Archive of Our Own

Notes:

The original prompt:

after jason wakes up in the rubble, he snaps, and decides that he'll kill all rogues that plague gotham - since bruce shows them the mercy jason cannot get, he'll get rid of them all (ugly, ugly feelings. jealousy, envy, a childish desire to be loved warped beyond recognition). in the meantime, bruce dies and dick takes up the mantle of batman; and suddenly, the rogues start disappearing, one by one. there's no clues left behind, there's no bodies to be found - it's as if they vanished in thin air. every kill changes jason further, shows him how much below him his idol(s) are - someone should have stopped him so far, why did nobody come? and so, he leaves a clue deliberately pointing towards his next victim - the joker. dick arrives just in time... to realize who's the killer. jason wears no mask, since he's a ghost - he doesn't have a reason to live after joker dies. this is his last act of mercy for the world that despised him... until he sees dick's face and realizes bruce is gone. the one he was doing this all for, the one who he wanted to be saved by, didn't come at the end; and someone else is wearing his cowl. the final thread holding his sanity together breaks, and he laughs, laughs, laughs. joker laughs with him, until jason breaks his neck and disappears into the night. (...) time passes, and there's rumours of the old circus/amusement park grounds being used again... is it possible that jason found a reason to live in opposing batman while culling any new/other rogues? (as long as batman exists, so will he; and he will wear the mask of the person who set him on this path.)