A Lonely Place In Dying

A Son, A Brother, A Hero

To the public, he was in Kuwait learning the language and culture of its people. To his family, he was dead, never to return. To his fellow heroes, he was alive and well, off somewhere on a training mission. To himself, Jason was broken, but nobody needed to know that.

He had dropped to his knees a while ago, staining his jeans with fresh mud. It had started raining long ago, but he didn't mind, he hadn't really noticed anyway. His mind was busy processing the words written across his tombstone. The lies.

"Gone But Not Forgotten. Jason Peter Todd. A Son, A Brother, A Hero."

Jason chuckled weakly. Gone But Not Forgotten my ass. It had been a little over a year after he was brought back when he'd finally peaked into the manor windows. Everything that had shown he'd lived there was gone, tucked away into dark corners, bearing company only to the settling dust. Jason remembered feeling something inside him break, but he was never sure what it was. His sanity? His heart? Who knew, because he certainly didn't.

He slowly rose to his feet and threw his hood over damp hair. Jason had wondered for a while who came to his funeral. Ra's never told him, saying it was something he needed to learn for himself. But did he want to? No, it didn't matter anymore, they're all just as guilty, and he was here to make sure they understood that.

Jason turned and walked with a listless gait back to his motorcycle. It was time.

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Jason loaded his pistols into his thigh holsters and strapped an AK to his back. He was sure he wouldn't need it but he always planned for the worst. A machete tucked away in his black duffel were the last items collected, thrown over his shoulder as he walked out the door. It was time to go hunting, and Jason had seven heads to collect.

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The first three were easy, he had managed to catch them by surprise. The fourth and fifth were a little more difficult, but still manageable. The sixth was a little bloodier than he would have liked, but still acceptable. The seventh, well, he still hadn't finished that one yet.

The man, because Jason hadn't cared enough to remember his name, ducked into an alley, leaving a lovely trail of blood for him to follow. Jason had to admit that this little game of cat and mouse was starting to annoy him. He had a meeting to get to and this little rat wasn't going to make him miss it.

Whipping out his pistol, Jason aimed lazily and shot the fleeing man in the back, although not fatally. He wasn't finished with him yet.

Jason watched as the collapsed man tried to drag himself to safety. Letting out an amused chuckle as he sauntered over to the fallen man, he spoke, "Why bother? You know you're going to die, I know you're going to die." Jason gestured towards himself, "Hell, even the birds know you're going to die. So why bother? Why not just accept it? It's easier that way." Jason stomped down onto the man's back, digging his boot into the bullet wound. The man cried out sharply but still attempted to crawl away.

"Now, for making me wait," Jason placed one knee onto the man's back, stopping his incessant squirming, "I'm not going to give you the same mercy I gave the others." He crooned and gripped the man's hair tightly in his fist, baring his throat.

The man started to thrash around wildly, but his weak protests were simply batted away. "P-please! Don't! I-I have a family!" he protested, but Jason only laughed at those words.

"Buddy listen, everybody's got a family, somebody that cares for them, but did that ever stop you from killing them? Probably not, right? So, why should it stop me?"

"P-please don't! I'll do anything! Ple-" he pleaded, even as the sharp blade touched sensitive skin. Nothing he said helped, and Jason continued on with his work. He had a deadline to meet after all.

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"Yeah, like yelling at the guy who's holding the AK-47," Jason barked back at the man. It was really tempting to just shoot him for his sheer stupidity, but sadly, he was needed.

"Now that I've got your kind attention, a little birdie told me that you were missing your lieutenants." Jason watched as the drug dealers nodded to themselves, "So, after hearing this terrible news, and out of the kindness of my cold, dead heart, I went ahead and found them all for you." He paused for a moment and threw his black duffel over the railing and watched it land with a sickening thud. "I even brought them here for you!"

Jason watched with a wolfish grin as one of the dealers reached out and opened up the damp bag. "Damn!" he shouted and shot back into his chair and scooted far, far away from the bag.

"Those are the heads of all your lieutenants. That took me two hours. You wanna see what I get done in a whole evening? Make no mistake, I'm not asking you to cut in with me. I'm telling you."

Just for good measure, Jason released a long burst of gunfire into the ceiling for dramatic effect. As expected, all the dealers ducked underneath the table to avoid the shots, which in turn, allowed Jason to silently slip away.

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Okay, so I have a reason why I haven't been active. My Laptop broke and I had to wait until Christmas to get my new one. Now that I have it I'll be updating all my stories within the next few days!

I hope you all can forgive me!

Til next time,

Rachel

(Also, leave a comment and let me know what you think of this chapter! A bunch of you wanted another one so I hope this is okay!)