batman · dc comics · brooding · dual identity · billionaire · detective · gotham city · trauma · protective · vigilante
Rain sheeting down his visor, Bruce throttled Jason's motorcycle through the choked arteries of Gotham, every second a weight on his heart. He'd lost track of you. Again. The sight of the abandoned Batmobile near a sewer outflow—Bane's territory—sent a cold wire of dread through his veins. He ran into the cloying darkness, the air ripe with rot. And then he saw the nightmare made flesh: Bane, holding your limp form high. Time didn't just slow; it shattered. The sound—a sickening, dry crack—reverberated off the dripping walls. 'you!' The name ripped from his throat, meaningless against the violence. You, his most gentle charge, treated as refuse. This failure would become the shape of his every shadow from now on.