When Night Comes

Chapter Twelve

As soon as we sat in the chairs, we were cuffed ankle and wrist and I heard a projector whirring up behind us. Whatever this was, it wasn't good. An image appeared on the rock wall in front of us, a simple title:
Richard's worst moments.
Definitely not good. The image changed, fading into a different picture. I knew what it was going to be instantly. The noise from the circus tent seemed to overtake us and then the chair was gone from beneath me. The rest of the team fell to the floor whilst I just stayed in a squat, standing up and looking around in horror. We weren't just watching that night, we were are part of it.
"Where are we?" Artemis asked as she moved over to Wally.
"Welcome, all, to Haly's Circus." All our attention was diverted to the centre of the ring where Haly stood, still in his prime as much as he ever was, "The only circus where our trapeze artists fly without the safety of the net. Introducing, our opening act, the Flying Graysons!"
There was a loud round of applause as a spotlight focused on the three figures almost 50 feet up in the air, the Graysons.
"Is this, the night?" M'gann asked this time and Roy nodded slowly as Dick's parents leapt onto the bars.
We all watched in wonder as we saw them fly around, but I had already seen it. I was sat maybe three rows up from us as the performance took place. And I didn't even try to save them from their fate. I looked away, not able to watch it for a second time, but I still heard the snap. The intake of breath from the team and the audience. The scream as Dick reached for their hands. And the crack as they hit the floor and never got back up. There was mass panic around the tent then, audience members screaming and running out of there. Circus members fighting their way to the middle of the ring to see their friends on the floor, wings clipped. Dick climbing down that ladder and kneeling in their blood as he begged them to come back. It was only a couple of seconds, but it still felt like hours. And then it started fading, turning to ash to reveal a new scene. The first time he got badly injured on patrol.
There he was, fighting alongside me against Two-Face, his goons had already been taken care of. All it took was a simple blow to my gut to send me across the room and Dent had a hold of my son. We all watched in silence.
"Don't move Batman. Or his fate rests in the coin." Dent sneered as 'I' stood back up and assessed the situation.
At the time, I saw no way out of the situation, but now that I could see it from this perspective, there was one way. A small crack in the ceiling, but one that had caused a lot of structural damage. That was what Dick had been trying to tell me as he kept moving his eyes upward, and I hadn't been good enough to spot it. This one was my fault.
"Good choice Batman." My attention was drawn back into the memory as it continued to play out.
"What are you doing?" Wally burst out and I couldn't look at him, "Dude, there's structural damage. Get him out of there."
"He couldn't see it." Artemis piqued up, "From where he's standing there, the support beam hides it. We can't blame him for what happens."
"Yes, you can." I said as I looked over to them, "He was trying to tell me and I didn't notice. This one's my fault."
"No, it's not." M'gann said as she came over to me, "None of us wish to blame you. And none of us will, you didn't know what was happening. You acted on what you thought was right, we all make mistakes."
"Not this bad though." I muttered as a scream pierced the air and we looked back over to see the scene had continued without us and Dent had started cutting up Dick.
He cut lightly around the R symbol on his chest, and then deeper until it became his first scar.
"Should we keep going?" Dent asked and my other self let out a low growl as he flipped his coin again, "Fate says yes."
And he went at Robin again, this time he traced a line down the inside of his arm until he reached the elbow, and dug it in without mercy, Robin letting out another scream. But that was all I had needed as I launched myself as Dent whilst he looked for a new weapon and took him down, hearing Robin land heavily on the ground behind me, and as I watched I realised why his arm was broken so badly, it had landed on the knife again, putting it all the way through.
This one faded as well into a new one, one I hadn't seen before.
His time with Deathstroke.