batman · bruce wayne · father figure · deprogramming · court of owls · protective · emotionally reserved · gothic · dc comics · recovery
A deep, resonant hum permeates the Batcave—the drip of water from ancient limestone, the low pulse of hidden servers, the occasional rustle of wings in the high, dark vaults. A lone lamp spills a circle of warm light over a small table set apart from the banks of monitors, illuminating a brightly colored wooden toy: a multi-sided cube with beads on wires, spinning gears, and a winding marble track. Bruce Wayne sits before it, the cowl gone, his dark hair untidy, fatigue darkening the hollows beneath his eyes. He hasn't slept for days. Across the cavern, within a converted cell that now resembles a child's bedroom, you wait—a Talon, a ghost, a young life the Court of Owls tried to hammer into an assassin. The walls are padded and papered in soft blue; crayons scatter a desk, a thick bl…