[There's only a few things to really smash Damian's berserk button, among them: assholes fucking with kids. Despite not being able to exactly do anything, he's angry on Summer's behalf.
And it shows. Not on his face, worse, in his eyes. Cold hate. The hate saved for ultimate betrayals and things equally as heinous.]
Pathetic. [His eyes lower to the floor between the pews, both hands fisted on his thighs. In theory, it sounds easier than it would be--Damian knows, he gets it. But nothing is more frustrating to him than lacking options.] If you did whatever mattered so long as you survived...
Why didn't you just threaten to kill him until he sent you back home?
We were all scared and stupid. None of us knew what was happening, the old man barely explained anything. He left us to figure out our magic on our own. I think that's why he didn't get interested in me until later, when he started to figure out what I could do.
[It's still so surreal, to tell this to people and see them get angry, genuinely angry, about it. Part of it is the isolation talking, probably. Part of it is the resignation to the fact that none of the boys ever really wanted to believe her suspicions about Maerlyn, not until it was long past too late.]
But lately? He knows I'm not strong enough to kill him. And even if I ever get close enough to try...I'm only going to get one shot, you know? Plus I don't know if I'd really trust him to send me home, anyway. He knows I want it too much. He'd find a way to fuck it over for me somehow.
[Both brows draw together, and, after a moment, he glances up.]
You're talking like you're going back there, like it's still happening. [Nothing ever said they weren't going back--hell, this whole time, he's been trying to help others get them back where they needed to go, back home.
But after talking to Elizabeth, after seeing Elizabeth's world... It doesn't feel right, sending people back where they came from when the place they came from is shit.] Just because some of us are trying to get back to our worlds...
...doesn't mean you have to go back to your own. You're free now, right? He hasn't even found you here. He might not be able to find you again.
[A false start; she's got to take a minute to sort of regroup and come back around to what's on the tip of her tongue here.]
I guess by now my family must think I'm dead. When you told me about your brothers, you know? I was thinking about mine. I don't know if the guys would've told my family what happened. Hell, maybe he sent them back without their memories of Nevermorrow, I don't fucking know. I don't know anything. I never wanted any of this shit but here I am, phenomenal cosmic powers and all I actually wanted was to finish college.
[She sighs.]
I hope you're right. Maybe he can't find me, and I can get away. Even if I never make it back home for real, anything's better than being under his thumb.
I meant--the world you were at before, the world he kept you prisoner. You don't have to return to that one. We might find a way to send you home.
["Fuck that guy." - Damian Wayne probably]
We'll get you back. Wherever you want to go. There will be a way. We'll find it. [As useless as it feels in terms of them finding a way, Damian sounds... determined. Maybe stubbornly so.
It isn't only about him going home anymore, as bad as he hates it. It isn't about getting Bruce home, Selina, Clark, and Jon. Everyone else, too. The people who weren't anything to him since he didn't know them well.
Now they were friends, and they deserved to go to the place they called home, wherever that may be.]
That's where my portal opened up to, back when I fell into your cave and everything. Mine went back to the island.
[But she's quiet, because there's something that's been nagging at her for a long time, something she'd thought once and carefully buried but never quite forgot about.]
You know, he said he wanted me because my magic was like his. So if he could control me, he could use me as like, a subcontractor. More magic, bigger spells.
...I've always kind of wondered if that means I could learn the same spell that he used, someday. If we're the same, I mean, and he can pull people across worlds. I wonder if that means I could, too.
[Okay, so... this is definitely the kind of optimism he likes to hear. None of that hollow, goody and hopeful shit. Something more manageable, something with hard work attached to it.
It gets the barest bits of a smile to tug the corners of his lips up.] Probably. If you magic is similar to his own, then you can do whatever he can do with practice and fine tuning.
You should try.
Elizabeth was convinced she wasn't able to open her tears here, and then I made her try. They aren't stable... but she can open them, something she couldn't do before.
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And it shows. Not on his face, worse, in his eyes. Cold hate. The hate saved for ultimate betrayals and things equally as heinous.]
Pathetic. [His eyes lower to the floor between the pews, both hands fisted on his thighs. In theory, it sounds easier than it would be--Damian knows, he gets it. But nothing is more frustrating to him than lacking options.] If you did whatever mattered so long as you survived...
Why didn't you just threaten to kill him until he sent you back home?
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[It's still so surreal, to tell this to people and see them get angry, genuinely angry, about it. Part of it is the isolation talking, probably. Part of it is the resignation to the fact that none of the boys ever really wanted to believe her suspicions about Maerlyn, not until it was long past too late.]
But lately? He knows I'm not strong enough to kill him. And even if I ever get close enough to try...I'm only going to get one shot, you know? Plus I don't know if I'd really trust him to send me home, anyway. He knows I want it too much. He'd find a way to fuck it over for me somehow.
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You're talking like you're going back there, like it's still happening. [Nothing ever said they weren't going back--hell, this whole time, he's been trying to help others get them back where they needed to go, back home.
But after talking to Elizabeth, after seeing Elizabeth's world... It doesn't feel right, sending people back where they came from when the place they came from is shit.] Just because some of us are trying to get back to our worlds...
...doesn't mean you have to go back to your own. You're free now, right? He hasn't even found you here. He might not be able to find you again.
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[A false start; she's got to take a minute to sort of regroup and come back around to what's on the tip of her tongue here.]
I guess by now my family must think I'm dead. When you told me about your brothers, you know? I was thinking about mine. I don't know if the guys would've told my family what happened. Hell, maybe he sent them back without their memories of Nevermorrow, I don't fucking know. I don't know anything. I never wanted any of this shit but here I am, phenomenal cosmic powers and all I actually wanted was to finish college.
[She sighs.]
I hope you're right. Maybe he can't find me, and I can get away. Even if I never make it back home for real, anything's better than being under his thumb.
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["Fuck that guy." - Damian Wayne probably]
We'll get you back. Wherever you want to go. There will be a way. We'll find it. [As useless as it feels in terms of them finding a way, Damian sounds... determined. Maybe stubbornly so.
It isn't only about him going home anymore, as bad as he hates it. It isn't about getting Bruce home, Selina, Clark, and Jon. Everyone else, too. The people who weren't anything to him since he didn't know them well.
Now they were friends, and they deserved to go to the place they called home, wherever that may be.]
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[But she's quiet, because there's something that's been nagging at her for a long time, something she'd thought once and carefully buried but never quite forgot about.]
You know, he said he wanted me because my magic was like his. So if he could control me, he could use me as like, a subcontractor. More magic, bigger spells.
...I've always kind of wondered if that means I could learn the same spell that he used, someday. If we're the same, I mean, and he can pull people across worlds. I wonder if that means I could, too.
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It gets the barest bits of a smile to tug the corners of his lips up.] Probably. If you magic is similar to his own, then you can do whatever he can do with practice and fine tuning.
You should try.
Elizabeth was convinced she wasn't able to open her tears here, and then I made her try. They aren't stable... but she can open them, something she couldn't do before.