Chapter Text
Clockwork clutches his side, the toxic green substance that makes up his being spilling on to his purple robes. As he flies over a city with a sky set dark over the horizon. Despite his very core feeling like it's about to split at the seams, he dare not falter. For in his arms is a bundle of blankets that holds his king, much smaller than he was just an hour ago as his body rebuilds itself.
All he can do is pray that his old friend can lend him a hand -that she’ll take in the only thing he has left to live for. The young boy has nowhere else to go and Clockwork has his own wounds to address. As he lands, at last falling to his knees, wincing as his wound lets out another puff of its toxic secretion, he sets the boy down in the alley and knows that she'll find him soon.
As thunder rolls over the dark city, from the shadows a figure steps out into the dim light. Her skin is a dark purple, her hair seems to be made of the very storm that follows her wherever she goes. Her eyes a yellow like lightning breaking from the dark sky, clothed in a black dress with a shawl made of stars. “Gotham, you look well old friend,” CW manages to spit out through the pain with a weak smile on his face.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Clockwork?” her voice booms as the thunder rolls, her eyes narrow at the bundle in his arms.
“Let me explain. Please, old friend, I need your help,” he begs weakly, his form shifting yet shaking. He takes his hand off his side to move the blanket, in his arms a child no older than six. He's skin and bones; he's so small -smaller than he has any right to be. His raven hair is messy, and his clothes are five sizes too big. “ Please old friend, he has nowhere left to go, no kin to return to,” Clockwork says as his form shifts to that of an old man, sending another green stain against the pavement. “ I am all that remains, yet I'm afraid I must lick my own wounds if I wish to live to see him through” .
Gotham eyes her old acquaintance barely holding himself together, then her eyes drift to the small boy that lay in his arms. Her expression softens; she leans down and takes the wad from the ghost. And then like a wave of ice that chills her to the bone, she realizes what she is holding. “ The boy king? Who? WHY!” her eyes slit and the thunder grows stronger. The wind begins to whip as she eyes the small bae that lay in her arms.
“His parents they... they found him,” he snarls, “ They Hurt him… The lab is no more…. It took everyone, all I could do was save him but” he takes a heaving breath,” I could only do so much.”
Gotham seems to understand what he means, she looks with sorrow in her eyes at the boy still asleep, “ Please dear friend” Clockwork begged once more, “ give him the life he always deserved , I can't keep him, not like this.” His throat felt tight as his eye stung. He can't cry -not now.
“With everything I am, the boy will be safe,” The thunder is low and distant like a spring storm, “ Go now, heal so you may return to him once more”.
She smiles as she sees a peak of the boy's eyes as he dreams, blue, a beautiful vibrant blue. “ I know someone who will love him as his own.'' At that, Clockwork fades, his form relaxing as he disappears into the night.
The sky begins to cry but not in sorrow, rather out of joy. The prince has a new home and Gotham will ensure that he grows to be the king that the Realms deserve. As she tilts him to shield him from the rain, a ring of light washes over the boy, his hair becomes white as snow, his freckles form constellations, and a crown rests upon his brow. “ Rest now, my child of the stars, here you'll find that you belong.” With that the boy returns to his human state. Now she just has to figure out how to introduce him to her other children.