Latest of the unrelated yet similar series known as Lady Fire.

After reading all of the "Star Sapphire Jason" series by Do_not_careissa, I was haunted by these ideas after Bruce was taken out of commission permanently as Batman. But this time around, for personal reasons and my heart growing up with these characters in the TV shows and movies in particular, the Batfamily consists of B-man himself, Dick, Jason (my fiery heart), Damian, and Barbara. Now my OC, Dr. Jonathan Crane's daughter and Jay's childhood friend, is in the mix along with her daddy and god mom Pamela Isley. Along with Diana and Clark Kent. I won't spoil aside from what I wrote in the summary but proceed with IMMENSE caution if this is too triggering for those who knew someone who endured something similar.

I've NEVER done this before, but this story will have two different endings, and I have not decided which one yet to do: a bad ending and a better one, so after you read this one, tell meh ideas. I need them, pretty please...

Trigger warnings consist of suicide, attempts, grieving, character death, sensitive topics, broken families, and the like. Have LOTS of tissues and such as well as strong drinks (legal adults only). You're gonna need it.

Nothing is mine except my OC who naturally belongs in the universe by my hand.

Chapter One

Setback

He did everything under the cover of the night, with no water necessary. It was bitter either way, but he had experience with something like this. If he suffered organ damage, so be it. But if I feel no pain and never wake up, it's the only single blessing in my final moments.

He'd been punished for his sins, so his own hands saw fit.

He might as well be watched right now, but he didn't care anymore.

His own teenage son ran him through with a sword, not enough to kill him, after the truth about what he'd done to both Dick and Jason individually had come out, and the Justice League got on their side. They removed him from their leading ranks, banned his access, and the same went for his Batcave below; he was forced into therapy and was also confined to this wheelchair for the rest of his life. Damian's sword skillfully paralyzed him from the waist down.

Clark still considered him a friend despite everything, but even he agreed with a vengeful and heartbroken Diana - who had taken matters into her own hands and legally resurrected Jason herself, with help from Talia al Ghul of all people - who told him it would be a very long time before they could trust him again as a friend, after all the times he butchered their privacy and everyone else's, had them on his hit list known as contingencies in the event of brainwashing and used against him and their allies...his list was endless.

The condemnation of Kristine Crane's evidence-gathering over the years ever since the death of Jason Todd. She did her part, also having Dick's betrayal in the form of a flash drive containing a lot of the early years of "abuse" in the cave. It made Bruce Wayne wonder how come nothing from the manor because there were cameras, but they'd said they were not going to prosecute Bruce Wayne for repeated child abuse, even prevent him from paying off CPS this time, because of the new family member on the way.

Jason had given him his first grandchild not long after his legal resurrection, and for a while, things were content, but nothing ever lasted.

Bruce listed everything that had changed in his mind since his forced retirement: elevators and wheelchairs up the stairs, on every floor. Cameras in EVERY room. Medications and weekly therapy sessions, along with physical so he could walk at times without the chair.

Damian took it upon himself to shadow him, and he was never to be left alone while Jason and Kristine visited with the baby. This began when Bruce found it in himself to sneak down into the cave only to find his access locked out thanks to Oracle and everyone else.

He was under supervision whether he liked it or not, and no one was going to let him take the easy way out unscathed.

How could Alfred stand to still look at him after everything? Same with Leslie, who told him she should have called CPS herself when she had the chance, beginning with Richard. Nothing was the same again because of HIM.

They all said my parents would be ashamed of me.

Jason was no longer his son by law or in any way, yet he did give Bruce a chance to redeem himself if he wanted to know Sierra. When she was born, he wasn't there, but video footage and pictures were sent to him. He didn't even get to hold her for the first time until she was brought to him, a precious bundle of cream and pink as expected of a newborn baby girl. His throat and heart had closed in on themselves, his lungs constricting, as she was placed in his arms, and he took in the soft tufts of red hair and the deep emerald green of her father. The fact she was here...that he was gifted...

"She isn't to stay with you from now on unless one of us is there, and she's not allowed to spend any nights with you," were the words that Jason sternly told him, and it was like the final nail to the coffin.

~o~

He all but shut down from speaking more than he did when everything had first been taken from him. He all but existed and grunted or let loose bitter growls and small words. They all called him, each in their own ways, a brat while they'd grown up and moved on.

It seemed like they were just putting up with him as a responsibility they didn't really want, but didn't want to regret anything later.

The years went by, and it seemed the only thing keeping him stable was Sierra, though there was always a trigger that threatened to set him back. Everyone treated him like the child they said he was.

Sierra surprised him one day by slipping away from her parents, being a sneaky little devil she must have learned from her father. "Told everyone I wanted to go to the bathroom, Grandpa," she answered, the title making him flinch a little.

"Thought that was supposed to be just for Jonathan. You always called me Brucie."

She closed the study door behind her after peeking behind herself and seeing the cost clear. Ten years old and already a pretty young lady before she even hit - he stopped his train of thought there. Suppose someone else thought something other than what HE believed if they ever heard it from his own lips. If she was older than she was now, she'd enchant everyone in that lapis lazuli-colored dress of crushed velvet with a square neckline. Her hair was cut to her shoulders and accented with a golden headband topped with a porcelain, snowy flower with four petals. Sierra was remarkable and, according to both her parents and Jonathan, got good grades and had a few good friends made. Yet knowing everyone but him had met them broke his heart immensely.

"Wanted to show you my new drawing from class. Everyone loves it, and Uncle Damian says that I should be enrolled in an art program outside school because the curriculum is bad, or something like that," she said with a grimace. "Something about having few spots open?"

Donations will only do so much. There are people who need to be fired and replaced with someone more competent, especially those who give special treatment to others over hard-working children like my granddaughter.

Bruce took the neatly folded-in-half paper into both hands, and instantly, his breath was blown away by the Van Gogh inspiration behind the brush works. It was easy for her to do Seurat's delicate passion but took too much time, same with Picasso's vibrant collages, but she would get there someday, and he believed that.

Sometimes, he felt he was internally doing better with her than with any of his children.

"You're getting better and better, princess," he told her, choking on the tears that only she could get out of him.

~o~

That picture lay right beside him, beneath the coded message reserved for his private will in terms of who would get what, and everything he intended to leave Sierra for when she was old enough. For college if not a big university, granted what those places had become nowadays instead of places of learning for the future, or what she'd choose with her life.

The picture had Jason and Kristine in a loving husband and wife embrace, accompanied by Dick and Barbara who began walking again without needing a wheelchair, Damian with Titus and Alfred the cat, Jonathan Crane and Pamela Isley, Diana and Talia, Roy Harper and Starfire, finished with the old butler himself with a smile and a hand on the shoulder of an unsmiling Bruce Wayne in his wheelchair - on the outskirts with one hand of Sierra extending out to him, unlike the others.

She put so much time, heart, and soul into this that Bruce Wayne wished he could take it with him to his grave.

~o~

The study doors flew open right away along with the frenzied shout of "Sierra!"

The girl jumped to her feet from the edge of the desk, scared out of her wits; she didn't even see this coming while excitedly showing what she worked hard on. "Uncle Dick," she said, calming down right away, "I was just showing my -"

"Your mom and dad are both mad and worried," Dick interrupted, face soft, but his eyes the opposite. He walked over to her, stopping and taking her into his arms, hugging her before releasing her. All the while, he glared viciously at Bruce. Sierra latched onto his soft blue button-up and hiccupped. Keeping his expression as it was, he softened his emotions for his niece and hummed and intoned a small version of a lullaby his mother used to sing for him. She calmed down and looked up at him, nodding when he told her to go show everyone what she'd done right after complimenting the picture - that told Bruce she hadn't done that already, that she wanted HIM to see it first - and when she was alone, the explosion erupted.

"You knew the rules, Bruce, but it's just like you to break them as soon as you get the chance." Dick wasn't yelling yet, but anyone could be angrier when they were this calm.

"I did no such thing, Dick. She came to me."

"And you couldn't try and make her get Jason, Kristine, or even me first? Alfred? Damian? You know how this looks to anyone watching on the damned cameras?! You're so lucky Jay didn't come in here; when he caught you himself as he went looking for her, you know how many of us it took to calm him down and keep him from barging in and blowing your damn head off whether Sierra was here or not."

Bruce didn't utter a word. What use was there to speak when he knew every word was the truth? He let Dick go on without a fight as part of his punishment.

"Maybe we should just put you in one of the shittiest rest homes in this city. Jason's been suggesting that himself because that means you'd be amongst the people you once ruled. Hear how many of them were affected by the Joker in the past or lost people to him, along with the other Rogues. Being locked up in here isn't enough, is it? I'll have no problem taking custody of Damian myself, taking a large chunk of the company shares from you, and leaving the rest entirely to the Foxes, but then again, it's not like anyone sees you suitable to run Wayne Corp anyway. Everyone in the world knows what a shitty father you are especially after the stunt you pulled when Jason made his face known to the world and you had the nerve to shut him down, saying that your son died a long time ago and you didn't know this person."

The incident he referred to: it was right after the incident with the Joker that Jason survived the cut by the batarang and took time to heal. He appeared right at the police station, shocking Gordon, and then it got back to Leslie Thompkins, both verifying it WAS Jason Todd based on polygraph results along with what limited DNA in the system there was, and every photograph from juvie records and his days as Bruce Wayne's adopted son. He brought himself back to life without much effort.

The grave at the Wayne Estate was exhumed then, finding no body present and no sign of grave robbing, along with the facts that no one had been present aside from Bruce, Dick, the Gordons, Alfred, and the Crane family. The casket had been closed, too.

Bruce had gotten so much sloppier in that he lost it in private, having been forced to put on the friendly Brucie front and say he was beyond happy to have his son back so that he had all three now. But as soon as the cameras were away, hell broke loose.

~o~

That murderer wasn't his son. Jason NEVER would have killed; that had been the Lazarus Pit and Talia's fault.

He didn't want any more blood on his boy's hands, much less that of the man who killed him. And when the batarang got his jugular, then the real Jason would finally rest in peace and they could all move on...the boys would never have to know the truth...

But Kristine Crane got wind, and so did Dick and Damian.

His youngest had known Jason when he was catatonic.

Dick was enraged that the investigation into the Red Hood was purposefully kept from him.

Alfred was heartbroken at what the boy he looked after had become.

They all had witnessed the brutal blow to Jason's face, and just like that, a camera had taken a few clear snapshots which made their way to the reputable news stations and the trashiest of gossip rags - all of which sided with Jason and called Bruce out on being an abusive father.

Kristine then released her secret weapon in which all the evidence on flash drives and in portfolios found their way into the hands of the Justice League. And a murderous Diana swooped in to take Jason from him, declaring him her son despite the fact he was a legal adult at this point, but the law was on their side.

Bruce Wayne, an unsuitable father, now that old stories about Dick were coming back to light that he'd paid off in the past because it upset his new ward? All of that was used against him.

Diana Prince had lived in their presence for less time than all of them, but she showed the world she was more than capable of being a fantastic authority figure, given her reputation for charity, women's rights, and other basic human rights aside from her archaeological findings. She told everyone, sided with Oliver Queen who wasn't a perfect father figure but still did his best, that it was a disgrace that man, in general, could be like this. Said she loved those boys with every fiber of her being, and was enraged and betrayed that someone she'd called a friend would see what he wanted and not what was in front of him.

"Bruce Wayne was one of the noblest men I'd ever known, but with all of this monstrosity...I refuse to stand by and let this continue. If the younger generation and those of us still living stand by someone who deceived us -" She looked at the cameras with the same ferocity as Wonder Woman, the world never connecting the dots. "- there is no hope for us as a human race. We'll just continue the cycle of abuse and ignorance; is that what you want?"

The public and his family company turning on him might have been salt to the wound, but to have one of his friends...

~o~

BRUCE WAYNE PURPOSEFULLY OVERDOSES AT HOME

The headliners wasted no time in putting it out to the world once the tips were released in secret, and it was no secret that Bruce Wayne was now one of the most hated men ever, the love shifting towards the boys he'd adopted.

Diana Prince and the Kent family came to be with them as soon as they got wind.

Special thanks notably to "Coming Home" and "A Simpler Age" from the Star Sapphire Jason series.

Review in lots of detail, or enough that you can manage. Need all the love and help necessary. (hugs to all and to those who are crying after this) Need ideas for the tragic ending and the hopeful one, in terms of the aftermath.

There was a story I'd read where it ended with Damian running his own father through with a sword after the truth about Spyral came out, and it included getting the Justice League to learn everything, culminating with forced retirement for the Bat, but I don't recall which one it was. It was Dick Whump through and through.