Healing

Memories

The members of the Batfam all get nightmares, some more often than the others, and some more severe than others. They all have their own kinds of nightmares.

Bruce dreams of his parent's death.

Dick dreams of falling.

Jason dreams of his death.

Tim dreams of all the kids that he's tried to save, but held while the light left their eyes.

And Damian dreams of his mother.

"You stupid boy!"

"Do better!"

"You'll never be good enough for the house of Al Ghul!"

"I hate you!"

"That's not good enough!"

"You'll never be good enough!"

"Son? You think I consider you my son? I will NEVER consider you my son. You were an experiment, and that experiment FAILED."

Damian sat up, gasping, the words of his mother echoing through his head. He hadn't told anyone about what Mo- no, TALIA had said to him, how she had treated him.

"An experiment! That's all you'll ever be!" Talia's voice echoed in his head, as a tear leaked from his eye. He quickly wiped it away.

"An Al Ghul does not cry!"

Damian stood up abruptly, and changed into his Robin gear. He slipped out his window after leaving a note in his room. Flipping across the roofs, stopping crimes, doing good... That was what he did after a nightmare.

"SOMEBODY, HELP! PLEASE! SOMEBODY, PLEASE, HELP ME!" A woman shouted. Damian changed direction, and he soon found a woman being assaulted by a group of men. I flipped down, and started taking the men down. I finished taking them down, and before I could comfort the woman, I heard laughter, and a bunch of screaming. When Damian reached the scene, it was worse than he had thought. The Joker was shooting people at random, while laughing madly. Then, he spotted Damian.

"Boy Blunder, how nice to see you!"Joker laughed.

"Joker! Surrender now, or suffer!" Damian shouted.

"Now, now. Aren't you out past your bedtime?" Joker asked, before shooting at Damian. Damian dodged the bullets as best he could, but one of them hit his right arm, just above the elbow.

"Not good enough, not good enough, not good enough!" Talia's voice screamed in his head. While Damian was distracted, he was hit by another bullet, in the same arm, just above his wrist. He yelled in pain, and tried to retreat, but a Joker Goon grabbed him roughly, and tied him up. He was carried over to the Joker, who laughed.

"Failure, failure, FAILURE!" Talia's voice repeats, over and over and over. The Joker ties Damian to a chair, but he doesn't struggle. He can't. All he can focus on are his memories, the memories of his mother shouting at him, Ra's 'sparring' with him, having to care for his own wounds, crying himself to sleep, and being afraid, so, so afraid. He wasn't paying attention, lost in his memories, until his right arm exploded with pain. He opened his eyes, and gasped in pain, forcing himself not to cry. He forced himself to look at his arm, and when he saw it, he wanted to puke. The arm was covered in blood from the bullets, and sticking out at a funny angle, bone sticking out.

"Poor boy blunder!" Joker said with fake sympathy, before bringing the crowbar down on his arm again. And again. And again. Finally, Joker got bored. "You are BORING tonight, Boy Blunder!" He said.

"Oh, is my suffering not enough fun for you?" Damian managed to hiss through gritted teeth.

"Oh, silly boy!" He said, stroking Damian's cheek. Damian suppressed a shudder.

"Why don't you just let me go?" Damian asked.

"Because, Batsy loves you, and so does your mother, right? So they'll be too busy looking for you to stop my plans!" Joker said. Damian laughed.

"My mother HATES me. To her, I'm just a failure. If you killed me, she'd probably hug you!" Damian said, grinning madly.

"Is that so? Well, I've hated Talia for a while... So, how about I just abandon you in an alley!" Joker said, clapping his hands gleefully. He whacked Damian's head with the crowbar, and his vision went black.

He woke up in an alley, covered in trash. He tried to sit up, but bit his lip to keep from screaming when he bumped his arm. He looked at it more closely. It was twisted, covered in blood, and mangled. He couldn't feel it, or move his fingers. He fumbled in his belt with his left arm, and managed to find the distress beacon. He pressed it, and took comfort in it's glowing red bat icon. When he heard the engine of the batmobile, he nearly cried in relief.

"ROBIN! ROBIN, WHERE ARE YOU?" Batman yelled.

"Father... Here..." Damian managed to say. Batman ran over to him, and went to hug him. Damian cried out when Batman accidentally jostled his arm.

"Robin, what happened?" Batman exclaimed when he saw his arm.

"Joker... He, he had a crowbar, and a gun." Damian said, and cried out again when Batman lifted him up.

"I'm sorry, Robin, but I have to carry you, alright? And when we get back to the batcave, Agent A will patch you all up, and you'll be alright." Batman said as he carefully carried Damian into the batmobile. Damian shook his head weakly as Batman set him down in the passenger seat.

"Don't lie to me, Father. I know it's bad, really bad." He said. Batman didn't say anything as they roared into the batcave. When Batman got out, he immediately started calling for Alfred.

"Everybody, get the medbay ready!" He shouted, rushing Damian onto a stretcher and rolling it into the medbay.

"Master Bruce, what- oh, dear." Alfred said, before rushing ahead. Dick came rushing down, and when he saw Damian in the medbay, his arm all mangled, he let out a choked sob.

"Dami! Oh, Dami!" He said, before sitting next to him.

"G-Grayson..." Damian said.

"Dami, what happened? Why were you out?" Dick asked, holding his left hand.

"I was out, and there was Joker... He shot me twice, and captured me... He... He used a crowbar. I can't move my fingers. Why can't I move my fingers?" Damian stuttered.

"You can't move your fingers? Can you feel them?" Dick asked worriedly.

"N-no... I can't feel it at all..." Damian said.

"Oh, dear... I don't... I don't think that I can save this, but I will try." Alfred said worriedly. An IV was inserted into Damian's left arm, and a sedative was put into his bloodstream, then nothing.