The Other Demon

The Lazarus Pit

—————Present—————

Bruce's P.O.V.:

I'm running through the underwater lair, attached to the oil rig. Running through glass tubed entryways and glass-domed buildings, I search for Deathstroke, Talia, and the twins. I just need to find one of them. If I find one of them, I'll find all of them.

 I take twists and turns, encountering armed assassins at every corner. I knock them all out, leaving their unconscious bodies at the location of their downfall. Everywhere I go, more bodies are waiting to get taken down. 

After running for a while, I find myself back at the location of the elevator. "What the hell," I say to myself. Catching my breath, I look behind me for any more assassins and run for the entryway in the middle of the room. Instead of going straight, I had decided last minute to take a left into an attached glass hall. Running mid-way through the hall, I slow down, hearing gunshots and screaming. Fully stopping in my tracks, I see an open air vent in between the supporting structures of the glass tube. Approaching the open vent, the gunshots and yelling get louder. I jump into the vent, sliding to wherever it takes me. Falling through, I hear a voice. 

"Damian! Move!"

My eyes widen. "Demetria." I push myself, sliding faster towards the twins. At the end of the vent, I fly out, landing roughly on a hard surface. Raising myself from the ground I find myself in a cave. The sound of someone drifting to a stop catches my attention. My head goes towards the sound, finding a scene I would have never thought I would see. Talia is on the ground, bleeding. The twins are near her, with their hoods on, making it difficult to distinguish who is who from this distance. Looking closer, Damian is hunched over Talia while Demetria is next to him in a crouched position, scowling at someone. My eyes follow her gaze to find Slade—pointing a gun straight at the twins. I quickly pull out a Batarang, throwing it at Deathstroke's gun. As I do so, Slade fires the bullet, my Batarang hitting the target after the release of the bullet. Slade glares at me, clutching his hand in pain.

"Demetria!"

I look away from Slade to see Damian on propped up on the ground, staring at a falling figure—Demetria. I gasp.

"Demetria!" Damian screams again.

"Renegade!" I run over to her.

She lands on the ground with a thud. She doesn't respond.

"Demetria!" Damian and I both scream. He crawls over to her yelling, "Demetria! Stay awake!"

Running over to them, my facade falls. The woman who I had once fallen in love with and the daughter I had just met are both laying in front of me, dead, in a pool of blood—just like back then. 

"Kill them," Deathstroke speaks, catching my attention. 

Screeches began to echo throughout the cave. I look up to see Man-bats flying towards us. Damian jumps up in surprise, staring at the incoming Man-bats. As they fly towards us, I throw sonar Batarangs around the cave, embedding themselves into the hard rocks. Once all ready, I reach into my utility belt and take out the remote controlling them all. I press the button on the remote, sending out high frequencies messing with their echolocation, making them screech in pain, throwing their sense of direction off. They begin to thrash around, clenching their ears in pain.

"Robin, down," I say, crouching down myself. I look over to where Robin once was to see him getting pushed back by the Man-bats and eventually falling onto the floor.

The Man-bats begin to make their way towards the air vent, flying into it, trying to leave the cave. As this is happening, I catch Slade trying to escape the chaos. I quickly jump up and punch him in the face, catching him off guard. He falters back and looks at me. I get myself into a fighting stance, glaring at him, and clenching my fists in anger. He throws a right jab at me. I block it as he attacks again, throwing a left hook at me. I catch it and then punch him in the face one more time. As I go in for another punch, he moves to the side, letting a Man-bat pass through, knocking me down. The huge animal knocks the wind out of me. The few seconds that I'm on the floor, Deathstroke lifts his leg and forcefully throws it down, in an attempt to kick me in the stomach. I swiftly push myself up, behind my head, and sweep him down. We continue to fight back and forth until all of the Man-bats have left the cave. I knock Deathstroke out, with another strong punch to his face, causing him to turn in a daze and fall flat to the floor. He forces himself to get up but then falls back flat in defeat.