Echoes of the Past
Rated: T
Summary: Diana's first patrol in Gotham. But, on the contrary to Batman's early expectation, it didn't go the way he planned... In continuity with 'The Return of My Sister'. Screw DC's Infinite Crisis! All characters belong to the DC Comics, and trust me, I make no money out of this. Special thanks to Athena Phoenix for the excellent beta reading.
Chapter 3. First Patrol
Sitting straight on his majestic bat-chair, the Batman, sans cowl, was busy working on his bat-server as he heard light steps descending to the Cave. He allowed himself a luxurious smile. Alfred had obviously grown accustomed to her presence at the Manor and in the Cave, since he didn't even bother to escort her downstairs. A good sign for the very disciplined English butler, actually, as it showed how he too had truly considered her an official part of the family. Come to think of that, I haven't thanked Alfred for the Paradise roses... Bruce Wayne's smirk grew into a grin as he remembered that holy night, the night when he him – the cold, ruthless Batman, of all people – had become one with Diana of Themyscira.
He waited for a while to hear the familiar melodious voice to greet him good evening, or perhaps even chide him for his lack of courtesy. Or perhaps... his grin became wider... trying other things with the new costume.
But after a while, he grew impatient with her lack of courtesy. It was very unlike Diana not to greet him, even though they had become lovers.
"No 'good evening' or 'hello'?" The Bruce Wayne in him finally took the matter in hand.
"Well, hello to you too, Batman,"
Aaahhh... finally...the voice...
Slowly, Batman turned his chair to face Wonder Woman. He stapled his fingers to form a triangle in front of him, studying the Amazon Warrior who had been standing behind him for a while. Not Wonder Woman, this time. WonderBat? Batwoman? We have to think of a codename...
"Have you had dinner?"
"Just now, with Donna." I lied...I ate alone...thinking and thinking... "You?"
"Just now, with Alfred." Though I prefer eating with you. "Like the costume?"
As her answer, Diana rotated slowly, arms spreading both ends of her cape in a 'how's this?' way. Again, Bruce allowed himself the luxury of scrutinizing his girlfriend and teammate from head to toe, admiring the way the new costume he had designed helped create another image of the woman he loved. The lightweight black leather had enhanced Diana's tall but lithe figure. The mask fit perfectly with her face, revealing enigma in the usually open and honest face. The short leather skirt... uh, well...better not start down there. We're not going to patrol then...
Batman stood and walked a few paces further from Diana. He wanted to take a zoom-out look at her. Amazing. The costume had perfectly balanced the Greco-Roman aspects of Diana, which she always wanted to keep, with his need to have a "dark" partner. It gave her not the image of a graceful warrior she had always astoundingly implied with her traditional Wonder Woman attire, but something else. Somebody else...
A dark warrior. Or, more likely, a dark hunter. We can't opt for 'the Huntress'. The name has been taken.
"Not 'the Huntress', I'm afraid," Diana spoke regarding his concern. Talking about mind-reading. "That name has been taken. Can't take 'Artemis', either."
"What do you suggest?" It had to come from her. A code name was very personal; she should decide it on her own.
"Definitely not 'Batwoman'," she draped her cape to cover her front, mirroring the Batman. "Too many Batwomen already. Nor 'WonderBat'."
Bruce smirked. "So?"
"Diana."
"Diana?" he folded his hands, thinking.
"Yes, Diana."
"Isn't that as obvious as WonderBat?"
"Well, I'm not going to show off in Gotham the way I do in New York, am I?" Batman shrugged. "So, I don't see why I should bother thinking of a fancy code name to distinguish myself."
When Batman remained silent, she added. "Trust me, Bruce. I bet half of Gotham still couldn't distinguish between the Huntress and Batgirl. I mean, you guys just appear for a few seconds to save someone's life, then leave again. Another black-caped woman will not make any difference."
He had to agree with her. The codename was what the Batclan used to call each other during their missions. A 'weird' codename like Diana would actually work, as the Batclan didn't 'go public' the way the Justice League did.
"Bruce," Diana stepped forward, looking at him in the eye. "How about we just try it first? I've browsed through several other names, including mythological names. But I just stuck with my own name. The Roman Goddess of the Hunt? Sounds good to me. In Gotham, I'm not a warrior. Here, I'm a hunter. The way Amazons are, as gifted by Lady Artemis."
Batman had thought that Diana would choose a mythological name for her codename. But he never expected that she would pick her own name as her codename. A decision that – though he wouldn't admit it – he found strangely acceptable.
So he shrugged again, and smirked. "Sounds good, too. I have to inform Oracle that we're going now."
"Say hi from me," she replied absentmindedly. For quite some time, Diana had known that Oracle was a.k.a. Barbara Gordon. She also had suspected that Barbara knew about Bruce and her, especially after they – Batman and Wonder Woman – had gone to New Cronus to save Donna. Nightwing, her on-again, off-again boyfriend, would have tipped her off. "We should have dinner with her sometime."
Bruce smiled, putting on his cowl, and transformed into the Batman. As he activated the commlink to Oracle, Diana studied him carefully. He seemed happy to see her in the new costume, and didn't seem to mind her choice of codename. That was a relief. But still, her conversation with Donna lingered in her mind.
You have to ask him, Di!
What should I say?
The truth. Your curiosity. Let it go, and you will feel better.
So, am I just going to say: Hi Bruce! By the way, I found that Selina and you, in Earth Two, had a baby girl. Do you plan to continue that story, or not?
(Donna rolled her eyes) Well...a little more subtle, please? You're a diplomat anyway, for Rhea's sake!
But I never had to deal with love triangles in the United Nations! Especially, a love triangle from a different – and extinct – universe!
Well... don't you think it's a good start, now?
"Diana?"
"..."
"Diana? Hey!" Batman touched her arm. "You okay?"
Surprised, Diana tilted her head, looking at the white slits of Batman's lenses, and smiled weakly. "Umm...yeah. Sorry. Just thinking about Donna. She told me of...a problem I should fix."
"Bad?"
She shook her head, trying to smile. "Not really. I can fix it later. After patrol." Not before or during the patrol. This is my first patrol, for Hera's sake!
Batman nodded. "Shall we?"
"Sure!"
Within two minutes, a flashy Batmobile emerged from a hidden passage by the cliffs, carrying two dark figures inside.
xxx
"...and so I thought that I would be able to ask you to the charity ball tomorrow night. But I take it that you have other plans?"
She nodded. "Mmm-hmm. Washington, D.C. The opening of an Ancient Greek exhibition in the Smithsonian. I have to say that some of their displays and information would not be correct had I not volunteered to fix them up."
"The Herakles affairs?"
"Yes...and some others as well... You can't begin to imagine how convoluted the history was..."
He chuckled. "Aren't histories always like that? You really need the first person to tell it accurately."
She smiled. "So it seems..."
"But then you also need Plato and Aristotle to cross-check your information."
She glared. "Trust me, Bruce. I won't supply them false information. Even if the information disgraced the Amazon nation."
"Always the truth, eh?"
She looked away. "Yes, always..." It was almost a whisper.
Batman also turned his attention, studying the nightscape of Gotham City. They had been standing on the top of Wayne Tower for almost twenty minutes without saying anything. It wasn't what he expected from the first patrol. He thought that Diana would be very excited, asking him about this and that, things he would gladly answer. But no...she remained silent. Sometimes tucking her hair or cape, sometimes folding her hands. Sometimes shifting her weight from one leg to another.
Very un-Diana.
So instead, breaking his usual rule, he opted to be the first one to speak. He told her of various points to fire grapple guns (no-flying was their rule in Gotham, unless Diana was in her Wonder Woman uniform for non-patrol business), which poles to swing in, which stones to step to regain momentum for another swing, etc. He was glad that she followed his lectures seriously and confirmed several things. But she didn't try to continue the conversation.
He had frowned then, thinking that something must had been occupying her mind. She was not the most talkative woman he knew (her sister Donna Troy and Barbara Gordon were more chatty), but she usually talked of many things when she was with him. So he tried to tell her about his day: his meetings with major stakeholders and his investigation of the latest GCPD case. Even his plan to attend another charity function tomorrow night. She listened carefully and commented smartly, as she always did. But something was amiss.
Now, he asked of her activities today. Her strange attitude must have come from somewhere, perhaps in one of her meetings.
"So...how was your day?"
She looked at him, as if just noticing his presence.
"Uh...well...you know..."
"Bad, I take it?"
Her beautiful azure eyes emanated a glint of sadness. "Well...yes...you can say that again..."
"Tell me?"
She looked away again, this time scrutinizing the street below. He had thought that she would say 'no...not now...", but then she spoke.
"A friend of mine in Mexico asked me for a help." She told him a story of a lost girl, possibly located in Gotham now, working as a prostitute.
"You want to find her? That shouldn't be too hard." He frowned. "Why didn't you say that earlier?"
"I...well... we thought that Inez's specific location was in the...East End."
Ah, that's why. Batman remained calm. "You can ask Catwoman's help. I'm sure she will help you with that."
"Yes... I thought so, too..."
She wasn't sure. "Problem's solved, then?"
"Well...yes..."
"Diana?"
"Huh?"
"Why don't you tell me your real problem? Not this East End one, I suppose?"
Always the detective. "No...well... yes... I suppose...umm..."
This time, the Batman lost his patience. He faced the tall beauty, cupping her chin gently to face him. "Diana...this is not you. Something's wrong with you tonight, and you haven't given me the real story here."
Azure eyes looked right through his lenses. "You really want to know, Bruce?"
"I thought you always told me to speak the truth?"
"This is not easy."
"What is easy? Now, tell me."
She hesitated for a while, then made up her mind. She sighed. "Okay. You want the truth, I give it to you."
Don't tell me it's not working, Princess. It's been working so well, I start believing in the light...
"After her rebirth, Donna had gained another power now."
"I saw those moonbursts."
"I didn't mean that. She now has the ability to see through the past and the future. She's a Harbinger."
He grimaced. Another type of magic. Despite his love for Diana, magic still made him uncomfortable.
"She saw bad things then? She told you about it?"
"Not all. Only a very small part related to...well, me. She has made a policy not to tell anyone about the past and the future. Her role is to keep records of the universe, not spread it like the daily news, as she said. Of course, unless there's an emergency."
"This was an emergency, what she told you?"
"Not really..." Diana frowned. Perhaps it wasn't a good thing for Donna to tell me that. It was the past, anyway...Perhaps I shouldn't bother about it, either.
"Then what?" he folded his hands, starting to loose his patience again.
"Uhm... she told me that she saw several Earths as different multiverses. Earth One, Earth Two...Earth Three..." he didn't even flinch. "...In Earth Two, she saw different heroes as in Earth One. Most of the current heroes in JSA used to reside in Earth Two. Most Leaguers used to live in Earth One."
"The notion of different dimensions is not new to me."
She studied him for a while. "Even if I said that Earth One didn't have a Huntress, but Earth Two did?"
He shrugged. "To me, it's a random, Diana."
She arched her eyebrow. "Really! Is it random then, that the Huntress' name was also Helena? But her last name wasn't Bertinelli? Instead, it was…Wayne."
Now he frowned.
"Helena Wayne was the Huntress of Earth Two, Batman. She had taken the mantle of Huntress to continue the legacy of the dead Batman of Earth Two. Batman... whose name was also Bruce Wayne."
He remained silent, waiting for the final blow.
She swallowed. "Bruce Wayne...who married the Catwoman of Earth Two, a.k.a. Selina Kyle."
Now he understood why she was acting so strange tonight.
xxx
