Chapter Sixteen

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Dick's POV


As we pass through the door a bright light flashes. I cover my eyes with my arm. Soon enough the light disappears. I move my arm and stare at everything before my eyes. I can see shattered glass all around me. There are more than I can count scattered all around the place. I look at one of the broken pieces closely. It shows the first Christmas that I spent at Wayne Manor. There are some pieces that don't seem to be broken. While others are in a million pieces. "Wow....I'm guessing these are all of Bruce's memories," Tim says his eyes widening at the sight.


"No shit, Sherlock. What are we supposed to do now? Try to piece together the memories?" Jason states. I frown and look around the area we're in. The door that we used to get here is still there. It would seem that we would have to exit the same way we entered. "Let's try to fix some of these memories," I say as I walk over to one shard. The image being shown is only a small part of the full picture. I can still make out the image fairly well. It was when I was younger and had a nightmare. Bruce was busy with a case of some sorts, but he stopped working and came to comfort me. We ended up falling asleep in my room. It was a memory that I'm fairly fond of, it showed how much Bruce really did care for me. I feel Jason walk over and stand beside me. "Can we even touch the shards?" Tim asks, "I found a piece that goes with the memory you're looking at, Dick."


I nod, "Try touching it. Jason, look for other pieces that may go with this memory."


"Fine..." Jason says starting to look around, "You had to choose a sappy memory didn't you..." I roll my eyes at his comment. Tim walks over to me with a shard in his hand. He hands it to me and I take it. I glance at it with a small smile before lining it up accordingly with the other piece. After a few more minutes, we had found the rest of the pieces. We place them near the original shard. "Moment of truth. Let's see if we can fix this memory...." I say, "Want to do the honors Jay?"


Jason shrugs, "Sure. Why not..." He reaches towards the broken pieces and pushes them closer together. I was expecting some flash of light and then the memory to be repaired. Instead, when Jason pushed the pieces together there was a loud grating noise. Followed by a loud cracking. To top it all off, a shattering noise as the pieces broke into a million tinier pieces. "Shit!" Jason exclaims quickly retracting his hands. I stare at the broken pieces and feel my heart fall. That moment was important, now it's gone. It's destroyed. "Jason! What the hell?! You broke the entire memory? Did you have to be so rough? It's gone now because of you!" Tim yells.


Jason glares at him, "I didn't do this on purpose. I wasn't even being rough. It just started to break. How is this my fault?! I doubt you could've saved the memory if you tried to put it together!"


"I bet I can. I could probably fix all of the memories in this place. It would be a lot easier if you weren't here to touch things and mess it all up!" Tim spats, "I'm going to try to fix another memory. Don't come near me, we don't need you to destroy more of Bruce's memories."


Jason grits his teeth, "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be here in the first place. You never would have made it past any of the barriers without me!"


"Oh yeah, sure....don't praise yourself. Don't think you're all that. Dick and I could've handled this without you here. Why don't you just crawl back into your grave..." Tim retorts focusing on fixing another memory.


Jason fumes, "I freaking hate you. You think you know me, but you don't. You throw around the fact that I died like it's nothing. You have no right, replacement, no right to talk about something like that. I never meant to destroy a memory, but you think I did it on purpose. Because I'm always the one at fault. It's always, Jason did it."


"Maybe if you did some good, it wouldn't always be your fault," Tim mutters as he moves the matching memories closer to one another.


"Like you haven't done anything bad...or made a few mistakes..." Jason frowns. I shake my head at the argument my brothers are having. I glance at Jason, who seems to be trying to calm himself down. I look at Tim who is already pushing another set of matching shards together. "Stop! Tim, wait..." I shout.


Tim looks at me, confused, "Why?"


"If you push it together, that memory will most likely shatter too. I'd rather not destroy anymore," I explain.


"But, we don't know that for sure. It could've just been Jason. Maybe, I'll be able to fix this memory," Tim says reaching for the pieces again. His voice drips venom when he mentioned Jason's name. "Is that a risk you want to take?" I ask. Tim quickly pulls his hand away and frowns. "Jay...are you alright? Calmed down?" I ask concerned.


Jason shrugs, "Calm enough that I won't go on a killing spree....hopefully..."


I nod my head, "Both of you come here. You two arguing isn't helping the situation we're in. We're all stressed and we don't know what to do. That doesn't mean we take out our anger on one another. Tim, I know that you want bring back Bruce's memories. We all do. You can't just blame Jason for it not going the way you want it to. We had to go through a lot to get here. It'll be disappointing if in the end we won't be able to bring back his memories. I understand why you reacted the way you did, but please say you're sorry. Jason isn't to blame for this situation. No one is. Well, other than Ra's. But it isn't any of our faults..."


Tim nods his head and looks a bit sheepish, "I'm sorry, Jason. I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you. The things I said weren't very nice and I regret saying them. Please forgive me..."


Jason rolls his eyes and scoffs, "Yeah, yeah, you're forgiven."


"There we go. Problem solved," I say with a small smile.


"Not really, Goldie. What about the memories?" Jason states.


"I've got an idea...." Tim says, "We can pick up the shards. Why don't we take one with us and try to bring it to the front of Bruce's mind. Like take it through the doors and to the forefront of his brain."


I nod my head, "Good thinking, Timmy. Which memory though?" Jason glances at all of the memories. I look at him and he seems to be deep in thought. None of us talk, as Jason walks around looking at the memories. He finally breaks the silence, "This one. We'll take this one." He doesn't wait for us to answer and starts reaching out to grab it. He touches it gently and takes it with just as much care. "Why that one?" Tim asks. Jason walks over to us and shows us the memory. It is fairly intact even though it is cracked all over, making the image hard to see. I can still make it out though. It was when Bruce got hit by fear gas. It was the memory I had told him about, but he couldn't remember. Maybe, we can help him remember it now. "It does look like it will fall apart any minute now, but it's still in one piece. Plus, Dickhead mentioned this moment to the old man. It might be better to take a memory that we already told him about," Jason explains.


"Good thinking Jay, you know you're a lot smarter than you look," I say walking towards the door.


Jason frowns and follows behind me, "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Do I look stupid to you?!"


"Yes. You do look stupid...." Tim says as he opens the door. Jason glares at him and walks through the doorway. As he does so, some of the memory breaks off and falls to the floor. "Shit..." Jason mutters.


"Be careful. Let's just keep going..." I say. Jason nods his head as we make our way to the Zeta Tube. As we enter the Watchtower, half of the memory breaks off. "What the freaking hell?!" Jason exclaims.


"It's fine. It's still mostly intact. Let's keep going before it breaks even more," Tim says heading towards the door. As we enter the fancy room from before, Jason yells out annoyed, "Great! F-ing great! Look at this!" I glance at the remains of the memory. It's a small tiny piece. It seems that we can't take a memory with us. We tried and as we continued to move it slowly deteriorated. Jason grimaces, as the last piece he was holding cracks in half and falls to the floor. "There's another memory down the drain. This entire mission was a failure. What are we supposed to do now?" Tim asks dejected.


Jason shakes his head, "Let's just get back first." I nod my head and make my way to the last door. As I open it, there is a flash of light. Next thing I know, I'm back in the Batcave. I look over to Bruce, who has a frown on his face. I look at my brothers and breathe a sigh of relief. All the injuries that we had sustained in Bruce's mind, didn't have an effect on our actual bodies. Although, I now have a pounding headache. "You were unable to succeed...." Martian Manhunter states. I nod my head. Bruce frowns, "It isn't worth trying anymore. I'm going to prepare for my journey back to League headquarters."


Tim pales at his words, "Dad! You can't leave. We tried, we really did. We saw all of your broken memories, but we couldn't fix them."


"You weren't able to fix them. That's the end of the story than," Bruce says standing. Martian Manhunter looks at me with pity. "I'm sorry I was unable to help. I will take my leave now," Manhunter says. I nod my head at his words. Manhunter makes his way to the Zeta Tube and in seconds, he has left the Batcave. Jason and Tim are staring at Bruce, as he packs weapons and other things for his journey. I walk over to them and place a hand on Tim's shoulder. He looks up at me with tears in his eyes, "What do we do Dick? We're not going to be able to get his memories back. But, we can't just let him leave. He's our dad."


I sigh, "I don't know, Timmy. I really don't know what to do..."


"Wait, old man, stop packing for one second. I've got an idea," Jason states suddenly. We all look at him, waiting for what he has to say. "We're going to Nanda Parbat. Not just Bruce. All of us. Ra's is the reason that Bruce can't remember. If he took away the memories, he sure as hell can bring them back. We're going to get them back, even if we have to beat Ra's to a pulp to do so."




Thank you for reading! Sorry, that it took a bit of time for me to update. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Please comment, vote, add this story to your library, and follow me. Have a great day everyone!

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