"You used me! I trained you, treated you and loved you like my own son, and you destroyed everything I built! Even now, you have the audacity to stand against me," Ra's snarls at Bruce. Bruce holds back a flinch, stands tall against a man he still, guiltily, loves. He is aware of his family fanned out behind him, watching but not interfering at his command, but his focus is slowly narrowing to just him and Ra's.
"i used you?! I gave you everything I had, everything I was! I gave myself over to you, and you still think I was using you??"
"I am not so foolish as to think you would sincerely end the Wayne lineage to become one of mine."
Bruce almost stumbles back in disbelief at the words. "That- that was all I wanted. Did I not prove my loyalty to you, time and time again? Ra's," Bruce shakes his head in distraught confusion. "I let you do anything to me. I let you carve open my body and hold my heart in your palms while I lay awake. I let you rewire my veins, break and reset my bones, flay me open and mold me to your tastes. I gave you everything! My body is more yours than mine! All I wanted was one change from you, one thing to prove your loyalty to me!"
"That 'one thing' was the fundamental mechanism of change, Bruce. I know you have your childish ideals, and I indulged them myself for some time, but what was I supposed to do when you refused to grow up and see the world as it is?"
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO KEEP ME!" Bruce can't keep the anger and hurt out of his voice as he shouts. "I remade myself for you and you still threw me aside! All I ever wanted was a family, and I am so damn grateful to be a father, but I wanted one too. Is that so awful? I just wanted to be a son before a father, and I thought you..." Bruce doesn't finish the sentence, instead staring off to the floor on Ras's left.
Gently, Ra's speaks. "In another life, another time, another place, it might have been us," Ra's says. "But in this one, you have your faithful butler watching you, protecting you."
Bruce smiles wryly. "My butler? He's tried leaving me every time I get difficult. Should've seen him when I was addicted to venom. You could always withstand me, but he wanted to leave. If I hadn't adopted Dick when I did...."
A pained look crosses Ra's face as he steps forward. "My boy, I-"
"No," Bruce says, "we can't fix it now. You- I could forgive you hurting just me. I already have, but you laid hands on my kids. I can't be part of your family anymore, not without abandoning my own. And I don't have to tell you that I won't ever do that." Bruce steps back towards his actual family. He watches, distantly, as Ras's hand drops from where it had reached up to touch Bruce. He turns, showing his full, unguarded back to Ra's as he takes his family back home.
Another life, another time, another place...