"Cassandra is going to get the cowl."
Dick expected laughter. You know, the pre-recorded, fake kind of sitcom laughter that was played after a joke. But no one was laughing. Superman wasn't smiling.
"Cassandra?" Dick repeated, unsure. "Superman, I know she is an alpha, but people will notice that she is not... she is not mo... Bruce."
The correction had been instinctive, as it had been a thousand times before.
It had slipped off his tongue, without anger, without sarcasm, without anything but pain.
For the second time in his life, Dick had been left without a parent, and the pain was so great that he felt a hollowness in his chest.
There were no words to describe what he felt. The correction hadn't gone unnoticed by Superman.
The alien alpha's expression hardened, "She's Bruce's daughter. She has the right. When Damian is old enough, and if he wants, he'll be her successor. But Gotham needs Batman now, and Cassandra will be."
Dick pursed his lips, "I'm his first son. I should be the new Batman."
Please, I've lost everything, at least let me have this, were the words he couldn't say, because never, not once, had he truly thought he'd see a day when Bruce would no longer be there.
He'd been naive, he knew it.
Their lives weren't suited to those who wanted to grow old. Many died.
But many also came back (and hadn't Tim been so stubborn about it? Hadn't he said Bruce could go back but Dick hadn't listened? He couldn't allow himself to listen to Tim and be crushed by reality, again.)
Superman growled, "No, you're not."
He felt his blood boil in his veins, "I am! I'm his first Robin, the one who started it all! In the eyes of the law, I became his son years later, but I..."
"You never wanted to be his son."
Superman's words silenced him, stunned. The Kryptonian's eyes were red. "You made that clear. You screamed it in his face. You spat at him that he was a poor excuse for an omega, that he was not and never would be your mother. You were right. He wasn't. For this reason, the cowl will not go to you."
Dick's heart tightened, began to stammer, skipping beats as if on a string. "I was frustrated. He's... he wasn't an easy man to love..."
"For you, you mean. Because he wasn't normal enough. His problems were an inconvenience to you. You didn't care how they affected him, only how inconvenient it was for you to live with someone who wasn't normal!"
Superman paused to catch his breath, closing his eyes, as if fighting back tears. Dick tried to speak, but the Kryptonian wouldn't let him. "He always tried to do the best he could. He tried. But it was never enough, was it? Your help...you denied him his autonomy, always so righteous, Nightwing. A good alpha. An alpha who had to remind the omega of his place..."
"That's not the case, you know it's not..."
"I know you hurt him. I know that to you, he was a worthless omega. You can't even say he was your mother, Nightwing. Because you always refused to consider yourself his son. So no, the cowl will not go to you. You will not stain his legacy."
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