Ép. 5: Batman Endures Sewer Wound While Recalling Past Trauma and Lessons from Sudan and Cassandra

5

Continuing on from where In Darkness Dwells left off, Batman is shot in the stomach by a man hallucinating in the sewers of Gotham. He cauterizes the wound and attempts to get out from underground, reflecting on his experiences with managing pain as he does so. First, he remembers that while studying abroad for college, he volunteers with a relief effort staffed in a makeshift medical facility in Sudan that was saving wounded veterans fighting in a terrible tribal war, where he assists one of the doctors, Frederick Avery, in performing surgery without anesthesia. Next, he reflects on the lessons he learned from a woman named Cassandra. Cast out of her community for disguising herself as a boy in an attempt to join a religious sect, she teaches him to minimize his pain to the point where he can control it for over several months. One night, several young men harass Cassandra, who takes their blows without seeming to feel them. Bruce steps in to defend her, not only demonstrating his ability to withstand their attacks, but defeating them all with his martial arts skills. Cassandra then tells him to leave, saying that he has learned what he came to learn. She then comments on how Bruce's pain was beyond her, or possibly even his, ability to handle, but how it also appeared to be leading him down a path he desired. In the present, Batman ends up in a gutter, where he discovers a cache of guns in garbage. This gutter happens to be below his penthouse, and his butler Alfred arrives and tells Batman to give him his hand so he can pull him out. Batman, arms full of guns, replies that he can't. (Source: Batman Fandom)