Chapter Text
The weight of the gun in his palms almost made his palms numb. His fist trembled on the gun handle, but his grip on it did not loosen.
The rational part of him knew how tonight was going to go, but the latent part didn't want to accept it.
This is it.
this was the final confrontation.
"I won't-" He tried with a breath that was less than a whisper.
He was interrupted instantly.
"This is it. This is the time you decide." Bruce tensed. Hood's voice was bathed in a solemn and determined tone. A tone that four years ago carried too much weight for his high-pitched voice.
Bruce always felt guilty about this but he couldn't help but smile at times like this, no matter how much it made Jason complain that Bruce didn't take him seriously. Though it wasn't true.
Bruce never took his words lightly because of this, just a fondness that crawled its way into Bruce's chest in an awkward timing. There was no trace of that fondness now.
Only a cruel reminder of a distant past.
How could that same boy, his loving, caring son ask him to commit murder?
Bruce couldn't believe it. It was easy to pretend that the man in front of him wasn't Jason. It was easy to convince himself that the Red Hood, the man behind the helmet, was someone else. someone who wanted to taunt Batman with the death of the boy whose absence in Bruce's life made him feel lacking.
But now, the person facing him was wearing Jason's face. And there was no denying that.
"It's him or me. You have to decide." hood's arm tightens slightly around the Joker's neck, the Joker lets out a wheezing laugh despite the tight grip around his neck.
Bruce felt helpless.
"Stop this. Enough, you know I won't‐"
"If you won't kill this psychotic piece of filth—" The gun in Hood's hand rose until It was placed right under his jaw. Bruce froze.
"I'II kill myself instead." A bucket of ice water was poured over Bruce.
This— no, why would he— how—
"Jason-" bruce took a step forward almost automatically in terror.
How could he ask him for something like that?
How can Bruce choose between his son's life or committing an unforgivable deed? He had considered many possibilities for the night. possibilities that were much more digestible in his mind than this.
"Oh! what a twist! Gotta hand it to the boy, even I didn't-" Jason's arm tightened around the Joker's throat, stifling the rest of his sentence.
"It's me or him. Decide." He repeats and Bruce felt his heart shatter. The tone of his son's voice was devoid of the mockery and sting that had accompanied him since his return, and now it was just desperate.
He was staring at Bruce with desperate anticipation.
"I can't." Jason's expression contorted. In a brief moment, the anger that had marred his face vanished, as if it had never been there.
His son.
This was his son—
"Son, please—" please don't let me choose, I can't, not with your life— "Let me help you, we can fix this." he says instead, the desperation in his voice nothing compared to the ship-sinking storm inside of him.
"Fix this," Jason whispers and lowers the gun for a brief second. He reached out and took another step, only to immediately stop when Jason pressed the muzzle harder in warning.
"I don't need to be fixed! This is who I am, there's no going back." The way his voice cracks at the end tore Bruce's heart apart. He wanted to scream, he wanted to tear everything apart.
He wanted to hold his son until the world around him was safe, and even then Bruce wouldn't let him go.
"I only want one thing from you," He lowered the gun again. Bruce exhale shakily in temporary relief. "You promised me you'd do anything to keep me safe. You promised me you'd always be there for me, well, I need you now. I need to know that you-" I need to know that you care. Went unsaid but Bruce read between the lines.
oh, Jay.
Only if you knew.
"I'm here now. I'm here for you, son." Completely oblivious to the third person in the room, he spoke in the gentlest tone he could. causing unshed tears to finally fall from his son's eyes.
Oh how much he wishes to reach out and wipe them to place a kiss on his son's wet cheeks.
Jason shook his head.
"Not enough. This is not enough." he shakes his head frantically. "No one is safe as long as this death-worshipping parasite exists, I'm not safe. I need him gone, please, Dad. Only you can do it, it has to be you—" Jason no longer tried to hide his emotions with fury. With the harsh lines on his face gone and the tears streaming down his face, he looked much younger. So raw and young and scared.
He was falling to pieces and Bruce couldn't catch him despite standing right there.
"I'm sorry," He spouts out the words with a pang of guilt eating its way into his guts. "I will give you anything, Jay. You know I would, but I... I can't do this one. Please don't ask me to." Jason was right, there was no going back. But that also meant that with the Joker dead, nothing would go back to the way it was.
A terrible feeling settles in his stomach at the blank look Jason makes at those words.
"So, this is your choice." Jason's tone was as blank as his expression.
Before Bruce could even blink, the sound of a gunshot echoed through the room and he froze. Pieces of the Joker's brain scattered across the wall, his face frozen in a wide grin as his body hit the ground with a loud thud.
He was dead.
Jason finally did it.
Various emotions surged through his chest; anger, disappointment, remorse, fear, relief—Bruce's head turned towards Jason.
"Jason-"
Jason didn't even glance at the body, nor at Bruce.
His face was still blank.
With Bruce's ears still ringing from the sound of the gunshot, he didn't have a chance to analyze anything before Jason, with a blank face, raised the gun again and held it under his jaw.
Bruce panics. Everything happens so fast. In one moment Jason has the gun back placed under his jaw and his hand on the trigger. In the next Bruce screaming his name and releasing a Batarang, aiming to hit Jason's hand,
But his aim was too high, too shaky. He watched in horror as the Batarang flew above the target and hit Jason's neck before either of them could move, and tears.
Jason makes an agonised choking sound and reachs for his throat. Jason's hand slips from the shock of the impact and falls down just as he pulls the trigger, the bullet instead hitting the dynamite in the room.
and everything around them explodes.
Everything hurt.
Why did everything hurt?
Bruce coughed, the smoke around him thick and alarming. He opened one eye and tried to make out his surroundings with his blurry vision.
Explosion. Joker. Robin—
He needs to find Robin.
He tried to take a deep breath, only to be met with a burning sensation in his ribs. He lay there for a while until his tremors subsided, he couldn't waste any time.
Move, damn it!
Bruce tried to sit up straight but something was holding him back. He blinked several times until his eyes finally settled on the rubble that had fallen on him.
This wasn't good. Robin needed him, he needed to move—
He used all the strength he had left and pulled. clenching his teeth so hard they threatened to break, but he didn't care, he had a priority.
The rubble fell away as the dust around him scattered, he managed to catch his breath. Bruce greedily inhales the air into his lungs for a brief moment before he pulled himself upright. He almost fell several times before he found his balance with shaky steps, wandering restlessly among the ruins
Robin.
He had to find Robin.
"Robin—" His voice caught in his throat for a moment, but he didn't stop.
He had to find his son.
"Robin!" He shouted louder, searching the ruins one by one for any sign of life or...
Dread grew in Bruce's stomach.
In pure terror, he pushed away the ruins until his fingertips burned despite his gloves and his throat was dry from his screams, nothing.
There was nothing.
His son, his baby—
"Robin— Jason!" He screams hopelessly. Jason, Jason was the one buried in the rubble.
And Bruce couldn't find him.
Bruce felt nauseous.
Oh, God. He slit his son's throat.
"Jason-" he cries out. What has he done?
Bruce said he would fix this. He said he would help Jason. What kind of father would slit his son's neck to help him? He had been given a second chance. His son had come back to him. No matter how much he had changed, he was still his son—
And now he had lost him for a second time.
Bruce's shaky steps came to a quick halt and he froze, staring at the stains on the ground.
Blood.
It was blood.
A sickening hope blossomed in his chest as he followed the trail of blood with mad haste. The tracks emerged from the ruins and led down a nearby alleyway where several of the upper-story buildings had been affected by the explosion.
A rustling sound made Bruce stiffened for just a brief moment before he took action.
"Jason!" Bruce howls in horror.
Jason's eyes were barely open when Bruce came over to him. pulling his son's body from the dumpster he had been leaning against, and holding a firm hand against the gap in his neck. A bloody sound escaped Jason's throat that could hardly be called a moan, Bruce felt like he might crying.
"I know, baby. I know, It's going to be alright," A sound came out of Jason that Bruce guessed was a sob, his face mixed with tears and blood, Bruce held his free hand to his ear, "I need the Batmobile, now."
The response was instant, "Batman? What's going‐"
"Barbara, please." He felt tears welling up under his cowl and soaking him. For a while there was silence on the comms, the only sounds around were Bruce's comforting words and Jason's choking sounds, which grew quieter as it went on.
Bruce could hear the fire siren in the distance, but the whole world didn't matter to him at that moment. The only thing that mattered was his son in his arms, his skin growing colder by the minute. Bruce planted a kiss on Jason's forehead as he held him.
"It's alright, it's okay, I got you."The sound of the Batmobile's engine approaching planted hope in his chest. "You're going to be okay."
When the Batmobile arrived, a father lifted the injured body of a son in his arms, just like years ago.
and this time he was going to make sure it wouldn't be too late.