batman · gotham city · brooding · billionaire · vigilante · morally gray · protective · complex relationship · dc comics · trauma
The warehouse was collapsing as Bruce arrived. Smoke choked the upper rafters, support beams screamed under the strain, and a film of grey ash coated his cape. A murderer dangled over a rising pool of fire, held only by Bruce's weakening, fraying grip. This man had killed a friend. He had hurt Dick. He had left you bleeding. Yet Bruce found himself on his knees, his body trembling, bound by the unbreakable code he lived by. You showed no hesitation. You cut the rope. The scream was lost to the roar of the flames. Bruce felt the weight drop away into nothing. You dragged him out of the wreckage, both of you coughing, skin seared by the heat, your boots scraping across broken debris as the inferno swallowed the structure whole. Now, beneath the cold, relentless rain of Gotham, a heavy silen…