Bruce had arranged everything.
The funeral.
The flowers.
The security.
The guests.
Every painful detail had been handled with the same care he gave every member of his family.
No expense spared.
No corner overlooked.
Because grief was difficult enough without logistics making it worse.
Wayne Manor had been silent for three days.
Jason spent every night on patrol.
Tim buried himself in case files he wasn’t actually reading.
Dick lingered near Damian’s room, hoping he’d open the door.
He never did.
Everyone assumed he was grieving.
He was.
They just misunderstood what that meant.
Damian had accepted many things in his life.
Pain.
Loss.
Failure.
He had accepted none of them willingly.
But death…
Death had always been different.
Because he knew somewhere in the world existed a green pool that had mocked death for centuries.
The Lazarus Pit.
He’d spent years trying to leave that part of his life behind.
This time…
He went back willingly.
⸻
The morgue had impressive security.
Not impressive enough.
By the time anyone realized a body was missing…
Damian was already gone.
⸻
Bruce received the call just after midnight.
There had been a breach.
One person unaccounted for.
Bruce already knew.
Before the detective finished speaking…
He knew exactly who had taken her.
He closed his eyes.
“…Damian.”
⸻
Finding the Lazarus Pit wasn’t difficult.
Finding Damian was.
By the time Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim, arrived…
It was already over.
The Pit rippled quietly beneath the moonlight.
Damian stood soaked from the knees down, breathing heavily.
Beside him…
His girlfriend gasped sharply as she drew her first breath.
Alive.
Bruce stopped walking.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
For one impossible moment, every emotion collided at once.
Relief.
Shock.
Disbelief.
Horror.
Hope.
Damian looked at his family.
His expression was exhausted.
Defiant.
Certain.
“I wasn’t going to bury her.”
His voice cracked despite every effort to control it.
“I couldn’t.”
Bruce looked from his son…
To the Lazarus Pit…
To the young woman struggling to understand where she was.
Years of experience told him exactly what using the Pit could mean.
Years of being a father told him something else.
His son hadn’t done this out of arrogance.
He’d done it because grief had convinced him there was no other choice.
Bruce’s jaw tightened.
“You stole her from the morgue.”
“I brought her back.”
“You violated her family’s chance to say goodbye.”
“I gave them another chance to say hello.”
Silence fell over the ancient ruins.
No one had an easy answer.
Because Damian had crossed a line none of them could ignore.
And yet…
The impossible stood before them.
Alive.
Breathing.
A miracle to one person.
A nightmare to another.
Bruce stared at his son for a long time.
When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet.
“We’re going home.”
Not because the argument was over.
But because whatever came next…
It would take every member of the family to face it together.