Chapter Text
"Mom?” Even now, when it had been so long, he remembered it so clearly.
It was one thing his brain would never let him forget.
The empty, dark house stood silent.
“Mom?” As far as he knew in that moment, she should have been home.
The again, it would not have been the first time that she had left him alone.
So after the second time he had called out, only to receive silence as the answer, he felt comfortable enough to just go to his room.
It was strange, he thought, having to see it all again in his dreams. It was always the clearest when he dreamed it.
But as he felt his body move, slipping out of his shoes, throwing his backpack.
It all felt natural.
It was the last time it did.
It wasn't until he reached the second floor that the smell hit him first.
Metallic.
Acidic.
It made his stomach turn.
The door that led to his parents’ room was slightly open.
He remembers how it took him a good while to gather his strength to approach it, much less open it.
To this day, the events, after all, became blur.
The therapist had told him later that it was just his brain protecting him, trying to keep him sane.
But there was one thing he knows is true.
In the room his parents shared, he had found his mother.
Her body faced the floor as she lay in the pool of her own blood.
And above her…
Above her stood a man.
Tall, lean.
He was glowing.
Only to turn around once he heard the door squeal as Timothy Drake opened it.
“Tim?” He called out.
“Tim?” And again.
But that wasn't his voice.
“Timmy, did you stay up late again?” Opening his eyes.
Timothy Drake, or well, Tim found himself in his room, in Wayne Manor with Richard Grayson watching him.
“Tim, are you ok?” The man asked with a worried smile.
But Tim stayed quiet, far too sleepy and confused to answer as the dream world and reality overlapped.
Because all he could see were those bright green eyes.
Glowing with anger and tears.