Fandom: Batman
Pairing: Bruce Wayne & Male OC, Damian Wayne & Male OC [Platonic]
Rating: Teen
Content: Amnesia, Loss of identity, Blood and gore, Graphic violence, Injuries, Animal abuse, Semi-verbal character
Date originally written: 12th January 2022
Summary: Bruce blames himself for the mess that he's in...

Omen steps in to help in the only way he knows how...

Author's notes: ummm this chapter got really dark really quickly and it’s not my fault :( actually it is my fault since i’m literally the author of the fic but like....you know what i mean. it’s definitely not where i thought it was going to go. no important characters die, but there are definitely bodies and blood now! oopsie daisy...

The moment that Omen realised what was going on, he was furious with rage.

He’d only caught the tail end of what had occurred, but Omen knew cruelty when he saw it. Those dogs were simply trying to run away from the men who had been shooting at them, and what did they get in return? Kicks and punches and the inability to move or fight back.

It enraged Omen, and he knew that he must do something to help the poor pups.

Usually, Omen wouldn’t get involved in what was clearly The Scary One’s business. Fighting crime was his job, not Omen’s, and he didn’t particular like the idea of getting himself into harms way if he couldn’t help. But at that moment, The Scary One wasn’t around to help, and Omen wasn’t going to wait around for him to show up, because if he waited too long...it might be too late for the little pups aboard the ship.

Once all of the humans had disappeared into the lower decks of the boat and it started to haul itself away, Omen immediately raced towards it, his legs bounding across the concrete beneath him, before he made a huge leap across the water, landing on the deck of the ship. He hid himself, then, sinking into the shadows like liquid in case any of the crew member’s had heard his paws thumping onto the deck above them.

Quietly, he crept his shadowy form through the cracks of one of the doors that led to the lower levels, trying to sniff around for anything that smelled dog-like.

He navigated the narrow hallways with a sense of urgency. There was no telling what these men might do to the pups, or what the might have already done to them in the time it had taken Omen to run and jump onto the deck. They might even already be dead.

Omen refused to think about it.

He went lower and deeper into the depths of the ship until he came across a hall that was obviously meant for keeping animals in transit. Cages lined the hall, small little cells with wired gates that locked shut. All of the cages were empty...except for two. One black dog, and one white dog. It looked to be the two pups he’d seen kidnapped by the masked and armed men, and a brief sniff of the air confirmed the smell of blood- one of them was injured, and as he crept closer towards them, he could see it was the white one who was injured. They put no weight onto their back right leg, and Omen could plainly see blood coating the fur there.

The sight made his blood boil.

As Omen approached, the two dogs, despite being muzzled, started growling and barking at him in alarm. It was obvious that they were both scared of him, and Omen couldn’t find it within himself to blame them. If he were in their position, he’d be scared too.

Still, he needed to get them out of there, and the only way to do that without something going terribly wrong, was to somehow gain the pups trust, or at least communicate to them that he wasn’t a threat.

He’d felt lucky that he didn’t need to use words to do so, and that his body language would be enough to convey his intent to the two pups. It was as easy as whining and rolling on his back, exposing his belly, his ears flicked back in submission.

Omen would not usually lower himself like this- to act so submissive- but the situation the pups were in was exceptionally perilous, and his submissive behaviour is the only way Omen can communicate to them that he’s not a threat.

The display of submission worked, and the dogs eventually stop barking at him, though they were still wary of him. He rolled back over onto his paws and started to walk towards the two again, and although they paced back and forth a bit, the were no longer growling, barking or barring their teeth at him.

He managed to get close enough to the pup’s cages to release them. He had reached out with his shadowy tendrils and wrapped them around the wired doors, and ripped them off the hinges with a single downward pull, releasing the two dogs.

Both of the pups rushed out of the cages, then, moving away from Omen to greet each other with lots of sniffing and wagging tails. They didn’t go near Omen at all, and he felt it necessary to lie back down again to show his belly, wagging his tail and whining so that they knew he was a friend.

Slowly, the two pups walked up to him and started to sniff him, before they too started to wag their tails at his presence. It was then that Omen knew they weren't as scared of him. Perhaps still slightly wary, but it was obvious that they would follow him as long as he didn’t act in ways that were too scary.

He rolled back over and stood up on all fours, and started to make his way to the top deck, the two pups following behind him carefully.

When Bruce finally made it to the docks, there was nothing to be seen except for bullet holes in the shipping containers, and empty shells laced with kryptonite.

There were no signs of the dogs anywhere, but all of the audio that had been transmitted by their comms devices had come through, and Damian had been relaying all of it to his father via the computer inside the Batmobile.

The whole entire situation was a mess. A terrible, horrible, fucked up mess, and Bruce knew that it was entirely his fault. The dogs were never supposed to get into a fight with the henchmen, let alone get shot at and captured.

He knew that Clark was going to be absolutely pissed at him. He knew that whatever wrath he had to face would be well deserved. Bruce had screwed up majorly, and he couldn’t deny it even if he wanted to.

Damian relayed the location of the dogs to Bruce, stating that their location was supposedly in the water, though it was clear that Damian didn’t believe that. Bruce ran over to the edge of the pier anyway, and saw nothing but ocean waves...and the discarded collars, cape and vest of the two dogs, bobbing about in the water.

He’d turned around and scowled. The entire situation was his fault. He had let this happened to the sweet, loyal dogs, and there was no one else to blame for it but himself.

Bruce inhaled a shaky breath of air, trying to steel his nerves the best he could. He needed to continue on with the mission, no matter what emotions he was feeling or whether or not the situation was his fault. He needed to get the dogs back as soon as possible. It was his number one priority.

He went through all the facts in his mind. What he knew was that the henchmen still had a lot more kryptonite-laced ammo in their grasp, alongside a larger chunk of raw kryptonite that one of the men- likely a higher ranking henchman- kept on his person at all times. He also knew that they were on the same ship that had been used to drop off the dangerous powder he’d been chasing after. If Bruce could track down the ship, then he could track down the dogs, and get them back to safety.

But first, he needed to inform Clark.

“Damian...can you call Clark and put him through? He needs to know what’s going on.”

There was a moment of hesitant silence on Damian’s end before he replied.

“...Are you sure that’s a good idea, father?”

“He has to know, Damian. This was my fault. I have to make this right.”

On the other end of the line, Damian sighed. “Okay...I’m calling him.”

Bruce felt a sense of dread overcome him.

He had no idea how he was going to explain this to Clark without dying on the inside.

Omen had barely made it to the middle levels of the ship before he encountered people- the men who had kidnapped the poor little pups he’d intended on freeing.

Some of the people freaked out and ran away screaming, giving Omen an open hallway to walk through, but many others tried to shoot at him. It was the second time in Omen’s life (that he was aware of) that anyone had ever tried to physically hurt him.

At that point, Omen had lost all of his patience. He had no sympathy for those that would kick and punch and shoot at innocent creatures, and so he felt no guilt as he ripped the men to shreds with his teeth. He tried to do it as quickly as possible, wanting to ensure that no more bullets hit either of the two pups that were hiding behind him. They were relying on him to get them to safety, and it was a responsibility that Omen took very seriously.

He left a trail of bodies and blood behind him as he continued his way upstairs. It’s not what he’d wanted to do, but he tried to tell himself that he was given no choice. He could only hope it was enough of an excuse.

He also hoped against hope that The Scary One never came looking for the boat, to see the massacre Omen had left behind. Omen may have gotten away with his weird “stalker” behaviour because of his ignorance and loneliness, and the way he had mauled the crocodile man for attempting to eat Robin, but he knew he wouldn’t get away with murder. The Scary One would come after him, and Omen knew it would be entirely justified.

When Omen eventually arrived at the top deck, the place was entirely deserted.

Either some of the crew had done the smart thing and had hidden themselves away until Omen was gone...or he’d killed the entire crew, and there was simply no one left to stop him.

The pups were following behind him, covering the deck in small red paw prints as they sniffed around, trying to determine if the place was truly safe. He could see that the white pup was limping badly, and Omen could feel a growl creeping up into his chest.

He swallowed it down as best as he could, not wanting to scare the pups now that he’d gained their trust, no matter how shaky and new that trust currently was.

He observed the coastline of Gotham, looking at the twinkling lights of the tall buildings in the distance. They weren’t terribly far from shore, but it was much too far for Omen to be able to jump, despite his powerful legs. The only way out would be to swim, but he wasn’t sure that the white pup would be able to do that with his injured leg.

Somehow, he’d have to get them to ride on his back, but Omen wasn’t sure he could convince them to jump into the water willingly.

He had to try, though. He couldn’t give up on the pups now. He need to get them to safety.

He boof-ed quietly into the cold ocean air, getting the attention of the two pups. They raced over to him, ears perked up in alert, trying to see what Omen had found.

Then, Omen jumped into the water.

The water was icy cold, and the feeling almost shocked Omen into a panicked state as he swam to the surface, trying to huff the severely salty water out of his mouth as he started to swim, the cold seeping directly into his bones.

Omen knew that if the pups were to survive what was about to occur, Omen would have to swim as fast as he could. It was unlikely they’d survive for any longer then 10 minutes in the water, given Omen’s own reaction to it.

He looked behind him, to see if the two pups were going to jump in with him, but it was clear that they were extremely hesitant to go after him. Both were whining and pacing back and forth at the edge of the ship’s deck, but they refused to jump in, despite wanting to. Omen tried barking at them, and while they both barked back...it was obvious that they wouldn’t jump in of their own accord.

Omen had no choice.

He swam back to the ship and reached out his tendrils to the iron railings lining the edges of the deck, hauling himself up with his own strength, and landing back onto the ship’s deck. He didn’t bother shaking the water off of his fur, knowing that he was only going to get wet again a few moments later.

Omen immediately picked up the black pup by the scruff of his neck with his teeth, in the most gentle manner he possibly could, and dropped the squirming pup directly into the water with a small splash. He quickly did that same with the white pup afterwards (after a lot more squirming and thrashing), and he soon jumped in after them, splashing the other two with a wave of water.

The two pups naturally swam closer to him, and started scrambling onto his back, doing their best to keep themselves afloat. Despite having been unceremoniously dropped into the cold ocean water, they still trusted him to keep them safe, and it warmed Omen’s heart just a bit.

He grabbed onto the two pups with his tendrils to secure them to his body, and started swimming towards the city as fast as he could.

It only took a few minutes of swimming for Omen to actually get to shore, but it had felt much more like a lifetime. With every second, it had felt like the water simply got colder and colder, and the cold had stiffened up Omen’s joints. The two pups had also been whining and shaking from the cold the entire time, and the white pup had occasionally yelped in pain whenever his injured leg had been jostled from the waves or Omen’s own swimming.

For a moment, Omen had thought he’d made a mistake; thought that maybe he wouldn’t make it to shore before his limbs froze up altogether. But they did eventually make it back to land, the waves pushing them closer and closer to the sand before Omen was finally able to stand on all four of his legs.

Once they were all out of the water, they all shook the water off of their furry bodies in unison.

Omen knew how cold the poor pups must have been after being in the icy cold water, and he quickly made his way to a place he knew was warm, dry and relatively far away from people. It wasn’t entirely inaccessible to humans, as he knew the white pup wouldn’t be able to jump any fences in his condition, but it was out of the way enough for Omen to feel safe hunkering down in there. If they came across danger, Omen would just have to face it head on.

He didn’t want to have to kill again...but if it meant keeping these cold, shaking pups alive...then so be it.