He called us son, but he never adopted me or Jason. He kept me as a ward for my entire life. He never hugged me or comforted me. I had to sign an affidavit that stated that ... [he pauses as he remembers the words...] "under no circumstances, not death, nor love, nor loneliness, will I ever give comfort to fear." This was after he dropped me into the woods with a hungry wolf when I was a boy, younger than Damian, I think. I had little training. He was never my father.

[It was all a part of what would become his training and the man who would be his mentor. That's what he thought of Bruce. He was not a father, he was a mentor, a trainer. The person who gave him the strength to do what he had to in order to be as strong as he was today. It made him a much darker person that most of the people back at this mansion expected, but that's how life was. Why he'd given up trying to connect.]

It doesn't matter anymore. He was my mentor. He's Batman again, and I'm Nightwing. We work in the same city, and I use his equipment, but it's not the same, will never be. See, we all handle this type of job differently. I felt responsible for the lives that were lost indirectly because of me. I feel the weight, but know that I can't let it bury me.