Chapter 32: Fate
Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
From a young age, John Dee had been obsessed with dreams.
He believed dreams were the most incredible things in the world. No matter who a person was—poor, weak, or born with defects—only in dreams were all beings equal.
Dreams were God's greatest gift to mankind. Only there could you be completely free, casting aside all pressure and worries, even escaping the cage of the frail human body to become anyone and do anything impossible in the waking world.
He had been obsessed with the study of dreams and the concept known as the "lucid dream," trying to train his brain to consciously control his dreamscapes. Unfortunately, this process came with some side effects, which had certain unexpected effects on his psyche.
That was why he was admitted to Arkham.
But this, in turn, brought him a new opportunity in life.
The Perception Enhancer was a piece of equipment donated to Arkham Asylum by a cutting-edge scientific research institution. It was designed to aid in the research of human dreams and could, to a certain extent, amplify a person's senses.
Because it was in a rather dangerous experimental phase, the research team reached an agreement with the Asylum to use the lunatics locked up there for testing, thereby avoiding the need for a large number of volunteers.
This was simply the greatest gift heaven could have bestowed upon John Dee.
He became madly obsessed with the machine. The moment he most looked forward to each week was the few short minutes he could test it as a volunteer—due to the risks, the doctors wouldn't allow patients to use it for longer.
John succeeded. With the machine's help, he felt the dream-related modules in his brain become increasingly developed. He could now almost control his dreamscapes at will, without any negative effects on himself. Because of this, the mental problems that had first sent him to the Asylum were also resolved.
"Your recovery is incredible. I'd say you could be discharged next month," the doctor had told him with a smile.
At that time, John thought his life was about to hit its peak. It was as if he had gone to Arkham, obtained the one thing he had dreamed of for years, and could now return to the proper course of his life.
And then, he was cheated on.
His girlfriend told him when she learned he would be discharged the next month. She was already with John's best friend, and they were planning to get married.
The sudden betrayal left him reeling. It didn't take long for him to become convinced that the wretched pair must have been having an affair for a long time, possibly even before he was admitted to Arkham.
Suddenly, his desire to get out faded, and this spurred him to conceive the boldest idea of his life.
He attacked the doctor, illegally activated the dangerous Perception Enhancer, and used it on himself with all power settings maxed out.
He knew it could be dangerous; a slight miscalculation could turn his brain into a burnt piece of bread. But he didn't care.
It was do or die.
And he succeeded. Thus, Doctor Fate was born, a god of dreams who dominated the dreamscape and possessed a power unattainable by humans!
Using this power, he easily killed his ex-girlfriend and the friend who had betrayed him in their dreams. And he soon realized he could do much more.
He would drag the world into an eternal nightmare and become the god of the new world!
And then…
And then he was blasted apart.
It had gotten to the point where, even after returning to reality, he discovered lingering side effects.
Now, whenever he closed his eyes, the image of that giant with eyes like two salted eggs would appear before him, and with it came the sensation of being overwhelmed and a tearing pain.
He even found that whenever he tried to use his ability to create any dreamscape, he could never erase that terrifying scene from his mind. The direct consequence was that no matter what dream he created now, that horrifying giant would inevitably appear.
The fear of destruction was now branded into his very DNA, impossible to erase, turning all his dreams into his own personal Nightmare!
As John was on the verge of losing his mind, he suddenly sensed someone approaching his hideout.
The Perception Enhancer had not only given him the ability to manipulate dreams but had also enhanced his mind and senses. He could perceive the approach of any thinking, living person within a certain range.
So he quickly discovered who was approaching.
Batman.
Batman was likely the first in the city to notice Doctor Fate.
What initially caught his attention was the news of John's ex-girlfriend and her fiancé dying violently in a Nightmare. He monitored every single death in the city, every day. Any death that the police wouldn't look into, any that seemed suspicious, would be meticulously investigated by him.
Within a day, he had connected the murders to John Dee, who had escaped from Arkham, and the illegally activated Perception Enhancer.
Then, the Nightmare that enveloped Gotham erupted.
Relying on some mental control techniques he had learned while traveling the world, coupled with a bit of Bat-like willpower, Batman forcibly broke free from the Nightmare. Connecting it to the previous day's case, he quickly deduced that John Dee, having gained a Superpower, was likely the culprit.
Based on his mastery of forensics and following the clues found at the escape scene, Batman quickly tracked him here, to the hiding place of John Dee—or as he should now be called, Doctor Fate.
But the moment he pushed open the door to the house, the world around him began to spin.
The old room disappeared, the scene receding like a tide. The black-and-white visuals seemed clipped from an old videotape from the last century. When he came to his senses, he was in a dimly lit alley, the streetlights casting a gloomy, faint glow.
Batman's pupils contracted.
This was a scene he could never forget.
Crime Alley.
A man and a woman, holding the hand of a small child, walked into the alley.
The reason they were in this unfortunate place at this unfortunate time was that the child had petulantly demanded to leave before the movie ended.
*No, this isn't real.*
Batman forced himself to close his eyes and shook his head.
At such close range, Doctor Fate's Superpower was enhanced to its absolute limit. He didn't even need his target to be asleep to make them succumb to his dream-weaving.
Batman ignored it all and continued to advance.
Then the gunman appeared.
A robber, holding an old handgun. A grim reaper who seemed to have been guided here by destiny, fated to pull the trigger at this very moment.
*No, this is just a Nightmare,* Batman continued to tell himself.
*Focus on the mission. Alfred is still in the Nightmare, Gordon is in the Nightmare, and the whole city is in danger.*
*You were too late to save those two, but you can still save others.*
*Too late…*
Bang.
A gunshot, and two flashes of fire tore through the silent alley.
"No!" He finally couldn't stop himself from crying out.
This was the one scene, the one night, that he could never ignore.
The man and woman fell, a pearl necklace breaking and scattering across the ground.
In a daze, Batman's figure overlapped with that of the helpless child, kneeling with his head bowed amidst the scattered pearls and blood.
Beneath the advanced equipment and the dark cape, he was, in the end, just that eight-year-old boy, kneeling and crying in his parents' pool of blood.
Then, Thomas Wayne, lying on the ground, suddenly moved.
He staggered to his feet from the pool of blood, his face as pale as a zombie's, a reaper's scythe in his hand.
"It's all your fault."
"If you hadn't insisted on seeing that damn movie."
"If you hadn't demanded to leave early…"
Batman remained kneeling with his head bowed, unresponsive.
Thomas Wayne raised the scythe in his hand.
"You killed us!"
The scythe swung down.
But in that instant, a hand shot out from under the cape, seizing his wrist and stopping the scythe's descent.
Batman slowly raised his head, his eyes under the mask flashing with a furious but resolute light.
The scene changed again. The pool of blood and the pearl necklace, the corpses on the ground, the dim lights, and the entirety of Crime Alley vanished.
The figure of Thomas Wayne also disappeared, replaced by a shocked John Dee, whose hand, holding a sharp knife, was clasped in Batman's grip.
"How… how is this possible!?"
John Dee was beyond shocked.
"You resisted my Nightmare?"
"At this distance? While looking straight into my eyes!?"
He was Doctor Fate, the master of nightmares! His power was so strong it could drag an entire city into a hellish nightmare, decide their life and death, and make them submit to him for all eternity!
It was one thing to have his dreamscape shattered by that inexplicable giant—that thing didn't even look human; it might have been a god or something else.
But the guy in front of him, a normal human in a bat costume…
He could be immune to my ultimate attack at point-blank range!
How is that fair?
John struggled to meet his gaze, forcing out a final question through gritted teeth.
"Why…?"
A fist landed on his face.
Looking down at the unconscious John Dee at his feet, Batman was expressionless.
"Because I'm Batman."
(end of chapter)