Chapter Text
Blood runs thicker than water.
Those words echoed in your mind, from a voice lost long ago in your memory, from someone forgotten. Why were you thinking of that now of all times, seconds away from your inevitable end? Blood runs thicker than water. Sure. If it weren’t for family, you wouldn’t be dying on the cold floor of a lab in the first place. Well, blood sure was thick as it dripped off your fingertips onto the ground, mixing with the darker, dried blood under your nails. Exhaustion had set in a long time ago, leaving you unable to move without furthering the injuries the scientists had left you with. Trying to escape had been a stupid decision, and the leftover “punishment” here was enough proof.
The concrete made your limbs ache, feeling like a sheet of ice. A chill bit into your skin, sinking cold into your bones. Days ago, the scientists had left you for dead after the GCPD had figured out their operations. How many days had it been since they had fled the lab? Everything began blending together. The world would be clear, a crystalline view, and then bleed into a blurry haze.
Another wave of pain crashed down over you, making you dig your nails into the steel of the exam table before they slipped, sending you back to the floor again. A sharp pain twisted like a blade at your side from where a gash bled, the wound open for way too long for any normal human to survive, making the fabric stick against your skin. Tremors shook you, leaving you unable to control the twitching until an eerie stillness settled over your form. Lights flickered overhead, fading in and out.
Screaming was pointless- your throat was too bloody to do so. All your tears had dried up since you never cried in front of them. No, you wouldn’t give those monsters the satisfaction.
A crimson pool had gathered beneath you, the scent of iron filling your nose along with the sterile scent of the lab. A few sounds echoed down the halls of voices.
Darkness began to ebb at the edges of your vision, making everything seem both blurry and vivid at once. A claw curled around you, trying to tug you down into the abyss below, and tearing at your heart. There was a dark hole threatening to pull you in. Would dying be all that bad?
Nope. Not today. Not ever. Death had followed you all your life, like a shadow you couldn’t quite shake off. Whoever had said death was like drifting off into a peaceful sleep was lying. No, this was a fight, a fight where you were holding onto life like a thread, refusing to let go. If death were here, it would not be easy. You would fight it. Fight as you always have. All you ever knew was fighting, as if it were next to breathing.
Taking in a shaky breath, you reminded yourself that if you had done this once, you could do it again.
From the moment you were born, the doctors had been left without answers for the strange blood condition you had fought. Not after everything you had been through would you die alone in an abandoned lab in a pool of your own blood. Never. The scientists had never liked you being a fighter when you refused to take orders and ignored demands. Now you clung to the small part of you who could imagine a chance at a new life, and held onto it even as your breaths became fewer and fewer. Gasping, you kept clinging as the claw seemed to press down on your throat, sinking into it.
A small flicker of glowing light sparked at your fingertips before fading away and flooding the room back into darkness. They had always left you in the dark, and every day for the past few years had been nothing but endless dark, full of experiments, tests, and commands. Nothing but a weapon to mold, a thing to command and order around until it was discarded. The line between life and death relied on lab results, which you had walked carefully so you could find a life on the other side of these walls. Squeezing your eyes shut, you focused on that part of yourself.
During those endless nights, you would come up with songs to fill the endless silence. Lullabies from long ago, or random ones thrown together to pass the time. It seemed silly, but it kept you from losing your sanity. Anything to hold on to hope. Under your breath, you whispered a melody, “A sparrow sang a song, even in a cage. One day, it would fly to the sky beyond, and the world would be its stage. Every day it sings, because hope carries wings until it finds the key it carried all along and flew free, never to be trapped again.”
One day, you would have wings and fly far away from this place.
What if this were all just a nightmare, and you would wake up in a normal home with a normal life? An agonizing pain crawled up your spine, digging into your nerves like shards of glass, each pushing further in. Yup, this was a real nightmare brought to life.
If someone didn’t show up soon, you were done for.
“No, I want to live,” you internally begged. “I just want to get out of here. Don’t take me. Don’t take me.”
Life could be cruel. After all, you never expected to go from being a girl trying to get by to a weapon left to die. Despite all its faults, you still wanted to live it.
There was a spark that hadn’t quite died out yet, buried deep within.
A noise tore you back into reality, followed by a few voices behind the door. Panic rose in you, flooding you with dread. What if the scientists had returned? There was no chance of living if they were.
The door flung open, where a few figures stared from the shadows. Trying to focus your vision, you squinted and could only make out a few bright colors. Footsteps got closer, each more measured than the last.
One, two, three…
A few voices whispered nearby, sounding strangely familiar. How many were there? Whoever it was, they couldn’t be good news.
“What do you want with me?” you whispered with all your remaining strength. One emerged, stepping out of the shadows and towards you. A cold voice responded, “We’re here to help you.”
Help? Yes, help! At this point, you would take any sort of help if it meant survival. It was as if a star burst to life in a starless sky, bringing a tiny bit of light after an endless darkness. Finally, your body gave out from under you, sinking into the floor.
Your eyes widened at the recognition of the person before you as the figure got closer. Was it? No, it couldn’t be…the Dark Knight.
One week earlier….
The cave seemed to be colder tonight as Bruce stared at the screen, trying to piece everything together. Tonight had gone unexpectedly, to say the least, but when was the unexpected ever new to him?
Gotham always seemed to be stuck in a perpetual shadow, yet tonight the city was darker if it were possible. One minute, Bruce was in the middle of giving a speech at a gala for the Gotham Institution of the Arts, and the next, the entire museum went dark. Everyone assumed it was Riddler or some other Rogue breaking in, until the whole city turned to an endless sea of shadow- a blackout. Gotham is already chaotic enough when it’s functioning normally. Well, as normal as Gotham can be on the normal scale. Luckily, Oracle had managed to track down the source of the power surge and hack into the city’s main power center to fix the issue before any major damage could be done, so now the others were out fixing up any wreckage it may have caused. Crimes had already increased within the hours, and the GCPD had been flooded with calls of break-ins or worse across town. At least none of the rogues had escaped Arkham this time.
Oracle’s symbol appeared on screen, “Power-grid is secure, and everything seems to be running smoothly again. Everything okay on your end?”
“Everything’s fine. Nightwing and Robin are making sure the east side of town is okay, and Red Robin is speaking with the commissioner,” Bruce responded, voice clipped with an edge of exhaustion. “Do you know what the source of the blackout is yet?”
“Always straight to the point,” She internally rolled her eyes, “At least that’s nothing new.”
“As far as I can tell, there was a large power surge that overwhelmed the grid,” she explained, pulling up a picture of the recent energy levels. Bruce furrowed his eyebrows, trying to see if there were any other signs of abnormalities. It seemed as if everything had been running smoothly until now. Odd.
“Which would usually be due to some sort of faulty issue, but here’s the thing…it would take a large amount of power to shut down a city of this size. Nothing about this is normal. I’ll keep looking.” The screen went dark again.
Just as he had expected. Nothing about this felt random, but what would someone gain from turning off the city’s power?
A nagging feeling in the back of his head kept warning him this was a part of something bigger, putting a pit of dread in his gut. It was a feeling he was all too familiar with right before something bad was about to happen, as if the city itself were whispering a warning. Memories of the aftermath of that dread followed him around like a shadow, never quite too far away.
Haunting. Unforgettable. Painful.
Joker was still in Arkham. He had already checked the moment the power returned.
Who would benefit from that much power? Even worse, what could have that much power? Mr. Freeze could be using it to fuel a new project, or maybe Poison Ivy has been making some sort of environmental statement? Nothing had been stolen except for a few small robberies during the blackout, which wasn’t really unusual for Gotham.
There were too many missing pieces right now, full of blank spaces, unable to be strung together. Without any information, trying to figure anything out for now was useless.
“Just when I think Gotham can’t get any darker,” Dick’s voice interrupted his thoughts, pulling him back into reality. He strolled in, taking a seat on the edge of the keypad. Bruce scowled a bit, but said nothing. A long time ago, he learned that telling him to stay off the Cave’s equipment was useless.
“Where are the others?” he asked, turning to face him.
Dick shrugged, “I think Tim is still speaking with the commissioner, and Damian decided to go to bed. Cassandra and Stephanie went off to do who knows what.”
Leaning back, Bruce let out a tired sigh, “Do you want to stay here tonight? I can have Alfred prepare your old room.”
Hesitation glimmered in Dick’s eyes, as if he were considering it. So much had changed since he was that little boy holding tightly to Alfred’s hand as he showed him to his new room, but sometimes he would give anything to go back to those days.
“Nah, I have to get back to Bludhaven by morning, so I should really head out,” Dick responded, brushing off any of the earlier reluctance. “Let me know as soon as Babs has the information about the source. See ya, B!”
The cave went quiet again. Bringing a family together was the easy part, but keeping them together was more difficult than it seemed. Although he had to admit most was his fault, with his ability to push those around him away so easily.
Bruce sat there for a while when a familiar voice said, “Master Wayne, it’s far too late, and you’ve been up for hours. It’s time for you to get some sleep.” A few feet away, Alfred stood calmly stirring a cup of tea.
“I’m fine, Alfred,” he answered gruffly. “If I can go over some of the recent activity recorded at the power company-”
Alfred cut him off, nearly scolding, “How many times must I remind you that sitting in a cave late into the night does not mean you are an actual bat? Now get some sleep.” Bruce shot him a look, in which the butler responded, more softly, “Things have gotten quieter here ever since most of them moved out, hasn’t it? Now it’s only Duke and Damian who reside in the manor. Suppose it’s easier to sleep now that things are quiet.”
Easier? It had only gotten harder when Bruce had to constantly worry about where his kids were and what they were doing. Always worrying if he would lose another, only to not be there in time all over again.
Quietly, Alfred added, “As stressful as it was, I did always adore having a fresh face around here. My age is catching up with me, but I think I could still handle it.”
Another? No, that was the last thing Bruce needed right now. Even if Jason often joked about his “adoption addiction,” he wasn’t sure if he could handle another member of the family. Another person who could be lost…
“Goodnight, Alfred,” he said without looking up from the screen. With a sigh, the butler left without a word.
A new message from Oracle flashed on the screen again, along with a sense of urgency in Barbara’s voice. “Hey, you may want to take a look at this. I think I found a lead and much more than we expected.”
Project X - Experiment 00217 - Successful
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