Nightwing's Last Flight?
By
AJ
Part 3
"I'm sorry, Sir . . . I . . . I did the . . . best that I could . . ." Alfred's voice was thick with emotion. "There was too much damage and not enough time." He had feared this very thing. That one of them would come home, he would fail, and that would be the end.
'It can't be true. His wounds weren't life-threatening . . . and yet . . . the blood loss. It was too much. It was too soon. The warehouse explosions were meant to draw us out. This was Talia's doing.'
Bruce approached his dead son, his second in as many months, his eldest, the son that brought the light back into his darkened world, his son whom every day saved him from himself. Bruce brushed his fingers through Dick's unruly hair. 'You could never keep it neat.' Moving his hand down to the young man's cheek, he could still see the boy underneath, the boy who affected him so profoundly, that for a moment, he must have lost his mind and brought him into his world. He took Dick in, gave him something to fight for, and in doing so, the boy freely gave him something more precious than gold. He gave Bruce his love, and that's when he realized that was what the boy had been seeking. 'It wasn't my approval . . . It . . . it was . . . my love. And I never told him.'
Bruce gathered Dick in his arms the way he always would when he fell asleep or was injured and cradled him close. Tears of anguish streamed down his face and he stumbled. Though the weight was nominal, his knees still buckled. He sat down on the steps and rocked his dead son, allowing his grief to swallow him.
'No, this can't be happening,' Dick thought, as he witnessed what was at that moment. His thoughts could not be hidden from his father.
"There is more," John Grayson stated.
What more could there be? Dick did not want to leave Bruce's side, but the pull of wanting to know more drew him away despite the anguish he was feeling for his adopted father. They moved through a veil of mist and it was apparent that time had moved ahead another two years. Tim Drake continued his mantle as Red Robin. He took over in Bludhaven, but on this night, he was gunned down not by the criminals that he had been chasing, but by the cops of Gotham City. Red Robin had crossed the river, forgetting that there was a sanction in place that banned Batman and anyone associated with him. Bruce claimed the body since there was no other to do so. He buried Tim beside his parents.
Barbara Gordon had gone into radio silence. Oracle became a memory. Cassandra had returned to her roots in China, and anyone else associated with Batman Incorporated had faded into the background. And Jason . . .Jason disappeared, never to be heard from again. He was thought to have died, but no one could prove it. The last straw was when Alfred died trying to save Bruce from an assassin's bullet. Even so, that assassin struck trice, wounding Bruce in his right leg, which would never fully heal. Afterward, Bruce went into seclusion, rarely being seen in public unless he absolutely had to.
"NO! That hasn't happened," Dick admonished.
"Yes, it did," John Grayson stated. "It would be twenty years before Batman was seen again, but it would be a new Batman. Even so, with your death, that light that helped Bruce and kept him from being swallowed into the darkness was gone. Timothy Drake may have convinced him once that Batman needed Robin, but it was Bruce who needed his son."
"His son?" Dick questioned. "Damian was his son. Bruce may have adopted me, but I'm your son."
John Grayson shook his head. "I only wish that were true. In this place there are no secrets." He turned toward his wife. Her eyes had the same color as her son's.
Mary Grayson explained how she met a very young Bruce Wayne. "I never told John because he adored you so. And I never contacted Bruce. It would not have been fair to him. I do not know the circumstances of him being there that night," Mary said. "But I will be forever grateful. You did not become one of those monsters the way you were chosen to be. We have watched you grow and we are proud of you."
The revelation that John Grayson wasn't his father struck Dick like an arrow from Speedy's bow. And yet, to see Bruce become so broken due to his death tore at him more. And to learn that Bruce was truly his father and he needed him . . .
"I . . . I . . . I need to go back."
"Are you certain?"
"You can stay," Mary pleaded. "You have done enough."
"No," Dick said. "I didn't keep my promise. I didn't watch his back."
"He has the others for that," his mother continued to plead her case.
'With what you showed me?' Dick's words became credulous. "You told me I didn't keep my promise. You're showing me a world where I died and . . . Jason and Tim . . . Why are you trying to sway me to stay? Why did you show me that if you wanted me to stay? I must go back. If my light as you imply keeps all that from happening, then I have no right to be here. He's lost enough."
Mary nodded toward her husband and knew her son passed the test. It wasn't his time, but she needed him to see that and to know how the world would change if he had chosen to stay. There was also one more thing she didn't have a chance to do and she wanted to do it now before it was too late to do so.
"Wait, before you go, take this," Mary placed something in Dick's hand. It contains your father's picture. Show it to him."
And Dick Grayson turned his back on the light of eternal peace and happiness. As he walked away, the darkness crept closer, enveloping him in its inky embrace.
Continues with Part 4
A/N: Reference to Batman Beyond. For me, Batman Beyond just isn't my world. Bruce may be in it, and there is another Batman in his place, it just doesn't seem right. It's missing something. I figured that if Dick had died, then something like Batman Beyond might come to pass. And for me, there's just something not right about it. Maybe because Dick is no longer in the picture and there isn't even a Robin. And Barbara Gordon is the commissioner and a very bitter woman as well. Not at all what I would have pictured the future of Batman to be.