Hi! Sorry for the late update! I was on vacation!

Song for this chapter: Water Drop: www youtube dot com /watch?v=MLFz0RCVESU

Now to end that cliff hanger!


Chapter Seven: Christopher Drake

They fell.

And fell.

Then fell some more.

"Should I say the whole cliché line of 'we're still falling' and then we all start screaming again?" Jason called out to them, sounding mortified and confused at the same time.

An odd calmness fell over them.

"Why haven't we hit the bottom?" Dick yelled, looking at his youngest brothers for some scientific explanation as to why they didn't resemble Alfred's pancakes yet. It was Jason who decided to give the helpful response.

"Our minds are stretching out the final fleeting moments of our lives, it's actually happening in a blink of an eye and we're already dead!"

Dick blanched.

"Anyone got some better theories?"

"Well, Jules Vern had a theory that these tubes could run for hundreds if not thousands of miles through the Earth's core!" Tim tried.

"Vern was incorrect in his theory!" Damian argued.

Dick looked beyond exasperated.

"I can't believe you two are still arguing even as we fall to our deaths!" He turned to Tim. "Any other ideas?"

"Well, perhaps the walls are going to gently slope from erosion that was caused by water that might still be running through these tunnels? The water would serve as a gentle break to our fall, kind of like a water slide!" Tim shouted over the air.

"Alright, water slide. That's a theory!"

"Tt, Drake! You're forgetting the percentage of probability that the water formed stalagmites pointing straight up at us! We would be skewered at one hundred eighty miles per hour!"

Jason looked down in horror, the theories sounding far worse than when he had died the first time.

That's when something splashed on his face.

Water.

Large globules of water we're practically floating up at them as they descended, which meant two things. Either Tim was right, or Damian was right.

"Everybody hold hands!" Dick screamed, and for once no Bat complained.

The thunderous sound of water reached their ears, rapid waterfalls beginning to fall about them. No matter what theory was right, they we're about to get drenched. Their grips tightened around another as they began to fall into a funnel of heavy rapids.

It was Jason who slipped first, then Tim and finally Damian as they were swept away from one another by the strong currents. None of them we're able to fight or swim against it, the end looking far too close.

Tim was emerged in water from all sides, and finally there was calm. He was no longer being dragged or pulled, just blissfully still in the cool atmosphere. Pushing up, he aimed for the lighter area of the water, praying that he was heading to the surface.

He broke just as Jason did. Gasping for air, treading water and looked wildly about for any sign of the oldest and youngest brothers in the water about them. A few seconds passed before Dick emerged a few feet away from them.

"Where's Damian?" He called out to them.

Tim and Jason exchanged looks before taking deep breaths and diving back in. When they both came up again, neither of them had the youngest Wayne in hand.

"Help!" Dick called, spluttering up. "I found him, but his bag is too heavy, I can't get him free!"

Tim and Jason swam over, before diving once more into the dark waters scrambling to save the youngest Wayne from drowning. It was Jason who got there first, fumbling with the buckle of the mountain bag around Damian's chest. It felt like an eternity before it snapped free, which Tim and Dick grabbed together before thrusting back up.

They collapsed on a makeshift beach of a large cavern. Heaving for breath and all lucky to be alive after a drop that significant.

"We didn't get skewered," Dick finally spoke.

"Yeah, but now we're at the bottom of a volcanic tube who know how many miles deep with supplies that will only last us days." Tim frowned. "And as far as I can see…"He trailed off.

"What?" Jason asked noticing his face, a face he rarely ever had seen on the replacement. Confusion.

"Is it just me, or is the ceiling of this cave moving?"

All four of them gazed to the top of the cave, taken aback to see that he was right. Small blue lights flickered, moving about above them.

"Are those, stars?" Dick asked.

"Of course they are not stars, Grayson." Damian huffed, coming to his feet at last. He looked a little pale, but otherwise seemed more than willing to ignore the whole past incident.

"Well, what are they?"

The ceiling began to separate into sparkling fragments, and then stopped midair as if the lights were spreading out into a glowing, fluttering mass. It was Damian that figured it out first.

"Archaeopteryx," He exclaimed. "However, these seem much smaller and…bioluminescent."

"Alright, how about that again but in English." Jason frowned.

"They're birds." Tim clarified startled. "Birds from the Jurassic era, but like Damian said much smaller and their glowing. Like fireflies or glowworms."

"You've seen these before Dami?" Dick wondered.

"Tt, of course. As fossils in museums, they've been extinct for over a hundred and fifty million years."

"Those don't look extinct to me." Jason commented, as suddenly the swarm came down circling them before taking off down a crack in the wall that had gone amiss till now.

None of them had to say a word to know that they were all thinking the same thing. Grabbing their gear, the four bats followed the strange creatures through the wall. All of them hoping beyond hope that maybe they had finally discovered a way back to the Earth's surface.

As they headed forth, light began to glow, and before they understood what was happening they stepped onto the edge of a gigantic cliff overlooking the most breathtaking landscape any of them had ever seen. Not far away was a large waterfall flowing down the side of a cliff covered in luscious green vegetation. Below were ferns as tall as pine trees, and giant flowers in bright blinding colors.

The center of it all, in the sky was an odd, strangely glowing gas-filled electric sky.

"Where are we?" Jason asked first.

"I don't believe it," Dick laughed. "We are standing, Jason, Tim, and Dami, in the center…"

"The center?" Tim blinked.

"…of the Earth!"

They all stared at the massive land before them, some in awe, and some in disbelief. The birds circled high above in a clump, before spreading out within the sky.

"It's not possible!" Damian exclaimed.

"Maybe we're dead, and this is heaven." Tim mumbled under his breath at the sight.

"No, I know what being dead is like and we haven't hit there yet." Jason commented.

They all turned to look at him.

Jason shrugged.

Dick laughed, pulling his backpack off his shoulders and beginning to rummage through the contents. Somehow the inside hadn't been damaged in the water. He pulled out Jules Verne's book, and began to rummage through.

"He was right! Tim your uncle was right!"

"How is there light down here? I take it that's not the sun?" Jason asked, staring at the orange glow from the top of the cave.

"It must be…some sort of luminescent gas combination." Tim frowned, still taking it all in at once. "Like a terrarium. A terrarium thousands of miles under the earth's crust."

"A world, within a world." Dick laughed again.

They began to make their way down from the cliff they entered on, finally entering the actual forest below. The whole world was fluorescent and bright, like a tropical biome. Wandering through the large palm leaves and ferns, the sounds of the water they had probably slid down echoed from above.

"The waterfalls, which for a long time could be heard flowing from afar cascaded along the towering canyon walls, streaming along the rock with no end." Dick read as they walked.

There had to be at least six coming down from where they had entered.

"It's exactly how Liedenbrock wrote,"

Jason turned to look at him, snorting as Dick attempted to read and walk at the same time. Plants swatting him in the face as he trailed behind. He pulled a particular branch back, waited for him to get close enough before releasing it. The large leaf swatted him right in the face.

Dick didn't look amused.

"Does this mean, Liedenbrock the character, was real?" Tim questioned. "That he once existed and traveled here?"

Dick threw his hands in the air in bewilderment.

"Someone came down here and saw all this, someone must have gotten out and someone told Verne."

"Someone got out? That's the best news I've heard yet!" Jason snorted.

Tim did not look so convinced, and Damian merely looked sourer than him. Allowing Jason and Damian to move ahead, Tim fell behind to pull Dick to the side. His face set in a stricken frown.

"If he was real and told Verne, does that mean everything in the book is real?"

"Probably." Dick nodded, not understanding why Tim looked so grim.

"Even the really dangerous parts?"

Now Dick understood, looking down at the worn novel in his hands.

"That's not good."

Jason called out from ahead, catching their attention once more as they broke through the large palms to meet an even odder sight before them. Gigantic mushrooms, almost two stories high, all clumped together like a little forest of their own.

"Enormous fossilized mushrooms." Damian commented with an unimpressed look.

"You mean humongous fungus?" Dick added with a smile. There was no need to panic yet.

They rounded the large cloud shaped fungus, looking about in awe when something caught Tim's eye. Makeshift stairs leading into what seemed like a hollow one, as if someone was living inside.

"Hey! Here!" He called to the others, leading them to the sight.

Tim climbed the rickety stairs, entering the open fossilized room inside. Although appearing to be nothing more than empty in the light, a wooden desk could be made out in the center and hammocks hanging in the back. A hand rail seemed to head into another separate room, various gear and supplies hanging from the walls as if someone was still living there.

Damian lingered outside, looking through the palms at the distance ahead. A small path looked forced through. Slipping away he headed to investigate as Jason and Dick followed Tim up.

"Someone lived here?" Jason asked, looking up at the odd amber glowing ceiling.

"Not just someone, Liedenbrock did. Look at all this gear, all this, state of the art a century ago."Dick stated, flipping through some blank pages on the desk.

Tim pulled one of the satchels down, rummaging through it to see what might have been left behind. A small dusty notebook fell, thudding against the hard floor. The crusty pages fluttering as if they had been water damaged somewhere along the way.

Flipping through, he opened to a highly detailed and carefully drawn map of the very area in which they stood.

"According to this, it looks like on the other side of those trees there's some kind of underground ocean." He placed the notebook on the table for them to see. Dick opened the novel and flipped through, turning to a picture of a dangerous looking wave taking on a small raft.

Tim eyed the handwriting.

"I don't think that's Liedenbrock's." Jason murmured.

"It's my Uncle's."

Damian made his way back to the tall shroom, a delicate frown on his features at what he discovered.

"Grayson? You all may want to see this!"

The three older bats looked out the window to see the smaller boy pointing down a path made within the palm trees just beyond. Exchanging a worried look with Dick, Tim made his way out followed by Jason. Dick snatched the small notebook that belonged to Christopher Drake and lingered behind, scouring the pages for what he might have said about their whole situation.

As they approached, Damian didn't say anything, just pushed an old water bottle in Tim's hands. It looked plastic, but covered in what almost came across as volcanic ash. The younger boy appeared to have wiped some away on the top of the lid, revealing black sharpie underneath.

Christopher.

The truth now seemed more real than any of them wanted to believe. Liedenbrock fell from their minds as they accepted with sickening hearts that the man they were after had been here.

Tim's shoulders shrunk, pulling away from the group as he gritted his teeth. He knew that what waited was no doubt nothing of good news, and he yearned to ignore the waiting disaster. The detective could feel the eyes of the others on him as he clutched the small bottle in his pale hands.

Turning to the path just ahead, he opted to go alone to see what Damian had discovered.

The bush didn't make it clear that there had been a path here, but subtle hints in the dirt gave it away. He made his way through the underbrush; the young detective came to a stop at a large crevice in the ground. As he crouched upon the ledge, resting his hand, he looked down. Something appeared to glint in the grass beside him.

Tim reached out and picked up an old flashlight, in the same condition as the water bottle. Its position nearly on top of the deadly drop sealed the fate in his mind.

So that was that.

"Tim?" Dick asked, climbing through the ferns. Jason and Damian seemed to have stayed behind.

"I never got the chance to know him," The younger frowned, still crouched at the cliff. "I mean, I wish I did."

Reaching out, Dick placed a hand hesitantly on the younger's shoulders. The years that had passed between them since Damian's arrival seemed to make any form of affection sour as Dick rested his chin on his head. Tim's unruly mop of hair tickled his nose, bleakly reminding him of how much they had been through over the past few hours, much less years. To think just this morning everything had started off as a glorious day to end up here.

He could feel Tim pulling away after a few moments to look down the cliff edge. As usual, the kid had a knack for hiding his emotions the best he could. A bad habit he had gotten from Bruce that Dick never got the chance to break. It made him somewhat sick to think this is how he had been the first days he had heard of Kon and Stephanie's deaths. Cold and calculating, keeping the rage and pain underneath his mask and only breaking when he was alone.

"You know, he wrote something I want you to hear." Dick broke the silence, letting Tim go further from his remaining grasp as he reached for the old notebook. Flipping through, he opened to a page not far from where the writing abruptly ended.

"July 19th, 1997." He began catching his attention.

"Today was my nephew, Timothy's, first birthday-

'Six weeks ago I promised myself I would be home in time to give him his first book. 'A Journey to the Center of the Earth', by Jules Verne. To remind him to always dream of the impossible.

'Now I'm worried I may never get the chance.

'I set out to make an incredible discovery to share with Jack and the world. But now, I would trade it all-"Dick paused, catching only a small glance at Tim's face. It was frozen stone.

"Just to be able to watch you grow up to be the brave and caring man I am certain you will become.

'Happy Birthday Timmy,

'Uncle Christopher."

His companion said nothing as he finished the small piece, shutting the notebook carefully. The only response was a small tremor that went through from his shoulders, and Dick only frowned more. There had once been a time when he remembered the kid showing a range of emotions to him with little consequence. He was almost used to this silent treatment now.

Dick pushed the pages into his hands, ruffling the ebony locks with a watery smile, almost praying he would get some sort of rise from the younger. When he pulled away, Dick resigned to his acceptance unhappily. Tim would do nothing, and if that's what he choose to do than he would sit quietly and let him do it.

Crossing his legs, the older let time pass as Tim looked into the depths below. The book lay forgotten in his lap.


Jeez I hope that was alright. I was afraid of being cheesy!

Reviews are an enormous help.