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How often Bruce thought about his ideals and why he toed a very thin line when it came to murder was prevalent this day. The shadows were like wings around him as he soared through Gotham, he could practically feel the goons and henchmen flinch when they heard his boots touch down on each rooftop. Bruce could almost feel the horns of his demonic form fighting for a way out of his head, to have the fun it craved and bloodshed. Bruce threw those less than helpful desires into the back of his mind. It was not the villains of Gotham that held his ire in the first place.
Janet Drake was such a witch.
Bruce would love nothing more than to wipe the floor with her entrails and leave her alone in her last moments so she might have a semblance of what she put her son through for all those years. Jack wasn’t much better, but Bruce knew that all of this legal battle was Janet’s doing. He knew that she would not take the hit to her ego lightly, and he had been an idiot not to see it coming. She was not one to let sleeping dogs lie.
She’d emailed her legal team to see the requirements for her and Jack to have visiting rights. Freaking parenting classes, that Bruce was sure they would not pay attention to at all. He had been to those classes when he took in Dick, they were helpful and insightful. It gave him a better perspective on what to expect of Dick and more guidance than just Alfred in those early years. To think that it would be wasted on the likes of the Drakes was disrespectful to those kind people.
Bruce stopped on the next roof and peered down into the alleyway below. This was not his usual route; he’d decided to mimic Dick’s usual one on a whim. It was best they didn’t just have a set path that they took each night, but Bruce hadn’t told the others about this abrupt turn of his.
Tim was on their usual route, though only stopping petty crime, and told to call him if there was any rogue present. Perhaps… He had told Tim, sue him, Bruce wasn’t going to let his second youngest worry. Batman let his cape fall around him, feeling the writhing shadows encompass him and he felt the world shift as he stepped into the shadow’s realm.
He took off then, looking into the areas where the shadows touched the surface, and watched for anyone of interest. He saw both Jason and Dick together, a break it seemed. Dick was holding a sandwich in his hand while Jason seemed to have a thermos. It was likely that Jason had prepped food beforehand and had offered it to Dick. He’d leave them to it. Brotherly bonding was not something he had in him to stop.
Bruce carried on and found Tim in an alleyway, comforting a man who seemed to be on the verge of ugly tears. The Bat nearly winced in sympathy for Tim, who was no better with strong emotion than he was. Tim seemed to be doing alright, however, and had seemed to consul him enough to walk him on his way towards, presumably, the man’s home. Bruce followed them and when the man was gone, Bruce grabbed a hold of Tim and brought him into the shadows.
“B!” Tim exclaimed and flew around to point an accusing finger at him. “You do that on purpose! I swear, Jason was right!” Bruce grinned slightly before ruffling Tim’s hair. He squawked and tried to fix it as Bruce brought them up to the rooftops once more.
When they stepped out of the shadows Bruce felt a pang in his chest looking at Tim. When the boy first came to the Manor, he was small, scraggily. Bruce was sure it would only take a gust of wind to knock him on his tush. But with Alfred’s help the boy had filled out, his muscles were no longer just small poles, but had definition from his rigorous training. It wasn’t what was causing Bruce physical pain though.
Tim was a mess when he learned that his parents gave up their parental rights of him. He had cried, shut himself away in his room, and all but begged Bruce to double-check that they were sure in their decision. Bruce hadn’t wanted to break the news to him that his parents were already gone away on another dig. Jason had been a large help in getting Tim to interact with the family, along with Dick. They took to big brothering and making Tim feel as if he had always been there. Alfred and Bruce had long talks about what to do for Tim should he not be able to reconcile with the idea that his parents… Weren’t really meant to be parents.
The Bat wanted to throttle his younger self for letting the neglect go for as long as it did. Sure, he couldn’t tell them that he had evidence of the neglect, not without Batman making some strange drops that would likely lead to the Drakes figuring out who he was at night. No, Tim got his intelligence from someone, and that was his mother. He knows because it was who Tim said he learned all of his mannerisms and edict from. She taught him how to be a CEO and a ruthless one at that.
“You did good there, what happened?” Batman walked to the ledge where Robin was overlooking the street.
“He was nearly mugged by some woman with a knife. I think it just shocked him, he had babbled something about being new in town and not believing everything that others had warned him about. Poor guy was likely from Metropolis or something.” They shared a small laugh over it, Bruce’s being more of a grunt.
It was a quiet night, something that always put Bruce on edge. All of Arkham was secure, he’d checked three times tonight. But his hands were shaking with adrenaline, paranoia that this meant something big, something he didn’t really want to go against, but for the betterment of Gotham, he would do what was necessary.
“It’s quiet… That worry you as much as me?” Tim asked, taking his foot down from the ledge and looking at the Bat.
Bruce tensed slightly, but relaxed. “Quiet means trouble is brewing.”
“Anything to maybe do with Arkham?”
“Likely. It’s usually 60% of the issue, but this feels different.” Bruce looked over towards where he had last seen Jason and Dick. It felt as if a rock had settled in his stomach and had made no plan of moving anytime soon. “It may be in your best interest to not wander far from me or the others for a while Robin.” He murmured, eyes finally coming back to his little bird.
Tim scowled. “That isn’t fair, I just started being able to go on a route on my own!”
Bruce sighed, why were all of his Robins so keen to be independent? “If something big is coming I don’t want you to go after it.”
“You don’t trust me.”
“You’ll be a liability.” Tim stopped and stared. Bruce stared back.
“You don’t mean that.” He whispered, turning his head around and around to try and look at Bruce from different angles. “You don’t mean that. We are partners, we watch each other’s backs B!”
While that was true, Bruce thought about the emails. He thought about Janet having her claws back into Tim when he was doing so well without her influence. Bruce wanted to keep his child close and to keep that woman as far from him as possible. “Be that as it may, you are still a child.”
“Who fights crime every night you hypocrite!” Tim stomped his foot on the ground, not helping much in his case, but Bruce didn’t bring it up.
“A child who fights crime regardless of if I tell him no. You will not wander from my side until we figure out what is coming.” Tim huffed a Bruce could tell that he wanted to throw something, anything at him.
The shadows were panicked. Bruce hadn’t realized it until he looked to the edges where the shadows were prominent. They were sharp, gearing to strike whatever it was that was making Bruce so agitated. He took a deep breath, pulling Tim’s arm so that he didn’t go close to the darkness. Tim threw off his hand and glared at him. “Don’t touch me.” His words were no louder than a hiss as he took off for the rooftop ledge. Bruce reached out to stop the boy, but the shadows lashed out.
Tim cried in panic before dropping and rolling away from where a spike had been ready to impale him. “What the freaking heck?!” Tim looked at Bruce, who in turn was trying to calm his breathing because he had nearly IMPALED HIS OWN CHILD! “B?” Bruce took a step back. This is not good. I need to calm down. But the more he breathed the thinner his air supply seemed to get. Instead of looking for the threat the shadows now surrounded him. Cover wherever they could latch, trying to help him. Trying to get him to breathe.
Robin tried to get close but Bruce felt his breath get more labored and the shadows grew to keep Tim back. “Guys, B is freaking out. I might need backup.” Bruce knew that Tim was comm-ing with the other two, but he didn’t care. He needed to get away, to the hideaway in the cave, to somewhere where the air wasn’t smog and fumes. “It’s okay, B. You didn’t hurt me, just scared me a bit.”
He turned away from Tim, feeling the shadows starting to wrap tighter. It wasn’t helping. I can’t breathe. He tried to communicate that to them, but they just wrapped tighter. I can’t breathe. Let go… LET GO! The shadows released suddenly and Bruce still felt like there was a rock blocking his airway.
“Panic attack?” He could hear Jason’s voice as the sound of two grapples came to the roof that they were occupying.
“Maybe? He’s not… B!” Bruce felt himself slipping, the darkness at the edges of his vision was dark and he wondered if he was going to die right then. If this was going to be his first time suffocating from his own panic.
The world grew dark and he felt a pair of hands grab onto him, but they hissed where he knew the Shadows were spiked. “What is happening?” That was Dick’s voice, Bruce wanted to comfort him and tell him he’d be okay.
“The shadows were reacting to him… We were arguing and he was trying to get me to stay away from the ledge when they shot out at me.”
“He usually has better control than that,” Jason muttered.
“Yeah, but he’s-”
Bruce passed out before he could hear more.