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The inevitable

Summary:

We know how the story goes. We know who dies.
Teenagers rebel against their parents, even gods do. Robin was created from Gotham's light and given the ability to change. But it doesn't make it easy.

The citizens of Gotham are grieving but they don't understand why. The city and its pantheon seem stricken with sadness. Something is missing. Nightwing is swallowed whole by darkness and Gotham cares.

Aka: AU: Bats as local, cryptid, gods, kind of & Gotham reacts to Jason's death.

Notes:

This a continuation of my other fic Bless the Children. Decided to post it as a separate fic so that I can write no chronological order in this AU and put it in a series. But I'm expanding on that lore so if you're confused go read that first.
TDLR: Gotham is sentient and the pantheon that hosts its local gods, aka the bats. They are still human but when they go out as vigilantes they turn into something less human and more, idk divine?

Ages:
Jason -15
Tim - 12
Damian - 3
Dick - 19

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

“Darkness could not exist without light. And even in the darkest city, there is a reason to stay. A reason to look back, to defy authority, to do anything, for your family.”

 

“I hate you! I hate this place! I hate Gotham!” A voice shrieked through the building.

In safety, there is room to grow and experiment. To push against the walls that keep you safe. Cracks start to appear and light from outside peeks in. A child is naturally curious. Dick had found himself fighting Bruce at every turn when Robin started to burst at its seams. This was before Gotham had granted him the ability to grow and it wasn’t working. Because gods might be stifled in time, humans are decidedly not. But Gotham needed her children to be safe and Dick had been allowed to grow beyond the stars. People still prayed to their first Robin, to his birth from the light, and how Gotham had become a place where people put up Christmas lights for the first time.

Jason was ready to grow. Gotham was once again clinging to her children.
“Why the fuck do you think I killed him?”
“Jay I don’t want to hear it. All the evidence is pointing..”
“No, why can’t you just believe me? I told you, even Gotham was basically begging me but I didn’t. I didn’t Bruce. And then Gotham did it herself.”
“Jason! Gotham is a city. I don’t know how much longer I can hear this idea of..”
“Of course. Don’t believe me. Run away to your cave and don’t go asking yourself shit. Fuck this. Fuck you and fuck Gotham!”
“That’s it you’re benched!”

 

 

We cannot run away from the inevitable. In Gotham, the birds dropped dead. The lights, flickering all day, all went out at once. The lone visitor chalked it up to a power outage. The apartment buildings gathered together their candles on the roofs, making little beacons of light. Grief was spread out over the city like a thick layer of fog. The days that followed the streets were empty, the fog made that you couldn’t see beyond two feet in front of you. After a week the fog thickened around a black car heading for the cemetery. The wheels crushing the carcass of a pigeon that died a week earlier. A young family stood by a grave. The oldest wasn’t even home, off far beyond Gotham’s reach to pull him back.

Dick had never been a stranger to gods. In Europe, it was almost considered normal for its ancient cities to have a protector. Wherever the circus had gone they would make a small offering to its local pantheon, making sure they were welcomed within the city. He also remembered his parents whispering to him to keep this silent when they headed to the U.S. ‘It’s too new over there, they’ve lost touch with their divinity.’ His mom had told him. Cue his surprise when they entered Gotham and he felt its touch just like he had felt it in Paris, Rome, Prague, and Vienna. Cities always welcomed children, who else would bring laughter to their streets?

Later, at the manor, they never talked about what would happen to them the moment they entered Gotham as Batman and Robin. Dick wasn’t even sure that Bruce knew the way he changed. These days Gotham stayed with him almost everywhere, but here in space, it was hard to feel the power his city had granted him. He missed it, he missed his family.

 

Our funeral came to an end. A boy aged 12 turned away from the lowering coffin and looked over Gotham. The skyline is fully dark but also not. The fog cleared itself enough that he could see the manmade light beacons still burning. The boy blinked his tears away.

It started to rain.

In a forgotten alley, a streetlight flickered on again.

 

It had been a month since Jason died. After the first week, the fog had cleared and it had started to rain. It hadn’t stopped since. Nightwing was out tonight.

Whispers were going around that since the fog the bats had lost their humanity. Gotham was angry but its citizens didn’t know why. There were whispers in the community centers. In the aisles of the supermarkets. But the lady on 58th who always knitted jumpers for Robin to pick up and deliver to the street kids said he hadn’t come in weeks. The kids on the street had started to make a game on who could call the ambulance the fastest after a Batman sighting. Nightwing had become a ghost, stalking from place to place most nights. No talking, no nothing. Just a blue streak appearing from the black before you could think.

A couple hurried away to home. They had stayed behind in the cinema to get away from prying eyes and had forgotten the time. Huddled together under one umbrella their footsteps splashed louder than normal. He convinces her to take the shortcut through an alley. The rain is getting to him. Stupid mistakes that end with a knife to your neck in said alley. She looks up to the sky and mumbles a prayer to the city. Her prayers are answered when a black and blue figure leaps down. They all shiver in his presence, the mugger doesn’t even try and runs away only to be knocked down by a flying ecrima stick. She flies into the arms of her lover. After a reassuring hug, she turns to her hero.

“Thank you!” She chokes out.

Nightwing stares at her with a blank face. His domino mask looks almost melted into his face. The whited-out lenses shone in an unnatural way. She averts her eyes, her mind not able to deal with whatever he is.

“He needed something to do tonight.” She freezes in her beloved arms.

The fact that she got a response from him is insane. Everyone says Nightwing hasn’t talked in basically a month. Still, his voice is devoid of emotion. It’s just there. Darkness surrounds them once more. It’s almost shooing them out of the alley back onto the streets. They’ll be basically home once they turn the corner. Nightwing doesn’t move as he watches it happen. She remembers that he used to be the most talkative Bat, the one that people said felt the most human. This entity watching them from the darkness is nothing of the sort. It feels like grief, sullen in color and life. His face has a look to it as if he’s looking beyond this universe. The world around him seems to slightly vibrate, unsure if this thing is truly part of this world.

Her boyfriend looks like he’s shitting his pants. That’s what she gets by dating a boy from Bristol. But she remembers the summers she spent here on the streets. She remembers how the first Robin saved her once from a kidnapping attempt. Every Tuesday she goes with her mother to add their share of candles to the beacon on the roof. The guys from apartment 4b have now built a little shed around it, against the constant rain. They still don’t know what happened to Robin, why it feels so important to keep lighting the candles, and why they are grieving. No one wants to talk about it.

The inevitable.

“Maria.”

She lets go of her boyfriend and turns to black and blue god. Tomorrow, she thinks, she will light a separate light for the figure in front of her. She will pray to the stars that he will find his voice back, his love back, his emotions back.

“Tell them....” Nightwing face twists into something which can only be described as pure grief.

No no no no.

“Tell them all.”

Don’t say it. Don’t put it into words. Let it hang in the inevitable a little more.

“Our Robin died.”

She sinks to the floor. Her boyfriend gasps, rushing forward and hugging her from the back. Her hand absently acknowledging the arms around her as the cold, wet, ground soaks her skirt. Nightwing disappears. His job is done. Maria lets her tears fall together with Gotham’s rain. Suddenly the rain makes sense, and the grief that she has been feeling for a month has finally found a name. Robin, their light, has fallen out of the nest. His body crooked like the birds she saw on the sidewalk that first day.

A chill settles in her bones. She returns to her body and knows what it leaves her to do now. Without her boyfriend's help, she scrambles up and grabs his hand to make her way home. There is a message to spread and candles to light.

That night it still stormed. But as the news spreads the rain slowly stops. In return an angry wind returns. Somehow the candles don’t ever seem to dampen.

 

Dick finds himself at home cuddled in between Tim and Damian when he comes back to himself. There is a gaping, metaphorical, hole in between them that makes him want to fall into darkness all over again. He doesn’t remember anything from the week prior. He closes his eyes but nothing comes. Instead, a small voice next to him whispers:

“Gotham barely has a grip on us here.”
He shifts his body just enough until he’s facing Tim, his brow frowns in an unspoken question.
“I didn’t realize she’d taken you until I... I stalked you yesterday night.”
“Who?”
“You know, Gotham.”

The first time Dick had gone out with Bruce as Batman and Robin he had been astonished by how his foster father fell away and a creature that seemed to purely be made of shadow took its place. Batman felt the intrigues of the city at his fingertip, always knowing where to be and what was needed. He always had the right things on hand, even in the weirdest situations. That first night Dick had trouble keeping up with him, he would try to do the same, slinking away in the shadows, staying quiet until they struck but it felt wrong. There he was, wearing his old circus outfit that he used to perform in and he was hiding. It continued like that for the first month and then… He had been separated from Batman, all his learned tactics weren’t working. So Dick did something unconventional and instead of reaching for the darkness around him he reached for the light. That was the moment Robin was truly born. Suddenly it wasn’t that darkness encapsulated him but that light just wouldn’t reach him. A shift had rippled through Gotham, darkness was no longer alone, the light had joined him. Nightwing was like the light of the night sky. Not as temporary and everchanging as a cityscape but a constant light, there to ensure us all we are not alone.

“I didn’t realize she did that.”
“Only if we really need it. Only with us… I think.”
He looked at his little brother. Tim had been with them for a year. Just a few months and he would be the same age as Jason was when he first became Robin. Dick let his words ring through him. Tim was speaking from experience.
“When?”
“Jason pulled me out. That’s how he found me.”
“Jay did too?” His voice broke speaking of his late brother.
Tears started to roll once more. He was surprised he had still tears to cry these days.
“Gotham’s twisted and cruel way of playing favorites.” Tim attempted to joke.

The truth made the joke fall flat. Dick burrowed his head next to that of his brother and squeezed a still-sleeping Damian tightly. It made the boy mumble in his sleep. He would be turning four soon. Dick wondered if even Damian was blessed by this cursed city.

“Dick?”
“Hmm?”
“Can you do one thing?”
“What’s that baby bird?” He used to say that to someone else too.
“Stay.”

Notes:

Gotham: hmm my Nightwing is depressed and needs distraction. I know! I’ll show my displeasure with this couple doing stupid things by having them almost mugged and then saved by Nightwing!

Maria dumps her boyfriend a week later after she hears he never greets her elderly neighbor who always keeps an eye on the door of the apartment building. She somehow gets the feeling Gotham is pleased with this development.

Also, this is not a religious fic! I studied religion for a while and that paired with a general fascination for spirituality and the divine, some themes and story beats just slipped into it when writing this. Calling her Maria was just too fitting whoops :))

If you came from Bless the Children know that your comments motivated me to write this! Hope you like it, keep me motivated and I'll probably write more. (Like a certain bat returning.)

Series this work belongs to: