Okay but I cannot stop thinking about a Neglected!Batfamily Reader in a Project Hail Mary AU after just watching the movie last night and specifically the Batfamily finding out everything through the mission recordings years later.
Because imagine Reader leaving Gotham and eventually changing their last name. Not out of spite or anger or some huge dramatic fight.
They just... stop being a Wayne. They take their mother's maiden name, move on with their life, and nobody notices. Dick thinks Bruce is still in contact with them. Bruce thinks one of the others is. Jason assumes they're gone no contact but still in gotham and are doing fine somewhere. Tim thinks they're busy with Highschool. Damian doesn't even care because he thought they're useless and beneath him.
And meanwhile Reader becomes a middle school science teacher, earns multiple degrees, becomes one of the world's leading experts on astrophage, and somehow the Batfamily never learns any of it.
Then the astrophage crisis happens and Reader gets recruited for Project Hail Mary.
Except they don't want to go. They want to stay on Earth. They want to keep teaching. They want to stay with their students and live a normal life.
and you know that scene in the movie when they're discussing who should go after the explosion and they tell grace that why would he stay? he has nothing tying him to earth. so imagine that during the recruitment process there are background checks, psychological evaluations, investigations into every part of Reader's life, and one of the things that absolutely destroys me is the idea of the investigators concluding that Reader has no immediate family. No close relatives. No spouse. No partner. No dependents. No loved ones that would complicate deployment. Because when they search for family, they search for the surname Reader legally carries. They search for emergency contacts. Next of kin. People Reader keeps in contact with. And they find absolutely nothing.
Reader doesn't correct them either.
Because technically they're right.
The Batfamily hasn't been part of Reader's life for years.
And there are probably recordings somewhere of officials discussing how Reader is uniquely suited for the mission because there are no significant personal attachments keeping them on Earth. No family waiting for them. No loved ones who need a goodbye.
And years later Bruce is sitting in a League briefing room reading those reports and realizing that when they conducted one of the most thorough background investigations, it never connected the raeder to the Waynes at all. Reader had erased them so completely from their records that the people deciding the fate of humanity genuinely believed they had nobody.
And then Reader goes into space.
And then Reader meets Rocky.
And suddenly the recordings stop being about science and start being about family.
Because the Batfamily watches Reader learn Rocky's language. Watches Rocky learn theirs. Watches them struggle to communicate and then slowly understand each other. Watches them study astrophage together. Collect samples together. Capture live taumoeba together. Watch the reader risk their life to get the life sample. Make discoveries that save two entire worlds together. They watch Reader become happier and happier every time Rocky appears on screen and it slowly dawns on them that this alien knows Reader better than they do.
And what really hurts is how easy it is.
Rocky doesn't need years.
Rocky doesn't need reminders.
Rocky doesn't need effort from the reader.
Rocky doesn't need someone else to tell him Reader matters.
He just decides Reader is important and never looks back.
The recordings are full of moments where they choose each other over and over again. Reader getting injured and Rocky risking his life to save them. Rocky needing help and Reader immediately dropping everything to help him. Reader waking up after almost dying and the first thing they search for is Rocky. Rocky in danger and Reader immediately putting themselves at risk. Neither of them ever hesitates.
And then the Batfamily reaches the part where Reader is finally going home.
Humanity is saved. Earth is safe. Reader has spent years alone in space and now they're finally returning. And for a brief moment everyone watching thinks this is it. This is where Reader comes back. This is where they return to Earth.
Then Reader learns about the leak.
discovers that Rocky is going to die.
No debate. No discussion. Not even thinking thing through. No overthinking.
Because Rocky needs them.
Because leaving him behind feels like betrayal and agonizing pain.
And I think that's the moment that completely breaks the Batfamily because Reader never once talks about earth the way they talk about Rocky. They never fought for earth the way they fought for Rocky. They never looked at earth or them the way they look at Rocky. They cross the stars without hesitation for someone they love while Gotham barely gets a second thought.
Then years later the Green Lantern Corps finally finds them by chance after everyone assumed they died and everyone assumed Reader will want to come home. Why wouldn't they? Earth is their planet. But Reader doesn't want to come back. Not because they're trying to punish anyone. They just genuinely don't want to leave.
Because they have a life now.
They have a home on Erid.
They teach young Eridians. They help them understand human science. They explain radiation and astronomy and biology. They have students who adore them. They have people who rely on them. They have a community. They have Rocky.
And I love the idea that when the Justice League finally makes contact after green corp gave them the report, reader is completely at peace. They absentmindedly trace the scar on their forearm, the one they got when rocky saved them, the one that resembles his hand, and talk about their students the same way other people talk about their children. They talk about Erid with affection. About Rocky with fondness. About their life with happiness. And for the first time, the Batfamily realizes that Reader isn't surviving out there.
They're thriving and living and taken care of in a way they never did on earth.
So eventually Batman asks for a private conversation because surely there has to be something left tying Reader to Earth, to them.
Surely there has to be something left tying Reader to him.
And after years of regret and guilt and wishing for another chance, Bruce finally tells Reader to come home.
And Reader just looks confused.
Because they glance behind them at the city they've spent years living in. At the students waiting for their lesson. At Rocky standing nearby.
Then they look back at Bruce and ask,
And I think that's the worst part.
Because Reader isn't rejecting them.
They genuinely don't understand the question.
Because from Reader's perspective, they're already home.
And after watching years of recordings, after seeing Rocky choose Reader every single day without fail, after seeing an entire alien civilization embrace them, Batfamily finally understands something devastating, they where always worth the effort they dismmised and that they lost something of great value but realized to late. and now the reader is living happily on a different planet adn that they dont need them at all, they never did.
