Gotham's Best 6
The Sleepless Dream.
It all happened too fast for Damian to even register. Ra's snuck up on him, Starling screamed, a shove, and Damian was eating 50-year-old carpet. He got up to see the person who had pushed him out of the way, Batman. The Syringe meant for Damian in his neck, and he slowly fell to the floor, whatever contents that were stored in the syringe now in the Dark Knight's body. Damian couldn't even think. All thoughts in his mind ceased, and the room around him slowed. He was barely aware of NIghtwing's shouting, or Red Robin's frantic movements to try and help, but Damian knew. He just knew. They couldn't help him now. The only thing that Damian seemed to notice was his Grandfather, Rod Hood held the old man down as he cackled madly. He looked at Damian and laughed.
"You Fool." He taunted the boy. "You were disowned. Did you really think we would take you back after some foolish test? As if you even deserve to take it."
"You planned to kill him along," Starling said she backed away from the scene before her. Shaking her head as if to wipe the images away that she was currently witnessing.
"Smart." Ra's commented with a laugh. "I did not kill the boy, but I did kill the Batman. Shame, with your death I hoped to sway him over to my side. Even still a thorn out of my side has been taken care of." Ra's didn't get to say anymore as Red Hood leaned over and punched him in the face knocking the immortal out cold.
"Night, Night Ra's." Red Hood spat.
"Guys." Batgirl's trembling voice lent everyone's attention back to Batman. Damian could hear it, it was all he could hear. Batman's slowed breathing, the silence of the room carried in an omen that Damian had known before.
"I can't-" Red Robin stepped back away from the man he had called father for years, "I-I Can't help him." He ripped off his mask. "Dick, his vitals…. I can't. Dick, You've got to do something. Dick, please." Red Robin turned to Nightwing unsure of who to go to to help.
Nightwing didn't say anything he only walked up to the where the Batman laid and removed the cowl from his head. Bruce's eyes were red, with a hand on his chest Nightwing could feel his heart slow with every beat.
"We're all here, Bruce. You're not alone. We're right here with you." Nightwing said holding his hand tight. Bruce seemed to understand this and he sighed as if accepting his fate. Everyone moved forward, save Starling who watched the scene in horror. She was still, unmoving. Tears fell, silently from her at first, but soon she started to sob.
With one final breath, Bruce turned to his youngest son, who took his hand into his own that continued to tremble, and said, "It's not your fault." A final sigh seemed to signal that Bruce was no longer with them. The loudest cry came from Nightwing, the one who had known the man the longest.
GCPD showed up 3 minutes later. The paramedics took Huntress away. Starling unsure of what to do or feel went with her to make sure she wasn't unmasked. Red Robin reported to Commissioner Gordon, and Nightwing he carried the body out the back. No one could know that the Batman had died, no one.
The ride home was silent save for a few sniffling tears from Batgirl. She hadn't said a word since Bruce had died. Neither Damian. He couldn't. He could only hear his father's final words
It's not your fault.
Damn him. How would he know anyway? He was gone now. He couldn't investigate how the situation could have gone if Damian had done something. He couldn't berate Damian for not paying enough attention to Ra's. He couldn't tell Damian that accidents happen, or that Ra's is just too good. His father was dead, and nothing Damian could do could ever change that.
Alfred was waiting in the cave for them as usual. He had heard the news, but for some reason, he had come down to tend to the rest. He had taken care of things that Damian didn't even notice that they had let slip. As soon as Helena was able he was going to have her moved to the Manor. He already worked it so that, no one knew that Helena Bertinelli who "suffered a tragic incident with a purse snatcher" was also The Huntress who had just taken a metal rod through the torso. Alfred had also sent Starling back to the scene to clean up any of Helen's blood that was left. He had a cup of tea waiting for each of them, and with dry eyes wished them all his condolences. If the old man had his way he wouldn't let any of them see him cry. While they had lost a father, Alfred had lost a son, and that was something Damian knew he couldn't relate to.
Dick could, and maybe that's why he had been so quiet since Bruce died. He was in the lab with the syringe that had… Damian couldn't even think it. Dick was in the lab figuring out whatever it was that was in the syringe. He had too, Bruce would want to know. So that in the future they could make a cure, and maybe next time no one would….
No, there wouldn't be a "next time". Damian would make sure of it.
The funeral happened a week later. Something small with only family and friends. The founding members of the Justice League showed up, as well as the whole Arrow and Super Family. Bruce would have wanted it this way. They buried him right next to his parents. Just like he asked for in his will. The Tombstone read, "Bruce Wayne, May he do in Death what he did in life." An unwritten Protect was there, a thought that made Damian want to hurl in the middle of the catholic priest sermon. Jason actually did.
Damian hadn't seen the man since that night. He had been avoiding his adoptive brothers. Surely they blamed him. He blamed himself. If not been for him, Bruce wouldn't have been there at all. If Damian had only been quicker, if only he had noticed Ra's closing in him, if only he had died instead. Then everyone wouldn't be in such pain as they were now.
It wasn't raining the day of the funeral, but in Damian's mind, it might as well have been pouring.
Another three weeks passed, and Barbara finally called everyone in to discuss things. No one had put on a mask since that night. No one even thought of it. It didn't seem right going back to work, not after what happened. Before when Bruce was gone things were different. They weren't there. This time, it rang with a note of finality that Damian couldn't even bear thinking about the time his father "died".
"I've gotten the Birds of Prey to do their thing in Gotham while you guys are…" Barbara searched for the right word. "Out of commission. Understand that you can take as long as you need, but I just wanted to know if you guys are going to get back out there. No rush, take your time. Just something to think about. You don't have to tell me now." She told them sincerely.
Mary looked around hopeful, but the others kept their heads down.
It was surprisingly Stephanie who spoke up first. "I was going to tell you guys…" She hesitated and looked towards the ground. "But with all that's going on, it didn't seem right." She put her head in her hands and let out a sob.
Tim moved to her side automatically, "Steph? Talk to me what's wrong?"
Stephanie shook her head, "Nothing is wrong, and that's the problem!" She cried.
"Stephanie, what are talking ab-"
"Tim, I'm pregnant." Tim froze at her words, staring at her with wide eyes as she continued, "I wanted to tell you sooner, but I needed to find someone else to be Batgirl, and I wanted Bruce and everyone to be there when I told you, and now the only thing I can think about is the fact that he died not knowing. I should have said something weeks ago, but I wasn't sure if it was the right time." She paused. "The right time never came. Now Bruce is gone and I don't know what to do."
"Oh god," Tim said, slipping down to the ground. He held his head in between his knees. "How Long?" Tim said his voice muffled by his knees.
"7 weeks, I just found out three weeks ago. I should have said something earlier and-"
"And nothing." Tim cut her off, "Stephanie, I'm not mad."
"You're not?" She asked through her sniffling. She rubbed her nose with the sleeve of her green sweater.
"No, But you shouldn't have been on the streets when you knew you were pregnant," Tim said with a sigh. "It doesn't matter anymore. Needless to say, you're retired." Stephanie shook her head in agreement. She couldn't go back out there, especially not now. "I guess, that means I'm retiring too."
"Tim!" "What?" "You can't!"
"I can and I will," Tim said. He left no room for argument. "Guys, let's be rational here. I've already had to go through the deaths of two fathers. Why the hell would I put my future child through such torture?"
"Uncle Tim, you don't know that's going to happen." Mary fought.
"That's just it!" Tim stood up, "I don't know! My dad didn't know he was going to die and leave me, and I sure as hell know Bruce didn't know either! So what am I going to do? Continue an occupation where I know one day, my child is going to have to bury me when it's not my time!? When they still need me?! I still need Bruce, especially knowing this. I can't do this. I don't think I can put the mask on ever again. I can't. I won't."
"Tim, let's not be hasty here-"
"Babs," Dick cut her off. "It's his choice. He make's a valid argument. I certainly didn't want to experience losing a parent again, but here I am. I may be in my thirties, but this is just as bad as when my parents fell. I couldn't even imagine leaving Mary. Maybe it's better if we all just-"
"No." Jason finally spoke up.
Dick turned to him, "What?"
"You were going to say hang up our masks, right?" Jason asked with a raised eyebrow. "No." He repeated, but harder.
"Jason, think about it. It's probably for the best, I mean"
"No! Bruce made us into something and to turn our backs on that is to spit on his memory. He would want us fighting, not in here crying over him!" Jason yelled. Behind him, Mary nodded.
"BRUCE ISN'T HERE!" Dick shouted back. It was one of the few times Dick ever raised his voice. There was silence following his outburst. Jason, not wanting to back down looked his brother in the eye, and squared his shoulders. "Bruce is gone, Jaybird. He's really gone, and I know that if we go back out there we're going to die one by one. I'm not going to let that happen. I can't lose anyone else." He cried. "I'm not strong enough, Jason. The only thing I see when I sleep now is Tim slowly dying on the medical table over there, Stephanie's old grave, Damian's fight with the Heretic, Mary getting gassed by the Joker, and your file listing you as deceased." Damian really looked at Dick. He has never seen Dick look this way. So tired... "I haven't slept. I can't because if I do none of you come back from those things, those close calls. And I can't do that anymore."
"Dad…" Mary called out, but her words failed her. She bit her lip and looked down at the floor.
"I don't think we should go back out either," Damian said speaking up. "My father started all of this, and now…" Damian trailed off. "It should be up to me whether we continue this or not."
"FYI, Boy Blunder, Bruce barely let any of us do this. It isn't your decision jut like it wasn't his."
" It was my father who made the symbol of the bat, you should respect my wishes for what I want to do with it now that he's..." Damian still couldn't say it.
Jason narrowed his eyes, "He was my father longer, and before he was yours. Just because Talia drugged him one night and you came out of it doesn't mean that you get to decide what to do with his legacy, you fucking accident." Damian stood up so quickly that he knocked over the heavy chair
"You want to say that again, Todd" Damian squared up.
Dick jumped in-between the two, "Stop it." He ordered. "You are not fighting. If you're going to cause drama then you can leave." He said looking back and forth between the two.
"Fine, you want to keep the bat symbol? You can fucking have it." Jason spat. He shoved past Dick and walked up the stairs, leaving.
"Uncle Jason, Wait!" Mary got up to run after him, but a look from her father made her sit back in her seat.
"He'll be back," Dick said surely.
"This is wrong," Mary said, speaking up for the first time. "We are warriors and to let the death of one-"
"Mary, this is not only about the fact that Bruce is gone," DIck said. "I'm worried about all of our safety."
"I'm sure you are." She said looking her father in the eye. there was something in her tone that made Damian think she didn't really think that. "I thought you all were strong, but all I see is rutha(weakness)." She translated. "We're heroes. Gotham needs us." Mary pleaded.
Dick shook his head, "Not us, not anymore."
Damian had given everything to the people of Gotham, but not anymore. He had lost too much to continue giving.
And so the Bats disappeared from Gotham all of them retiring, all but Jason. The Red Hood took over Gotham, but Jason was different now, more violent. Much like he had been when he had first gotten his life back. To keep him in check, Oracle and her Birds of Prey watched and tried half-heartedly to stop whatever petty crimes that The Red Hood Gang committed. They were the lesser of two evils. As long as Jason was in charge of the crime in Gotham it wouldn't be too bad. The numbers didn't lie. Crime had decreased, and how did the Red Hood become King Pin in Gotham? He killed both Two-Face and The Penguin.
Yes, he killed them. The villains began to realize that Batman wasn't coming back around a month after Bruce had died. Oracle was going to call the Birds of Prey in, but Red Hood and his gang had already taken care of it.
Red Hood had hung the corpses of Gotham's top 2 crime bosses for all to see in front of the old courthouse. Wordless proclaiming that Gotham had a new king… Him.
No one contested it, no matter how much Barbara pleaded. She couldn't find Jason. He was in the wind after that letting his gang take care of things for him, running the scene from some unseen curtain. Gotham criminals no longer feared The Bat, but now feared The Hood who wouldn't hesitate to end their lives should they cross him.
Jason never came back to them.
Dick had thrown himself into his work with his Gym and Wayne Enterprises. Until Damian was of age, he was the owner of the whole Wayne Estate and all of its assets. Damian thought that since they quit crime-fighting that it was all Dick could do to honor the man who took him when he was young. He was never around anymore. He sold the loft, and he and Mary moved into the Manor. He was always working now. Though he always found time for Damian. Dick helped him through his father's death just like he had before. They were partners once again, and Damian had to admit that in a way he kinda of missed it.
Tim and Stephanie got married not too long after she revealed herself to be pregnant. It was not a happy affair. Fake smiles and sincerities ran rampant. Tim hadn't been the most uplifting person since Bruce died. He was trying to be happy, but all those who knew him could see. He was still mourning, they all were.
Cassandra hadn't even bothered to come. She left Gotham. Nothing was there for her anymore. She had taken Bruce's death almost as bad as Tim. She at least gave Mary a real smile when she left and promised to stay in touch when the young girl had begged her to stay. Tim hadn't even attempted to smile yet.
Things went back to normal for Damian. Going back to school was the roughest part. The kids moved around him as if he were a leper, refusing to even acknowledge him. The sad part was that this included Mary. Damian knew that she was upset with him. He couldn't blame her. She wanted to get back out there and fight again, but Damian, he couldn't lose anybody else.
The year ended with silence. Things we're going to get better. Eventually, things would go back to how they were. Damian just had to wish it.
The next year passed in a blur for Damian. Tim and Stephanie's daughter was born. Her name was Martha-Jane Drake M.J for short. When She was born Damian swore it was the first time Tim smiled since Bruce died over a year and a half ago.
They didn't do anything for the anniversary of Bruce's death. Feelings were still too raw, everyone was still too hurt. Especially, Damian, he looked around the state of family and could see that no one was happy.
Tim and Stephanie had moved out the manor when M.J was born. So it was only Dick, Damian, and Mary who still lived in the Manor. If you could say that Mary lived there. It was more accurate to say that she slept in the manor. She was always away, always out with friends or at dance practice. To Damian, it seemed like she was trying to avoid him. Dick didn't really have the time to think about it. As long as she didn't put on the suit and go back out, he couldn't care less about how she was never home.
Dick and Damian had gotten closer, though. They spent time together discussing the company, and what to do with it. They discussed other things too. That's when Dick suggested a vacation, just the two of them, out of the country, to Italy just for a month. Damian didn't hesitate to agree.
It turned out to be just what both needed because Damian couldn't remember being so happy. It was like a dream, waking in the morning and being in Italy, actually seeing the city for the first time in his life. Enjoying everything bout it. For once in his life, Damian Wayne felt like a human being, and it was amazing.
Dick and Damian almost decided to stay another week when a news report from Gotham came in. The title read, "A Hero Returns." In it was detailed pictures of a female fighting crime in Gotham. Damian didn't even have to think about who that almost too long ponytail belonged to. Mary.
Damian doesn't think he's ever seen Dick this angry. He crumbles up the paper and throws it into the fireplace. They take the first plane back to Gotham. Dick doesn't say a word the entire flight.
When they get back to the Manor, Alfred greets them normally. Dick demands to know if he had anything to do with it.
"Master Richard," The Butler began, "If I had any power to stop you all from doing anything that you wanted, I am sure I would have done so previous to this occurrence." He said dryly. Dick stormed off after Alfred had informed that Mary wasn't home yet and that she would be as soon as her dance lessons were finished for the evening.
Mary must know that they were home because she doesn't come in through the front door. Instead, she climbs the window into her room knowing her father would be at the door waiting for her. She's packing her clothes, hoping to be out before he could catch her. Dick doesn't hear her climb through the window. Damian does.
When he goes to her room he sees her, "What are you doing?" It wasn't really a question more like a demand.
"Just leave me alone, Damian." She tells him, not bothering to stop packing her clothes.
"You can't leave." He tells her.
"Watch me." She challenges. Damian calls for Dick just as Mary is heading out the window. He pulls her back and tackles her to the ground to stop her from leaving. She kicks him off with ease. She'd been keeping up with her training. Damian hadn't known.
"You're not leaving without a fight, Mary." He tells her settling into a fighting position.
She didn't say anything only throwing Damian a punch that he blocked but still sent him into the wall. He stopped training. He couldn't, not anymore. What was Damian training for now? Who was Damian training for now?
He's barely standing his ground against her when Dick walks in and tears her off of him. She's broken his nose and split his lip.
"What the hell is going on here?" He demands. He looks back and forth between the two of them.
"She was going to leave," Damian told him, pointing at her. "She's running away."
Dick's eyes widened as he looked toward his daughter for an explanation. "Mary, why?"
"Because I miss being myself!" She spat and glared at the two of them. "I miss being able to fly."
"We have a trapeze set at the gym. You know you can use it any.."
"That's not it and you know it!" She accused. "I am a warrior! And you are trying to take that away from me!"
"I am trying to keep you safe!" Dick screamed. "What am I going to do if I lose you, Mary? I would lose my mind."
"That's a risk I'm willing to take!" She screamed back.
"Well, I'm not," Dick replied bringing the volume down from the screaming that had just taken place. Damian then takes notice of the bag that Mary had holding the clothes she was packing. The Contents were now empty, and in the middle of the floor was her Starling uniform. Damian watches as Dick's attention goes from the face of his daughter to the garment on the floor. Before Mary could stop him, Dick grabs the Starling uniform off the floor and hold it up for Mary to see.
"This is not who we are anymore." He tells her, and he walks out the room. He burns the uniform and all the spares the next morning.
"I hate you," Mary tells Damian. Her voice was quiet he almost couldn't hear her. There was something calm and sure in her voice. Damian believed her, and the tears that fell from her face that night. Dick did the right thing in his mind. That part of their family died with his father. That he was sure of.
Mary doesn't talk to Damian much after that. Not that she really had since Bruce died, but that confrontation between them had sealed it. Mary only talks to him if she really needs, and avoids him the rest of the time. Damian can't say that he blames her, but it was for her own good. She was going to get herself killed, just like… It had been a year and he still couldn't say it. He had been told it would get better with time. It hadn't. It had only gotten harder.
One thing that does get better for Damian is school. With Mary not speaking to him and Dick busy with work sometimes, Damian became quite active in his school life. He joined the schools Mock Trial team, and debate teams. Nothing athletic, that would make him stick out too much. With him they win regions, then state, then nationals. Damian gets scholarships and internship offers, He's only 15, and he already knows he won't be paying for college, not that it would have really taken anything out of the bank for them anyway. Damian takes both the SAT and the ACT, scores perfectly on both. He gets offered to test out of school early. Go to College early and be great, but Damian declines. He's fine where he's at because he just met her again.
Mia "Maps" Mizoguchi.
When Damian first attended Gotham Academy before Mary had come to live with them he had met the girl. He was fond of her. She was smart, resourceful, and she made him smile. She had left Gotham Academy for a while to go to public school but was now back. Damian and Mariah Winters ended their relationship after his father's funeral. So Damian began to pursue her, and she pursued him right back. It didn't take long for the two to become an official couple.
Maps is vibrant, outgoing, brave, and everything that Damian wanted. She always knew what to do to cheer him up, and when Damian invited her to the family dinners that were now just silent feedings, it turned into a night of funny stories and hilarity. Damian couldn't get enough of her. The only thing he could think about was the fact that his father would have loved her. He would have enjoyed Maps' company. She brought something new to the table, she brought a laughter back into Damian's life and he couldn't be more grateful. Damian could say for once in his life that he was completely happy. He wanted everything to stay this way forever. He didn't want anything to change, but that's when he started to notice the girl.
He noticed her because of the odd way she dressed. She wore a white dress that went down to her shins. She was young, a child. Her hair was dark and long and on her face layer a colorful Venetian bird mask that hid her identity from him. Damian began noticing that girl everywhere he went, but when he would take notice of her she would disappear as if she were never there.
"Girl? Damian, I've never seen any girl." Maps told Damian when he brings it up.
"I'm not crazy." He tells her. Maps gave him a skeptical look. "I'm serious. Everywhere I go I swear one minute she's there, and the next she's gone." they're sitting in his room. Maps laid on his bed hanging off it upside down, while Damian sat at his desk.
"Well, your the son of the World's greatest detective." She says kicking her legs forward and flipping off the bed. "Let's investigate!" Maps proposes. "With me as your Watson, we're sure to solve this case, Sherlock." She holds out her hand. Damian doesn't hesitate to take it.
Damian draws a picture of the girl to show Maps what she looks like. Maps now knowing what to look for decides the best thing to do was to set a trap for the girl, have Maps stake-out while Damian played bait. Damian decided the best place for this little excursion would be the park.
They kept in contact with Bluetooth ear pieces. Low-tech compared to the comm links Damian was used to, but it would do for now. Maps was in a tree not to far behind Damian with a camera in hand ready to take pictures of the young girl that followed Damian everywhere. Damian sat on the park bench and pretended to read a book, but really he was scanning the area for the girl. Some skills that he learned never dulled. Damian was always hyper aware of everything going on around him, so it surprised him when the girl was suddenly in front of him and he didn't eve see her walk into his frame of view.
She stood far away, but still close enough to see better this time. She looked really young. She's was about the size of an 8-year-old, and her hair had a slight wave to it. Still, Damian couldn't see her face, but she was familiar to him. He could have sworn that he knew her. he almost stood up to walk towards the girl when remembered the whole plan.
"Maps, do you see her?" Damian hissed into the ear piece.
"huh?" She sounded confused. "Where I don't see anything."
"Just take a picture of everything in front of you." He tells her.
She does as he asks. Maps begins to speak again, "Damian, I'm looking at the picture, and-" the girl starts beckoning Damian towards her.
"Maps, I think she wants me to go over there. She's waving me over there."
"Damian, I don't think-"
"She's walking away now!" He tells her standing up from his place on the park bench. " I think she wants me to follow to her. Maps I'm going to follow her stay here. I'll be back soon." He says and he started to move after the girl.
"Damian don't!" it's the tone of Maps' voice that makes him stop and turn around. She climbing down the tree so fast that she almost slips and falls. When she safe on the ground she runs toward Damian.
"What's wrong?" He asked her he furrowed his eyebrows confused and worried.
"Damian I think that maybe- Damian, I couldn't-" Maps sighs and pulls out her phone. "Damian, look at the picture." She says, handing him the phone. Damian takes it looks at the picture and his jaw drops. The girl isn't in the photo.
"This can't be right. She was there. I saw her." He looked at Maps eye pleading that she believed him. The angle was right, the girl should have been in the picture, but for some reason, she wasn't
"Damian, I'm beginning to worry about you." She told him tenderly.
"I'm fine." He ground out taking a step back from her. "I'm telling you I saw her. " Damian swore.
"I believe that you think you saw something." She told him honestly.
Damian sighed. That was the best he was going to get from her until he proved that he wasn't going crazy. "It must be some sort of Meta-human." Damian mused.
Maps nodded, "A power that makes it so only you could see her. It's possible." She agreed.
"I'm going to call Oracle tonight see what she knows." Damian said he turns to Maps, "I'll walk you home. Thanks for your help." Maps continues to give Damian worried looks all the way back to her dorm.
That night Damian's call to Oracle held no answers. She hadn't heard about anything involving a girl in white who wore a Venetian bird mask, or a meta-human who could alter perception in such a way other than White Rabbit who was serving her time in Belle Reve and didn't match the description. Damian was at a dead end. He knew he wasn't crazy, the girl in the mask was real. He knew it.
No one else did though. Maps continued to give Damian worried looks, and she must have said something to Dick because now he was giving Damian those worried looks, as well. He had to prove that this girl was real or he was going to go insane. Damian figures he's on his own. He would have to look for the girl himself.
Damian paces around the office in the Manor. It was a room he often liked to avoid. Dick tried not to step foot in the room too often as well, it was still too much. Over the fireplace was a portrait picture of all of them. Bruce sitting in his chair looking so young, so alive. Stephanie when she still had that rebelliousness in her eyes. Tim who tried his best to look so mature. Mary with a purple bow in her hair. She had been nine when that portrait had been taken, she had just become Starling. Damian notes that the happy expression on her face was not one he recently had the pleasure of seeing. Dick looks proud on Bruce's right, Jason tries not to look pleased to make it the portrait this time around on Bruce's left, and Damian stands just in front of him. Damian doesn't remember looking so innocent. Damian doesn't remember being the boy in that picture. It might as well have been another person now. That wasn't who they were anymore.
Damian shakes his head and abruptly turns away from the portrait of his family. He comes to face with the grandfather clock standing in the room before him. It works now as if it knows that his father was gone and that it's time for it to do its job. It ticks mocking Damian reminding of how much time had passed, reminding him of how long it's been since that day. Damian wished he could punch the clock straight in the face, breaking the contraption, but instead pulls on the side and opens up the secret door.
He heads down the long and dark staircase until he is finally in the Batcave. No one, save Alfred, had been in the cave since they all choose to give up the hero life. Damian believed that it was how the butler had gotten through the grief of Bruce's death without the notice of the rest of the family. Still coming down here was something Damian hoped he would never have to do again, but someone was stalking him. He just had to figure out who and why.
It was it the Batcave that Damian heard a sound he hadn't heard in over a year. That clean whoosh in that air brought about shivers down Damian's spine. The unmistakable sound of a knife slicing through the air. It seemed Damian had been wrong. Apparently, someone else had been using the Batcave other than the grieving Alfred, and that person was Mary.
Damian reached the bottom of the steps to find her in from of the targets. She had already taken care of the five other dummies she practiced on, they were littered with knives and blade throwers, All hits lethal. Damian quietly watched Mary pull out some butterfly throwers. He remembered fondly how he had given them to her when she first came to live with them. Damian smiled softly at the naive girl, who knew nothing of the Earth or its people. The girl who chose to do this because it was a legacy, a legacy she wanted to have her mark in. He remembered her slightly foreign-accented English, how she used to slip and use Tamaranian words in place of English ones when she was unsure of what the appropriate word was. He remembered how unusual she was in the beginning. He remembered how grateful she was when he had given her those Butterfly shaped blade throwers on her birthday how she promised she would learn to use them perfectly. She had kept that promise.
Mary hit her target with killing perfection, then pulled out a beautiful dagger another gift Damian had given her, but for Christmas. She liked to collect them, and Damian admitted he might have provided her with enough to fill an armory.
Mary played with the dagger, she threw it back and forth between her hands before throwing it with such force the head of the dummy came cleanly off, and the dagger embedded itself within the cave's wall behind it.
"You can come out now," Mary said as she walked over to retrieve her dagger from the wall.
Damian came from behind the corner he had taken refuge behind and raised an eyebrow at the girl. She had gotten better with her spacial awareness.
"You're not as quiet as you used to be." She said dryly. Damian felt his jaw set, or he had gotten lax. He didn't forget how Mary had kicked his ass months ago. He had forgiven her for the broken nose. She hadn't forgiven him for stopping her that night.
Since then Dick had been extra cautious with her. Mary now had a strict curfew and check in times, none of which Dick had given to Damian. While Dick had lost trust in his daughter that night. Mary had lost faith in her father long before that.
"You've gotten better." Damian complemented. She was already so accurate with her blades, but like fine wine, with age, she had only gotten better at the skill.
"That's what happens when you actually keep up your training." Mary snorted condescendingly. Damian felt his hands ball up into fist at his side
"Listen." Damian snapped. "I'm trying to be civil, the least you could do is be-"
"Nice to you?" She finished for him with a snort. "Please." Mary closed that discussion by turning away from the former boy wonder. "Why are you here, Damian?" She asked collecting her various blades from the target dummies.
Her question caught him off guard.
"Why are you here, Damian. You've stayed far away from the cave since Bruce died. My father doesn't come here either. Only Alfred and me and occasionally Tim come down here. Not you. So why are you here?" She asked again.
"I needed to use the computer." He admitted. No reason to lie to her.
This seemed to peak her interest. Mary blinked twice surprised at his words. Damian thought perhaps that she had thought he came down just to antagonize her.
"Use the computer? Why?" She pressed further.
Damian sighed a ran a hand through his hair. He didn't want to tell Mary all of this, but it almost didn't seem right not to. Once a long time ago, he would have told her. Damian shook his head. They weren't partners anymore, they were only family, albeit estranged at the moment. He didn't have to tell her anything, but the pit of his stomach rebelled against this idea. He just didn't have to tell her the full story.
"I'm looking for someone." He finally told her. I wanted to check the computers to see if there are any files or reports about her."
Mary nodded, seeming to accept that answer. "Did you see them in person?" She asked.
Damian stared at her shocked. Was She going to help him? "Yes."
Mary grabbed her things and began walking out of the Batcave. "Check Traffic and security Cams." She told him. "If you get them, run facial recognition and see if you get a match. " Damian nodded. He hadn't thought of that. "Good luck."
"Mary." He called out to her. "Why?" He asked. He knew she hated him. So why help him?
She turned around and looked Damian in the eyes, He could only see a certain sadness, a loneliness in them. "Because we're still family, Damian." With that, she went up the stairs never giving Damian a chance to respond.
Without another thought, Damian sits down at the computer and begins researching about the girl in the mask. He searches, and searches but with each search, nothing seems to be connected to that girl. He should have followed her in the park. He would have at least some answers. Damian tries Mary's idea but of course, security camera gets Damian, but not the girl standing in front of him. Disappointed Damian gets up to leave the cave. Not before knocking over the computer chair in anger before. All that work had come up with nothing. He still didn't know anything. As he walked out of the Batcave Damian passes the memorial. The Original Batsuit sits within it next to Jason's old Robin uniform.
"What am I suppose to do now?" He asks the suit. Knowing he will never receive an answer Damian finally leaves the Batcave.
The rest of the year passes quickly and Damian finds that the young girl hasn't followed him since that day. Mary also speaks to him more, but it still isn't the same. She isn't happy. He knows she isn't whenever he looks at her.
April
Oh how hated this bloodstained month. To Damian this month didn't mean his birthday, it meant the anniversary of his father's death and another year without him. Another year alone.
Dick was usually very considerate about how he felt about April, but not this time around.
"Please Damian, A birthday party is a good opportunity to get more investors. They love a good party and the chance to meet the Wayne heir is always nice. Think about the good of the company. If you do this little thing for me I promise no more birthdays ever again." Dick swore, crossing his heart.
Damian sighed. He could care less about the investors. Today he had just wanted to slowly grovel in his room. Last year, he didn't even leave his room. Dick was lucky he was even hearing this proposal at all.
"Damian, Bruce would want us to take the company to bigger heights and this is the way to do it." With that last sentence, Dick had Damian's approval sealed. Damian knew he had just been used, but it was for a good reason. His father's company was all he had left of him. He needed it to thrive, and this was the water to help it grow.
Invitations were sent out that day. They would be holding the party in two weeks on Damian's Birthday, on the 15th. Preparations were being made. Most were handled by Dick and Alfred, but they would come to him on certain things like some of the guest, color scheme, and seemed that everyone was in a rush over this party, even Tim came back to the manor to help. He said he would stay until the party, to help.
Damian saw more of Tim, and less of Mary. It seemed to be some sort of trade-off. She'd come home late barely making her curfew, but the 14-year-old would only apologize for missing dinner(again) before going up to her room. Dick might have said something to her if it had not been for the tired look in her eye.
Damian, of course, invited Maps to the party. The whole Mizoguchi family has invited anyway, Maps just happened to also be Damian's girlfriend. She helped Damian pick out the best tuxedo and he bought her a pair of earrings to match a dress she had made herself. He thought about buying her one, but Maps was funny that way. She would rather make her own dress than Damian spend thousands of dollars on one she would only wear for one night.
Two weeks of planning passed faster than Damian would have thought. Because now it was the Night of the party. Everything was ready, except one thing.
"Where's Mary?" Dick asked for the 12th time in an hour. The Party started in half an hour and the guests would be arriving soon. Mary's hair and make-up had yet to be done, not to mention he was sure she wasn't even dressed. Damian wondered if she were at the manor at all. They had taken the day off from school to prepare. Damian admitted he hadn't been paying attention to her lately. He had been so busy.
"I'm sure she's coming, Dick. She probably ran out for some fresh air. She doesn't spend much time in the manor these days." Tim pointed.
"Stephanie just called and said Mary missed her hair appointment." Dick pointed out, tapping his shoes against the wood floor.
"She had dance practice tonight, Master Richard," Alfred said straightening the man's tie reminding him of something that he should have known.
"Ah yes, you're right Alfred." Dick agreed. "I wish I would have known. I would have told her to skip today in order to get ready." Dick pulled his phone out his pocket. "I'll call her."
"Don't bother I'm here," Mary said as she climbed down the stairs with Stephanie behind her. Mary's hair was pulled to the side and a was curled and pinned making it fall only to her chest. She wore a white dress which was very age appropriate and held blue accessories to match her father for the night. The dress reminded Damian of the girl he had seen. Damian now realized how much the girl favored Mary with her tan skin and dark hair. If Mary were younger he would think it was her, but Damian knew she wasn't.
"Great now remember, to be cordial, nice and above all else charming. This means you, Damian." Dick said jokingly. Damian shrugged. He did have a waspish personality. "Please try really hard not offend anyone." Dick pleaded.
"Come on, Dick," Tim said with a roll of his eyes. "We get it. Let's go get ready to greet the guests." Damian noticed Stephanie frown at her husband's words.
"Maybe you should tell Tim to be the charming one, Dick, not Damian," Stephanie said but still followed Tim out of the room and downstairs. Damian wondered if they had been fighting lately. Stephanie was known for her strong cold shoulder to Tim when called for. Damian didn't dwell on the thought for too long, but before he could walk out her heard Mary stop her father.
"Dad, wait." Dick, of course, listened to his daughter and turned around. Damian stopped as well curious to what she had to say.
"What is it, Mary," Dick said his tone indicating not a lot of patience for the girl. He was annoyed she was late, Damian could tell.
"I'm sorry I was late." Mary apologized. Looking down. Dick perked up in surprise. Mary hadn't said an apology for anything in years. Let alone actually wanting to speak to her father. "I have something I need to tell you." She said looking up gaining some confidence.
Dick sighed, "Mary, look. I know we haven't been on the best terms lately, but this can wait, I'm sure. Tell me after the party." He told.
"No." She said, "You would want to know now, or at least you would have." She said eyes dropping down to the floor.
Dick frowned, and Damian could see his eyes soften in a way that he hadn't seen in a while. "What is it, Mary? " He said. "I'm listening." He said honestly and earnestly.
"I had an audition today, Daddy. For a ballet company, I got in." She told him finally. She was fidgeting with her hands, and wouldn't look Dick in the eye.
Dick stood their mouth agape as he pulled his daughter in for a hug, "Starshine, that's wonderful! I'm so proud of you!"
Mary didn't say anything she only pushed away from her father and took two step back away from him. Her heels clanked loudly on the floor echoing throughout the room.
"Mary, What's wrong? Is there something else?" Dick asked confused. This was good news. Though from the way Mary bit her lip and stood away from him, Dick didn't think so.
"It's a Russian Ballet Company that's doing The Nutcracker for the winter season," Mary informed him looking away from her father in a guilty fashion.
"Mary, I don't understand-." Mary cut her father off.
"My flight's in October." She finally said.
Dick stuttered for a moment. Damian felt his mouth open in shock.
"You're leaving," Damian said. Dick turned to Damian with wide eyes begging, unspoken begging for him to be wrong. Dick turned back to see Mary nodding her head, yes.
"B-but Why?" Dick asked.
Mary looked up to her father, and looked him in they and spoke honestly, "There's nothing left for me here anymore."
"We're here," Damian spoke softly.
"I don't think that's enough anymore, Damian." Mary shook her head and looked back at her father. "This is a once in a lifetime chance. I get to dance around the world. I get to do something with my life again. Please just let me go. I'll be back in March for your birthday, dad after the tour is over."
"Until your next one." Damian hissed at her bitterly. "We're family and you're abandoning us. You're no better than Jason!" Damian accused.
Mary flinched as if she had just been slapped, her features then contorted into an angry glare, "I refuse to stay in this dollhouse forever on your orders Damian!" She yelled at him. "And Jason! I should have left with him! It's better than being stuck here, being your pretty porcelain doll that you and my dad forget about until there's some interview or I do something to piss you off. I can't live like this anymore! I won't! I refuse to." Mary proclaimed. She must have realized she was screaming because she closed her eyes and willed herself to calm down. after a moment of silence, she spoke again but didn't open her eyes. "If you don't let me have this now, I won't come back. I'll leave, and I won't come back. Ever. That I promise you."
"You think that you-" Damian started but dick cut him off.
"She's right, Damian," Dick said. He sighed and looked at his daughter really looked at his daughter for the first time in a long time. She wasn't that scared eight-year-old anymore. She was growing up. "I haven't been the best father lately I know," Dick spoke. "But it's about time I started being one again."
"Dick, No." Damian pleaded.
"Mary, you can go. You have my blessing."
For the rest of the party, Damian was in a foul mood, that not even Maps' smile could pull him out of.
How dare she?
That was all he could think. He had only wanted to keep his family safe. That's why they agreed to hang up the masks and capes. He couldn't take someone else leaving him, but here it was again. Mary was leaving him.
How dare she?
She was his partner. She was his family. She was his best friend. No, she wasn't. She hadn't been in a long time. Just like she hadn't been his family or his partner.
How dare she?
She took all of it away from him, and now she was leaving.
Like Jason.
Like his Mother.
Like his father.
After everything they've been through she wanted to only bring about hurt and pain to their family, after he had sewed the pieces that were torn apart by his father's death. Was it too much to ask for? Was happiness something that avoided all the sons of Wayne.
Was this punishment for not continuing his father's works? Of course not, His father would want them to be safe. His father would want them to be safe.
If Damian kept repeating that then it would become true. His father had loved he had only wanted what was best for them. His father would have wanted this. Damian had to believe that, or Damian had nothing.
Damian started seeing the girl again. Though it had been some time, the girl with her Venetian mask and white dress hadn't changed at all. She looked as if she were forever frozen in time.
She no longer beckoned him. She only watched him as if judging him and all of the choices he has made in his life.
Screw her. She didn't know him. Damian knew that he had done what was for the best. Everyone knew that. Everyone except Mary. Mary no longer tried to avoid Damian, but now the other way around. Damian wanted nothing to do with her anymore. She was tearing their family apart. Since she had decided to leave things weren't the same. Stephanie and Tim were fighting, and Dick always seemed so sad.
It was all Mary's fault. She had done this. She had made it so that family he tried so hard to protect was crumbling in front of him.
Damian didn't know what to do for once. He could only watch as things got progressively worse. Damian was sure that Stephanie and Tim weren't on speaking terms now and Dick seemed to be falling into depression. Dick didn't really talk anymore. He also didn't really work anymore. He slept more, didn't eat much. And Damian had to find a new coach to replace him at the gym
Mary seemed legitimately happier.
Damian guessed there had to be some upside to this. In order for her to have happiness, she sucked it away from the rest of her family. That witch. She ruined them. She was the cause of all of this. Though on the inside Damian was glad to see a smile return to her face, he couldn't help remember the cost of that wonderful smile. The pain of it.
Things weren't the same.
M.J, Tim's daughter stayed in Metropolis with Stephanie. Though Tim had moved back to the manor. Stephanie claimed that with Tim's work he was too busy for the toddler. She was right. Tim didn't argue only taking his things back to Gotham.
Damian tried to talk to Tim about Stephanie, but it was always the same answer.
"It's fine, Damian," Tim said not looking up from his computer. He didn't even stop working to address Damian. "It's just a little fight. Stephanie and I will be over it soon." Tim had said, but it wasn't soon.
Months passed, and Stephanie stopped visiting the manor. She avoided Tim. It didn't take long for Stephanie to send Divorce papers to the manor. Tim signed them without a fuss.
"You can't just give up!" Damian proclaimed at his brother. "You love Stephanie, Tim. Fight this! It doesn't have to be this way!"
"Stephanie doesn't want me anymore, Damian," Tim snapped. "If she wants to be over. Then who am I to deny her that?!" Tim was angry. He hadn't yelled at Damian, but his tone felt as if he should have been.
"Tim, you can't do this. I know you better than this. You're far too stubborn to end it like this. You're far too stubborn of a person to give up without a fight." Damian said calmly back to Tim. Tim visibly relaxed and looked up at Damian with tired eyes.
"I'm not that person anymore, Damian." He told Damian before walking away.
Damian watched his retreating back. He felt his chest tighten as if it were hard to breathe, but nothing was wrong with him physically. He could feel it. The distance. It was growing more and more and more. The family he loved so dearly was slowly but surely drifting apart from him, He had lost his father, then Todd, Then Mary, Stephanie and now Tim. Dick stayed around though Damian could argue that he hadn't been here mentally in a while. Damian couldn't bear this. It was almost too much. This wasn't right. This wasn't how his life was supposed to be. They were safe now. They were supposed to be happy too.
Damian slumped to the ground like a rag doll, his limbs limp. The only coordinated movement being moving his hands to cover his face in horror.
This shouldn't be happening. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. They were all supposed to be happy.
Damian felt his hair move on his forehead. It was the tiniest of movements as if a door had been opened and a draft lets in. Damian looked up and in front of him stood the Girl in White.
She stood with her Venetian bird mask right in front of him, so close. If he wanted he could reach out and touch her, but Damian held back the impulse to. Something about the girl, whether it be her wild jet black hair or the cold gaze that he saw through the mask, She seemed dangerous. Almost animalistic. Though younger than him, Damian was almost cautious of the girl. He didn't know anything about her. What was she doing here? Who was she? How did she get in?Damian had answers for none of it.
The Girl in White only looked down at Damian slumped on the ground with cold eyes gleaming through the mask. She shakes her head as if disappointed in him.
"Shut up," Damian told the Girl in White. "You don't know me." He hissed at her, "What the hell do you think you know anyway?" The Girl in White didn't say anything, but she seemed to understand Damian because she pointed at him.
Damian's eyes wide. Did she know him? What did she mean? If she knew him, who was she?
"Master Damian?" Alfred's voice floated into the room causing Damian turn around quickly. "Are you alright, sir?" He asked. The butler's voice laced with concern.
"I'm fine, Alfred. I was just-" Damian turned around to find the Girl in White missing. She vanished again, eluding him.
"Nothing." Damian finished. "I wasn't doing anything."
The butler came up to his young charge with a concerned look, "Are you quite sure you are alright?" He asked for a second time.
"Yes, of course," Damian answered getting up off the floor. Though to be honest he wasn't really sure if he was.
"Are you ready for school, Master Damian?" Alfred asked with raised eyebrows. "Miss Mary has already gotten a ride to school with a friend of her's".
The ride to the city wasn't quiet. Gotham was never quiet. Sirens always rang throughout the city and this morning was no exception. The television in the back of the car was on the news. Damian moved to change the channel. The News always depressed him. He was powerless to stop any of it, so he shouldn't need to be bothered with the guilt in the first place. Gotham didn't need his guilt, as well. Right before Damian could change the channel Vicky Vale's familiar voice rang out, speaking a familiar name.
"The Red Hood is declaring war on the so-called "Insurgents". According to an anonymous source, They were high ranking members of The Red Hood Gang. So far any attempts to apprehend The Red Hood or these Insurgents have been fruitless. The new police Commissioner Rory Cage has yet to comment on what is being done to put a stop to this gang war." Damian turned down the volume of the television and looked up at Alfred.
"Insurgents, Alfred?" Damian asked the butler.
"Yes, Master Damian. That appears to be what they are calling themselves." He answered looking through the rearview mirror at Damian.
"What do you know about them?" Damian asked. Damian's hands fidgeted in his lap. Damian refused to acknowledge the worry that maybe his estranged brother was in need of help.
"Not much, sir. I am not as privy to going-ons of Master Jason as I once was. Though what I heard from Miss Gordon was that the Red Hood's number 2 has gotten greedy and want to take The Red Hood Gang from Master Jason." Damian snorted at the idea. "Yes, sir, I had the same sentiments. Though I must say that I pity the men who go against him."
"Don't pity dead men, Alfred," Damian said looking out the window as the crossed the bridge into the city. "I'm sure of all of this will blow over soon enough."
Gotham was a cesspool of crime, that was nothing new. Without the Batman, things had changed. Damian would have to be a fool not to admit that. The people of Gotham seemed on edge compared to the time it had the dark knight as it's protector. People walked with shoulders tense and suspicious looks on their faces. Damian couldn't blame them, this was just how Gotham was. Even with Batman around people knew it Gotham was a dangerous place to live, but know without him Gotham had returned to a time of no hope. A time without the Batman who had always come to save them. Damian had never seen the city look so pitiful. The sky seemed to echo that eternal feeling of dread as dark clouds hung low, and a light drizzle began to fall.
The car pulled up to the school and like usual Maps greeted him with her contagious smile. Damian smiled back and joined in with the conversation with her friends. Damian didn't really have any other friends, but Maps. Most teenagers didn't know how to approach the new Prince of Gotham. Not that Damian really cared for any of them to approach him, he would have shooed them away anyway. Most people only wanted to be his friend because of social status, and he didn't really have time for friends to be honest. Or that's what used to be true.
A light laugh in the reached Damian's ears as he walked into the school building shaking his hair from the water that had accumulated there from the light right. Damian turned and found Mary not too far from him at her locker talking it with Kevin Thompson, and her other friends from her dance studio. He noted the smile on her face as Thompson whispered something in her ear and her laugh that followed.
Damian frowned and quickly turned away from the scene. It was an odd feeling in his that struck him straight in the chest, like the dull pain of an old stab wound or the ache of your muscles after getting your ass kicked. Damian didn't know why looking at Mary smile or laugh made him so, as ineloquent as it sounded, sad. Damian wondered if this is what loneliness feels like. Before Damian didn't need his friends, he had others like some of the Teen Titans, the Justice League, but most of all he had his family. Stephanie who used to always make sure he had fun now avoided the family, thinking that after her divorce with Tim she wasn't allowed to be around them anymore. Jason, who Damian admitted probably always understood him a little better than the others, Damian was sure he hated him now. Tim who always looked out for him even with their rough start, never really had fun anymore. He always kept to himself nowadays, ashamed of how he's marriage failed in such short amount of time. Dick, while Dick was and will always be there for Damian, he knew that Dick wasn't the free-spirit he once was. Dick now had the stress of running Bruce's company and taking care of all the others. Damian knew he had spread Dick a little thin.
And then there was Mary. Mary who was his partner, his family, his partner-in-crime and his friend. Mary who had always made sure Damian didn't brood too much or slept too little. Mary, who together he had gotten in a lot of trouble with. Mary who never ceased to have his back. Damian wondered in that moment, for the first time if they had made the right choice about not being heroes. Sure they were safe but did really any of that matter in the long run. None of them were happy. Damian felt that same stabbing pain in his heart.
This was all his fault.
"Damian!" Maps' voice brought Damian out of his head and into reality. "Damian, I've been calling you for a while now. Are you alright?" She asked. She always had a tendency to babble." The bell is about to ring. We need to head to class." Maps reached out her hand, but Damian took a step back from her. Her face screwed up in confusion and hurt. "Damian?" She called again.
Damian looked around the hallway in a frantic fashion. It was almost empty now, and even still Damian felt as if it were the most crowded place in the world. Damian's breathing hitched, he could feel his breathing getting heavier and heavier. His heartbeat getting louder in his ears, and he could feel sweat start to gather on his forehead. He had to get out he had to get away. Damian looked up at Maps, he could see the worry on her face, as she looked at him, but stood back, holding her hands to her chest as if she were afraid to touch him.
"I'm sorry," Damian whispered. He wasn't even sure she had heard him before he had taken off, running out the door of the school and off of campus. Ignore whatever cries Maps may have called out to him.
Damian kept running ignoring the people on the street he passed, looking at him with confused expressions. He ignored the phone in his pocket that seemed to be buzzing, more than likely a call from Maps who was looking for him. He couldn't answer that call. How could he when the one true calling he had he hung up, and never dared to pick it up again. Damian ran until he found himself standing in front of the GCPD. Gordon retired shortly after bruce died. Damian couldn't just walk in there anymore. He wasn't Robin. He hadn't been in a long time, and Damian knew that was his fault.
Damian walked to the back of the building and began scaling the brick. He hadn't done it in a while, but it was like rock-climbing though harder. It was also like riding a bike, you never forget.
Damian finally found himself atop the tall building, and before him stood the Bat-signal complete untouched since the last time it had been used shortly after Bruce died. The GCPD knew Batman was never returning and yet choose not to remove the piece of equipment from the building. It was obsolete now, but the fact spoke wonders to Damian. There was a respect to keeping the Bat-signal in place after all this time. Damian sat leaning next to the giant light. It was dusty, but oddly complete void of spiderwebs. Damian notices the rust beginning to form on certain parts of it. The screws and bolts were a rotting copper, and the edges near the glass were stained the same color as well, the only piece that looked as Damian remembered was the bat-shaped piece of metal that sat in front of the glass bulb to give that particular shape in the clouds and call the Dark Knight to come help with whatever situation Gotham found herself in. It looked as if that piece were still wing touched as if someone came up here to the roof of the GCPD to remember better days. Damian had to admit that those days of never ending danger were the better days.
"Damian?" A voice called. Damian turned to find Mary coming from that lead to the inside of GCPD. She had looked like she had when he saw her not even an hour ago. The only difference being the hair that now curled slightly at the slight drizzle that landed on their heads.
"What are you doing here?" Damian asked her. He couldn't deal with Mary right now. Mary had always been true to who they were, unlike himself. He wasn't ready to face her yet.
Mary took a step forward. A brave gesture considering how she had just snapped at her.
"I'm sorry." Damian apologized. A slight twinge of deja vu fell over him, he had been saying those words a lot recently.
"Are you okay?" Mary stared at Damian giving him a familiar worried look. She looked just like her father, all but the eye color. He had seen Dick sneaking giving him that look when Damian's back was turned. The same worried look Alfred gives him when he catches him staring at nothing and the same worried look that Maps had just given him before he ran out on her.
"Don't look at me like that," Damian said turning away from her. "If you're going to keep giving me that godforsaken look then just leave me alone." he pleaded.
Damian buried his head in his knees, but could still hear Mary's boots on the floor as she walked forward and sat next to him. Unlike the others she didn't say a word, she didn't try to touch him, and she didn't try to make him talk. She just sat next to him. After about 10 minutes of silence Damian peaked out and saw her staring up at the clouds, she wasn't even looking at him. She stared at the dark clouds that swirled around above her head.
How did you even get up here?" Damian finally spoke. It became increasingly obvious that she wasn't going to leave him alone. Damian wasn't even sure if being alone was what he wanted.
"They really should change the codes on the doors here, or get keycards," Mary stated with a small smirk. She didn't look at Damian only continue to watch.
"Not that it would have stopped you." Damian pointed out. Mary only tilted her head in slight acknowledgment that he was correct with his words. "How did you know to come and find me?" Damian finally asked. It was really his first question, but he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.
"Maps is worried about you, Damian," Mary replied. "When you have a chance give her call please." Damian nodded. Mary didn't answer his question, but at the sometimes not giving an answer was the right answer. Besides, Damian didn't need to hear about a panicking Maps cutting class to get Mary to come and find him.
"Did you know on Tamaran we don't get clouds like this?" Mary told Damian seemingly randomly. Damian felt that she wasn't quite finished and let her continue without commenting. "After the war, the ecosystem was greatly damaged, and we get very little rain now, and when it does it doesn't look anything like this. The grays, the purples, the blues, whites, and yellows that fill the sky were completely new to me when I came here when I was eight." Mary chuckled slightly, "My first thunderstorm I thought we were under attack till my dad told me what was happening, but it wasn't really the thunderstorm. It just reminded me of being shot out of the air when I and Ryand'r were trying to escape, It wasn't really the thunderstorm that caused me to react that way, but the realization brought on by a memory that I let Ryand'r die. My mother's favorite sibling and I abandoned him."
Damian didn't look towards Mary when she was speaking, nor did her say anything. He had similar feelings toward his father's death. He didn't know how to console her on the subject anymore.
"I thought for years, that I was too weak to save Ryand'r" Mary continued. "I only kept thinking, if only I were faster if only I were older if only I were stronger. It was one of the reasons I wanted to be a hero so bad. If I were a hero I would save lives, and never be too weak to fight against my enemies again." Mary sighed. "I'm going to be honest Damian. No matter what you or my dad told me back then, it doesn't change the fact that it was my fault my uncle died. I wasn't fast enough. I wasn't old enough, and I wasn't strong enough, and that's my fault, but that didn't matter, I wasn't in control of those things back then, but I am now. I can only look at those skeletons in my closet and try to fix whatever mistake caused them to be there. I fix them and pray that next time I will be fast, I will be older, I will be strong. So I won't have to lose anyone anymore, but you did the opposite of that. I now see where you were coming from."
Damian snorted at Mary's statement.
"Everyone deals with grief differently. You just didn't see in time what your grief was doing to the rest of us." Mary told him. "Everyone should get a chance to be selfish, Damian."
"That makes me feel better," Damian said with a roll of his eyes, turning away from Mary. "I spent years fighting with my father only for him to die right when we were beginning to patch things up again. I should have learned my lesson then. Paid attention more to the family I had left continued my father's legacy, but when things got tough I bailed. I bet if the 10-year-old me saw me today he would spit in my direction." Damian paused. "You have every right to hate me, Mary." He said finally agreeing with the words she had told him during her failed runaway attempt. "Dick should hate me too. I made him choose me instead of his own child."
"My father's known you longer," Mary said. Her voice was passive as if she truly didn't have an opinion on the subject. "It's only natural he choose your well being over mine, besides you needed him far more than I did. I'm not the one who lost their father." Damian stayed quiet. Mary was wrong in a way she did lose her father.
"You're being really mature about this consider you told me you hated me a few months back," Damian told her.
Mary was quiet. She didn't say anything for about a minute thinking carefully about her words. "I was angry." Mary looked up at the sky watching the raindrops as they poured down harder and harder with each drop. "At the time you were keeping me from doing what I believed was right."
Damian scoffed at her words, "Please, from where I am sitting if I had listened to you when we decided to hang up our capes everything would better. Don't lie to me in order to make me feel better, Mary. The fact remains that everything that happened after I turned 14 has been my fault from my father dying to Stephanie and Tim's divorce. You wanting to leave to join Jason who became a Kingpin. If I had the strength to have kept going. If I hadn't gone alone that day to face my grandfather everything would be different. I wish I knew then what I know now. Because given the chance I would go back and take it all back and do everything over again."
"I don't know about everything." A voice called out. Damian turned and found a young girl standing before him, not just any girl, but the Girl in White. The one with the mask who had been following him. Her dark hair hung dry unaffected by the rain the was falling. Then the world around Damian turned gray and dulled. The dreariness before couldn't compare to the grayscale version that Damian could see now. The world around him froze even the rain became stagnant hanging in the air, stopped from continuing its natural cycle.
"So you finally open your mind up to the fact that you're not always right." The Girl in White put her hands on her hips and frowned at Damian disapprovingly.
"Who are you?" Damian demanded, taking a step forward. "You've been following me."
"Yes." She admitted. "I needed you to come to me, but you weren't open to it then. You were too caught up in this 'safe' little world you've made yourself here. I hope you're happy with the outcome of your cowardly choices, Damian." She sneered.
Damian blinked in surprise at the gall of this young girl. "Who are you?" He asked again.
She smiled and began to remove the mask. "What? You don't recognize your own mother?" Damian took a step back as the face of the girl was that of Talia al Ghul. His mother. She looked far younger than Damian had ever known her. He had never even seen pictures of her at this age.
"I don't know how I was supposed to recognize you in such a…" Damian searched for a word, " form, Mother." Damian coughed uncomfortable at the situation.
The little Talia al Ghul looked down at her appearance and shrugged, " I guess you're right. It's not my fault I'm like this. My influence on you is weaker now. This form, as you put it, reflects that. Now is not the time for this, it's time for you to wake up, Damian."
"Wake up?" Damian echoed his mother.
"Yes." She answered with a nod of her head. "You've been asleep, for a long time. I've tried waking you, but you could never hear my voice."
"Asleep? How?" Damian Asked. "That can't be true. I've been here for years. I think I would have remembered sleeping that long."
"It hasn't been years, but dreams are funny like that." Talia walked up to her son and took his hands. "Damian, That night of your 14th birthday. When my father tried to inject you with a syringe, no one made it to you on time. Your father did not jump in front of you and take it for you, nor did he die."
"So what you're saying is that I didn't get saved." Talia shook her head yes to Damian's statement. "So I died."
Talia snorted at Damian's words, the fear, and urgency in his voice made her smile slightly. "Of course, not. Don't be dense. I wouldn't be here if you were, and I told you that you were dreaming. What my father drugged you with was a special concoction he made for those who had the arrogance to believe that they could be his heir. He said if they passed the test inside their own mind, they could be his heir, however, in reality, no one alone could ever pass this test. It induced long-term comas onto whoever received it. It was simpler just to kill the men after a couple of days being in the coma. They weren't going to wake up the drug wasn't going to let them."
"So how am I going to pass the test and wake up? If they couldn't pass it, how am I any different?" Damian asked.
Talia frowned, "I see your father has rubbed off on you." Talia crinkled her nose in a disgusted fashion. "You are better than all of them, by heritage alone, not to mention skill. You are a king. Still, unlike those other men, you have me. I knew as the years went on your grandfather was getting more anxious for a new body, and you were eventually going to get to an age suitable for him to take yours and the test was the perfect way to do it, so I had my scientist and mages come up with a way for me to get you out of the coma, and pass the test as a safety precaution. Be glad I did or you'd practically be dead."
"If you were here, Why didn't you stop this earlier! I could have been free from this hell had you helped earlier!" Damian accused. Talia rolled her eyes.
"I told you I tried, but you were far too accepting of this dream world for me to reach you. Not to mention I'm not as strong of an influence as I was when you were younger. Besides what kind of mother would I be if I didn't let you learn from your own stupid mistakes? Now if you're going to blame anyone for the length you've stayed here blame yourself. You've ignored the suffering of your family up until that girl chose she wanted nothing more to do with the life you picked for her." Talia pointed to the now greyed-out, frozen in place Mary.
Damian looked at her. Wet hair plastered to her face and green eyes staring at the place he had been sitting. Even in a dream, Mary never put up with crap. She was the only one who was honest with him, and the only one who cared enough to stay.
"It's time for you to wake up now, Damian, and forget the world you created here. None of it was ever real." As Talia spoke the words the world around Damian began to fade into darkness, and Damian was being swept into it.
"Mother!" Damian shouted one last time before he would wake up to the real world. "I am going to find you! I Promise!", and the last thing Damian could see was a genuine smile on his mother's face before everything went black.
"Damian! Damian! Please tell me you're waking up. X'hal, Damian Please wake up!"
"Small Grayson, if you don't stop screaming in my ear I will go back to sleep" Damian groaned groggily. He opened his eyes and almost shut them again, the light seemed so bright now. He didn't ever seem to remember his room light being so bright.
His room? Damian sat up and looked around. He was really in his room. Was this still a dream or had he actually woken up?
"Damian?" Mary's concerned voice made Damian turn her way. She wasn't the 14-year-old girl from his dream. The One that was almost a woman, The Mary in front of him was still clearly a girl, and still clearly 12 meaning that Damian himself was still 14 and not 16. Damian let out a sigh of relief. He must really be awake.
"Damian!" Into the room came Bruce running in. He's father looked haggard, it seemed he hadn't shaved in a few weeks. Damian noted the bags under his eyes or slept. "You're awake, thank god."
"I told you that he was going to wake up, Grandpa Bruce!" Mary told him Damian could hear the slight sniffle as she spoke. She must have been crying but Damian couldn't focus on that. His father was alive and standing in front of him.
"Father," Damian reached out and tried to get out of the bed.
"Damian, Don't!" Mary warned, but it was too late. As quickly as Damian had stood up her was rushing down to the floor. Damian braced himself for impact but it never came. Holding him up was his father. Damian looked up shocked. Bruce had to have been too far away to catch him, but this time Bruce saved him in time.
"Please be careful," Mary cautioned while Bruce put Damian back into his bed. "You're still weak from being asleep for so long, it was three weeks. Please take it easy." Mary took his hand, and smiled at Damian, "I'm glad you're awake." She said before stepping aside so bruce could look over his now awake son.
Bruce sat on the edge of Damian's bed, "You really had me worried there. I kept trying to find a way to get you out of the coma, but nothing-" Damian cut his father's words off by pulling the man into a hug.
"I'm sorry." Damian apologized into his father's soldier. "I shouldn't have gone after Ra's alone. I'm sorry." He told his father.
Bruce wasn't sure what to do. In the years since Damian had been with the boy had never ever been one to initiate a hug. Sure he had hugged, Dick, but never had he ever hugged his own father. Bruce didn't realize that until now. Until the moment it happened. Damian holding onto him so tightly. Bruce couldn't have wished for anything more. Finally, The father hugged his son back.
"You don't need to apologize for anything, Son." Bruce responded. They sat there together in comfortable silence until Damian could hearing running up the stairs.
"Damian!" Damian recognized that voice as belonging to his eldest brother, Dick, and he wasn't alone with him were Tim, Cassandra, Stephanie, and Jason. Damian's family was there hugging him, crying over him and fawning over him. Before he would have been annoyed with such a show of affection from them, but Damian realized that this was how his family was and this was how his family should be, and he wouldn't change them for the world.
~Final Word Count: 14,125~
First off let me apologize for the long amount of time it took me to update. College is happening making it difficult to write, and lately, this chapter while done wasn't edited. I don't even remember when finished it, only that I've made many attempts to edit it and have been unsuccessful. So I'm Sorry, I'm a poor college student who does this in her free time, and I haven't had much of that as of late. However it's summer now, and I have tons of free time. I wanna get at least 2 chapters out this summer or at least written of this fic, and one of my other, "The Queen's Mother" A Sailor Moon Fic. If you're into sailor moon check out!
So About this chapter... I remember being emotional writing it to begin with. It was probably PMS though. I have to say, I do like this chapter. I know I'm doing the whole, "It was all a dream" trope again, but my main inspiration for this series was Batman: The Animated Series, which has many episodes with that trope in it. It's a good way of showing things inside the mind of the main characters, and I needed to develop Damian some more, which many of you have been asking for. This is the last one I promise. Frankly, I've gotten them out of my system. I also think this is the most emotional thing I've ever written. So how did you like this chapter?
Thanks to All those who reviewed (Lil' D and Grayson, Clee2440, I'm Alexander Hamilton I'm at, 21 is awesome, 2 guests, and Sirenmergirl) for their reviews and giving my little fanfic the time of day. They do help me write. Again, I'm so sorry about the delay, but college is really important.
Please if you have any, Comments/questions leave a review, If you sign-in I will answer them personally.
Thank for time, and don't forget to Follow/Favorite/Review
~Miyu K.
Next chapter: The Choices We Make