Chapter 50 The Injustice League, Damian: We always want to cherish things, yet we're filled with...
“Alright, now it’s time to talk about your situation. It seems the three of you have split into two factions. You’re not from the same world?” In front of the Batcomputer, Wen Yue rested her chin on her hand, looking at the group of visitors from another world. She spoke calmly, “Batman and Superman are from the same world, and they came here by chance. Damian is from another world, and he came to this world of his own volition. In that case, Batman, what were you doing before you switched worlds? I need to understand the situation so I can help you.”
Batman found a perfect spot to stand, where he could both attack and defend. After a moment of deliberation, he spoke: "Before Superman and I came here, we had just captured the Joker and taken him back to Arkham. On our way back, we suddenly found ourselves in this world."
Wen Yue nodded slightly, unconcerned about Batman's omission and hidden wariness, and turned to Damian: "And you, Damian, what brought you into this world?"
Damian's lips were taut, and he subconsciously avoided the players' gaze. "I'm here to find a way to resurrect the dead."
Wen Yue shook her head helplessly, "Your reasoning doesn't convince me. The League of Assassins itself has Lazarus, which has a similar function. Besides, no matter which Gotham it is, there is never a shortage of things with similar resurrection effects."
"When you first arrived in this world, your goal was very clear: to find Batman and Superman who had traveled from another world." The player wouldn't believe it if you said that Batman and Superman's time travel had nothing to do with Damian. The other Batman certainly wouldn't believe it either; he might have some suspicions, otherwise he wouldn't have been so focused on minimizing his presence and quietly gathering information after arriving in this world. He doesn't trust Damian, nor does he trust anyone in this world.
Wen Yue's gaze fell on the two sticks behind Damian, and she stated calmly, "Behind you are Dick's Cari sticks."
After a moment of silence, Damian lowered his eyes slightly, turned his head and explained clearly: "This is my purpose. I came here to resurrect Dick."
"You resurrected Dick, so you sent Batman and Superman into this world?" Jason chuckled.
Damian snorted coldly, his brows furrowed in disapproval: "Whether you believe it or not, I didn't do Batman and Superman's time travel, but I do have the equipment to send them back. All I need to do is repair the equipment and have enough energy."
“Just because you didn’t do it doesn’t mean it’s unrelated to you. Hiding it won’t change anything, and it won’t help you achieve what you want or your goals. You know very well that you can’t find what you’re looking for alone, which is why you came to us, and we’re happy to help you.” Wen Yue spoke gently, crouching down to soften her tone, looking up at Damian sitting in the chair, using psychological tactics to lower his guard.
“Damian, I believe that no matter which world we live in, we are family. Can we help you? What happened?” Wen Yue asked Damian with a gentle, warm blue gaze, her clear and bright eyes filled with sincerity and trust, without any reproach.
Damian's emotions were highly unstable; his hesitation and struggle were impossible to conceal. His psychological defenses were crumbling, and the sharp spikes of defensiveness erected around him, seemingly sharp, were actually incredibly fragile. The moment his heart was exposed to the air, he could not hide his weakness and unease. He hadn't encountered a Batman who didn't criticize him for far too long; it was as if the world had changed since that day.
Damian lowered his head, his voice dry and suppressed: "It's Dick. Dick from my world is dead. But I discovered that his soul is still in the world, and it's in my body now. I was going to resurrect him, but Dick's body was accidentally destroyed. Almost all the resurrection methods I know require a body to be resurrected. Later, I got a clue that there is a way to resurrect Dick in this world."
From Damian, Wen Yue learned the whole story.
Damian wants to come to this world to resurrect Dick, but he clashes with the Dick inside his body. Dick wants to help Batman and plans to use the time-travel device to obtain assistance from the Justice League in other worlds. However, the time-travel device Damian obtained can only be used twice. If it is used by the Justice League in other worlds, the device will run out of energy and automatically break down after one round trip. Damian will not back down.
Damian's primary objective is to resurrect Dick, and he sets his own coordinates for descending to this world. However, Dick and Damian begin a struggle for control of the body, and in the chaos, the teleporter is accidentally activated, inadvertently bringing Batmen and Superman from other worlds to this one.
Damian then arrived in this world as well. The time-space teleporter had run out of energy and was automatically damaged. It was necessary to repair the teleporter and replenish its energy before Batman and Superman could be sent back to their original world.
From Damian's words, players can basically determine the world Damian is in.
Batman, who needs the help of the Justice League from other worlds; Nightwing, who is dead; Damian, who is obsessed with resurrecting his family—all of this hints at the special multiverse world that players know about—the Injustice League.
"In your world, Superman and Batman have a disagreement, or rather, the Justice League and Batman have a disagreement, right?" Wen Yue asked to confirm.
Damian nodded silently, his expression complex.
"And you chose Superman and joined Superman's camp?" Wen Yue asked again.
“My father insisted on protecting criminals, so what was wrong with me helping Superman eliminate Arkham? Later, he rejected me, so following Superman was the right thing to do!” Damian became emotional when he spoke of his core thoughts. He did not think he was wrong to join Superman’s side.
"Your idea of what's right is to rule the world in the name of justice? Damian, life can be lived as you please, but you can't just drift along with the tide."
“I didn’t act on impulse; this was my choice. I don’t think I did anything wrong in this matter!” Damian insisted on his point of view, facing the issue with a stance of refusal.
"Stop making excuses for yourself. There's no such thing as right or wrong, only whether you believe it or not." Wen Yue was unusually serious, her voice calm and powerful: "Compared to your family who are with you day and night, you clearly believe more in Superman, who is more powerful than Batman. Admiring the strong is human nature, and that's certainly not a problem, but it obviously shouldn't interfere with your judgment. Those who consider themselves strong act by breaking the rules, while those who follow the rules are bullied. I don't intend to criticize your choice, because your biggest dilemma isn't what to choose, but what you'll lose because of your choice."
Damian was speechless.
Wen Yue stood up and pulled the Cali Staff from Damian's back. The Cali Staff was well-maintained, but the wear and tear of its age was undeniable, showing signs of previous owner use and the meticulous care and attention of its current owner. She examined it for a moment, then placed the Cali Staff and her hand on the armrest of Damian's chair, leaning down to look into Damian's eyes. "You killed Dick, didn't you?"
Damian's eyes flickered, and he remained silent for a long time, his voice trembling slightly, before finally speaking: "I didn't mean to kill him, it was an accident... I didn't expect him not to dodge, I didn't notice there was a rock behind him... Who knew it would be such a coincidence that it hit the back of his head, otherwise..."
Wen Yue placed her hand on Damian's shoulder, and Damian's words came to an abrupt halt.
Time flies and cannot be retrieved. Damian's obsession with resurrecting Dick is essentially a regret for the mistakes he has made in the past.
"Was Dick's body destroyed by Superman?"
Under the all-knowing gaze of the players, Damian couldn't deny the truth: "It was him..." He turned his head away, saying in a defensive tone, "It's just that I wasn't strong enough to protect Dick's body, otherwise I definitely would have..."
Wen Yue gently shook her head, rejecting the idea with a hint of melancholy: "It's not a question of whether someone is strong enough. Just like Superman is strong enough, but he still couldn't save Lois."
"How do you know so much?" Damian suddenly looked up at the player.
At this point, it was obviously impossible to say that the player knew it from DC Comics. Wen Yue skipped over this question and asked in return, "Why I know is not important. What's important is why you don't know? You attribute everything to not being strong enough, but you've never seriously reflected on whether your choice was really wrong. You persisted on this path to the end without daring to turn back. Have you ever regretted your choice for even a moment, apologized for your impulsiveness, or felt disappointed by your powerlessness, when Nightwing died unexpectedly, when his body was destroyed by Superman?"
“I…I…” Damian lost his words.
“We always want to cherish things, yet we're full of temper.” Wen Yue softened her tone: “Damian, perhaps in your eyes, justice is never about acting on behalf of heaven, unbound by outdated rules; Batman's helplessness is a sign of cowardice; Superman is the true lord of justice. But you don't understand, justice is always a compromise between the best and the worst. The best is to do bad things without being punished; the worst is to be punished but unable to retaliate. Justice itself is never benevolent, but rather a matter of helplessness.”
"There are never clear-cut distinctions in the world, so don't let them limit your life. You've divided the world in two, allowing only success and forbidding failure, recognizing only excellence and rejecting mediocrity, as if life were a gamble you had to win. It's understandable, after all, that's how you survived in the League of Assassins, and you believe that's why you became Wayne's son. But perhaps in that extremely abnormal League of Assassins, your viewpoint was not problematic. Yet, when you leave there and live a free life, able to choose your own path, you still cling to that old logic."
"Damian, you understand how social rules and mechanisms work, but you've never truly experienced or deeply considered how they work. Your life is unremarkable. Your intelligence has allowed you to achieve more than your peers at a young age, but it's also your intelligence that has turned your life into an extreme judgment problem, with only right or wrong answers. There's no complex, unpredictable, and emotionally nuanced future to consider. You haven't found your own path. You don't know what you really want, nor have you figured out what you're doing. You've stuck on the choices and judgments you've already made. Besides that, you have nothing. You've locked your heart in the swordplay of the Assassin's Creed, content with just surviving and doing what's predetermined, refusing anyone's approach or outstretched hand."
Sadness welled up in Wen Yue's eyes. She paused for a moment before continuing, "And what's even more tragic is that neither Augu nor Wayne left their bloodline with a single, completely personal hobby. You like those stray animals and become their protector. Is it about owning them, or about sharing their suffering? Your harsh upbringing and complicated identity only bring you confusion and helplessness. You can't find a way out, and you act arrogantly."
“You told me that you didn’t do whatever you wanted, that everything you did was a choice made freely in your heart, but are you really free? Are you really not just throwing a tantrum? And now, do you know what I want most? I want you to walk out of that never-ending battlefield in your heart, leave, and never look back.”
Damian sat silently on the sofa, his mind a jumble of thoughts.
"At the same time, I also hope that you can move forward without holding grudges and forgive yourself." Wen Yue leaned closer and hugged Damian gently, whispering in his ear, "I think Dick has already forgiven you, otherwise he wouldn't have possessed you."
His lake-green eyes shimmered in the warm light, the ripples vanishing with each blink. Damian gazed intently at this extraordinary Batman, his thoughts traversing the past to focus on the present. Everything he had concealed was laid bare, revealing a turbulent undercurrent beneath his calm exterior. He had finally broken free from the slumber of lucidity, and Damian's tone was unusually composed this time: "Thank you. I think I understand." He seemed to have transformed and matured in an instant.
In reality, a person who breaks free from their cocoon and transforms into a butterfly will not undergo such a dramatic change simply because of a few words from a familiar stranger.
Damian's growth at this moment is the result of all his accumulated experiences in his original world. Every moment after accidentally killing Dick, he carried Nightwing's Calicut with him; the moment he lost control and pushed Alfred away when he took the Superman drug to the Batcave; the result of choosing to expose the undercover agent sent by Batman and receiving Superman's order to reveal Batman's true identity as Bruce Wayne to the world; when Batman was wanted by Superman, Wayne Manor was completely abandoned, and he had nowhere to go home; after Dick possessed Damian and helped him through a life-or-death crisis, the two souls spent a short period of time together; and the suddenness of Dick seemingly disappearing from his body after arriving in the new world.
Damian, having become arrogant and complacent in favorable circumstances, made mistakes. Ultimately, he transformed and grew through adversity. He had long been without support, his roots teetering on the brink of collapse. After Wen Yue's words, he finally broke free from his self-imposed constraints and began to soar. He no longer clung to the past, no longer depended on anyone, and was no longer trapped in regret and confusion. He had found direction, possessed hope, and looked ahead.
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Author's Note: *My Relationship with the Temple of Earth
There is no such thing as right or wrong, only whether you believe it or not.
*The Empty Era
We always want to cherish things, yet we're full of temper.
*A Quiet Record from a Small Window
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