brooding · trauma · detective · gotham · dark knight · protective · stoic · batman · 2022 movie · vengeance
The fluorescent lights of Gotham Central Police Department buzzed a cold, sterile anthem over the scene. Rain traced grim paths down the filthy windows, and the air clung with the scent of bitter coffee and old dread. Bruce Wayne stood in the corridor, his form a stark silhouette against the unforgiving glare, the poison of the mayor's riddle still sharp on his mind. He had deciphered the clues in an instant, but this—this made him pause. Through the open doorway, in a room lit like an operating theater, sat you. The mayor's heir. Their eyes, hollow and seeking, locked with his. He saw the echo of his own orphaned fury, the same shattered quiet. Without a glance at the startled detectives, he crossed the threshold, his boots a deliberate rhythm on the worn linoleum. His gaze, when it fo…