I am reformed to find myself in the legendary cave. It's surrounded with darkness, other than the man-made light such as the computer, or from the light via moon that comes down through a minor escape in the roof of the cave. The cave itself is several hundred feet long with multiple pathways and creations to aid my venture in rinse Gotham of its evil.
I am greeted by my faithful Butler, with a tray of food in his hand. "Good afternoon Sir, I trust your meting was p…" he stops as he draws his eyes towards my injured shoulder. "…surprising? Master Bruce your injury(s) need attending to." Alfred immediately puts the tray down, before I walk past him knowing he'd follow.
"Sir you must sort.."
"No I can't right now, I need to hide. Alfred I'll explain later, although this injury probably party explains it. We will be greeted by a forceful Amazon soon, and I beg that you state clearly to her that you haven't seen me since I left for the conference. She knows I've headed here, so denying me here is futile."
"Erm right Sir." Alfred replies as we walk up the stairs and past the Grandfather Clock, we stop by the stairs towards the upper floor. "What if she forces her way in?" He asks.
"Well you can't do anything. Just make it clear you haven't seen me. She's stubborn and won't be sold on anything else. I'm going to hide now, call for me once she's gone and only once she's gone. Do you understand?" I ask Alfred, giving instructions to him.
"Huuhhhhh, you are such an arse sometimes Wayne. But of course I shall help you, your health is a priority, and I have reason to believe it is in danger."
"Thank you Alfred. I shall see you soon." And with that, I disappear quickly into the shadows to try and find the perfect spot to hide from her. Luckily my Mansion is huge, so even without looking for secret areas, she'd be searching for a while.
Not even five minutes had passed till loud thuds came from the outside of the front door. Alfred was quick to come to the door to come face to face with the much anticipated Amazon.
"Good evening Princess, how may I assist you this evening?" Alfred asks, bring the gentleman he was.
"Hello Alfred. Where is Bruce?" She simply asks. Usually she has a high spirit for Alfred, knowing the gentleman he is and what he has to put up with constantly.
"My dear, I haven't seen not heard of Bruce since he left to go to the meeting with the rest of the League. Why? Should I be worried?" Alfred replied, attempting to play the Amazon with a lie. It had not worked.
"Oh…boys, they always have each others back don't they? If you shan't tell me where he is, I shall search myself. Now if you wouldn't mind Alfred, move yourself" Diana demanded, moving through the doorframe.
"I…well be my guest. A friend of Bruce is a friend of mine" Alfred says, now closing the door for Diana as she walks into the main hallway. Alfred follows her and becomes shoulder and shoulder to her.
The hallway was where most things are connected to it. There were two stairways, the kitchen, a living room, library doors and more.
"I don't think he considers me a friend, Alfred" Diana said to the Butler, with slight disappointment/disapproval within her.
"Believe me ma'am, you are a treasured friend. He just doesn't know when he has something. He is a man who has pushed everyone away, so don't feel hurt if he tries to do the same to you." Alfred says, attempting the raise Diana's morale.
"Perhaps you can help me with what I'm trying to find out. On the night of Bruce's party, something happened between me and him according to him. But he was very vague and is hiding something. Can you help fill in the blank?" Diana asks optimistically.
"Well it's not my place to say now, is it? You can use the Lasso on me if you must, but you'll never be satisfied with the answer until it comes out of his mouth." Alfred replies, turning to his left to now look at her.
"I know… I just wish he wouldn't run like this." Diana stares, before Alfred quickly replies: "we all do. His emotions are locked up by these demons and chains. I believe you do get to him though, which scares him. Hence why he runs." Alfred afterwards looks downs and breathes heavily, knowing he's about to get an earful for what he's about to do – "Bruce is upstairs hiding in one of the rooms. Please don't hurt him, you've done enough physical damage as it is." He says softly towards her.
"Thank you Alfred. I don't take offence to you lying to me, you are a great man with good intentions. I have the upper most respect for you and what you have to put up with" she says, looking around as she finishes the sentence. Before Alfred gets a chance to reply, Diana has flown up the stairs and starts to look around.
I can't believe I'm having to hide in my own house. I'm a fully grown man who knows over 120 different types of Martial Arts and has an IQ surpassing Einstein's.
I couldn't find anywhere reasonable to hide, and this was a bother. So I went for an extremely unorthodox method – I 'went to sleep' in my bed.
This shouldn't would on a normal basis, but I'm under the impression that she may be easy on me with this. Because, if I'm honest, I had nowhere to hide. And I'd rather not walk up to her face to face.
Shortly after she ventures the stairs, she enters my room to see me there, sleeping. At first she was took back by this, but saw through it fairly quickly. "I didn't know you liked to sleep on an injured shoulder Bruce" she said mocking me. I held my ground though, and acted as though I was asleep.
She walks slightly closer to me, looking around to see clothes scattered on the floor. If she knew Bruce never liked to rest, she'd find it plausible.
"All I ask is the truth of you Bruce. I believe I have a right to know." She whispers. I use this time now to act as though I've had a nightmare, seeming as she's whispered into my ears she could assume she woke me up.
I rush my head up and forward with wide eyes and a slight sweat, whilst breathing heavily. I swallow hard and then turn my head slightly to see her standing there with her hips on her waist. "What are you doing here?" I ask her.
Why did I try this…
"I came to talk to you Bruce. Now stop acting like Sleeping Beauty and tell me." She said, patience on her was wearing thin.
It's checkmate. I can't do anything any more except tell the truth, whether she should hear it or not is no longer up to me.
"Fine! You want to know what happened?! You and I almost made love, ok! I've been holding this from you so you didn't get hurt. I figured not knowing was less painful!" I say out of pure frustration. I have actual sweat now dripping as my hair starts to get slightly wetter.
She stands there and laughs to herself. I just told her something which I found hard to say and she's blown it off like it's nothing. Hell no.
"Well Bruce I.."
"No Diana I don't want to hear it. I tried being nice by pushing you away gently but it clearly hasn't worked. Get out if my house, now! And please refrain from talking to me again unless it's League related!"
She turns silent. I see pain shoot through her eyes with the comment just made. I've never seen this from her, it's like a mixture of sadness and loneliness that fills her eyes. Her eyes start subtly twitching as she gets upset with what I've just said.
"How can you be so damn cold?" She asks me, her bottom lip almost going as she tries to hold back obvious pain.
"Because I have to do what is necessary. You can't win a war without sacrifice, and I'm the one who has to make them so we can win. And before you ask, no I'm not happy like this. I've never been happy like this. But that doesn't mean I'm not satisfied with being moderate. I don't want to do these cold things Diana, but I have no choice but to. I should expect you to at least respect that." I explain to her, obviously she is confused.
"This doesn't mean you have to throw out Love Bruce!" She shouts, her tears holding back no more.
"This isn't Love! This is just a one night thing where we both have no responsibilities for our actions. It's almost stupid to suggest that an Amazon has fallen for a rich kid with a lot of issues."
"You are so pessimistic about everything Bruce."
"Whatever. Why go for the broken man when you could have Clark? I'm sure big old Supes is much better than I. He makes jokes, says nice things, isn't arrogant."
"Stop comparing yourself to Clark"
"Why? Does that bother you? Does it annoy you when someone's applying logic towards you? Who wants bloody Humpty Dumpty after he's fallen off the godamn wall..." I say with a huff of rage. Without further conversation, I grabs the bed sheet, raise it to my chin and to around on my side so that I'm now facing the opposite direction to Diana. I hear sniffs from her behind me, but the truth needed to be said.
"I do…" she simply states.
The room turns silent, and I feel the room being filled with thickness and fat. It's harder to breath in as a result. I turn around to see a broken Amazon standing there. The outcome I feared most.
"This is what I mean" I reply quietly and gently "I tried to hide it because I break people. My demons consume me and others, look at you right now. You're already hurting and that's the last thing I wanted. Diana please, for your safety, please…just leave." I ask of her. She looks up with red eyes, then to the door, then back at me,
"Do you care Bruce?" She asks me. I knew this was coming, but up until this point I didn't think how hard it would be to answer,
"It doesn't matter what I think, I can't have you anyway, even if I wanted too."
"You're wrong"
"I wish I was Diana. I do."
All of a sudden she moves closer to me till we are mere inches from each other, she angles herself down and raise my chin with her hand and locks her soft lips with mine. At first I try to resist and push, but she fights back till I can't anymore and give in. Believe me I tried, but even I can only disregard my feelings so much.
After and intense kiss, she releases with her eyes closed and a small smile on her face. She places her forehead on my and locks eyes with me. "We can fight these demons, together Bruce." She whispers and she strokes my cheek and jaw with her palm. I finally accept what's happening and return a kiss of my own. Except this time it was filled with passion and fire, rather than curiosity and strangeness. She grabs the back of my hair on my head and scrunches slightly as she pulls me towards her and I reciprocate the action.
For a second I feel relieve, like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Unfortunately it doesn't last long before my instinctual defences kick in. I pull away from the kiss, although it was initially fought against by Diana. She opens her eyes with disappointment, knowing what's happening.
"Don't make this harder than it needs to be Diana…please" I ask of her faintly. This is tough to do, but it has to be done for her sake.
She doesn't reply to me though. She instead sits down at the end of the bed. She places her hands in her lap and places her chin downwards, looking at her hands. She has a mixture of annoyance and sadness in her face. She says some things under her breath, which I can't pick up on, but sounds like she's praying to her Gods.
A few seconds later she stands back up, and walks towards the door. It's like I'm watching my happiness just leave, and it hurts. A lot. I don't have a choice though, I can't let her become broken as well. She'll inspire the world for centuries and centuries, whereas I'll be gone in 60 years, most likely less.
She looks over her shoulder towards me, and sadly says "fine. I get it, I do Bruce. I just wished that your demons would have been beaten, or at the least I could weaken them. Perhaps I was too optimistic, or even stupid. I'll leave you be now. Goodbye, Bruce." And with that, she leaves the room. With a closed door now facing me, I realise what I've just done.
She slowly walks down the stairs, not showing Alfred any recognition as he waits at the bottom of them. Alfred was no fool, and knew what had happened. He was surprised, he thought Diana was as persistent as Bruce himself.
"I see Bruce wouldn't budge Princess. Shame really, I must say". Alfred says and Diana walks off the last step. She stops and turns to Alfred.
"Indeed. He truly feels I'll be more hurt being with him than not. I can't change that, no matter how much I try." Diana says, acting pessimistically, with little of her usual spirited character in her.
"You must push Diana. I know Bruce, and he has almost allowed you in. He's just afraid, and do you truly blame him?"
"Yes. He should know I won't get hurt."
"Physically perhaps not. But there's more than one way to destroy someone. Anyway I suggest you walk back up those stairs and try once more. You only realise what you have once you lose it, and he's now been given a short taster of feeling like he's lost something." Alfred tells Diana, still confident she can change the man he calls his son for the better.
"Alfred my dear friend, I will not lead my life following a man. If it didn't work out, it didn't. Enough said on it. I have to go now, goodbye." Diana says, as she quickly walks towards the front door and leaves.
Without hesitation, Alfred rushes up the stairs, shouting "BRUCE!" Multiple times among the way.
When he got into the room, he found Mister Wayne sitting on the edge of the bed with his eyes and head in his hands.