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The chaos in the living room had dulled. Half the team was passed out on various couches and beanbags. Jaime snored softly, a controller still balanced on his stomach. Kory hummed an old Tamaranian lullaby as she floated a blanket over Gar and Raven. Even Damian had disappeared, likely to the training room or the rooftop.
Mars lingered by the window, eyes fixed on the city lights beyond the glass. The world out there felt so far away.
"Hey," came Dick's voice, quiet but firm.
She glanced over her shoulder.
He motioned toward the hallway. "Walk with me?"
Mars hesitated, then followed.
They ended up in one of the smaller Tower balconies — the one no one really used, with a weathered bench and a cracked planter box still growing stubborn mint. The air smelled like rain-soaked concrete and salt.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Finally, Dick broke the silence. "You've been carrying this weight for so long, Mars. And you don't have to."
Her throat tightened. "You don't get it, Dick. If you knew—"
"Then tell me," he said softly. "Tell us. You think you're protecting us by keeping it locked up, but it's tearing you apart. And it's hurting them too. You saw how Kory was tonight. Gar. Hell, even Damian."
Mars swallowed hard, blinking against the sting in her eyes.
"I was fourteen," she whispered, voice cracking like old glass. "I—I don't even know what triggered it. One minute I was just... me. The next—my shadows, they ate everything. My room. My family. The people who came to help. It was like this... screaming inside me. It wouldn't stop."
Dick's jaw clenched, but he stayed quiet, giving her space.
"My mom—she called me a monster. Said they should've put me down when the tests started failing. That I was broken. Wrong." Her voice wavered, trembling with the force of old wounds reopening. "They sent me away. To some facility. Drugged me. Cut into my head. Wanted to fix me."
A tear slipped down her cheek, and she didn't bother to wipe it away.
"I was alone. Every damn day. They told me if I let the shadows out, people would die. That I was a threat. And maybe they were right."
"They weren't," Dick said, his voice thick. "They were scared of what they didn't understand."
Mars shook her head. "I don't know how to let people get close. How to... let them care without hurting them."
"That's where you're wrong." Dick stepped closer, placing a hand gently on her shoulder. "You already do. You care so damn much it's eating you alive. And you don't have to do it alone anymore."
Her breath hitched, and suddenly, like something inside her snapped, she crumbled.
The sobs came fast and brutal, years of grief and anger and terror pouring out in harsh, shuddering gasps. Dick caught her as she fell, arms closing around her like a shield.
"I'm sorry," she gasped. "I'm so sorry—"
"No," he murmured into her hair. "You don't apologize for surviving. For being here. For being you."
They stayed like that, her tears soaking his shirt, his hand steady on her back.
When the storm quieted, Mars rasped, "I should tell them. All of it."
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⭐️ Eternal Shadow 🌙 Damian wayne ~~~~complete
FanfictionShe controls the shadows. He was raised by them. Fifteen-year-old Marceline "Mars" Dawn has spent years trying to outrun the past-the night her world was shattered, and the darkness inside her woke up. Now a quiet but powerful member of the Teen Tit...
