The Batcave, one morning.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD0S0JUglGG
Everyone was busy with their own tasks.
Suddenly—146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaxZxKcyqkE
A neon green rift tore open midair.
Heads turned instantly.
Out came Bat-Mite, in a frantic panic unlike anything they’d ever seen.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOSCnW1VAmv
His voice was shrill with urgency:146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW6gIkjed6g
“Guys! I have good news! …And bad news!!”
Everyone froze.
Bat-Mite zipped in circles as he shouted,146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqDDSnURdmF
“Good news: CLAIRE IS AWAKE!! She saw the newspaper!!”146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA1bHo0ms11
“Bad news: SHE’S FURIOUS!!”
The room fell into stunned silence.
Bat-Mite grinned with manic delight,146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDxhqMqhHHa
“Congrats! That means she still has her memory~ Anyway—I’m gonna go hide, BYEEEEE!!”146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5FmKms6OwF
And with that, he vanished back through the dimensional portal before anyone could react.
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Another heavy silence blanketed the Batcave.
Tim: “…So… should we be preparing for a very, very angry version of her?”146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr2xcji9QYm
Jason: “At least she’s awake.”146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW8OOBVWMAT
Dick: “…Does this mean… she still remembers me?”
Everyone slowly turned to the legendary newspaper pile—146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡevB9fSoDgn
the Nightwing Memorial Butt Exhibit—146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYHqL4Sy4f7
now missing its most precious specimen.
The air grew thick again.
Alfred passed by with tea, entirely unfazed.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1aufStq06
“Shall I prepare for battle mode, or would Miss Claire prefer a cup of Earl Grey?”
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After Bat-Mite fled—
They waited.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaRbxf6WP2x
For the wrath of Claire.
One month.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIfyBvpuKBA
Two months.
A strange, invisible pressure began to settle into the air.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0R8jGRtooj
The kind named waiting.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8eat5vNrT
Like a rope—146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVxgtvcBbuE
loosely wrapped around each of their throats,146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTCqjIq8xlf
impossible to ignore.
Jason leaned against a wall, holding an unfinished cup of coffee,146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtGkUbYpJdd
trying way too hard to act relaxed.
“Hah… she took two months to wake up.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl1rQIPHIwq
And now she’s taking just as long to come yell at us?”
Before the grin could settle on his face,146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6GIQmXgjXC
Leila calmly swatted his arm with the back of her hand.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRD29j8LYse
It didn’t hurt, but it was precise.
Jason chuckled.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoZ7ZIsLjcH
And didn’t say another word.
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Today was a day to remember—Leila was going into labor.
As her husband, Jason was, of course, at the hospital. And Tim, about to become an uncle, was overflowing with excitement, waiting outside the delivery room long before it started.
Damian had originally come for “tactical observation,” but once he saw the ladies crowding around, asking all kinds of questions and secretly guessing whether the baby would look like Jason, he quietly stepped aside and pretended to read a report.
Most of the women were there—Barbara even pretended she was just passing by on some errand. The hallway outside the delivery room turned into a soft, small-scale battlefield: a bit noisy, a bit chaotic, but unexpectedly warm.
Which meant—back in the Batcave, only Nightwing was left.
Big brother. Holding down the fort.
Nightwing had just returned from patrol, utterly exhausted. He hadn’t even changed out of his suit or taken off his mask—he felt like gravity itself had dragged him down, his footsteps heavy as he shuffled into the Batcave’s kitchen, trying to scrounge up something that could barely pass for “dinner.”
He’d just stepped into the room and reached to flip on the light when—
The light flickered.
It felt like someone pinched his spine from behind, making every muscle tense in an instant.
He froze, instincts on high alert. His eyes swept the room—this wasn’t just a faulty bulb. His gut told him something was wrong.
The next second—146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVia9VI9Z7c
The lights went out completely.
The Batcave was swallowed in pitch black, the kind of darkness where you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face. It was like the whole mountain had been sealed inside a lightless box.
Dick reacted immediately, stepping back to press against the wall. His hand moved instinctively to his utility belt for a light source—
...Nothing.
Backup power? Already cut off. Like someone had anticipated every move.
“Great,” Dick muttered dryly to himself, but he wasn’t panicking. He was the eldest of the Bat family. It would take more than this to shake him.
Then—146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBM0cUnGNBq
A thread-thin glow emerged from the darkness.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyaaSW4CaEd
Not light, not exactly.
Something like a glowing tendril, soft and eerie.
Purple.
It swayed gently in the air, as if testing the atmosphere.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8naBwwWxOL
Then a second one.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBWIzlHkoHc
Then a third.
They slithered from the walls, the ceiling, the floor—flowing out slowly, silently, like sentient liquid drawn toward a familiar scent.
Dick stayed perfectly still, though his heart began to race. He knew—it wasn’t an attack.
He turned.
The air dropped a degree colder. No breeze, just a shift.
She was standing there. Just a few meters away.
Bathed in deep violet light—mist-like, oceanic—it flowed from her body as if she didn’t fully belong to this world.
Claire.
Dick recognized her instantly.
She was still the same familiar figure—but she looked like a statue carved from the edge of the universe. Calm. Silent. Unmoving.
She didn’t speak. She just looked at him.
Dick almost said something. But her tendrils moved first.
One wrapped around his arm.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaVPDRSANG6
Then his chest, shoulder, spine—146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ19pMQH7QqJ
And finally, his cheek.
Dick didn’t retreat.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlRbcOWTIDt
Instead, he smiled.
He knew—she was angry.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GzKr0RshS
That damned newspaper. The one that had appeared again and again in her sealed-off world.
The tendrils multiplied, layer after layer, like echoes of emotions—dragged violently back into this reality.
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Claire stepped forward, one slow step at a time.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5RndCQvIz2
Every movement felt like it carried the weight of a thousand unspoken words.
Her gaze remained steady—still only one eye, the left side empty, like a deep well of time left unfilled.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSrN9ij8CFA
Yet in that single remaining eye, somehow, Dick saw something else—146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4xHq2dGwT9
a flicker of hurt.
He looked at her face, and couldn’t hold it back anymore.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKA72HRsTds
His eyes reddened, tears welling.
She didn’t cry.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx9b31ZEFSI
But just like that night—146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtrWNHW2IdJ
He was dragged back to the first time he saw her standing alone in the dark.
Claire’s tendrils had now completely filled the Batcave.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6dfRORYXsq
They wrapped around him entirely, beginning to pull him in—146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwMfe3tdEs8
But he didn’t resist.
In fact, he opened his arms.
And when he embraced her—
The entire space blinked, like the power had momentarily cut out—146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWcqwl3dCSv
Or like it had been struck by lightning.
The purple glow trembled.
Claire’s body went still, clearly startled.
And right next to her ear, Dick’s voice whispered:
"I love you."
<<End of Part Two>>
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There will be Bonus Chapters tomorrow.
--CocoNotMilk
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and then Add to home screen.