I recently watched the DC animated movie "Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox" from 2013 - three years after "Under the Red Hood" the movie - and it'll take a while to grow, maybe, but I'm impressed by what I saw. :D Hence I bring this new addition to the Lady Fire series, slightly different from the others like "Tranquil Peace" is.

I haven't read the comics where Thomas Wayne became Batman and Martha became the Joker, but my boyfriend said that I didn't need to, and recommended this film. I also read AO3's "We Rise" by KatastrophicTodd, the sixth chapter of "Afraid" by thesupernaturalTeen, "Every Synonym for Hate" by LoosePocketChange, and "The Devil's Eyes and His Voice Behind" by Blue_lotus. :3 Usually, I take my time to explain tidbits in those tales that inspired moments in my works, but this time...use your imaginations, because I trust ya'll.

Notes, too: the Ric Grayson arc NEVER happened, and neither did Spyral and the God-awful RHATO #25. Screw them. This is based on animated movies I've seen, mostly.

Some things in here are unrealistic compared to real-life law and order standards, how the justice system works, but I wrote this for catharsis and enjoyment with enough believability that you could go along with.

The OC (Dr. Jonathan Crane's daughter with Harleen Quinzelle) belongs to me, and just her.

Chapter One

The Fragrant Scent of Tea

Her college graduation picture was on the family mantle piece. Her and Becky's separately and one they shared together.

She, Dad, Aunt Pam, Becky and her parents, and of course Dick and Barbara shared it with her over dinner, and one forbidden asshole was uninvited for obvious reasons. The brothers and Babs emotionally cut him out altogether, though they promised they were still looking for the man she still loved even though he was no longer the boy she'd known.

The Red Hood, the mysterious new player in Gotham, had fallen silent after a supposed fight with Batman and the Joker, but lackeys of his were keeping things together so that crime continued to remain low. Residents of Park Row gathered together, inspired by the Red Hood's actions, to protect each other, and set up a community center to replace the old, decrepit one, and it was the first step.

Kristine was finished with Gotham, and she would have left if not for the events coming immediately after she'd stepped off the stage with her diploma.

~o~

"I can't be here in Gotham for a while."

She had just gotten him back, Becky had been there and was now supportive and in on their lives when they chose to tell her because it was good and healthy for him after what both Bruce and the clown did to him. Them AND Willis Todd had done enough to last a lifetime. She had just gotten him back in her life, told her everything, and it was just unforgivable that Bruce had found a third way out, resulting in his scared, traumatized, and angry resurrected son choosing to detonate the old apartment - his old family place - with them and the Joker with.

Joker had been near the bombs, yet he miraculously survived like the cockroach he was. And he was back in Arkham, whoopee.

"Promise me you'll get the help you need?" Kristine begged. As far as she knew, he was first going to Star City - with Roy Harper, who had once been a Titan with Dick back in the day. Things were...tense and estranged between the two these days, Harper had a little girl from an assassin who was once part of this League of Shadows, and Oliver Queen - Bruce Wayne's frenemy and the infamous Green Arrow - was his foster dad. Jason needed all the support he could get, maybe some therapy, and a healthier environment Gotham couldn't give him.

I wish I could go with him, but I need to finish school first.

He took both of her hands in hers and held them, the theater and classic literary nerd he still was, and poured out the depths of his heart. He hadn't said the words which she'd been waiting for and didn't have the courage now because of recent events, but this was close enough: "I will, for myself and you."

He was gone then, out the window where he'd slipped in since he was still wearing his gear and had to get back out there before the Bat found him.

"When we were kids," Becky said as soon as the window was closed, "I never would have thought of you two as a thing, because ew! You're best friends. Now?" She grinned like the Cheshire Cat. "You two are made for each other."

~o~

He wasn't the best investigator in the world or Gotham alone, but he knew when something didn't add up.

His son was taken from him the very night he gave Joe Chill exactly what he deserved, yet here Bruce was, in a suit very much like his yet drastically different. No red, yet he certainly was not the man Thomas Wayne ever hoped he would one day become.

He'd seen stranger things happen in his life, yet nothing could have prepared him for the sight of his adult son - both he and Martha had died in this one's timeline - with the Flash, and pleaded for him to come home with him so they could be a family again, Martha being a lost cause. He still loved her, but nothing was ever the same. Their old selves died with their son in that alley.

Gotham in this new world was...

Should he say just as dreary as his universe, or worse?

Perhaps he lost his touch, but sometimes, when you got to be Thomas Wayne's age, you would know there was sometimes no comparison.

He and Martha were murdered, and their son survived. Bats played the integral part for Bruce's path, where he was now. And should he add that his son loathed killing because it made him separate from those he put in the hospital or Arkham Asylum, as well as Blackgate?

Half of Thomas was happy that Bruce was avenging him and Martha, yet on the other hand, the second half was split into a lot of little conflicting parts. There were a lot worse people who deserved death, and wasn't Thomas talking when it sounded hypocritical?

When he saw his son from another universe all grown up, it was as if his heart and soul were somewhat lifted from the dark walls he'd put up around it since losing his family. Even further when Bruce said he had a grandson.

Thomas Wayne had been alone ever since Alfred died when it was just them after losing Martha and Bruce. He should have just remained in his timeline because it didn't always take a rocket scientist to know ripple effects had consequences, but the need to have a family again outweighed the greatest breach in the stream. And the need to start over at his age, which he wouldn't mind at all. He was far too old to care about anything anymore except what would become of his family; he was going to make the most of what was left of his years.

He damned well had no regrets.

Alfred, his old friend, was exactly as he remembered and far better. The light shone in the old man's eyes upon recognition. They spent the night before the fireplace, catching up on everything - after Thomas removed his batsuit in exchange for clothes that remarkably fit him well - and upon dinnertime arriving, he decided enough was enough when he chose to ask of his grandson. He didn't expect the hesitancy in Bruce's eyes, which caused the gears to turn.

"He...Damian is in Switzerland."

"S-Switzerland?! Bruce, what the devil is he doing there when I could have met my grandson tonight or tomorrow at the least?" Thomas demanded, narrowing his eyes which made his son slink further into his seat.

Bruce swallowed. "It's a bit of a long story."

Thomas snorted. "You have enough time to tell me." They came from two different universes, had warmed up before this fire in their home, and it seemed it was too good to be true. I chose a better world than where I came from, so whatever's here is gonna be worth it...

He loathed the vague but basic information he was given: Damian was the son he unknowingly fathered with a woman overseas, the daughter of one of his most powerful adversaries who was murdered during a coup by one of his former students, the world's deadliest mercenary who was now dead. The child was therefore raised in the way of the assassin and was barely nine years old, already mature for his age, and knew more than any young one should. He was supposed to live in a safer environment, and yet he was out there with Batman, his father, more than he was as Bruce Wayne's son.

Correction: the world had no idea of his existence even now.

"...and you sent him halfway across the world because he would not conform to you, which you call lacking in discipline," Thomas stated blandly, already seeing this going to shit in the future. He needed to be away from all of this, needed time to plan and think this over. "I think this is enough for tonight, Bruce. Good night, son." Saying the word had been sweet and wonderful, but now it was bitter. And so he left Bruce where he was, going for the staircase only to be followed by good old Alfred who was somber and distant, now relieved that it was just the two of them.

"Master Thomas, you must come with me."

Down below was the Batcave, where many dark secrets were held. Both good and bad - with the bad outweighing the good.

~o~

Jason came back to town around the same time the big news broke out.

IS BRUCE WAYNE AN ABUSIVE FATHER?

No one saw that coming from over a mile away, so Kristine Crane was shocked when she woke up to the news article that pinged her phone just as she opened her eyes and roused to awareness. She bolted up in the bed of her childhood; she'd started spending the weekend with her dad after graduation, and next week, she'd start getting out of Gotham. Jonathan told her that he was too old and tired to move, but that didn't mean that she'd have to stay and rot away in this living hell that took Harleen from them. And Jason.

"Kris, did you see this?!" Becky barged into her room with her phone, in the midst of reading herself. "They're saying that his new ward, Damian Wayne, who he kept from the public knowledge while drawing up adoption papers, was transferred to a military school in Switzerland because he was acting out on being kept a secret from the press, kept a prisoner in his own home after living a much harder life - it takes everyone back to after Dick Grayson and Jason Todd were adopted!"

In other words: one "left" of his own will, the other killed by the Joker overseas without Batman and Robin's link. But now things were coming to light.

"Richard Grayson was kicked out when he was just seventeen. The university he attended and graduated from confirmed that Bruce Wayne, his former caregiver, was the benefactor to pay for the tuition, rooming, and everything for Mr. Grayson's education early. After that, we got further insight that Grayson settled in Bludhaven after living in San Francisco for a short time before relocating. We have numerous old and new footage and snapshots from the Wayne family butler and the new source that Mr. Wayne abused the young man he took in after the deaths of the Flying Graysons..."

Now, that was one hell of a slap in the face with all the images of bruises, broken bones, casts in hospitals - all ranging from poor quality back in the day to today's HD tech - and the police and CPS were investigating this up to the newest case involving young Damian.

It was then that Kristine and Rebecca's apartment doorbell rang. Neither girl expected a visitor, so they each wondered if one's father or both of them were here. But when they answered...

"Miss Crane, Miss Langstrom...I'm Thomas Wayne."

~o~

The most heinous of rages consumed Thomas as he recounted what his old friend shared with him in the privacy of the Batcave below after his son had gone off to patrol for the night. That, and the information he found on the supercomputer he was both impressed and disturbed by.

"Bruce," was all he could manage, covering his eyes with both hands, exhaling and wishing he could drink it all away, but some things the bottle couldn't erase. "I thought you would be better than me in this time."

Except what he saw proved his son was no better than himself in his own world, and no better than the likes of all the major rogues he had listed in this monster of a computer. Everything was funded by their family's corporation rather than what it was supposed to do: dedicated to new school systems, affordable housing, low crime rates, thriving economy. Every week, there were major battles with the Rogues Gallery, but the most infamous included the one called the Joker. Not the one his former wife went by, though. Sarcastically, Thomas thought it was funny how Batman and Joker had different roles between universes.

Damn it, with the clown in particular, where did he start? He had a body count numbering in the millions, far more than any single person in the world. And why did Bruce let this monster live after the atrocities listed, not even bothering to leave the feelings of the victims and survivors?

"He fears becoming the likes of that terrorist," Alfred murmured, lowering his eyes in shame for standing by and allowing everything to continue, "and that's why he lets Miss Gordon's tormentor and Master Jason's killer - and the Crane family and whole city's nightmare - live on. Believes he's keeping his hands clean -"

"- when they are plenty filthy enough," Thomas finished for his old friend. "I couldn't agree more."

Nothing ended there with Jason Todd, who as of late, had not been seen since a showdown involving Batman, Joker, and the Red Hood. Thomas whistled, impressed with this new crimelord who was nothing like Gotham or anywhere else had seen before. He aimed to control the underworld rather than end it. Even the ex-doctor knew eradicating crime was unrealistic since there would always be more. The Red Hood's identity in Batman's logs...Jason Todd, the second Robin after Richard Grayson, who went by Nightwing and resided in Bludhaven these days. I need to meet the boys. Bruce said "grandson". Singular and not more than one. He bared his teeth and gritted them at the same time, unable to believe the audacity -! The distrust all because of the boy's origins compared to his predecessor, the true love for the forgotten people unlike the one who lived above them, the warehouse in Bosnia - Thomas wanted to hear it from Jason's perspective and not the cold, detached and limited views from his so-called seed - and the stitched-up Robin suit in the only glass case away from the others above Thomas, on the balcony. Separated and a cautionary tale, and another excuse for Bruce to continue drowning in darkness. The boy, upon return from his death and the League of Assassins, had received nothing but cruelty and distrust mostly from Bruce than he did Richard who had wanted to see his little brother again, the brother he had wished he'd been better to.

Thomas was many things, but a general punishing rebelling soldiers and recruiting children into a cause they were too young to comprehend were both not among his specialties.

There was nothing but high praise for Dick, but even that was too perfect. Thomas seethed when he noted that Robin was the name his dead mother affectionately coined him, and Bruce KNEW but took it as if he'd copyrighted it. As if he was entitled to everything.

As for Damian Wayne, the new Robin, there was no need for Thomas to say it was the final nail to the coffin because all four corners had already been sealed. Him and his two predecessors, and of course, Gotham herself.

He intended to go see this Kristine Crane in the future, whom Alfred mentioned in passing and whom Bruce cruelly cast out since Jason's death. Who had known Jason, albeit temporarily, before he was swept off the Crime Alley streets.

"I have just come back to my son, learn I have blood and non-blood grandsons who are heartlessly mistreated - and you, my old friend, just as complicit as Bruce is - and now I have a lot to handle on my plate."

~o~

She told Becky her findings because she TRUSTED her. Trusted her enough to keep a secret.

Becky believed her because she was a psychology student, though came from two renowned zoologists, with the intention of avoiding the animal that nearly destroyed her family before she was born.

Becky Langstrom supported her theories as to who Batman, Nightwing, and Robin were, but also told her that it was a bad idea to actively get involved if she wasn't protected from the law, and she couldn't agree more. It was hard enough knowing her own father, due to his dark past he told her of himself which occurred before she was even born and he changed for her, Harleen, and himself - it was hard enough knowing Jonathan had been blackmailed and silenced.

And now this man showed up at their place, claiming to be Dr. Thomas Wayne, but from another universe, brought back by his son. And boy, was he emitting the energies of all the worst fire storms and hazards in the world as he announced he knew the truth about Bruce in this world, as well as the three boys he was supposed to protect.

"Y-You...Dr. Wayne -"

"Thomas, please, dear," he told her, a warm smile coming across his five o'clock shadowed face. "I stopped being a doctor after I lost my boy in my time."

"Thomas," Kristine repeated, "Jason is alive, but your son treats him like the enemy. I haven't spoken to him since we lost him, and look at what he's become now. He cares more about the monsters - including the one who caused the most damage to all of us, leaving virtually no one unaffected by him - than the people who just want to live without fear walking the streets, doing their everyday business, or just simply existing at home. See the problem?"

Thomas scoffed, reaching for his shirt pocket where that bulging outline of a flask was. He's a chronic drinker. Becky noted this with her, wrinkling her nose.

"I'm hypocritical when I say this, but certain people get death coming to them. Maybe I'm just prejudiced this way."

And HIS Batman persona killed anyone without a morality. Without his family or an anchor, he was a wild card. But then again, Jason could get behind this guy, this grandpa of a vigilante. "I want to meet all of my grandsons, so that's why I've initiated all of this." Thomas then motioned to the phone on the coffee table, showing the article the girls had looked at moments before his arrival.

Kristine and Becky gawked, the blonde speaking for her. "Y-you did that?! How?"

He chuckled. "There's a great story to tell. You girls have time to hear all of it?"

~o~

"What have you done?!"

Thomas coolly sat with one leg crossed over the other as he frostily glared up at the son who died - figuratively, not literally - in this world when he and Martha had in that alleyway. "What Alfred knew he should have done if not for the fact he serves only."

And wasn't this the only thing Bruce seemed to care about? "Do you know what this will do to me?" he demanded, but the father wasn't fazed in the slightest. He'd dealt with worse on the streets in his universe.

"Oh, I understand perfectly, boy." The word made his man-child flinch. Good. "I understand you take these boys in but refuse to put in the real work of being a father, blood or not. Now, where do I start?" Thomas put a hand on his chin and tapped a finger, pretending to think for the theatrics and smirking. "Dick Grayson - lost his parents similarly to you, but instead of being taken in by someone within the circus he'd grown up in, the blasted state had to allow YOU of all people to do the job. That, or the broken foster system you still haven't fixed, either. What do you do? You indoctrinate him under the guise of it being 'his' choice, true justice denied of his parents, and then when he grows up and begins thinking for himself, you just throw him out before he turns eighteen.

"Don't get me started on the one who died, but you didn't avenge as I've done for you in my time. A boy who had it much worse than you, whom you put out there before he could get back on his feet, and who was also like you in many ways. You claim him a true son, blood not mattering, yet you have that memorial in the cave as 'A Good Soldier' - and his gravestone bearing 'ally and friend' and also being far away from Martha's and my stones. And the fact he was brought back to life, should have been a blessing to you, but you only see the child he was. AND YOU CHOSE THE CLOWN OVER HIM BY BLOWING THE GUN OUT OF HIS HAND?!"

Thomas bellowed out of the blue to the high heavens and made Bruce step back with a single leap, at the same time the older man leaped to his feet, towering over his son with rage.

"Now that leaves Damian, the son you never knew you had, who had grown up in a centuries-old cult where death and murder are everyday life, and there's always a reason whether we like it or not. It's a pity because Talia al Ghul clearly loved you, from what I deciphered. I'm ashamed not only of you for your treatment towards Richard and Jason, but for throwing Damian aside all because he grew up before his time. For that, I'm going to bring all of my grandsons home."

TaiGekTou's compositions serve this story's titles ("To Meet in this World" for the entire tale, now "Falling Blossoms, Fragrant Tea", and the next chapter is the finale).

Review. (demon grin)