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Jason rose from the grave and immediately went on a murderous rampage. All other thoughts in his head were pushed aside to make room for the most important one. The joker is still alive and he
has
to pay.
When a new criminal rose in Gotham City, Batman was never far behind. That’s what Jason had been banking on.
Soon enough, he and Bruce were finally at the face off Jason had been waiting for since he’d crawled out of his grave. Joker was restrained behind Jason as Jason gave Bruce a choice. Kill the Joker or kill Jason.
Avenge Jason or destroy him forever.
He should have known Bruce would go with non-existent, non-optional option three which was take down Jason and let the Joker escape.
But Jason escaped too. And now he was hiding out, building his following. Getting himself ready.
It was a month after the encounter with Bruce -
Batman
- that Jason got a hit. One of his men reported that Joker had allegedly kidnapped an Omega and a young child - along with a handful of other hostages - and was hiding out in an abandoned warehouse near the docks.
Supposedly he was slowly killing off hostages until Batman showed up.
But Jason had information the Bat didn’t have. Which meant he could get there first. And kill the Joker. And no one could stop him.
At least...that was the plan.
.......
When he got to the warehouse, he found the Joker stalking back and forth before the hostages, a large tub of water behind him. He was deciding who to force into the tub and hold under water.
Water torture. Jason narrowed his eyes under the red helmet, readying his gun.
Until he saw who Joker chose. His eyes went wide and his blood ran cold as Dick Grayson was dragged forward by a few henchmen. It was then Jason heard the screaming.
“Daddy!” a little boy of four years old was being held by one of the hostages. He was kicking, screaming, struggling to get to Dick.
Dick.
Jason blinked, thrown back to the time of a small thirteen year old. Dick was pregnant. One of the pups died. There was still one left.
“Oh god,” he whispered as Dick’s head was forced and held underwater by the mad clown. The pup’s screaming kicked up a notch.
Shaking himself out of emotion, Jason held up his gun, taking aim at the Joker-
-only to hold his fire when the man pulled Dick’s head up, leaning down to hiss in the Omega’s ear, putting his head in line with Dick’s.
“Shit,” Jason murmured. All he could hear was the pup -
his
pup, of that he was sure - screaming his little lungs out. All he could see was Dick, gasping and dripping with water before Joker plunged his head back under.
“Damn it,” Jason snapped at himself before finally shooting at the Joker’s leg. The clown yelped, leaping back on one leg and allowing Dick - hands bound behind his back - to straighten up and collapse to his side, coughing loudly.
Everything happened at ones. Henchmen began firing at Jason even though they couldn’t see him while Joker hobbled away. The pup was released and the baby toddled over to Dick, sobbing and screaming, shaking the unresponsive acrobat.
Growling, Jason moved along the rafters, landing silently behind an Alpha hostage.
“Listen close,” he hissed, voice modified as he untied the man’s bonds. “I’ll deal with the henchmen and the others. You get that pup and Omega out, do you understand me?”
The Alpha hostage nodded rapidly, scrambling to his feet and rushing to Dick’s side. The Omega was crumpled and unconscious. Seeing that one hostage would have trouble, Jason freed another.
“Help him,” he snapped, pointing to where the Alpha hostage was lifting Dick up while the pup screamed and sobbed, begging for his daddy.
The Beta hostage - a woman - that Jason had just freed rushed over and swept the pup up, running out of the warehouse behind the Alpha.
With them out of the way, Jason turned back to the henchmen.
............
“Please, you have to let me through.”
After killing the henchmen, freeing the other hostages, and rushing out before Batman could show up on the scene and take him down, Jason had changed into civvies and rushed out to where the ambulances were. Unsurprisingly, Batman was there too. Restraining the Joker.
Jason didn’t care. He only had eyes for the Omega on the stretcher, oxygen mask over his face while the Beta hostage held his screaming son.
“Let me through, please,” Jason begged the police officer. “That's my son! My mate!”
The officers shared a glance before finally letting Jason through. He instantly rushed to Dick’s side, grabbing the Omega’s hand and brushing Dick’s wet hair out of his face.
“Dickie?” he whispered, one hand on Dick’s head, the other gripping the Omega’s hand like a life line. “Goldie, look at me.”
Dick’s eyes flickered, slowly opening to gaze up at Jason, uncomprehending. Out of the corner of his eyes, Jason saw Batman look in his direction but he didn’t care.
“Jay?” Dick whispered voice hoarse. There was confusion in his eyes. “You...you’re alive?”
“Yeah Dickie,” Jason whispered. “I’m here. I’m alive.”
Dick sobbed, weakly clutching Jason’s hand. “Oh god. Oh god, Jay!”
Jason hushed him gently. “It’s okay, Dick. It’s alright.”
Dick gasped, a shuddering sound as his eyes went wide. “Thomas!” he breathed. “Where’s Thomas?”
“Thomas?”
“My son,” Dick replied. “He was taken too. Jay, he’s only four, he’s-”
“Here,” the Beta woman said, passing the pup over to Jason. The pup was staring at him and didn’t object to being handed to a stranger.
“He’s here, Dick,” Jason whispered. “He’s here, I’ve got him.”
“Jay,” Dick whimpered. “Don’t leave. Please don’t leave.”
“I won’t,” Jason whispered, clutching Dick’s hand a little tighter. “I swear, Dick, I won’t leave you again.”
Batman watched silently. Logic told him to intervene. To drag Jason away. Arrest him. But he stopped when he saw Thomas latch onto Jason, instinct recognizing the Alpha as his father. Batman watched as Thomas rested his head on Jason's shoulder, relaxing instantly. He watched as Jason spoke to Dick, got into the back of the ambulance and road to the hospital.He watched.And he did nothing, fading away into the night.