Dick turned his head away with some trembling. He gritted his teeth and defended, "This is just a means of self-preservation. If I didn't show up at all during the day, it would be too obvious..."
"Yes, I understand, but what about afternoon tea?"
Dick couldn't answer, but Batman still looked at him and said, "You can choose not to eat. It won't be too abrupt, because there is still one person who hasn't moved anything."
"That doctor..." Dick gritted his teeth.
"What should you call him?"
"Doctor Schiller." Dick met Batman's gaze for the first time, and then said: "Without him, my plan will go smoothly..."
Batman just looked at him without speaking.
In the end, Dick couldn't accept such a look. He took a deep breath and did not let go of his hand holding Batman's arm. He just turned his eyes away and said: "I must admit that my mind has been affected to some extent. This is not an escape."
rhetoric, but it is indeed the case.”
"After my fangs were pulled out, I felt a little dizzy. I thought it was the aftereffects of pain, but it didn't seem to be the case. I felt some connection was disconnected. I'm not sure what it was."
"You can't change the subject by providing clues, Dick. Many times, I am a detective, but more often than not, I am a father."
Dick didn't seem to expect that Batman would say such a thing. He glanced at Batman, but quickly looked away and said, "Are you going to accuse me of lying to you?"
"Isn't that to blame?"
Very good. Killer. Although Batman doesn't know where Schiller came from to know Dick, but at least based on his understanding of Dick, a sober Dick has normal views of justice. He 100% says no.
Come out with words of denial.
"So you just mind if I lied to you?"
Something is wrong, Batman suddenly realized, Dick chose to avoid the topic on this issue instead of clarifying the truth first... something is so wrong.
"I told you not to feel guilty." Schiller's slightly frivolous tone came from the earphones, "But you are not the only one who wants to manipulate something."
Batman suddenly felt angry, but Schiller's reminder was like a bucket of cold water that extinguished his anger, "If all of this is Dick's disguise, then you really can't blame him for taking some special measures."
"Answer my question first."
"Which question?"
"What difference does it make?"
"I... lied to you." Dick chose to admit.
Batman shook his head and said, "No, you obviously don't respect me enough."
"You found me before going to Blüdhaven and told me what you thought. Then you put forward your plans for the future, asked for my opinion, and finally chose to leave."
"And what did you do today? Standing proudly in the sun, eating food that vampires cannot touch, even more proudly thinking in your heart that luckily you were prepared, mocking those who used this method to test the mole.
I……"
Batman still put his hand on Dick's neck and said: "If you had maintained the most basic respect for me, the situation would not be like this."
Batman couldn't say that what he repeated next didn't come from his sincerity.
"You chose to provoke me in this way, but you were surprised that I wanted to kill you. Do you still imagine that you have the capital to be pardoned? No, you don't, Mr. Grayson, I said, you have reached the end
Level one."
"You must be very dissatisfied. Why did the punishment change from 'turn around and leave' to what it is today? But it's all your fault."
"You chose to be my enemy, but you couldn't see your position clearly. You thought you were my son, and you thought I would treat you with the same tolerance as a child. You are too naive."
"Since you have chosen to betray me, you did not take action as quickly as possible. You even left time for me to prepare various temptations. You blindly indulged in the happiness of keeping me in the dark. It is too stupid."
"Even if I attack you, you still think you can make me feel pain by virtue of your special position in my heart, and then let you go, instead of choosing to use your newly acquired power to kill you with one blow. It is too cowardly.
.”
"Dick, the biggest difference is that the you who went to Blüdhaven made me proud, and the you now only makes me disappointed."
"So I will need you to prove your loyalty to me, because this is the only way you can get back your status, strong and free, weak but loyal, you can only choose the latter."
Dick looked at him with wide eyes and said: "You said that as long as I think it's not worth it, you can..."
"You didn't pay more for your stupidity, otherwise the best thing that could happen now is that you would be soaked in some kind of solution in the bat cave and become the raw material for my research on the antidote to the vampire virus."
"Are you threatening me again?!"
"Do you look less scared because you think you have a chance of winning? Or do you finally understand that you can't control me?"
The moment Dick's eyes glowed red again, Batman strangled his neck tightly. The cross necklace Dick was wearing around his neck was pressed in his hand until it scratched the skin on the side of Dick's neck.
The flames rekindled, and Dick let out a scream. His defense against the sacred weapon seemed to only exist on the surface of his skin. Once it came into contact with the inside, he would also be injured.
Schiller's judgment is correct. This sacred weapon from England is particularly useful. Maybe the neck is also the lifeblood of vampires. The damage caused by Batman's blow is even greater than the blow Schiller gave to Dick's back. Dick's entire
My neck was burning.
He struggled painfully, but Schiller said in the earphone: "Although I think you should teach him a lesson, disfigurement is not good. Take him to the Batcave."
Batman didn't let go, so the cross was still pressed against the wound. He dragged Dick to the Batcave and threw him into the prison.
"You don't have to be angry." Schiller advised: "According to my observation, the vampire virus seems to partially distort the human mind. Even if I pulled out two of his teeth, it only made his hostility less obvious, but
In fact, he has become a lot more vicious."
"How to eradicate it?" Batman is not asking Schiller, but asking himself. Since the disappearance, he has begun to investigate matters related to vampires, but he still has no clue.
"You can't solve all this." Dick's weak voice came, and he said mockingly: "You still want to hold another afternoon tea..."
"He shows too little respect for you." Schiller said: "Although there is the impact of the virus, it may be that you are not dignified enough. If it were me, I would not let him develop into what he is today..."
"Because I'm not a crazy person, and I won't let my children live in fear all the time."
"Obviously you can't let him go now."
"You said you could let me control him, but you failed."
"It's still far away." Schiller's tone was still calm and he said, "Look, hasn't this already revealed his true identity?"
Batman paused, and Schiller continued: "He will play your son in order to make you soft-hearted. You can also play his father, but under the influence of the virus, he should not be soft-hearted."
of."
"Then why did he fall into your trap?"
"This is the key for you to defeat him. His love for you is engraved in his instinct, so he always shows habitual actions, so I can use the necklace to set a trap and pull out his fangs."
"What you have to do is the same as me, use the love that the virus cannot affect, and instill fear into him first, then you can truly tame him."
"I can't do this." Batman finally gave his answer. He said: "Fear is the most difficult scar to eliminate deep in a person's heart. After everything is over, he will suffer from it for the rest of his life."
“What about enough love to go with it?”
"No." Batman said: "We can never make up for each other. This is a sick relationship that only you lunatics like."
"What a pity." Schiller sighed: "So are you going to give up?"
"No, I just don't need your guidance anymore." Batman's tone was terrifyingly calm as he said, "Actually, I know how to manipulate Dick better than you. I wanted to borrow your hand before, but I just wanted to escape."
"Are you sure you won't go out of your way?"
"I'm much more cautious than you think." Batman seemed to have turned back into that Batman again, with a calm tone, always talking in circles, answering every question but not answering.
"Then, I'll wait for the good news."
Schiller hung up the phone, knowing that his goal had been achieved. He had no intention of intervening in the relationship between father and son. He just wanted Batman to realize that the greatest danger of the vampire virus is its ability to distort people's minds.
But this is not to make Batman feel pain or embarrassment, but to bring out his greatest potential and even allow him to temporarily let go of some of his moral constraints.
It is correct to say that Batman is a human supremacist, but his definition of human beings is not that extreme. Those with superpowers are human beings, those who are resurrected from the dead are human beings, and even those with different bloodlines can be human beings.
In Batman's view, the coding of the body is not that important, so there may be a situation where humans also exist among vampires. As long as they sincerely repent and identify themselves as humans, Batman may treat them as humans.
This situation is most likely to occur in the Bat-family. If his children sincerely repent, although Batman will lock them up for fear that they will hurt others, he will still not feel that they are monsters in his heart, and naturally he will not really
Judge them and then use the same methods to deal with criminals.
But mental betrayal is unacceptable to Batman, especially for his children. Directly distorting moral concepts is the most intolerable kind of corruption for Batman. Using evil means to deceive without repentance is even more taboo.
.
Batman doesn't have much love, almost all of it is given to his children. If someone wants to use this against him, they will definitely get Batman's thunderous means.
As long as Batman can get over the hurdle in his heart and come up with methods to target criminals, then the bunch of little birds in the Bat Family will really not be enough.
It's just that it's useless for others to tell him about this. He can only find out by himself that his love for children is too easy to confuse him. Schiller's operation on Dick is just to make Batman see the reality clearly.
It turned out that Schiller's plan was correct, and Dick reappeared at the dinner table that night.
Logically speaking, Dick's attention should be on the murderer who pulled out two of his teeth, but the fact is that throughout dinner time, all of Dick's attention was drawn to Batman and he kept rubbing his neck.
on the cross.
Although I don't know the specific process, it is obvious that Batman succeeded, and Dick's manipulation skills are still far behind compared to him.
"What did you do?" Schiller asked after dinner, looking at Dick's delighted back.
"I made an offer he couldn't refuse."
"Want to hear the details."
"He can go into the lab during surgery."
"That's it?" Schiller looked at Batman.
"And I will tell everyone that the necklace is the most important sacred artifact and now belongs to him exclusively."
"You have no right to say that I am a pervert." Schiller picked up the wine glass and commented.