•Peace•

•Chapter Sixteen•

=Chapter Sixteen=
•*•
Jason's POV
=

Wednesday, 11th of September

"So it seems the joker is back.. all that peace and quiet was too good to be true." Nightwing said to all of us gathered in the Batcave.

Batman nodded. "The Joker is never quiet for no reason. We can only assume he's been planning and has prepared the worse.."

Demon scoffed. "Obviously. He just needs to be killed at this point."

I nodded. "Yeah.." my hand moved to the gun on my hip.

Batman groaned. "No.. we don't kill.."

"Why not? Especially for this clown who's murdered tons including myself!" I hissed. "Cant you make an acceptation this time?"

"..look, I know this is a controversial topic for all of us, but those are the rules." Batman argues calmly.

"He breaks out of prison every time we ever get him in there! It's a never ending cycle!" I fume.

The rest of my "siblings" just nod in agreement.

Even Nightwing agrees with me, and he's the most like Batman.

Batman shakes his head. "No. We will try to detain him permanently.. in the meantime, we have missions we need scoped out..."

Batman continued for a couple minutes, listing all the missions he needed completed, more villains who escaped.. or plans for robberies or kidnappings to foil, and everyone took one to do.

"I have another mission, Red Hood, if you'd like to participate..." Batman said to me once it was just us in the room.

"Yeah? Go put criminals in jail instead of removing them permanently?" I sneered.

Batman sighed, and addressed me formally. "Jason.. my rules are important."

"Well Bruce, those rules are fine for kids and all, but I am an adult. Most of us are adults. We can handle killing now, and it's time to get these criminals dealt with." I stared him down.

"It is true that those rules originally started because Dick.. and you were children, and it isn't right for kids to kill, for their mentality and morality. And even now that both of you are adults, it's still not correct morally, as we are not apart of the law, although we... technically illegally help defend it." Batman explained. For once in his life he actually explained a literal valid- albeit frustrating- explanation.

I sighed. Even though I acted like I still held a grudge against Bruce, acted like I hated him, deep down I still wanted his approval. I still longed for a father figure, despite being an adult for so long already. I didn't really hate him, and I didn't really hate my siblings. I just didn't know what to do with my emotions. Everything after the Lazarus pit made me so.. disorganized.

I wanted vengeance. I wanted vengeance for myself, and for others who have been harmed. I could live with Batman's 'no killing' rule.. but only.. only if we could kill the Joker.

The one person.. if he's even a person at this point, the one person I hate and fear at times.

He didn't deserve to be alive. He's done far too much damage. Surely Bruce could see that.