Daughter of the Timeless

The Past: Part 2

The elevator platform lowers Cyborg and I into a hell like cavern. Catwalks and tech everywhere. 

Sitting at the main computer, facing us with his back turned towards the huge screens glimmering and shifting with information, is whom I presume to be Alfred Pennyworth. He stands from his sitting position where he had his hands poised in a steeple with his chin resting on it, looking at the floor.

"Ahhh, Miss Marti. Pleasure to see you again." He says. I forgot how comforting his voice was. I miss the old man. 

I stay my distance from the kind gentleman who doctored my skinned knees when he visited and braided my hair for me when everyone else was busy. From the one person I was sure wouldn't lie to me. I mean, I thought that of the others too, but Alfred had a tell in his eyes. He couldn't lie unless it was for Bruce. His stakes were different, and at no true loyalty to the League.

"Why are you standing over there? Come give an old man a hug." He extends his arms out waiting.

I hesitate for a moment, as if my legs were rubber and stuck in tar. My heart feeling like it is weighed down by a million pounds and on fire with guilt. 

I inch forward slowly, looking back at Cyborg a moment. Alfred pulls me to his chest, and kisses the top of my head.

"I don't blame  you little flower. You had no say."

A well of emotion breaks, the dam is cracked and pouring forth. 

I cry as I have never cried before. Because I have never had a cause to cry. I had it all, and it was taken from me. Betrayed, handed off. Just an object, an abomination, a tool. A hope, a fear. But to Alfred I always just was. Just me. Not anything less or more. Is that why Bruce loved this old man? 

"I should have tried harder to get here sooner. I should have written you after Dad kept me from you. I should have left a while ago."

"Ah, darling, things get the best of us and muck up our plans. You are still human. A little girl even." He says lifting my chin to look him in the eye. "None of this is your fault. Don't blame yourself."

I nod and hug him tighter. "Take it easy on him. He might break." A dark male voice says, echoing on the walls.

A blizzard swaps with my soul. I shiver. 

"Come out and don't scare the poor girl." Alfred says releasing me and sitting back down. "But he is right, I am over 100 years old thanks to your magic and the Rift."

I look at Cyborg and lift my eyebrow in confusion, waiting for him to interpret what he is saying. Cyborg turns and rockets to another platform near the restored BatJet. 

Out of the shadows, behind the computer monitors and receivers steps Damien Wayne. 

"Little Sister." He smiles at me. 

He has dark hair, blue eyes, Bruce's height and build. Almost just a decade younger than Bruce was when he left.

"Hello?" I answer, crossing my right arm over to grab my left arm in anxiety.

"I realize that we have never met. I kinda, had other obligations with Wayne Industries and the League of Shadows."

I nod. He forgot to mention how he abandoned his mantle as Batman. He was to succeed him.  He can tell what I am thinking. He sighs and then grabs my shoulder gently.

"If I could have taken that stress off of you, I would have. I was stretched thin as it was. Huntress died in the after battle at the Rift, NightWing has secluded himself in the Justice Tower Station as Waller's eyes in the sky. The Titans, they, well, are doing their own thing. I even think Beast Boy found a way to look normal and is living among the citizens of Star City."

"We all have our own stuff. I am okay." I say drying my eyes. "I just really didn't have time to process everything. It was a shame to cry around Fern and Joker. They don't understand sadness, just anger and fury."

"Fern was betrayed by her mother and dad just like you were. She would know better than anyone what it is like to be left on your own and the weight of the world on your shoulders."

"We all do." Damien interjects. "What it is like to break inside. Just some of us have become desensitized and lost sight of it all. "