Bat Clan Dynasty - JayDickWeek2017 - Day 3: MirrorVerse

A/N So I wanted to do this prompt justice, but I had a really good idea for a much longer fic. I couldn't think of a way to shorten it and still do it justice, so I decided to post this as a bit of a sneak peak/trailer for the full-length fic. If you'd like me to write the full fic, please let me know via comments! Otherwise, enjoy!

Dick was waiting for Bruce at the Cave when he returned from the battle.

Dick hadn't been there because he'd had his own thing going on – a burglary of some of the finest jewels in Gotham with no trace evidence, the perfect crime. But word traveled fast in a place like Gotham, and it hadn't taken him long after the fact to hear about what had gone down the last time Joker tried to stop yet another of the great Batman's evil schemes. The moment he heard about it he headed for the Cave, unsure of what to expect when he arrived.

He was perched on the armrest of a chair, picking at his fingernails when Bruce arrived. Bruce gave him a glare before grunting and stiffly sitting in his own char. "What do you want, Dick?" he ground out through clenched teeth. Dick was surprised he spoke at all.

"I heard about Jason."

Bruce sneered. "Well if a scatterbrained truant like you heard, I'm sure all of Gotham has."

Dick shrugged off the insult, having become accustomed to them in the many long years that he'd known the man. "Well, since I heard it from a hot dog vender on 9th, yeah, you could say all of Gotham knows about Jason."

Bruce rolled his eyes and stewed in silence, trying to act as if he was ignoring Dick, who knew that Bruce was really observing him, taking in every detail that might tell him how, and what, his eldest son was doing nowadays.

Tired of feeling like a piece of art displayed in the wrong museum, Dick cleared his throat. "What are you going to do about it," he asked.

Bruce shook his head. "There's nothing you can do about a dead man, Dick."

Dick's eyebrows furloughed and he swallowed. "Jason's not dead, Bruce."

"He's dead to me," Bruce spit out, looking entirely calm on the outside, which only made his obvious rage that much more terrifying. "He died the moment he betrayed his family – betrayed me!" Bruce slammed his fist down on the armrest of his chair, and Dick heard the plastic support crack under the brute force.

Dick sighed. He had known Bruce would probably react like this. He wasn't the most accepting of fathers to begin with, so it stood to reason that when the greatest crime boss in Gotham City had a weapons trade busted by his own son, it wouldn't turn out too well. Still, he had hoped that Bruce wouldn't quite react this bad.

Except it got worse.

Bruce stood from his chair and marched toward the stairs that led to the mansion above the Cave. As he neared the first step, he paused and looked back at Dick. "Get the word out," he said. "Orders concerning Jason Todd are to kill on sight. No exceptions." Then he ascended the stairs, looking every bit the King of Crime that he was.

*****

Jason had left town, Dick knew. There was no real logical reason for him to stay, considering that every criminal in the city was prepared to kill him, for the reward money if not for loyalty's sake.

Still, a Gotham without Jason Todd was a really boring one.

The only qualm Bruce seemed to have with Jason's absence was that it would take longer for him to be killed. Indeed, in every area other than the reward he'd offered to anyone who could give him Jason's head, Bruce seemed hell-bent on pretending he had never existed. When the son of yet another Gotham elite was orphaned and witnessed his parents' brutal death, Bruce decided to take in yet another protégé to replace Jason. Tim was a quick learner, and it was almost as if he worshiped Bruce. If he continued on his current path, he was set to become a younger, potentially more lethal version of the Batman, and Dick could tell it gave Bruce a sadistic feeling of glee to see such a grand success to make up for the failure that had been Jason Todd.