So, for those of you who hadn't read "A Lifetime and Beyond" or "Into the Deep", Jonathan Crane never became Scarecrow as we know him. It's not completely written out, but briefly in that he was stopped before things got worse. He runs Arkham Asylum now (after being "saved" by Batman, his research funded by Wayne Enterprises so that he helps his patients either get over or learn to cope with their fears) and also raises his daughter, her mother being Harleen Quinzelle - who was slightly aged up and had been murdered by Joker many years earlier. Kristine and Jason are the same age, too.

Adrian von Ziegler's "Dawn of Fate" is to thank here.

Chapter Two

And Fate's Dawn Rises

"Kristine...what are you doing here?" Dick Grayson's attention shifted to Becky, surprised expression unchanged. "Thought you hated my guts."

"Yeah, half of me does," she answered, "but didn't stop me from coming here to ask you a few questions -" She held up the binder of enough of her evidence. Enough that she'd made copies in case this was taken from her, and she hid the originals very well she'd be lucky she could find them again. "- and telling you that I don't trust that rich piece of shit who secretly thinks he's better than everyone else even though he tosses money and calls it good."

His bright eyes softened their range. He then stepped back and opened the door for them to come inside. As soon as the girls were in, they were both shocked at the state of the place. How do you put the mess into words? There was an organization in some areas, others piled with stuff upon stuff. He was a rookie in the BPD, and it didn't look like he had a woman's touch, which meant he had no girlfriend at the moment.

"I know, Dick."

"Know Bruce Wayne is a colossal douche, as Jason would have said?" he asked with a chuckle, directing them towards the sofa with some worn spots. Kristine would have had the time to appreciate aesthetics if not for the business she and Becky were here for.

"That, and I researched everything." Kristine knew that she couldn't stay a child forever. Just as she knew that pedestals were just for objects and not people. And a certain Bat no longer belonged there. The one in her heart was gone forever, but one lingered.

For what felt like the next minute, she got no response except the loud intakes of breath before she couldn't take it anymore. "Dick?"

The look on his face was sheer panic in the eyes before it was gone and replaced with a tight, calm anger. Not sheer threatening like Mr. Wayne had done, but threatening all the same.

"Unless you plan to defend him like abuse victims tend to do." Once she started her tirade, she couldn't stop. "I never expected him to be like this, but as it turned out, I knew nothing about him in the end. Maybe I'm just a kid compared to him, making me an unreliable narrator. He's supposed to be a protector, maybe not just this city, but first and foremost to his own family!" she said heatedly. "He blamed you both for things that were never your fault to begin with; Daddy told me that was called gaslighting."

For a second, she thought he'd deny that, and a small part of her felt she was coming onto him too hard because Jonathan had treated abuse victims delicately, except his daughter was still just a kid learning the hard facts of life. And then, along with a softening, saddened face: "It's all true, I guess. I made excuses for him even though I hated his guts. I had nothing else after I lost my family and the only home I'd known, Kristine. Things were good before I became a teenager, but then I started to think and see things differently; that was when he called me a soldier who wouldn't follow orders. Jason told me once that he felt he wouldn't be able to live up to me. I never had it in me to tell him the truth about Bruce, because you said it: a fighting chance. Now Bruce's war basically got him killed. And I go back every time he calls for me, but then he'd toss me back out without so much as a thank you." Damn it, if only her father could be here to have a field day with diagnoses. And that was not intended to be laughable.

"I thought he was a good person, but my dad measures up to that, and so do Becky's parents, and even though I never knew them...so did your parents."

Dick said nothing, but she could have sworn she heard a stifled sob. Didn't stop her. "None of you are untouchable in the end. I know that now and had plenty of time to think about this ever since you dropped the hint, and ever since Alfred and Dad talked to me. Do I wish they'd told me before? Of course, but at the same time, I understand it was to keep me safe. But...Jason should have been safe, too."

"Things were different back when I was Robin -"

"And then it evolved to machines and firearms, and somber, muted colors," she snapped. "In turn, HE got worse. I see it's just gonna get worse from there. I have enough evidence and the likes to shove into your face when I see you. You're hardly here in Gotham much anymore, Richard. I know you got whatever going on over there, but something has to be done here. You and me - we start where he can't reach us."

~o~

She learned so much from that one visit.

Robin wasn't a mantle the Bat created. It had been Dick's nickname and all he had left of his dead parents, but Bruce never gave two or three shits in the slightest. No wonder he was angry at Jason in their early days, but it was still no excuse.

"The name my mother gave me before she died!" Right, because it seemed like a freaking job instead of something that honored his dead parents, the colors also being theirs. Yet Bruce Emotionally Constipated Wayne had the gall to take something that was never his, to begin with, and give it to another unassuming kid who didn't know better.

She wished that she could have asked Jason if he knew, but he was gone now. There had been only one man to ask, however, and it was the one the title belonged to. But Jason is still and always will be MY Robin.

The fact that he kicked Dick out when he had nowhere else to go? Had nothing to his name and likely struggled when he was still technically a teenager barely out of high school? Her stomach rolled.

She called Dick a jerk when they met, and defended Jason's honor. Called him so perfect he thought he could hurt someone nothing like him. Jay must have thought the older boy the same way. But the skeletons in the closet were so well hidden until now. And some people thought the previous Robin was better than this one simply because he was a happy, go-lucky energy while the latter was an edge lord who began hurting criminals more than even the Bat. Not that those bastards didn't deserve it.

He told me that Bruce was threatening to take away what made him happy, so he was leaving. He promised he'd come back to me soon, but it never happened.

I want to know more about Sarajevo.

~o~

"I got over my mom's death a long time ago, but then again, I was just five years old. My dad lost his wife, the woman he loved and the mother of his child, and he still misses her sometimes while wishing that bastard was dead because every day or every week, he learns of hundreds to thousands of deaths more. I've looked at every single one of the statistics, Dick. I took notes and made comparisons. Maybe we did need Batman back when mob rule was a thing, but when that was taken care of, all the costumed freaks came out of the woodwork. You call THAT improvement?"

He came by her house over the weekend while her dad was at Arkham. She wasn't sure if she was just imagining it, but it seemed they began to strike some semblance of an acquaintance. He brought her a strawberry milkshake, too, and himself chocolate.

"I heard people say that it was child endangerment, even Dad said so, but I'd brushed it all away because Robin stands for anyone making a difference, even to a young kid. What about Jason? I'll tell you: he was one of many kids from the worst part of this shit pool called a city. Sad thing about Gotham is you can't ever get rid of her for too long."

He snorted. "Don't I know that story."

"Know something else, too, even though it's coming out of left field? I wish Bruce died, because at least...well, compare to what you know of his parents doing before they were murdered to what he is doing now."

She might go to hell for saying this, but she was an atheist like her dad, or was she? It didn't matter, because realistically, you found out where you go after death when it was your time.

Dick had looked incredibly horrified at her words, but he didn't disagree with her, either. His silence was all she needed. And it was broken with a shocker of his own.

"My experiences and what happened with Jason prove that kids shouldn't be sidekicks before they're old enough to do adult things."

The wish Bruce died instead of his parents? Yeah, think about Batman!Thomas and Joker!Martha - and I myself saw the Flashpoint Paradox movie, never read the comic. Kristine voicing it comes from AO3's "He did what needed too" by winter_wisteria.

Oh and RIP to Arleen Sorkin, the OG Harley Quinn. :'(

Review and please give some ideas for the next and final chapter.