Diana sighed, staring out the massive window where the Earth slowly revolved in space. It had been a little less than a month since Hawkgirl had resigned from the League. It had been less than an hour since the new Watchtower was made barely livable. Sixty seconds after that Batman had left. Diana couldn't even see his ship, only the faintest trace of the pale blue fire of the engine.
Hawkgirl's betrayal had hit the team hard. Superman spent his time in a state of constant work to keep his mind off of it. J'onn was quieter than ever. Green Lantern refused to talk about what had happened, but she saw him staring out into space every once in a while and knew by the pain in his eyes that this was killing him.
For her part Diana was trying not to think about the traitor; just hearing Hawkgirl's name made her blood boil. Her rage was made worse when she found that Steve Trevor, the man who had captured her heart in WWII, had died just after the Thanagarian invasion; apparently the stress of the invasion had accelerated his heart condition. Attending his funeral was one of the hardest things she had ever had to do, her grief intensified by her inability to confide in her mother or Hawkgirl about it.
Batman hadn't changed much, at least not that Diana had seen. Perhaps he was a little more reclusive but not noticeably so. Diana began to walk down the hall of the new Watch Tower to her room. Since Batman had crashed the original Watchtower into the Thanagarian hyper-space bypass, he had allowed J'onn and Diana to stay at Wayne Manor with him. This was Diana's first night in the new Watchtower. It didn't have the same homey feel as the original, or of Wayne Manor for that matter. Diana stood on the threshold of her room for only a moment before turning back and wandering down the hall.
Diana missed Alfred, Bruce Wayne's charming elderly butler. Initially she had been surprised and slightly repulsed to learn that Bruce had a slave, but during her stay at Wayne Manor Diana had come to realize that Alfred did what he did out of love for Bruce and for Bruce's now deceased family and Bruce let Alfred care for him and the property because it made Alfred happy, fulfilled Alfred's sense of purpose. And Alfred had been delighted to have more company in Wayne Manor. The venerable old man insisted on cleaning her and J'onn's rooms and making them dinner, rolling over their attempts to help.
She missed Batman even more, though truthfully she had seen much more of Alfred during her stay at Wayne Manor. Bruce had made sure to spend as little time at home as possible when she and J'onn were staying there. Not that he made her feel unwelcome— Bruce had welcomed his teammates into his home with open arms, dismissing J'onn's and Diana's attempts to keep their stay as inconspicuous as possible. Every day Bruce was out of the house to work at Wayne Enterprises or on putting the new Watchtower into orbit. If he came home at all it was invariably late at night, and Batman would leave again at once to either patrol Gotham or help the League with a mission.
Diana had assumed his constant work schedule was normal, and Alfred assured her that Batman often slept for about four hours every two days under normal circumstances, less if he was particularly busy. And no one in the League was idle during that time; Diana herself had grown accustomed to working fourteen hours at a time. But Batman was going to extremes even Superman found impressive. One day the Man of Steel had even told her to drag Batman out of the cave and make sure he hadn't been replaced with a robot. Diana had gone along with the joke, thinking a touch of humor might help his gloominess. No such luck. She had to give Batman credit: she hadn't seen anyone react that quickly. Diana rubbed her wristband, recalling the Batarang striking cold metal before it detonated.
Batman's moodiness concerned her, though Diana wasn't entirely sure why. Her thoughts kept coming back to that shared kiss in the Middle Eastern restaurant. What had started as a clever idea on Diana's part had begun to feel different as the seconds rolled into minutes. When she had pulled away, a part of her had wanted to move in again. And she couldn't forget Bruce's little smile after she apologized and his coy, "Don't be."
A yawn interrupted her musings. She realized that it was late and she had wandered far away from her room. Grumbling, Diana began to trudge back to her room.
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"Wonder Woman, Star Sapphire has escaped from prison— again. I need you down by the Metropolis pier, warehouse 12— now." Superman's voice interrupted her hour off in Central City. Diana pressed her hand to the com link, waiting for a second to see if he had anything else to say.
"I'm on my way. What about the others?" She responded curtly once it was clear he had said his peace, already beginning the flight to Metrapolis.
"GL is with me. He already contacted Flash. J'onn is one his way."
"And Batman?"
"I had his com link turned off remotely. I don't want anyone to contact him today."
"Why?" She asked, bemused.
"Today is, I mean, I gave Batman the day off." Superman replied, his voice awkward. Diana slowed in flight, surprised. Batman cared about the mission more than anything else. There was no way he had asked Superman for a day off.
"What's wrong with Batman?" She asked.
"Nothing that he can't handle by himself. And please, don't try to talk to him about it."
"A little hard since I don't know what 'it' is."
"Well then don't ask him. And don't talk to him about the mission today, please." Curiosity began to gnaw on her, but Diana heard the telltale sound of Star Sapphire's attack and Superman's answering yell seconds before the sound of crunching concrete filled the link. She turned off the tiny radio and flew faster, pushing Batman to the back of her mind.
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Sapphire had learned a lot since their last encounter. She wasn't any stronger or faster, but she had learned a bit about how the team fought, managing to evade their initial attack and fly off with the five Leaguers in close pursuit. Wonder Woman forced herself to fly faster, but her quarry remained too far ahead for her to hope to catch. Superman, GL, and J'onn were flying within a hundred yards of her, but no one showed any signs of catching up soon.
Green Lantern and Superman occasionally fired at her, but Sapphire kept her eyes on them, and at this distance she had ample room to dodge. Every few blocks she fired a pink beam either directly at the League or at people down below, forcing one of them to fall back and help. It was only Flash's timely intervention on the ground stopped her from killing dozens. Wonder Woman blocked a beam with her crossed wrist bracelets and gritted her teeth, forcing herself to fly ever faster, ignoring the first signs of fatigue creeping into her bones. They had been at this for hours. She was ready to end it.
But Star Sapphire had a huge head start. At this point she was easily half a mile ahead. Suddenly a red streak shot out of a rooftop access door and struck Sapphire. Wonder Woman could see the distant pink dot waver, and one or two choice words drifted back toward her, along with a few snarky comments.
"It's Flash!" Green Lantern shouted. Wonder Woman smiled at her friend's novel plan of attack. She could see Star Sapphire slowing already as she tried to wrest the speedster's arms from around her neck. Star Sapphire twirled toward the ground, suddenly firing a continuous beam of energy, slicing through a block's worth of buildings and carving the street into a canyon. Water and sewage from busted pipes sprayed the air as stone rained onto the ground below.
Wonder Woman swooped to scoop a little girl and her mother out of the path of a falling building. Her other companions joined her in rescuing civilians and keeping the worst of the wreckage in check. Wonder Woman hoped Flash could keep Sapphire occupied a little longer. After a minute or two she heard Flash yell and turned to see Sapphire fire another beam of light, burning his arm. Wonder Woman flew toward her, and Star Sapphire took flight once more.
Wonder Woman lost track of how long she pursued her adversary, Flash stubbornly clinging to the criminal's leg, slowing her down. At one point a burst of green light shot over her shoulder, narrowly missing Sapphire and Flash. She thought she heard Superman shout something, but she couldn't hear what he said exactly.
Wonder Woman began to slow against her will as an ache crept into her muscles, exacerbated by a grazing blow from Star Sapphire's sapphire. As the smell of burned skin was torn away on the wind, she saw Flash shout something and drive his fist into Sapphire's side. Two things happened in rapid succession: Flash lost his grip and fell to the ground, and a clearly tired Sapphire doubled over, loosing altitude.
Superman flew to catch Flash, and Green Lantern fired again, this time hitting her squarely in the chest. Sapphire dropped like a stone. Wonder Woman slowed minutely, sensing the chase was almost over, and she noticed a sign on a fence below: Gotham Cemetery. They had come a long way. Star Sapphire shook her head and slowly began to gain altitude, heading for the far side of the cemetery.
"Not today, witch." Green Lantern said. He lashed out with a giant green fist and knocked Sapphire straight out of the sky, sending her hurtling toward a group of people gathered on a grassy knoll. Wonder Woman dove down, hoping to keep anyone from being flattened by the super-villain. Seconds before she hit, Star Sapphire fired an giant burst of continuous power from her gem, tearing though flowers, grass, earth, and a large picture. Mourners fled wailing as Sapphire slammed into the earth, a cloud of soil and pink energy flying in all directions and obstructing Wonder Woman's vision.
Wonder Woman landed at the bottom of the knoll, bracelets raised to fend off an attack, waiting to see if her caution was necessary. After a few seconds a dazed Star Sapphire climbed out of a hole in the earth, looking around with a hand held to her head as she surveyed the destroyed funeral, the portrait now curling among small orange flames, the elegant mahogany coffin dusted with ash. Wonder Woman was prepared to knock the twisted woman out with a good punch, but someone beat her to it.
A broad-shouldered man in a dark suit with a single black rose in his lapel stalked up and punched Star Sapphire directly in the sapphire on her forehead. Sapphire fell to the ground, and the man hauled her up by the scruff, shook her hard enough for her head to roll violently, and slammed her onto the ground with enough force to make the woman bounce. Before the criminal could strike back he was beating her again, merciless fists smashing into her face, neck, back, stomach, limbs— whatever he could reach. Sapphire tried to fire at him, but the man weaved to one side and kept beating her without breaking stride.
Surprise at this attack prevented Wonder Woman from making an initial move, but a sense of familiarity held her back a little longer. Something about this man was strikingly familiar. Wonder Woman felt that she should know who he was, but the look in his eyes distracted her from his identity. She had seen that look in only a select few villains, a burning gaze with all the fire and frost of hell.
The man seized Star Sapphire by the collar, lifting her off the ground. He held her up so that her eyes were even with his.
"I didn't think scum like you could sink any lower," he growled, in a voice that was so familiar but foreign in its harshness. "For the first time in two weeks, I was wrong." The hairs on Wonder Woman's arms began to stand up with a dreadful premonition.
"Bruce, stop!" Superman yelled, coming to land next to Wonder Woman, Flash's arm around his neck. Green Lantern stood next to him, surprise and a trace of fear written onto his face. J'onn touched down on Wonder Woman's other side, eyes wide and mouth slightly parted.
Wait, BRUCE?
The man turned toward the League, the burning quality of his eyes reverting to a cold look of calm determination, haunting in its familiarity.
Bruce dropped Star Sapphire on the ground, took a long look at the smoldering picture, and turned to place a hand on the coffin. He stared at the cask for only a moment before striding away, every bit as silent and reserved as he was when on duty in the Watch Tower. Diana looked down to see a scrap of paper, flames eating it inward from the edges, slowly engulfing a dark eye.
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"Everyone, assemble at the Watchtower windows."
Diana looked up from the stack of appliances she was sorting through. Resisting the urge to sigh, she set down a house-sized super computer and flew up to the windows. The Watchtower had more than one set of windows, but there was one set that wrapped around the entire Watchtower with an adjacent metal catwalk connected to the elevator. This area had become a kind of meeting place while the rest of the tower was still under construction.
Diana landed next to J'onn. Superman and Green Lantern were already present. Flash dropped into their little meeting as Diana's feet were settling on the floor.
"So what I'd miss?" he asked, usual cocky smile present.
"Nothing yet, I just wanted to talk about the rebuilding process," Superman said.
"We should postpone this conversation until Batman arrives. He is the architect and funder of this enterprise." J'onn said.
"Yeah, these blueprints make zero sense," Flash said, holding an unfurled blueprint up and turning it different ways.
"For once Flash is right. I can't make head or tail of these things." Green Lantern grumbled, pouring over another blueprint. "I'd rather wait for Batman than start without him and make a stupid mistake."
"Unless he's too busy beating people up at funerals," Flash said.
"Not funny," Green Lantern reprimanded him.
"Come on," Flash appealed. "You guys got to admit that was weird. I mean, Batman beating people up, ok, yeah, we see that all the time. But not Bruce Wayne, and I've never seen him go on someone like that, not even the Joker."
"Flash is right. Batman's behavior was most unexpected and more than a little disturbing." J'onn agreed.
"Today is a hard day for him," Superman interjected. "We've all gone overboard on a villain at one time or another. Try to leave him alone."
"Why is today so special?" Green Lantern inquired, voice harder than it would have been five weeks ago. Superman looked down and away for a moment before he stared back at Green Lantern.
"It's not my place to say." He turned to walk away, but Diana stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, turning him back to face her.
"Batman is our friend. We're all worried about him." She said. Superman shifted uncomfortably, glancing a floor before responding.
"I wasn't even supposed to know about it. I overheard Batman talking to Alfred two days ago. He nearly ripped my head off when I tried to talk to him about it. I didn't mean to eavesdrop; it's hard not to." Superman defended himself hastily.
"Dude, what's wrong with him?" Flash asked, noticeably more concerned now. "Maybe we can help. I mean, it's gotta be a Batman kind of problem, right? Bruce Wayne is rolling in cash and beautiful babes."
"The whole playboy routine is just a cover-up for show, Wally." Superman said.
"Whose life was he honoring at the funeral?" J'onn asked in that calm, matter-of-fact way that the Martian always had when he had gleaned someone's thoughts. Superman scowled.
"I don't have the right to say anything about this."
"You've barely told us anything at all." Flash protested.
"Well I shouldn't have told you that." Superman said. "And I'm not going to say anything else on the matter. Now does anyone have anything to say about the Watchtower?"
"I still hold that we should wait for Batman before coming to a decision." J'onn declared. Superman flew toward a monitor, clearly displeased. He fiddled around with it for a little while before standing back and pressing a button.
"Batman, come in." Apparently Superman had turned Batman's mic back on because their teammate's testy voice soon replied.
"What?" Diana stretched a bit to see Batman's covered face glaring at them on a monitor.
"I need you to come to the Watchtower for a meeting."
"If this is about Star Sapphire then forget it. I'm busy tying up a lose end right now."
"It's about the Watchtower, Bruce."
"Then it can wait. I left instructions with both Johns."
"Those instructions need some explaining, and new problems have come up, so I need you to come up here, preferably now." Superman growled, his voice getting louder as his patience thinned while Batman's grew colder and more distant. Diana wasn't sure which was more frightening.
"We can't always get what we prefer. I'll send more detailed instructions to you from here, and if you still need help I'll come up after I've taken care of some work here." Superman gripped the top of the computer.
"It took you twenty minutes on the dot to fly from Gotham to the Watch Tower last week. You have exactly twenty minutes to make it to the Watchtower. After that, I'm coming to get you myself. You've been spending too much time in that cave; we need you up here." Diana saw Batman narrow his eyes darkly.
"Fine, but I won't be there for long." The screen went black. Superman stood straight and sighed before turning to the others.
"I thought you were giving him the day off?" Diana asked.
"Apparently we can't finish this without him, so he'll have to manage." Superman said, a touch of fatigue polluting his voice. "Let's see what we can do without him for now." The League began what work they could, everyone working together to translate the highly detailed blueprints. Superman left after about fifteen minutes to get more titanium. Diana was studying a complex design that outlined the exact position of a supercomputer when the bay door hissed open. Diana flew across the room and alighted in front of the darkly clad figure. A glance at the computer's clock told her that he had taken twenty four minutes. It wasn't like him to be late.
"Batman, you're here." Diana greeted him.
"Where's Superman? I want to get this over with quickly." Batman said, getting to the heart of the matter with one breath as usual. Diana frowned. A black canister was gripped in his left hand, and he held a small towel-wrapped bundle to his chest with the other hand. As she watched the bundle twitched and a metallic copper eye peered up at her.
"Superman left to get more titanium a few minutes ago." She told him, keeping her eyes fixed on the bundle.
"Good." Batman held the canister up for her to see. "Give these to J'onn. I made more expressive blueprints and divided them onto more pages to make it easier to understand."
"Ok, but what's that?" Wonder Woman asked, staring at the bundle. Batman readjusted his grip on the bundle, and it wiggled, emitting a faint sound of complaint.
"Something I inherited today from a good friend," he said. "Actually, I need you to do me a favor."
"What kind of favor?" Diana asked, intrigued. Batman never asked anyone for help, much less a favor.
"I have business to do in Gotham, and I need someone to keep an eye on this until I'm done. Alfred is recovering from knee surgery, so I don't want to leave her with him."
"And who is her, exactly?" Diana asked, curiosity deepening. Batman pulled back the top of the towel, and a sleek furred head emerged, staring at Diana with intelligent, luminous eyes. It took her a moment to place the name of the beast.
"A cat?" she asked. The cat made a quiet mrrow and twisted to see her better, placing dainty paws on Batman's wide forearm.
"I need you to watch her for a few hours," Batman said. Although his voice was no different from normal, Diana got the feeling he was somewhat embarrassed. Diana hesitated for a second or two before holding out her arms. Batman carefully deposited the towel bound cat in her arms, where it placed a paw on her chest and leaned up, whiskers twitching. Diana couldn't help but be moved by the creature.
"Alright," she relented. Batman nodded and turned to leave. When he had taken a few steps away something occurred to Diana and she called after him.
"Wait." Batman stopped and looked back over his shoulder. "Does she have a name?"
"Isis."
Reviews are always welcome. I love getting reviews, and for those of you who want to see more, I've also written a Teen Titans story called Dark History and Shadowy Love.