⭐️ Eternal Shadow 🌙 Damian wayne ~~~~complete

Chapter 16: Shadows Don't Sleep

''They did?'' her voice still like a scared whisper. 

''they did, yes. Raven had come to visit to bring you a few shadow-dampening crystals and Jaime came in a few times to check if you had woken up already.'' he looked at her grabbing a stone off of the nightstand. 

''Kory mostly stood behind the infirmary window, checking in on you're vitals from there, not wanting to accidentally wake you up, and Gar was too scared that he would hurt you or make a mess in this room, so he kept pacing around in the hallway, slightly feeling guilty for not noticing your pain sooner'' 

He spoke this all out with no remorse for any secrets they would want to keep about they're own pain. Mars started to feel a guilt for kory and gar. If she would have lost more control within her own pain she could have hurted them. 

''So why did you stay?'' Mars softly asked. ''Especially after how I pushed you away.''  

Her eyes sought contact with his eyes. 

''because the others wouldn't, and you needed someone to refill your IV when it empties.''

he deflected the question onto a reason that could be put out to be done in the morning. 

Mars looked back down, getting an even more of feeling that he hated her and she hated herself for it. 

''and ... because I had to.'' Mars her eyes shot back up to his in confusion.  ''Not from Dick or Kory but from myself.'' 

''What do you mean, Damian?'' Mars questioned, confused about his answer. 

''I couldn't let you suffer all by yourself after what you have been through''

His eyes never left her face as he still held her hands. 

A comfortable, aching quiet settled between them, the only sound in the room the steady, dull hum of machines and the occasional flicker of candlelight. Mars's gaze drifted down to their joined hands, a small anchor in the storm still lingering beneath her skin.

Out of the corner of her eye, something caught her attention. A faint pulse of pale blue light from the nightstand.

The crystal.

It was one of Raven's shadow-dampening wards, small and smooth, its glow dim in the dark room. Mars slowly reached out, her fingers brushing against the cold surface. The moment her skin made contact, a faint twinge echoed through her mind — not a voice, not a word... more like a presence.

A ripple in the shadows.

Mars flinched, the sensation burning cold along the inside of her skull. Damian noticed immediately, his hand tightening around hers.

"What is it?" he asked, low and alert.

She shook her head, teeth gritted. "Nothing... it's fine."

But it wasn't. Something was wrong. The shadows inside her recoiled like startled animals, and for a brief second, she swore she felt someone watching. Not from the doorway. Not from the window. From somewhere farther. Darker.

A disembodied flicker across the infirmary's comm screen — a static-glitched image, too quick for the untrained eye. But Mars caught it.

A tall figure in a hooded silhouette. Pale, ancient eyes.

Ra's.

It was gone in an instant. The comm dark again, as if it had never happened.

Damian noticed her stiffen. "Marceline...?"

"I'm fine," she lied, pulling the blanket tighter around herself. "It was just the crystal. Nothing else."

He didn't press further, but his eyes lingered on her too long for it to be unnoticed.

Mars set the ward down carefully, letting her fingers trail along its smooth edge before withdrawing her hand. The shadows inside her settled again, but not quite as deeply as before. The room felt a little colder. Or maybe that was just her imagination.

"Whatever it was... if you see it again," Damian murmured, his voice quieter than before, "you tell me."

A promise and a warning, all in one.

Mars nodded, though she wasn't sure if it was out of agreement or fear.

The room settled again after that strange pulse, the low hum of the tower's systems filling the space between them. Marceline felt the lingering sting of whatever had passed through the shadows, but she didn't have the strength to chase it right now. And maybe... she didn't want to.

Her gaze drifted back to Damian.

He was still holding her hand.

Still here.

The question slipped out before she could stop it, carried on a breath so quiet it barely reached the air.

"Why do you keep saving me, Damian?"

His eyes flicked up to hers. No mask, no walls, no cold detachment — just him. Tired, worn, and carrying too many things no one else could see.

There was a long, aching pause before he spoke.

"Because someone has to," he said first. But it wasn't sharp. It wasn't a deflection this time. It was an admission.

He swallowed, his fingers brushing against hers again, hesitant, like touching something fragile.

"And... because I don't want to watch you disappear."

Mars' throat tightened, her chest pulling uncomfortably around the words she couldn't say. No one had ever said that to her. Not like that.

She didn't answer. She didn't have to.

Instead, she let her head sink back into the pillow, her body still heavy and aching but her pulse slowing for the first time since she woke. The shadows around the room seemed to soften, the candles flickering lower.

Damian didn't move.

He stayed there, watching her as her eyes began to flutter shut, exhaustion tugging her under.

Her voice was a slurred whisper before sleep claimed her.

"Don't... leave..."

He leaned in slightly, his free hand brushing a loose strand of hair from her face, his expression unreadable to anyone but the unconscious girl in front of him.

And as she drifted into sleep, Damian murmured a quiet, almost broken promise into the dark.

"I won't leave you again, Marceline. Even if you run... I'll be there."

His hand lingered in hers, and for the first time in days, the room felt safe.

At least for now.

⭐️🌑🌘🌗🌖🌕🌔🌓🌒🌑⭐️

______________

Hiyaa guys, 

I hope that yall loved this nice and long chapter. i have found some time to write a bit more so yall can expect longer chapters. 

Can yall please tell me how far yall like the book thank you. 

---onyx