Chapter 13

Half the week had passed by and not a peep had been heard from the Red Hood. His gang continued on as usual, and Batman and Nightwing continued to hunt him down. They both just wanted to help him, but first they needed to find him and stop him. Dick knew it was Jason, but part of him still didn't want to believe it. How could Jason do this? How could he turn into a killer? That wasn't his Jason, it couldn't be...

But then he recalled all that training he'd done with him, all that time he'd been left alone at the apartment while he was either at work or out on patrol, and the anger he stopped questioning...was this his fault?

He didn't have time to think about it, because Oracle was on the comm link for both he and Batman. Tim was off-duty today, spending the day with his father.

"Batman, Nightwing, major trouble in Midtown." Oracle called over the Comm Link.

"What is it Oracle?" Batman asked. Nightwing listened carefully as Robin spoke, tapping away at the keyboard at the batcomputer. They waited in silence, riding in the batmobile, headed for Midtown.

"The Joker has taken over the Gotham City. GCPD reports say he's got the place wired to explode. There are still people trapped inside." Batman growled but gave a nod nonetheless, glancing over at Nightwing.

"We'll be there. Batman out," Batman replied. He turned to Nightwing who looked...apprehensive.

"Nightwing-Dick-are you sure you're up for this? You realize Jason may make an appearance?" he asked carefully. Dick glanced over at him and gave a curt nod.

"I am. I have to be. Someone's got to stop him. The Joker and Jason. And...maybe we can talk him down," he suggested. Bruce gave a simple nod and gunned the batmobile.

"Opera! Ugh, you people are so boring! Fortunately, The Joker is here to fix that!" The Joker called with a giggle. His thugs made rounds through the opera house, collecting people's valuables while the Joker performed his version of 'improv' mostly involved killing his own men, or random people in the audience with gunshots and Joker Toxin. All the while he was laughing like a maniac.

"Isn't this so much fun? Death, gunshots and laughter have a way of making opera so much more appealing, don;'t you think?" The Joker called, giggling again as he shot at one of the opera singers, getting them to sing louder.

"Show's over clown," came a voice, echoing over speaking throughout the room. The Joker and his looks looked around curiously and the Joker gestured for the spotlight, shining it on the balcony at the back; The Red Hood.

"Ah, and the guest of honor arrives! You've been so quiet the last few days! I was almost afraid you wouldn't show up to your surprise party!" The Joker cackled. The Red Hood chuckled in amusement, twirling a pair of hand guns in his hands.

"Surprise party? Well, color me surprised! Except I was expecting a trap. Doesn't seem like much of a trap to me," The Red Hood replied, looking around the room at the scared faces of people glancing back and forth between the Joker.

"Well that's what this is for!" The Joker called, holding up a detonator. He laughed maniacally and pressed the button and the people screamed, but nothing happened. He frowned and pressed it again, and again, and again, but still nothing happened.

"Oh, were those your bombs? Silly me, I went ahead and diffused them! Didn't want you dying on me! Not yet anyway," The Red Hood said with a laugh. The Joker shrugged and tossed the detonator aside, pulling out another one.

"Well, this one is sure to give you a laugh!" The Joker cackled, pressing the button as Joker toxin began filtering into the room. He pointed at the Red Hood and his thugs pointed their guns on him. The Red Hood snapped his fingers and his own men flooded the theater with rebreathers on.

"Take 'em down! Harm any civilians and I'll put a bullet in your knee cap!" The Red Hood called, grappling down to the stage after the Joker. The Joker swung a tire iron at him, which he caught and yanked out of his hand, slamming him in the head with it, then pulling out a taser and knocking him out cold.

"Everybody get out now!" The Red Hood shouted, firing a bullet at the room. The civilian screamed and rushed for the door while The Red Hood slipped out the back with the Joker thrown over his shoulder.

When Batman and Nightwing arrived at the Opera House, the GCPD was shepherding the civilians out of the building and gunfire could be heard from inside.

"What's the situation?" Batman asked, coming to a stop beside Gordon. Gordon turned to him and said "The Joker and the Red Hood are duking it out in there! As far as we can tell, this Red Hood guy is protecting the civilians, but his men and the Joker's are slaughtering each other in there!"

"Damn, we're too late!" Nightwing swore. Batman glanced back at him and then grappled up to the top of the Opera House, Nightwing behind him. The crashed through the glass roof and put on rebreathers, just in case. The two of them then went about disabling the remaining things, both The Red Hood and the Joker's.

"Where's the Red Hood?!" Batman demanded, grabbing one of his men by his jacket. Nightwing grabbed a Joker clown and asked after the Joker; neither of them knew where they were. Batman turned to Nightwing and said "search for clues.

"Someone's hacking the comms! Nightwing, Batman-" Oracle called, interrupted by static.

"Oracle? Oracle!" Nightwing shouted. But then he heard a chuckle, belonging to a familiar voice; Jason.

"Listen up; I have the Joker and I'm going to kill him-"

"Jason, don't-" Nightwing began, but he was interrupted.

"Unless you come alone, Batman. Come alone, to Crime Alley. If I see a trace of Nightwing, I blow him to pieces with the press of a button. Understood?" Batman and Nightwing exchanged glances, nodding to each other.

"Fine. Crime Alley it is. Nightwing, stay out of this," Batman said evenly.

Batman parked the Batmobile just outside of Crime Alley, staring down the alleyway as the memory of his first meeting with Jason came back to him. It was here that his parents had been killed, but also here where he met Jason; the boy had to be no older than 11 or 12 and he'd caught the kid stealing the tires off of the batmobile. He smiled a bit at the memory because even at that young age, Jason was brave, strong. A crack of thunder sounded overhead, followed by a light rain.

"Well, it's about time. I was beginning to think you weren't going to come," came Jason's voice from behind him. Batman turned to face him, eyeing the dagger in his right hand. Jason turned it, holding it in a reverse grip, eyeing Batman carefully.

"Jason, I don't want to fight you. Turn over the Joker and let's just go home and talk this through," Batman said carefully, arms open in a welcoming gesture. Jason flinched slightly, then scowled.

"It's too late for that," he replied, lunging in at Batman. He threw several throwing knives at him, which he avoided by ducking behind a dumpster. Jason came flying over it, attacking from above which Bruce avoided, ducking backwards and throwing a grappling line at him. It went taught around his ankle and he yanked, dragging Jason to the ground. Jason cut the line with his dagger and then retreated up the side of the building, Batman following after him.

They raced across the roof tops, Batman barely managing to keep up. Then Jason spun in place as he reached the end of the building, slipping slightly as the rain started to pour down hard. He threw several more throwing knives at Batman then lunged in immediately. Batman deflected them off his gauntlet and swung at Jason. Jason ducked, maneuvering around the man and wrapped his arm around his throat, bringing him to his knees and pressing the dagger to his throat.

"You're weak! You refuse to do what needs to be done!" Jason growled. Batman threw the teen over his head in a quick motion, but Jason easily recovered, landing on his feet as the two of them grappled over the knife. Batman was stronger and managed to rip the dagger out of his hand and drive it into the roof, then swung an uppercut at Jason. It knocked his mask clean off, and sent the teen stumbling backward. Bruce approached him but Jason spun around, grabbed his cowl and tore it off.

Bruce retreated a ways and locked eyes with Jason, who was still wearing a black domino mask.

"It must sting to think that one of your greatest failures is a better Batman than you are!" Jason snapped, throwing the cowl back to him. Bruce growled snatched the cowl out of the air, donning it again.

"You're murdering people! You're just another criminal! Can't you see that?!" Bruce growled. Jason spit on the ground and lunged in at Bruce again.

"I'm what this city needs! Your way doesn't make a damn bit of difference!" Jason shouted angrily. He faked Bruce out and ducked the punch, swiping as his legs. Bruce fell, but recovered quickly in time to avoid a downward kick. Then Jason retreated across the rooftops again, diving off the building down to the cathedral below. Bruce pursued him, grabbing him by his legs, dragging them both down to the roof below, tumbling across the roof. Jason recovered first and attempted to attack.

Bruce blocked a knee-strike, then lurched up and headbutted Jason. The teen stumbled backward and Bruce pulled out a flare, tossing it at Jason and igniting his hoodie. He swore violently and threw it aside. The distraction was all Bruce needed to rain series of attacks on Jason, sending him toppling head over heels across the building.

"Jason, that's enough! This needs to end!" Bruce shouted.

Jason pushed himself to his feet and shouted back "it'll be enough when I say its enough!" He retreated again, diving off the roof and racing across the cathedral's courtyard, Bruce hot on his heels. He grappled up to e roof nearby and raced across the roof, Bruce behind him, before diving swinging across the way to another building. Bruce grabbed his ankle but Jason kicked him off, the two of them falling onto the ledge of a building.

Jason raced around the corner, then dived across the way, crashing through a window, Batman still behind him.

"It's over!" he shouted. Batman swung at him, before Jason could recover, sending him crashing into a mirror. Jason picked up a shard of glass and slashed at Bruce, but the man ducked back and kicked him in the stomach, grabbing him by his arm and swinging him toward the wall, sending him crashing through. As Jason rose to his feet, he swung at Bruce but the man blocked, then headbutted him, following a series of blows that sent him crashing through another wall.

There, in the middle of the room stood the Joker, beaten and bloody, hung by the roof with barbed wire around his wrists. Bruce looked on in shock, seeing a couple bloody knives, a bloody crowbar and a bloody tire iron.

"You seem shocked! It's not so different from what he did to me!" Jason growled, wiping the blood from his chin as he pushed himself back up onto his feet.

"Yes, this is the hell I lived through for four months! FOUR FUCKING MONTHS!" Jason roared angrily, waking the Joker by jabbing him in the head with his gun. The Joker giggled a bit and looked up at Batman.

"Well, well, well, seems a little birdy has a mean streak after all. Guess he's mine now...mine, mine, mine," the Joker taunted and Jason slammed him in the gut with his fist.

"Shut up!" He shouted, but the Joker just giggled again.

"Jason...I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner. I wish I had, I wish to god..." Bruce said slowly. Jason tore off the domino mask and threw it to the floor, revealing the tears that had started pricking at his eyes.

"For four months...I suffered at his hands," Jason said softly, glaring at Bruce, a tear trailing down his face. He pointed the gun at the Joker's head and continued.

"And for three of those months, I held my own, refused to break, refused to tell him anything...about you, about Nightwing..." Jason glared at the Joker who was still mostly out of it, then turned back to Bruce.

"I kept saying, kept believing you'd come for me. I held out hope, and for three months, I honestly believed you'd come save me." Bruce swallowed, chest tight with emotion, finding it hard to remain neutral. He could hear the hurt in Jason's voice as he spoke, see the pain on his face.

"But you never came...and on the fourth month," Jason paused, swallowing hard as more tears started trailing down his face "on the fourth month, for just a couple of minutes, I finally broke. Just for a couple of minutes." He waved his hand around the room, his voice thick with emotions.

"You know what I did for those couple of minutes? I cried...I cried for you! I cried for you, begged you to come save me!" Bruce felt like someone had driven a knife into his heart. To hear that from Jason, to hear that he cried for help, help that didn't come for weeks later...

"But what hurt more than anything...was knowing you replaced me! I didn't want to believe it...but then I saw the photos...the footage...you replaced me..." Jason went on, voice lowering at the last three words.

"Jason, please...give this all up, let me fix it-"

"You want to fix it? Fine!" Jason snapped, tossing him a gun and pulling the second one free.

"You want to make it right, you shoot him! You put this pathetic piece of death-worshiping garbage down, like you should have years ago!" Jason shouted. Bruce held the gun in his hands as if it was poisonous, then looked up at Jason.

"I...you can' ask me to do this, Jason. I can't-"

"You can't what? Cross that line? What, would it be too hard?!"

"No, god almighty no! It's be too damned easy! Every day, I wish I could just kill him, torture him the same way he tortured all his victims!" Bruce replied quickly. He turned his attention on the Joker who was watching him with a sadistic grin.

"Aw, isn't that sweet! So you do think of me afterall!" But Bruce ignored him.

"But if I cross that line...if I allow myself to descend into that darkness...I won't come back." Batman bowed his head and dropped the gun to the floor.

"I can't...not this, I'm sorry." Jason growled angrily and jabbed the gun into the Joker's head.

"Who said you had a choice? I'm going to kill him! I'm going to get real justice for the horror he put me through! And if you want to stop me, you'll have to kill me!" Jason shouted. Bruce looked up at him in shock; he was forcing him to choose between the Joker and him?! He couldn't...he wanted to choose Jason, god did he want to choose him, to end the Joker and take his son home...but he couldn't...he couldn't cross that line, couldn't go down that path.

"I can't, I'm sorry." Bruce turned to leave, and Jason turned the gun on him.

"No! You get back here and choose! Now!" Fortunately, in his anger, Jason had made one mistake and Bruce had a final trump card.

"Nightwing...take him down now," Bruce whispered into his comm.

"I said choose!" Jason roared, preparing to fire the gun. Then suddenly the door burst open and Jason spun in shock, Nightwing kicking the gun out of his hand and tackling him to the ground, pinning him to the floor.

"Bwuahaha! You won, you actually won! I can't believe it! You always find a way, don't you Bats?" The Joker cackled as Batman threw a batarang and cut the Joker down.

"No! Don't let him go!" Jason roared, struggling against Nightwing.

"Jason, calm down, please, it's over," Nightwing said softly. Jason's expression softened when he looked up at Nightwing, but that soon ended. With the last reserves of his strength, he shoved Nightwing off of him and pulled out a detonator, pressing the button.

"The Joker dies tonight, one way or another! Even if I have to die too!" Jason hissed, as the red LEDS lit up on the bombs across the room. Bruce and Nightwing lunged toward them, but the Joker tripped them both, swinging the barbed wire at their ankles.

"No! Let them go off! I'm the only one whose going to get what he wants! We're all going out together with a big kaboom!" The Joker shouted, letting out a demented cackle. Nightwing kicked him in the head and sent him flying across the room. With only five seconds left on the clock, he grabbed Jason and threw him out the window, diving out after him while Bruce grabbed the Joker. The bombs exploded, destroying the entire building and bringing it down on them...

Several minutes passed as the rubble began to shift. Nightwing pulled himself out of the wreckage, suit torn in places, cuts and scrapes visible in the breaches in the suit. He dug through the wreckage and found Bruce in a similar state, but alive and the two of them then pulled the Joker free, but Jason was nowhere to be found.

"Jason," Nightwing murmured. He felt Bruce's hand on his shoulder, their expressions both crestfallen. They'd both list him once more...but there was hope; with no body in sight, that meant he was still alive...

Jason pulled himself from some rubble, a good distance away from the building. He looked back and spotted two figures digging through the wreckage and pulling the Joker free. He growled under his breath to see the clown was still alive. He underestimated Bruce, and in his anger, he made so many mistakes. And the Joker was still alive! Angry, hurt and betrayed, he retreated from the area, hearing the sound of sirens in the distance. He ducked down an alleyway and sunk to the ground, clenching his hair in his fists.

"God dammit...why couldn't he just choose?" Jason muttered to himself.

"Things went swimmingly, I see," came a voice. Jason looked up to see Talia standing over him. Jason growled and looked away from hr.

"What do you want?" he snapped. She held out her hand and said "what I wanted when I first came to you; to help you." Jason looked up to her before reluctantly accepting her hand.

"Why? It's all over. Bruce bested me, tricked me, and the Joker is still alive. There's nothing left to do," he said in a low tone. Talia smirked and shook her head.

"Its not over. You can still be the hero Gotham needs. You understand the necessity of taking lives when necessary. Now you just need to learn, to grow stronger. I can help." Jason looked up at her, still surprised at her offer. She was right though; he understood now that sometimes taking lives was necessary. Had the Joker, for one shining example, been killed long ago, that school full of children would still be alive...and he wouldn't have suffered for four long, agonizing months...His eyes narrowing, determination flaring, he took her hand and shook it.

"Alright then. Let's get training."