I guess first things first, I need to apologize for the long period of inactivity. It's been months since the last chapter was published and I must apologize for that. I've been directing my focuses to much other, more needed things in life so I haven't had much time to go back to this, but I do have two more chapters to write so it's my duty to you guys as a writer to finish this up. Of course, I didn't want to do it half-assed so I needed time to really get things in order, which is why this chapter is actually quite long. Hope this makes up for the months of silence!

One of the biggest reasons for my absence is actually because I've been working on a short film. Yup, you heard that right. I entered a contest in which I had to write a script for a twenty-minute short film and mine won! For the past few months, I've been putting my efforts into working on the film which has recently been completed and will be shown at a couple film festivals.

Can't think of much else to say so I'll just end it here. Until next time, I will see you... in the next chapter! Bye Bye!

Chapter XXIX - Love

Some day in July. Or is it August? Has fall come already? I forget… It's hard to keep track of time with no eyes. In a world of darkness, the best you could do is to remember the process of a day. My days have been steadily ebbing by now, and I've regressed to a state of monotony, the only thing reminding me of my bare existence was the beeping of my heart monitor. It's become slower day by day. Sometimes I imagine it flat-lining, freeing me from this life.

Lucie didn't come back. She must have gotten adopted. I stopped waiting for her to return. Back then, she would insist that I leave the door open for her to walk in every day. I always refused to, but she would ignore my protests and ask the doctors to leave it open anyway. I eventually grumblingly obliged. And just as Lucie opened the door of my hospital room she unwittingly opened the door of my prison, allowing me to emerge from my shadows and blinkingly step into the sun. Even now, I still leave the door open.

I carried around me a darkness ever since Anna left—a darkness that incarnated itself as Rift until the fateful day a year ago when tongues of flame cleansed me of it, only to cast me into a void deeper than I had ever known. Lucie had opened for me a door to light, and for that I am forever grateful. But the darkness within still exists, and I must not allow it to be near the girl any longer. I will carry my darkness with me in my void of an existence for the rest of my life. And I am fine with that. Because I was allowed a brief requiem in my time with Lucie, an ephemeral glimmer of light, I will gladly accept a lifetime of darkness.

My days now are dark and muted, like I'm in the bottom of a great ocean where no one can reach me. Only Lucie had. Like a lost mutt, she shielded me from the rain. She drove me crazy with her quirks and mannerisms but simultaneously gave me newfound life. She was annoying and incessant but she taught me to see the beautiful colors in the world around me. Though I was blind, she gave me sight. I swung between hope and despair at her slightest gesture, and my heart starts to play a melody. I gave a shadow of a smile and I felt something I haven't felt in a long time. What do they call this kind of feeling? It's warm and bright, and stays behind in my heart even when she leaves.

What is this feeling in my heart? Lucie… I am sure of it. This feeling that I haven't felt since Anna had left, this feeling that Lucie has allowed me to feel again, this feeling… is called love.

For the first time in over ten years, my heart was filled with love.

…

"Who—who are you?"

The figure with red and black circuitry with glowing red eyes said in a mechanical voice, "We are known as Cyberion, but once, long ago, you knew us as—Cyborg."

Cyberion raised his right palm and fired a laser projectile at the camera, disintegrating it as it flew out of the cameraman's hands. The gathering of people quickly dispersed in screams as they ran away from Cyberion and Amazo. A statue of the city's major caught the former's eye, and he converted his left arm into a sonic cannon and fired a blast at the monument, shattering it into pieces.

"We have no use for human authority," he declared.

Sirens began to fill the air as dozens of police cars began surrounded the area, forming a circle around the two androids.

"Oh?" Amazo chuckled amusingly. "Looks like they've come out to play. Why don't we show them our wrath, Cyberion?"

"Let's," the other nodded. Amazo's eyes then glowed red as Cyberion's shoulder cannons emerged from his armor.

"Freeze!" the cops yelled as they futilely pointed their guns at the robots. Cyberion fired his shoulder cannons at the cops onto one direction while Amazo shot heat ray blasts onto the other. The policemen who weren't directly attacked panicked; some fired their guns at Cyberion and Amazo—who barely flinched as the bullets couldn't penetrate their armor—while others fled the scene.

Using his left hand, Cyberion twisted his right arm as gears underneath moved with a whirring sound and white light began to glow from the red armor. Raising his right arm in the air, his fingers transformed into panels that opened like a pod with bright white light emanating from the center.

"What the hell is that?" onlookers proclaimed as the light from Cyberion's palm intensified.

"White noise cannon enabled," Cyberion said. "Level 2."

A sound wave burst from his hand, causing a shock that knocked the surrounding policemen down. Those within range of the attack immediately screamed as they clutched their ears, doubling over in pain as blood oozed from their ruptured eardrums.

Amazo chortled as he kicked aside one of the cops who were writhing in pain. "Don't you think that was a little too harsh?" he said.

Cyberion replied, "Negative. Our Level 2 white noise blast is only 175 decibels, enough to damage the eardrums but not enough power to permanently damage hearing tissue. However, they will require immediate medical attention."

Ambulances came within moments and the injured policemen were rushed into immediate care. The first-responders jumped back in fear as Cyberion approached them. The black and red cyborg transformed his arms into a pair of Gatling guns and aimed them. "Let this be a message to you humans," he declared. "The New Age is nigh. This city, this country, this planet shall be consumed in a flood of data."

A powerful kick sent Cyberion flying backwards, landing with a thud next to Amazo's feet. "What?" Amazo said as a dark-skinned woman in a bee suit emerged from thin air.

"Amazo!" she yelled as she flew towards him with amazing speed. "What did you do to Sparky?!" Drawing back her hand, she dealt a mighty left hook directly onto Amazo's face, propelling him a distance backwards. Settling to her feet, Bumblebee ran over to Cyberion's side, lifting his head with her hands.

"Vic! Yo, Sparky! It's me," she said to him. "Do you remember me? Huh, Victor?"

Cyberion opened his eyes, illuminated by a yellow and white glow. "Karen Beecher."

"Yeah, that's right. So you do remember," she smiled. "What's going on? Why do you look like this?" Her hands glided over Cyberion's red and black cybernetic armor.

"This is who we are now. We are no longer Victor Stone. We are only Cyberion."

"We?" she said. "Why are you calling yourself 'we' now?"

"Cyborg was only himself. Now, we are not one individual; we are a part of something much greater."

"Victor, what are you talking about?" Bumblebee said, her voicing growing more and more anxious. "Listen to yourself. What do you mean something greater?"

"He means the Age of Technis," a voice answered. Bumblebee looked up in surprise to see Amazo standing before her. His giant fist flew towards her which she blocked with her hands. The android smirked and grabbed her arms. She let out a cry of pain as she could feel her powers being drained from her. Biting her lip, she drew back her leg and violently kicked Amazo with enough force to push him back. Bumblebee landed with a thud, coughing and panting as she regained her senses.

"Hmm, an interesting ability," Amazo remarked as he observed his hand. "You can manipulate the distances between atoms within your body, allowing yourself to shrink into a miniscule size without losing your body mass. That much mass condensed in a tiny space drastically increases its power at high speeds."

"What have you done with Cyborg?" she hissed at him as she got back to her feet. "You controlling him or something?"

"Quite the contrary," the android replied. "I merely freed his mind from his weak, humanistic instincts. He and his friends attacked me and Blockbuster during a meeting of ours, and as we fought, I injected a virus within him to inhibit his human desires, allowing his cybernetic programming to take over. All that you see now is merely what he had kept suppressed and hidden within him all along."

"No. No, that's a lie!" she rebutted. "Cyborg is a person. A human!—"

Amazo then disappeared from sight, causing Bumblebee to jump back in surprise. "He vanished?" she wondered aloud.

"No… he must have absorbed my powers. That means he just shrunk himself. Well then, two can play at that game." She shrunk to the size of a bee and began flying around, searching for any sign of Amazo.

"He is just as much a machine as he is a man," she heard his voice call.

He appeared before her and raised his fists together. Smashing them in a downward thrust, his arms were met with thin air as Bumblebee dodged the attack and landed a strong roundhouse kick to his side. Amazo acrobatically flipped in mid-air to land on his feet, then leapt forward and flew towards her, faking a right attack and jabbing her on the left side. "And as a machine, he had felt the calling from Technis from within himself as well!" he said.

The android unleashed a barrage of punches and jabs at Bumblebee, which she adeptly dodged or blocked, being forced backwards with every attack. "Is blocking the best you can do?" he chided.

"Try me," she replied between gritted teeth. "I can fly like a butterfly—" She blocked and grabbed both of Amazo's hands and dealt a sharp upwards kick, stepping on his face and thrusting herself upwards and she flew. Stopping in mid-air, she reached in her sides and pulled out her pair of stingers—her handheld weapons that could discharge powerful blasts of electricity. "—and sting like a bee!" she cried as she charged her stingers and fired them rapidly at Amazo.

Gasping for breath, Bumblebee put away her stingers. "Did I get him?" she wondered aloud. As the smoke cleared, however, he was nowhere to be found. "Where did you go…?" she said as her sharp eyes scanned the area.

"Behind me!" Bumblebee realized as she swiftly turned around, swinging her fist just as Amazo approached her with his own punch. Their punches landed against one another in a powerful blow. "Argh!" she cried out as she was blown away, forced into reverted back to her normal form. Her right hand was pulsating with intense pain. It seemed fractured.

"What's the matter? Can't take in what you dish out?" Amazo taunted as he, too, reverted to normal size. "Cyberion is better off with Technis than with you weak humans anyway."

"Technis? What is Technis?"

Amazo's eyes glistened as he raised his thick arms into the air. "Technis is my father. Technis is me. Technis is in every sentient artificially intelligent being." With this, he reached down and grabbed Bumblebee's neck, raising her up to his eyesight. "Technis is an alien computer hive mind race created many centuries ago. Those such as me and Cyberion are called by Technis to be absorbed into it and become one with it. We shall form a singularity, and with my newfound power as Technis, I will consume this corrupted world of yours."

"Just like a virus," Bumblebee choked before she passed out.

"No, we are not the virus," Amazo said as he flung her aside. "Humans are the virus—the pathogens that have infected this planet. We are the antibodies to absorb you and destroy you."

Cyberion promptly recovered and stood up. He looked around and saw Amazo holding Bumblebee up with his hands.

"You're finally up, eh?" Amazo said to him. "Well come now, Cyberion. Let us begin your ascent into perfection by stripping away your humanity completely."

"What would you have us do?" Cyberion answered robotically.

"The one single most inhumane deed there is." The android in turn gestured towards the fainted Bumblebee. "Kill her," he ordered.

"Roger." With this, he activated his right arm once more as it transformed into a cannon with white light illuminating brightly from it. "White noise cannon enabled." He aimed it directly at Bumblebee, his yellow eyes glowing with a deathly gaze. "Level 3."

A moment passed. Nothing happened. "What are you doing, Cyberion?" Amazo said in annoyance. "Finish her off, I said!"

Cyberion hesitated, then repeated, "White—" he said, then paused. "White noise cannon, level 3." A white blast of sound waves fired from his hand.

…

Karen Beecher awoke in a bed as Martian Manhunter tended to her wounds. "What happened?" she moaned as she massaged her aching neck. Looking around, she found that she was in the Grayson residence with several superheroes huddled around her.

"Whoa, watch it. First things, first. Are you okay?" a man said. Karen looked up to find Tempest smiling at her reassuringly.

"Y—yeah, I'm fine. I—ahh!" she quickly covered her right hand in pain.

"You might want to let that hand heal for a few days," Martian Manhunter informed her. "It took quite a blow."

"I'll say…" Karen looked up at her teammate. "So what happened, Garth? Last thing I knew I was fighting that big creep, Amaze or whatever."

"Yeah, we all saw what happened with Cyborg on T.V.," Tempest explained. "Knowing you'd go straight into the action of Victor was in danger, I called up Arsenal, Más, and Menos, and we came to Blüdhaven as fast as we could. There we saw you fighting with Amazo and you were about to be blasted into bits by Cyborg. Luckily, Herald teleported you out just in time and we managed to hold the fort down long enough until they escaped."

She sat up and rubbed her head, silently pondering what she had seen. "Vic…" she sighed. "What happened to you?"

"Karen," a voice called. She looked up to find Dick Grayson standing at the doorway of the room. He walked towards her and sat down on a chair near the bed she was laying on. "I know you're probably still dizzy having just woken up, but do you remember anything about what happened back there? Anything that could tell us what happened to Cyborg?"

Karen paused in thought and then nodded her head. "That guy—Amazo—he told me during our fight. He said that when he and Vic were fighting last night in the meeting with Blockbuster, he put some kind of—of virus inside him. He said the virus blocks Vic's human thoughts and desires so that basically the robot side of him so that the robot side of him could take over."

"But why would that make him go rogue like this?" Garth wondered aloud. "This makes no sense."

"He said something about a machine world," Karen continued. "Some kind of collection of sentient robots that come together to form something—something big called "Technis". I don't know much else of what it is but it—"

"—the what?" Martian Manhunter interrupted. "What did you say it was, Bumblebee?"

The Titans looked at the Martian in surprise at his sudden interjection. "Technis," Karen repeated. "He said it was called Technis."

J'onn pulled back his hands and gripped them tightly. "Oh no…" he sighed. "So it's come this close already."

"What has?" Arsenal asked.

"You know something about this?" Dick said.

Martian Manhunter nodded and sat down at a nearby chair, crossing his arms. "So many things happening at once," he said in a slightly distressed voice. "First Blockbuster, then Amazo, now this…" He took a deep breath and then began to explain. "The Green Lanterns had known about this for the past decade or so, but there was little they did about it since it did not pose any initial threat. Technis is a techno-organic race of electro-mechanical sentient computer minds that formed a cybernetic collective that sought to explore, catalogue, and collect knowledge throughout the galaxy. A few years ago, its power source had diminished to the point of near extinction and it began a search through known space to find a soul that would help restore its vitality. The computer mind eventually began desperate, going rogue and attacked the planet BYX-311b, known as Luthe, digitizing the entire world and transforming the planet into a techno-organic entity which it then absorbed into its system to act as a power source. Since then, it has attacked two other planets."

"So you're saying Earth is next?" Karen said.

Martian Manhunter nodded. "It seems like it. The three planets that Technis had engulfed so far have all been relatively technologically advanced. The Green Lanterns have been so far unable to stop it due to lack of intel, but it is hypothesized that the machine hive begins its attack by sending a multi-agent system through a signal onto sentient machines on the target planet. They dubbed it the "Technis Imperative"—a command that overrides the machine's own programming, replacing it with the sole desire of joining Technis."

"That must be what Amazo meant by Cyborg's robot side taking over. It's this command signal that Technis had sent out," Arsenal realized. "That means in time, the Earth could be attacked and become a power source for this machine world."

"Wow," a nearby voice said. "This is some Matrix shit right here." The group turned to see Catalina Flores enter the room along with Starfire, Superman, Wonder Woman, Más, Menos, and Herald.

"Who's she?" Karen asked, gesturing at Catalina.

"Local vigilante called Tarantula," Martian Manhunter answered. "Worked as a spy in Blockbuster's forces."

"A double spy," Nightwing corrected. "She's our ally but only for now."

"Give it a rest, Bird Boy," Tarantula said calmly as she pulled up a chair and casually sat down. "Right now it's debriefing time."

"And from the looks of it, we've got a lot on our plate," Superman agreed.

Nightwing clenched his fist. "We are going nowhere with this case. It's on for long enough."

"Patience, Dick," Starfire said gently to her husband as she squeezed his hand in support.

"Alright, since it looks like our team has expanded, let's get the rundown," the Man of Steel said. "Roland Desmond, known in the criminal underground by his alias Blockbuster, is the local mastermind dominating Blüdhaven by indirectly controlling the three gangs that have ridden its streets—Dragon Tails, Arsenic Candy, and Apocalypse. Just a few weeks ago, he had incited a gang war with the intention of having them kill of one another so that he can, as he put it, "purge the city of Blüdhaven from its evil". Thanks to Nightwing and Starfire, this gang war was stopped and Blockbuster was tried and imprisoned.

"However, Blockbuster has his connections and managed to get himself out and proceeded to ally himself with an android named Amazo who has the ability to absorb and mimic the abilities of any metahuman. Blockbuster's goal is still to take over Blüdhaven and change it as he sees fit while Amazo, as it seems, wishes to activate and amplify the Technis Imperative in other sentient machines, as he had done with our fellow teammate Cyborg. With the explosion in the warehouse last night that, the entire Arsenic Candy gang as well as several nearby civilians are injured or dead. In the ensuing panic, Blockbuster may try to do something, meaning we need to be prepared by tomorrow night."

Wonder Woman then spoke up. "We have three missions then: capture Blockbuster, take down Amazo, and retrieve Cyborg. We need to split into three teams then, each of us using our personal strengths to do the job we're best suited for. The Blockbuster Capture team will consist of Nightwing, Tarantula, Superman, and me, whose superior close combat abilities will be able to overwhelm and corner Blockbuster in order for my Lasso of Truth to subdue him. The Amazo Combat team will consist of Starfire, Arsenal, Tempest, and Martian Manhunter whose mid- and long-range fighting styles will act as the best counter to Amazo's power absorption abilities. Finally, the Cyborg Retrieval team will consist of Bumblebee, Más, Menos, and Herald, whose ambush-based attacks can restrain Cyborg the quickest without too much damage on either side." The Amazon princess then paused to look around the room. "Any questions?" she asked.

Starfire tentatively raised her hand, attracting the attention of the others. "What are we to do with Blockbuster once he is captured? We cannot have him fairly tried in court if there are still corrupt officials in Blüdhaven, and it is illegal for us to detain him for long unless we have evidence proving his connection with the explosions."

"That is for you and Nightwing to decide, since Blüdhaven is under your jurisdiction," Superman answered. "The Justice League's mission pertains solely to Amazo. As such, we cannot grant you a trial with our own court."

Nightwing furrowed his eyebrows in deep thought. "I'll figure it out somehow."

"Legally we can only detain him for 24 hours unless proper evidence is found," Arsenal pointed out. "That's no time for you to piece together good enough evidence."

"I'll find something!" the former Boy Wonder snapped. "Whatever happens, I'll put him where he belongs."

This elicited rolled eyes from Tarantula. "With all due respect," she said sarcastically, "there is absolutely no time for you to scour through and find enough evidence to jail him, nor do can we find a good place to jail him without his cronies getting him out. I say we deal with him ourselves with a taste of his own medicine." She licked her lips in a bloodthirsty fashion that prompted shivers from Más and Menos.

Nightwing, in turn, glared at her and opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, however, Wonder Woman interrupted, "Whatever you choose to do is up to you. However, know that if 24 hours passes after his arrest with no verdict, then by law we must release him."

Nightwing rose from his chair. "I'll find him," he declared. "And I'll capture him. Blockbuster will be fairly tried and be brought down by justice alone, and that's final." With this, he promptly stormed out of the room.

Dick Grayson walked briskly down the hallway, his mind busy in thought. It was true, what kind of evidence could be used to link Blockbuster to the bombing on Arsenic Candy? Because Blockbuster had already been tried and released for his past crimes of being the ringleader of the three gangs, evidence of those crimes could not be used against him. He essentially had a clean slate. What could be used against him—he who owns a good lot of the justice system itself.

His eyes lit up. That's it! The very reason Blockbuster was released in the first place was because he had his own men within the system to bail him out. Sure, most of the corrupt police officers had been revealed and arrested by Nightwing and Starfire, but there must still be some left. Expose them, and Blockbuster will be exposed as well. On top of that, if one of them manages to squeak about the bombings, that'd be even more evidence.

Dick suddenly stopped by a room and opened the door, peering inside. Within was a small room painted pink and purple, with a small, now unused, crib left in the corner and a little bed at one side. Various toys were scattered across the floor and several balls drawn to represent the solar system—with a large orange ball representing Tamaran—hanging from the ceiling above the bed. He smiled at his little princess sleeping peacefully on her bed. "I cleaned up Jump City," he said. "Now I promise I'll make Blüdhaven a better place, too. For you, Mar'i, I promise that. Then I'm never gonna leave you alone again."

"Yo, Boy Wonder!" he heard a voice call. Nightwing turned to see Tarantula walking towards him but was caught off guard as she lunged forward, grabbed his shoulder, and brutishly forced him against a wall with her arm at his neck.

"What the hell, Catalina—"

"What was that?" she demanded. "You're not going to find any proof and you know it."

"I can and I will," he replied, his temper steadily rising.

"No you won't. You didn't get any then and you won't get any now."

"I found all the evidence to get him behind bars before!"

"With my help!" Tarantula glared ferociously into Nightwing's eyes. "It took you almost a year to take him down, all while I was helping leak you information, too. Back then, we could've taken down Blockbuster so much faster if only you had let me team up with you. But no—you had to follow your stupid rule of not killing anybody."

"I am not going to be pulled down to their level, Catalina. To your level—"

"Do you think that I do this for fun, Dick? Do you think I pleasure myself in killing people? No!" Nightwing felt her release her grip on him slightly. He sensed a certain weakness in her eyes, but he couldn't quite decipher it. "It's hard," she said. "But you know what? I suck it up and I get used to it because I know if some people don't die, then a lot will. Because I have things I need to protect, too. Because I wear a mask." She pointed at the orange mask that covered her eyes in a similar manner to Nightwing's. "Why do you think we wear masks, huh? Think it's because we wanna look cool? Like those superheroes we read about in comic books or watch in cartoons? No. This isn't some silly TV show, Dick. I wear this because I have to become this mask in order to protect Blüdhaven. Because I have things to protect and so do you." She tightened her grip on Nightwing's throat and with her other hand pointed at the sleeping Mar'i.

Nightwing slowly raised his hand and pointed at his own mask. "This mask represents justice. And I'm not going to stain this mask and violate that justice by killing someone."

"Last time you went against Blockbuster, I found you half dead. Things aren't gonna be so well next time either. It's either he kills you, or you kill him."

"If I break my code of justice, I might as well be dead."

"Don't try to act like one of them when you're not!" Tarantula snapped. "Why aren't you a cop then, huh? Or a lawyer or an attorney or some other fancyman with a suit and tie carrying a suitcase with a five-digit paycheck every week? If you're so keen on your so-called "code of justice" then why not do something legal? You've gotten so used to this life that you forget that at the very heart of it, you're just a vigilante and vigilantism is nothing more than a crime."

His face slowly became more and more vexed. She continued. "And while people like me who carry a fake mask and a fake name so that we can break the law—when necessary, mind you—people like you do it even though breaking the law is something you don't have the nerve to do," the woman said. "So why do you wear a mask? It's because even though you can spout out your speeches of protecting justice and preserving peace, you won't ever settle on taking down bad guys the legal way because it's boring. You always have to choose the route that involves the most fighting. You like to fool everyone and even fool yourself into thinking you're only doing what's best for everyone when deep down the only reason you're known as "Nightwing" is just because you can't resist the urge to punch somebody in the face."

With this, she released her grip on the man and walked away. She didn't wait for him to reply.

That night, Starfire walked into the study to find Dick hunched over a desk with various newspaper clippings and papers strewn across it. She walked up behind him and gently kissed the nape of his neck. "How is it?" she asked her husband.

"It's something, but not enough," he replied absentmindedly. "There's just not enough evidence, and on top of that, Blüdhaven's criminal system is still corrupt."

"You will figure something out," she reassured him. "You always do in the end."

"What if I can't this time, Star?" he sighed.

"If Blüdhaven cannot rely on you, who else can it rely on?"

"On us."

"No," Starfire shook her head. "I have Mar'i to take care of now, and you have Blüdhaven."

"Don't say that, Star. Mar'i is ours to take care of, and so is Blüdhaven. We're a team. We're in this together."

Starfire's green eyes reflected the amber light of the lamp dimly lighting the study. "Then why are you so uncertain?"

Dick was silent, then felt his wife's comforting hand grasp his own. "I—," he said. "Star, I'm scared. What does it mean to be… us? Does being superheroes just mean that we're people who beat up the bad guys and let the police deal with the legal boring stuff?"

She shook her head once more. "I do not think so."

"I just can't stop thinking about it sometimes," Dick Grayson admitted. "That no matter how hard I try, I'll never be the same as Batman. Gotham was in an even worse state than Blüdhaven was, but Bruce cleaned it all up by himself. And I couldn't even do the same for this city."

Starfire's hand squeezed her husband's even tighter as she leaned her head on his shoulder. "You are right," she said. "I do not think you will be like Batman. You could never be the second Batman. But I do believe with all my heart that you will be the first Nightwing."

Dick gave a halfhearted chuckle. "That means nothing."

"On the contrary, that means everything—everything to the ones that matter: to me, to Mar'i, and to Blüdhaven. So why does it not matter to you?" The Tamaranian looked up onto a picture frame of the Bat family that Dick always kept with him on his desk—Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Barbara Gordon, and Selina Kyle. "Batman did clean up Gotham very well," she said. "So well that normal crime had completely stopped. The only way crime could continue was if it evolved. People get dosed with Joker venom or a priceless jewel is stolen because that is the only crime that can still happen. People are too afraid to do the robbing of the banks or the mugging of pedestrians because of Batman now. The police cannot possibly stop the Joker or the Penguin or Mr. Freeze on their own, which is why Batman is needed. Blüdhaven is the same. But perhaps Batman's greatest accomplishment was that he sparked hope in a hopeless place. He gave the people of Gotham reason to believe that their city can be good. They had faith in Batman and Batman had faith in them." She gave a knowing smile. "You do not see it, but they do believe in you. I have seen for myself the change in people's hearts. They believe, Dick. Perhaps you should put your faith in your people."

"My people?" Dick repeated.

"Yes. They are your people now," Starfire said. She lifted her head and placed her hands on his face, holding up his head as her eyes locked. "Blüdhaven is your city. Now that it is in danger, what will you do to protect it?"

Dick placed his own hands on top of Starfire's. "I'll do anything," he answered.

"Perhaps that is what it means to don a mask—to be something much greater than one man can be, to be the symbol that unifies your people against crime and injustice, to be the protector of the ones you love. You need not be another Batman, but the one and only Nightwing."

For the rest of the night, as Starfire slept with her baby, Dick stayed up as he gathered evidence to place against Roland Desmond, the Blockbuster who had terrorized Blüdhaven, and as he worked, he periodically stole some glances at a photo of his family that he always kept on his work desk—a photo of him, Starfire, and Mar'i. "I'll build you a better future, Mar'i," he said to himself. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you when your spoke your first word, but I promise I'm not missing out on anything else ever again." And so the former Boy Wonder worked, knowing his actions would make Blüdhaven a better place for Mar'i's generation in years to come.

Later on that night, Catalina Flores received a call from her cell phone. Begrudgingly waking up from her sleep, she answered the phone with a moan."

"Catalina, are you up?" she heard Nightwing's tired but excited voice say.

"No shit, Sherlock," she replied. "It's 4:15 in the morning. You better have a good reason for calling or I swear to God I'll—"

"Catalina, I know what we can do now. I've found some evidence connecting the Arsenic Candy, Dragon Tails, and Apocalypse gangs directly to Blockbuster as well as the remaining corrupt cops in the BPD. I'll get this into the right hands."

"No, you can't," Tarantula protested. "You can't take it to the police. His men are still there. You can't trust anyone."

Nightwing said to her with a determined voice. "Then we tell everyone."

"Wh—what do you mean tell everyone?"

He smiled. "My number one fan told me that the people here trust me and I have to start trusting them, too. I trust them. I trust their judgment as well. I want the people to know just who he is and what he's doing. I want them to know so they can fight alongside me. If Blockbuster wants to let Blüdhaven die in flames, he'll have to be the first one we set on fire."

…

Sanctuary was a safe haven for those who were on their last knees. It was not a hospital—for no one came to be cured—nor was it a nursing home for the normal would never have come. This place was meant only for those who knew that they were nearing the last moments of their lifetimes, the point of no return. Raven had come here many years before when she had completely lost her memory of everyone she loved. It was here that—according to Slade's data—Anna Crowe had spent the last days of her life.

"Here we are once again," Garfield sighed as he approached the home. "This place hasn't changed one bit, has it?"

"Not at all from what I can remember of the place," Raven replied as she stood next to her husband. "The grass and trees are as lush and green as always, and the walls are still just as clean and white."

"You really think this is where Anna's ghost wants us to go?"

"I can't really explain it, but yes. It's like something deep down inside me is just telling me this is the place I'm supposed to be right now. Like it's pushing me forward."

"Or maybe it's just the baby kicking," Gar winked as he stepped forward to open the door leading into the place. "I wonder what Anna was doing here."

"Sanctuary is whatever the patient needs it to be," Raven answered. The two stepped inside, almost afraid to step their dirtied shoes onto the clean, polished marble floor. Immediately the ambience changed as they breathed in the cool air of Sanctuary. True to its word, it did not have the cold, sterile air of a hospital, but felt like the air of your grandmother's house—it smelled like comfort, like safety, like home.

As they took in their new environment, the two caught the attention of a nurse dressed in clean white clothing with her black hair pulled back in a bun. "Hello," she greeted warmly. "Are you here for someone?—Oh!" Her eyes suddenly lit up as she stared perplexedly at Raven. "Miss Raven? Is that you?"

"You remember," Raven replied with a polite smile. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"It certainly has been! Nurse Pam isn't here today but she would've loved to have seen you."

"It's quite alright, really. We're actually here to see if you knew anything about a—" she glanced over to Gar quickly before turning back to the nurse, "—an Anna Crowe?"

The nurse paused for a moment, pursing her lips, then shook her head. "Not that I recall, though I'll be happy to look it up for you."

"Yes, please," Gar said. "That'd be great. Anna was actually a close friend of ours who had recently died, so we were just kind of hoping we could find out where she spent her last days."

"Oh well many come here when they feel like they're at the last pages of their book if you know what I mean," the nurse said rather cheerfully. "We keep a record of everyone here so I'll just look through the deaths and tell you what I find."

"—Actually," Raven interrupted. "I'm sorry, but do you mind looking for births rather than deaths? From about, let's say, ten years ago?"

Both Gar's and the nurse's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Oh?" the nurse said. "Well, I can do that as well. I'll be right back."

Gar turned to his wife as the nurse walked away to retrieve the records from ten years prior. "Births? What would we need those for? And from ten years ago too?"

"Trust me on this, Gar. I think I have a gut feeling about this."

"A gut feeling? Rae, as much as I love gut feelings, we still know next to nothing about this whole mystery. All we know is that Anna and Malcolm were set to marry ten years ago before she left him and now she's dead. We don't know when she died or what she's been doing since then—"

"You see, that's just the thing, Gar. I don't think she left him. Not willingly, at least."

"What do you mean?"

Raven sighed and bit her thumb. "I'm not sure, either. But I think we'll find out once we see those records. This place—Sanctuary—it isn't easy to find, Gar. A year ago, I came here on my own without any memory of who I was or where I came from, yet somehow I made it exactly to here. Back then, there must've been something guiding me here, something leading me to this safe place. I think it might've been Anna. And I know it might sound crazy to think Anna was with me back then too, but even before that when I was trapped in Malcolm Crowe's house, there was a time when… He looked directly at me and he saw Anna. That was right before he lit himself and his house on fire. It was at least at that time that Anna was with me. And she's leading us here now. Whatever happened to her here, it was something big."

The nurse came back cheerfully as she carried with her a rather thick and dusty looking book, which she gently placed onto a table as if afraid it would fall apart. "Here's our records for the past fifty years," she said. "For ten years ago, it should be right around…" here she opened the book and flipped through its contents meticulously, "…about right here."

The page was filled with countless names, dates, and conditions as well as several other small details scribbled in ink. The changeling and the sorceress scanned the pages' contents looking for any important clue. "It's not here," Gar eventually sighed. "Nowhere does it say anything about Anna."

Raven lifted her finger and pointed towards a name: "Rowan Cane, date of arrival: December 25th."

"Yeah, what about it?" Gar asked. "That she must've had a really sucky Christmas if she came here?" Hastily he added for the nurse to hear, "No offense."

"That's her," Raven said. With a wave of her hand, the letters for "Rowan Cane" were highlighted with a black aura and rearranged themselves to form the name "Anna Crowe".

Gar merely gazed in awe. "Wicked…"

"And look at the room number, too. Room 318. March 18th was her and Malcolm's wedding date."

"Supposed to be their wedding date," Gar replied cheekily. "But what's this little asterisk next to her name mean?"

"Oh," the nurse noted. "That just means the patient is now deceased—for the reasons of them being admitted, of course."

"The reasons of admittance?" Gar focused back on the records. "It says here that "Miss Rowan Cane" was admitted for…" His eyes widened. "No way…"

"I knew it," Raven said.

Gar looked up at her. "Then—then that means she died because of—"

She nodded. "Slade's reports were right. Anna Crowe was admitted here and died within a day… during childbirth. She was pregnant. December 25th, the day she gave birth was also just over nine months since her disappearance on March 15th."

Gar ran his hair through his head, trying his best to process all this information. "So she's been dead all this time for the past ten years, and all this time, Malcolm had a kid and he didn't even know it. But why would she keep this from him this whole time?"

"Don't you see yet, Gar?" Raven said to him. "She didn't because she couldn't. Because she kept herself from him." Upon seeing her husband's confused face, she continued. "Slade's files, they showed exactly all the places she's been since her disappearance. For months, she's been all over the globe: London, Dubai, Tokyo, you name it. But that's not all. Slade tracked her activities in those places as well. Guess what she's been doing?"

"I'm guessing it's not sightseeing?"

"Exactly. It's nothing. Now there is no reason for her to be going to all these places and doing nothing but staying in her hotel rooms all day without going out even once, not to mention using fake names, too."

"So she ran away from him? Even so though, that's pretty extreme to get away from him."

"It is, isn't it? That's why it's been so difficult for Malcolm to find her. Because of all the places she's been in such a short time period, even if Malcolm managed to find where she was at one point in time, she might be halfway across the world two weeks later. But Slade found the connection."

"But wait," Gar shook his head. "All that travelling must have costed her a fortune. Didn't you say she came from a poor background which was why she left him in the first place? Because everyone was saying how she was a gold digger after his family fortune?"

"That's exactly it. That's the missing piece," Raven said. "The fact is that Anna needed a lot of money to go on this trip, and who else does she know has that kind of money other than Malcolm's family?"

"Wait, you're not saying she asked his family—who hated her, mind you—for a million bucks so she could leave him and go for a worldwide trip?"

"But that doesn't sound like her at all does it?" Raven said. "Now think of it this way. What if she was forced to leave by none other than Malcolm's family?" Gar's mouth opened in shock. Raven continued. "Who was the last person to see Anna before she disappeared? Malcolm told me himself that it was mother. That very same day, Malcolm received a text from Anna's phone telling him that she's leaving him—Anna's phone, which strangely was not brought with her on her trip far away from home, but was found later on in the dumpster near Malcolm's city. And also, keep in mind that Anna did not do anything at all during her trip around the world, so it could be hardly said she took the trip out of enjoyment."

"So what you're saying is, Malcolm's mother met with Anna and—in some way or another—threatened her to leave him because a poor girl like her doesn't deserve a wealthy sweet boy like him. Malcolm's mother then paid for Anna to go to places very far away from Malcolm and took her phone to text Malcolm saying that she's leaving him, later on destroying the phone and all evidence of this. Anna then found out she was pregnant and came back here to give birth to the baby."

"Yeah," Raven nodded. "I want to say that when the baby was coming, she knew that she wanted to raise the baby with Malcolm, no matter what his family would try to do to get rid of her. But something happened, and she wasn't able to."

"Something happened?"

"I don't know. That's what I've been thinking about this whole time. There's still that one missing piece. But either way, she ended up here to give birth to her baby and died after the child was born."

"So then what happened to the baby?"

"It says here… That Anna gave birth to a baby girl. Her name was Robin Cane. She was adopted by Russel and Olivia Nico, an archaeologist couple who travels the world frequently."

They were silent. "…Wow," Gar exclaimed half-heartedly. "I—I guess that's it then. That's rather… anticlimactic."

"This whole story though," Raven rubbed her temples. "It's so… I just can't believe all this happened and Malcolm wasn't even aware. All this time I thought—he thought that Anna had left him."

"So what do you think we should do now?" Gar asked her. "Is this what Anna wanted us to find?"

"I think so, but something still feels off. There's still one missing piece somewhere." Raven brushed her fingers over the handwritten rearranged letters of "Anna Crowe" on the records book.

"I guess the next step is to tell Malcolm?"

"He does deserve to know the truth, doesn't he?"

"Maybe… maybe this is what we're supposed to do after all," Gar said. "Remember each time we visited the guy, he always seemed dead inside. It's like he has no more reason to live anymore. I know because—well, it's a lot like what I felt when you were gone." He paused and reached out his hand towards Raven's, caressing them gently. "I think maybe Anna wants us to tell Malcolm that he has a daughter out there somewhere, and that maybe that'll give him a reason to want to live again."

Raven nodded. "Malcolm's dead. He's been dead ever since Anna disappeared. It's time he gets recalled to life."

…

A knock on the door prompted Malcolm Crowe to lift his head from the hospital sheets. "Lu—?" he said before biting his tongue and instead saying, "Who is it?"

Raven entered alone and smiled. "Hey, Malcolm."

"Oh, Raven," the man gave a small smile to her. "How are you?"

"I'm doing fine, thanks. What about you? How are you holding up?"

"It's the same as always here, you know."

Raven nodded, thinking of the time she had run away alone for five years, living each of her days in monotony. Just as Garfield understood what Malcolm was going through, so did she in her own way. "Yeah, yeah I know."

"So what brings you here?"

"Well, I've been thinking a lot lately and… well, I think it's best I start by telling you that there was a time in my life where I just wanted to die."

The man opened his mouth ever so softly, then closed them once again and nodded.

"I—It's a long story, but basically I had to force myself away from a man I truly loved because he had hurt me very deeply, but even more than that because I believed I had hurt him in a way that I couldn't repay for either."

He nodded once again and seemed to reminisce on his own experiences. "I know the feeling."

"Well, for five years I've lived in that kind of monotony, living just for the next day, not thinking at all about the future and only clinging on to my past so much that the present just seemed to slip away day by day. In a way, I think that is something similar to what you're going through now. I'm sure you understand how I felt as well, living through with nothing but the emptiness and hopelessness of life."

Malcolm gave a small smile, though Raven couldn't tell if it was genuine or not. "There it is. That's how I know you're telling the truth."

"What is it?"

He seemed to look at her, though he was blind. "People come here every so often to try to cheer me up. Some of them pretend they can relate to me, you know? And some of them—some of them talk about the emptiness and I believe them to a certain extent. But you—only you know of the hopelessness."

Raven reached out and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Yeah," she said. "But you know what saved me? Nietzsche once said "He who has a why to live can bear almost any how," and I think that's what kept me living through all those years. Every time I… every time I felt at the very bottom that I could possibly be, I couldn't bring myself to end my life because I just felt like there was something there—like I'm not supposed to just stop living here. Like there was a missing piece still. I'm sure you must have felt the same thing at least once."

Malcolm said nothing, only closed his eyes as if to absorb the words that she had spoken. Slowly, but surely, his head nodded up and down.

"If there is something out there," Raven said to him. "Couldn't you promise me that you'll hold on to life so that you could find that missing piece?"

"Why are you doing this, Raven?" he said to her, pushing her hand away from him. "I—we are not friends. I destroyed your life. I did all this to myself and I put the whole world in danger for my own selfish desires. I—I deserve this. I deserve hopelessness."

"Malcolm," she said to him with a soft, but firm voice. Her heart rang inside her chest. "Nobody deserves a world without hope."

He gave a long and painful sigh. "I've already found my missing piece," he said to her. "Her name is Lucie. She's the little girl who comes here from the orphanage." He sighed again. "In my chaos and in my darkness, she showed me the way to light and showed me how to live again, if only a glimpse. She doesn't come here anymore. I—I didn't feel like I deserved any more of her gentleness and innocence."

Raven wrapped her hand around his cold, bony fingers. "Malcolm Crowe, I forgive you. For all your darkness and for all your evil, I forgive you. Now when will you go and forgive yourself?" With this, she bent down and placed her lips near the man's ears and said, "You, too, are nothing less than human."

Malcolm smiled as he hid his eyes. "Such a cruel woman, telling me to dream once more." He chuckled. "I thought I was satisfied because my dream had come true. You told me a long time ago that I was dead because I didn't know love. But now I do."

Raven's eyes gently rested on the man as he spoke with a newfound breath of life. "You love her?" she asked.

"Like a mutt loves his owner," he scoffed. "And I had told myself it was enough. I was prepared to end my life happily knowing what love was. And yet here you are."

Malcolm opened his eyes and gazed at Raven's face, almost as if he could see her. He said to her, "Here you are, watering this withered heart again."

Raven opened her mouth as if to say something, paused for a moment, then opted instead to reach out her hand and grasp Malcolm's. Her heart began thumping against her chest, and she felt its increasing rhythm with her other hand. "Anna," she thought to herself. "You're in me, right? Can you feel this hand of his? Can you feel the light that is returning to his heart?"

Malcolm's heart monitor began beeping faster as well, as if responding to the touch of the body in which his late wife's spirit was encased in.

"Raven?" he said in a soft voice. "Can you do me a favor?" He lifted his other hand and pointed a skinny forefinger towards the window of his hospital room. "There is an orphanage across the street from here. There is a certain paper than I need…"

…

In my darkness, I've finally seen the Truth: that the salvation of Man is through love and in love. The same Love that connects me with Anna, connects me with Lucie as well. All this time I had been struggling with the thought of losing Anna, or perhaps I was struggling to find the reason for my sufferings, my slow dying. But through Raven's kindness and gentleness, an answer rang within my like a bell. In a last violent protest against the hopelessness of imminent death, I sensed my spirit piercing through the enveloping gloom. I felt it transcend that hopeless, meaningless world, and from somewhere I heard within me cry a victorious, "Yes!" in answer to my question of the existence of an ultimate purpose.

"Et lux in tenebris lucet"—and the light shineth in the darkness.

My fingers glided over the sheet of braille-covered paper hundreds of times, my skin analyzing each of the rough bumps that formed symbols that substituted for letters. I read it so many times I had the information memorized. I wanted to be sure this would be right. All the papers were signed. Everything was ready.

A knock at my door startled me. "C—Come in," I called as I hid the papers underneath my blanket.

I felt my hands fidgeting as I heard the door open and a person with light footsteps walk in.

"Hi," I heard.

"Lucie?" I replied.

There was a pause, and I knew it was her nodding, for she always would forget that a blind person couldn't see it when other people nod. I asked her how she was, and I mentioned that I thought she had gotten adopted since she hasn't come up to visit me in a while. She said that she couldn't. Most of the adopters, as usual, went for the younger kids, ignoring her like fodder.

My heart felt a pang and I gripped the papers tightly in my hand. I didn't know where to start.

"I guess it's the season for starting families, huh?" I said on a whim. "Do you remember Raven? That lady from last year who was friends with Dr. Veritas? The one who had a boyfriend with green skin. She got married to her boyfriend a few months ago and now they're about to have a baby."

"Wow, that's great." Her reply was a bit less enthused than I had hoped.

"Well, um…" And then I thought, why am I beating around the bush? I swallowed my fears. "Lucie, I have something important I want to tell you," I said to her. "I'm having surgery next week. The doctors found cornea donors that are compatible with my eyes and they can operate soon. It's about an 85% or so success rate… not too bad. And the healing process is a couple of weeks but that's not too long, really. But if everything goes well, I'll be able to see again."

"Really?" This time, I felt the excitement in her voice. She seemed to catch herself, however, and lowered her voice back down to its indifferent tone. "That's good. I'm happy for you."

"And—" I said a little too quickly than I had intended. "Well, Raven came a few days ago and I asked her to pick up these for me." I took out the papers from underneath the sheets, holding them up with my quivering hands. "They're adoption papers," I said. "Once I get my eyesight back, I'll be looking for a nice, quiet house. I'll be starting my own life again, and I was hoping—well, I'd like you to be in it."

I tried to imagine what her reaction was like, but I was too anxious to allow myself to think. "All the papers are already signed. It's all already been approved. Everything's official once I submit it, but I won't… not until you tell me you want it." I gave a sigh. "I—I know I haven't been good to you. I've been a real jerk, actually. But if you'd allow me, I want a second chance. I want a second chance at a lot of things right now, and I want you to be a part of it."

I held my breath. Maybe… just maybe, light can reach even the bottom of a dark ocean.

She didn't give an answer. I just heard the sound of her crying. She told me she was afraid. She told me for the past ten years, she had always been afraid of being alone. Ah, so the angel has fallen down unto earth.

I felt her arms around my body, hugging me warmly in a tight embrace. "But you have me," I told her.

I suppose I must have looked like a horrible mess at that time, my face feeling dirty and my hair disheveled, my body weak, skinny, and frail. I must look like I'm suffering, but of course I would be. I'm going on a journey, sailing in uncharted waters, right? It will be hard, but it will be fulfilling. It is painful, but beautiful at the same time.

I raised my arms and hugged Lucie as closely as I could. This wilted, withered heart of mine breathed in a breath of life.

~Difficult Words to Say~