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 is starting to formulate a plan...

Omen has wandered into the woods...

Ever since Batman had confronted Omen during a patrol of his and Robin’s, the dark wolf had disappeared off the face of the Earth. Again. He couldn’t find Omen anywhere, nor any whispers among the superstitious of Gotham about any new appearances.

A pattern was starting to emerge, though. Any time something significant happened regarding Omen, such as being injured in a fight, or being chased by somebody, Omen would disappear for a few weeks, or even up to a whole month, before sightings started happening again. Omen would lay low and wait for people to forget about the creature and it's strange presence, before deciding to show it's face again.

It was something Batman could work with. He could likely predict when the next Omen sighting was going to occur, and figure out a way to either trap or lure Omen into a place deemed safe by the wolf, and finally Batman could truly try to figure out this Omen's intentions, determine it's intelligence, and figure out what it actually was.

He'd have to be careful, though. One wrong move could likely cause Omen to run away for good, and while having Omen out of Gotham permanently wouldn't be something Batman was against, he hated the idea of not knowing what Omen was, and why it was in Gotham. And if Omen had bad intentions like Batman believed, it wouldn't really solve any problems. Omen would likely just go and causes problems somewhere else, where another hero would have to pick up Batman's pieces. He wasn't going to let that happened.

He started planning, and he hoped that Alfred wouldn’t berate him too much for what he was going to do.

Omen couldn’t stop himself from running even if he wanted to. The moment he had started to run with clear purpose, he couldn’t stop. It was as though something was calling him, guiding him towards a particular destination, and he was powerless to stop himself from following.

Omen had to traverse the wilderness with less and less speed the thicker the forest got. The branches, bushes and plant life dragged along his fur, twigs snapping off and sticking to his fur as the wilds pressed closer and closer to his body until it almost became unbearable. Omen was lucky that he wasn't forced to contend with a physical body at all times, and so he shifted his shape so it was more akin to a cloud than a wolf, his body easing it’s way through the thick forest. The further in he got, the less physical his form became, until not even a small creature like a fox could manoeuvre through the extremely thick woods he was floating through.

Eventually, the woods started to slowly thin out again, until he came upon a small clearing within the woods, lit up perfectly by the moonlight. At the other end of the clearing was what looked to be a pond. The pool of water lit up and glittered like the moon itself was submerged within, the pale blue light casting gentle shadows behind the plants that surrounded it.

He cautiously walked up to the glowing pool of water, and as he did, that feeling inside his body that had told him to run here came back in full force. Omen knew he was supposed to be here, though he didn’t understand how or why he knew. He just knew it was correct. If he listened very carefully, he could faintly hear gentle whispers coming from within the pool of water, luring him closer and closer.

Omen peered into the water below, and jumped back in shock at his own appearance.

Realistically, Omen knew that he was considered to be scary. The amount of people that had caught glimpses of him, or seen him for just a few seconds too many had usually gasped, screamed or ran away. Omen knew that other people thought he was terrifying, but seeing it for himself for the first time, within the reflection of the blue pool of water below...it made him understand the full scope of terror that others felt when they looked at him.

Cautiously, Omen peered into the water again, to get a better look at himself.

The shadows of his form ebbed and flowed like tendrils of smoke above a fire, and it was hard to tell exactly where these tendrils ended and where regular fur began. His eyes glowed a bright white, in stark contrast to the darkness of his fur and shadows. He’d never known that his eyes were white or that they glowed- he’d believed his eyes to be as black as the rest of him, but it made sense to him, now. Oftentimes he’d believed he was being sneaky when up on the rooftops or in an alleyway, and had been surprised when someone had seen him. He realised then; it was his eyes that gave him away. If Omen saw his own eyes in the dark, it would scare him, too.

It reminded him a bit of The Scary One’s own white eyes, and Omen tried not to give it too much thought to that realisation.

The whispers within the pool that he had ignored due to his own shock came back, and with more volume this time. The whispers were not in any language that he could discern, yet their meaning could be understood all the same: This place was safe, he would not be hurt here, no one could find him here. The water was life giving, and would heal him if he were unable to heal himself.

Although he was uninjured, the whispers coaxed him into drinking the water anyway. In an instant, all the anxiety and exhaustion he had felt from all of the running and being chased by The Scary One was flushed out of him, replaced only by serenity and peace, his amorphous body filled with renewed strength.

He stopped drinking after a moment, and walked away from the pool to settled down into the soft grass of the hidden clearing, and went straight to sleep.

End notes: bet you didn’t think strange magic forest stuff was going to happen! well it has and now you have to suffer with the fact that you won’t know why for possibly quite a long time hehe >:)