Marauder's Daughter (Eventual Tom Riddle X OC)

Chapter 52: Truth Time

"Alright Dad, what all do you want to know?" I ask my dad the morning after I got back from school, knowing he has about a thousand questions.

"I mean, everything?" Dad scoffs out. "And the truth. No 'seer' lies, no being vague, just give me the facts. I want and need to know everything." He adds firmly.

"Even your own future?" I ask with an edge, and he hesitates. "Remus refused to know his own future, and I generally don't ever tell anyone their direct future. It doesn't matter anyway, I changed so much of your life already."

"Then don't tell me the future, but tell me everything else. Start with how you seemingly 'changed my life'." He says after a moment of consideration.

And I do exactly as he asks. I spend hours and hours telling him everything about my resurrections, about the Harry Potter story, and what I changed in his life here. I leave out his death, which at this point likely won't happen since he isn't hidden away like he was in the stories, so he can't be used as a manipulation bargaining chip. However, since I can't guarantee the 'power of the plot' won't try to take him, I still leave it out. The sun is setting by the time I'm done, and he was mostly quiet the entire time I told him my story.

"That's about it, I think. I'm sure random little things will pop up over time, but that's the summary of all my lives until now." I say tiredly as I finish my stories to him. "You've been extremely quiet this entire time, and it's freaking me out a lot, so can you speak now?" I ask him with a hint of desperation, analyzing his face as he sighs out.

"You first father was a drunk." He states out, gathering his thoughts and landing on one. "Your second father was a good man it seems, but was killed when you were very young. Your last father was an absentee and abusive gang thug who was also killed. And then there's Bruce..." He breathes out with a bit of anger, making me raise a brow at his supposed hatred of my last guardian. "The way you described him, you made him seem like a great man, but he made you go out in the streets and fight crime at the age of what, 12? He didn't treat you like his child, he treated you like a disposable soldier." He scoffs, pacing angrily.

"He had his flaws, I won't deny that, but he did love me and Jason immensely." I defend Bruce, "He took two angry kids and gave us an outlet. I was an assassin, full of rage and ready to snap at all times, and Jason was a mirror of me. Jason kept me calm a lot of the time, and Bruce helped me learn a better way to channel that anger. Nightingale aside, of course." I chuckle out, remembering how lividly pissed Bruce had been when he discovered my anti-hero vigilante identity.

"Nightingale... I don't even know where to start with that." He sighs out, still pacing back and forth. "You were a killer. Not just in self-defense... you hunted people. Bad people, I understand that. Hell, you had me read those comics with you, so I do understand how bad those guys can get, if they're at all like the books. But..." He looks at me sadly. "I just can't wrap my head around it. You're so happy here, and a genuinely good person. I can't imagine you like that. I can't imagine you... evil."

"Nightingale wasn't necessarily bad, or evil, but she was cruel and sadistic. She just crossed that line that Batman, and Shadow, wouldn't. I was in a very dark place when I made the persona, Jason was my whole life there and he was taken from me." I say softly, and his eyes soften when he sees the tears that never fail to form when I think of when I lost my twin.

"Your brother. And all your other brothers. You've had so many of them, and you're separated from them now. It's like with James..." He sighs softly. "I understand in that regards going off to be a killer if it's to avenge your brother. You said I did try to avenge James in the stories... I remember that night, your screams were so desperate for me to stay with you, that's why, isn't it? You were saving my life."