"Unless you learn to face your own shadows, you will continue to see them in others, because the world outside of you is only the reflection of the world inside of you."
"That's nice, who wrote it? Gandhi?"
"One of the Dread Doctors. It was the la...
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"You were going to leave me?"
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"Hurry up, Dick!" A eleven-year-old Julia shouted as she bounded up the steps to Gotham Manor. Dick Grayson raced behind her, trying to make it into the house before the girl did. When Julia touched the end of the couch, she flung herself on it and laughed as Dick came up behind her. "I told you I'd win." 20-year-old Dick laughed as he picked Julia up and swung her around.
"I guess you did, Shadow!" He shouted as the girl laughed. He plopped them down onto the couch and stretched his limbs out. The truth was ever since Dick had moved on from Wayne Manor, there had been a hole in his heart. And it wasn't until returning to the manor that he figured out what that hole was.
He had been here when Bruce had walked through the door with a gorgeous woman who was also carrying a baby. Fast forward three years and the woman disappears, leaving Julia in the care of Bruce, Alfred and Dick, who had no idea how to take care of a small toddler. But the trio did just fine, Dick getting the most attached to her. Dick practically raised Julia when Alfred and Bruce were busy. So much he had started to see Julia as his little sister. So he came to visit her as often as he could.
"Dicky," Julia mumbled as she leaned her head into hugs shoulder. "Are you going to leave again?" Her voice was soft and Dick could tell she fighting to hold back tears. He sighed before wrapping his arm around her.
"I have to, Shadow," he whispered. "But hey, I don't always leave for long do I?" When Julia shook her head, he smiled. "I'm never going to not be here. All you have to do is call." Julia smiled up at Dick and squeezed him harder for a long time. The only reason Julia let go was because Alfred had called her for dinner. Dick left again that night, but Julia went to bed with a smile on her face, because she knew her big brother would be home again soon. She couldn't wait to see him again.
But Julia never got that chance. Later in that week, Julia was kidnapped and nobody ever saw her again...Until 4 years later.
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Now, sitting at a lone diner, in the middle of nowhere, Julia felt like a different girl than the one in the memory. That girl was too young, too naive for her own good. This one has seen the worst of the world. She's been tortured and experimented on. The light in her eyes had disappeared. The boy she called brother many years ago was sitting in front of her, drinking his coffee. After all those years, she felt she didn't even know Dick. "Thank you," he said to the waitress as she looked at Rachel and Julia, waiting for their order. "You two want a hot chocolate or something?"
