[Comprehensive British and American] Bat Parenting Encyclopedia

She is a big girl, she has opinions and ideas, and she will already refuse her father's loving hug with a look of disgust.

Bruce nodded, knowing what Doctor Strange meant. Under this favorable time ratio, he needed to delay Helena in that space as much as possible, divert her attention, and wait for the laws of nature to take effect.

He ignored Damian's protest, put down his hand on his chin, and simply corrected the personal pronoun in Doctor Strange's words.

"It's not us. It's just me," he said, "and what I'm going to do is procrastinate."

It's almost obvious that Batman, as usual, is going to be alone, first.

It also serves this purpose. In addition to exposing the identity to facilitate communication, what if Bruce?Doctor Strange and Agent Romanoff can also help cover up if something happens to him.

Of course, the premise is that he successfully saved the multiverse in the five-dimensional space.

Doctor Strange doesn't want to make unnecessary concessions either.As Helena's father, especially after he knew that his biological father Batman and adoptive father Wayne are the same person, he is obviously the best candidate.

This isn't the first time Bruce has performed a heroic act of this sort that is likely to have no return, but he's rarely had such a long goodbye, and with so many people watching, it makes him slightly uncomfortable and want to dive right in. that black hole.

Fortunately, neither my own sons nor the people in the reunion opposite have the habit of being sensational.

Agent Romanov was even more like a soldier, with serious eyes, and he almost saluted him, "If there is any accident, we will be on top at any time." She said simply.

Bruce was very satisfied, and he almost wanted to dig Agent Romanov into the Zhenglian—when will Clark be as sloppy as the Black Widow?

If the five-dimensional space can change reality at will, then it doesn't matter whether he wears the Batman uniform or not, so Bruce chose to use his truest self to face his daughter in another world.

In the process of striding towards the entrance of the floating space, Bruce suddenly found that his hand bowl was caught.

It was a red-haired female agent, "Maybe this sentence is redundant, but your secret is absolutely safe with me."

Then the corners of her mouth raised slightly, and it took a lot of care to notice the rise, "If you come back smoothly, maybe I will really consider going to your house as a nanny. Is the previous offer still valid?"

"Of course," Bruce also replied with a smile to the female agent. Natasha actually saw the slyness in the other's eyes, which made him feel calm and relaxed. "I think I must add that the salary is still at the CEO level."

***************************

Not surprisingly for Bruce, when he stepped into the revolving black hole-like entrance, in a blink of an eye, the late night in Crime Alley appeared in front of him, and he turned into an eight-year-old boy who was walking with his parents' hands.

The three of them were standing at the entrance of that alley, deciding whether to take a shortcut here.

If he throws a tantrum—as Ah Fu said he often did when he was a child—the mother will definitely let him go...

Bruce has heard Jason and Tim talk about the operating rules of this space, as well as the bugs discovered by Jason-the so-called deepest regret is actually subjective and can be overcome.

Bruce chose to do nothing, and the 8-year-old silently watched his parents fall down again.

Having become a parent himself, he cannot be knocked down.

"It's not this, Helena, you need to look for it again." He said silently in his heart.

He clearly confused the manipulators of this space, and the world before Bruce's eyes became a kaleidoscope and a color palette.I don't know how long it took before the colors settled on the dark curtain.

He felt as if he heard a girl's confused voice in his mind.

"This is……?"

The field of vision was black and blue, and the humid air of Gotham rushed into his nostrils—this was the rainy night when he was going to propose to Serena, the roof.

However, "that" Helena did not give Bruce a chance to repent.

The curtain of the stage was drawn again, and Bruce was left in the darkness again—but the difference was that this time there was a girl in her 20s in front of her.

And he also "restored" his original appearance when he entered the space.

From her face, he saw more obvious features that belonged to him and Serena, genetics are always surprising.

She is a very beautiful little girl, but her eyes are colder, colder than his, colder than Damian.

Her figure was tall and straight, with slightly undulating muscle lines on her slender arms. She was much thinner than her mother at this age, but she didn't look weak at all.

Apparently, she was not following her mother's clever way of winning.

Of course Bruce knew that this level of muscle needs to be exercised day after day, which made him very... angry for a while.

Yes, anger, anger at myself, surpasses all other feelings of heartache, distress, and waiting.

Bruce suddenly realized that on the future timeline that created Helena, throughout his life, his life was a failure, no matter from the macro perspective of the world or the micro perspective of the family.

Bruce found he couldn't decide whether to identify the girl in front of him with the baby who had napped in his arms.

He only knew that if he was lucky enough to really walk out of this space, he must protect his daughter thoroughly.

From the perspective of three-dimensional linear time, one is 36 and the other is 20, with only a 16-year age difference—unless Bruce made a girl's belly bigger when he was in high school, it would be impossible to have such a big daughter.

If her body is a mass of energy, then the state presented in front of her eyes should be the projection of her subjective choice.

Is she choosing to face him at this age because this is her original state, or is she deliberately alienating him?

As Bruce watched Helena, the girl looked up and down at him with cautious twinkling eyes.

"So, you don't want to save your parents?" she asked.

She didn't say "grandparents".

"I used to and always thought that was the most painful part of my entire life..." Bruce shook his head, "It still is, and it will be in the future. I will carry this memory with me for the rest of my life. It is the ultimate driving force for my vows and actions .”

"But I don't want to change anything, and you've seen it," he said sincerely to Helena, the dialogue between "father and daughter" was objective and steady, "First, I already know the flashpoint world created by Barry on the spur of the moment, and It didn’t get better because he saved his mother, on the contrary, everything was messed up, and the world was facing destruction, which was actually an inner balancing force of the universe. Of course I can’t make the same mistake again.”

"So, Tim's behavior in the future actually has the risk of disrupting the timeline. In order to create a chance for you to start over, he has already paid the price. In the new history, I don't know what the future will be. Not sure, but she is my daughter and I will protect the world for her."

"Secondly," he lowered his head, "Because of the cloak, the symbol of Batman, and my cooperation with Sheriff Gordon, Gotham's crime rate has dropped by ten percent in the past ten years."

"I'm not a boastful person, but I'm willing to list this as one of my merits. Yes, thinking of the citizens and families I saved, I... don't regret it as much as I thought."

"But you regretted proposing to my mother."

Bruce nodded, speaking directly, "Yes, if we are not together, you will not appear."

He immediately saw a brief storm in the girl's seriousness, even though she quickly covered it up, Bruce still caught it.

"You... regret having me?" she asked.

Is this hurt? So, you actually recognize me as the father?

Moreover, she used the No.1 name, so, under certain circumstances, she would think that the baby is one with her?

"I shouldn't be surprised." The girl immediately shook her head, covering the crack in her expression with a light smile.

Her shoulders stiffened stubbornly, "Anyway, thank you for your frankness," she looked straight into his eyes, "It would be nice if my father could have your frankness too?"

He didn't answer directly.

"I'm just showing you what I regret the most right now. Actually, I can't explain anything for your father. Whether he shares the same thoughts with me, I don't know."

"Personally, the baby brought to me by Tim has given me unimaginable happiness and joy since I was 8 years old, but can it be said that I am very happy to have her?"

"This kind of statement is not a father's love like a mountain, but a manifestation of my selfishness."

"I have only one qualification, that is, to be grateful for her birth, and to be grateful that she chose me to be her father."

"But at the same time, I doubt my ability as a father all the time. If you hadn't been born," he tried to take a step in her direction without receiving resistance, "you wouldn't have experienced all these childhood disasters."

"I am not a qualified father—you have already experienced it yourself." He looked at Helena and said firmly: "I, the future me, are not worthy of being your father."

"There is a saying that children can't choose whether to be born, maybe they don't want to come into this world at all." He continued: "I also give you a chance to repent, and I also suggest to you a chance to repent. "

"Helena, do you prefer not to be born?"

Perhaps Bruce's eyes were too pure and direct, and Helena broke their eye contact after he asked this question.

She didn't answer him.

Bruce didn't ask for an answer either.

A few minutes later, Helena said softly: "This issue is not important anymore. If the multiverse is destroyed together, I don't need to think about whether to be born or not. I am almost successful."

She looked up at him again, and for a moment Bruce could see in her eyes... capricious?

She is challenging him?

So Bruce chose to remain silent, waiting for the little girl to lose her temper.

"Aren't you going to make any comments?" Helena, who had been waiting for a long time for Bruce's answer, tilted her head, "You must want to say—'Don't do this, this is not the real you', my father said so, More than once."

"No," Bruce shrugged easily, as if the two of them were just discussing whether to eat mushrooms for dinner, rather than whether to destroy the world, "this is you, the real you who locked up Stark and Luthor You, the one who decides to destroy the world is also the real you."

"The real you, this concept is very vague and cannot withstand scrutiny-you subjectively decide to do the above behavior, why do you want to say that this is not the real you?"

Bruce lowered his head and smiled wryly at the little girl, "This is what I educated you, and what I planted."

The little girl really became angry because of the last sentence, "Not everything is about you, father... Bruce."

Bruce pretended not to hear Helena's slip of the tongue.

"The future me, the father you know, and the present me...whether we are one person or not, it's just a matter of definition. But one thing you can't deny is that among all people , I will be the one who understands your father best - so, I completely understand the way he raised you."

"What do you want to say, sorry? Say you shouldn't be so strict with me?" The little girl snorted.

"Apologies are well deserved," Bruce nodded, but then shook his head again, "but not because of harshness."

"I apologize because the future 'me' is obviously lazy when it comes to raising you—I haven't 'disciplined' you enough."

Bruce almost laughed at Helena's bewilderment and offence, without demonstration.

"Yes, I want to apologize for my laziness - that 'me' doesn't really 'care' about you."

"What is the essence of discipline? I have been a father for 6 months, and I have thought about this issue. I think the essence of discipline is to assist, not replace, let alone shackles."

"But it is the most energy-intensive one to really 'assist' children. It requires parents to devote a lot of time and energy, as well as patience."

"I didn't have these qualities before I was your little father."

"In the future, I didn't work hard on parenting, and chose the most lazy way - to establish authority and shackles on you."

"Do you think I'm right?"

Understanding and patience are a good way to untie the knot. Bruce doesn't think he can persuade Helena not to destroy the world with this talk. Helena is not a child anymore.

But at least he got her to start listening—like now, her brows stretched, her shoulders relaxed, and she looked at him a little dazedly, as if she'd been pissed off for the first time in ages.

We all long to be understood.

At this moment, Bruce put on a sternness—and it came to the topic of sternness.

"But, I have to say, there is another thing, you and I made the same mistake, Helena."

Facing the little girl's puzzled eyes, Bruce said: "If we regard the world as your child, and Gotham as your child... are you also imposing shackles on them?"

"Lazy like me and chose the easiest way to govern?"

Are you helping it develop?Encourage her to guide her.

Or decide for her?Restrict her and block her.

"Free will is a precious thing that needs to be protected. I have deprived you of it, and you have deprived it of the world, Gotham, and humanity."

The reason why a hero is a hero is that after acting a hero, he can successfully restrain his desire to dominate, and let go when it is time to let go.

"The world and Gotham under your protection will become a pool of stagnant water in the long run, and human beings and the earth will stagnate."

"I know you must hate me in the future, but you have no breakthroughs in how you deal with the world."

Bruce believed his daughter would understand this truth.

The little girl clenched her fists and turned her head away.

"You're disappointed in me? I can't count how many times I've heard that."

Bruce sighs, "I'm more disappointed in myself."

A long silence followed.

Bruce was not in a hurry either, he had lost the sense of time, and had no idea how long the two of them had stood in silence like this.

Isn't the little girl beside you in a hurry?This at least shows that she still doesn't dislike his company.

——This makes the purpose of "delaying" a little easier to achieve...

Suppressing the inexplicable guilt, Bruce said casually, "This space, a foreigner like me, can it be built like you?"

Helena beside her immediately tensed up, "What do you want to do?" She asked vigilantly.

"I want to ask if you want to play house, like a tea party."

Helena: "...?"

The vigilant eyes turned into the mentally retarded eyes.

"I just think you must have never played. At that time...you didn't have the conditions," Bruce shrugged, "we have nothing to do anyway."

"I want to destroy the world." Helena said seriously.

Bruce acted like he didn't hear it.

"Then what do you think we should do? I want to take you to do things that ordinary little girls would like to do. Most people's imagination is naturally limited. For example, if you have never played house, you may imagine not come out."

The little girl ignored him, but she was not in a hurry to "destroy the world".

"Give me some 'programming' authorization, let me do it?" He made another attempt that was likely to end in vain.

Bruce now understands that one of the basics of parenting is learning to be mean.

"Why, I'm not a three-year-old child." Helena curled her lips and said dryly, "You're not my father either, don't try to make up for him meaninglessly, I won't buy it. I can't be so good Coax, you give up."

"I know," Bruce nodded, followed her, and said casually, "You're not my daughter either. My daughter is still breastfeeding."

"Can't you change your age at will? How old do you want to play?"

Helena: "..."

"It's useless, the world will still die." She seemed to have regained the seriousness of the world destroyer, "Stark will always be here."

Bruce: "Whatever you want, just don't let him interrupt our little party."

Then he spread his hands, "It depends on you, do you want to destroy the world more? Or do you want to play games with me?"

The tone is relaxed, as if asking the kindergarten children what toys they want to play with more.

Helena didn't speak, and Bruce took it as a sign of hope, so he continued his efforts.

"If you really hated me so much, you should have kicked me out."

"Why should we be so serious, we have plenty of time."

The familiar words made Bruce almost bite his tongue - this is how Gotham babies make their girlfriends happy in many cases.

Bruce never thought that the basic playboy skills could be used to communicate with his daughter!

**********************************

After that, Bruce couldn't tell whose mind was manipulating the state of the space.

Both of them have a clear consciousness and know that all this is fake, but they enjoy it as if they are really immersed in the game.

He seems to have experienced many years, and it seems that there is only a moment.

But memory is abundant.

Years later, he can still clearly remember several episodes and scenes, and clearly distinguish the two Helenas.

Scene 1:

Five-year-old Helena participates in a kindergarten performance.

The little man has the memory and expression of Helena, wearing a little white dress, with a stinky face.

"That's what I got you to build, Bruce! What you want to show me is dancing with a bunch of little ones?"

"You have a bad taste. I appreciate my father even more."

Bruce makes no secret of his hearty laugh, he swears he's not gloating... well, does he?

"This is the experience that ordinary little girls must have. By the way, do you want to participate in the beauty pageant?"

The little man waved the white ribbon in his hand, "If you dare to let me participate in the beauty pageant, I will destroy the world!"

She angrily pushed away her dancing partner, a little boy in a small suit.

"The kids next to me are so stupid!"

Bruce sat in the auditorium carelessly, and did not forget to explain again before leaving, "They are just children. Try to feel the pure joy of the children."

Scene 2:

The little girl with smooth long hair reaching her waist is playing the violin bitterly in the piano room of the mansion, next to Bruce who is looking at the photos of the crime/crime scene.

The little girl turned the pages of the piano score angrily, with an unbelievable expression on her face.

"I remember that you planned to take me to experience the real loving father-daughter relationship. I don't quite understand what's going on now. Forcing me to practice the piano is what you think is a loving relationship?!"

Bruce didn't raise his head, his eyes were glued to the police photo, "Practicing the piano is of course boring, and acquiring any skill is boring. Do you think Damian's doctorate and painting skills came from a dream?"

The two of them have always tacitly avoided mentioning Damian, two prickly boys and girls, the brother-sister relationship in the past was cold and awkward, and there were many conflicts.

She always felt that she was more or less compared to Damian.

And she... is not as omnipotent as him, which makes her very frustrated, and her attitude towards Damian is even worse, and the relationship between brother and sister is gone forever.

She was able to fight Damian on a par, and seeing the grumpy expression on her brother's face because of this, honestly...it's cool.

But in other aspects...such as education and artistic accomplishment, etc., she was very weak, and even had low self-esteem.

After she was 5 years old, the education and living conditions provided by her mother were gone.

So when she was compared with the little prince Damian who had been raised as the heir of the League of Assassins, she seemed inexplicably ugly...

This is not her own nonsense. After she was brought back by her father at the age of 10 and became Wayne's daughter, the tabloids in Gotham have ridiculed her clothing more than once... whether it is in public or occasionally on the street. shoot.

Her father never worried about the troubles these little things caused her, nor did he have the time and energy to worry about it.By default, she takes care of herself like the other boys.

However, public opinion always seems to be more tolerant to handsome boys, and stricter to girls with golden spoons, even to the point of harshness.

In addition to mocking her lipstick as a death Barbie fan, inevitably, she and Damian are also publicly compared in various aspects.

From the corner of his eye, Bruce saw Helena bit her lip and picked up the violin again.

Scene 3:

In the end, the makeshift father and daughter sit next to a gargoyle on a Gotham tower.

He is Batman.

She is Robin.

At this time she was 13 years old.

"I actually thought about wearing a Batman costume," she said softly.

"Ok?"

Obviously the little girl had something to say, and Bruce chose to wait for her to continue, only responding when needed.

"Then Kate Kane. Or Barbara." She shrugged. "People in Gotham will be confused."

"That makes sense..." Bruce nodded.

The conversation has turned into small talk, and Bruce decides to be honest at this point.

Helena's figure had already begun to blur.

"I'm actually stalling," he said quietly, "waiting..."

"I know," she interrupted him directly, "I know, how stupid do you think I am?"

She looked at Gotham at night, the city she also loves.

"Destroying the world is not really interesting, and I don't know why those super villains are so keen on it."

So, he guessed right.

Bruce suppressed the bitterness and reached out, wanting to give his daughter a hug.

But she didn't expect her to straighten her arms to stop him.

"Don't, it's too bloody and sensational, I'm going to vomit. I don't need it either."

At this time, she also noticed that her hands had begun to double.

She pinned a strand of hair from her cheek behind her ear and stood up with her little cloak fluttering in the wind.

"Then, goodbye..."

She said lightly: "Or, never see you again."

"how could be?"

Bruce took off the bat hood, trying to scratch her upturned little nose.

He controlled his hand very rationally.

She is a big girl, she has opinions and ideas, and she will already refuse her father's loving hug with a look of disgust.

So, he just put his big hand on her shoulder, "In 20 years, we will meet again. I look forward to it."

The author has something to say:

Sorry for the late update, I really didn't expect that I actually wrote something _(:з」∠)_ and I want to post it!

I finally finished writing the plot of Helena after the word count exploded. Hey, it’s too easy to slap your face if you don’t set a flag in the future... Orz