Ace's ears perked up before Terry had even made a sound. The tension that had wound as tight as a spring inside of him, but hadn't shown on the surface, eased around his heart. "Where have you been? We lost communication an hour ago."

"I had to get a ride from Max," Terry replied. He walked down the stairs that lead into the batcave proper. His steps were as purposeful as ever but only Bruce would see that Terry favored his left side.

"You need a car," Bruce said.

Terry gave a cheeky smile, his intense eyes flicking to the sleek batmobile. "I've got a car."

"One slightly less conspicuous," Bruce replied as dry as ever. He spun around in his chair, turning back to face the batcomputer. Above, a replay of Terry's stand against the kidnappers came into view. He'd taken it from the suit's visual link. Once again, he swivelled back to Terry. The scene still playing behind him was already imprinted on his memory. "You're reaction time was diminished."

Shooting a glance at the screen, Terry changed the subject. "You dwell, anybody ever tell you that?"

Unamused, Bruce asked, "What happened?"

"The suit's been fitting more then snug lately," Terry admitted begrudgingly. Without another word Terry walked to the cabinet that held the analgesics that Batman required to hold the aches and pains of the job at bay. He pulled out one of the orange bottles, uncapped it and popped two pills into his mouth.

"You never said anything."

"Well, that makes two of us, doesn't it?" Terry countered with a raised eyebrow.

Damn, the boy was becoming more and more like him all the time. That meant physically as well as mentally. Terry had grown like the proverbial weed; not only taller but thicker in the shoulder too. In another year he would fit perfectly in the old batsuit.

Into Batman's old suit.

He'd once told Terry that he thought of himself in terms of his night life. Bruce Wayne had seemed a frivolity, a man weak and broken by the deaths of his parents at such a young age. Bruce couldn't commit, Batman was disciplined. Bruce hopped from lover to lover seeking to drown his pain in warm sensation. Batman leapt from roof to roof, hiding from his pain in the cold of the night.

There was still much that Terry needed to learn, but the heart of Batman had always been in the kid. And it was that heart, which had kept Bruce from leaving him to a fate Bruce himself had always dreaded. That emptiness in the wake of loss.

Terry and Bruce had come from different worlds.

Batman remained the same.

"You need a doctor," Bruce spoke into his own reverie. His own deep seeded fear of reliving the loss of his parents had caused him to push away everyone that had ever loved him. They were safe though. Dick, Barbara, Tim. They'd been through hell together, but they were safe. And a voice inside of him said that it was a good thing he'd forced them away.

"What I need is something to wear to graduation. It's 2:00 in the afternoon now. I have to be at the Plaza at 6:00. Four hours. Which most of it will be examining this." He pulled a datadisc from his leather jacket. "The kidnappers expected me, Bruce. Not just me/me or Batman/me, but both."

"You've been discovered," Bruce said simply.

Terry watched him guardedly, no doubt waiting for him to erupt. And what could he tell the kid? That it had never happened to him? They both knew he'd be lying. Ra's, Talia, Lois Lane, Dick, Barbara, Tim, eventually even the Joker had learned that Batman was Bruce Wayne.

"Give me that disc, McGinnis," Bruce growled.

Terry tossed it at him and Bruce caught it deftly. He slipped it into the batcomputer and tapped at the consul. Almost immediately a shadowed figure appeared on the screen. "Greetings Terrance McGinnis and Bruce Wayne."

He instantly felt Terry's eyes on him, the question in his silence. It had quickly degraded from bad to worse. And they both knew it.

"There comes a time when you realize the world has become too small for you. Or you for it. It's called commencement. I'll be waiting for you, Batman."

"Slag it," Terry cursed, throwing his fisted hand into a nearby wall.

"Terry."

"What am I going to do?"

"Terry."

"I can't let Mom and Matt go to the graduation. Hell, I can't let the graduation take place," the boy said, starting to pace.

"Terry."

"You'll be there but it's going to take more then a few years to get the suit repair. They must have known that. Man, what was I thinking."

"McGINNIS!" The young man finally focused back on him. "Are you finished?"

Terry took a few steadying breaths, the training Bruce had instilled in him the last six years returning in the wake of his rant. Like himself, Terry never minded the danger pressed upon him, that danger fueled the Bat within, but when it came to those he loved, it frightened him just as much as it frightened Bruce.

"I'm sorry," Terry murmured, running a hand through his hair. "What are we going to do?"

"We proceed as nothing has changed."

"But..."

"Terry," Bruce interrupted. "Whoever this man is, we will find him. In the meantime, you can't let him know that Batman can be bullied, that he can be frightened into a corner. Where others would falter, you have to stand firm."

"What about Matt and my mom? Bruce, I made this choice, but I can't put them in danger unknowingly. I can't make the choice for them."

Bruce steepled his fingers in front of him. "They'll be protected."

"I need more then that, Bruce."

The former Batman locked his gaze with his protégé. "They'll be protected."

He practically saw the wheels turning in Terry's head. Here was another example of how he and Terry were alike. They hated relying on another's word alone. It was this that had eventually drove Dick away, his inability to count on anybody but himself. But Terry had to trust him in this.

"Slag, I just had a melt down."

"It was your last," Bruce intoned.

"It won't happen again," Terry assured, puffing his chest unconsciously.

He was hard on all his kids for a reason. It was all too easy to go 'melt down' in this line of work and by goading Terry, he brought out the kid's natural defenses. "See that it doesn't."

"So what do we do?"

"Suit up."

The boy didn't question, he just ran to the changing room of the cave and came back an instant later, suited save for the mask that hung loosely in his grip. He walked back to Bruce and for the first time, the old man caught a glimpse of the damage his successor had sustained.

Terry hadn't had time to clean up and dried blood had caked on both the black suit and Terry's back. Well, at least the parts Bruce could see. The boy was making a concerted effort to keep them from his sight.

"Now get dressed," Bruce ordered.

"What?"

A sly smile stretched his wrinkling face. "I needed to get a look at your injuries. And you were being stubborn."

"You're a sly old dog," Terry said, not able to keep his own smile at bay. Another difference between them. Terry had allowed himself happiness. "Fine. A little patch work under your less then delicate hands and I'll patrol."

"And then you'll go pick up your mother, Matthew and Dana."

"You haven't even started on your speech yet," Terry accused.


His legs hurt.

Not the real legs.

Those had been removed years ago. He only felt a phantom of what they had been before. His mind remembered having legs, even though they had been all but paralyzed. Yet, his crippling disease had caused him to be inadequate, more then enough for his creator to abandon him.

But he would soon prove that he wasn't inadequate, that he was superior to his predecessor.

He would even best the mighty Bat.

Coming to his feet, a Joker, a idiotic fool, reached to steady him on his gleaming legs, but Penumbra tossed away the offering hand, his upper body strength enough to throw the fool several meters.

"I am not an invalid!" he roared.