Bart stood alone within the cave; no one around him since they all left for a mission, the day before and were not due back for another day or two. A cold air flowed throughout the cave, making the hair on Bart's neck stand up. Thinking about the Reach freaked him out, more than usual.
Barbra was sitting on her laptop finishing up team assignments otherwise Batman would get her for it. As she finished up the team assignments; she heard a soft crying coming from the general direction of the kitchen. Figuring it was something; she grabbed her staff and headed to the direction of the kitchen.
Barbra stepped out from around the corner and saw Bart curled in a ball, softly crying.
"Why are you crying? Is it because of Wally?" Barbra asked curiously.
"No, just some bad memories from the future." Bart replied.
"Care to share?"
"Not really but there are some things I don't talk about not even to mike." Bart said.
With that he started explaining; the future where he came from, the camps and even the fate of Barbra, Wally and Dick and the rest of the heroes. Those were something that he never talked about but with Barbra; he felt safe and not judged.
Bart was from the future, there was no doubt about it. He was from a future earth in which Wally did not stop the Reach Invasion and they took over the Earth; wiping out of the JLA in one day.
Bart drifted into a flashback.
When Bart first knew Barbara, she was Oracle and she was one of the last people to not be a slave of the Reach. She'd escaped their occupation and hidden herself away, but the escape came at the cost of the use of her legs.
Barbara was the one to help Bart escape the Reach concentration camp, and the one to help him get many of the materials he needed to build the time machine. In the meantime, he stayed with Barbara and she shared stories with him of her younger days — of heroes and villains and the people she loved and lost — of the days before the world went to hell. Bart came to hero worship her, not as much as he did his Grandpa Barry, but close enough.
Many heroes from the JLA died on the first day on the invasion. Batman, Superman, Wonder woman and even Flash had all died within the first hour; by all was said and done, 90% of the hero community was wiped out. The only people who were left were Dick, Wally, Barbra and Bart.
"What the hell do we do know?" Wally asked.
"I have no idea, the entire JLA including Bruce and Barry are dead; we don't stand a chance." Dick replied with a harsh tone.
"Guys, calm down!" Barbra screamed.
They all stood up and wondered what happened. All three of them never saw Barbra get so angry even after ending up in a wheelchair.
She was always calm and collected, but this time she knew something they did not; they were not getting out of this in one piece.
The fact that all of the JLA was wiped out and they were all that was left was a shocking thought; they did not want to deal with with it, but they would have to sooner or later.
They all left the cave and retreated back to the Batcave; taking side streets and avoiding major checkpoints. That was the last place that was safe from the Reach, but somehow they all knew they were alone.
She once confessed how much she despised her wheelchair. She'd learned to live with it, obviously, but she missed being able to run and perform gymnastics.
With that, Barbra and Bart got to work on the time machine, it might be their one hope from this nightmare. That all changed once, they got the call from Wally and Dick, who were out on a recon mission.
"Guys we cornered, their soldiers are all around us". Dick screamed.
"We're surrounded" Wally said to Dick.
"Do you still have the explosives? A blast of this size would take out the whole building but…."
"But what?" Wally asked.
"We would die in the process."
"Do it, Barbra I'm sorry."
Dick presses the button as he grabs Wally close, tightly gripping him.
"It's been a long ride, the best." Dick said.
"The best…. You're right". Wally replied.
The comm lines went dark, just static, nothing just darkness. Deep down, Barbra knew. She hugged Bart and knew that their sacrifices would not be in vain. They had to finish the machine soon.
Both Barbra and Bart worked tireless for two days, just before they found them, nearly finished.
When the time machine was nearly complete, suddenly Barbara's hideout was discovered and stormed by Reach soldiers. Barbara sent Bart away with the almost-complete time machine, promising to hold them off and distract them. Bart was reluctant to leave her, but knew he had no choice — and knew his friend wouldn't survive the attack. That just gave him more incentive.
"When everything is wrong, you make it right, you always have to, no matter what." Barbra said as she threw Bart into the machine. She knew she could hold them off from a short time, but not for long.
Bart began to materialize as he looked on as Barbra was shot down in blaze of glory.
"That's it… mostly" Bart explained.
"Listen if you ever need to talk, I'm here." Barbra said in a calm soothing voice.
Bart got up off of the table and leaned toward Barbra. He grabbed Barbra and gave her the biggest bear hug she ever received.
Needless to say, she was touched but bemused; he gave her an excuse about her being "legendary in hero circles, y'know, what you do is totally crash, everyone'd be dead a hundred times over without you".
They didn't talk about it much that night, but he started going to Barbara whenever he wanted consolation. He never told her much, just vague details, but he took comfort from her nonjudgmental, comforting presence.
Tears came to her eyes, she did not think of herself like that, to everyone she was batgirl the tech girl, not the person who saved the world along with Wally.
"So, what now?" Bart asked.
"Let's go to the training room, I have something I need to show you."
"I'd like that" Bart said eagerly.
Barbara, when Black Canary was too busy, started teaching Bart combat techniques so that he wouldn't rely so heavily on his superspeed.
It was something that he would need and that made her happy for years to come.