Family Business

ish hits the fan

"Ha! Isn't this cozy? What a nice way to make a family reunite. Wouldn't you say, Jason?" With his free hand, Joker ripped off Jason's domino mask and revealed to Gotham's elite the face under the Red Hood. "That's right, little ol' Jason Todd is back from the dead with a vengeance!"

This wasn't part of the plan!

You think?!

What do we do?

We save Jason, obviously.

As the team was about to jump into action, Bruce halted their motions by stepping forward with his hands raised. "Joker, what do you want with us? With Jason?"

The Joker cackled, hitting Jason in the temple with the butt of the gun and sending him to the floor. Joker aimed the gun at Jason, planting his foot on his back as he scratched his chin with his free hand. "Hmm, what do I want? Ha! I want dear ol' Brucie to admit the truth."

Bruce paled slightly. "Which is what, Joker?"

"Why, that you knew Jason was back from the dead for years, of course! And that you, ha, are the Batman! The Caped Crusader! The Dark Knight!" Joker kicked Jason in the ribs. "If you don't, the boy dies...again! Hee hee!"

Jason made eye contact with Bruce through his black eyes, subtley shaking his head. 

"This is the first time I am seeing Jason since the day we buried him." Bruce lied through his teeth. "As for being Batman, well, that has been disproven multiple times."

Joker threw his head back and laughed manically, firing the gun next to Jason's torso and eliciting screams from the socialites. "Try again, Mister Wayne Bat."

Jason narrowed his eyes at Bruce, once again shaking his head in the negative. 

Bruce sighed, mouthing a 'forgive me' to Jason before addressing the psychopathic clown once more. "Alright, I will tell the truth."

"Hee hee! Finally! The cowl will be pulled back!"

Bruce took a few more steps towards the duo, hands still raised. "Jason was the Robin to my Batman. You killed him by beating him to death with a crowbar before setting a bomb off next to him. Jason was resurrected by a Lazarus pit and became the Red Hood due to the fact that I haven't killed you. But listen to me, Joker, if you kill Jason a second time-"

"You answer to us." All eyes turned to see the Wayne siblings stepping forward  with murder in their eyes. 

"Ha! Ha! The whole Bat family has come out to play!" Joker cracked up. 

"I told the truth, now let Jason go." Bruce growled.

"Hmm, okay." The Joker kicked Jason one last time before letting him stand up. As Jason was walking away, the Joker winked at Bruce. "But I didn't say I would let him go alive."

Bang!

Jason fell over as the bullet entered his upper back, collapsing in an ever growing pool of his own blood. 

"Jason!" 

His family was surrounding him in an instant, Cassandra ripping her dress and bunching up the fabric, pressing it on the wound to slow the bleeding. 

The team was shell shocked for a moment before leaping into action, diving at the Joker. Cassie punched him in the face while Garfield turned into a snake, wrapping himself around the clown to restrain him. Artemis removed the gun from his hand as the Joker just laughed at the chaos he caused. 

Commisioner Gordon approached the rogue with the rest of the GCPD that showed up as soon as the Joker broke in, taking over for the team so they could go be with the Bats.

As soon as they went over to the Bats, they felt their stomachs drop. Jason had blood dripping out of his mouth as he stared at Bruce with sorrow in his eyes. "I'm...nngh...sorry. He ambushed me...outside the manor. I just...wanted to have...some fun. Didn't mean...for this...to h-happen."

Bruce knelt next to Jason, holding his hand in his own as he brushed his hair back. "Shh, Jason its okay. I know you didn't mean for this to happen." He stepped back when paramedics arrived, allowing them to take over. Bruce followed the paramedics outside, being stopped by them outside the ambulance. "I'm his father, let me go."

"S'okay, let him...come." Jason was losing consciousness fast as the ambulance pulled away with him and Bruce inside, leaving the team and their family behind.

Dick was staring at the puddle of blood on the ground when he remembered the fact that his father and brother were just outed to the world. He turned to M'gann with a stoic expression, talking to her through the team mind link.

M'gann,  I need you to erase the guests memories.

M'gann was too distraught to revel in their victory. She just nodded, her eyes glowing as she worked on altering the memories of all the guests in attendance.  It took some time and effort, but eventually all the guests forgot that Jason Todd was outed as the Red Hood and Bruce Wayne as Batman, only remembering the Joker revealing Jason still being alive.

The team gathered the Bats in a group hug, offering to give them a ride to the hospital.

"Thank you, we really appreciate it." Barbara smiled sadly, watching as Alfred ushered the guests out of the ballroom with the help of the GCPD.

After the ballroom was cleared, the group made their way to the bioship, which was parked in camouflage mode in the far corner of the Wayne Estate. They all boarded in silence, nobody saying a word as the gravity of the situation hit them full force.

Jason may not live through this, and it was partially the teams' fault.

Cassie held Tim's hand as they flew through the air towards the hospital, giving him the occasional squeeze.

Cassandra and Stephanie were crying in silence, staring out the window as they pondered the possibility of Jason dying a second time.

Dick was numb, he wasn't sure he could handle losing Jason again. He barely got through it the first time.

Barbara and Damian were putting on strong fronts, but inside they were calculating what went wrong and revenge, respectively.

The team was distraught, but no one was worse off on the team than Conner. He blamed himself, for if he hadn't texted Jason to see if the antihero wanted to prank his family during the gala then he wouldn't have been ambushed by the Joker then shot.

Tensions were high when everyone rushed off the bioship once they arrived at the hospital, Dick leading the charge to the ER. They found Bruce with his head in his hands, soft sobs coming out of his body.

And that is when the rest of the Bats couldn't hold it together any longer, crumbling apart at the seams as they ran to their father and collapsed into his arms, their cries sounding out in a miserable harmony.

The team looked at one another, a single thought evident on all of their faces.

What have we done?