A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Here's chapter 9 - things are moving a little quickly, but there is a lot to get through, I assure you, so please forgive me for that! And a sneaky bonus peek at the next chapter for the person who can spot the movie reference in this chapter!

Chapter Nine — Iced Mochas

The next morning — or what passed for morning — they decided to split into three teams, as per Bruce's suggestion. One Amazon per team seemed to work best. Bruce went with Damien, Flash and Shayera; Bella with Diana, John and Clark; Clara, Artemis and J'onn made up the final team. One group of them had to do without a way back, banking on the fact that once Medusa was dead, the gods would initiate their return. Unsurprisingly, Artemis had been the one to volunteer her team for relying solely on the gods. Their team had gone off less enthusiastically than the redhead might have liked. Next to go was Diana's team. Before they went, though, she gestured for Bruce to follow her to the back of the cave.

"I think we should go home, after this."

"All of us?" he asked.

"Yes. Damien and Artemis can just as easily go about our mission from Earth, I am sure."

"You think the gods will agree?"

She gestured to the cave around them. "This is meant to echo the warm of Hestia's hearth. I feel certain that the goddess would approve of giving them a real home."

"The Watchtower first," Bruce said.

"But-"

"I agree with you, Princess, it would be kinder for them. But there's still Bella and her son to consider. We can't take Damien to Wayne Manor until his memories return."

Diana nodded, shuddering. "I can only imagine the trauma that might cause young Bruce."

"Exactly. And I doubt Bella will be happy about the idea either."

"Bruce, just so you know …" she looked away, then back again. Her blue eyes were very earnest. "I would never — I could never — have forgotten you. Or Bella; the idea that I-"

He silenced her with a kiss, soft but passionate. "Don't think about it. It's their problem."

"You can't be so detached from it," she said. "Bruce, they are us, in another form. It hurts just to think about Damien's ignorance. It must do you, too. You can't feel Bella's pain?"

"I can empathise. It's not the same. It makes me angry, yes, but not unreasonably so." A bit of a lie, perhaps. The analytical psychologist in him knew and understood the reasons for Damien's compartmentalisation. The husband, the lover, the fighter — knew it to be cowardice. And he burned with indignation for his almost-sister and -niece. Diana still looked guilty though, and he renewed his previous thought. Damien, Bella and their situation were not his problem. Diana was. "We are connected with them. But what they do about this, when Damien gets his mind back, is up to them. We have a mission to complete, and a daughter to get back to."

"I know," Diana nodded. "She's our only priority once this is done. We spend the rest of our lives making her happy, right?"

"Right. And, Princess?"

"Yes?"

He ran a hand through her hair, tucking a raven strand behind her ear. "The cloak of humility doesn't suit you. Don't wear it for too long."

Five minutes later, the remaining Leaguers and assorted allies were setting off to deal with three Medusas. Stepping from the Void into an actual world was incredibly easy — dealing with what waited for them there, considerably less so. They were all blindfold except for Bruce, and it took not much time at all to devise a strategy once they came upon Medusa. She was huge, much taller and much broader than her predecessor had been. Apparently Damien had not forgotten as much unconsciously as he had consciously, as it seemed not to cross his mind that Batman would be the one to kill Medusa, and going over the plan he had only spoken of himself doing it. It was pretty simple; Flash would run around Medusa until she only saw a scarlet blur, then they would blind her, then Damien would cut her head off. What could be easier?

Shayera went first. Her wings were powerful weapons even in their own right; one well-placed blow could kill a man after all, and it was not a tactical advantage Batman intended to waste. Especially since this Medusa seemed to be even more dangerous than the last. Instead of spitting fire, they learned from a quick recon that she had the ability to revert her victims back to flesh. They remained dead, thankfully — because she then ate them. It was a grisly thing to hear, and worse to watch. She was, at the moment, munching on the bones of a middle-aged woman, if his pathology expertise was up to scratch. Which it was. He'd spent too many years around Gotham crime scenes to be disgusted.

"Clear on the plan?"

The three blindfolded people with him nodded. "Where is she?" Shayera asked in a whisper. "From the smell I'm guessing forty feet?"

"Forty two."

"How tall?"

"Seven four."

"Got it."

She took off in a rush of air, and Bruce tracked her flight. She went silently, and Medusa didn't even notice her until she was shaken by the first blast of wind. As Shayera hovered above her, she flapped her wings powerfully. Each wingbeat produced clouds of dust which filled the air and obscured Medusa's vision. It was Wally's cue; he sped forward to encircle the gorgon, whipping the air and dust into a tight funnel. Medusa wouldn't be able to see Damien's blow coming.

However, there had been no way to know, ahead of time, that this Medusa also had another talent. She had snake-hair that squired acid. And while she couldn't turn Shayera to stone, she could douse her with the corrosive fluid. It burned right through her left wing. She would have carried on despite the pain, if it had been a mere wound, but the acid had eaten through tendon and sinew as well as feather. With only one wing to slow her descent, Shayera crashed toward the ground.

Acting on instinct, Flash ran to catch her — which gave Medusa a clear shot at either them or Damien.

Quickly, Batman pulled out a flash grenade. No time to warn the others, but as they were all blindfolded anyway it should not matter. He threw it at her feet as Damien charged toward her, sword bared. The acidic snakes were drawn back, ready to strike — Bruce turned off the infrared and looked away, seeing the immensely bright flare in his periphery, knew it had gone off. There was a cry of pain, then the wet sound of metal meeting flesh, then silence.

"Dead!" Damien called.

Blindfolds came off all round, and Shayera's injury became the priority. She was not badly hurt; they cleansed her wound of the acid and bandaged her wing carefully but she clearly would not be able to fly again for a while. Shayera kept her teeth gritted throughout the process, though bathing the wound produced several colourful expletives. Bruce carefully strapped her wing to her torso and stepped back.

"It'll do for now, but you need medical attention soon."

"Better hope the others have had better luck than we have then," Wally said.

Shayera walked a little gingerly over to the head and picked it up, nodding at Flash's wounds — just a few cuts and scrapes. "We could go help them."

"You're not going anywhere," Bruce told her, "and you shouldn't be alone, either. We don't know what was in that acid."

"I'll go with Shayera," Flash said. "You and Damien can go help Di and the others."

"Get some water and keep bathing Shayera's wound."

"If Diana gets back before we do, she should be able to identify the healing salves to you," Damien said.

It was agreed upon, and using the Medusa head, Flash and Shayera went back to the Void. Damien turned to Bruce. "I suggest we aid Artemis and Kel first. They have a disadvantage in numbers compared to the others."

Before they had gone, Bruce (and Bella) had taken the precaution of obtaining a DNA sample from each of the others, knowing they might have to find them at short notice. Bruce drew one of Artemis' fiery-red hairs from his belt and fed it into the DNA scanner. It beeped helpfully and opened a portal to the other world. The transition was as smooth as it had ever been, simply walking out of one and into another, no more effort than stepping through a doorway. They were met with a battle scene, however. There was not one Medusa: instead there seemed to be dozens, all of them equally angry. She had no legs, only a long green snake tail which she used as a whip. Superwoman was knocking the twenty or so surrounding her back easily, but more kept coming. It was the same story with J'onn and Artemis. Medusa heads were flying around the Amazon; though she was blindfold, her sword was unerring and deadly.

Clara was the first to notice them. "Damien?"

"How can we help?"

It was obvious — as soon as they were out of the portal, Medusas were on them. Soon exploding batarangs, bolos and punches were all being thrown as quickly as possible, and Damien fell into the same pattern as Artemis. It was clear to Batman this Medusa must also derive some of her power from a hydra-like ability. Each time they killed one, more would take her place.

There was only one to begin with, J'onn's voice came into his head. When she was attacked, another materialised.

Which one is the original?

Impossible to tell. They are all-

J'onn cut off, and it was clear to see why — one of the Medusas in front of him suddenly started, well, sneezing fire. J'onn went non-corporeal just in time, diving through a rock to get cover. Yet none of the other Medusas were doing the same thing, not at the moment. Acting on the only evidence they had, Batman took a risk. "Everyone focus your attacks on the one with fire!"

"I'm a little busy at the moment!" Superwoman called back.

"Do it!"

About thirty-five Medusas were suddenly thrown backwards fifty feet as Clara shucked them off, zooming to J'onn's aid. A moment later, Damien and Bruce joined her. Artemis needed a little more time, and she was bleeding from a cut on her leg when she did get there. The two Amazons set about attacking the original Medusa while Clara and Bruce kept the others off them — defending only and avoiding offensive action. It seemed to be working, slowly. The amount of copy Medusas diminished, proving Batman's theory correct. The duplicates only existed as a defence mechanism, and the original Medusa couldn't hold them if her attention was focused on herself. But even so, Artemis and Damien were struggling. Medusa kept forcing them back, countering their attacks instantly and shutting down every chance they got before it had even fully appeared. As before, the first time Batman had seen them fight together, they were wounding her superficially, but seemed unable to land a killing blow. This would be a long and arduous-

Or not. When Medusa faced Damien, Artemis had taken her blindfold off. Batman himself was too engaged to put it back on physically, but he did yell for her to replace it herself. The use of ancient Greek seemed to surprise her, but it did not make her pause.

Damien heard Batman's shouted warning, but could not understand who he might be speaking to. Who would be so foolish, or so confident, as to remove- Suddenly he knew with chilling certainty.

"Artemis! No!"

He was too far away to stop her though, and distracted by his foe. Knowing she needed clear line of sight, if only for a moment, the redhead leapt from her hiding place and took aim. Medusa hissed in victory, her eyes meeting Artemis's. Just at the last second, Artemis released the sword. It sang through the air, but the arm that threw it was already stone. Medusa realised her mistake a fraction too late; razor-sharp metal sliced through her neck. The snakes flared, hissed, one more time. Then all was stillness.

Damien ripped off his blindfold. Knowing there was nothing to be done, he then rushed for his comrade anyway. Tears shone in his eyes, and spilled down his cheeks when he stood before her frozen form. Three thousand years, she had been his companion, and now, coming so relatively soon after Donna's loss … She was not the first to fall. She would not be the last. But so much death. How many thousands of gorgons had he slain now, how many hundreds of thousands more must come — and still the gods demanded a greater portion of his soul? Still what he had given was not enough?

He felt Batman's hand on his shoulder, where it rested for a couple of seconds. Damien knew the other man meant to comfort, condole with him, but it went unnoticed. No one could know what this level of loss felt like. He remembered a Champion some four centuries ago, Heracles, who had hardened his heart against it all, and shut himself off to all except duty. Damien had never been able to. He had tried — and maybe had been more successful than he thought. If he remembered Kel, Batwoman, but could not recall anything else ... Perhaps he had deliberately relinquished what was most precious. Deliberately relinquished his family.

"There is nothing else I can do," he murmured to himself, "but to continue."

"Continue?" Batman asked. "For what? For how long?"

"For the gods. And until they tell me we have enough." He kissed the stone of Artemis's face, and then made to kneel. He was stopped again by Batman. "What?"

"Don't."

"What?" He frowned. "Don't what? Pray for her soul?"

"Not to them. They're the ones who did this to you, to her."

"We knew the risks," Damien returned, equally angry, only his fury was hot. "The gods have every right to demand obedience."

"No one has the right to dictate anyone else's life. And you're an idiot for letting them."

"So what are you saying? That I have destroyed my life chasing a fool's errand for millennia?"

Batman's face was bleak and pitiless. "Yes."

"I cannot believe you," Damien returned, looking again at Artemis. She looked fierce, proud, sure she had gone to her death knowing she was in the right. "When It comes, we need to be ready. This is the only way to protect everything I care about."

"You have no idea what you care about," Batman snarled, so viciously Damien was taken aback. Yet just as quickly as the Dark Knight's emotion had come, it disappeared again. "Finish your prayer," he said, "then we leave."

He tried but could not fall into the meditative state his prayer required. The grief, anger, despair all prevented him. Batman's voice, broadcasting a report to the others, was only the surface of the problem. His words were the rest—they had all been accurate and painful as daggers. He had no idea what, or who, he cared about. His father's face had blurred from his memory a long time ago. He had thought his wife and child would be long-dead, but seeing Kel, and Batwoman had ignited the hope that they may be reunited. But then more bitter tears were shed. He would not know either of them. His wife could stand before him and he would be unable to perceive her. The gods help him—perhaps it would be better if this quest claimed his life. With Artemis now gone … did he have anything to live for?

In the end, he left her there without a prayer for her soul. Kel reached out to clasp his shoulder as well as he moved past her, her expression far more compassionate than Batman's was. He walked to where Medusa's head lay, and a moment later they were en route to the Void. Batwoman, Diana, GL and Superman had obviously also been successful, as they were all there, alive if not entirely well. In addition to Shayera's wing, GL had a cut on his mouth, and Batman's shoulder had clearly been dislocated. But they were all living. And Damien did what he had learned to do: rejoiced in the only happiness he had: the relief for their safety.

"Where's Artemis?" he heard Flash ask as they moved through the cave. Damien put the Medusa head on the heart along with the two others collected today. "Oh," Flash said.

There was a quite moment, and Batwoman knelt beside Damien, silently for a moment. "I'm sorry," she said in a low, clear voice.

"It just seems like … too much," he whispered.

"It is too much," she replied, sentiment the same as Batman's had been, but tone so much gentler. "They have no right to ask this of you any longer. Enough is enough."

"Perhaps," he said.

"Follow Diana's example," she urged. "Come back to — their world, then ours. We can continue the mission from the Watchtower, with the full might of the League. You don't have to exist nowhere anymore."

He smiled bitterly and gestured around the cave, this mock-holy place. "I've lived here for millennia."

"You've never wanted to," she stated.

Apparently, she knew him better than he knew her — but then she wouldn't be Batwoman if she didn't. To change the subject, he motioned to her shoulder, which she was holding awkwardly with her other arm. "Has no one fixed that?"

"Waiting for the local anesthetic to kick in."

"And has it?"

She nodded, and moved towards Batman, but Damien stopped her. "May I?"

Surprised, she hesitated a moment, the nodded again. He took her wrist in gentle fingers and placed a spread palm on her ribs, just under her breast. The action was familiar, as though he had done this before. He had of course, with the brothers and sisters who had come and gone over the years — but this was familiar. The armoured torso and the leather gauntlets … he knew this. "Ready?"

"Do it."

Twist, grimace, pop, and it was back in place. Batwoman's jaw clenched once, twice, three times, but that was all the reaction she gave to the discomfort. Afterwards, she gazed at him intently for a moment. "So, will you come?"

His turn to nod.

The walls were obviously paper-thin when they stepped into Diana's world, and it was easier to pass from one place to another than he had ever known it to be. The Watchtower looked utterly alien to him. Anxiety and emotion overwhelmed him for a moment, and he had to put a hand out to steady himself. Slowly, it passed. He was no stranger to unfamiliar surroundings after all, and a few of the Medusas had lived in outer space themselves. Yet it was because this was not entirely unfamiliar that he was unsettled. His whole head ached, buzzing with recollections being tickled and roused. GL, Shayera and Batwoman headed for the med bay while Diana led the others to the commissary. Even the slightly antiseptic, freeze-dried food smells were awash with memory.

"Here." Diana held out a cup to him, condensation thick on the plastic.

"I … Do I like it?"

Flash snorted. "I'll say. Di goes through about twenty a day."

Experimentally, Damien sipped through the green plastic straw in the top of the cup. The tastes of coffee and chocolate flooded his mouth with deliciousness, just cold enough to be refreshing, but the flavours were comforting, warming ones. After an experimental sip turned into a huge gulp, Damien came up for air, the iced mocha all but gone. "Great Zeus."

Much laughter echoed around the table, and Diana handed him another one. "It may not be the home comfort you long most for," she said, "but I figured it would be a good start."

"Thank you."

He still had no appetite, but another four iced mochas in and he felt less shaky in his nerves, better able to cope. Literally he was more shaky, having been exposed to more caffeine than he had in five thousand years, and it was playing havoc. It had also made his brain go at about two thousand miles an hour, and he couldn't seem to stop talking.

"Kel, how did you find me? Us, I mean? Were you looking, or weren't you, and if you weren't looking how did you find us and if you were how did you know where to look before you came here and who had the idea to come here-"

Kel laughed. "Easy, Damien. Remember to breathe, okay?"

"But how-"

"When you had been gone six weeks, with no word to your family, Batwoman suggested we seek aid in this world."

"Why here?"

"She'd exhausted every avenue she could find in ours, and she hypothesised that Diana might know more. I followed her here."

"I am sorry for all of your trouble," Damien said. "The idea was for you not to follow me at all, anywhere."

"Then you underestimated your friends," Kel said seriously. "And the strength of our bond with you. We had no idea what had happened to you — whether you had gone willingly, whether you were hurt or even if you'd been killed somehow."

"I am surprised to be still alive."

"Well, I'm thankful. And I'm sure B-Batwoman is too."

"I'm sure. Now that she's ascertained I'm safe she can get back to Gotham."

"You remember Gotham?" Kel asked, titled her head, an expression of mingled curiosity and excitement in her face.

"I remember of it. I think I dream of it sometimes, just as I dream of Metrocity."

"Metropolis," Kel grinned. "Anyway, I'm sure Gotham is important to her, but so are you."

It only occurred to Damien ten minutes later than he'd not seen either Bat since they arrived on board the Watchtower. Where they might have disappeared to was a mystery.

Where they had disappeared to was the Batcave. Bella's arm was now in a sling to help take care of her healing tendons and ligaments while they reattached, but both of them were working on cultivating their suspicions. "Next step?"

"Play along for now. Go after the Medusas as though we're still following the gods' plan."

"And search for answers. Reasons."

"What does an all-powerful god want?"

"Not all-powerful. So more power maybe."

"Or to hold on to power."

"Why target the Champions?"

"Potential rivals. Demi-gods, Damien mentioned Heracles."

"Olympians killed or imprisoned the Titans."

"But why suspect them? No ambition to rule."

"Precaution?"

"Risk-takers. Egotists. They must have a reason."

"More research."

Bella looked up toward the manor. "Damien will be housed on the Watchtower?"

"Yes. He still has no idea."

"No."

"What are you going to do?"

"You have to ask?"

"I don't know what I would do."

"Then you have your answer. I have no idea what to do about Damien. But at the moment he isn't my priority."

"Your son."

She nodded, and removed her armour — and sling — before starting up the stairs. Bruce didn't need to ask what she'd do about the boy. A moment later he followed her, blinking at the unexpected and bright sunshine. Glancing at the time, he was unsurprised to find they'd been gone less than two hours. He found his daughter and Alfred in the kitchen. From the half-drunk glass of milk next to Bells, Bruce had been next to her until a moment ago. His mother thought it best to break the news as soon as possible.

"Daddy, you're back!"

Bella scrambled off the high stool for a hug, which he returned gladly. It had been at least a couple of days since he'd last seen her. "Hey, sweetie."

"Where's Mommy? She did come back with you, right?"

"Right. And she'll be home soon, she promises."

Bella's face puckered into a little frown. "Do you promise?"

It was another mark of how damaging even the initial stages of separation had been, Diana taking herself from her family. Bella should be able to trust her mother's promises. Deciding he would never tell Diana how badly their daughter's faith had been shaken, Bruce nodded firmly. "I promise as well. Did you have a good afternoon?"

"Uh-huh, we played games and baked cookies and I taught Bruce how to ride a bike! With training wheels on, but he'd never even done that before," she said, her tone conspiratorial, like Bruce being unable to ride a bike was scandalous. With the next cheery sentence it was gone though. "And I was gonna pick some flowers out of the garden for Mommy, but Alfred didn't want me to so I drew a picture of them instead. Think she'll like it?"

"Why don't you show me?"

She raced out the kitchen to retrieve her drawing, and Bruce gratefully accepted the cup of coffee Alfred placed in front of him. "Thanks."

"You're certainly back sooner than I expected, Master Bruce."

"It was longer for us."

"I trust you were successful? It was impossible to tell from Mistress Bella's demeanor. She seems little happier than before."

"We found him. But the situation is … complicated."

A/N: Review please!