Chapter 2533: Cloak Contention Battle (54)

Batman and Batwoman were searching for Bruce's whereabouts, knowing that the key to everything probably still rested with the Batman of this cosmos.

Finding Bruce was actually not difficult; although the policewoman refused to reveal more, considering Gordon's character, the district where they lived wouldn't be far from the police station. Furthermore, given their financial situation, there weren't many neighborhoods to choose from.

Batman and Batwoman had practically searched all the surrounding areas, and now only two target neighborhoods remained. They decided to head to one of them, but as they were on their way, the space around them suddenly changed.

To be precise, the entire Dreamworld changed. Suddenly, the surrounding space and time began to rapidly shift, making both of them feel as if they were in the center of a storm.

The bushes turned from green to yellow and then back to green, leaves grew and then withered, flowers bloomed and then dropped, the signs on the streets started to look old and decayed, and the roads became pitted and uneven.

Batman looked down to see the hands on the watch on his arm spinning rapidly, eventually leaving almost only a blur.

"Time is fast-forwarding!!!" Batwoman shouted.

In an instant, the storm stopped.

What appeared before them was still the familiar street, but the scenery had undergone drastic changes. Some of the original stores were still there, some had moved away. Those that remained had become somewhat worn, and the freshly painted crosswalk had begun to look mottled. The trees had grown more than a notch taller, and the style of posters on the walls had jumped an era.

When Batman looked at his watch again, he found that the year indicator had moved forward by 20 years.

"What's going on?" Batwoman frowned and said as she looked around, "Time has skipped. Who can control... oh, this is the Dreamworld."

Both of them realized that it wasn't someone who had actually controlled the time of the cosmos, but rather that the Dreamworld was inherently this way, or perhaps it's better to say that the inspiration for the typical movie time montage actually comes from dream sequences.

No one actually lives through every detail of ten years in their dreams—they usually jump to ten years in the future, or switch between ten years in the past and the present.

As protagonists of the Dreamworld, if they were not aware that they were dreaming or deliberately treated this place as the real world, then they would not think there was anything wrong with such leaps. They would believe they had truly lived through those ten years.

"The Creator of the Dreamworld fast-forwarded twenty years of time," Batman said. "Why did he do this? What does he want to do?"

Bat Cat and Little Kryptonite followed Crocodile Cat in the sewers, searching continuously. Soon, combining the testimony from Crocodile Cat and the clues from the previous half-footprint they found, they began to home in on a target location.

Turning a corner in the sewer, they finally saw a glimmer of light at the end, and Bat Cat cautiously approached, only to find that it was the crack of an open door.

He peeked his head through to take a look and saw a pitch-dark room with only the silhouette of a person sitting and a screen that was playing.

Bat Cat recognized that silhouette as possibly being one of the Batmen, he tiptoed through the door and crouched behind a chair to look at the screen.

The screen appeared to be playing a home video of a very happy family of three: a father, a mother, and a little daughter.

"Hey, Gwen, where's Annie's hat? I remember bringing it, where did you put the hat?"

"Perhaps it's in the picnic basket," said the gentle and beautiful lady as she turned to rummage through her bag and said, "It's definitely not with me, maybe you should check the car trunk."

"We've got to convince her to wear it, otherwise she'll get sunburned again. Alright, I'll check by the car."

The man walked towards the car, and a figure with temples full of white hair emerged from the driver's seat, stuffing a bag into the man's arms, "Peter, you're always so forgetful, you nearly left this bag at the foyer. If it wasn't for your aunt, nobody would have had hats to wear today."

The man called Peter smiled sheepishly and said, "Thanks, uncle. Where's aunt?"

"Halfway here she realized she forgot the honey dressing, a secret ingredient essential for the Parker family's barbecue, so she turned back to get it. She'll be here soon. And Mr. Todd?"

"He'll arrive any moment... Oh, is that his car? I'll go and meet him." Peter walked briskly towards the other end of the lawn.

The person who got out of the car was none other than a middle-aged Jason Todd. Peter was much younger than him, but both clearly were now middle-aged men.

The woman getting out of the passenger seat, and two kids bouncing down from the back seat—one seemingly in middle school and the other younger—followed.

"Oh! Polly and Reed!" Peter advanced to hug each of them, holding hands with each child and saying, "Let's go, Mr. Todd and Miss Todd, Annie has been waiting for you guys for a long time, insisting on playing building blocks with you."

In front of the screen, Bat Cat almost immediately recognized this Peter as Peter Parker, and the one called Todd was Jason Todd.

Bat Cat leaped onto the chair's arm, where he saw Arkham Batman with tears streaming down his face.

The scars on Jason's face had vanished, and it was evident from the screen that he was older than Batman. He looked aged but not frail, radiating good health and vigor.

More importantly, his eyes were very calm; the tempest of anger that used to whirl in his eyes during his youth had long since abated. The raging waves had settled, conveying peace, stability, and happiness.

"Jason..." Arkham Batman murmured his name, and even with Bat Cat jumping onto him, he did not snap out of it.

"What's wrong, Batman?" Bat Cat waved its paw in front of his eyes and then climbed up his arm to his shoulder.

Arkham Batman did not answer; he kept looking at the scene on the screen with a focus that was almost greedy, watching Jason's happy and fulfilled smile among his wife and children.

Bat Cat furrowed its brows deeply, sensing something very wrong, and then it heard Arkham Batman whispering softly, "Yes, this is the life he should have, this is..."

"Are you out of your mind?!" Bat Cat interrupted him, "You can't be so easily deceived by an illusion, can you? You're Batman."

"This isn't an illusion!!!"

Arkham Batman suddenly roared, startling Bat Cat.

Bat Cat paused, then pressed its paws onto his shoulder and said, "You should know it's not difficult to make a movie like this, right? I can understand you're looking for a mental haven, but this is a bit too..."

Arkham Batman squeezed the armrest tightly, closed his eyes, and spoke with a trembling voice, "Jason is a good kid. If I hadn't taken him in, he could have had this kind of life; he's clever, capable, and strong. Of course, he could have..."

"Instead of... instead of..."

Arkham Batman's voice faded away, as he was never good at expressing his emotions with words.

"Do I have the right to be the judge?" Arkham Batman repeated Spider Man's words, "Do I have any right to make such decisions, to let a child suffer for the safety of others?"

"No, wait!" Bat Cat shouted, "Snap out of it! You're Batman, what are you raving about?!"

"I'm not crazy! You are the ones who are crazy!" Arkham Batman began to roar again, "What's wrong with letting him continue like this?! He deserves this! This is what I, society, and the world owe him!"

"But none of this is real!" Bat Cat said with a heightened tone, "This is Dreamworld, this..."

"As long as I never wake up, it's not a dream!"

Arkham Batman stood up from the chair, picked up Bat Cat, and looked into its eyes with a gleam, "I know who sent me here. I'm not faint, not crazy, and not trapped. He told me he could show me what Jason Todd really wants... and he did it!"

Bat Cat yowled and bit Arkham Batman's hand, then took the moment when he winced in pain to leap away, standing at a distance and warily watching Arkham Batman.

Although it was a cat, it was also Batman; how could it not understand that someone was beguiling Arkham Batman, exploiting his emotional vulnerabilities with precision.

Even if Jason said he didn't mind, even if he said it didn't matter, how could Batman truly let go? How could he shamelessly think that as long as the victim forgives, everything could be swept away?

Moreover, the victim would never forgive; Batman himself had never forgiven criminals.

Of course, they must look forward and keep moving, but the most terrifying aspect of such trauma is knowing clearly that no matter how broad the road ahead, the past is constantly rotting until one day the decay catches up and consumes the future entirely.

Batman could not allow that to happen. He believed that letting Jason continue in this state was simply repeating the same mistakes. He had to find Jason a new path, there must be a new path.

It would be best if it were the complete opposite of his own, the farther away the better because he knew that the path he was on was not where his heart lay; it was more like a disease: terminal, beyond cure.

The one who placed him here made a bet with him, claiming that Jason would surely have a bright future, and as long as he watched from here, he would definitely see what he wanted to see.

Yes, he indeed saw it; it turns out that the end of the road was at the beginning. If Jason had not been picked up by him, if Jason was not a superhero, he would have lived a happy life like this.

Batman knew Jason could do it because he was so smart and strong, thriving on the streets of Gotham from a young age. Without talking about being immensely wealthy, getting married and having kids, leading an ordinary life for sure wouldn't be a problem.

How could he not want it? Batman thought, in the days of wandering the streets, perhaps Jason's biggest hope was just this, right? Was it his intervention that provided him with a goal that couldn't really be called a goal, a dead-end road he himself hadn't managed to navigate?

"There's still a chance to make amends, still a chance," Arkham Batman muttered to himself, "He chose this path, he thinks it's good, so let it be... just let it be..."

He stumbled toward the door, quickly stopped by Little Kryptonite, who shouted at him. Bat Cat ran out at top speed, following behind Arkham Batman and yelling.

"Snap out of it! If that really is Jason, he's also under a spell, none of this is true!!!"

Arkham Batman suddenly stopped in his tracks, turned his head, and glared fiercely at Bat Cat, "So you think he should just become a superhero at all costs, sacrifice himself, uphold justice, and never deserve to have such a peaceful and happy life, do you?!"

"But he's not a wealthy tycoon, not a super-genius; he's just an orphan abandoned on the streets of Gotham, who suffered from poverty and hunger in his youth, and unfortunately was tortured by brutal criminals. What does he have to do to pay even more for that?!"

"He's sick, his mind has broken down; he lacks the ability to be a hero..." Arkham Batman's voice had shaken to breaking, his words gradually disappearing into the silence and darkness of the sewer.

"He has no such responsibility anymore..."