The night wind in Gotham was so cold that the tears were about to freeze, and when people shed tears, all the light they saw became hazy and dreamy, like a sad romantic poem.

Dick, who was sitting at the edge of the building, felt the cold wind blowing the tears on his face, and his skin was about to freeze, when suddenly, he heard unusual footsteps behind him, calm but heavy.

As soon as Dick turned around, he instinctively shook when he saw the dark and slender figure, but in the next second, he realized that it was not the Batman he knew.

Originally, he should have felt nervous in the face of a strong stranger, but when he realized this fact, Dick felt relieved, and he would rather face the enemy than Bruce now.

"You shouldn't be here." Voices much deeper than Bruce rang out again.

Dick turned and sat back down on the edge of the roof, sniffling and saying, "I don't know you, you don't care where I should be." ”

"He didn't teach you not to leave your back to strangers." Although the strange figure said this, it did not have any intention of attacking, he just walked slowly and stood beside Dick.

"He didn't teach me much, and I don't need him to teach me." Dick said, propped his hands on the eaves.

"He's not a good father." The strange Batman said, "Batman will disappoint everyone." ”

"I let him down." Dick quietly looked at the lights under the roof, he took a deep breath and said, "I know I made him angry, and he felt very disappointed and sad. ”

"I don't know what drove me to do this." Dick shook his head and said, "I don't know why, when I was face to face with him, I had so many negative emotions in my heart, like a sea. ”

"I'm worried that he thinks I'm stupid, but I think he should have realized that I'm stupider than others earlier, and I'm afraid that he will find out that I'm not as good as others, but I think he must have thought I'm inferior to others a long time ago."

"I'm afraid he's losing his patience, but I want to know what he's going to do to me when he loses his patience, and I know it's going to make him sad to anger him, but I can't help but see him lose control and can't keep him in control anymore, and he looks very embarrassed."

Dick stretched out his hands to cover his face, and his voice seemed to be covered with a layer of fog: "I want to make him happy, but I rejoice when he is not happy, I am simply the worst bad boy in the whole world." ”

"It's not your fault." The strange Batman spoke: "Between career and family, he made a wrong choice, and he never thought to correct it, and he deserved to suffer the consequences." ”

The strange Batman turned his head to look at Dick, the little boy's red eyes like fragile and brittle ice after being blown by the cold wind.

"I can't find an answer." Dick shook his head lightly and said, "For my inexplicable bad thoughts, for my uncontrollable anger at him, for my unreasonable and rude behavior." ”

After saying that, he turned his head, looked up at the strange Batman standing beside him, and asked, "Who are you?" ”

This time, the strange Batman didn't answer with "I'm Batman", he looked back at Dick, reached for the edge of his mask, and then took it off.

As Dick expected, it wasn't Bruce, but to his shock, the man in front of him was seven points similar to Bruce.

Only he was older and more tired.

"Do you have time to listen to a story?" The strange man uttered another questioning sentence in an affirmative tone, and he crouched down, put his foot on the edge of the house, and looked at the city.

"There's Gotham in my world, too, except that after the guns went off in crime, Bruce Wayne died, and Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne lived."

"But perhaps, at that time, we too died, but not yet buried, leaving a little room for imagination in this sad world."

"Martha couldn't accept the death of her son, she went crazy, cut the corners of her mouth, and became a crazy person who was always smiling, and I, for revenge, in order to eliminate criminals, became the Dark Knight of Gotham and became Batman."

"For several years, I have traveled to every corner of Gotham, fighting crime that can never be stopped, and darkness that can never be extinguished, without a moment of stopping, not a moment of idleness."

"Days like these have taken away all the joy and blurred the good memories of what I once had, and I became the unhappiest person in the whole city, and Martha wanted to make me happy, and she wanted me to smile by slitting the corners of my mouth."

"I can't let her do that, I'm trying to fight her, against my wife I used to love the most."

"I thought it would last forever, until one day I learned that Barry the Flash could turn back time and change the past by running at top speed, so I found him and I wanted Bruce alive."

"Barry is a kind man, he agreed to my proposal, and I was ecstatic to find Martha, saying that our son was coming back soon, and that everything would be back on track."

"But then, Martha and I knew that if it was us who died that day, then Bruce would be Batman, repeating this dark and tragic fate, Martha was even crazier, and she couldn't laugh anymore, so she died."

Dick listened quietly, as if he were really listening to a story, and when he turned his head to look at the man next to him, he didn't see any sadness on his face, only the numbness and exhaustion he always had.

"Barry has an enemy, he calls him Professor Speed, he is also very fast, and he can travel through the universe, Barry and I tried to stop him from doing evil, and at the last moment, he took me out of my universe."

"He said he was going to send me to a new universe to see for himself how his son was tormented by the darkness."

"He succeeded, and I came here, to a world where Bruce Wayne is Batman."

"And in this world, I am already dead, with Martha, under the gunfire of the suspect...... Yes, I'm Thomas Wayne, Bruce's father. ”

"He shouldn't be Batman." Thomas's tone finally fluctuated a little, and became more muffled.

"The world doesn't need Batman, the Dark Knight of Gotham can't change anything, he should go back to Bruce's life, put an end to those tragedies that may happen, and be an ordinary person, or a good father."

When Thomas said the end, his eyes fell on Dick's face, Dick pursed his lips with a hesitant expression, and after a moment of silence, he spoke.

"Sometimes, I feel very wronged, Bruce doesn't seem to know me at all, and maybe, my talent is really not enough for him to value."

"Before, he may have no choice, he needed an assistant and a successor, he met me, so he took me back, but now, he has met better, and he should really value them and cultivate them, so that he can have a better heir."

"As for my ......," Dick said, tilting his head slightly, "I shouldn't be here anymore, I should go back to Brughhaven and be a small-town boy." ”

"But the reason why I didn't do it was because I was unwilling, my parents were not able to investigate the case of my grandfather's death, they were just ordinary acrobats, and if someone pointed a gun at them, they couldn't hide."

"I want to learn from Batman and avenge my grandfather and protect my parents."

"If that's the case, why should I care if Bruce values me? I just think of him as a teacher to teach me. ”

"So, I also think about whether I want too much, he is not my biological father, he has no obligation to raise me, I should not provoke him, I should not make trouble with him, and I should not run out after I made a mistake and live like a crying baby."

"Why would I do that?" Dick asked himself softly.

"Because you love him." Thomas said, "You love him, so you want to know if he loves you too...... But he let you down. ”

Thomas looked down at Dick and said, "Batman wants to pick a good assistant, but he doesn't understand that he will miss out on more while trying to raise an heir." ”

"It would be a complete tragedy to miss out on the most precious things in the world, to miss out on the love that others have for him, and to miss out on the love for others that once passed in his mind."

"The evil of this world will not completely disappear because of one person, if someone takes it as a goal, or even gives up all love, then he is the stupidest fool in the world."

Dick's hand suddenly clenched, his Adam's apple moved, he took a deep breath and said, "I hope he doesn't be so lonely." ”

"But Batman is destined to be lonely." Thomas's sigh drifted off into the distance.

"Are you here to convince me?" Dick turned his head to stare at the side of his face and asked, "You want me to convince him not to be Batman again?" ”

"You're smart."

Dick's heart felt a sense of anger at being used, but it suddenly occurred to him that the man in front of him was Bruce's father, who knew Bruce better than he did, and was closer to Bruce than he was.

Dick stood up and turned to walk back, saying as he went, "I'm not going to be used by you to say anything to Bruce, and it's only our business that the two of us quarrel about, not you." ”

Thomas stood up and looked at his back, and said in a deep voice, "Even if I don't take advantage of you, one day, you will understand these truths." ”

In the next second, he fell under the tall building, followed by a glowing batrang that cut through his skin just a few centimeters.

Thomas jumped from the tall building, sank into the shadows on the side of the staircase, and then swung up with his hook and began to jump from one building to the top.

Another figure almost identical to him chased after him, except that Thomas's run was in the shadows and another Batman leaped between the neon lights.

Two black shadows jumped on the roof of Wayne Building one after another, and Thomas was already wearing a mask, so Batman felt a trance when he looked at this identical self.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Batman."

After saying this, Thomas jumped off the building again, but Batman didn't chase after him, because he was shocked by the answer in his mind that was true or false, and he couldn't act for a while.

With a click, the lock was opened, and a cloaked figure appeared in the dimly lit inquiry room, Thomas took off his mask and sat down at the table, opposite him with a pair of gray eyes.

"Do you see the results?" Gray eyes blinked.

"You're right, I'm not a good father...... Neither is he. ”

"Do you want to stop him?"

"I have to stop him, and you're going to help me, and you're helping yourself, and that's why I came to you, Professor Schiller, or rather...... Clown. ”

The little bat is going to be out of luck

(End of chapter)