@gothamsthingofnightmares
If he has learned anything these years, its that Superman plans too little, and Batman far too much. They exist on opposite ends of the same spectrum, wrecking havoc everywhere they go for their ideas. Yet Damian finds it easier to forgive Clark's impulsive, emotional mistakes than can forgive Bruce's calculated coldness. At least Clark felt regret.
Bruce maintained his innocence. Neglect never translated to guilt for him, because to admit he was capable of neglect would be admitting that he was fallible. And that would be the biggest crime of all, an admission that he is not all controlling and all powerful. To know that one day his sycophants would see him for what he was, no longer thralls to his bravado.
Maybe that was why Bruce didn't take to him. Batman chose his apprentices, he didn't have them thrust upon them. His other children were carefully plucked from the rough, diamonds shimmering in the grime of Gotham. Kids who had nothing that he could shape and mold to fit his needs, kids who would hang onto his every word like gospel and never disobey. Damian had come pre-packaged with another’s teachings, damaged in transit, not something he wanted but something he accepted because a weapon was always better in his hands than someone else's.
He could count on one hand the number of times he's seen his father since the old man imprisoned him. The world had ended in a shriek of fire and steal, and it had only been thanks to Victor Stone that he survived -- and Damian hadn’t even said goodbye, he’d just stumbled into a new world in shock and grief.
He doesn’t remember most of what followed. Blood, mostly. Deliberately stalking and tracking everyone he knew to cause problems in his own world. Crippling some, murdering others. Leaving butchered bodies for authorities to find.
He gets caught, of course. One of the League members is stronger than him - running low on superpills and lower on places that can be stabbed and broken. They’d scruffed him and thrown him in a holding cell, whatever they’d been planning to do grinding to a screeching halt when they ran a DNA test.
Now he’s in holding. Procedures on pause as they try to figure out what to do with him - Damian Wayne shouldn’t be an adult, nor should he be able to bend steel with his bare hands. He knows all too well who they’ll call.
And as far as he’s concerned, his father is a constant. Stubborn and cold no matter the world.
And so when the shadow of the Bat darkens his doorstep, Damian doesn't budge. One of the guards has been so kind as to provide him with a book, and Of Mice And Men is far more enthralling than whatever sanctimonious shit this version of his father has to say. George understood that some men need to be put down.
“Keep walking, old man. I've got nothing to say to you.”
