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The Aftermath of an Armageddon is always hard. It’s hard on the first responders, civilians, the government, and it’s especially hard on the heroes. The job isn’t done just because the fighting is over. The bitter truth is usually the worst is still to come. When the dust settles and you’re left standing over the broken rubble of what used to be a house, or a school or a hospital. When you still have to count the dead and mourn the lost, then somehow pick up the pieces of your shattered lives and hold them together until the next Armageddon.
The accumulated forces of the heroes and villains managed to beat the Krimmal and send their transdimensional helpers home. Now they were faced with an even bigger challenge: the clean up. As usual the media decides to come out in droves to film their elusive heroes, surrounding them with a foe worse than most super-villains ‘public opinion.’
The cameras flashed across the hellish landscape that had been the battlefield moments before recording the damage and capturing pictures of the exhausted and bruised heroes. They picked up Batman standing tall in the rubble looking over the field, eyes scanning the scene. He appeared to be looking for more enemies or surveying the damage, in reality he was searching for his children. Red Robin leaned tiredly against Superboy, both of them checking each other for injuries. Superboy would make sure Tim was taken care of.
Robin stood in the distance saying goodbye to his mother, he was well aware that he was still in public and seemed to be fighting the urge to hug her. Talia wrapped her proud and prickly son in a hug despite it being beneath his dignity. She would make sure he was safe. Batman saw a flash of purple and black with bright blond hair; Cass and Steph were in each other's arms; the tender looks traded between them meant he wouldn’t have to worry about either of them.
He spotted Duke reaching a hand down and helped one of Tim’s team up. She had clearly injured her leg. Duke helped her limp off the field supporting her bad side to get her to help. He was already heading to the medical, he wouldn’t be allowed to leave until he was checked over as well. He still hadn’t seen Jason or Dick yet.
Batman toggled his comm, “Nightwing, Red Hood report.”
Batman turned around looking at the other side of what used to be a shopping center. Jason was pulling a shaky Roy into his arms, looking him in the eyes as he softly held his face and gently leaned his forehead against Roy’s. One more he doesn’t have to worry about, and one more still to find.
“Nightwing report.” he toggled his comm again.
That got most of his children scanning the battlefield. They knew that Batman obsessively checked on each kid after a fight, they knew to check in. After a few too many times watching Bruce on Fear toxin they knew better than to make him wait for a status update after a fight.
The cameras from the news crews noticed the sudden tension in half of the heroes on the field. And like any journalist worth their salt they started to home in on the heroes instead of running from a potential danger.
Bruce was on the move now calling for the Supers to x-ray the rubble and messaging Kid Flash to see if the Titans knew where Nightwing was. Kid Flash joined the search for the missing man, and it was Wally that found him. He was half buried in a pile of unstable bricks clearly concussed. KF helped Nightwing to stand and held him upright as he tried to fall over.
In his desperation to make sure his boyfriend was okay Wally didn’t even notice that Nightwing’s mask had peeled off his face during the fight. Nightwing's face was streaming live on national T.V. they might have gotten away with his secret identity intact if they hadn’t also been standing in front of a five foot advertising banner that had a photo of all the Waynes on it. Nightwing’s bare face streaming live with a close up of Dick Grayson’s smiling face behind it, even with the blood smear across him nothing could prevent people from making the connection.
Oracle cursed over the comms.
“B it’s too much, too fast. I can’t wipe this one, It's everywhere. The Internet has exploded with Dick is Nightwing.”
Batman had finally managed to get over to where Dick and Wally were standing, He took a guard position in front of his eldest. Ready to fight anyone who came too close to his injured kid. He glared especially hard at all of the cameras streaming his face everywhere. One by one the rest of the family circled around the two and stood guard.
Wally pressed a gentle kiss to Dick’s lips, mumbling an apology for not noticing the missing mask.
“‘S ok ‘d gonna ppen.” Dick slurred his forgiveness.
Eventually, they managed to get Dick out of there. His secret identity was gone in an instant. The internet was already trying to connect the rest of the family to the other bats, the way they had all surrounded Dick and Wally apparently ‘spoke of more than just professional protectiveness.’
The next few days the family stayed in the manor with the press camped out in front of their gates. They had all known that there was no way they could keep their ID’s secret forever but they had hoped that they could manage until Damian was of age. Apparently, knowing that a child hero went out in the city at night to skewer bad guys on his sword is a far cry from knowing that a middle schooler son of a billionaire skewered thugs on his swords. Child advocacy groups were calling for Batman's blood. While the media was in an uproar, they were split 50/50 on ‘poor Brucie, he doesn't know’ and ‘Bruce Wayne is Batman’.
Five days later after almost a week of non-stop speculation and discussion of Bat-Identities came the Gala that the poster had been advertising. Now most people would think that they would cancel or reschedule it with all the craziness about Dick is Nightwing. Bruce had decided not to do that. It was a charity Gala, for one thing and the other is he was tired of hiding. It was time to admit everything he’d done for Gotham.
Now Bruce stood at the podium in front of the gala, surrounded by his family, each dressed in the finest suits and dresses. Looking nothing like the dark protectors in the night. Dick was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses and had a few butterfly bandages still along his forehead. He was leaning on Wally, standing in support with his family despite the vicious migraine he was getting from his concussion.
They were surrounded by paparazzi; there was no way to keep them from the first public appearance of Dick ‘Nightwing’ Grayson. So the Waynes decided to give a speech on the ‘red carpet’ leading into the Gala. A barrage of shouted questions were thrown at them.
“Did you know?” “Who is Batman?” “Dick, how does it feel to have the world know who you are?” “Mr. West, is it true that you are Kid Flash?”
The one that stood out to Bruce came in the midst of all the confusion.
“Mr. Wayne, are you proud of your son?”
“I will never not be proud of my children, but I presume you mean, ‘am I proud of the work he does as Nightwing?’ Of course, I’m proud of his work, Nightwing has saved the planet a few times; but I’m also proud of the work he does as Dick Grayson, Officer with the GCPD. He protects this city day and night. You want to know if I know the Identity of the other bats. Yes, we are the Bats. We are the protectors of Gotham. We stand against the darkness.
“You call me the White Knight of Gotham for my work as Bruce Wayne, creating jobs, giving aid, and rebuilding the city after disasters. I am also The Dark Knight, that stands in the shadows uncovering corruption, fighting people like Scarecrow and the Joker. We have fought for you, bleed for you, we have even died for you. But we will stand strong between you and the darkness. I am Batman.”
The world pauses for a fraction of a second then Cass stepped forward. She said in a firm voice that carried over the hushed crowd.
“I am Black Bat.”
The others also came forward.
“I am Batgirl.”
“I am Signal.”
“I am the Red Hood.”
“I am Red Robin.”
“I am Robin.”
Wally took a step forward pulling Dick along with him.
“I am Kid Flash.”
“And I am Nightwing.”
The family stood united bare faced to the world ready to take on this new challenge.