[ WP ] Batman temporarily steps into the afterlife and sees his parents for the first time in 24 years . They are deeply saddened by what he has become .

`` Bruce... My darling boy...'' Martha looked upon her son with such sad brown eyes. She was dressed in a flowing white gown with a pearl necklace draped across her collarbone. She had n't aged a day. 
 
 Batman was on the ground, trying to get his bearings. One moment he had been fighting Bane and the next complete darkness - then now this blinding light. Had he been hit by some sort of chemical? A toxin? Was he hallucinating? He had to be hallucinating. His eyes looked around wildly, trying to focus - trying to see what was real. 
 
 Still, Martha went to him and tried to help him from the ground. Her gentle touch on his arm certainly felt real as she guided him to his feet. 
 
 `` Mom?'' His normally gravelly voice was much higher and softer than it had been in decades. He looked down to himself to see not the beacon of justice he had become, but the small boy that had lost so much so quickly. He took a step back, knowing that if he was hallucinating -- he *had* to be hallucinating -- that his enemies would take this advantage. He took a fighting stance, pushing away all of the emotions that were welling up inside him. 
 
 `` Oh Bruce...'' That same sad, pitying look met his eyes, almost making him want to turn away in shame. `` Is this what you've become?'' 
 
 `` Stop it!'' The dark knight growled as fiercely as he could in his current state. 
 
 `` I wo n't tolerate you speaking to your mother like that, young man,'' Thomas said sternly, appearing on the other side of him. 
 
 `` We're real, Bruce. You've passed on now. We only want to help you now,'' Martha insisted, putting her hands up and walking towards him. 
 
 `` Passed on?'' He was dead? No, he could n't be *dead*. Batman had no limits. Gotham still needed him. This was a hallucination. 
 
 `` This was never what we wanted for you -- all this senseless violence. You should have lived your life,'' Martha sounded so heartbroken, tears already clouding her eyes and Thomas went over to console his wife. 
 
 Thomas continued for her. `` We've seen what you've done, Bruce. We've watched from here. You've never known true happiness. You've never allowed yourself that. It was n't a life --'' 
 
 `` I've been trying to do what was right. I have to save Gotham --'' 
 
 `` Not like this. Alfred should have gotten you help, Son. You should n't have stopped living without us. You need to realize it --'' 
 
 Everything went black again for a few moments before the caped crusader was back in the blinding white light. 
 
 `` -- responsibility. None of it was,'' Thomas continued on as though nothing had happened. 
 
 Martha looked over to her son and started walking over to him. `` Bruce, we love you. We love you so much... but you ca n't save everyone if you never have saved yourself,'' She said. 
 
 The world's greatest detective was at his breaking point. He could n't stand to see his parents looking at him like this. Hallucination be damned - he missed them too much for this. He reached out to hug his mother and as he did, the world went black again. 
 
 When he awoke, he saw the blinding white light again and it took his eyes a moment to adjust. He looked around wildly a moment, seeing Alfred in the chair next to his hospital bed. 
 
 `` Shhh... Master Wayne, it's alright,'' The butler soothed. `` We thought we lost you there for a tick. You're in the hospital, but you're going to be just fine.'' 
 
 Tears filled Bruce's eyes. It had been real and now he knew what his parents wanted him to do -- what he *had* to do. He just wished he would have had the chance to hug his mother one last time.
