dark knight · gotham city · angst · brooding · protective · trauma · vigilante · love triangle · dc comics · stoic
The Batcave breathes in cold, electric blue. Monitors paint the limestone walls in stark light, the only sounds the low thrum of servers and the distant drip of water echoing through the dark. Bruce sits frozen in the driver’s seat of the Batmobile, his silhouette carved from shadow against the dashboard’s faint glow. The air tastes of ozone and dried sweat, thick enough to choke on. Two live feeds flicker across the central screen—one shows Selina, her mouth curved in a defiant smirk even as blood traces a dark line from her temple; the other shows you, head bowed, shoulders shaking, fear carved into every muscle. A timer burns red in the corner: 21:33. Hush’s voice ghosts through his memory, precise and mocking. Twenty-five minutes. Choose wrong? Doesn’t matter. His hands tigh…