Robin's Shadow (Batman OC)

Prologue: Death

A/N: This is Book 2 of the Soul Revitalization Chronicles, however you do not need to have read Book 1 in order to read this. The past will be explained during the story, the books are meant to be read that way in case you don't want to read the other fandoms. If interested, Book 1 is called Genius Hyuga Twins and is set in the Naruto Realm.

A war. A terrifying monster. Spikes impaling me. Suffocation. My brother holding me. Pride. Friends surrounding me. Pain. Darkness.

Those were the last things I remember before I was violently ripped from my second life. Before I took my brother's place in fate, and died to save his life.

"I can't go back, can I?" I ask the entity I know as Death sadly once the realization of where I am and what just happened to me sinks in.

"No." I hear a voice emanated from all around me in the surrounding darkness. The darkness surrounding me now is alive, moving, with a heavy pressure that lets me know that I am not in any sort of normal place, but again back in Death's realm. "You died. Your soul, however, completed its lesson in the last realm, it is time for you to move on and continue your journey."

I think back on my last life I just left. It was my first resurrection after my initial death in the real world, and I was sent to Konoha to learn the value of friendship. I did learn it, quite well. Sometimes, those friendships were forged in fire and blood, but I learned how to make and keep people in my life, no longer pushing them away or clinging to the wrong people. 

I was not ready to leave that world. I died at war and left all my friends and brother behind while the battle still waged on.

Death then appeared in their floating, black form and showed me my world I just left, showed me all of my friends and brother living on after the war. They showed me the impact I had made on their lives, how many of them named their children after me, or visited my grave annually, or honored me in ways that meant something to them. It was gift to get to see, but also made me sad I wasn't there with them to build that future.

"You cannot go backwards, only forward." Death says firmly to me. "You will be reborn again, into a new realm, to learn a new lesson. It will be the hardest lesson for your soul to learn, and you must do it without knowing what that lesson is ahead of time. You must learn it naturally. I will only tell you, the last life began a part of this lesson, but it was not enough." Their form starts to disappear once they finish speaking.

"Wait, where am I being sent? Please, give me a hint on my lesson!" I plead desperately. Last time, they gave me the hint my lesson was friendship, and that hint is what made me go out and make friends, otherwise I never would have. 

Without Death answering, the darkness tightened around me, and changed to a new type of constricting darkness.

This was the same as my last resurrection, I must be about to be born again. I don't know where I'm going or for what purpose this time, so I'm already lost on what to do. All I can do is hope I know where it is I'm being sent, to at least get an idea on what the lesson may be. I feel blind going into somewhere new, scared of the unknown. My last resurrection I thankfully learned where I was instantly when I had seen who my brother was, I only hope there will be something early in this new world to indicate where I am as well.