Author Note: Sorry, it took so long. I knew I said I will try to release the chapters sooner than later, but I failed. School and life got very busy. I apologize for the wait. This chapter take place in the present time and the whole chapter happens within a week. I hope you enjoy. Thank you for being great fans!
"That's it." Damian finishes his explanation of the terrible future to come. A silence comes over the Bat-family, they didn't know how to take the horrifying news of the future. Jason is the first to react he flips a table carrying gadgets over out of anger.
"I can't accept that!" Jason yells. "I will not die by him! This won't happen." Jason pulls his guns out and checks them to be certain they have bullets. He begins to head out of the Batcave to murder the one who kills him in the future.
Barbara shoots her grappling gun on the ceiling of the Batcave and swings in front of Jason, blocking his path.
"Calm down." Barbara orders him putting her hand on his chest to stop him.
"Move out of the way." Jason commands with a growl in his voice. His fingers twitching over his guns. Barbara grabs a bat-rang. They both glare at each other.
Tim notices the tension and uses his own grappling gun to swing in between them.
"Hey, Jason. Calm down." Tim says with a gentle tone, separating both of them. "We are all upset about the news."
Jason still is not bugging and his anger continues to boil.
"Suck it up." Barbara bluntly states. "We all die. We all fail to save someone. We all need to save the future. So stop being a frustrated fool and help us change the future outcome!"
Jason surprise by Barbara's harsh words stays silent, but it changes to anger. He pulls out his gun and the rest of the Bat-family members are getting ready to attack Jason, however he shoots his gun into the abyss of the Batcave.
"Shit." He says and puts away his gun. He knew Barbara's harsh words were right. Tim puts his hand on Jason's shoulder trying to comfort his older brother as they all walk back to join the rest of the family.
"What the hell is the plan?" Jason begrudgingly asks towards Damian and the rest of the family turns their attention to him, as well.
"To be honest…" Damian starts speaking as he moves away from the rest of the family towards the Bat-computer. "I want all of you to be finding any obvious signs of time or dimensional breaches. Anything that seems out of the ordinary and report it back to me. That is all."
Damian goes on to unlock the Bat-computer password under a minute which shocks the family, but not as much as him expecting the rest of the family to do little to help with the future. He is pushing them to do the minimum.
"That's not going to happen!" Jason screams, his anger returning.
"I have to agree with him." Dick states. "We are not going to just carry on our merry way after hearing what the future will turn out to be."
"You are not pushing us aside, you brat!" Stephanie affirms, yet feeling a little weird to say that to someone older than her.
The rest of the family agrees and try to convince him that they are not going to stand by. Bruce approaches Damian and puts his hand on Damian's shoulder. Damian looks at his father, wishing to wrap his arms around his father being overjoy that he is alive and wishing to stay with his whole family….He moves his shoulder away from Bruce. He can't. He won't. This is not his past there's another version of him in this timeframe, he does not belong here.
"Damian…" Bruce calls out to Damian. He sees himself in his son, not only because their physical similarities. Damian has suffered as much or more than Bruce. He is not sharing the details because he is trying to shut his deep wounds with a thin layer of skin. "You need to tell us more about the future."
"I can't." Damian rejects Bruce's request, it hurts to reject his father, so long to not see him and the first thing to do is reject him.
"It might hurt to remember, but all the details are essential to know if we want to prevent the tragic future from happening." Bruce suggests to Damian to share all of his troubles and events in the future.
"I did share all the details that are important for our success in this battle. I retold the death of all the heroes, both young and old. I identified the villains who are responsible for the future's outcome. I recounted details of your deaths, because I felt that all of you have the right to know. I am not holding back any details because I am weak in heart!" Damian declares.
"We are not saying that, Damian." Dick says with a gentle voice trying to sooth Damian. "We want to know what details you are holding back for our safety.
Damian falls silent. Dick always knew Damian, more than his own father.
"You shared who are the villains, but you didn't say how they cause this terrible future. You know how they will accomplish to ruin the future. You only want us to locate the villains and let you fight them alone. We are your family, Damian. We won't die, as long as you tell us how to defeat them." Dick asserts giving a gentle smile towards Damian.
Dammit, Grayson.
Damian thought while turning his back towards his family being touched by Dick's words, yet those feelings are eclipsed by the memories of their bloody bodies.
Bruce puts his hand over his son's shoulder again and meets his son's hurt filled eyes with his sincere gaze.
"We will not fail." Bruce claims with great confidence in his voice. Damian continues to remain silent. He forces the memories of corpses of his family and friends in the back of his mind.
"The Apocalyptic gems." Damian discloses to his family.
~0~
"I will give you everything you desire, Darkseid." Eclipso guarantees, playing chess with Darkseid. Darkseid moves one of his bishops a few spaces claiming three of Eclipso's pawns.
"Superman will die. The Justice League will fall. Earth will come under my control. The Anti-life equation will be in the palm of my hand. All of this is promised, but I don't believe you will fulfill this promise, Eclipso." Darkseid proclaims.
"I knew you would say that." Eclipso states letting out a sickening laugh. "I know you want some proof and you know I have it."
He moves one of his knights to claim one of Darkseid's own knight. He lifts the black knight he claimed from Darkseid to his eye level. He releases a wicked chuckle.
"What if I told you the apocalypse gem is present at this time? " He says with a smile appearing across his face.
"Explain." Darkseid demands.
"I know the yellow gem of fear is here and the location is Earth." Eclipso explains and uses his magic to zoom in a yellow gem that is glowing slightly. His magic progressively moves away from the weak glowing gem to show the location of the apocalypse gem.
"The gem glows in this era for only a moment, so my magic of Heaven can locate this gem." He continues to explain. "I found out about these gems when I was in heaven and have been waiting until one became active enough for me to find. However, we need to find the rest in other eras across the time frame. In other words we need a ti-"
"A time lord." Darkseid finishes Eclipso's sentence. Eclipso chuckles again, he knows Darkseid has interest in his offer.
"Yes." Eclipso agrees. "It is convent that the time lord we seek is close to the gem at this time."
Darkseid moves his King close to checkmate.
"Why will you go through all this trouble? What would you have to gain? Why try not to use the time lord to find the shards of the heart of darkness?" Darkseid interrogates Eclipso.
"I want to be your ally and I want to see heaven fall. That is what I will gain" Eclipso responds as he knocks over his King.
Darkseid claims victory. He rises from his chair and looks out a large window to see the burning landscape of Apokolips.
"Where is the gem?" Darkseid asks.
"It is in the city of fear." Eclipso answers with his smile widening. "Gotham city."
~0~
The eleven year old Damian is sneaking around the Wayne manor and coming close to the Batcave. Tim, Stephanie, Cassandra, and Alfred for the past two days have been trying to keep him away from the cave and coming up with poor excuses of why he should not enter the cave. Also, he notices that the whole family seem to be hiding something from him. However, today, he is able to sneak behind the rest of the family as they enter the cave, being very quiet and far enough for no one to suspect. Bruce inputs an alarm to the cave and closes the entrance. Damian lands in front of the entrance to the cave. He tries to input the code, but it seems his father change the code. He will need to spend time hacking the code.
Inside the cave, the Bat-family continue to make plans to prevent Darkseid from finding the gems.
Jason, Cassandra, and Stephanie begin to construct arsenal that will be powerful enough to combat against Darkseid.
Dick and Barbara are working on many plans to fight against Darkseid, while consulting older Damian and Bruce.
Bruce works on the tarter time belt that the older Damian brought with him. Bruce questions Damian how he achieve getting the belt from the time lord. But he prefers not to answer, he only claims the belt was able to get him to this time.
Tim is working on the computer to locate any portals or time abnormalities that could appear in the cities.
Damian is looking over everything, but mostly concentrating with helping in Tim's work. It is very awkward between the two.
Tim does not work alongside the young Damian for good reasons, yet this one beside him is more mature. However, he still tends to look down on Tim and command him to do certain things. Even more annoying he takes all the work and suggests Tim to go help someone else, in the end he might be older and mature, but he still is annoying.
Damian finds Tim's company unnecessary, he can do this on his own or so he thought. He knows Tim is still better in computers than him, so he does need him, but would prefer not to. That is the reason he tells him to leave him. He does enjoy seeing Tim alive, but does not enjoy his company.
Damian is opening up with the rest of the family and feeling the warmth heal his heart seeing. He is happy to see them alive again, yet he constantly reminds himself this is not his family. It is not the same time frame. He is still is pleases to see them and work with them, again. Everyone is working to stop the dreadful future.
After an hour or so, Dick becomes restless with slaving away all his brain power on plans. He needs to move his body.
"Cassie!" He appears behind Cassandra, grabs her, and drags her off to the fighting ring. He challenges her to train with him. He craves to move his body and training will help. Cassandra nods her head, she wishes to train too.
They began to combat. Punches and kicks clashing with each other. The sounds and movements gain the attention from the others in the family. They want to be active too. The rest of the family, except Damian and Bruce, leave their work for a moment to participate in fighting. They commence to take turns in the fighting ring. Barbara and Jason are combating each other.
Dick outside of the ring, after his match with Cassandra, he notices that Bruce and Damian are not participating. It is common for Bruce to be so concentrated in his work he forgets the basic needs for him to live. The little Damian that Dick knows is blood-lusting child who will jump at the chance of a fight. The older Damian seems more like Bruce than his younger self. He changed. Dick still tries to proceed in harassing him for a battle.
"You should join the Battle Royal." Dick invites Damian.
"No." Damian rejects Dick very quick.
"Oh! Come on!" Dick continues to urge him to join. "You need to loosen up and not try so hard to copy, Bruce. Can you not fight, anymore?"
"You will find that my fighting skill exceeds yours." Damian claims, still concentrating on his work.
"You little…prove it." Dick challenges Damian. Damian does want to concentrate on his work as much as his father, but he can't be the same as his father. A smirk comes across his face.
"You will lose, Grayson." Damian asserts.
Damian and Dick head to the fighting ring where at the moment Cassandra pins down Stephanie.
She locks her legs around Stephanie's body and with her ankles pressuring against her neck, choking her. Cassandra grabs hold of her arm and begins to twist. Stephanie in intense pain endures for a couple moments, until she has to tap out. Cassandra let's go of Stephanie and helps her rise.
Damian and Dick take up the ring. They stare off each other waiting for the other to make the slightest move. Damian takes the initiative and approaches Dick.
He won't be foolish enough to charge straight ahead.
Dick thought, yet Damian charges straight towards Dick. Dick is surprise is still able to lower himself to dodge the high kick. Damian planned for this, he lowers his leg quickly and lifts his knee with full force towards Dick's face. Dick lifts his arms fast, needing both arms to block the force of the attack. Damian grabs a hold of Dick's head trying to push him down on the ground. He lifts his arm to strike Dick. Dick is able to push aside Damian's knee, causing him to become imbalance, and give him quick strikes to the abdomen. Damian leaves a small gap, as he tries to recuperate from the strikes.
Dick uses the gap to move away from Damian. He is shock that Damian is not pulling back any force, yet excited that he can fight the full potential of his younger brother.
Damian didn't believe he would be able to strike Dick with all his strength. He doesn't want to reject, hurt, or be too close with his family of this timeframe, yet he could not help it, the urge to fight boils in his blood, the same with the rest of his family. He would never hold back against enemies, because he doesn't expect them to do the same or their power to be less than his. So, he will not hold his fist back from his brother, who he believes is still better fighter than him. He will never admit these thoughts.
Damian runs once more towards Dick, Dick prepare, waits for the strike. Damian sneaks behind Dick, this time around. He twists Dick's arm and throws him over his shoulder to the ground. He pins him down, holding him down by the neck and raises his fist to come down full force towards Dick's head. Dick uses his talent in gymnastics and twists his body to be able to pin Damian down. He slams his leg down on Damian's chest, causing him to gasp in pain. Dick has the advantage, he has Damian pinned down and fatigued. Damian catches Dick by surprise, he is able to twist his own body and twist Dick's leg, causing him intense pain. Dick is on his stomach. Dick didn't take account that Damian would be flexible as well, no matter his built. A mistake he is regretting as he wriggles in pain. Damian will not let Dick escape. He leaves his boots pinning and crushing Dick's. ankles as he pushes himself up. He prepares to make a swift chop towards Dick's neck to end this battle.
The door into the Batcave opens and a silent alarm goes off to let the rest of the family members know. They turn to witness that the eleven-year-old Damian enter the Batcave. The older one reacts quick by throwing a bat-rang cutting one of the wires connected to the power system to provide energy in the Batcave. The lights flicker and go out, enough time for the older one to hide.
"What the hell?!" The child Damian yells.
Bruce presses a button to start the back-up system letting the lights flicker on, the older Damian has disappeared. Damian glares over each member of the family and his glare stops on Dick who is on the ground.
"What are you doing, Grayson?" Damian asks with an irritation present in his tone. Dick rises from the platform and rubs his sores. He looks at Damian and with swiftness able to sneak a hug on Damian, pinching his cute cheeks.
"Why are you pouting?" Dick playfully asks. "Are you sad because Bro has been busy, and not paying attention to you!?"
Damian bites Dick's hand, which results Dick letting Damian go with a small yelp.
"You are so infuriatingly stupid, Grayson!" Damian yells at Dick, who laughs it off.
"What do you want, little devil?" Tim questions him with annoyance present in his voice.
"Nothing with you, Drake." Damian claims. "You are useless to me and everybody you meet."
Irritation sweeps over Tim's heart.
"If I am useless, then you are the enemy, always getting in the way but I don't expect anything different from demon who came to ruin our lives." Tim insults him.
"You dare!" Damian challenges Tim. "You weak, sick, puny bird, with no wings to fly, who will die in the dirt and filth you lay on. You piece-of-"
"Damian and Tim!" Bruce yells at both of them. "Both of you, stop arguing. What brings you down here Damian, are you done with your training and studies?
"I am done with my studies, father…I am not done with my training, but I wish to speak." Damian says. Bruce looks over his son wishing to push Damian back to his training, however he knows his son won't stop persisting.
"Then, what do you want?" Bruce questions.
"I want to know what everyone is working on and hiding from me?!" Damian demands answers.
"What we are doing is not your concern, brat." Jason answers.
"I didn't ask you!" Damian snaps at Jason, he turns to his father and continues to speak, "I am part of this team. I deserve to know. I can help!"
"Damian if we are not telling you, there is a good reason behind it." Dick responds to Damian's demands.
"Let my father answer." Damian says to Dick and looks at Bruce. "Father?"
"No." Bruce answers.
"Why!?" Damian demands to know the reason for the rejection.
"We are working on something important. We don't need you. You should be with someone protecting Gotham that is what I need you to do the next days." Bruce states.
"Father, it is not fair! I deserve to help all of you!" Damian insists.
"It is a 'no,' Damian." Bruce rejects him. "Go back to training. Alfred, make certain he goes back to training."
"I can go myself!" Damian decides to stomp off, exiting the cave.
Alfred follows to see if Damian truly went back to training. He witnesses him brutally punching one of the bags, taking out his anger on the poor bag. Alfred sends a signal through a watch to Bruce's watch that Damian is occupied.
Bruce sighs and rubs his forehead. The older Damian comes out of hiding.
"He should never know about this." Damian reminds Bruce.
"I know." Bruce asserts Damian's statement. He continues to speak, "We will need to make certain he stays distracted he will be assisting someone else to protect Gotham at nights. I will need to tell the situation to two more people."
"I will not get others involved." Damian affirms.
"If you don't, they will find out soon, Batwing and Batwoman. They will know." Bruce persists. Damian pauses to think about it.
They will find out, both of them are very smart people. They have always assisted us when we needed it. We need someone to defend this city, while I occupy the main members of the family. Crime doesn't rest in this damned city. I won't like it, because they die first for helping us. I don't want that to happen, so they need to know.
"Fine." Damian agrees against his will and slight fear for their safety.
"Also, I will invite his friend, Colin, to spend time with him during the day. It will be a pleasant distraction for him." Bruce says and realizes that Damian is stun by his statement.
"Is there something wrong?" Bruce asks.
"No." Damian proclaims and goes back to work.
I am friends with Colin? I am certain I didn't meet him until two years after the Death of Superman…in the battlefield. But my younger self knows him now…something is wrong…
~0~
Three more days pass, all of them continue to work, only taking small breaks for necessities. Batwoman and Batwing got involved in the investigation.
Batwoman, Kate, deciding to take the responsibility to work alongside young Damian during the night to protect Gotham, however she pays attention to details that relates to their investigation.
Batwing, Luke, is working alongside Damian and Tim to locate any changes in the time frame using the Wayne Tech and the Wayne Towers scatter around the world.
The rest of the family continue to concentrate on their initial tasks.
Jason, Cassandra, and Stephanie have constructed multiple different weapons that will help take down their galactic foes and trained with the weapons. All that is left is to multiply the artillery.
Dick and Barbara have work on multiple different plans that will lead to their victory.
Bruce keeps tattering with the belt, however it is about to be completely fixed and he will need to hack the belt and find the history of its use.
Tim endlessly tries to find any fluctuations in the time continuum, but no hints have been revealed.
Damian is assisting in all the sections of work, however his mind is occupied with his younger self getting along very well with Colin. He does become friends with Colin, but it is too soon. His mind is filled with finding explanations for the strange outcome. His lack of attention has been noticed by the family.
Stephanie is the first to ask him what the thing that clouds his mind is. At the end, she is not able to gain an answer from him. She develops a good relationship with him, it is more tolerable than with the younger Damian who throws insults at her every time they speak. At least this one is more mature and gives her less insults. Still, Stephanie did not achieve anything with her conversation, but it went compared to Jason's or Barbara's attempts.
Barbara tried to convince Damian to answer her questions by telling him it is the right for the rest of the family to know any information he is holding back. He respects Barbara, but makes it very clear he will not take orders from her unless it is necessary. He doesn't deem the situation as such.
Jason's encounter is more forceful, it only built tension between the two. They both were challenging each other, stepping over each other's shoes. They didn't talk after the argument.
However, this is nothing compare to the relationship between Tim and Damian, even if Damian misses all his family members, he still can't stand Tim and Tim returns the feeling. They can work together, but they are not trading words with each other.
Cassandra and Damian have always had a mutual understanding for each other, she is the only one who has not harass him with questions about the future or about his thoughts.
Dick is the opposite from Cassandra, but it is expected from his older brother. He constantly asks him questions about how he is feeling and what is he thinking? He would bother him with questions about the future and the 'what if' scenarios. The annoyance won't end. Damian does good job ignoring him, yet there is some questions that do catch him off guard.
"Did you lose your virginity?" Dick simply asks. Damian shock, he first has to compose before answering his question.
"What?" Damian asks, still not processing what his brother asked him.
"I mean, you can answer this. It won't change the future or anything. So...did you lose it?" Dick repeats the question.
"Yes." Damian affirms. He continues to concentrate on his work.
"Aww. My little bro lost it." Dick mocks Damian, and he continues to ask for details. "Who? Do I know her? How was it like? How many girls did you have?"
"It doesn't matter." Damian is getting a little embarrass about the sudden questions of his sex-life.
"Yes, it does. I need to know how much I should celebrate!" Dick tries to persuade Damian.
"I had many." Damian claims, then becomes rattle by his own honesty. "Besides, you don't want to really know about the details. Mar'I was my first, end of discussion. Let's move on."
Damian wants to be proud about his own triumph of being a man who can charm women, especially in the superhero community. However, he can't be so blunt to tell Dick the details about his first time with Dick's own daughter. It is wrong. He needs to change the subject, fast. Without a thought behind his words he moves on to question Dick.
"How is your marriage with Koriand'r?" Damian asks. He is surprise to hear a silence come over Dick. Dick meets confuse eyes meet Damian's eyes.
"I am not married to Kory…" Dick claims. Damian's eyes widen, because without a trying he revealed there is something wrong, not only with time.
The family gather to ponder about how this situation could happen. Damian not meeting Colin, until much later and Dick being married to Kory. These scenarios are different from the present.
"Are you certain you didn't, at any point, come to the wrong dimension?" Bruce questions Damian.
"I am certain." Damian affirms. "You said that belt only travels through time, then I only traveled through time."
"It's true." Bruce examining the belt on a lab table.
"Then, it might be that time and space changed in this scenario." Bruce speculates.
"If time changed, space changed with it." Tim understands and explains Bruce hypothesis. "Each time Epoch traveled through time he will change small effects that will ripple the dimension continuum, correct?"
"Yes, Tim." Bruce agrees and makes some final adjustments to the belt. "This means the first time travel will make a ripple in a dimension. We need to look for ripples in our dimension to find the where Epoch will be. The belt will tell me when Epoch will appear."
He enters a code on the belt and get a hologram log about the times the belt has used its power.
"Tomorrow, in the night." Bruce states.
Tim, Luke, and Damian look for ripples in the space. Luke is able to find some, in the center of Gotham. It will be in the Wayne building.
"Epoch will appear at the Wayne Ball, tomorrow, to see the opening of new Wayne tech, which Epoch likely plans to steal. We will be there to stop him." Bruce declares to the whole family.
~0~
"Today, he will make an appearance in Gotham." Eclipso says to Darkseid.
"It is destiny." Eclipso gladly suggests. "Epoch to steal from Gotham, while the Yellow Gem appears."
"It doesn't matter if destiny is by my side or not." Darkseid declares. "I will get the future I desire."
~0~
It is a beautiful, quiet night in Gotham and the whole family is present at the ball. Bruce, Luke, Kate, Dick, Jason, Tim, Barbara, Cassandra, Stephanie, and younger Damian. The older refused to join them, he wish to watch over the monitors to observe anymore ripples in space and time. Bruce tried to convince him this is the opportunity to stop everything from happening, but Damian was very reluctant to go. Bruce was suspicious for the reasons, but didn't push it further.
But Bruce should've persisted because Damian does have other intentions. He knows that the first location from Epoch's belt is not the Wayne Ball, it is the place the belt took him, where the belt left him, when he escaped from the future; the Batcave. He must fight them alone.
The family awaits to see the big reveal of the new Wayne technology that will revolutionize the scientific field. The big reveal is made and the audience applause, however the family awaits for Epoch's appearance. Moments pass and they mingle, yet keep an eye on the technology waiting for Epoch.
Epoch makes a grand appearance, the light goes out, and the crowd screams. The family quickly changes to their costumes and they all go after Epoch. Epoch notices the costume heroes come towards him. He tries to shoot them with his advance future guns, yet dodge his blasts. Bruce is able to get a hit follow by the rest of the hero's attacks. Epoch gets into a corner, trying to fight them back, but it is too much. He must escape. He turns his belt a couple minutes back and transports to a different location.
Epoch appears the Batcave knowing that the family is gone and waiting for him at the Wayne Ball. It will be best to steal technology from the cave it is more advance than the measly tech of the Wayne Company.
Damian sneaks up behind him, able to throw him on the ground, and pin him, with a gun pointing at Epoch's head. Damian reaches to remove Epoch's belt and technology, suddenly black magic throws him into the Bat computer.
Darkseid and Eclipso appear in the center of the cave. Eclipso decides to throw around Damian, while Darkseid puts his foot on Epoch and uses his powers to mind control Epoch. Epoch struggles against his power, but his battle lasts for a couple of minutes. Epoch falls under Darkseid's command.
"Go to the darkest corner of the cave and speed the time frame." Darkseid orders.
Epoch follows Darkseid's command. He goes to the darkest corner he can find and speeds up the time. In a couple of seconds a small glow appears, the yellow gem of fear appears in the cave. Eclipso struggling to fight Damian decides to concentrate on using his magic to pull the gem to the surface of this dimension, while Darkseid shoots his omega beams towards Damian. Damian finds anything to hide behind to avoid these powerful beams. Damian is able to jump in front of Darkseid and dodge at the very last minute and the beams hit Darkseid. Darkseid suffers injury and humiliation from this, he decides to change into physical attacks towards Damian.
"How can you dodge me, you are only a mortal?" Darkseid questions.
"I have practiced fighting you many times!" Damian answers.
Damian is able to get his hands on some of the weapons made to use against Darkseid. He stands equal to Darkseid, yet he is hit from behind with a yellow ray from the Yellow Gem that Eclipso holds. This causes him to hallucinate his greatest fears; he will re-live every death he has seen. His friends, family, and innocents deaths. He covers his eyes and screams trying to fight back the realistic hallucinations.
Darkseid opens a boom portal and decides to leave with Epoch, Eclipso, and the Yellow Gem. Darkseid smirks as he leaves Damian to suffer in his fears.
The family return to the cave to see Damian kneeling over still fighting the visual hallucinations of bloody bodies and the screams of many familiar voices. It is very powerful the Yellow Gem's rays, the hallucinations last for the rest of the day. The family try to comfort him, make him realize it is all in his head, but it doesn't work. Bruce gives Damian all the anti-fear antidotes he has made to counter Scarecrow's toxins, but it doesn't work. They have to wait and watch as he trembles in agony of all the gory images. He must lose everyone again.
The next day the hallucinations stop and Damian takes a couple of hours to rest from the intense experience. Bruce apologizes to his sleeping son for not being there, helping him face off the enemy. Bruce stays by his side the whole time.
After a couple of hours, Damian wakes and composes himself to tell them about the situation.
"They escaped with the gem." Damian explains. "But I know now that the gems only appear a certain time."
"What do you mean?" Stephanie asks.
"I saw Epoch speed the time for a moment to be able to make the gem glimmer to the surface of our dimension. This means there is certain times throughout this timeline that the gems appear and that is where they are heading." Damian answers.
"I put a device that will connect Epoch's current belt and the one I stole from the future and it will show me the locations of time Epoch will travel to." Damian informs them.
"Great, so what is next?" Dick questions Bruce. Bruce shares a gaze with Damian and realizes from Damian's eyes that his youngest son from the future will have to do it alone.
"Nothing." Bruce tells Dick.
"Why not!?" Dick challenges Bruce.
"No, Grayson. My father is right. I have to do this alone." Damian asserts. "It is my journey to travel through time and stop their plan from ruining the future. You have to stay here in your time frame, I am the only one who is separate from my time so I will travel."
Bruce grabs the belt and hands it to Damian.
"We have failed to stop this, but you still can, my son." Bruce expresses his approval and high expectations for Damian's solo mission.
The rest of the family murmur and struggle to face the fact that he must go alone, but it is true it seems to be Damian's own mission. Damian puts codes in and it connects his belt to Epoch's belt's coordinates. He must rush to stop them from achieving to gain the other gems.
"I know I will return." Damian affirms as he looks at all of them, seeing them brings a smile on his face. He will not let horror fall onto his family and the rest of the world. He will stop it. He runs into the portal to see where it leads him.
~0~
"He is from the future, where my goals are achieved. He is here to stop that from happening." Darkseid claims. Eclipso, Darkseid, and Epoch return to Apokolips.
"Don't worry, good friend." Eclipso tries to calm down Darkseid's worries. "He is far behind us and won't stop us from achieving the second gem."
Eclipso uses his magic to locate the next gem. A Green Gem appears in Oa.
To Be Continue...