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Chapter Text

Most children think their parents are invincible, that nothing could ever hurt them. Luz Noceda-Grayson was one such child, and who could blame her. Watching her mother, father, and older sister fly through the air, performing death-defying stunts for audiences the world over had given her the belief that her parents could do literally anything. Luz was 10 years old when she learned that belief was only just a fairy tale. It was when she was 10 years old, that she watched her parents fall to their deaths and her sister paralyzed from the waist down, victims of the Gotham mob who wanted a cut of the Circus' gate. The sounds of sirens were deafening that night, and she felt numb, like the world had just ended. She didn't acknowledge the police officers who spoke to her, or old man Haly and her circus family trying to console her. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore. Her mami and papi were dead. Her sister was broken and may never wake up. She was alone.

 Then came the man. He looked down at her, but not with the disdain of the police, or the pity of her Circus family. He looked at her like he understood her pain. Like his heart too had been ripped from his chest, like he also knew what it felt like for the world to end. He kneeled down, his eyes never wavering from hers like everyone else's. He stared into her eyes, and it felt like he was also looking directly into her soul. Her pain laid bare before him like an open book.

“Hello there,” the man smiled, a warmth starting to flow through the young girl, "My name is Bruce Wayne. I know that you may not want to talk right now, and that's ok. I've talked with the commissioner and Mr. Haly, and they want to send you to an orphanage, but don't worry. I told them I'll take care of you and your sister. I'm going to grab your hand now, if that's ok. My friend Alfred here will drive us home, and we have a guest room you can stay in. I bet you'll want to be alone after...all this. I know I did..." he finished softly, and Luz saw something flash behind his eyes, just for a split second. A pain that was all too familiar to Luz.

 "Did you lose your parents too?" She croaked out hoarsely, her young throat raw from screaming and crying.

 Bruce blinked, tilting his head slightly, "Good observation. Yeah, my parents were killed when I was about your age. I wish...I wish I could tell you that you eventually get over it. That everything will be fine. Sadly, the truth is you never really do. But living your best life in their name is the best way you can honor and remember them. Now let's go home."

As the weeks turned into months, Luz slowly got used to her new life in Wayne Manor. True to his word, Bruce made sure her and her sister Lucia were well taken care of. Having spent her entire life as part of Haly's Circus, living in a mansion was a massive case of culture shock. Her beds before had been fold-out cots or in the sleeper cars of trains. Now she slept in a massive sized canopy bed that looked like it was straight out of a Charles Dickens novel. If she ever needed anything, Alfred was always there with a, "Yes, Miss Luz, right away." She now went to Gotham Academy, one of the most prestigious schools in the nation, not to mention the new friends she had made there. Barbara Gordon, daughter of Police Commissioner Gordon, was always there with a smile or a helping hand. Bette Kane, one of Bruce’s relatives and the wild one of the group. Lucas Fox, son of Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox, who had inherited his father’s genius and technical know-how. Finally Masha Romanova, a goth enby who was obsessed with the occult, and whose parents ran the Gotham branch of STAR labs.  

Then came the day Lucia woke up. Luz had been sitting next to her reading the newest Good Witch Azura novel, as she had done almost weekly since that horrible night, when she felt something touch her hand. Thinking it was Alfred trying to get her attention, Luz looked up and nearly screamed. Lucia’s eyes were open, staring directly at Luz, as her hand slowly closed around Luz’s.

“H…hey there…hermana,” Lucia’s voice croaked out, causing Luz to break down into tears.

It took a few weeks of testing to make sure she was healthy enough to leave, but eventually Lucia came to join her, Alfred, and Bruce at Wayne Manor. Bruce had already renovated the entire manor to allow Lucia ease of movement around the large house. The elevators had been widened to allow her wheelchair room to maneuver, and gates had been placed at the tops of each staircase to protect Lucia from falling down them. Slowly at first, but more and more each day Lucia learned how to navigate in her new Wayne Industries Levitating Mobility Aid, or WILMA for short (Luz had to make sure to never say that where Bruce could hear though). Luz was happy…so why did one singular locked door make her feel so uneasy? 

Luz had discovered it a few weeks after first arriving. It was a small door, way off in a side room of a side room, hardly noticeable to anyone. Anyone besides Luz Noceda that was. Bruce and Alfred had both said that she lived there too, and that every door in the house would be unlocked for her just like it was for them. And yet. And. Yet. This door, hidden away from the rest of the house, remained locked. She had asked Alfred of course, and he had told her it led to old builder’s tunnels that were too dangerous to explore, and that the door had been sealed. Luz almost would have believed that too, except for the fact that she knew that door had a brand new lock on it. So ever since, she had been working in secret, trying everything she could to try and get through the door. Every time ending in failure, but no longer! Now that Lucia was back home, Luz could ask her sister to pick the lock for her! This plan was brilliantly fool proof, and Luz saw no problems whatsoever with it.

“No.”

Oh. Well there was a problem.

“If Jeeves said it was off limits, then it's off limits mi pequeño petirrojo. Besides, I have been in a coma for a few months. My hands are all atrophied, and I am gonna need physical therapy just to be able to hold a spoon again, let alone lock picking,” Lucia said, the bitterness in her voice stabbing a dagger into Luz’s chest.

“First, his name is Alfred, not Jeeves, and he is amazing. Second…I don’t really have a second thing,” Luz sputtered out, “I just…I need to know, Lucia. If I open that door and find a sealed up passage, I’ll shut it and lock it and forget about it. If I’m right though, that’s not what we’ll find when I open that door. Please Lucia? For your baby sister?” Luz pleaded, sticking out her lower lip and making her eyes look as big as possible.

Lucia turned away, trying her hardest not to crumble under The Face but even she caved eventually. “Ok, ok, ok. I mean it, I can’t open it for you. But I can teach you!”

And so here Luz was now, in the early morning hours, pushing the last tumbler into place and hearing that last precious click as the door swung open revealing…an empty closet. 

“¿¡Qué demonios es esto!? This is i-” as Luz stepped inside to investigate further, the floor gave way, and Luz found herself in some kind of tube hurtling down a shoot at high speeds. Making hairpin turns at amazing speeds, Luz was having the time of her life before all too quickly the ride ended and the pod lid opened up.

“Oh man, that was amazing! But seriously what the hell are Alfred and Bruce hi…ding…” Luz stopped dead as she turned a corner, running smack dab into Bruce wearing a Batman costume and Alfred stitching up a slash into his side.

Bruce stared at Luz.

Luz stared at Bruce.

Alfred stared at his stitching, making sure to finish the suture before sitting up, and turning to stare at Luz.

Before Luz could act, suddenly Bruce was there, blocking her path and looming over her like a gargoyle, “How the hell did you get into the cave!?”

Chapter Text

Before Luz could reply, Alfred stood up, his eyebrows knitting into a stern look, “Master Bruce, that is no way to speak to Miss Luz. Now, Miss Luz, may I ask how you got in here? I check all entrances to the Cave on a weekly basis, and my last walk-through was three days ago.”

Luz began to play with the hem of her shirt, trying not to make eye contact as she spoke, “I…I picked the lock. On the door you said led to worker tunnels. I mean, I knew that was a lie, I just thought it would lead to, like, an embarrassing stack of magazines or something. If I had known-”

Bruce held up a hand, stopping Luz mid sentence, “What made you think Alfred was lying?”

Luz blinked, “Huh? Oh, the door thing. Well, Alfred said the door hadn’t been opened since Wayne Manor finished construction. Now, most people would just accept that, but I know my locks. I uh…I wanted to start doing a magic act at the Circus, and Harry Houdini was one of my idols…”

Bruce felt himself smile, “He’s one of mine too. So you knew that particular lock was a newer lock made up to look old, huh,” Bruce asked, as Luz sheepishly nodded her head. Bruce sighed, “This was all you?”

Luz shook her head, “Lucia taught me how to…” Luz stopped, her hand going to her mouth as she gazed up into Bruce’s eyes, “I-I-I-I mean…um. I did it all myself,  yep. So the only one who should be p-p-punished  is me. Lucia had nothing to do with this so…so please don't kick her out…” Luz sobbed.

Bruce’s anger faded fully as he wrapped his arms around her, “Luz, no one is getting kicked out. I’m sorry for scaring you. Sometimes it's…hard, to be both Bruce and Batman, and I oftentimes get lost. You did some grade A detective work, Luz. I’m…I’m proud of you.”

Luz gazed at the man, “Y…you mean it?”

Bruce nodded, “Of course. Luz, when we first met you asked if I had lost my parents and I told you I had. I didn't tell you how I lost them. We had gone out to see a movie I really wanted to see. It was the new Grey Ghost movie, and I had been begging them to take me, you see. On our way home, we took a shortcut down an alleyway. From out of the shadows came a man carrying a gun. He told my father to hand over his wallet, and my dad did. Then the man saw my mother's necklace, and he reached for them. I don’t know if my dad thought he was going to hurt her, or what, but he tried to stop the thief. There…was a loud bang, and the next thing I saw was my father on the ground. My mother screamed. Another bang. She fell next to him. He pointed the gun at me…and then he ran. A first day rookie officer ran up, and he…he gave me his jacket as I just kneeled in my parents blood. Sometimes I…wake up smelling the gunpowder.”

Luz felt a tear roll down her cheek, as she thought about all of the nightmares she had been having before she spoke, “I still see them. Every night. Their bodies sprawled on the floor. It never goes away?”

Bruce felt his heart break, and he had been under the impression he didn’t have a heart to break anymore. Bruce squeezed the girl, and a thought crossed his mind. One question that would change everything. Is this what being a father is like?

“It's ok, sweetheart. I’m here. I’ll always be right here.”

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Over the next few months Luz slowly began to spend more and more time in the Cave. She had made a deal with Bruce not to tell Lucia, which kinda hurt Luz if she was being honest with herself. She had always been honest with her sister her entire life, but even Luz couldn’t argue with Bruce’s reasoning. The Batman had made many enemies, not the least of which was the entirety of the Gotham Mob, and the less people who knew his true identity the less of a chance of one of his enemies trying to get at them. That still didn’t help the butterflies in her stomach every time she came up and Lucia asked where she had been. She would always answer, “Oh, I was just spending time with Bruce,” which while true, didn’t reveal the whole truth. Luz had been training with Bruce. 

It started one day when Luz was sitting at the Bat Computer helping Bruce analyze some mysterious fibers he had picked up at a crime scene recently. While she was watching the computer begin its search and compiling of the data, she noticed Bruce practicing with a training dummy out of the corner of her eye. Figuring the computer would take a second, Luz turned her attention to watch Bruce. 

“So, uh, did it take a long time to get so good,” Luz asked, her legs swinging in the chair.

Bruce finished with a strike to the head, knocking the dummy to the ground, then grabbed his water and took a quick drink before answering, “I spent 20 years going all over the world, learning everything I could from some of the top professionals in their fields. Not just martial arts either, but stuff like detective work, crime scene investigating, computer programming and hacking, and much, much more. Would you like to learn some of the basics?”

Luz had to keep herself from screaming in joy, “M-me? Learn from you!?”

Bruce smiled, something he noticed he had been doing a lot more since the girls had come into his life, “Of course. Basic self defense is important for everyone. Now, come here and I will show you a few basic kata.”

From then on, every chance Luz got, she was training or using the Bat Computer to piece together more and more of what happened the night her parents died. So far she had gathered that whoever did it wasn’t associated with either The Maroni Family or the Falcone Family, meaning they were most likely just low level hoods trying to make a name for themselves. Then came the night that everything changed. After going through hours of footage, Luz made a massive discovery. A quick reflection of the man who killed her parents, only there for a frame or two, but it was enough. After a quick search through the Gotham police records, Luz found the name. Tony Zucco. Luz glanced at the clock, checking what time it was. 11:45 pm, almost midnight, which meant Bruce wouldn’t be home for a few hours yet. Grabbing a print out of his last known address, Luz ran upstairs, hopped on her new motorized scooter Bruce had bought her, and raced towards her justice. 

Luz stopped outside a rundown tenement building, checking to make sure she had the right address. Once she was sure she was at the right place, Luz began to scope the place out. It had a pretty tall chain link fence around it, with razor wire on top. That was an option, but Luz preferred if she could get in without ruining her favorite hoody. Looking up, Luz saw her way in. There was a condemned building close by, and it was at just the right height and distance that she should be able to make the jump easily. Racing up through the old rotting building, Luz made sure to stick to the shadows like Bruce had shown her in case the building wasn’t as abandoned as it appeared. Reaching the top, Luz went to the side where the other building was. Luz glanced down, and the images of that night played in her mind. Looking down. Her parents. Lucia. Luz shook her head, her gaze going back to the other building. 

You got this Luz. After this, he’ll never hurt anyone else again. The young girl thought to herself, as she took one last look. Her Papi’s words came to mind, about never making a jump unless you’ve measured it over and over and over again. Heading back for a running start, Luz took a deep breath, and rushed towards the ledge. Vaulting towards her target, Luz hit the ground and immediately rolled, lessening the impact. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize how much noise that was going to make.

“What the hell was that!?”

“Shit, it might be the Bat, Tony! Shit, shit, shit!”

“Calm the hell down, it’s not the Bat. If it was, we wouldn’t have heard him until it was too late. Fan out, find what that was, and kill anyone trespassing, ya got me?”

Luz cursed under her breath, immediately taking stock of her surroundings. She was on a nearly open roof top, with no real cover to speak of. Luz glanced over the edge of the building, hoping there was an open window she could hop into. 

Nothing, nothing, noth-wait! Luz spotted a window that was wide open, right next to a rain spout she could climb down. Running over, Luz began to shimmy down, just as the door to the roof was kicked in and a group of thugs ran out. Luz hurried down, hoping they hadn’t seen her peaking over the edge. She got parallel with the window and stepped over, her balance solid from years of trapeze work. Moving in silently, Luz noticed a door on the far wall. She moved towards it, slowly turning the handle and waiting to hear if any alarms were tripped like Bruce had taught her. Not hearing anything, Luz slowly opened the door, again waiting to hear any hint of an alarm, but nothing came. Luz slipped through, and found herself in an empty hallway, the only light a dingy bulb swinging on a chair above the stair landing. 

Great, not only do I have to worry about the Mob, now I found myself in the middle of a horror movie. Luz steeled herself, and began to move forward, listening for any hint of where Zucco might be. She could hear the goons on the roof shouting and tromping about, which actually helped calm her nerves, knowing she would hear them long before they saw her. Just as she was starting to feel like she was actually gonna pull this off, she rounded a corner directly into another person.

“Who the-HEY!” The man shouted, before Luz jammed her hand into his trachea like Bruce had shown her, cutting off any further sound the man would make. Unfortunately that one shout was enough to unleash hell. Multiple doors opened up, and a horde of goons came barreling towards her.

“Get the little bitch, she got Johnny,” one of them yelled, as he pointed a gun her way and fired. The bullet went wide, but Luz knew she wasn’t going to stay that lucky. She ran, or at least tried to. Right as she spun around, a fist connected with her face, knocking her to the ground.

“You ain’t goin nowheres. Not before we get all the information out of you we can,” a voice hissed, causing Luz’s blood to run cold.

“Tony Zucco…” Luz managed to get out through clenched teeth.

“So ya heard of me, huh? But who the hell are you?” That hateful man asked, as he kneeled over her.

“You killed my parents!” Luz screamed.

“Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down? I’ve killed lots of kids' parents. Hey, how’s about I send you to go see them, huh?” The gangster said, as he pointed a pistol at Luz’s head. Perfect.

Using the training from Bruce, Luz grappled Zucco’s arm, kicking his knee with a satisfying pop. Before his goons could react, Luz dropped the smoke grenade she had stolen from the Cave, a wide smile coming to her face as the goons began to shout in confusion.

“MY FUCKING KNEE! FIND THE BITCH!” Zucco shouted, as Luz began to find her way through the smoke. Keeping low to the ground like she had been taught, Luz was able to feel her way to the stairs and the landing below. Hopping quickly over the railing, Luz shimmied as far down as she could before dropping to the stairs. Landing toes first to lessen the sound, Luz landed almost silently, as the chaos in the smoke above still transpired. Moving further down, Luz began to notice a lot of chemical barrels. Like, a LOT of chemical barrels. Then it clicked. One of the cases Bruce had been working on was about a sudden increase of chemical truck hijackings. Since it was such a wide variety, no one had really thought to try and link them together until Bruce had discovered similar tire tracks at two separate cases on separate ends of Gotham. Seeing all these barrels, Luz knew that Zucco and his crew had been behind them all. But why?

Luz glanced at a nearby open window. She could leave, head home, and forget all this. Tell Bruce what she had found, and let him take care of it. Yet there was something deep inside her telling her she had to finish this. 

“I’m sorry Lucia,” Luz whispered, heading in the direction the barrels seemed to be coming from.

 Moving further into the building, Luz kept finding more and more barrels. Just as Luz figured she had to be getting close to something, she heard voices drifting through the halls. Unlike the loud, anger filled voices of the goons, these were quiet, subdued. If it hadn’t been almost completely silent, Luz might have even passed them by. Luz began to move in the direction of the voices, and eventually came across a rather fancy looking door, much newer than anything else that she had seen thus far in this rundown building. Luz made her way over, pushing her way through into the next room, having no way to be ready for what she found.

Luz had found herself in some kind of office, with a large window overlooking some kind of drug facility. Beakers bubbled away, while chemical formulae were written over a number of blackboards and sheets of paper tacked to walls. As she looked around, Luz found the source of the voice she had heard. A video was playing on the TV, some man in a lab coat sitting at a table covered with scientific instruments.

-anthon Crane. Now if my research is correct, and I have double and triple checked the results so I am positive they are, I have learned how to induce pure fear directly into the human brain with nothing but an aerosolized powder. Now I just need a test subject-

“Would you like to be my first?” A voice spoke up from behind Luz. She screamed, spinning around. Before she could get a good look at the owner of said voice, a powder was blown into her face. She fell to the ground, clutching her eyes in pain, as that same mysterious voice began to taunt her.

“Oh, poor, lost child. Your parents are gone, and it’s All. Your. FAULT!”

“NO!” Luz screamed, her eyes opening. Where-

“And now for their new death defying trick, we have the Flying Graysons!”

“NO! STOP THE PERFORMANCE!” Luz screamed, realizing she was back home. Halley’s Circus. She had to save them. Luz ran, and ran, and ran. She ran, and ran, and ran, and ran, but it never got closer. Luz looked around, and she was in the ring. She looked up and there! 

“Mami! Papi! Get down!” Luz shouted, but no words came. Or did they? Her mami, her rock, looked down at her, and then she slipped. Her papi tried to grab her but he couldn’t. He fell with her, landing head first on the cold ground below. 

“You killed them, Luz. Oh my god, you killed them!” Lucia screamed at her.

“Luci-”

“No, you’re a murderer Luz. I’m sorry, but I have to take you to Commissioner Gordon. You’re a monster,” Bruce said, as he grabbed her arm and began to drag her.

“But I-” 

“You’re a monster.”

“Luci please-”

“Murderer.”

“Alfred its not-”

“Worthless.”

“B-Bruce I-”

“Who else knows you’re here?”

“No one, I came alone! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Luz sobbed, as the figures she loved kept calling her every horrible thing she had called herself when she was sitting alone crying at night. From out of the darkness, a massive figure appeared. A monstrous scarecrow, his eyes like the fires of Hell itself.

“Good. It would be a shame if you got anyone else killed, little one. Now, only you have to die. Say Goodnight,” The Scarecrow spoke, as he raised a massive sickle over his head.

“Goodnight,” a voice spoke in the dark, the sickle getting knocked from the Scarecrow’s hand by a fireball. Luz watched as a huge bat demon leaped on the Scarecrow, his claws beginning to cut the Scarecrow into shreds. When he was done, the bat creature turned towards Luz, which caused her to try and scramble away. It was no use, however, as the creature flew over her and cut off her escape.

“Please don’t hurt me, please, please,” Luz kept pleading, hoping this creature would leave her alone, or at least end her quickly.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” a horrifying voice echoed, Luz feeling every instinct inside her screaming to run. The bat creature moved its face closer, and Luz began to sob and pray. This was it. She was going to see her parents and leave Lucia all alone. 

The bat creature roared, as it grabbed Luz’s head, forcing her to bare her neck. Luz was begging the thing to not kill her, when she felt a sharp pain in her neck. This was it, he was draining her dry. She was about to be killed by a vampire. She felt herself fading, her body slipping into blissful oblivion…

Luz awoke screaming. Suddenly the door slammed open, Bruce standing there with a batarang in hand. When he saw Luz was ok, he lowered the weapon and walked over, sitting down next to the young girl and wrapping his arms around her.

“Shhhh, it's ok Luz. You’re fine, everything is fine. You’re safe now. Whatever you saw last night wasn’t real, ok? It was just a hallucination brought on by a toxin.”

Luz tried to take some deep breaths, but she still felt that crippling fear from last night, her loved ones calling her all those horrible names. What made it worse, was Luz knew it was all stuff she had thought about herself. She began sobbing in Bruce’s arms, as the larger man just held her and rocked her. After what felt like an eternity where Luz wasn’t sure she would ever be able to stop crying, the fear began to calm as she finally started being able to breathe normally. Luz looked up into Bruce’s eyes, and she saw tears to match her own.

“W…why are you crying?” Luz asked, her mind simply unable to process what she was seeing.

“I should have been faster. Luz, we almost lost you last night. I almost lost you. Your BPM was through the roof and we had to hit you with a defibrillator to try and reset your heart rate. I’m so sorry, Luz. I-”

Luz shook her head, “No, I was dumb. I just…I wanted to go after that murderer so badly I didn’t even think. Please tell me you got him?”

Bruce shook his head sadly, “No, I was too focused on getting you back to the cave. Crane and his goons got away.”

Luz fell back onto her pillows, new tears starting to form as she berated herself internally for ruining her one chance at getting revenge. She looked away from Bruced before she spoke, not wanting to see a look of pity she knew she didn’t deserve, “I should have told you. I shouldn’t have been so stupid!”

Bruce frowned, as he gently placed his hand on her cheek to wipe her tears away before speaking, “You aren’t stupid, Luz. You let revenge cloud your mind, and I should have realized it sooner. After all, I was the exact same way. So, if we’re going to find Crane and Zucco again, we should probably get started.”

Luz blinked, as she looked into Bruce’s eyes, “We?”

Bruce passed a box into Luz’s hands, a big smile on his face, “Open it.”

Luz opened the box, and inside was a bright red outfit with green and yellow accents. It was made from the same Kevlar like material the Batsuit was made from, strong yet flexible, and emblazoned on the chest was the letter R. Luz ran her finger over it, “Why R?” she asked.

“Lucia told me she calls you her ‘Little Robin’ in Spanish. I figured it was an appropriate nickname for my new sidekick.”