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: Damian has ran out of patience, waiting for the dogs to be found...

Omen is worried about the white pup's health...

Author's notes: umm ouchies things are definitely still dark in here! again not sure how this happened but oh well.

I had been days since Bruce and Damian had last seen Krypto and Titus.

Ever since the dogs had been kidnapped, and then subsequently “saved” by Omen, both Batman and Superman had been looking all over Gotham for the two dogs, to no avail. Clark had tried calling out for Krypto, using words and phrases that he’d trained Krypto to respond to, but Krypto had never showed up, as though he’d not even heard him. It had alarmed them both, but they’d kept up their search.

Clark’s x-ray vision hadn’t been of much help either, what with the sheer amount of lead that covered Gotham’s landscape, and Clark had shamefully admitted that he hadn’t entirely memorised the dogs heartbeats yet, meaning he couldn’t track them down like that, either.

Even if Clark had been able to track them down more efficiently, an emergency in Japan involving a high magnitude earthquake had pulled him away from the search, leaving Bruce to track Omen and the two dogs down on his own.

Bruce, privately, was starting to lose hope in finding the dogs. All those days of searching had come up with absolutely nothing, not even the slightest clue as to where Omen was keeping the dogs (assuming that Omen was taking care of them, and hadn’t left them to fend for themselves).

It didn’t help that Omen was so elusive, when they wanted to be. When Omen wasn’t purposefully trying to hide themselves, they weren’t too difficult to track. But when Omen was actively hiding from others, it was practically impossible for Bruce to track the shadow-wolf down. He had to wait until Omen purposefully showed themselves before he could figure out where they were.

Unfortunately, though, Bruce wasn’t able to continue his search forever. With the dangerous substance still being used to infect the people of Gotham, and Luthor’s plans likely evolving as time went on, Bruce had no choice but to focus on removing the substance entirely from Gotham’s streets while he worked on an antidote, before more people lost their minds- or died.

Bruce was on the Batcomputer, arranging the different locations that he knew were most likely hubs for the distribution of the substance for an upcoming patrol, when Damian came up from behind him, watching him work.

He seemed to be doing that a lot more, lately. Especially for this particular case.

Bruce’s thoughts were interrupted by Damian’s talking.

“I can search for Krypto and Titus while you get rid of this toxin from the streets, father. We can do two things at once, you know.”

Bruce sighed as he continued typing on the computer. “I can’t let you, Damian, it’s too dangerous out there.”

Damian clenched his hand into a fist and raised his voice.

“I was the reason you let Krypto and Titus out there in the first place...I’ll be the reason they come back home. This, I promise.”

Bruce turned around, then, looking at his son, who looked so angry, yet so determined.

Bruce’s expression softened in the realisation that Damian must have been blaming himself for this mess, and not Bruce, who had been so wracked with guilt for getting his son and best friend’s dogs hurt that he hadn’t been able to see that his son was experiencing the same exact thing.

“Damian...it’s not your fault. If it’s anyone’s fault, then it’s mine. The dogs have already been hurt...I don’t want you getting hurt, too.”

“I’ll take Superboy with me.”

“No, Damian. There might still be Kryptonite in Gotham.”

“Then I’ll take Todd with me, too. Besides myself, Titus likes him the most. It would be three of us searching for Krypto and Titus. We’ll be safe. We’ll wear our masks at all times, and we’ll stay on the rooftops, and if we see Krypto or Titus, we’ll contact you first before we do anything.”

Bruce sighed, rubbing his hand over his face.

“Trust me, father. Please.”

Bruce removed the fingers from his temple and looked at his son again, who was wearing a scowl on his face. It wasn’t just a scowl of anger or hate...Bruce knew there was fear there. He wanted his dog back, and he’d do anything if it meant Titus would be back at the manor, safe and sound in his nest of blankets on the end of Damian’s bed.

Bruce sighed again.

“I’m sorry, Damian. I really am. But it’s far too dangerous out there for both you and Jon, even if you had Jason there to protect you both. I promise we’ll look for the dogs the moment I’m either able to finish this antidote or get the powder off the streets for good. It won’t take longer than a few more days.”

At this, Damian seemed to growl as he spoke.

“So you’d just let them suffer out there? No one knows where the dogs are or if they are even alive! You’d just leave their lives up to fate?!”

Bruce’s posture stiffened, then, and his expression hardened. He did his best to control his breathing, to not get angry at his son. Damian was angry for a very good reason, and Bruce couldn’t blame him for that.

“I don’t want them to get hurt. I don’t want to leave their lives up to fate. But allowing you to go out there, even with backup, could have unintended results, just like what happened with Krypto and Titus. I cannot allow you to go out until this toxic powder has been dealt with. The last thing I want is to lose anymore members of this family...human or animal.”

Damian opened his mouth to retort, but Bruce interrupted him.

“My word is final. You cannot and will not go out there. If I can get some of the others to go out looking for the dogs, then I will. I promise you I’m not neglecting the issues, but many lives are at stake, and creating the antidote and keeping the powder off the streets takes priority over everything else. I’m sorry, Damian.”

Damian said nothing, and simply turned around and walked away, tears threatening to fall.

As he ascended up the cave’s stairs to go back into the manor, he pulled out his phone from his pocket, and created a new, secure group-chat. He added Superboy and Red Hood.

«I have a proposition for the two of you...»

It had been a few days since Omen had acquired a pack to take care of.

It wasn’t easy work, trying to find little scraps of food for the dogs to eat, but it was...fulfilling work. Omen was, for once in his life, happy with what he was doing, despite the simplicity of it all. He had a job to do, and he did it well; Night and day, hunting and scavenging. He’d even seen the black pup hunt down a critter on his own, and Omen had been so proud to see that the pup was doing well for himself.

He was still concerned about the white pup’s back leg, though.

The pup hadn’t stopped licking his wound since their escape from the boat, and his limp hadn’t improved, either. He was clearly still in pain, but the brave pup pushed on regardless. Omen continued to catch food for him, refusing to give up on him.

Omen believed that the white pup wasn’t getting any better, though. He worried about the pup getting worse , and he didn’t know what else he could do besides lick the pup’s wound himself, hoping that his ability to heal himself with his tendrils would transfer through his saliva- that he would be able to miraculously heal the pup somehow.

Omen was doing the best he could, but he was unsure that it was going to be enough. Certainly there had to be animal doctors around here somewhere that would be able to help the white pup...but Omen wouldn’t even know where to start searching for one. Even if he could find one, would the pups really be better off in human hands, completely out of his sight? Could he trust that they would take care of the pups much better than he could? Could he trust that they wouldn’t hurt them like those masked men had?

He was unsure. What he did know was that the white pup would either have to get better on his own soon, or the poor pup would succumb to his injury.

Omen hoped and prayed that the pup would survive. He had to.

The phone buzzed on the kitchen counter, it’s ringtone loud and particular.

Jason looked up from where he was sitting on the couch in the living room, different tools and weapons splayed across the coffee table in front of him, his helmet in the middle of it all.

Usually, Jason didn’t care too much about any messages or calls he got at this time of the night. He wasn’t technically done with his patrol yet, he’d only came back to his safe house temporarily to stock up on a bit more gear that he didn’t realise he’d needed, before he went back out again.

It was a small reprieve in is usual nightly activities, and he didn’t like to waste that time looking at texts or scrolling through social media. He used it to think, and to appreciate the silence.

But this was different. His high priority ringtone had gone off, which was unusual to say the least.

If there was ever an emergency that was Bat related, Jason would usually get it over his helmet’s comm unit, but this clearly wasn’t a Bat-problem. The high priority ringtone on his phone typically meant a non-Bat situation that was still an emergency that required attention.

Thing was, that ringtone had only ever rang a few times since Jason had been resurrected. It set him on edge to hear it. What could possibly be going on a this time of night that was an emergency, but not Bat-related?

Jason got up from the couch and walked over to the kitchen, picking the phone up and looking at his messages. He did a double take at the message. A proposition from Damian? In a group chat that had only him, Damian and Superboy, of all people?

His interest was immediately piqued. This was definitely Bat-related, Damian just didn’t want the old man to know about it.

He answered the text with a simple «yeah?» and waited for a response.

He got an answer a few minutes later. It was a long text explaining the situation with the dogs and the fucked up powder which had been in Gotham for close to two weeks, and the fact that the big shadow-wolf, Omen, most likely had the dogs and had killed an entire crew of Luthor’s men aboard one of the villain’s boats.

Jason, obviously, knew these details already. But it seemed that Jon didn’t, at least not all of them, based on his reactions to all the new information. The kid immediately asked what they could do to help.

And here, of course, was the caveat. Robin had been banned from going on patrol to go save the dogs, even with backup. Bruce had apparently said it was too dangerous, and what Robin wanted to do was go against his orders and find Krypto and Titus once and for all. If they went through with this plan, they would all get in serious trouble, Jason especially since he was supposed to be the “responsible adult” in this scenario.

Jason did love to piss off the old man, though, and given the messed up situation regarding the dogs...it was something he’d want to do regardless of his desires to piss off Bruce any chance he got.

He didn’t know much about Omen, though, besides what Bruce, Damian and Dick had told him. All he knew was that the wolf-guy was big as hell, capable of causing a lot of damage, willing to kill, and they (he?) was a sentient being who was capable of speaking in one word sentences. It was enough information to know you were probably screwed if you got into a fight with Omen, but not enough information to really know what you should do in the event that you need to fight them, or talk to them or...anything that wasn’t running for your goddamn life (which was also impossible, based on Bruce’s information about Omen’s running speed and jumping distance).

Despite all this, he was glad that Damian had willingly chosen to invite him into this secret plan of his. Omen was still unpredictable and dangerous, even if they had shown themselves to be a caring (wolf?) person sometimes, and Jason knew that even with a Kryptonian by Damian’s side, that the two could still get hurt.

Jason would kill if he needed to, and even though he knew he’d be unlikely to hurt Omen in any way that mattered, he would still have the firepower to at least distract the shadowy entity while Damian and Jon fled with the dogs in tow. Whether Jason would survive or not...who knows and who cares, really. Dying to save two of the best dogs he’d ever met in his entirely life would be 100% worth it in Jason’s opinion.

He sent a text to the group-chat, saying that he was in, and asked what the plan was.

He looked back over his equipment and decided he was going to need way more grenades.

End notes: i decided to make bruce a sightly more emotionally intelligent father who actually goes to therapy which is why he is so understanding of his son’s anger and doesn’t blow up on him like a complete asshole ♥ he still has problems though. you can never be a perfect person after all.