Alfred glanced at the clock in slight surprise noticing that it was past midnight yet the main doorbell of the Manor was being rung impatiently. The sounds of thunder were drowning the bell as a storm was raging outside and the darkness of the night would often be broken by clashes of lightening.

Despite the oddness of the hour and weather, someone was waiting outside and it seemed as if whoever the visitor was could not wait for even a second longer as the doorbell kept ringing without pause.

Alfred pulled open the door but he was not expecting to see Jason and even though he always remained rather calm and composed, he could not control the wave of shock and disbelief that hit him.

In the crackling lights of the thunder and the blazing steel blue eyes with green flecks staring right at him, Jason appeared quite different from how Alfred had last seen him. Instead of the ambitious boy who Alfred had himself sent out on patrol after giving him his favorite baked cookies and milk, the man standing in front was rather intimidating and cold.

"Master Jason..." 

The name escaped him at last and something flickered in those bluish green eyes; a faint sense of recognition, features softening slightly but the impatience in his eyes had not faltered.

"Alfred," he acknowledged him, "is Bruce at home?"

"He is in his study," Alfred held the door open for him, permitting him inside and would have gone to fetch a towel to dry him off first but his voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Don't. I don't have much time."

"You haven't come back home to us then, Master Jason?"

The words cut through him for there was a mild sadness in the old man's tone, as if he wanted him to return and stay with them. "No. I have some unfinished business with Bruce. I'll leave soon as that is resolved."

He nodded, face falling because for a second he had actually hoped that Jason would say he had returned, "if you need anything, let me know."

Jason glanced at him briefly but said nothing and headed towards the stairs that led to the study. Alfred paused for a minute but seeing that he was not going to turn back, he too left.

Meeting up with Alfred before directly facing Bruce had somewhat lessened the storm that was raging inside Jason. He just couldn't bring himself to be terrible to Alfred Pennyworth and he was the only member of the family that Jason had no grudges with.

He could see that Alfred had wanted to hug him despite the fact that he was soaking wet from the rain but had only stopped seeing the fire in his eyes. But that fire was directed towards Bruce and not him.

The door of the study loomed into view and whatever temporary calm that had settled over him while talking to Alfred evaporated shortly after. He pushed open the door without even bothering to knock but that had been a long held habit of his.

Bruce was working at his desk but looked up in shock seeing Jason towering over him; his hands dropping heavily at the desk, face set in a tight frown and eyes burning in rage.

The last time he had seen him was nearly a month ago at the abandoned building of Crime Alley that had gone up in flames due to the explosives Jay had set up himself.

Though back then his features were more disappointed than angry but at the current moment, the rage building up inside him was terrifying.

"Jason..."

Seeing him as such reminded Bruce of all the times he had thought that letting Jay join as Robin had been the greatest mistake of his life. But back then it had seemed to be the best option, orienting him with the just side or else he knew very well that with a restless soul as Jay's if he was left unattended, he could cause great havoc.

"What kind of an audacious hypocrite of a man are you, Bruce?" Jay's voice was surprisingly regulated but the short pauses in his tone combined with the burning glare of his eyes depicted that he could erupt any moment, "each time I try to look over my differences towards you, each time I try to come back, something about you resurfaces that angers me as to how I could once think of you as a savior."

Bruce had no idea he was talking about but the way he had stated it all made it seem clearly that Bruce was at fault. And he did not deny that. When it came to Jason he had made many mistakes which he never wanted to repeat again. What he wanted was to fix everything but right then it seemed near impossible.

"What are you talking about?" Bruce spoke up at last when Jason did not elaborate further but his piercing gaze hadn't faltered, making the elder man feel quite disturbed.

"Tim! I'm talking about Tim!"

"Jason, it's not how you think... Tim asked me himself to become..."

"Hell, I'm not referring to him becoming Robin or replacing me if that's the direction you took because initially I had thought the same," Jason was slightly ticked that Bruce still knew him well to decipher his initial reaction towards Tim but that wasn't much important at the moment, "I want to know what the fuck did you let that vile, hell worthy maniac do to him?"

His face went pale hearing that from Jason and he did not give any reply. Jason's hands that were clutching the wood of the desk tightly grabbed him by the collar, stormy eyes piercing through him. But the door to the study opened and Richard came in rushing towards the two.

"Jason, what are you doing?" He tried to pull him apart but it seemed as if nothing else could affect Jay, as he was burning up in a terrifying halo of his own.

"Stay the fuck out of this," he huffed out to Richard then turned his attention back to Bruce, "what did he do to him? Or rather, how could you let him..."

Jay's voice had trailed off, his breathing erratic and eyes blazing still. Richard halted as he wasn't aware what he was referring to but looking at him it seemed as if it was something personally devastating to him.

"After all that happened to me, I thought... But we have had this talk before, haven't we? You can't kill him because you fear not returning from that abyss... I understand now. But how could you let Timothy go through a similar if not worse situation than mine!"

And it was then Richard realized what Jay was referring to and the color drained from his features as well. Damian was standing by the door, woken up from all the commotion and even his eyes were focused on Jay as if judging for a way to get his father free from his hold.

Sensing that, Richard shook his head to Damian, silently asking him to stay back.

"He's just fifteen, even younger than I was!" Jay had let go of his collar roughly but his anger hadn't subsided, "and I don't even know whether he was even younger than fifteen back then..."

"Thirteen," the word passed Richard and Jay's head snapped towards him in shock, eyes narrowing.

"You know..."

"It was the darkest time of our lives after you, Jason," he resumed but his voice was low, "how did you find out though?"

"In case all of you are blind, the boy is traumatized to the ends of his wits!" Jay's voice had risen to an alarming pitch, "you think he doesn't sleep because he wants to keep on working, you think he consumes too much coffee because he's addicted... He does all that because it's his emergency exit from the nightmares that plague him."

"Jason please..." Bruce tried to speak up but Jay silenced him.

"Stay quiet unless you actually want to tell me truly what happened to Tim. Either I get my answers, or you get to face my wrath fully. I may have forgiven you for what happened to me Bruce but this... This is the limit."

"Dick," Bruce's eyes flickered towards his eldest son, "please take Damian back to his room."

"But Father..."

"Damian, you will stay with Dick," his tone was firm so the boy didn't object further, though he shrugged Richard's hand off that had landed on his shoulder.

Richard turned to look at the two for one last time but then left the study as Bruce nodded.

"I am sorry, I know it was my fault," Bruce spoke after a long which of heavy silence between the two.

"Apologies don't work for me anymore so you better focus on telling me the truth," his reply was cold but the storm raging in his eyes indicated something else altogether. In that split instant, Bruce had seen the broken soul inside of him, the concern that was buried deep under the rage he was inflicting on Bruce.

And deep down, Bruce felt as if he deserved it. Jason was right, he had made the same terrible mistake of almost sacrificing another young soldier to the fatal crime rampages of Gotham's most feared Joker.

"Thirteen," the word passed through Jay's gritted teeth, "and you couldn't save him too..."

"I tried my best. We brought Tim back, it took him two years to come back to normal."

"No wonder..."

"Jason, please..."

He snapped him shut, "how about you just stick to the topic? Start at the beginning. How did Joker get to Tim?"

Bruce took in a deep breath, bracing himself for what was going to be most probably the toughest conversation he would ever have because not only would he have to recall the darkest chapter of his life right after he had lost Jason and almost lost Tim as well. But the more troubling aspect was that he would have to recount it to Jason.

Jason who looked as if he was not going to take the whole truth well and would end up exploding, dragging him down into the fire burning in his eyes as well and burning him in his rage.

Rage that was quite justified that once and he could not find a way to oppose it. He knew he would have to deal with Jason's reaction while simultaneously keeping himself steady too. And that was not going to be anywhere near easy.

***