Disclaimer: I do not own Batman Beyond; it belongs to its creators. I gain nothing but a writing outlet and writing/editing experience.

Summary: Terry could have just as easily received Bruce's spliced X instead of Y; if so, would it have all started with Matt instead? But the world, particularly Gotham, needed a Batman again. The Jokerz overran the streets, businesses were ruining the world. Pride and avarice were destroying Gotham, and Gotham needed its symbol of hope and justice again.

A/N: This chapter is kind of slow and there isn't much action in it, but I really like exploring how the relationships change due to Terry being a girl, thus we have this chapter. Also, beginning few paragraphs are just to show time-progression and establish her routine so I don't have to reiterate it ever again. Anyways, thank you to those who have reviewed, put this on alert or favorite ~ with love, depressedchildren

Chapter 26: Meltdown part 1

Terri stifled a yawn as walked out of the school with Jared at her side. It had been about a month since she made her decision to be Batman, which meant a month of Powers making promotions for a highly experimental operation. It also meant a month of actively being Batman with the crazy schedule that entailed, which Grayson wasn't very happy about, whatsoever; especially since she barely had time for anything. Not that she was complaining or anything, but she honestly was spread pretty thin.

First thing in the morning was running two miles in the gym, then she'd catch a quick breakfast, go to school, fall asleep in home economics, and once school was over was when her day really began. Depending on circumstances, she might get to hang out with Jared and her friends, or pick up Matt and teach him a few self-defense moves, but usually she had to meet with Wayne for a few hours about some meeting or interview. Then she'd go home, do gymnastics and self-defense training with Grayson before dinner. She'd call Wayne about whether she needed to come in right away, and depending on that answer she'd have some time to do homework and chill with Grayson and Matt. Otherwise, she'd leave by eight and go on patrol until midnight.

Over the past few months, she'd dealt with a more Jokerz gangs, had a run-in or two with a Kobra cell, closed down a few chop-shops, and dealt with other law-breaking thugs. On the more public front, she had attended several more funding meetings where Powers tried to push for money for that suspicious experimental medical research, and there were some large negotiations Powers was trying to bully another company into.

Miguel and Matt still came over often, but they had let up on their attempts to convince her Batman was good for Gotham, perhaps because she had already decided Batman did good. She hadn't asked her brother if he thought she was Batman yet; she didn't know how she could even broach such a subject with him without implicating herself if he didn't know. She suspected strongly that he did know, just like she suspected that Grayson was somehow connected to Batman, but how could she press for answers? … In any case, she didn't have to worry about the two boys bombarding her anymore with Batman talk.

Of course, that didn't change that they were almost always together. In fact, Miguel had begun to take gymnastics lessons from Grayson and then stay over for dinner. She didn't know if she even wanted to know how her brother convinced the other boy to take lessons from Grayson. The former cop was a no nonsense guy and a tough instructor; he didn't have too many young students because of how scary he could be. She wondered what those two boys were up to, but she hadn't had much time to pry into that.

Terri shivered slightly in her winter coat, and Jared pulled her a little closer. Winter had come early it seemed, but then, for the last few years winter came at unpredictable times. It was December, which was a crazy month when it came to weather. Last year, right before "winter break," they had had a day in the sixties, and that had been after a snow storm two days prior. The weather in Gotham, especially during December, was ridiculous.

"Looks like we'll have a cold one this year," Jared commented and made a noise to suggest he was cold.

Terri laughed, "Be careful there, we might have another record breaking high before winter even gets to really begin."

Jared laughed with her, and Terri bumped her shoulder into his, "Do you have time grab a fizz or something?" Wayne hadn't texted her or left a message, so she hoped that meant she could spend a little time with her boyfriend.

"I do," Jared began with a sort of grimace, "but you don't." He gestured behind her with his head, "The old man's here." She could hear Ace barking now. Slowly turning over her shoulder, she saw Wayne and sighed.

"Right," She reached up and kissed Jared on the cheek before walking toward Wayne while throwing a wave over her shoulder, "Maybe I can see you later."

"Uh-huh," Jared didn't sound so positive about that, but he waved bye as Terri hurried over to where the old man was waiting with Ace.

"We're going for a walk," no greeting, typical. Terri sighed and grabbed Ace's leash—he didn't need one but people got uneasy when the Dane-mix didn't have one on.

Likely this walk would involve a talk which was Batman related. After intangible man started showing up and planting bugs in the manor, they had taken to having more and more conversations outside rather than risk being caught on tape going down into the cave. A person would think that after they had removed all the bugs the first time around that intangible man would figure it out and stop planting more bugs, alas the creep was persistent.

After the third day of debugging the manor, Wayne had gotten a mini-computer hooked up to his security feed—excluding the cave, of course, just in case he misplaced the computer and someone happened upon it and found out about Batman. They wouldn't have gone to such extremes if they could just catch this bastard, but they never had success.

They had analyzed the cameras, but they had been stolen from one of those stores that sold things in bulk. They also were almost as encrypted as the cave's security feed, and when they had broken the encryption and traced where their feeds were going back to, it lead them to a dead man's computer. A dead man who apparently sold his clips to Ian Peek if Terri had heard her friends correctly; the police were trying to make a case for them, but they weren't having any luck. So, now Wayne just checked the security feed before heading back to the manor, and they debugged everything. It was extremely tedious.

"So…" Terri began, "Is this about Powers dumping radioactive waste?" she had caught some of his hired goons last night.

"No," that was a surprise. Wayne continued speaking again, "How's the voice modifier working?"

"Just a touch mechanical, but good," Terri replied, it was one of the suits newest features and they were still working out some of the bugs. For the time being, Wayne was encouraging her to speak as little as possible while wearing the cowl—part of that was simply for intimidation considering her unimposing frame. The old man had finally had a breakthrough in the voice modulator a week ago, and had got it so that the piece of tech seamlessly fit into the cowl. She had to be careful while putting the mask on, but that was of little consequence.

"Mechanical?" Wayne sighed heavily in frustration, and Terri resisted the urge to pat him sympathetically on the back. "I'll do a few more adjustments to it tonight."

Wayne then reached inside his coat, "What I wanted to discuss was this," he handed her a device he liked to use for storing videos and news clips.

She turned it on and found the video clip he likely wanted her to look at Powers and Fries was the title, and she narrowed her gaze as the press conference began. Powers described the medical advancements his research team had been working on in their compound. Dr. Stephanie Lake came forward and explained how the experimental procedure was conducted while what Terri assumed was Fries stood almost uncomfortably by Powers next to the podium.

Then Powers came forward and made his closing remarks. Several reporters were outraged that Wayne Powers would give one of Gotham's feared villains a new body. "Victor Fries has paid his debt to society, and now with the help of the great medical minds at Wayne-Powers, he's returned to a normal life."

How typical of him, but Terri just knew in her gut there was some self-interested plot behind this all. It was not cost effective, no matter what he tried to tell the funding committees. He had just barely gotten the money to do one experimental test, and he chose to use Fries as the experiment; he chose a former Gotham villain. Terri shook her head, "When was this on?"

"This morning," Wayne replied tersely.

"My fervent hope is that the technology used to cure Victor, will serve to help millions more," Powers gave his closing remark but the reporters began to speak up again; however that was the extent of what Wayne had recorded onto his device.

"I want you to follow Fries," Terri turned to Wayne in surprise and even stopped walking, but the old man moved forward as if she hadn't stopped. "Don't let him out of your sight," Wayne ordered and threw a glare over his shoulder at her for good measure.

"Why?" Given the experiment details, it sounded like Fries shouldn't have his powers, so why would she need to watch him?

"I don't trust him," was all the reply she got, but she should have guessed that was the reason.

"Powers or Fries?" Terri asked for clarification because why would Powers have done such an expensive experimental procedure on Fries of all people?

"Neither." He turned away from Terri and patted his side so that Ace would follow him.

Terri exhaled loudly and shook her head, of course.

…

"I'm calling it the Nora Fries Foundation, named after my former wife." Fries was sitting comfortably across from Vale and he had a slight smile on his face that might have come off as genuine and suave. Terri was leaning over the back of Wayne's chair in the front room while they watched the interview.

Terri had followed the guy for the last few days, and honestly…she kind of liked Fries. First thing she saw him actually do was save a cat. He saved a cat from the ATrack. It was hardly nefarious. Then she had saved the guy from a would-be assassin, and what does Fries do, but let the guy go because he had hurt the assassin, who "was right to want revenge." Now, maybe Terri was just naïve, but that didn't sound like the actions of a fearsome, unrepentant villain. She could relate, actually. Fries was given a second chance and he was just trying to live it…do some good, but Wayne didn't see it that way.

"And you intend to fund it yourself?" Vale asked on the screen. It was nice not being the one interviewed by her for a change.

"Before I went to prison," Fries paused slightly before continuing to speak, "my legitimate earnings, were put into a blind trust. After all these years, it comes to quite a significant sum." Wayne scoffed and Terri rolled her eyes at his reaction.

"A half a billion, I hear, that's some charity," Vale exclaimed and again Wayne made a noise of contempt and disgust.

"Not charity…justice." Fries' tone was determined and Terri really could relate; getting a second chance and trying to right past wrongs. Fries continued on "A way to make reparations for all those whom I've hur—"Wayne turned off the device and scowled down at the black screen.

"More like blood money." He started to get out of his chair and Terri couldn't believe him.

"Come on, can't you cut him a little slack?" Terri moved around the chair to be face-to-face with the old man, but he just gave her a bat-glare. "He's just a guy trying to put his house in order," Terri tried to reason and Wayne scoffed again.

"It's a cold draft that blows through that house," he turned away to head for the kitchen.

Terri pursed her lips and narrowed her gaze. Her arms folded across her chest and she shook her head, "People can change, you know that, right?" Wayne stopped and looked back over at her with his brow furrowed slightly. "He's had forty years of solitude, don't you think he could have changed in that time, wanted to do something good?"

"McGinnis," Wayne began tiredly, but Terri shook her head.

"He deserves a second chance."

"He's had plenty of them," Wayne snapped.

Teri flinched back. So he didn't believe criminals could change…? Her shoulders fell and she moved to sit down in her chair. She heard him sigh and move closer toward her, and then he was sitting down in his chair across from her.

"McGinnis," he was trying to get her attention, but she just shook her head. "Terri," he said in a softer tone; she hated when he did that, it made her feel obligated to talk.

She sighed and looked up slowly, "I was bad kid, Wayne, the kind you wouldn't have given a second thought to or a second chance," she grimaced slightly and looked down at the carpet. Her hands came together in front of her and she tried to think of what to say—how to articulate what exactly she was thinking.

"Being in juvie…I wanted to turn it around when I got out, I wanted to do good," she looked back up at Wayne and hoped he understood what she meant. Maybe he did given the way he was grimacing.

"You're not Fries, Terri," when had he started calling her that more than McGinnis, she idly wondered.

"But you could give him a second chance too," Terri whispered, "Based on the experiment, he doesn't have his powers or disease," she shook her head, "whatever," she wasn't sure what to call it, "so what harm can he do?"

Wayne gave her a look that suggested he could think of many things, but Terri just sighed. "Fine, but think at least economically." If possible, Wayne's look became even sourer, "He was a brilliant man before, right?" Wayne narrowed his gaze but nodded briefly, "If he doesn't go back to old ways, he could be a brilliant addition to the research and development teams of Wayne-Powers."

"I wouldn't go tossing my lot in with him; that's a very big if you made."

Terri sighed, "Why don't you meet him in person and see how much he's changed, since my word isn't going to be enough."

"I'd rather not be within shooting distance of him," Wayne remarked dryly, and Terri just looked back at him.

The silence between them lasted for a good minute before Terri relented and slumped her shoulders, "Seriously?" She didn't know why his stubbornness still surprised her. He remained stoic in the face of her incredulity, and Terri repositioned herself to sprawl in the chair with one leg hanging over an armrest.

"Would you sit in that properly," he looked annoyed and she ignored him since he was ignoring her.

"There's that gala tonight for his foundation, we should go, scope him out." Initially there was just going to be a gathering for his return to the scientific community, but with him starting up this new foundation, the event had changed focus. He was just now doing media attention on the foundation, but he had set up most of it yesterday—Terri knew because she had been watching him.

Wayne narrowed his gaze and was looking at her leg thrown over the side of the armrest. She rolled her eyes, "You look like you're eating a lemon." He shifted his glare from her leg up to her face, and she sighed again, "It's one night," she stressed, "and you don't even have to talk to Fries if you don't want to.

"Well?" Terri asked after a pause.

Wayne sighed heavily. "Fine, but if anything suspicious happens we are out of there, and if it looks like he's reverting…" he left the threat hanging and Terri nodded her head.

"Alright, so we're crashing the gala!" she grinned over at Wayne who shook his head.

"I have a standing invitation to just about every gala, we won't be crashing," he gave her that cocky grin of his that must have just come with being Batman for so much of his life, or just being Bruce Wayne the infamous billionaire womanizer.

"Fine," Terri shrugged and began to bounce her leg slightly off the side of the chair. He glared at the appendage. The silence between them was almost companionable, if she ignored him trying to start her leg on fire from glaring.

"Get up," he ordered after almost a minute. He stood up himself, and Terri raised an eyebrow, what was this about? Not her leg, because although she knew it annoyed him, he couldn't be that annoyed about it.

"Why?" she asked slowly.

"Fries is an old soul," that was one way to put it, Terri mused, "which means there will be dancing," that's why he wanted her to stand up? She looked at him skeptically and Wayne gave her a pointed look, "Old school dancing."

Oh… Terri got up then. "So I need to learn old-timey dances for this gala?"

"It's one of the ways you will be able to communicate with people privately. Otherwise you communicate in small groups with drinks but…" he trailed off and looked at her person…and she was a minor, right.

"Okay, so you're going to teach me how to dance?" part of her wanted to laugh.

Wayne made that annoyed noise again, "Well, do you know the foxtrot, waltz, rhumba—"

"Whoa, slow down; I need to learn all of those?" Terri's eyes were wide open, slag!

Wayne chuckled, "You're the one who wants to go to the gala." She shot him a glare which just made him smile, before he showed a rare moment of mercifulness, "We'll start with a waltz."

Terri nodded slowly and stood before Wayne who leaned his cane against his chair. "Straighten your posture," he ordered, and she instantly felt at ease; it was just like when he was coaching her about Batman things. "Hold both arms up. The left hand will rest against your lead's arm, like so," he positioned himself so that the side of her left hand pressed against the back of his right arm. "You right hand will go in his left." He took up her hand then. She saw him grimace as he straightened to his full height.

"The lead's hand should always point down," he instructed and Terri could feel that his hand was pointing downwards on her left shoulder blade, "If it points up," he shifted the hand so she could feel the difference, "the hand will naturally slide down," and the lead could feel her up, Terri finished the thought in her own head. She nodded, and Wayne corrected his hand's positon.

"You start on your right foot and step back." Terri could feel that Wayne was going to move forward so she moved back with her right foot. "Left foot steps to the left, and feet together," as Wayne instructed she did the movements, his left hand guiding her when she needed to move to the side. "Now forward on the left, step to the right, together," she did as instructed, and Wayne's hand on her back pressed slightly when she was to go forward, like a little guiding nudge. "Repeat." She saw him smile briefly and she laughed a little as they continued their little box movement.

Wayne was breathing slightly more heavily but he did not stop, "Now we'll move in a straight line," and when he moved forward she moved back. "Right-back, to the left, together, left-back, to the right, together," he nodded his head as she followed his instructions. It wasn't so hard to do this.

They had done a few more repetitions of this pattern when Terri felt Wayne's left arm tense and she saw his knee buckle under him. Quickly she caught him under the arm and helped him to a chair. Breathing a little heavily, he sighed and shook his head.

"Take it easy," Terri said as she moved to grab his cane, but the glare he gave her said she shouldn't have said that. She turned to face him, "Suck it up," he glared at her more, "you're old, it happens, deal." She sat down, consequently in his chair since hers had been closer when she deposited him. She relaxed her expression and gave Wayne a slight smile, "Thank you for teaching me, but I don't want you to break a knee or hip trying," He glared at her more before he sighed and shook his head.

"If we're going to this gala," he started, "you'll need to dress appropriately," he then grinned slightly at her, "and that is something I won't be breaking anything to help you with," he gestured for his cane and Terri laughed a little as she handed it to him.

He stood up slowly and began to hobble toward the stairs, and Terri froze, "Whoa, wait," she did not want to be wearing something some one-night-stand had left behind, "why are you going up stairs?"

"We don't have time to buy you a dress," he looked over at her briefly before continuing on his way. Damn it, she flinched. "You and her are about the same size," she heard him say, almost to himself, oh slag! Ew!

"Um…whose dress or dresses…" she began slowly and nervously. Did she want to know the answer? Was it Batgirl again?

"My mother," he said as he began climbing the stairs. Terri instantly relaxed and laughed a little; however a thought occurred to her.

"Wait," she hurried up the stairs after him, "Aren't they like a hundred years old? How—" Wayne glared at her and made that annoyed noise again.

"Alfred made sure they were in good care while I was studying abroad," he stated and continued walking, "When I came back and was engaged to Maddison, I had them specially stored so that…" he trailed off and his anger deflated.

"What?" Terri asked softly.

He sighed and looked over at her almost weakly, "I had hoped…maybe someday to have them in good enough condition so that," he shook his head like his idea was stupid and he was ashamed of it.

"What?" Terri pressed and Wayne shook his head again.

"Believe it or not, but there was a time in my life when I hoped to have a family, and if I had a daughter…" he trailed off and continued down the hall.

"She could play dress-up?" Terri asked softly and Wayne paused mid-step but nodded slowly.

"And that she might be able to wear them if they weren't too out of date," Wayne continued walking, and Terri almost didn't hear what he said next, but perhaps she wasn't meant to hear it: "She would have liked them to be worn."

Terri looked down at the carpet for a moment and bit her lip. She wanted to smile but she also felt…well, a little overwhelmed. Should she read into that comment? She shook her head and quickly caught up to the old man, who was entering a room she had often seen him glance at.

There was the air of disuse when they entered and there were dust motes shifting in the air where sunlight came in from the large window in the room. There was a vanity with jewelry boxes, but it seemed to be well kept and there was only a thin layer of dust on some of the boxes—others were clear of all dust. There was a large bed with a white dust sheet over it, but she could see the headboard and baseboard were made out of a dark, rich wood. A long sort of bench thing was at the foot of the bed, but the cushions had covers on it too. Near the bed was a dresser, but it was covered with a sheet as well, and based on the protruding shapes at the top of it, there were likely pictures under the sheet. Still, based on the bottom drawer peeking out from under the sheet, she could tell it was made out of the same wood as the headboard.

On one wall, along the full length of the wall, were doors, which likely concealed a closet. Wayne began sliding the doors open, they had a hinge between the panels and so folded up, and there were lines of dress bags hanging on the wooden rung. Next Wayne moved to a white sheet covered object in the corner of the room and revealed a full length mirror that was mounted on one of those really old wooden frames where it could be pivoted. He then sat down on the bench thing and gestured to the closet with his cane.

Terri exhaled slowly and approached the first bag on the far end of the closet. She carefully unzipped it and saw a fur coat. Ew… she zipped it back up and continued down the line. There were coats mostly in the first part of the closet, and then there were suits and "house dresses," along with everyday clothes. All she could think of when she saw these was her history class when they discussed the Kennedys, but that was like a century ago.

"Was your mom a fan of um…Jackie Kennedy?" That was that one first lady's name, right?

Wayne laughed slightly and nodded his head, "What mother in the sixties wasn't?" Well, if she hadn't already guessed how old Wayne was, that cleared things up further.

She continued down the line, and finally got to satin and silk dresses. There were a few flow-y cotton dresses before, but Wayne vetoed those, fortunately. She left a few options unzipped but zipped up the others that didn't appeal to her. Near the end of the line were full length dresses and Terri paused after unzipping one of them.

"Whoa…" all she could think was old-fashioned movie star when she saw the dress inside of the bag.

"No," Wayne said with a little more force than normal.

Terri turned around with her eyebrows raised, "Why not, it's so…" she reached out to pull the hanger off the rung as she tried to think of a way to describe this dress.

"You're seventeen years old, you shouldn't be wearing that." Did he sound a little…it was like when her dad tried to steer her away from the less conservative dress fashions of the age.

Terri looked back at the black, satin halter dress. It was like the dresses in the movies where it had low back and plunging neckline. She looked back at Wayne with her eyebrow raised incredulously, "You haven't seen too many of the dress choices today, have you?" because she had seen far worse. At least this dress was floor-length, most of the dresses today barely came to mid-thigh, plus it wasn't as risqué as it could have been—it could have had no back instead of the fabric at the back starting below the bust.

He made that annoyed noise and glared at her before gesturing with his cane back a few dresses, "Try the blue one with the black lace overtop."

Terri sighed and dropped her arms to her sides as she trudged back to the dress in question. "I'm gonna look like a doll," she wanted to wear the movie star dress, no matter how petulant the desire was.

"McGinnis," he said in an exasperated voice. "Stop sulking and try the dress on."

"I wasn't sulking," Terri defended herself as she pulled the specified dress off of the rung.

Wayne hummed doubtfully, "Could have fooled me."

She glared back at him as she carefully pulled the dress and hanger out of the bag. He returned the look and had both hands set on top of his cane, "Who has been to these events the most?" he asked rhetorically with an eyebrow raised, almost like a challenge.

Terri just glared more, not that there was much heat behind it, but it seemed like it was a Bat-response to glare when displeased or annoyed—odd that she was thinking of herself as a Bat now, being Batman was somehow different than being a "bat" in her mind.

In the end, she moved to an old wooden, likely imported, changing screen. Whatever silk painting had been on it before had faded into a sickly yellow color.

Shaking her head, Terri took off her clothes and began to carefully put the dress on while Wayne talked to her, "After you find a dress you should head home and tell your guardian your plans for the evening," he was annoyed, hence the formal, distanced speech. Terri rolled her eyes as she carefully pulled the unzipped dress up her body. She fitted her arms into the sleeves and cringed at how snug it was to her neck.

She scrunched up her nose in distaste as she zipped up the dress. It was knee-length, had itchy tulle underneath, and cinched at the waist. The top was like a sleeveless T-shirt with a high, square neck-line; she didn't like it.

Sighing, she stepped out from behind the screen, "It's too loose." She had a feeling it was supposed to be tighter around her chest but it fit snuggly across her shoulders.

"It's fine." He stood up then, and it was time for the final notes for her to appear presentable at this gala. "Black heels, pearls, natural makeup."

"Nails?" Terri asked tiredly. She was probably supposed to wear her business coat, hence no comment on that—she got a new one after the Stalker incident. Wayne probably also wanted her to bring the bat suit along just in case, and she'd be able to hide it in her leather tote-like purse.

"If your friend can come over to do your nails again, fine, if not, plain coat." Terri nodded her head and Wayne nodded his head.

"Need me to check and see if intangible man left any more bugs?"

"No, why don't you go home, I'll take care of that."

Terri nodded and moved back behind the changing screen while Wayne left. Well, hopefully this night would go smoothly.

TBC

A/N: Yes, there was a father daughter dance lesson, couldn't help it. I also know there was a lot of detail, but next chapter will have some action and a guest appearance from a future villain, bet you'll all figure out who he is quickly. Hope you've enjoyed, I'll probably update in two weeks ~ much love, depressedchildren