I don't speak. I only let the rain drops drip down my chin. "I can burn anything with just a blink of an eye." I can sense her smile as she stands up and hits my collarbone; I grunt when she kicks my temple. I fall on my side. The last thing I see is flames running towards a large dark shadow.

Jason's POV

"Jason, come with me...I can help you." "Not in your life…you'd have to kill my murderer first," he breathes. "You know I can't do that…" I sense him shake his head. Suddenly I hear light but swift footsteps heading towards Batman. I look up from the floor and watch my sister battle my ex-father. She jumps up and kicks Batman's face, Batman grabs her foot but she back flips and lands on her feet, Batman hits her temples and she counters with a hit to his abdomen and neck. She knees him in the gut and he kicks her side. She jumps up, avoiding an attack to the knee, and kicks Batman's face. Bruce jumps backwards, and now they're 5 feet apart in this rain.

"Come with me, let me help you." "WHY WOULD I COME WITH YOU? YOU'RE THE REASON WHY THIS ALL HAPPENED! WHY THIS HAPPENED TO ME AND WHY THAT HAPPENED TO JASON!" She gestures to me. "Tell me what happened to you." I can see my little sister radiating darkness. "It doesn't matter now…" The unburning flames grow under her boots. Her hair is drenched in the cold rain but mild fire surrounds her. I can see darkness surrounding her like a ghost whispering in her ear, like she's a part of the shadows. Maybe I made a mistake of dragging her into this, maybe I can still pull her out... "THIS IS MY CHOICE, MY PATH! AND NO ONE CAN TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME!" She yells...yup it's too late...well, shit. I realize that Phoenix isn't Jason Todd's sister, she's Red Hood's sister, while Autumn is Jason's sister...she has different sides, I get it now...just like I have different sides.

She advances towards Batman and punches as fast as she can. She kicks his temple, elbows his neck and knees his gut. She ducks, avoiding his punches, and punches his jaw. He kicks her and uses his fists to hit both her temples. Phoenix stumbles backwards and somehow the blood dripping down her head and nose gets worse. She wipes it with the back of her hand. "Enough!" Batman tries to command...but the thing is, Autumn and Phoenix don't listen to anyone but me, her big brother. "GO TO HELL." She advances and hits all of Batman's pressure points then kicks his face. Lightning strikes and for a second I see the patches of burns that Phoenix made on my ex-mentor. Well, it's a good thing she didn't burn him to death like she did with those drug dealers. I slowly get up as Batman and Phoenix battle again. Now Batman's winning, and I can clearly see the rip on Phoenix's mask and the wounds on her arms. Well, I'm guessing this is harder for her since I didn't allow her to use guns or knives.

I gather all my strength and run towards The Batman. I punch him and hit his temple, and Phoenix joins in and we kick him at the same time. She jumps up and uses my shoulders as a launching pad for her palms and kicks Batman's face as I slide my foot on the floor and hit his knees.

I'm hitting him low and she's hitting him high. Batman doesn't have a chance against the both of us. Phoenix stops and stands behind me as I grab Batman's cowl and head butt him. I elbow his chest and hit his gut with my knee. I side kick his chest and he falls, spitting blood. "Batman, I want to know...how does it feel? TO BE BEATEN BY FAMILY? HUH?!" He only breathes and I connect my boot with his face and he falls lower, still trying to get up. "What does it feel like, for someone to turn their backs on you? Does it hurt?" I kick his chest and now I feel the anger coming back to me. "Does it sting?" I kick his face and I stand above the man that was once my father. "Well it should." I turn my back on him and walk away and look at Nightingale who is now trying to get Dick, Tim and Damian up. I take one good look at Dick's sister as my own sister stands behind me with clenched fists. Nightingale scowls at us and I turn my back on her.

Phoenix stands right in front of Christine Carter, staring at her with that anger still radiating around her. Holy shit, is she planning to burn Nightingale to death? No wait...Autumn just turned around and walked behind me. "Let's go," I state before all of a sudden Autumn catches a batarang from behind her with her fingers...wow, Christine probably threw that, I didn't even expect it, hell, I didn't even see it. Autumn clutches the batarang and it melts in her palms. She turns around and looks at Nightingale as rain drenches both of their dark hair. "I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye to your family Carter. So just tell them I said bye okay?" Nightingale glares and scowls at her, but Phoenix just smirks. "We'll meet again next time... hopefully it's a bit less bloody." She gestures to my "brothers" who are on the floor with drops of blood marking the wood of the docks. "Good to finally meet you Christine." I bark before I shoot my grappling gun up and Autumn follows right behind me.

****Break****

We run on the roofs of The East End as the sun comes up. "Sun's coming up Phoenix! We better go!" She runs right in front of me with her hair blowing right behind her as flames spark on a few flocks of hair and flames surround her arms and every step that she takes. We jump to the next building at the same time. "I parked my motor just by that alley!" I yell over the wind. "I got my own ride," she says. "What?" I jump off the building and down to where my motorcycle is parked. "Comin'?" I look up at my sister, but instead she pulls out something that looks like a short-sized red orange and black baton. She presses a button and jumps off the building. As she falls through the air, the baton suddenly, somehow, transforms in the air. Once she hits the ground, she's sitting on a freaking red orange and black motorcycle. She smirks in my direction. "Like it? I got the old motorcycle from the garage and tricked it out a bit." "A bit? The thing turns into a baton!" I start my engine and it roars. "Let's see how fast that thing really is." I step on it and drive. In no time, Autumn has already caught up with me and we drive at the same speed on our way home.

A/N: HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE IT, LEAVE A REVIEW PLEASE