No matter how many times she had been in the Batcave, Zatanna always forgot about the bats. Even now they were huddling up along the ceiling, chipping to one another, nestling in for some shut eye.

It had to take practice to get used to them. Bruce ignored them and his little girl seemed to have done the same. Then again, Cassandra was clearly steamed so even if the bats dropped guano on her, Zatanna doubted she would have cared.

The magician paused at that thought. Ew…

Ever since the meeting with the Network, the one where Nightwing had stood up for the other vigilantes, Zatanna had taken Cassandra aside and, more importantly, back to the Batcave. It was something she had been noticing since the two of them and Bruce had returned to Gotham and it needed to be addressed.

Currently, Cassandra was sitting in Bruce's computer chair, her elbow on one of the chair's arms as she used it to prop up her head, her hand on her check. She was slouched in the chair, leaning to one side, her mask off, which revealed her youthful features. Zatanna stood off to a side, eyes watching the girl as she stewed in her thoughts.

Bruce was off doing something else. She knew that because she had told him they needed a girl talk and would be taking up residence in the Cave. She also indicated that it would be in his best interest not to be there. He had taken her words at face value and went off somewhere else.

His very absence only seemed to anger Cassandra more.

"Alright, I've let you pout about this for long enough," Zatanna finally spoke as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Why don't you tell me what's eating at you. It's just the two of us, so feel free to let it all out."

Cassandra glanced towards her out of the corner of her eyes. The chair rotated slightly so that she could look without physically turning. There was a glare in her eyes, a look Zatanna returned with cool indifference.

"Look, I know you have a problem. You've had one since we've returned to Gotham. Now fess up before I lock you in the Cave. I'm pretty sure Bruce won't mind."

This time, the younger girl turned the chair so that she fully faced the dark-haired woman, dropping her hand from her face onto the armrest. "You want to know?" she questioned rhetorically. "Alright, I'll tell you. Ever since we came back, Batman keeps putting himself into danger. It's as if he's seeking it."

Zatanna raised an eyebrow. "So? That's the business you're both in. There's going to be danger whether you want there to be or not."

"I know that," Cassandra shot back peevishly. "What I mean is that he's taking unnecessary risks. When we were taking out Penguin's men at the docks, he didn't wait for us like he said he would. He took those men on by himself. Then, when we were fighting the police last night, he goes into the building without waiting for me. By the time I found him, he was about to be killed! And it didn't have to be that way!"

Ah, so that's what this was about. Apparently Cassandra hadn't learned about Bruce's recklessness, or never paid it any mind until now.

"He's always been like that, though," she replied simply. "As long as I've known him to be wearing that mask, he's always done reckless things. Leaping from tall buildings with only a grapple for safety; ramming the back of his Batmobile into an oncoming truck; refusing help at any and all opportunities." She then muttered to himself, "Knocking out people he cares about."

"What was that?" the girl asked, frowning.

"Nothing. The point is that Bruce, your dad, does this kind of stuff all of the time. I'm kinda surprised you're just now noticing."

"That's because I didn't know any better in the beginning," she admitted. "But I do now. All the other times he's done this, I tried to understand, but all those other times he…"

Zatanna frowned. "He what?"

A sad look appeared on the dark-haired girl's face. "He wasn't hurt like he had been. It's a miracle that he's even standing after what Bane did to him. And yet, he's not acting any different. He's not being mindful of his back. One wrong move and he could be overcome with pain."

Zatanna nodded her understanding. She knew the girl's fears all too well. Hell, she had seen her father figure crippled, which could not have been easy. Their time together following her arrival in Chicago had only reinforced that idea.

"I just don't understand," Cassandra was saying, which pulled Zatanna out of her thoughts. "Why does he seem to look at all of his choices and choose the riskiest one? Why won't he take care of himself?"

"That's a question all of us have asked at one point or another," the dark-haired woman said as she stepped towards the girl, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Believe, me, I've been right where you're at now. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to pull my hair out of my head over that man."

Cassandra looked up to her. "How did you deal with it?"

Zatanna tilted her head up as she went into thought. Then she blew air out of her mouth, which caused some of her hair to fly up before slowly falling back down. "A lot of arguing, a lot of confronting, and verbally putting my foot up his ass."

"And that worked?"

"Nope, not at all."

Cassandra looked away from her despondently. Then her face twisted with anger as she jerked her hand up, making a fist with it. She then slammed it down on the keyboard, causing a hole bunch of keys to light up. "That pig-headed…idiot!"

"Preaching to the choir there, sister."

On the computer screen, something was going on, a whole bunch of windows popping up and vanishing just as suddenly as they appeared. Obviously the computer was trying to make sense of whatever random command Cassandra had inadvertently put in. Zatanna paid it very little mind.

The girl looked up to her, a helpless look on her face. "What am I supposed to do? I have to make sure he's safe. I have to since he won't."

Zatanna couldn't help but sigh at that. That was an impossible question with an undesirable answer. "Unless you're willing to attach yourself to his hip 24/7, you won't stand a chance at doing that. Even then, he'd still find a way to give you the slip and you'll be back where you started."

As distasteful as it was to say that, she could tell it was just as unpleasant hearing if Cassandra's face was anything to go by. However, before she could respond, something happened.

Namely, a drawer popped out of the computer stand. Both women looked to it, finding the drawer to be a very long, very thin one. It was perhaps an inch thick, if that. Filling up the draw was cushioning and at its center was a flash drive.

Huh…

There was a frown on Cassandra's face as she turned the chair to face it, leaning forward in her seat and plucking the flash drive from its bedding. "What is this?" she asked out loud.

"Looks like one of Bruce's flash drives," Zatanna said, eying the metallic surface. It gleamed in the Batcave's lighting, odd embellishments attached to it. That was quite a flashy design for a guy that preferred function over style.

"But why is it here? He keeps all his other ones with the rest of our equipment." Her eyes hardened as she studied the device. "And this looks nothing like his other flash drives."

The girl had a point. This flash drive had a metallic appearance. Dare she say it was space-age, or even futuristic-looking. All the other drives Bruce kept were ones that could be bought at a retail store, though knowing him he had them custom made, not to mention bought in bulk.

"Maybe it's important?" Zatanna couldn't help but think about the girl's words. It was strange for Bruce to single out one flash drive out of the many he had. The only time he did that was when there was something significant to him that he wanted to hold onto. It's why the painting of his parents was the only picture in his study.

"There's one way to know for sure," she then prompted, which earned her a look from Cassandra. Realizing what she was getting at, the girl then turned the chair to face the computer and plugged the flash drive into a USB port.

Looking up to the computer, Zatanna noticed the randomly flashing windows had stopped, a small one in the bottom left corner remaining with the words SECURED DRAWER OPEN in it. Secured? she couldn't help but repeat in her mind.

It took several moments, but soon a much bigger window appeared on the screen. It was some sort of video, one that appeared to be of the Batcave...yet, not. Zatanna recognized the Cave in the background, but there was something different about it.

She never figured it out as her eyes suddenly focused on a person in the video. It was of a woman with straight, black hair wearing black and red body armor. A red Bat Symbol was on her chest—

Hold on, red?!

Who the hell was this? Why were they wearing a Batsuit? Zatanna hadn't ever seen that look before and was unaware of anyone that wore it. However, the woman did look familiar. In fact, if she wasn't mistaken…

"That looks like me," Cassandra said softly.

Indeed it did. If Zatanna wasn't mistaken, that was Cassandra, only older. And why were there those weird dots on her forehead?

Suddenly, the video started playing. "Nightwing was one of the first to find that out. Helena and the rest of Birds went shortly after," the woman said, followed by a sigh. "That's when Zatanna led a revolt. She had obtained some amulet from—"

Whoa, whoa! Revolt? Her?! Since when?! Zatanna immediately hit a key that paused the video. This caused Cassandra to tear her eyes away from the screen to look up at her.

"What the hell is this?" she exclaimed. "Me leading a revolt? On who? When? What is going on here?"

It took her a moment before she looked down to Cassandra, who was still looking up at her. "None of this is making sense," she continued, though found whatever rant she wanted to go on was pretty much over.

"What do we do?" the girl asked.

Zatanna stared down at her before she looked back up at the screen. "The only way to find out what this is, what is going on, and why Bruce was hiding it is to watch it from the beginning." Hitting the rewind button, she watched as the video began going in reverse, speeding up the longer she held it.

Alright, Bruce, she thought, what else have you been hiding?"

A skilled hunter was always patient. One needed to be when tracking difficult prey.

Ra's was a very patient man. He had centuries to acquire such a mindset, unlike the younger generation of today. Instant gratification was fleeting at best.

As of now, his patience was paying off. It wasn't all that long ago that he had received word that his men had finally found where Bane was hiding. His masked foe had done well to hide from him, vanishing from sight. He had played his hand well.

Unfortunately for Bane, he was going up against men that specialized in surveillance. His assassins could ferret out any and all shreds of information and that was just what they had done. Ra's did not care the means in which they went about it as long as what they found out was factual.

Bane was hiding out on a ship at the docks, one that Ra's had come to found out had been docked there for quite some time. The log books at the docks made no mention to this ship's presence, but that was due to tampering. All mentions of the ship had been deleted from the computerized record log, so when doing a count of all shipping vessels were done, an additional one was discovered.

It was a novice mistake really, one unbefitting the masked man. It was an oversight, or a foolish choice to eliminate the records. Perhaps if it was the local law enforcement doing a search, it would prove useful, but for someone of Ra's intelligence, it was a giveaway.

Surveillance had been done then, and much like Ra's suspected, Bane's presence was discovered. No doubt this was one of the ways Bane had brought supplies and men to Gotham, if not the very ship to ferry him. Considering the attrition the man had faced, it was telling that he would retreat to his own ship.

And Ra's would make certain it would be his final stop.

"Ubu, send everyone to Gotham Harbor," Ra's ordered, his manservant immediately straightening his posture. "We have Bane's location and I want it to be the last one he ever sees."

"Your will be done, Master," Ubu replied.

Yes, his will be done.

There was a cool breeze in the air that was quite refreshing. It disguised the awful things that were going on within the city, lulling one into complacency.

Huntress stood atop a building, using it as a perch to monitor the streets below. Though, if she were honest, her mind was far from actually patrolling effectively.

The last Network meeting had ended abruptly. It all stemmed from Nightwing's accusation that Batman was taking over the group and the rest of them were allowing it. At first, Huntress didn't care; saving the city was what was the most important thing after all. However, now that she had some time to reflect on what was being said, she found herself agreeing more and more with what Nightwing had said.

Everything seemed to be on a constant cycle. Batman would protect the city, leave, the city would go to shit, and he would come back to put everything back into place. Wash, rinse, repeat. It was hard to ignore now that it was out in the open.

Huntress took in a deep breath. Had she been younger and inexperienced, she would have been right behind Nightwing, arguing for more say. Perhaps it was an age thing where she found herself not caring how the shots were called as long as they were the right ones and they worked. Batman had the best record on that, especially considering the Network's efforts without him. Things seemed to work better with him around than they did without him.

But this cycle was getting old. It had to stop, needed to stop.

The sound of crunching gravel reached her ears, alerting her to someone approaching her. The purple-clad vigilante turned her head to a side and saw Black Canary walking towards her. "Quiet night, isn't it," the blonde woman greeted her.

"Not for long," she grunted back. Things never did stay quiet in this town. "What brings you here?"

"The same thing that's been running through everyone's mind since the meeting." Canary came to a stop next to her comrade. "Do you think Nightwing's right? That we're getting pushed aside?"

"He made a lot of good points," Huntress admitted. "Hell, maybe he is right. But we can't deny either that things have been working better with Batman here. It's like there's a catch-22 in all of this."

Both women fell silent for a few moments. "There's a part of me that wants to dispute what Nightwing said," Canary said then. "I mean, who cares how Gotham is saved so long as it is. But I can also see what he means, what with Batman's frequent disappearances and the city going to hell without him. It's getting frustrating, like he's the only one that can adequately protect this city."

"It seems like we're both thinking the same thing." Huntress looked to the blonde vigilante. "How do we change it though? I mean, if this is as big of a problem as it's being made, then it's up to every one of us to change it. But again, how do we do that?"

And that was the question, the heart of the matter to be frank. It was clear that they weren't in the same league as Batman, not with the way he magically returned and suddenly the Network began having more success. He had changed all of their tactics, encouraging smaller, specialized groups whereas they had all stayed in one large group for safety. He ensured they were properly supplied whereas before they relied on what was available. He chose the right course of action without having to learn it the hard way.

Perhaps...perhaps it was Batman that was suited to handle a crisis like they had been in and they weren't. Being on her own hadn't produced any results pre-Network, and then joining the group had brought minimal returns.

"I can't really think of anything other than self-improvement," the dark-haired woman spoke then. "It's like we have to get better and reach his level. Just imagine if we had the same ideas that he's having. Would we be standing here with everything still going on?"

"I'll be the first to admit that I didn't demonstrate the proper leadership that I should have," Black Canary added. "Maybe things would be different if you or I headed the Network instead of deferring to Nightwing. It's obvious he was used to leading more inexperienced vigilantes than the rest of us." She paused. "Christ, did we screw this whole thing up?"

"Did we do anything that we would have done differently had either one of us took the reins?" Huntress replied. "I'd like to think no. I do think we would have made things more democratic and allowed all the voices that we did. Maybe nothing really changes then."

There were just too many what ifs. Huntress didn't deal with those and second guessing wouldn't fix anything now.

"For now, we need to get through this mess with Bane and the Demon's Fang and anyone else that wants to take over this dump. Later we can figure out how to improve ourselves and the Network so that there's a long-term plan for the future."

"I guess that's what we'll have to do," Black Canary agreed.

Again, they fell into silence, though that was mostly because neither one of them had anything else to say. So they stared out into the city, gazing upon it in all of its gloom.

Perhaps that was why they saw all the movement.

At first Huntress thought she was just looking at moving shadows, but slowly she came to realize she saw a bunch of people on the move. In fact, a couple of the people were on the building across the street, running across the rooftop at full speed.

It wasn't just those two, however. Across multiple buildings, there were people running at full speed, a veritable army of them. If Huntress wasn't mistaken, they were all going in the same direction.

"H, tell me you're seeing this," Black Canary said.

"You too, huh?" she responded, squinting her eyes in the attempt to see them better, however it was that worked. "Is it just me, or do those guys look like Demon's Fang ninjas?"

"I think that's who they are too." A pause. "We should call this in."

"You do that, BC. I'm going to follow them and see where they're going." With that, Huntress took off running, fishing out her grapple gun so that she could have it ready. She fired it at a much taller building, one that started another block of buildings across a street.

Something was going down, she could feel it in her gut. If it were just a handful of those assassins, she would've suspected some sort of patrol on their part, but with the number she and Black Canary saw, it was more than that. Those assassins were closing in like a hunter after prey. Considering who they were going after and she had the feeling another large fight was about to break out.

And as she reached the top of the building, she noted a second grapple claw close to hers. No doubt Black Canary was following her. So much for being pushed aside, right?

Hours had gone by. Zatanna wasn't sure how many, but it must have been a lot.

She felt numb, sick, and horrified. Shattered was a pretty good word for it too. She had heard that Bruce had gone missing for a month, something that was played off as an undercover sting by the Justice League, or so the story went. The dark-haired woman had her own problems at the time and hadn't known of his disappearance until after the fact.

According to this flash drive, that was all a lie. Zatanna knew the video she and Cassandra had watched was footage recorded by the recording device in Bruce's lens. Somehow, someway, he had traveled to the future where the Justice League had gone bad and taken over everything. To find out she had died as part of the resistance was shocking.

And then came all the twists and turns. That Ra's al Ghul had arranged for Bruce to travel through time; that Dr. Fate—the Dr. Fate—had intervened; all the death and wanton killings the League had committed and then defended; all of it was mind-numbing.

Of course, all of that wasn't enough by itself. With Bruce involved, it was never just that simple. The cherry on top of this unknown story was Wonder Woman snapping the neck of Future Cassandra right in front of him. The scream Bruce had made was deafening, bone-chillingly distraught. She had heard that scream before and it had sent the same chills down her spine now as it did then. He had made that scream when Alfred had been killed.

And yet, that wasn't the most troubling thing. No, what caused Zatanna's heart to drop and her stomach to twist into knots was what Bruce said to Wonder Woman right after.

"Diana, I'm gonna kill you."

If there was one thing that should never have passed through Bruce's lips, it was those words. He abhorred killing. It physically made him sick. But there he was, doing everything he could to kill the Amazon princess. The entire time, Zatanna had prayed and begged that he didn't follow through, even as he brutally destroyed Diana, both physically and emotionally.

The relief she had felt when he restrained himself threatened to cause her legs to give out. The rest of the video was a blur to her and she really didn't pay it any mind.

It had been some time since the video had ended. There was no telling how long it had been since the feed stopped. It could have been hours, it could have been minutes. Regardless, Zatanna stood there next to the computer chair, numb and confused.

It wasn't until she detected movement in the chair that she snapped out of her funk. Quickly, the magician looked down to see Cassandra slumped in her seat, a devastated expression on her face. As if she couldn't feel any worse, Zatanna realized the young girl had just watched herself be killed, seeing what her future would end up.

Jesus Christ…

Quickly, Zatanna placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, trying to get her attention. "Cassandra," she said softly.

The young girl didn't so much as twitch. "Cassandra," she repeated with more strength in her voice. Again, no reaction.

No, wait, there it was. She could feel Cassandra's shoulder trembling beneath her hand. Steeling her resolve, Zatanna turned the chair to face her, even as she knelt down in front of it, putting herself right in front of her charge's line of sight. "Talk to me," she ordered.

Cassandra didn't immediately open up. Her trembling became more visible though. Then, "What is going on?" she asked softly, shaken. She looked so lost and vulnerable, it caused Zatanna's heart to ache for her.

And then she exploded. "What am I to him? Her? That...woman in the future? Is that how he sees me? Is everything he's done for me for her? To protect her? Make me into her?" She was on a roll and it looked as if she wasn't going to be stopping any time soon.

Zatanna stood up only so that she could lean forward and hug the girl, who immediately latched onto her, burying her face into the dark-haired woman's shoulder. She could feel Cassandra's fingers digging into her back, but she ignored it. The girl needed someone for her and damn it, she was going to be that someone.

And then Cassandra abruptly pulled away. "I need to know. I need him to tell me why," she said, this time her tone being filled with resolve, if not desperation. "No wonder he had the Martian man mess with my head. He wanted me to talk just like her and he wanted it as fast as he could get it. And then he locked me inside this house so I wouldn't get hurt!"

She was hurting, that much Zatanna could see. If she was honest with herself, she could see where the girl was coming from. Bruce had never been one to take the easy road—and boy did she know that. Suddenly changing tactics after coming back from the future explained it.

But again, this was Bruce. She had the feeling things weren't as dry cut as Cassandra was believing them to be. Sure, the future was influencing him, but there was something else, she could feel it.

That could be looked into later. For now she needed to calm down a teenager who just had her world rocked to the core.

Pressing a hand to the girl's cheek, Zatanna made a soothing sound, shushing the teen. "Listen now. There are a lot of unknowns here. I know what we just saw is pretty damn earth-shattering, but Bruce isn't shallow enough to try and mold you into another person. We both know this."

Cassandra's eyes flashed. "Oh really? Then what about all his words on no killing? He enforces that all of the time!"

"And for good reason." Zatanna's tone hardened. "You did see what happened to that...Batwoman in the video, right? When she killed Superman? Did you see how destroyed she was afterwards? That's the reason why he insists on that. He's always insisted on that long before this little trip of his."

"Then what about the talking? And the writing? And the reading? What about those?"

That one Zatanna wasn't sure about. But she did know one thing: "If Bruce wanted you to be the woman you become in the video, then he wouldn't have come back. Think about it, none of what happened to cause that future exists any more. He's in the present versus being dead. The Justice League hasn't declared war on crime worldwide. And you aren't crashing with the Birds. That has to mean something."

"But—"

"No buts. Look, the only way either one of us is going to get to bottom of this is when we ask Bruce, your father, for answers. He's going to hedge, he's going to stonewall, but he can't hide the fact that we found that little flash drive of his. He's going to answers us one way or another."

Cassandra gave her a questioning look. "Give us answers?"

Zatanna returned the look with one that said, "Really?" "If you think I don't want to know what the hell is going on with that man, then you're sorely mistaken. Aside from the Lasso of Truth, I'm about the only person in the world that knows how to get answers out of him. It might take a half-dozen spells to do it, but he will talk."

The girl considered those words for a few moments before she nodded her acceptance. "Okay. Together."

Zatanna smiled at her as she stood up to her full height. "Now then, we'll just need to lure him here so—"

Suddenly, intense pain exploded in the back of her neck. Zatanna felt her legs give out as she dropped to the floor. The last thing she saw was Cassandra's face, eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

And then she only known unconsciousness.

Zatanna collapsed to the floor, ending up at Cassandra's feet. The young girl's eyes were wide as she stared as the women fell, only to have her attention drawn right to a young looking boy standing on the other side of the dark-haired woman's body.

He had his arm raised as if he had delivered a chop-like blow, one Cassandra realized he had used to knock Zatanna out. His white and blue bodysuit stood out in the cave. However, his face and hair were oddly familiar.

"I've finally found you," the boy sneered at her. "Usurper."