Epilogue

Quite literally, this is the episode Epilogue from Justice League Unlimited. So this takes place 15 years after the previous chapter. Enjoy!

"Ter?" Ariel asked confusedly as he left the Batcave angrily.

"Did you know about this?" he asked, shoving a paper at her. She caught it and scanned it: a DNA test result. The two DNA strands turned out to be alike.

"Whose are these?" She had a feeling she knew, but didn't want to assume anything.

"Bruce's...and mine." Her eyes widened as she dropped the paper. She had been right. "He's...my biological father." Terry looked pained to be saying it. "And he's yours, too."

"What?!" He gave her another sheet, which she glanced at, recognizing her own DNA on the right while Bruce's DNA was on the left. They were exactly the same. "No..." she whispered, sinking onto the couch.

"Air, it's not just that," Terry said finally as she looked up, "If this is true, then that means...we're siblings."

"That part, I don't mind, actually," she admitted as he smiled slightly.

"Yeah, me neither." He dropped down beside her. "I asked Bruce about it." She gave him a skeptical look. "Okay, we had a fight over it. And he said that he had nothing to do with it. How could he not know that he was our father?!" Terry was getting angry again. "And he said that I was intended, but you weren't!" He stood again, pacing the room as she also stood hesitantly.

"Ter, maybe you should hear him out," Ariel attempted to pacify her friend (brother?).

"Easy for you to say!" He now turned on her. "You were just a freak accident!" The instant the words left his mouth, the tension in the air grew. "Ariel...I..." Terry began, realizing his mistake, "Oh God, I...I didn't mean..."

"A freak accident," she echoed, backing away.

"I'm sorry," he tried to apologize, his voice soft and pleading.

"Why apologize when you're right?" she asked, somehow managing to keep her voice even. "I am a freak accident. If I hadn't been born, my parents, my real parents, would still be alive!"

"Air, that's not-"

"Don't you dare tell me it's not true!" She pushed past him, racing up the stairs.

"Ariel!" Terry called, but she didn't listen as she slammed the door to her room and dropped onto her bed, burying her face into her pillow and allowing herself to cry.

After what seemed like a long time, she heard the door open.

"Ariel?" Bruce's voice came, making her want to cry even more. "Ariel, it's okay." She felt his hand close around hers, squeezing gently. She sat up and rested her chin on his shoulder, feeling his arms wrap around her. "I'm so sorry," he whispered.

"It's true," she said finally, her voice breaking.

"Yes." His grip on her tightened. "I never intended either of you to find out. I had nothing to do with this and it wasn't until a few months after the Joker incident that I found out."

"How?" she asked curiously, her emotional outburst from earlier forcing her to feel too drained to do anything but get answers.

"Remember Amanda Waller?"

"Cadmus," she realized.

"Right. She wanted a new Batman to take over when she saw that I couldn't take up the mantle anymore. So she attempted to create one."

"Terry?"

"Yes. She used you as a test subject, injecting my DNA into your father's body." She laid her head on his shoulder. "But something went wrong."

"My powers?" she asked and felt his hand squeeze hers lightly. He knew she was sensitive about her powers.

"I was going to say that you turned out to be a girl, but yes, that too." He smirked at her as she stuck out her tongue at him.

"And then she tried again on Terry," Ariel finished, "And it worked."

"Yes." There was a long silence between them.

"He said I was a freak accident," she said quietly. Bruce didn't have to ask to realize she was talking about Terry.

"He's wrong." The old man tilted her chin up so that their eyes were meeting. "You may have been an accident, but you are by no means a freak."

"But my parents," she tried to explain. "If it weren't for me..."

"Don't blame yourself for your parents' deaths." He took her hands in his. "They knew what they were getting themselves into when they first found out about your powers. Just like I did."

"But you never gave me away," she pointed out and he knew what she was referring to; the night nearly fifteen years ago when she had stated that she wished she had never met him. They both now knew it wasn't true, but she still held some guilt from the incident.

"And, given the choice, your parents wouldn't have, either." She buried her face into his shoulder. "You may have been an accident, but you were the best accident that could ever happen to anyone."

"Really?" she asked hopefully, sounding so much like a five-year-old rather than the adult she was that he smiled.

"Really." She closed her eyes, a sense of contentment filling her.

"I love you, Dad." The term made him smile again.

"I love you, too, Ariel." He had been much more open with Ariel ever since the Joker incident.

"I don't think it's a coincidence we met," she said finally and he squeezed her shoulder.

"Neither do I." He cast a glance over to the doorway, thinking of Terry. "He'll come around soon enough."

"What makes you think he'll be back?" she asked amusedly.

"He always comes back. No matter how much I don't want him to." She rolled her eyes and chuckled. It was then that he noticed something: her eyes were the same as his.

"What?" she asked curiously, seeing him stare.

"You have my eyes." She blinked once confusedly, then laughed, her blue eyes lighting up. Bruce absently wondered if his eyes had ever done that whenever he laughed.

"I always thought that Terry looked like you, actually." Her voice startled him out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"Terry looks like you more than I do," she repeated, raising an eyebrow. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." He studied her face, seeing even more of his features in the young woman. She had been a walking mirror of him the whole time and he hadn't even realized it until only fifteen years ago.

She sighed, making the same exasperated face he usually made.

"What's wrong?" she asked patiently, as if he were a little kid who had done something wrong.

"I'm just...realizing how stupid I am." He pushed a strand of black hair out of her eyes...his eyes.

He was a father. It had never hit him until now, not even when he had first found out.

I'm a father.

A small smile pulled at his lips.

"Stupid or insane?" Ariel questioned, giving him a wary look. He didn't blame her; after all, he had smiled three times that day. She was most likely wondering whether to take him to the new Arkham asylum building or not.

"Probably both at this point." She laughed once more.

"Sad part is, that's probably true," she chuckled. They both looked up when a knock came from the door. "It's open!" Ariel called, knowing it would be Terry.

She had been right. The young man stepped into the room.

"Air, can we talk?"

"Sure," she agreed, then sent Bruce a look that clearly said to leave them alone.

"Thanks," the old man said sarcastically, standing up.

"You know you love me," she laughed, earning a small smile from him before he left, leaving the two friends (now siblings) in the room together.

"Air-"

"Ter-" They broke off. "You first," Ariel offered as he sat down beside her on the bed.

"I had no right to call you...an accident."

"I know."

"You know I'd never hurt you on purpose."

"I know." She was enjoying this so far.

"I'm so sorry."

"...I know."

"Ariel..." he warned.

"Okay, okay!" She laughed, the sound causing Terry to relax. "You're forgiven." Then she softened. "I can't stay mad at you, Ter. You're my best friend." He wrapped his arms around her as she did the same, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"Wait a second." They pulled away as Ariel gave Terry a confused look. "Who's older?" She laughed.

"Does it seriously matter?"

"Self-esteem, Ariel," he reminded her. Terry tended to use that excuse every time he teased her nowadays.

"I'd say I'm older, actually, since I was the first one to be 'created,'" Ariel said thoughtfully.

"That just crushed my self-esteem," he said dramatically, placing a hand to his chest and falling onto the bed while pretending to faint.

"Hey, off my bed!" He snapped open his blue eyes and stuck out his tongue at her, sitting up once more. "So now I suppose I must be the overprotective big sister," she mock-sighed finally.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"N-Bruce, stop listening at the door and get back in here!" Terry called.

"You're getting sharper," Bruce noted, opening the door and smirking at the two.

"And after fifteen years, this is all the progress he's made," Ariel laughed and Terry tugged on her ponytail. "Hey!" She pulled her hair out of reach.

"Two minutes and you're already acting like siblings," Bruce sighed, shaking his head exasperatedly. The two gave him identical grins.

"Wait a second, how are we going to break this to Matt?" Ariel asked finally. "He's already annoyed with having a twippy older brother-" At this, she dodged the punch Terry threw at her. "-so how are we going to tell him he has a sister?"

"Simple, by telling him that you're twippy, too." She flicked Terry's nose and he went cross-eyed for a moment before scowling at her. Bruce merely rolled his eyes at the siblings' antics.

Later that night, Ariel approached the room across the hall from hers.

She knocked lightly on the door, receiving a short invitation to come in. Bruce raised an eyebrow when he saw who it was.

"Nightmare?"

He had found out about the flashbacks not too long after the Joker incident. Ariel had done something to irritate Ace and so the dog had refused to stay with her that night. When Bruce had come in to wake her up from the nightmare that had occurred soon after, she had confessed.

"Not tonight," she smiled.

The nightmares had eventually faded over the years as she learned to control her mind even as she slept. Now and again, though, the dream appeared in short snippets that still had her going to Bruce's room at night. It was a common occurence for the old man to wake up sometime in the middle of the night to find Ariel curled up beside him. Not that he minded, though.

"Then why?" She shrugged, sitting down beside him.

"Just wanted to." He smiled slightly at that, moving over so that she could lie down next to him. "Dad?"

"Hmm?" He was half-asleep already, but was still conscious enough to stroke his daughter's dark hair gently.

"You know I love you, right? More than anything in the world?" She didn't know what made her say those words, but she felt compelled to.

"Yes..." Even he was confused. "Ariel, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she answered honestly, resting her head on his chest and repeating softly, "I love you." She could hear his heartbeat and relaxed, closing her eyes.

"...I love you, too." She smiled contentedly, drifting to sleep in her father's arms.

So that's it. Finite. Kaboom...okay, I dunno why I just said that. Ah well. R&R! I hope you enjoyed the randomness and fluffiness!