Up next in the "Kristine Crane, Red Robin" series. :D Nothing is mine except Kristine herself. Story is also named for the composition by YouTuber Adrian von Ziegler, and this first chapter after another YouTuber's piece (Peter Gundry's "Sorrow's Harmony").

Chapter One

Harmony of Sorrows

"Bad idea still?" Kristine asked after parking the car in the lot. This was Becky's, which she had borrowed from her parents for this day trip. Kirk and Francine had planned a weekend getaway to celebrate their anniversary, which was the perfect opportunity for the girls.

"Yeah, because what if you get your ass locked up - and me with?" Becky pointed out from the passenger seat. "We've done so much over the summer, school is gonna start soon -"

"- and the sooner we finally get this over with, the better," Kristine interrupted, hands tightening around the wheel. We've had a lot of time, planning, and research, so we have to be smart about this stuff. And a lot to lose, too.

The fact Dick Grayson was the original Robin AND Nightwing? She was still a kid high on emotions, so of course, she was excited and hoped her other hero was nicer than Batman, based on things she heard. On the other hand...

~o~

"Hard to believe," she grumbled when she and Jason were in the kitchen together, the shouting heard in the distance. At it again.

Jason snorted with her, sipping the hot chocolate Alfred made them for their usual homework Fridays. "No shit," he grumbled, making her laugh and warn him the butler would grab him by the ear for the language. "What Alfie won't know won't hurt him." He snickered.

And there was Dick himself, stalking past the kitchen after the shouting match was over, but he paused by them and scowled at Jason, the kid who had nothing to do with whatever crap was going on between him and Bruce. Dad told Kristine it was generally part of the teenage and young adult phases in the development stages, so maybe this was all it was. Either way, Dick had no reason to be a jerk to Jason when he was a kid just like her.

"Get lost, you insensitive jerk!" She stuck her tongue out at him, snapping him out of his glaring stage, making him widen his eyes. She was old enough to start thinking about this: performers, or ex-performers, thrived on positive attention and didn't take it well when someone was the opposite. He said nothing and just hurried out of Wayne Manor, satisfying her and giving Jay a high-five.

~o~

It turned out, over the summer, the forgotten people of Gotham were opening their eyes up when word of mouth as well as social media platforms began to get others involved in terms of the brutality of Batman, and Kristine Crane and Rebecca Langstrom had nothing to do with it. It caused their simple black-and-white views from childhood to become skewed.

And that was also why she was here. She hadn't seen or heard of any Nightwing sightings in Gotham in months. She still stood by the fact he was a jerk to her late bestie - and first love, though Jason is never going to know - but now she wanted to know his side.

The last time she saw him was just before Jason's funeral, and it didn't end well. One-sided, now that she thought about it.

~o~

When their teenage worlds existed, life had been good except for some times when he wasn't able to make it to their planned get-togethers. Dad did his best to reassure her, though, for her emotional levels, her needs didn't feel like they were met. And when they met together, Jason would tell her that he got his ass kicked for old times' sake along with whatever shit he was needed for as Bruce Wayne's adopted son.

She kept up with all of it until she'd been told by Mr. Wayne himself that Jason had died overseas.

Her world ended then and there.

She had blacked out and woke up in her bed sometime later, with Dad and Aunt Pam there, and later, Becky came over to keep her company, along with her parents.

She didn't expect Dick Grayson - the jerk he was, the few times she ever saw him for belittling Jason for reasons that escaped her, but began chalking it up to still-developing hormones and jealousy that easily came with youth; thank Dad for the kind of mindset she had growing up - to come by with red-rimmed eyes and a whole box of tissues, meeting up with her in the neighborhood park during the day when things were calm, usually more than in the night when hell broke loose.

"Jerk," Kristine spat at him when it was just them. She let all of her hate for him be seen, and it made her feel only a little better to see the hurt twisting his features. "Jason was just a kid, like ME! What about you? Whatever crap between you and Bruce, you took it out on him and got him caught in the crossfire! What the hell, asshole?! He just wanted a family and a better life after the one he had before, and I was the first real friend he ever had, Dickhead. You put on that kind smile, gentle and welcoming attitude for everyone else, like those movie stars we all idolize...but you showed who you really were when Jay and I were there. You are no better than - damn it, I can't bring myself to name anyone in particular; figure it out yourself. You have the nerve to show up to see me when you barely gave him the time of day except for a FEW outings."

He let her talk and didn't interrupt her once, speaking only when she was finished.

"Yeah, you're right, Kris. I took everything between me and Bruce out on the wrong person. I should have been there when Jason ran away. He had you, and I'm thankful, but it changes nothing. There's so much I should have done for him. I should have been a better brother."

~o~

Being at the funeral was too damned small, because of the lack of boys and girls her age and Becky's age - and Jason's - which indicated that Jason Todd never made any friends in his short life. Too short for their liking. This was such bullshit because he shouldn't even be lowered six feet into the ground. They had done so much together, been through so much, and there was too much in their lives ahead for them. The homework nights, the movie nights, and discussions on pop culture, literary passions, their plans for college, and potential relationships in the future...

...but instead, here he was and buried out there near Thomas and Martha Wayne, and the goddamned writing on the headstone sickened her so much. "Ally and Friend" - not "son", not even a "brother" or "grandson" to go with. No one even talked to Bruce, but then again, he's not in the right mindset.

He scared her all the same and made her angry and spiteful at the same time.

He didn't even smile at her anymore when she tried to see him and offer him comfort, offer a small semblance of what things were before, but the responses would be nothing more than noncommittal grunts or sharp nods, sometimes nothing at all.

When she and her father were let into the manor by Alfred, they were witness to a monstrous shouting match that reached their ears.

"- blame me for Jason's death!" Accompanied by a loud SMACK and the sound of a body hitting the floor.

On instinct and against Alfred and Dad's protests, Kristine had dashed in that direction towards the study, right after bounding up the stairs. Someone had left the door open; either the man didn't care or he just forgot people were coming. The cold became worse like the North and South poles of the globe and reached supervolcano levels when she was greeted with the sight that might be seen in her nightmares in the future, along with Jason's dead face in the coffin, surrounded by snowy chrysanthemums and daisies.

There was Dick sprawled out on the floor, grunting and covering his face as he stood up on his knees, straining and forcibly. Behind him was Bruce in nice black clothing, fit for mourning, but it was his face that gave her a heart attack for her age. His stormy eyes had snapped in her direction as soon as she made herself known.

"Get out, Kristine. This isn't your business."

"NO!" she'd shouted, storming in and unafraid. What would he do, hit her? She was just a kid, and Jason would have told her if this happened to him, would he? He opened up to her about his own asshole sperm donor, yet...

"What the hell is wrong with you, Bruce?! What did he do to deserve this? Why would you be like HIS father had been?" She didn't have to say the name of "he", because the man knew. He'd growled at her, looking down at the ground.

"Richard has the nerve to tell me I'm to blame for Jason running off, just because he was being a rebellious teenager who won't listen to me. Dick's left on his own before and always came back."

Kristine had bristled; so, it was Jason's fault? Or was it Dick's? She remembered hearing something about blaming others but yourself when they called you out on it, but couldn't remember at the moment. But before she could say anything, Dick spat at him.

"Liar."

"What?" she'd demanded, looking his way, and gasping in horror when she saw the reddening of the right side of his face. That was going to turn into a really dark purple and yellow in the future. Behind her, her father had snarled through his teeth. He then stalked up and took his place to his daughter's right, arm snaking behind her and resting on her other shoulder.

Sadly, Dick couldn't answer her as he ran out on them. That left her and Daddy with the monster the man they knew was becoming. "You two, leave with him."

"Bah, you think you frighten me anymore, Wayne?" Jonathan's uncensored anger took her off-guard; he was scary when he was like this, which was why she always did everything in her power to not be on his bad side all her life. "That was uncalled for. As a father, I understand how you're feeling. I will DIE if something happens to my child here, or might as well exist as a living corpse. Either way, I am appalled by this display of barbarism."

"I didn't ask for your professional opinion." Are you really that cold now?!

"You don't need to. Just know that if you push all you have in your life away, it's death alone in this tomb called a manor." Jonathan had scoffed. "It's absolutely a massive crypt compared to the abode we have. I've said it from the beginning." He'd lifted his chin. "As for a professional opinion, Jason would never have wanted a fallout as diabolical as this."

Bru - Mr. Wayne was before them in a flash. "Don't. Say. His name. Both of you, leave. This isn't a good day to push me, Doctor." Not "Jonathan", as it had always been. "If you don't want to lose all funding to your research and everything comes out in the open."

Before Kristine could ask him about all the years they had together, him always happy to discuss what she did with Jason, too, now a stranger cemented itself in his place. Especially when he threatened her father's livelihood! How low could he get?

And then he demanded the return of the robin's egg necklace, completely tearing her heart in two parts, which resulted in both halves shattering into thousands to millions of pieces.

If he wanted to be this way, unlike her father when he lost her mom long ago, then Kristine never wanted to see him again after this.

"He was my best friend," she'd croaked through her tears and the anger burning her flesh. She got both men's attention. "I loved him and lost him, too, Bruce! We just want to be here for you because Dad knows what it's like to lose someone, so why would you be such a monster? You've become someone I don't even recognize."

There was a long pause, an extremely heavy one before Bruce heaved a heavy exhale. "You couldn't understand how I feel, Kristine. You can try, but it will never happen. The same goes for Dick. None of you ever understood what you'd gotten into." He then turned his back to them both, which Jonathan whispered to her as their cue to leave this golden cage.

Golden cage was right.

Jason no longer being here meant that they were no longer welcome on a personal level, which broke her heart to no extent. It also meant no more peppermint hot chocolate from Alfred or any of his masterpieces called meals...and whatever Jason had in his room. Her heart burst then as she panicked over losing Jason forever in a physical way. If she had nothing left of him from now on -!

A throat cleared got her attention just before she and Dad took the first step downstairs. "Miss Crane, Doctor," he'd said, holding out something red that she wasted no time accepting from him and holding close to her heart. "Master Wayne has forbidden Master Jason's room from ever being touched again - except for myself - so I have taken the liberty of giving you something in his honor." His wise old eyes were misted over as he kept the tears back. He had loved Jason like a grandson, and just now he was reassuring them both that if Bruce didn't want them here, then he had the choice to come to them if they wanted.

Jonathan had snorted. "You can first start by telling that overgrown man-child you call a charge that the boys should have been kept from him a long time ago if we'd known then what we know now. No one should be responsible for his mental and emotional well-being, least of all yourself, Pennyworth. You raised him after he lost his parents, but now it's overdue for growth. As for the loss of a son, all he sees is nothing but what he wants, and thus shoves outside support. He's on the path to self-destruction, a darker path than before. He's worse than any of my patients whose cases are less compared to him." He'd stopped talking then and looked down at her. "Kristine, you should go ahead and wait outside. I won't be long." And his tone booked no refusal. She nodded without a word and hurried downstairs, not before her sensitive ears caught some more words her dad tried to keep from her and failed.

"Mr. Grayson isn't leaving of his own will this time, and the very first time wasn't his volition, either. Just like before, you've stood by like the enabler you are."

Enabler?!

That struck a cord in her; this was the first time she was hearing this. For all she knew, as did Jason, Dick left voluntarily just after turning seventeen years old - maybe that was part of his circus past in his blood, but what did she know? She had been almost sixteen and wasn't able to leave Dad just yet. It was also part of the laws, written and unwritten.

She had ducked behind the staircase when she caught this. With the kind of brain she got from both Dad and Mom, she had some Nancy Drew investigating to do.

~o~

And so all the horrific secrets barraged before her eyes once she found what she could.

She and Becky managed to do everything within the shadows - and everything wrecked the foundation of their childhoods that she took to compiling everything in more notebooks and binders than she had of the Dynamic Duo since she was old enough to fall in love and worship.

The clues were there all along: Batman either was someone sickly wealthy or paid by someone with that status, yet nobody even thought to mention Bruce Wayne as a contender, or just plain didn't give a crap. And Robin had gone from a boy barely entering his teenage years to being a young adult and then wound up de-aging for some odd reason. A genius should have pieced it together they were two separate boys. This brought Kristine to the video evidence on the flash drive Alfred gave her, also ensuring it was nontraceable.

The first Robin and this Nightwing were also known for a certain technique called the four-time somersault, and only the Flying Graysons who died years ago when she and Jason were kids had been known for it...namely their young son who survived his parents and was taken in by Bruce Wayne after a brief stint in juvenile hall.

Bruce Wayne was Batman, Dick Grayson had to be Nightwing - the sole protector of sister city Bludhaven - and that meant...

Jason Todd had been Robin. The Robin she had a schoolgirl crush on ever since the time he saved her and the Langstroms.

Was it a coincidence that the second Robin appeared sometime after Jason's adoption by the same richest man in this city?

Let's face it: modern comics have made Bruce/Batman into an abusive asshole, son of a bitch...there aren't enough words for this abomination. Both Batman fans and of his Batkids are aware enough of this, and over the past year, I've become exposed enough and read MORE than enough fanfics here on AO3 to vent rather than the shit DC keeps pumping out.

It's not new for me to be inspired by others' works to help bring my own stuff to life, so at the end of each chapter, I shall provide an AO3 list. (devilish wink and thanks to those authors)

I have written "Into the Deep" and "A Lifetime and Beyond", both of which explore Jason Todd and Kristine Crane's lives, so bits of those made their way in here. Be sure to check them out if you're interested. :3

Note: no Sheila Haywood in here. Sticking to the UTRH movie and the interactive Death in the Family stories, along with RHATO Rebirth in terms of Jason's parentage (Willis and Catherine). Canon in both comics and in the media is so all over the place that it's up to US to pick and choose what we want, but it's good.

First fic inspiration from AO3: "Ignorance is the bliss of life (until its not) by CHEEZY4DAYS. REVIEW NOW!