An personal headcanon of mine on how to apply Damian's death by the Heretic to the Reverse Robins AU.
Damian is an adult when it happens.
His mother creates a clone of him to take his place as the heir of the League of Assassins. But before that, the Heretic needs to kill Damian.
Heretic arrives in Gotham with the League's asssassins and starts an attack on the city. The Batfam come together to save the city, and meanwhile everyone is busy with their own battles, Damian and Heretic come face to face.
But the difference from the canon is that, Damian is now an adult and he is far more skilled and stronger than his child self. So, he ends up taking down the Heretic after a tough battle.
But not before the clone stabs him in the chest.
Yet again, let's not forget that Damian has a bigger and stronger body now, so the stab wound isn't fatal like it had been in canon. So, somehow, he ends up not dying at that moment and actually recovers from it.
Damian is up on his feet after a few months of rest and everything is just fine.
Except it's not, because he starts having random aches on his chest, arrhythmia, dizzy spells. He ignores it, blaming it on stress. Yet, life goes on but he doesn't get better. In fact, he starts getting worse.
His family realizes something's not quite write with him when Damian collapses on the floor one day and starts having a seizure.
Damian has no idea what's wrong with him, and neither does his family. But he doesn't want to worry them any further, so he takes some tests in secret with the help of a doctor friend.
That is when he finds out that his heart had been damaged after all, and he was on his way to an early age heart failure.
He doesn't tell anyone. Not even his father. He is scared of how his life might change if he reveals his condition and worst of all, Damian does not want to see that broken look on his little siblings' faces.
So, he keeps it a secret, going on with his days as usual and taking the meds that had been prescribed to him.
It is not even a year later that he realizes that its coming. He can feel it in his bones, in his blood.
So, he writes up a will and clear instructions that under no circumstances did he constent to be brought back with the Lazarus Pit.
Damian dies a month later from heart failure. He isn't even on the field, as he had hoped to be. No, its right after everyone's back from patrol, the kids are sleeping and Damian had just proposed Bruce a drink and a small chat before they went to sleep.
It was something they did more often now. Growing up, Damian and Bruce never really had the best relationship. But after learning of his condition and inevitable death, Damian started making more effort to spend some time with the man. To make up for all that lost time of his childhood years.
It comes like a heart attack, so sudden and painful, he finds himself unable to breath on the floor of Bruce's office. He can see his father's mouth moving but he can't hear any words coming out of it.
Maybe it's the blood rushing to his ears, maybe its the anxiety—the doom of knowing that he is about to die.
At that moment, all he can think of is how painful it will be for Bruce to see his son die right in front of him just like his parents had.
His damaged heart is filled with guilt and sorrow when he dies. Damian regrets not saying good night to his siblings one last time.
From then on, it's up to your interpretation if you think Bruce would bring Damian back against his wishes or let him stay dead to honor him.
Either way, both has great potential for a story.
We can have a pit mad Damian feeling resentment towards his family for bringing him back in the broken shell of his corpse.
Or, we can have a dead Damian that haunts the narrative as the story moves forward.
Idk, I might write this in the future, so saving this as my personal writing inspo lol.
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