Gala Gone Wrong

Ambivalent Love

Slade collapsed just as Jason emptied the clip of his first gun. Bruce had managed to get out of the way of most of the bullets and the ones that did hit their target made contact with Bruce's advance armor. One or two managed to hit actual skin, but those just grazed. When Slade dropped to the floor, it had come out of nowhere and caused Jason to pause in shock for long enough for Bruce to go on the offensive.

'Ugh! Can't anyone just do their job anymore! I'm so sick and tired of working with people who can't pull their weight,' thought Jason, sighing as he loosened up his shoulders. Slade would have to get up on his own or face the consequences. Either way, he was not getting any help from the Red Hood.

"Come on son, you can still stop now!" Bruce called out as he grabbed a smoke bomb out of his belt and charged forward.

Jason ground his teeth in anger. "Calling me son will do nothing for you! It's just another empty promise."

"You are my son," Bruce stated like it was a simple fact.

Jason's chest swelled with some unnameable emotion that was quickly squashed and replaced with anger. 'How dare he!'

Jason fired his weapons rapidly, but Bruce threw his batarangs just as quickly. In the corner of his eye Jason saw a shadow drop down from above and descend on Talia who was threatening Damian. "You brought a friend I see. Got yourself another replacement? I'm not surprised, you do throw away Robins pretty quickly."

Bruce looked just as surprised though and shifted his attention to the figure. "Not yours?" he asked in a grunt. Even though Jason's bullets hadn't wounded Bruce, they still must've hurt.

Jason laughed. "Not mine. Obviously. Someone else found the cave without you knowing? You've gotten worse than I thought."

"I never meant to make you feel replaced. If I had known you were alive I would have taken you back right away. I'm sorry I didn't. You can still come back! Please!" said Bruce ignoring Jason's comment and throwing a batarang. His face looked genuinely sorry, but Jason was skeptical.

Jason scoffed and shot that batarangs down. "I will never come back to you! You made me believe you cared! I know realize that that was a lie. You just wanted Robin. You're sorry you lost Robin. You never wanted me. You've decided to start caring about Red Robin and Robin and you've always cared for your precious circus brat, but you threw me away. I died. You replaced me. I came back to life. Joker was still around. You've always cared more about the upkeep of your morals than the safety of actual people. I came back to life, a miracle. I was traumatized, scared, and angry and you didn't help me. You have to deal with the consequences now!"

Jason's charged forward and shot at Bruce's feet, forcing him back.

"I know this is my fault and I have to deal with the consequences, but don't take this out on everyone else. Especially not an innocent man like Matt Murdock. We can move forward together and help save Gotham. You can help me put away the Joker. We can be a family again. Just drop your weapons," said Bruce dropping a smoke bomb and disappearing.

Jason grimaced. Family. He missed having a family. He would give anything to be a part of a family again. Anything. There was no going back though.

"No. I will not drop my weapons. I will kill you and your friend. His blood will be on both of our hands."

"If you will not stop in your own accord then I have no choice but to stop you with force."

Jason yelped in pain as one of Bruce's grappling hooks wrapped around his ankle and pulled him forward. Jason quickly took out one of his specialized knives and cut the chord. He scrambled to his feet only to be knocked on the ground by an unexpected blow to the head. Jason laughed and tapped his helmet. "Bet that hurt your hand a lot Batman. Didn't hurt me though."