It's been 58 hours since Batman fumbled for a rebreather and made it out of the base at Gibraltar, despite his injuries and the assassin's poison slowly making its way through his body.

It's been over 60 hours since Damian tried to kill Tim. Alfred saved his life, and Tim's almost back to normal - he'll heal from the blood loss and bruising quickly. Quicker than Batman will heal from his broken ankle, especially with all the stunts he'd pulled before getting it set.

Batman had arrived back at Wayne Manor by taking a helicopter - the same helicopter Talia had flown in with. It had taken too long - long enough that if he hadn't had the antipoison to the League of Shadows' shurikens, he would've died.

On his way over, he called Aquaman. He normally hates bringing in more people, but it was a desperate situation. He couldn't let the League take Damian. It didn't help. By time Aquaman got there, the sub was long gone.

So now, Batman, Tim, and Alfred are all sitting on the porch, drinking morning tea and coffee. It's quiet, Batman thinks, even though they'd only been with Damian and the usual arguing at the breakfast table for two mornings. Still too quiet.

"For what it's worth," Tim says, "I'm sorry."

Batman nods. He feels like he should be the one apologizing to Tim, for not protecting him sooner, but he can't get the words out. Nearly losing Tim and then losing Damian to the people who indoctrinated him into an assassin is just too much.

"Do you still have a way to contact Talia?" Alfred asks, a little hopefully. "Maybe she could - "

"Talia's not going to do anything to help us," Batman says. He can't keep the bitterness out of his voice.

He doesn't know whether Talia was trying to come back to him and take Damian away from the League in the end. The situation was too chaotic, everyone too close to drowning, to tell. But he doesn't care. It's too late. Ten years too late.

He looks down at his tea.

"You could trace the call," Alfred suggests.

Batman shakes his head. "I don't know how, okay?" It's true. He doesn't. The League of Shadows is too chaotic without its leadership, and he doesn't think they're reusing any of the bases they used to - he even asked Cassandra to check, while she's been traking down Shiva. She hasn't seen anything.

A gust of wind cuts through, taking the warmth of the tea with it. Batman sighs deeply.

"We'll find him," Alfred says. "We always do."

Batman nods without enthusiasm. He knows what Alfred is doing - trying to make him feel better, to rally the troops so they can work properly - but it's not working.

Batman's phone dings, and he can see the Batcomputer got another notification from his surveillance programs. Two missing ecologists in Australia...

He sighs. No time to rest. No time to figure out what he was going to do about Damian. On another case, someone else having the worst day of their life.

Wait -

He checks the coordinates of the missing ecologists.

Suspiciously close to where the ley lines of the earth's magnetic field overlapped. Where Ra's put his Lazarus Pits...

He tries to remember what Alfred said earlier.

This isn't the end of the story - it's the beginning of it.