Yello!

I'm back with a cameo by jealous!Jason. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the plot. Cue inconsolable sobbing. ;)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: BEE STINGS, PART 3

Last chapter re-cap:

The boy in the memory tilted his head back against the cold door, heedless of Wally and Connor's attempts to force it open, and closed his eyes for the last time.

0:02 . . . beep

From her position next to the Boy Wonder, the Gem of Scath's eyes flared white and she lunged forward.

Grabbing Red-X by the shoulders with enough strength to bruise, Raven looked up at the masked man and said firmly, urgently:

"Jason."

Red-X flinched, and his eyes dropped from their fixated position on the boy in the memory to look at her.

0:01 . . . beep

"Sunshine," he rasped.

The memory froze. The false ceiling of the cavern above them shattered and frothing, radioactive green water cascaded in. The boy in the memory vanished along with the bomb and the warehouse and the crowbar; a mirage of the mind.

The instant before the graveyard-water rushed over him, a dull roar filling his ears, the Boy Wonder caught a glimpse of Raven and Red-X standing illuminated in the center of the cavern, Raven's eyes still awash with white and her fingertips pressing gently on X's temples.

#? #? #? #? #? #? #? #? #?

"Rob."

"Alfred," the Boy Wonder whined and squirmed away from the hand that was trying to gently shake him awake. "C'mon, just five more minutes."

"I'm not Alfred, dude. You need to wake up. Seriously, right now."

The Boy Wonder stubbornly kept his eyes closed.

"Rob, wake up."

Wally? Robin belatedly recognized the voice. What is he doing at the Manor?

The proverbial dam broke, and Robin's memories of what had transpired in the past several hours clicked into place.

The Boy Wonder's eyes snapped open and he bolted upright so fast he nearly broke Kid Flash's nose with his forehead – only the redhead's super-speed saved them both from a nasty collision.

"Where are we?" Robin asked, anxiety sharpening his voice like a batarang slicing through shadow, trying to tamp down on the fear that rose in his chest because he didn't know if he could take another forced showing of the Joker crossing the line (breaking the One Rule) and murdering someone in his costume.

"It's okay, man," Kid Flash said, and gestured to the room at large. "Relax, we're back at Mount Justice."

A quick scan of the room allowed Robin to reacquaint himself with reality. His teammates leaned against the bare walls of a Mount Justice guest room with varying expressions of shell-shock on their too-pale faces.

A spike of concern made him furrow his brows (you always were a fixer, Dick), but at least his friends – at least his family – were alive and relatively well. Time and Black Canary's psychologist skills could heal the trauma, Robin was sure.

At least they were safe and sound back in Mount Justice.

(At least they weren't still trapped in Red-X's twisted labyrinthine mind.)

The thought of the masked man was like a spark in his synapses, and instinct led Robin to immediately scan the vicinity for the vigilante in question.

Red-X was sitting up in his bed in full uniform except for his boots, Young Justice scattered around like so many leaves left in the wake of a windstorm (fragile, faded versions of their former selves). The skull-masked man was slumped against the headboard, exhaustion written in the slope of his shoulders, in the slight bow of his head.

Despite his evident weariness, X could have been carved from marble.

He looks just like Batman after a long night, the thought came unbidden to Robin's mind. Like a night after Joker has blown up an orphanage.

The thought of his mentor's arch-nemesis (murderer, Robin's mind hissed) made the Boy Wonder flinch violently, and his eyes dropped from X to rest on Raven.

The Gem of Scath was seated on the edge of the bed, hood raised and amethyst eyes hidden by darkness. Raven's fingers were laced tightly together, and her full mouth was pressed into a white line.

"Rob," Wally's voice drew the Boy Wonder's attention to him once again.

"Let's go," Kid Flash said, gesturing to the door. The rest of the Team had gathered on the threshold, looking much too young with wide eyes and pajamas, leaning on each other for comfort and solidarity.

"No," Robin said.

Wally's red brows furrowed in confusion, "What do you mean, man? X needs some space."

"KF," Robin whispered. "I can't leave. I have to know."

Kid Flash considered him for a moment, forest-green eyes uncharacteristically serious, before the Fastest Boy Alive bowed his head in something like defeat.

"Alright, Rob," Wally sighed. "But you come find me after you get your answers, alright? Promise me."

The Boy Wonder felt a swelling of gratitude. This was one of the many reasons Wally was his best friend.

"I promise," Robin nodded, and Kid Flash gave him a weak grin before shuffling over to the door and following the rest of the Team into the well-lit hallway beyond.

After the automatic door whooshed closed behind them, Robin took a moment to stare across at a small crack in the wall, pressing his ungloved palms into the floor.

His mind whirled with remembered snatches of conversation and mannerisms, pieces of a puzzle that he was this close to putting together. He just needed one more clue; he needed to hear the truth from X.

Robin needed to know why Red-X, someone he had only known for a couple of weeks, seemed so familiar sometimes.

When he felt less likely to fly apart at the seams, the Boy Wonder pushed himself to his feet and walked over to the bed, sitting opposite of Raven on the edge.

As he settled on the rumpled blanket, Robin caught a glimpse of Raven's dark eyes gleaming at him sadly from beneath her cowl.

Robin held her gaze, and after a moment of complete silence, Raven closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she looked up again, her eyes had returned to their usual steadiness and she reached out, placed her ashen-skinned hand on X's dark-clad shoulder.

She let it rest there for a moment, allowing the unresponsive X to acclimatize to her touch. Then white energy flickered into being: an aura around her slim fingers. Raven slid her glowing hand up and down X's back in a soothing motion, and for an eternity the three of them sat there in silence.

Then X stirred; he raised his head and met Robin's gaze from where the Boy Wonder was curled up on the edge of the bed.

"Let me tell you a story," Red-X said, "about the black sheep of the Bat Clan."

Raven's hand froze. Robin sat up straighter, his heart leaping into his throat.

"Where I'm from, kid, you cut ties with Batman and left Gotham City behind a long time ago to start a new life in Jump City."

"Where you're from?" Robin echoed, comprehension dawning as another piece of the puzzle finally fell into place. The Boy Wonder felt his head spin, "You . . . you're from a different dimension, aren't you? That's why you appeared out of nowhere in that field. That's why you know a, a Deathstroke that isn't Deathstroke."

"Give the kid a prize," X's voice was too bitter to be condescending.

Out of desperation (dimension-hopping was a small detail that could be processed later because right now Robin had to know) the Boy Wonder said, "Wait. What do you mean I left Gotham? Why would I leave Batman?"

Red-X shrugged, "You got tired of playing second fiddle, wanted to spread your wings. The old man wasn't too keen on that. All I know is the two of you had an argument and you called it quits. You went to Jump City and founded a new group of heroes called the Teen Titans. Raven here," X gestured to the Gem of Scath, "is one of the five original members."

"X," Raven hissed a warning, but Red-X sighed and said: "Look, Sunshine, he's already seen too much. He was gonna find out eventually, and I'd rather he heard it from me."

Raven's hand tightened on X's shoulder and the shadows at the edges of the room trembled, but she took a deep breath and relented. Red-X turned back to Robin.

"Like I said, kid – the Dynamic Duo broke up, went their separate ways. Problem is that Batman got used to having a partner and he has a real soft spot for hopeless cases. About a year after you left Gotham he caught a street-rat boosting the tires off the Batmobile. He thought the kid had potential and took him in. The street-rat became the second Robin, Batman's second partner," X continued to speak, and out of the corner of his eye, Robin glimpsed Raven go rigid.

"Something you need to understand, kid, something a lot of people struggled to understand – the second Robin was not like the first. The second Robin was too angry, had less control, and could never match up to the original Golden Boy."

(Oh, and Robin could hear bitterness there, like lemons and old grudges left to fester – like hating Tony Zucco with every bone in his body.)

X stared down at his gloved hands for several long moments, then shrugged and looked up at the Boy Wonder, "Long story short, a couple years passed. For a while it was great, the second Robin got to kick ass and take names and go to school and have a family. Then one day a fight went south and the street-rat got caught by the Joker.

"At first, the street-rat thought it wouldn't be a problem – he'd been caught before, had lived on the streets in Crime Alley for crying out loud. He knew how to take a beating. What was a little torture among friends, honestly? At that point it was pretty par for the course.

"Surely, the second Robin thought, surely Batman would be there to save him soon and they'd argue about it and it would blow over like it always did," X closed his eyes. "But the Joker was different that night, the crazy a little too close to the surface."

The skull-masked man exhaled and fixed the Boy Wonder with a chilling white-optic gaze, "The second Robin died that night. I died that night."

Robin's mind was a mess of shock and exhilaration, jumbled thoughts that circled around how is this possible? X is my brother? Questions rushed to the tip of his tongue in an endless stream, but was came tumbling out was, "How are you here? How are you alive?"

He winced as soon as the words had passed his lips – tactful, Dick, real tactful – but Red-X simply laughed. "Turns out Ra's al Ghul hired Joker to kidnap me as a diversion for Batman. Ol' Demon's Head felt guilty after the Joker made me kick the bucket. He stole my corpse and whisked it away to his mountain hideout."

X paused, tilting his head at Robin contemplatively, "Have you ever heard of the Lazarus Pits, kid?"

"Yes," Robin's brows furrowed, "Those are the springs Ra's bathes in to regain his youth. There are ever rumors they could—"

The Boy Wonder's eyes widened, and his voice dropped to a whisper, ". . . that they could bring back the dead."

X inclined his head, "Attaboy. So, I took an involuntary bath in the fountain of youth, which is how yours truly is standing here today. Not gonna lie, though, the Pits aren't perfect. They brought me back, but they left me a few parting gifts, particularly up here," Red-X tapped his temple and Robin shuddered.

"Long story short, I was a little fuzzy when I came to. Got the hell out of Ra's' lair and booked it to Gotham. I didn't know what had happened, the only thing I could think of was getting back to Batman, to going home," X's fingers twitched, and his gaze drifted over Robin's shoulder to focus on the wall. "Unfortunately, Batman's doors weren't open to me anymore."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked. "Surely Bru—surely Batman would have been totally whelmed that you were alive!"

"Oh, he was," X muttered. "When he finally found out. When I let him find out."

"You see, kid," Red-X's gray-gloved hands curled into loose fists, "our job has a high turnover rate. By the time I made my way back to Gotham, I had been dead for over a year, and a new boy had been given the tights."

Robin reeled at that – in another dimension he had two brothers? – but the acrimony in X's voice tempered his excitement, "I had been replaced. The street-rat had been swept under the rug, struck off the record, and the Batman had new blood fighting at his side. I'm not gonna lie; at the time I was freshly raised from the dead, I wasn't exactly the poster boy for mental health – and I'm still not – so old Bats' betrayal pissed me off," Red-X chuckled, but it was without mirth and only served to send warning bells clanging in Robin's head.

"To make matters worse, to add fucking insult to injury, when I got back to Gotham after rising from the dead, the Joker was still breathing."

The Boy Wonder frowned, unnerved because X's words seemed perilously close to crossing the line, to breaking Batman's One Rule.

"Sure," X said, his white-optic eyes suddenly boring into Robin's own, "Batman put the Joker in a body cast for six months after I died, but in my mind he should have finished the bastard once and for all. That was the last thought I had before that warehouse blew up, kid – I died feeling relieved because I thought I'd be the last person Batman would let the Joker hurt."

X laughed sardonically, "But lo and behold I come back from the dead and return to Gotham only to find a replacement doing my job, and the green-haired bastard who did me in locked up in Arkham, not six feet under where he belonged.

"Having the Joker serve jail time wasn't enough for me, kid. He should have been dead, a bullet put between his eyes so he couldn't hurt anyone ever again. I thought to myself: Bruce never learns, and decided to take matters into my own hands.

"So I left Gotham without letting anyone know I had come back. I trained all over the world for the next two years, and finally returned to Gotham with a plan to make things right," X heaved a sigh, his tone a strange mix of melancholic, angry and tired, "I worked my ass off to stage a reunion, and made Bruce choose between saving me or the Clown Prince of Scum."

X shook his head, "But even faced with that choice, Batman wouldn't bend. He refused to break his One Rule, and then went and made matters worse by saving my life."

The masked man trailed off, and for several long moments there was only the sound of three beings breathing in and out in a guest room under Mount Justice. Then Red-X roused himself, and brought his gaze up to meet Robin's. "I couldn't stand to stay in Gotham after that. I took off and decided to lie low. Went back to old habits, became a petty thief for a while. I crisscrossed the country, and eventually wound up in Jump City, where Golden Boy and his team were still going strong."

Golden Boy, Robin thought. That's my counterpart in this other dimension. Does X . . . hate him? Does X hate me?

Red-X didn't appear to notice Robin's slumped shoulders. "Turns out I happened upon Jump City at a rather opportune time. Golden Boy had gotten it in his head that it would be a bright idea to take on Slade by himself, without the help of his superpowered playmates."

"Slade?" Robin interrupted, mind flashing to a man with a voice like serpentine shadows and a mask gleaming black and bronze. "Wait, do you mean Deathstroke?"

Red-X tilted his head, "Is that what he goes by here? Interesting. In my dimension that's the name he used to use when he was a full-time assassin."

"What would Deathst—what would Slade want with the other me?"

X shrugged, "Couldn't tell you. I wasn't really up-to-date on the rumor mill by the time I made it to Jump City."

"Slade taunted you," Raven murmured, amethyst eyes like twin pools of ink. "You became obsessed with catching him."

"That sounds like Golden Boy, all right," X's eyes narrowed, his voice bitterly amused. "And that brings me to my grand entrance back into my dear brother's life. You see, kid, Golden Boy was so obsessed with hunting Slade that he decided to fly solo for a while. Without telling his team, he built a Xenothium-powered suit and took on an alter ego to his alter ego. Tried to con Slade into telling him his plans, but that old bastard's a wily fox – had Golden Boy figured out right from the start."

"A Xenothium-powered suit . . ." Robin's eyes widened.

Robin could hear X's smile in his voice as he continued: "Golden Boy's plan blew up in his face. He failed to catch Slade and his team found out about what he'd been doing behind their backs. When I got to Jump City, he was in the dog house."

X chuckled, "The idiot looked so glum, and I was already a little pissed at him for what went down after my return to Gotham. Thought I'd help him out with the bonus of messing with his head.

"I stole the suit. Messed around in Jump City for a while. Made Golden Boy's life hell for a few months, until I got bored. I skipped town and headed out to explore the world, spent some time sharpening old skills. A year or two passed, and then I went back to Jump City."

"You went back?" Robin asked. "Why?"

Something flirtatious warmed X's voice, "To see Sunshine, of course. I missed her dearly."

The answer startled a laugh out of Robin, and Raven glared at both of them. At X, whose body language was intolerably smug, and Robin, whose shoulders shook with giggles.

Chest feeling considerably lighter, Robin asked, "So how did you end up in this dimension?"

A less observant person wouldn't have noticed the way Red-X tensed, but Robin was the adopted son of the World's Greatest Detective. X shrugged, "Well, there were these diamonds, see, and I was a little hard on cash. Decided to pay a visit to the local jeweler's. Sunshine and her team showed up halfway through the heist like the goody-two-shoes they are. Some wires got crossed. One second Raven and I were sharing a romantic moment," X pointedly ignored Raven's unimpressed snort, "and then I pissed her off. The next thing I knew there was light everywhere and we were landing in that field."

"The field in California?" Robin asked. "Why did you end up there?"

Raven responded, "Since Jump City doesn't exist in this dimension, the portal dropped us in the nearest geographic location."

"That makes sense," Robin said. Suddenly the adrenaline that had been keeping him going deserted him, and he shook his head, woozy with exhaustion.

"You should get to bed," Raven said, hand pressed to the Boy Wonder's back to keep him upright.

"Yeah," Robin murmured, sliding his legs over the side of the bed, "I'm not really feeling the aster."

"Looking a little drunk there, kid," X called. "Sure you can make it back to your room okay?"

"I'll be fine," the Boy Wonder's eyelids felt like sandstone bricks were trying to drag them down. "We'll talk more in the morning, right? You're not . . . not gonna leave? I'm sorry we went in your head, X. We," he yawned, "we just wanted to help."

"Don't worry, kid," X's voice was softer than Robin had ever heard it, "I'm feeling pretty wiped myself. I'll be here."

Raven helped Robin to the door, the firm hand at his back comforting in a way the Boy Wonder couldn't quite articulate.

"Hey," Red-X called. Robin paused at the threshold, looked back at the man who was his brother in another dimension.

"Can you keep this between us, Robin? At least for now. I'm not one who likes to air my dirty laundry, if you know what I mean."

Robin felt like he should argue, but the words fizzled out in his throat because for all their good intentions, Young Justice had just rooted around in X's head without his permission.

"Yeah," Robin nodded. "Good night, X. I . . . I'm glad you're okay."

"Thanks, kid. Now get out of here before Raven and I have to scrape you off the floor."

The Boy Wonder lit up the room with a sleepy smile, "M'kay. Good night, Raven."

"Sleep well, Robin," the empath said. Both X and Raven remained quiet until the door whooshed closed, sealing them up in silence.

"Why did you lie?" Raven asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Sunshine."

"I'm not an idiot, X. At the end of your story, why did you lie? Why did you really come back to Jump City?"

X tipped his head back against the wall behind his bed and sighed, "I owed Slade a favor for getting him to agree to leave Nightwing alone. I came back to Jump City because he called it in."

Raven fixed him with an assessing gaze, "What did he want?"

"He told me to take a modified grenade that he had been working on with some of his associates, instigate a fight with you Titans, and use the grenade during the skirmish."

"Did you know what the grenade would do?"

"No," X admitted. "That's why I tried to separate you."

"But having us all in proximity when you used the grenade would've caused the most damage . . ." Raven stared at him in shock. "Are you saying you tried to protect us?"

"Ouch, Sunshine, no need to sound so surprised," X clutched at his heart. "You really know how to wound a guy."

His attempt at levity fell flat. After a moment, X signed and said, "It's suicide to use a weapon without knowing what it's capable of. Normally I would've told Slade just where he could shove his grenade, but this was a business transaction. And I had to use it during the fight, because knowing Slade, he was watching.

"So, I picked the Titan most likely to survive contact with unknown weaponry and incapacitated the rest. Even then, when the time came I was ready to grab you and teleport away as soon as the grenade blew."

"X," Raven was at a loss for words, "I . . ."

X rubbed the back of his neck, "You really have no faith in me. I suppose I can't blame you, though.

"Look, Raven," X lowered his eyes to trace the tattered edges of his gray gloves. "I'm not proud of what I did. But if I had the choice, I would do it again. Whether I like it or not, Golden Boy is family. I've seen a hell of a lot more of the criminal underworld than he has. Even though he can be a sanctimonious bastard, I will save him from that for as long as I can."

"You seem to make a lot of deals that end up with you pulling the short stick from the bargain," Raven noted.

"Are you saying I'm a bad businessman?" X drawled. Then his tone shifted to something darker. "Life just seems to be fond of dealing me shitty cards."

"What you do with the cards you are dealt depends on you," Raven said. The fierceness in her tone drew X's eyes to her face like a moth to the orange heat of an explosion. "You are in control of your own destiny."

For a long moment, they stared at each other. Then Raven made a conscious effort to force the tension from her shoulders, "Speaking of control, how did Psimon break into your mind?"

X chuckled wryly, "Funny story, that. Pretty sure when I shook hands with the asshole, he tagged my head on Queen Bee's orders."

"Queen Bee's orders?"

"She may be vain, but she's far from stupid. Said she'd curse me for betraying her. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

"Sounds like you speak from experience."

"Do I detect jealously, Sunshine?"

Raven snorted, "Hardly."

X laughed, "I will say this was one of the most creative ways a woman has ever tried to get back at me. Kudos to Queen Bee for that. It isn't often someone can catch me off guard."

"She almost got the drop on us at the Logan's animal reserve," Raven murmured, troubled. She glanced at X, "How did you know Beast Boy's real identity?"

Red-X's reply was infuriatingly cryptic: "I have my ways, Sunshine."

Raven felt a prick of frustration at the deliberate brush-off, but it warred and lost against the warmth that bloomed in her chest at the fact X seemed to have subconsciously relaxed. Raven knew better than most how damaging a psychological attack could be, especially when it was coupled with the forced revelation of secrets that were probably better left undiscovered.

Peace settled between them, X falling silent. Raven frowned as she sensed his emotions twisting, and waited patiently. If X had something to say, he would say it in his own time. After all he had been through tonight, she owed him that modicum of control.

"Do you miss him?" Red-X broke the silence, sounding almost hesitant.

Raven blinked in confusion, "Who?"

"The changeling," X shifted, his gaze angled away from the empath. "Seeing him in this dimension must have been . . . hard."

For a moment, Raven's face was blank as though she'd refuse to answer, but then she said quietly, "Yes, of course I do. He's my friend."

"Is that all?" X blamed his recent trauma for his inability to control what came out of his mouth.

Raven's eyes narrowed, "What are you implying?"

"Only a rumor."

"What rumor?" Raven growled.

X cleared his throat, "Just that you and the little green shrimp were together for a while."

Something painful flashed in Raven's eyes, and X wanted to kick himself for crossing the line – taking things too far again, dammit why couldn't he just keep his fucking mouth shut? The Gem of Scath shocked him by replying, voice soft, "For a while, I thought we had something . . . but in the end, we both decided we were better off as friends. Nowadays he's more of an annoying little brother than anything else."

"Oh," X said, because what else could he say? He didn't trust himself not to put his foot in his mouth again. In the back of his mind, Jason knew he should apologize for backing her into a corner, for making an ass of himself, but he was too focused on how something tight in his chest had inexplicably lightened when the half-demoness confirmed she wasn't romantically involved with the changeling.

It dawned on him slowly. The fuck? Am I actually jealous?

The thought was disturbing. Although X lied to himself about some things, he was too familiar with the bitter taste of jealousy to delude himself into thinking he was experiencing say, major heartburn instead.

Hell, what could he say? Raven was . . . Raven. And his feelings for her were getting a touch too—

"You called Nightwing family," Raven said, abruptly changing the subject. X was absurdly grateful, but then she continued: "So, you really are Jason Todd. The second Robin. Why didn't you tell me?"

She sensed X's emotions curdle like milk left in the sun as he said sharply, "I told you my name back in Virginia, remember?"

"You know that's not what I mean," Raven said.

X fixed her with a hard gaze through his mask. His emotions twisted and darkened (as they always did when he hinted at his past, Raven realized belatedly).

"What difference would it have made?" he asked, voice sharp with barely-controlled anger.

The question stopped Raven cold, and she turned it over and over in her mind. What difference would it have made – if she had realized who he was, back when he first told her his name in a run-down Richmond apartment?

X chuckled darkly when the silence stretched on too long, "I'm not a Robin anymore, Sunshine. I'm not a hero."

The way he said it, like it was an undisputed fact, made the air heavy. Something in Raven's chest balked at his words, and she opened her mouth to dispute them, ready to cite his actions in the past few weeks—

As though sensing the impending argument, X made a show of stretching his arms over his head and said: "Well, Sunshine, if you don't mind, I'd like to get to sleep. I've had a rather stressful couple of days, you know – double-crossing Bee, getting my mind hacked by that creep with the huge brain – so I need all the rest I can get."

It was a clear dismissal enforced with false cheer, and Raven reluctantly bit her tongue.

"I—" she started. Then she closed her eyes and stopped herself. I don't want to leave you alone.

Raven sighed, "Alright, X. I understand. But," she narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, "tomorrow I want you to meet me for a meditation session.

"I know you can take care of yourself," Raven continued, forestalling his arguments, "but I have to be sure there are no traces of Psimon lingering in your psyche."

For a moment, it seemed like X would refuse, but then he relented, "Okay, Sunshine."

The brief flare of triumph in her chest was almost smothered by her worry. Head down, she stood up from the mattress and made her way to the door. Before crossing the threshold, she turned back one last time to meet his eyes through the white optic lenses of his mask.

"Goodnight, Jason."

"Sweet dreams, Sunshine."

The poorly-concealed strain in his tone made her almost insist on staying. But even without her empathic abilities, she could tell he wanted to be alone. If there was one thing Raven understood, it was the necessity of having time to sort out one's thoughts.

The Gem of Scath pulled up her hood and left.

After she was gone, X swung his feet over the side of the bed and planted them on the floor. Reaching up, he peeled off his mask and ran his gloved hands through his black hair. After a moment of dark silence, his hands fisted in his locks until the roots of his hair ached and he stared down at the thin carpet.

Drawing in a deep breath, Jason held the air in his lungs until it burned and then exhaled. He summed up the whole incident in one word, spoken low and rough.

"Shit."

Sensing no movement, the automatic lights in his room timed out and shut off. Jason Todd sat in the darkness, staring into the distance and fighting demons only he could see.

#? #? #? #? #? #? #? #? #?

The supercomputer beeped quietly. A progress bar slowly ticked as it tried to slip past the defenses of a certain flash drive. A flash drive that had found its way into Batman's hands courtesy of Red-X.

Bruce Wayne sat before the computer with his elbows braced on the desk. His chin rested on his hands as he contemplated the information scrolling across the screen:

PASSWORD DENIED.

Sighing softly, Bruce leaned back in his chair and scrubbed at his bloodshot eyes.

Cloth rustled behind him, deliberate in a way that announced his unexpected visitor meant no harm.

Dick appeared at his shoulder a moment later, clad in his pajamas and standard domino mask. From the frown on the boy's face and the strange silence that hung in the air around him, Bruce deducted that something was unsettling his son.

"Welcome back, Dick. I thought you were spending the night at Mount Justice. Something about Movie Night with the Team?"

"Yeah," Dick responded absently. "It was fine."

Bruce waited patiently. Finally, Dick reached up and peeled off his mask.

The two faced each other, navy eyes coolly considering troubled bright blue.

"Bruce," Dick said. "What would you do if I ever left someday? Would you train another Robin?"

Taken aback, Bruce frowned.

"No," he replied. "Why would you think that?"

Dick suddenly smiled, a beaming ray of sunshine that lit up the Bat Cave. Something eased in Bruce's chest.

"I dunno, Bruce," the Boy Wonder said. "I think it would be good for you to have someone else around besides Alfred to keep you on your toes."

"You already have that well taken care of," Bruce pointed out wryly. "Now get to bed."

Dick disappeared up the stairs to the Manor with his signature cackle.

Slightly bewildered, Bruce stared after his adopted son. Then he sighed and turned back to the screen, which flashed the message:

PASSWORD ACCEPTED.

Batman smiled.

#? #? #? #? #? #? #? #? #?

In the belly of the old Cadmus labs, white vapor billowed around the coffin/containment unit of a young man. The young man's strong jaw was lax, the result of medically-induced sleep.

"Well, my boy," Lex Luthor smirked down at his science experiment. Cruel light glinted in his flinty eyes. "It is time for you to meet your brother. Mercy, with me."

His robotic bodyguard fell into place half a step behind him. At the entrance to the lab ruins, Lex paused long enough to glance up at the moon and smile, "Long live the Light."

So, a bit of a slower chapter, but it was necessary after the hell X has gone through recently. I wasn't too happy with some parts of it (the words just wouldn't flow right, you know?), but at least I got to explain a bit of plot. Yay!

What did y'all think of jealous!Jason? Drop me a line! I love to hear from you guys!

I hope everyone has a great 4th of July! Stay safe! (Also, Canada, happy belated 150th birthday!)

Customary Question: If you had a pet, what would you name it? If I had a dog, I'd name it R.B., short for Red Baron.

Until next time,

~Home By Another Way

P.S. Okay, guys, my obsession with all things Batman is so well-known that when my grandmother bought Batman-themed stuff for her youngest grandson, she saved the little Batmobile Hot Wheels car and gave it to me. I'm not sure whether to feel overjoyed or dismayed. I'm leaning toward overjoyed, though. :D