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: Batman tries to understand Omen's intentions. Damian has his own opinions.

Omen runs as fast as he can.

Batman hadn’t had any time to react- had barely blinked, in fact- before Omen had sprinted away from him to the other side of the roof and jumped across to the next building, fleeing.

There was no way he was going to catch up. Batman could be fast if he wanted to be, but even without Omen’s strange disappearing act, this creature would be very difficult to chase down. Batman only had two legs, whereas Omen had four, and it’s running speed alone was too much for him. But it could also jump across the long stretches of air between buildings like it was nothing, it’s powerful back legs pushing it forward with ease.

Chasing after Omen seemed almost foolish. Within less than a minute, he would most likely lose visual of it, and then he’d have no choice but to go back to the Batcave and review camera footage from the nearest buildings, alongside his own footage from the cowl, to see where Omen had gone.

He was obviously surprised, then, when Omen stopped dead in it’s tracks and turned around, frantically looking around to try and find him.

They made eye contact, and for a few moments, neither individual moved a muscle as they stared at each other.

Then, the dark wolf looked away, and jumped down to the streets.

By the time Batman got to where Omen had been staring at him, the creature was long gone.

Batman quickly made it back to the Batcave, finding his sons in a state in-between civilian and vigilante. They had obviously just returned, and when they turned to ask him what he’d found, he merely grunted in reply. He removed the cowl from his head and put it down on the desk by the Batcomputer’s monitors, and hooked it up to review the footage he had taken.

Nothing new was revealed to him in the recordings. It was the same as what he had seen, a large dark wolf running at breakneck speed away from. It was almost like Omen was afraid of him, but Bruce knew so little of Omen that such observations could only remain that: observations.

One thing he did know now, was that Omen had been watching. Waiting. For what, he didn’t know, but given that it was his own son that Omen had been stalking, he was significantly more concerned with catching Omen and finding answers. Previously, Omen had been on the back burner within his mind- a mystery he eventually wanted to solve, but not one that was particularly pertinent at the time. Tonight proved to him that he needed to start paying attention if he wanted to keep Damian safe.

The gears started turning within Bruce’s mind, and he started going through all the ideas in his head that he could with the limited information that he had.

Omen’s behaviour was strange, to Bruce, because from what he had seen of Omen, he knows that Omen is strong, and could easily take Batman in a fight, if it so chooses. Omen would likely be a terrifyingly strong adversary against his entire family, much on the same strength and danger levels as Bane or Killer Croc. Omen deciding to attack Batman now, when he knew so little about the creatures weaknesses, intentions and goals, would be the best course of action for Omen...and yet...no attack had occurred.

Bruce could only think, then, that Omen’s intentions weren’t to attack Batman or his allies at all...but rather to gather intelligence on them. What kind of intelligence, Bruce was unsure of, but it only seemed to create more questions than answers.

Behind Bruce, Damian was rolling the batarang he held in his hand between his fingers, manoeuvring it around his digits as he pondered on the same situation as his father.

If Damian was honest with himself, he didn’t think that Omen was actually ‘stalking’ him, like he knew his father believed. Before, when he’d believed that it was a human stalking him, such as a Rogue or even a member of the League of Assassins, he had believed someone was stalking him. But knowing that it was Omen who was watching him, Damian now thought differently. Omen had saved him from the maw of Killer Croc, and he believed that if Omen was watching him, it wasn’t for nefarious reasons.

Or at least, reasons significantly less nefarious than what his father was likely conjuring up. Damian certainly couldn’t let his guard down for a complete stranger, but he, unlike his father, he was willing to consider that maybe Omen was doing exactly what Damian would do in their situation: observe the people around them to gauge their intentions, to try and understand who was who and what they were capable of. It was no different to Robin and Batman spying on a potential criminal to understand if they were truly involved in a case or not.

Damian decided not to share his opinion out loud with his father. He knew it was a pointless task. When a child of his was involved, he was completely unwilling to believe that someone didn’t have bad intentions, even if said child disagreed.

No, Damian would have to figure this out on his own. Again.

When Omen had fled, he had ran as fast as he could. He had traversed the shadows with as much speed that was possible, blinking from one patch of darkness to another, temporarily leaving his physical form behind, which slowly came back to him when he started running again.

The Scary One was truly after him, now.

Before, Omen had hid and ran from the vigilantes out of caution, fear and his injury. He had been truly scared that something bad would happen to him. It had seemed an almost irrational fear, at the time. It was something born out of past experiences that he could not remember, that he wasn’t even sure he had experienced at all. They were thoughts that confused him greatly, at times, causing him to go back and forth from believing he was safe to believing he was being hunted in but a moments notice.

Now, though, there was no doubt about it. The Scary One was after him. It was not just an irrational fear anymore, it was reality. Omen was the one being watched, now, and he had no choice but to listen to his body, which told him to run.

Omen had no clue as to why The Scary One was after him. Maybe he was sick of Omen’s presence in Gotham, maybe he had accidentally killed the crocodile man, and The Scary One was trying to bring justice upon him. Omen didn’t know, and at this point, he didn’t care.

All he cared about was getting away.

He kept running, his legs working overtime to push him forward as fast as he could until he had left the city, and the wilderness crept closer and closer. Trees started flying by him as he got deeper and deeper into the woods, and Omen had no choice but to slow down in order to not crash into the trees. He came to a stop, and looked around. He’d not seen the wilderness before, having spent all his time up until this point in Gotham. Yet...he remembered. He knew what trees were. He understood that this was wild land- land that humans did not inhabit, land that The Scary One wouldn't follow Omen into unless he had backup, or was given no other choice.

Here, Omen would be safe.

He kept running, further and further into the woods, until everything around him was pitch black.