Dual 3

"What's happened?" Came the gravely Batman voice, vibrating through Danielles body from where she still had her face pressed to his chest. "Danielle, how did you come back here." He demanded, pushing gently but insistingly at her shoulders to separate themselves. After a moment Danielle allowed herself to be pushed back with a hollow chuckle. She wiped the corner of her eyes carefully with the side of her gloved thumb, consciously avoiding the sharp tips of her fingers that Bruce could now see, rather than feel, had been been brought to a point, not ultra long but sharp.

"Down to business as always, Bruce." Came her huffed chuckled as she breathed deep, calming the slight tremor through her body. "A mistake. A stupid rookie mistake brings me here." She said darkly as she stepped back to the chair to take a seat. She sank unceremoniously, obviously drained. "Seems my Lex had his R & D department cook up a batch of new toys. The resulting fight when we were discovered found me on the receiving end of one of his untested beams.." She sighed. There was a nagging part of her brain that wanted to blame Damian. It was his eagerness to get in a fight on the reconnaissance mission that had landed them in hot water to start. It was him she jumped in the way of the beam for. Still, the 'bat' instilled in her yelled, if she weren't so out of practice, if she'd been more on guard, just a bit faster. She never should have gotten caught in that beam to get Damian out of the way. "I doubt he even knows what it does the way he's using it. Hell, we didn't know..."

"Lex has a way to transport to and from dimensions and you didn't tell us this first?" Dick asked in disbelief, his jaw dropping. Bruce stood silently at his side, evaluating the situation.

"The fact that you don't see more caped crusaders dropping from the ceiling is probably a good indication that the good guys won." Her head dropped to the side, one eyebrow raised in sarcasm. "Even if he is aware of what the ray does by now, he probably won't have it in his procession. "

"You seem confident in that." Bruce said gruffly, giving nothing away though he studied her every move.

"I was fighting along side.. Batman.." Her pause was quickly overcome but not missed by the detective. "He wouldn't let Lex get far with something like that."

"What are you hiding?"

"Nothing," She answered far too quickly.

"Dani!" Dick growled in an all too familiar 'Batman' voice. It sent a shiver down his spine. "What's really going on here." He demanded of the smaller woman, his palms slapping the table as he leaned forward.

"I was out of practice. I screwed up the mission.. Not something I feel like discussing. Thought you'd understand that." She shot back but her lack of eye contact gave her away more than any confession could.

"That certainly explains the waterworks earlier." Dick threw his hands out towards Bruce. He was being mean, they all knew it. It didn't come as naturally to him as say, Bruce, but she was hiding something, they both knew it, she knew they knew. Last time she' decied to keep secrets it had almost broken up the team on multiple accounts and gotten most of them into near death situations. Given their own most recent consequence with lies, we'd rather not have more, at least not from within.

"I haven't seen him in a long while. In case you haven't noticed, I'm far from 13!" She snapped angrily. And indeed it was quite clear. Her hips had widened, her breast increased. Her legs had lengthened and her thighs and backside had rounded. Her face had lost that baby fat that he remembered and her voice was deeper than he remembered, lacking that higher pitch of lingering childhood that had clung to the preteen during her first visit.

"Well now you're just trying to hurt my feelings" He said, playing the mocked hurt card but with a much darker tone. "cause you certainly didn't act that way with me." The room fell silent, unnaturally so, even for the bat family. Danielle adverted her eyes, swallowing hard. "You know.. I thought you were one of those few that could actually tell the truth." He said angrily, clearly meaning more than he'd actually said, locking in an intense gaze with Batman. He rounded the table, angrily and quickly making for the door. He had his hand on the knob before her voice broke the silence like a a brick through glass, soft as it was.

"It wasn't a lie." She croaked. When he turned to face her she was stiff, facing forward in the opposite direction, clearly not wanting to be seen. He let her have that, he instead settled for watching her back as she spoke. "Up until a few months ago it had been years since I put on the suit. I;m rusty and it caused me to get caught. I was sloppy."

The way she spoke, so much more sincere than the first made him believe her, made him pause. He took a breath, allowing her words to settle in the bottom of his stomach like a bowling ball. It wouldn't be the first time he's seen a hero retire. Wally and Artemis had made it clear they wanted a normal life but.. Well he'd never imagined that Danielle could ever be satisfied with a 'normal' life. He never thought she' give it up. "You.. Gave up the life." He wasn't sure if it was a question, a statement or an accusation but she nodded all the same. His shoulders slumped at her choice of silence. "Why?" He questioned, already fearing he knew the reasoning, fearing what she had feared all those years ago. She shook her head.

"I came back because Gotham needed help." She paused, her back stiffer than before, each muscle tensed enough to break bones. "Mobs roamed the the streets and murders were carried out in broad day light as though it was nothing. I came back because Gotham had gone to hell." She turned, face trained to stone but crumbling just around her eyes. "I came because the mantle had been passed down..."

AN For her way of getting back to the YJ universe,, I just came up with some crazy BS. I don't know many villain outside classic Batman and Lex seemed the most likely to have something along those lines and.. IDK, Suoes called them in? Asked for help.. IDK.. It's there for convenience.