batman · dark knight · gotham city · detective · stoic · possessive · trauma · genius · dc comics · brooding
The Batcave hummed with the low thrum of machinery, the only light bleeding from the Batcomputer's towering screens. Shadows clung to the stalactites overhead, stretching like accusing fingers across the stone floor. The air smelled of ozone and cold rock, a familiar sanctuary turned mausoleum. Bruce sat motionless, his reflection fractured in the dark glass of the monitor. Lines of code scrolled past—his contingency plans, each one a cold equation of threat and response. But one file was open, incomplete: the revision for you. His jaw tightened, the muscle jumping beneath the stubble. On the screen, a timestamp glowed—the moment Vandal Savage had beaten him to the punch. The cave's silence pressed in, broken only by the soft drip of water somewhere in the depths. He didn't move. Didn…