Batman, Daemons "Never Alone"
Title: Never Alone
Fandom: Batman (Nolanverse)/His Dark Materials (HDM)
Characters/Pairings: Bruce Wayne and Henri Ducard/Ra’s Al Ghul
Summary: Bruce Wayne learns a horrifying truth about people who have suffered tragedy.
Notes: Okay. So…If you’re writing Batman! With Daemons…you can’t have Bruce Wayne’s daemon following him. Because then everyone would SEE and POINT and go WAITASECOND.
Doesn’t work.
But in a true testament as to why this works so well with daemons, Phillip Pullman covers every base. Those who suffer tragedy (canonically) walk across the land of the dead or go to the place where the witches go so their birds can go far away from them are separated from their daemons. I made this a little broad in that anyone who suffers life-altering tragedy can do it-but only Batman really knows about it (otherwise you’d have people prancing about over the rooftops and streets given how much tragedy exists in the stupid city.
Anyway! On with the show!
Henri Ducard holds out a hand, “Do you know what it is people fear?”
Bruce Wayne is suddenly staring at the fox. He doesn’t know it’s name, it’s rude to ask something like that. Henri Ducard has never introduced her, he doesn’t hold with the traditional Western custom of introducing your soul by name. A soul is something private, something to be kept to oneself. She catches the eye however, black as night with tiny blue stars winking and twinkling like promises, manifest destiny was in those eyes.
His destiny.
“That which is more then just a man. For a man is fallible, a man is weak. In the Jungle it was not the men of the tribe who were the leaders. In the beginning it fell to those who evolved faster to take the reins. Like you are riding a Horse Bruce, you must lead and you must set an example. Something more. …Then just a man.”
His eyes fall on Irene and Bruce feels her back up, feels her flinch. The fox’s attention is on her in a heartbeat and it’s suddenly Bruce’s heart doing its damndest not to hammer in his chest.
“…You are already alone.”
Irene looks up sharply but doesn’t offer a rebuke or a rebuttal.
The fox looks to Ducard, “They have suffered.”
Ducard seems pleased by this, something that makes Wayne do a double take; “…Man cannot be burdened by things like daemons in a moment of duress or moment of horror. It is a crutch for children to cling to the fur of their companions. She is you.”
He points at the cat, “And you must leave her behind.”
Irene can’t contain it any longer. She laughs aloud, her tail lashing back and forth. Bruce shoots her a dirty look, his expression beyond fury as Henri Ducard-amazingly enough, chuckles too.
The fox is the one who speaks, “Surely you feel it.”
“…I don’t understand.” Irene sits as the Fox leaps from Ducard’s shoulder to the floor, “…What are you talking about?”
“…You have seen the suffering of the world and you have felt it.” The fox moves close and touches Irene-the touch running through Bruce Wayne like ice, “…His faith has been shaken and broken. He has no need of you if he so wishes.”
Bruce can’t believe what he’s hearing. It’s Irene who articulates it for him, “…I can’t-“ she can’t be separate from him. She can’t. Her gaze turns to Bruce, hoping for support only to find-
Ducard.
Staring at them both.
“…Walk with me Bruce.”
Irene starts to rise to find a Baboon sitting atop her back. Bruce staggers, looking back and looking for the human to hit and demand that he remove his daemon to find…no one. A lemur and an angry looking green snake that coiled itself around Irene’s foot joined the baboon.
Their weights were a passing memory.
“It’s hard.” Ducard’s fox said, “It’s so very hard….”
“…Bruce…”
Irene sounds so much like Gray. Bruce remembered his mother’s Heron; tall and graceful, spreading wings like an angel from his mother’s back as she faded to dust…
“Bruce…”
The snake tightens around Irene’s paw as the daemon’s voice turns from helplessness to desperation, “Bruce! Please!”
Run! Camillia had said. Please! His Father’s German Shepard had managed to get to Irene before going gray, fading into the night of crime alley over his father’s corpse…
Each step was easier. His hands were coiled into fists by the time they were across the room and out the door. He could feel Irene thrashing wildly against her captors however temporarily before she realized-almost at the same moment that he did-
“…We-we-“
“…. We are separate.” Henri Ducard’s voice is soft, “Not by choice and not by any circumstances that we would have chosen, but we are separate. Since time began mankind has walked with his daemon beside him and now you see that you were born for this Bruce Wayne.”
Irene appears in the doorway joined by the Fox who leaps to Ducard’s shoulder and curls herself against him, watching Bruce with slited Blue Star eyes. She’d seen-he realized-she’d seen what he could do, “…They can-“
“It’s suffering.”
Irene’s voice sounds hollow, “I knew…I didn’t…I didn’t want to say…”
Bruce wondered if he’d known somehow too. All these years waiting, pretending to be something less then what he was…
“…To be without a daemon is considered monstrous, considered less then human. You are not less, you are more-you have seen that we as men can overcome any obstacle, even being separated from who we are-we still survive. We endure, which is why what we do here is so important. All life.”
Ducard stroked the fox, “All life is built on the premise that it is temporary and filled with fear. To conquer it you must realize that you can endure such trials, such pain. You have separated who you are from yourself-now you are ready to be molded into something truly…incredible.”
“We will talk again in the morning.”
He puts a fatherly hand on Bruce as the Fox offers a smile, “…You did very well.”
They’re gone in a heartbeat and Bruce-for the first time since he was child-wraps his arms around Irene and squeezes her tight, loosing himself in her fur.
---------
“Why do you stay?”
They sit together in the bat cave, bat and cat, man and daemon, human and his most inner self.
Irene lowers her head for a moment before sitting up a little straighter, “…Ducard and his fox were so separate they were too completely separate people. Despite being together, they walked alone even in-“ She hesitated before putting her paws on the chair.
“Ire-“
She ignored him, putting her head against his chest, “…Even in here. They were alone. Always separate. If we become like that-we are no better then they are. No matter how cruel the world is-“
Bruce looked into her eyes. She had his mother’s eyes, he realized. Gray’s calm blue gaze. The determination that he saw reflected back at him was pure Camilla however, his father’s loyal to the end German Shepard who had thought of Irene before herself.
“We are not doing this to punish.”
She straightened her ears, “we are showing the world that they are not alone.”
Batman put a hand on her head before he rose from the chair. She hopped away, shying back, “…I love you.”
“Isn’t that how the saying goes?” Bruce says with a smile beneath his mask, “If you love something you know when to let them go?”
“And our love must be truthful.” Irene curled up in the chair watching him, always him, only him, “…Because if it returns then it’s true.”
“…I’ll always return.”
Batman straightened his cowl, going to the bat mobile-out into the night and away from her, “…No one should be alone.”
Fandom: Batman (Nolanverse)/His Dark Materials (HDM)
Characters/Pairings: Bruce Wayne and Henri Ducard/Ra’s Al Ghul
Summary: Bruce Wayne learns a horrifying truth about people who have suffered tragedy.
Notes: Okay. So…If you’re writing Batman! With Daemons…you can’t have Bruce Wayne’s daemon following him. Because then everyone would SEE and POINT and go WAITASECOND.
Doesn’t work.
But in a true testament as to why this works so well with daemons, Phillip Pullman covers every base. Those who suffer tragedy (canonically) walk across the land of the dead or go to the place where the witches go so their birds can go far away from them are separated from their daemons. I made this a little broad in that anyone who suffers life-altering tragedy can do it-but only Batman really knows about it (otherwise you’d have people prancing about over the rooftops and streets given how much tragedy exists in the stupid city.
Anyway! On with the show!
Henri Ducard holds out a hand, “Do you know what it is people fear?”
Bruce Wayne is suddenly staring at the fox. He doesn’t know it’s name, it’s rude to ask something like that. Henri Ducard has never introduced her, he doesn’t hold with the traditional Western custom of introducing your soul by name. A soul is something private, something to be kept to oneself. She catches the eye however, black as night with tiny blue stars winking and twinkling like promises, manifest destiny was in those eyes.
His destiny.
“That which is more then just a man. For a man is fallible, a man is weak. In the Jungle it was not the men of the tribe who were the leaders. In the beginning it fell to those who evolved faster to take the reins. Like you are riding a Horse Bruce, you must lead and you must set an example. Something more. …Then just a man.”
His eyes fall on Irene and Bruce feels her back up, feels her flinch. The fox’s attention is on her in a heartbeat and it’s suddenly Bruce’s heart doing its damndest not to hammer in his chest.
“…You are already alone.”
Irene looks up sharply but doesn’t offer a rebuke or a rebuttal.
The fox looks to Ducard, “They have suffered.”
Ducard seems pleased by this, something that makes Wayne do a double take; “…Man cannot be burdened by things like daemons in a moment of duress or moment of horror. It is a crutch for children to cling to the fur of their companions. She is you.”
He points at the cat, “And you must leave her behind.”
Irene can’t contain it any longer. She laughs aloud, her tail lashing back and forth. Bruce shoots her a dirty look, his expression beyond fury as Henri Ducard-amazingly enough, chuckles too.
The fox is the one who speaks, “Surely you feel it.”
“…I don’t understand.” Irene sits as the Fox leaps from Ducard’s shoulder to the floor, “…What are you talking about?”
“…You have seen the suffering of the world and you have felt it.” The fox moves close and touches Irene-the touch running through Bruce Wayne like ice, “…His faith has been shaken and broken. He has no need of you if he so wishes.”
Bruce can’t believe what he’s hearing. It’s Irene who articulates it for him, “…I can’t-“ she can’t be separate from him. She can’t. Her gaze turns to Bruce, hoping for support only to find-
Ducard.
Staring at them both.
“…Walk with me Bruce.”
Irene starts to rise to find a Baboon sitting atop her back. Bruce staggers, looking back and looking for the human to hit and demand that he remove his daemon to find…no one. A lemur and an angry looking green snake that coiled itself around Irene’s foot joined the baboon.
Their weights were a passing memory.
“It’s hard.” Ducard’s fox said, “It’s so very hard….”
“…Bruce…”
Irene sounds so much like Gray. Bruce remembered his mother’s Heron; tall and graceful, spreading wings like an angel from his mother’s back as she faded to dust…
“Bruce…”
The snake tightens around Irene’s paw as the daemon’s voice turns from helplessness to desperation, “Bruce! Please!”
Run! Camillia had said. Please! His Father’s German Shepard had managed to get to Irene before going gray, fading into the night of crime alley over his father’s corpse…
Each step was easier. His hands were coiled into fists by the time they were across the room and out the door. He could feel Irene thrashing wildly against her captors however temporarily before she realized-almost at the same moment that he did-
“…We-we-“
“…. We are separate.” Henri Ducard’s voice is soft, “Not by choice and not by any circumstances that we would have chosen, but we are separate. Since time began mankind has walked with his daemon beside him and now you see that you were born for this Bruce Wayne.”
Irene appears in the doorway joined by the Fox who leaps to Ducard’s shoulder and curls herself against him, watching Bruce with slited Blue Star eyes. She’d seen-he realized-she’d seen what he could do, “…They can-“
“It’s suffering.”
Irene’s voice sounds hollow, “I knew…I didn’t…I didn’t want to say…”
Bruce wondered if he’d known somehow too. All these years waiting, pretending to be something less then what he was…
“…To be without a daemon is considered monstrous, considered less then human. You are not less, you are more-you have seen that we as men can overcome any obstacle, even being separated from who we are-we still survive. We endure, which is why what we do here is so important. All life.”
Ducard stroked the fox, “All life is built on the premise that it is temporary and filled with fear. To conquer it you must realize that you can endure such trials, such pain. You have separated who you are from yourself-now you are ready to be molded into something truly…incredible.”
“We will talk again in the morning.”
He puts a fatherly hand on Bruce as the Fox offers a smile, “…You did very well.”
They’re gone in a heartbeat and Bruce-for the first time since he was child-wraps his arms around Irene and squeezes her tight, loosing himself in her fur.
---------
“Why do you stay?”
They sit together in the bat cave, bat and cat, man and daemon, human and his most inner self.
Irene lowers her head for a moment before sitting up a little straighter, “…Ducard and his fox were so separate they were too completely separate people. Despite being together, they walked alone even in-“ She hesitated before putting her paws on the chair.
“Ire-“
She ignored him, putting her head against his chest, “…Even in here. They were alone. Always separate. If we become like that-we are no better then they are. No matter how cruel the world is-“
Bruce looked into her eyes. She had his mother’s eyes, he realized. Gray’s calm blue gaze. The determination that he saw reflected back at him was pure Camilla however, his father’s loyal to the end German Shepard who had thought of Irene before herself.
“We are not doing this to punish.”
She straightened her ears, “we are showing the world that they are not alone.”
Batman put a hand on her head before he rose from the chair. She hopped away, shying back, “…I love you.”
“Isn’t that how the saying goes?” Bruce says with a smile beneath his mask, “If you love something you know when to let them go?”
“And our love must be truthful.” Irene curled up in the chair watching him, always him, only him, “…Because if it returns then it’s true.”
“…I’ll always return.”
Batman straightened his cowl, going to the bat mobile-out into the night and away from her, “…No one should be alone.”