"You were always meant to be Gotham's daemon," Bruce said, knife pressing against his skin and drawing blood.

Batman felt it like an ache across his arms, chaining his feet to the ground. The bond throbbed, felt as it always did, close to breaking.

He took a tentative step forward, feet dragging and stumbling.

"Bruce"

Bruce dug the knife in deeper, blood starting to puddle on the floor.

"I wonder," he said, tone conversational. "If you'll still turn into dust. If I'm still your anchor here."

The bond resonated angrily between them and Batman dragged his other foot forward.

"Please"

Bruce growled, turning and hurling the knife until it sunk into the far wall, quivering.

"Fuck off," he said, voice breaking. "Why did you come back?"

1. Upon meeting Batman, Krypto licks his face.

Clark gasps and stills,expecting cold fire to rip through his spine, then nearly collapsed when warmth spread through instead.

"Krypto, what?!"

Batman frowns, takes a step back and flips open a communicator, talking rapidly to someone. Clark doesn't bother listening, instead focusing on the strange warmth.

3.

The dragon disappeared into dust and the jagged part of his soul ached.

4.

"We did it," the dragon whispered, blood dripping from the wound in her chest. "We saved him.'

Batman kneeled next to her, tugging off the gloves and gently stroking her spine.

"Yes," he whispers, eyes wet. "We did"

The dragon nips at his hand, a weak snap and he blinks rapidly.

"Hey," she whispers, the bond between them already fading. "Stay alive okay, you're needed."

He laughs, a wet, sad sound.

"That's not what you said the first time we met."

"We were wrong about that," she says solemnly and raises her head to look at him, with sharp, blue eyes.

"I love you," she says and disappears into dust.

1. The crackle of static, of Bruce's voice spilling out words, secrets he never knew. The beep of the message ending; the next one beginning. More secrets, more pain, stories that had him in tears and swallowing down lumps. More messages, his voicemail full of them. Then, the very last.

"If I'm gone, will all of you come home?"

6.

"As much as I like Bruce," Dick says to Clark as they sip coffee and look over Bludhaven, "he always unsettled me a little."

"The no daemon thing," Clark says, an accurate guess, but a little off.

"Something like that," Dick says, taking a slow sip.

They look over the city in silence for a while, relishing the quiet.

"I wonder if Bruce knows," Dick says after a while, hands rubbing the cup, "about Batman, about Nightwing. The cave's underneath the house, but he never said anything."

7.

"I wondered where Robin went," Bruce said as Nightwing undid the ropes. "You were him weren't you?"

Nightwing nodded, staring at the burns, before offering him a hand. Bruce waved him off, getting up from the chair and gesturing for the jacket. Nightwing passed it to him, opening his mouth.

"This isn't the first time," Bruce said, withdrawing a small tube and opening it. He squirted the cream onto his wrists and rubbed it in with one hand, the other straightening his clothing. He plastered a smile on his face, just tense enough to seem acceptable and stepped out into the night.