Jason woke up the next day, and looked over to see Max still passed out. He smiled as he got up to leave.
Quietly, Jason put his jacket back on and wrote a long note explaining what he was doing.
After that, Jason jumped through the window to the ground. It wasn't a high jump, but he did it nonetheless. Jason made his way to his car, and proceeded to go to see Warren Graham in the hospital.
After a short drive, Jason asked to see him. The receptionist said that he was just down the hallway to the left. Jason thanked hee, and made his way towards the room.
Jason sighed, and then opened the door. Warren looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. As soon as he heard the door open, Warren looked over towards Jason and smiled weakly.
"Long time, no see," Jason said as he then closed the door behind him.
Warren then spoke, and Jason understood why he wasn't talking. He could barely talk. Warren's voice was almost a whisper.
"Jason? I heard you were back but I didn't believe it," he said as he sat up. "Shit... my voice hurts..."
Jason ushered for Warren to lay down and speak quieter to help fix his voice. "I came to check up on you... are you okay?"
Warren looked away, and a single tear fell down his cheek. He explained that he was paralyzed from the waist down now.
"Fuck... I'm so sorry I wasn't here... this is-" Jason began before he was cut off.
"Jay, I chose this," he whispered. "I wanted to be a hero, and well, I paid my price. It sucks but there is a possibility for me to walk again. Terrence Industries is ahead in the medical field for ex vets and accident victims like myself."
"Yeah, I'd know. My dad helped develop that tech," Jason shrugs. Warren looks at him, then realizes that Jason isn't who he says he is.
"Holy shit... You're..." he begins before Jason stops him. "Does Max know?"
Jason looks off to the side, and responds with a quiet no. "I'm scared to tell her because technically I'm dead. So..."
Warren looks at him, then understands.
"I understand, Jay. And I'll keep your secret."
Just then, the two boys here a knocking at the hospital door. Jason gets up to go answer it, and in comes a man who Jason has been looking for. The Red X.
"Hello, Mr. Todd," he says.
Warren tries getting up, but Jason puts him down.
"So, you're the infamous Red X, huh? Not so intimidating," Jason smirks. Red X stands there, and cocks his head to the side unimpressed.
"What do you want kid?" X asks, annoyed with his arrogance. Jason laughs and then sucker punches Res X in the face, immediately knocking him unconscious.
"You."
Jason had called everyone to meet in the Junkyard for a meeting with their new captive. He didn't think the plan would work, but for him it did.
As Jason drove to the Junkyard, the Red X woke up.
"Rise and shine, asshole!" Jason cheerfully says while driving. The only response Jason is a grumble, and Jason keeps talking.
"When we get to the place I hang, we're going to talk. And I will get answers. I won't hesitate to kill you," Jason says as he turns into American Rust. He could tell that Red X wasn't caring, so he drove a little bit recklessly to shake him up. It inevitably knocked the helmet off of Red X, and Jason looked at his face. He studied it intensely, and then parked the car. It was time for work.
"Wake up," Jason said as he splashed cold water onto the head of the kid who claimed to be the Red X.
Jason leaned in close, and began to speak.
"You're gonna tell me everything that I want to know, kid. You don't, I will kill you," he growled. The boy laughed. Jason then punched him square in the face, stopping him from laughing. Jason punched him around some more until the boy couldn't take it anymore.
"Alright, fine!" Red X called out. "I'll answer your questions. Just don't kill me." His face was bruised and Jason didn't care. He begun asking his questions.
"Who are you working for? I want his name."
"None of us know his name! I swear. We just call him the Talon..."
Jason asked his second question.
"Do you believe in what you're doing? Do you even think its right?"
Red X thought for a while before answering. "Not anymore, no. Talon's fucking crazy!"
Finally, Jason asked his last question.
"Why?"
Red X was baffled by this. He didn't know how to respond. But Jason had gotten all he needed. So his interrogation was done. He then knocked the boy out once again.

    A few days have passed since the Red X was captured, interrogated, and released but Jason didn’t care. He only cared about finding this “Talon.” He had a suspicion as to who it was, because there are few people in the world who could train people as well as him. But Jason wasn’t sure yet. However, his work was needing to be put on hold. Recently, there was a death in the family.

    Peter George “Petey” Matches was the one person in the Terrence Family who knew that Jason was alive. And he had passed away. Jason wanted to pay his respects to the man who had helped him up to this point. He made sure to tell everyone that he was going out of town for Petey’s funeral.

    When he arrived back in Seattle, Jason noticed a couple at a small coffee joint that he used to go to. He thought that they were cute, and texted Max the location so they could go there sometime.

    Walking on the streets, Jason took in the sights of his old hometown. The buildings he frequented, the street names, every house. He was home, or at least a memory of it.

    “Ezra?” came a voice that was all too familiar to Jason. He turned around to see Kira Yagami, the officer that he saw enter the remains of his house all of those years ago.

    “Ezra’s dead, Kira. My name is Jason now,” he said, smiling sadly.

    Kira looked sad, bud understood why. He really did die that night and Jason is not who Ezra was.

    “Oh, well… I’m sorry Jason. About your loss, I mean,” she says as he gets a call from her radio. “I, uh, I gotta go. Shift starts soon.”

    Jason looks at Kira and thinks for a split second. He looks right past her head and sees another girl waiting for her. He smiles.

    “No worries, Yagami. Have fun on your shift,” he says as he turns around to go back to his original heading.

    Once he arrives, Jason takes a deep sigh. He’s not wanting to do this, but Petey would have wanted this. Jason opens the door to a quiet room. Everyone was sitting down, and crying. Taking one last deep breath, Jason walked into the room, and took his seat all the way in the front.

    The ceremony lasted about an hour. Jason held in tears most of the time, letting some slip here and there. When it was over, he walked over to the open casket and looked at his now deceased friend.

    “Cold and lifeless, like you used to be,” a voice came. Jason turned around swiftly, seeing no one there. He took out a knife that he could easily conceal.

    “There are no need for weapons, Mr. Todd,” the voice said again. It was male, and deep. Jason, now getting irritated, looked all around him, hoping to find who was speaking. That is when he saw him. A man, pale as paper, dressed in all black, walking towards him. Jason chuckled when he saw his entire visage. He looked like The Crow, a character from the movie of the same name. But when he saw what he was carrying, his face darkened.

    “My name is Draven,” he announced. “I’m here to warn you about your own blood killing you. I’m on no side here, as I’m just a messenger. You’ll need this to try and stop your destiny,” he said as he easily threw the hefty case. Jason knew exactly was was in there, and was not happy with this… messenger giving him the weapons of his lineage.

    “This isn’t yours, Draven. You shouldn’t have tou-” Jason said before realizing that he was gone. “Shit…” He had to get back to Arcadia Bay as soon as possible. The end was nearing, and Jason knew it.

    “The fact that this Draven guy had something of my family’s was unsettling,” Jason said to Max over the phone. I don’t even know who he is, or how he got it in the first place… And he mentioned something about blood killing blood?”

    “You don’t have any family, do you?” Max asked, concerned.
    “None that are alive, or that know I’m still alive… This makes no sense. I’m on my way back to Arcadia Bay and we can talk about this there, okay?”
    “Okay, Jay. Stay safe,” she said. That made Jason smile as he said he loved her, and hung up. Jason wanted to get to the bottom of this, and the only place he had to look was his old home.

    Driving up to the ruins, Jason immediately noticed someone. He looked down at his glove compartment, and took out a small pistol. He had it on him at all times. He observed the environment, and saw that there were some small construction vehicles there. Jason was angry, and wanted to know why all of this was here.

    Getting out of his car, he rushed towards the man, and began to yell at him, demanding to know what was going on. But when the man turned around, Jason was shocked. He looked exactly like him. He had relatively shorter hair, he wasn’t scarred up, and he had blue eyes. Jason stepped back in awe and fear.

    “Hello, Jason,” he said. It was Jason’s voice, but more grim and disgruntled. “It’s time that we met again. My name is Damian Allen Terrence. I was taken from this place years ago, but I remembered everything about it. I’m here to destroy it’s legacy.”

    “Like hell you will,” Jason barked back. “You don’t even know what happened here, do you?”

    “On the contrary, dear brother, I do. I was the one who hired Damon Merrick to kill you and our… failure of a family. Guess he didn’t succeed, as you are alive.”

    Jason’s gaze widened, and he took out his gun and aimed it as Damian. “You did this to me?! This is all your fault!!” Jason put his finger on the trigger, ready to blow his twin away, but Damian stopped him, and threw the gun away.

    “I hated all of you, Ezra. Or do you prefer Jason? Well, either way, it doesn’t matter. You’ll all die, and I’ll be in control of this entire criminal empire our family helped create.”

    “That ‘empire’ is gone, Damian. I dismantled it. Took its money, everything. I’m nothing like our parents. And I’m willing to do what is necessary to protect those I care about.” Jason swung at Damian, who blocked it with lightning speed. Realizing his speed, Jason began a series of rapid attacks, which Damian could barely block. When Damian was on the ground, Jason turned to his gun.

    “I’m going to end this,” he said as he turned around. Damian wasn’t there at all. Any trace of his brother was completely gone, minus the construction equipment. Jason had to get back to Arcadia Bay as soon as possible, before his brother destroyed everything he stood for.

    Jason’s trip was dead silent. No music, no calling, just driving and thinking. Thinking about his family, Damian, all of it. To him, it all made sense now.  Red X was hired by Damian to ruin the Red Hood’s reputation, and the criminals who still resided in his hometown must have been hired by him as well. Jason realized that the only way to end this was to kill his brother. He saw no other way out.

    When he got back, Jason immediately realized something was wrong. Even for a small town, Arcadia Bay was busy at night. It unnaturally quiet. No one was out. He drove through the empty streets, until he found his friends. They were unconscious. Jason parked his vehicle, and ran towards them, but a few “X” shaped knives were thrown towards his direction, some cutting him. Looking up, he saw the sender, the Red X.

    “I take it you met the Talon?” he asks, taking out some more weapons. Jason doesn’t respond, but instead finds a metal rod to use as a weapon. “No response? You just want to fight? Alright that can be oblig-”

    Jason swung the staff-like pole into Red X’s faceplate, damaging it severely. He was staggered, so Jason threw in a series of a few more strikes to keep his opponent down. But the vigilante for hire was quick on his feet, taking out dual batons, blocking some of his strikes. Jason knew he was going to struggle with this, but stood his ground nonetheless. Each strike, each kick, everything was deliberate in tiring his enemy out. But when another showed up, Jason realized that he was totally screwed. It was Damian, in his own armor. Similar to a owl in design, he pounced and now it was a 2-1 fight, with Jason on the defense.

    Red X’s strikes were just like Jason’s, meant to tire him out, and Damian’s were to kill, or at least maim him. He was tired. Eventually, he gave out, and let the pair deal him damage that would kill a regular human.

    Jason fell to his knees, and Red X’s knives came close to his throat. “Finish me,” he said, weakly. The boy hesitated, but Damian didn’t. As soon as he saw the hesitation, he struck down his partner in anger. The armor that he wore was shredded beyond repair, and blood covered everything on him. He was close to dead as someone could be.

    “I want you to watch him bleed, Ezra,”Damian growled. “That’ll be you, and everyone else that you know. I’ll gut you like the little animals you all are. My claws will bathe in your blood and I’ll be the emp-”

    A gunshot sounded off from behind Damian, hitting him square in the shoulder. He turned around and saw Draven, the Crow. He snarled, and rushed him. But Draven was quick. He dodged Talon, and kicked him in the face. Everyone was waking up now, and watched the two dance a brutal dance. Jason got up, and ordered everyone to get out of here, and he looked at the Red X, and brought him along. The last thing that he saw was Draven going down, but taking a good few chunks out of Damian’s health with him