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[cohero]

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[cohero]

Yeah, it's an al'ghul thing. We didn't really have them in my universe like they have in the others. The pits are a way to raise people from the dead and extend life as far as I know. My Bruce wrote about it in his book. They're dark magic from what I know, but I only know what I read, what Rachel shared. There was one in Gotham.

[He could go on to talk about how they used it to raise half the city from the dead, but he can tell from the silence there's more. Bruce doesn't give anything, but his dropped gaze and carefully controlled face is more than enough for Dick to know that something is there. Dick knows about Damian, not in so many words- but they shared enough for him to know. There's a pact though, and he'd never say a word. Instead, he goes a different way. With a deep breath, he twists a piece of wire and sits up.]

I felt really guilty about Jason. I- I got in a huge fight with him. Huge [He hit him] and then he ran off to try and prove himself. I should have seen it. I - I was too busy focusing on me, on the fact that I wasn't Robin anymore, and he was. He had a purpose, I didn't. I wasn't Nightwing yet. I didn't know who I was. He went after Dr. Light and got captured by Deathstroke.

[He pauses, this isn't where Jason dies, but Dick feels like it was the start to the end. The short version of a much larger story.]

I had his hand. I had him, and lost him. He fell, fell all those stories. If it weren't for Connor. I don't think he'd have made it. Then he ran away with Rose. He never came back. Joker killed him. It was my fault. I couldn't save him. I was too busy not seeing it. I didn't see how much he needed help.

[Dick goes silent, hands still. It's clear how much it still bothers him. There's more, there's always more, but that's going to take a lot for Dick to admit. It's probably something he'd only admit if they were much closer. ]

[batsymbol]

( so there's similarities there. in death[s].

he hates that.

there's a lot to unpack with what dick says to him. what he lets him know. what he offers to give to him. he hadn't asked for any of it — hadn't demanded or expected it. yet he gave it over to him willingly and it has bruce quiet. pensive. until he finally lets himself look over there to dick. )

Maybe it was his fault.

( a beat. )

Mine.

( the bruce dick knows. )

For not protecting either of you better.

[cohero]

He killed the joker.

[There had been so much going on. Bruce hadn't thought that Jason had what it took to be Robin. He'd let him go, and that was the straw that finally broke the camel's back. Not that Dick knew that. It had already been hard on Jason, fighting with Dick, being dropped, abandoned, dumped by Rose, then rejected by the only person to ever show a modicum of attention to him. He was already juicing on the new fear drug. It was easy for him to pick a fight with the joker.

Then Dick discovered that Bruce had been searching for new Robins before Jason's body was in the ground. New weapons. Dick and Babs let Bruce have it. They weren't going to be as harsh, but he lost it, Babs already knew what he did because of her father. The next thing Dick knew he was looking at a bloody crowbar, and Bruce was leaving Gotham. ]

He. My Bruce never knew I died. He left. He gave up being Batman for a while after. He had to. He wasn't ... himself. He's not you. You know. I know it. He never made it his priority to protect me, or Jason. That wasn't who he was. We were trained weapons to him.

[There's a lot more that Dick can say here, but he's not sure he wants to start, not sure that Bruce will even hear him. ]

[batsymbol]

( to hear that the version of himself dick knows had killed the joker... he doesn't know what to think of that. how to feel. he refuses to sink so low. to do the very thing that had been done to his parents. regardless of the anger. of the pain. of the guilt he carries with him over having lost them. no matter how many times gotham tests him and pushes him to the point of where he doesn't even know if it's worth saving anymore. he can't kill. he won't. not even here.

but there's something about the way dick says he and jason had been viewed as weapons. how they weren't meant to be protected that has him stare at dick. long. silent. as if trying to fit together pieces of a puzzle he only has some of the pieces for. and, with how things are here, could very well be two separate puzzles. )

He didn't think of either of you as sons?

[cohero]

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.

[batsymbol]

( he's not sure what he expected. for all the similarities there seem to be between the gothams and those who strive to save it, there are differences as well. ones which bruce is still trying to figure out, as well as their similarities. partly to try and see if he can figure out how his own path might be carved within his gotham, and partly to try and see if there's some specific reason there are multiples from different gothams here to try and prove theirs worth saving.

how funny it would be if gotham had some sort of captivating hold on eos here, much as does to him.

he goes back to reinstalling the nitro tank, the car itself not needing much else than that. it's fine the way it is — the way he'd put it together back in his own gotham over a series of months. he just never needed the use of his passenger seat. until damian decided here that he did. now he — bruce — doesn't think it does. )

And you still want to save Gotham.

[cohero]

It's my city. I can't have it wiped off the map by criminals.

[This is a new path in questioning and it's actually a relief for Dick. He's feeling a little heavy, and it's easier to find light things to talk about while they work. Jason had been a lot, and while he knew that Bruce might had needed to find something, Dick was done with oversharing. He'd reached his emotional quota for the day.

The fact that the city here had focused on people from gotham only meant that there were heroes there. Dick also noted that there were plenty from other places. He knew that other people had found those that they knew. He'd talked to one, Bobbi, who had her ex-husband here and they were both from a group as well. She'd mentioned that her friend had an ex, or something similar here too, so it meant that they were represented well enough.

Dick was figuring that this was taking stock of people, and not universes. They were the social experiments. Ultimate powers didn't need permissions or heroes to show up to pick where to blow up, that was always at the whim of a god. In his opinion, if something was strong enough to do this, that it was strong enough to be labeled as such, worshiped as such somewhere.]

You want to save it, or still just looking for the ones who killed your parents.

[Putting in the last of the wires, Dick turned and looked at what more there was on the ground. He grabbed a couple of crossbars and latches that needed to be affixed to the side and moved back to the other side of the car.]

[batsymbol]

( with the nitro tank reinstalled, he reaches down for a rag. takes a moment to wipe his hands on it. stares off to nothing in particular as dick goes and asks him that. it's a rather loaded question for bruce, given the point in time that he's from and everything that's going on and been going on in his own gotham.

licking over his lips, he looks down. strands of hair falling in front of his face some as he does. )

I don't know.

( he's not there yet in realizing what gotham needs is hope more than vengeance. )

[cohero]

[Being that Dick has no idea what's going on in Bruce's Gotham, he doesn't realize how loaded. Asking Bruce questions is tricky. There's a time where he'll talk and times he won't. Then suddenly he'll switch topics as his mind turns tricks on it's own. Dick is slowly figuring it out, but hasn't managed it yet.

It's still going to take time. That doesn't mean he doesn't look up and across at the other man while he wipes his hands. He stays watching for a few seconds longer, long enough to watch him lick his lips and those strands to fall. His fingers itch, but he stays.

Turning back to his own more fine tuned work, Dick re-inverts himself again one final time to finish the project he was working on. He pauses, and takes a breath before his next question. It's been in his mind for a while, and he wonders if it's okay to ask it. ]

That's fair. Can I ask, beyond your parents and all of that, how did you get started as... well, batman. I mean, when did you get the idea? How long have you been training before coming out. You don't have to answer, of course. I was really just curious.

[batsymbol]

( dick goes and asks him that and bruce throws a glance his way. keeps it there on him. before he drops it back down and gets himself up. )

Not that long. ( a beat. ) According to some of you here.

( he's checking on the nitro tank — making sure it's how it should be before he's pushing hair out of his face and standing there. tired. more so emotionally than physically. at least he's more or less got this covered. )

[cohero]

[There's a mental shrug. Dick rubs his face and cements a large streak of grease across it without thought. His hands and arms are coated as well. It doesn't bother him obviously.

Looking over his work, he nods a few times. and then sits up straight.]

This looks like it's put back in right. Does it have a cover then?

[batsymbol]

It's fine as it is.

( that is to say, he can do it later. another glance over to dick then. )

Thanks. For the help.

( for... telling him what he did. )

[cohero]

Sure, anytime. Is there a place to wash my hands off upstairs then or should I just wait until the manor. You know, I'll wait.

[Wiping his hands on the small towel, he gets some of the grease off, not much but it's fine. He knows he's already overstayed his welcome. He nods at Bruce and walks back to the elevator, more than happy to show himself out. ]

Take it easy.

[on yourself.]