Chapter 37: The Second Coming
"You can't just up and leave us," Lian spoke, "we're coming with you."
Barbara, with her hands on her hips, shook her head, "you can't. If too many people go there then we'll be easily spotted. Nobody leaves their homes anymore, even two people walking on the same street is suspicious, so it'll just be me." She replied. Sophie frowned, "You can't just expect me to stay here and do nothing!" she complained, "Sean's my little brother, and if grandfather is with him too… he needs to know I'm okay."
Barbara gave her daughter an understanding smile, she stepped forward to kneel down and then placed a hand on her daughters knees, "I know how worried you are baby, believe me I know. But, if something has…" Barbara had difficulty finishing her sentence," if something has happened to them where they are then I don't want you on my comms seeing something you wouldn't want me to see, do you understand?"
Sophie hesitated and looked away, "I understand mom," she sighed before looking back to her mother, "just give Sean a kiss and a cuddle from me, okay?" she smiled a hopeful smile. "I will," Barbara promised before standing back up to look towards Alfred. The Butler smiled to her, "anything that the girls need, I shall be here to help as always," he spoke as he tilted his head.
"You never stop, do you Alfred?" Barbara chuckled.
Lian, and Rose stood beside each other waiting to be told what to do. Rose stole a glance at Lian and smiled to herself. "You look as serious as ever," she whispered, "it's kinda hot."
Lian replied with a pissed off look.
"Lian," Barbara spoke to the teenager, "if anything goes wrong here, you're in charge. You get to the computer and you contact me, okay?"
Lian nodded, "Yeah, I can do that. I'll keep Sophie and Alfred safe," she promised. Barbara looked at Rose and then back to Lian to which Lian sighed, "…And Rose."
"Good," Barbara answered. The red-head turned around and began to head towards the platform where the Bat-plane had landed, "I'll be back in two days."
A day eventually passed, and the cave was a quiet place. Sophie spent the entirety of her time on the Bat-computer just in case her mother contacted the cave for any help she might need, but during that time she would sift through News Channels to try to keep up to date with what was happening in the world. To little surprise, it was absolute chaos. There were riots in the streets, executions of leaders, mass hysteria, and the destruction of landmarks. This was a new society in the making and there was only one person… or thing that was going to come out on top. The Man of Light. Sophie couldn't help but lose some hope from watching all of this. Sophie wiped a tear form her eye and took a deep breathe, and then Alfred's voice sounded behind her, "It will get better Miss Sophie," he spoke with hope in his voice, "Every time that I have seen the Justice League knocked down a peg or two, they come back stronger than ever. Master Bruce and Master Richard never stop fighting. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if they're coming back here bloody and bruised already. I even have the Medical station prepped for their return," he admitted.
Sophie looked over her shoulder and gave Alfred a look of confusion, "Alfred… you saw what everyone else saw on that monitor…" she croaked, "they're…"
"They are not dead." Alfred replied sternly. "Men like them don't die so easily," he added, "not after the kind of hell that they have already been through."
"Everyone dies eventually," Sophie muttered, "no matter how important they are to you."
Alfred's body language shifted from being proud and proper to lazy and heavy. He realized that he had been so caught up with the worry of his own immediate family that he had forgotten about Sophie's father. "I am sorry," the old man mumbled, "I know the kind of trauma one can get from seeing a parent die in front of you. I didn't know your father very well despite how I think of you as a granddaughter, but what I do know is that Garth loved you with the purest form of love, as does your mother," he spoke with a heavy tone at first but finished with a proud tone.
Sophie began to wipe away the floods of tears that were pouring down her cheeks as she sobbed at Alfred's words. The butler placed the sandwich that he had made for the girl on one of the platforms attached to the monitors and then hugged the girl. "It will all be okay Sophie, I promise you."
In the training areas just a few platforms over Lian and Rose were sparring with everything that they had. They both held a quarterstaff in their hands and were hitting as hard as they could and giving every ounce of energy that had to defeat the other. "For someone who prefers to fight from a distance, you're quite the crazy girl when you're close," Rose chuckled to herself as she jumped over Lian's low sweep with the staff, the assassin however had no time to dodge the strike to her stomach as she was mid-air.
The white-haired girl landed on her back with a tumble but quickly stood to her feet. She looked at the angry expression on her opponent and grinned before dashing towards her with a flurry of strikes in quick succession. Lian managed to block every hit that Rose sent her way.
"Didn't you used to be deadly?" Lian asked with exhaustion to her tone. Rose replied with a laugh before quickly disarming Lian at the expense of her staff as well. The Assassin then tackled her opponent and sat above her, pinning her arms to the floor, "I'm deadly when I want to be."
Lian looked at Rose with a grimace before saying the words, "I surrender."
Rose smiled and stood up, offering a helping hand to Lian who took it with hesitation. The two teenagers stood up and Lian dusted herself off, "Who trained you?" Lian asked curiously and openly which took Rose by surprised, "who trained me?" she repeated, "Nightwing did. And so did my father."
Lian was confused, "Nightwing, trained you?" she asked again, "THE Nightwing? Tim and Damian's brother Nightwing?"
Rose nodded her head, "Yes. He found me when I wanted to get back at my father, and when I sided with ol' daddio he took over my training, and then I betrayed him for Drake last year and now here I am" she admitted. "So basically with all the training that I've had I can fuck everyone and everything up," she then spoke with a gleeful pop to her voice before picking up both her staff as well as Sophie's.
"Why was this never brought up?" Lian questioned, "After what you did with Cissie –"
"That wasn't me," Rose admitted. "I wasn't the one who crippled her."
Lian laughed in disbelief before growing serious, "You crippled the person who trained me. I have wanted you dead all this time which you have known, and now you're telling me that you were not the one who did that?"
"No, I wasn't," Rose replied quickly, "You were my first genuine friend Li. I understand your hate and anger for me for the things I did and for leaving, but you can't blame me for something that I didn't do." She ended with a quieter tone.
"Then who did it?" Lian questioned, "are you going to pin the blame on your father again?"
"No…" Rose replied, "…it was Joey. That was the day The Light took him from me. Drake and Cissie were there but we couldn't do anything."
"What do you mean you couldn't do anything?" Lian asked, softening the fist she was clenching tightly. Rose gave Lian a pained smile as tears welled up in her eyes, "They captured us three and I froze. They wanted to take me and make me an example to the League and to the rest of The Light since I had betrayed them both but Drake and Cissie wouldn't let them. Joey was with them and when Prometheus had me before his goons and my brother, my brother refused to hurt me. Cissie managed to escape her bounds and attacked Prometheus but she stood no chance," Lian mumbled, "She gave herself up so that I wouldn't be hurt. They had Joey beat her as bad as he did and then left me and Drake to take her home as they took Joey."
"Is that true?" Lian asked, "after everything I have said and done to you, you never deserved it?" the archer asked the assassin. Rose shook her head, "I deserved it," she replied, "You meant the world to me and I almost had your mentor killed."
Lian let one of her tears drop to the floor.
"I don't expect you to ever forgive me," Rose admitted, "but I'm trying to atone."
Lian stepped forward and hugged the girl she had hated all this time, "I forgive you." She whispered into Rose's ear. The Assassin held her tightly, "Cissie told me you would… eventually."
The two remained in an embrace for a few moments more before Lian slowly pulled back to smile at Rose. Rose's arms dropped down to Lian's waist and her lips slowly parted as she moved back in, closing her eye. Her lips met skin, but she realized she hadn't met her target, Lian had placed a finger onto Rose's lips and lightly pushed her head backwards, "we're not doing that. Not again."
The white-haired girl grew flustered and quickly apologized, "I'm sorry I… I just thought since you said you forgive me that…" she stammered.
"That I'd give you another chance?" Lian asked in disbelief, "I liked you Rose, a lot. But you can't drag the past back up and expect things to be the same."
Rose looked away.
Lian paused for a moment before placing a hand onto the bandaged side of Rose's face to slowly move her gaze to meet hers, "I do forgive you, but I'm still going to need time to adjust. I'm doing this for her because that's what she'd want," the black-haired girl then stood onto her tip toes and planted a kiss on Rose's forehead, "let's try to move past this, okay?" she then smiled.
Rose moved a hand to her forehead and blushed, "y-yeah," she croaked, "please."
"RAVAGER! RED HOOD!" Sophie shouted across the cave.
"Shit," they both said in unison.
"Code-names mean something bad is about to happen, right?" Rose asked as the two began to run from their current platform to Sophie's.
The two heroine's eventually found their way beside Sophie and Alfred who were currently looking at a thermal view of the time of Wayne Manor which was surrounded by a mass gathering of white.
"Don't tell me that that is what is above us right now?" Lian asked out loud.
"It seems Gotham has finally caught up with the rest of the world and aim to target the rich and powerful," Alfred sighed before slowly walked to the other side of the platform to big trunk.
"Where is he going?" Rose asked Sophie. "According to him, he hasn't washed your uniforms just yet, but he has backups," Sophie replied as if Alfred washing their costumes during this time was an obvious priority.
Lian kneeled down beside Sophie with a raised eyebrow, "what's the plan Soph'?" she asked. "Aren't you usually the lead?" Sophie replied, "I usually just make sure Robin doesn't do anything stupid," she awkwardly laughed.
"Not today babe," Rose smirked, "you're the eye in the sky"
"So tell us what to do," Lian nodded as she lightly nudged Sophie's arm.
"Right," Sophie grinned as she began to tap away at the holographic keypad, "There is one main entrance to this cave that these morons will be able to discover and that is this one," she said as a 3D imagining of Wayne Manor and the cave appeared, "You three need to hold them off here while I call back mom and the Batwing, she hasn't gone far so it should come to us within half an hour" Sophie instructed.
"Do you think we can last that long?" Rose asked the other two girls. They smiled in return. "You two could scare anyone," Rose said to the both of them before walking off to Alfred.
"What was that about over there?" Sophie quickly asked Lian as she nodded her head towards the direction the two came from. Lian sighed, "Rose didn't hurt Cissie. She was taking the blame and hatred for it because that's what she thought she deserved."
"I saw her try to kiss you," Sophie admitted, "I looked away because I don't want to intrude but did you?..."
"No," Lian replied, "and if we survive this I'll tell you about it all to soothe your maternal instincts," Lian laughed before jogging over to Alfred and Rose.
Alfred smiled to the two girls and lifted the lid of the trunk and in it was an assortment of weapons, gear and… "I'm not wearing one of those," Rose spoke up. Lian reached in and grabbed a purple tunic with a yellow bat in the center and then held it to her chest.
A few moments passed and multiple loud explosions sounded from above which caused the cave to tremble and shake.
"twenty-two minutes to go!" Sophie called out over her shoulder to the two girls and the old man behind her. Alfred was wearing one of Batman's earlier versions of his costume, it was just a more-armored version of a bulletproof vest with a white bat painted onto the top right corner as well as a cloth version of Batman's cowl. Lian was wearing Stephanie Brown's old Batgirl costume, well, at the very least it was just the pieces of armour from the costume that she could quickly put so she didn't have the under-layer. Rose however, was wearing an assortment of armour she had found from the trunk ranging from Batman's gauntlets to a black and red armoured tunic.
"You guys look more ridiculous than usual," Sophie said to the group. Alfred moved the cowl back as it had moved over his eyes, "all part of the plan Miss Sophie," the butler spoke to himself.
Soon enough they heard a series of footsteps barrel down the winding staircase that led to the opening of the cave and the first man who stepped into the wide open space was met with and arrow to the chest. And so did the next. And so did the next. This continued until ten men were piled at the entrance writhing in pain. Alfred held his old trusty rifle and began to take perfectly aimed shots at the men who were stumbling over the ones who had been tagged my Red Hood.
"I thought Batman didn't like guns?" Rose asked the old man beside her as she shot from her own pistol.
"I've known this rifle longer than I have know Master Wayne," Alfred announced, "Certain loyalties never end," he finished as he fired a shot into the shin of one clown-faced goon.
"Their get-up," Lian shouted over the firearms, "they're part of every gang from Gotham!"
"Wait, they've slowed down," Rose called to the other three. "Have they decided it's all for nought?" Alfred asked with a triumphant voice.
"Get ready!" Sophie shouted from the monitors, "something big is coming!"
A hulking man burst over the men lying on the ground and ran towards the defensive position. The team fired shot after shot but the man took each bullet and arrow as they came at him and powered through the pain. Rose took hold of her gun and told the other two to stop firing before running up to the man. She slid through his legs and fired as series as shots as she did so. The man held his hands between his legs and fell from the slim bridge connecting the platforms and into the darkness below. Rose turned to smile at Lian who in turn gave an acknowledgement. Rose's smile quickly disappeared as her body was rendered immobile as an invisible man took hold her her.
"Don't shoot!" the voice from beside Rose called out. The being holding Rose soon appeared to show himself to be Doctor Light, "All you have to do is surrender and we won't harm you!" he announced as a flood of goons began to enter the space in the cave behind him. "You really don't stand a chance," he added.
"Lian, 8 more minutes" Sophie spoke through the comms so that Doctor Light didn't hear."
"Let her go you disgusting vagabond," Alfred threatened with a grimace and an aim of his rifle.
Doctor Light smiled and one of his fingers started to glow beside the face of Rose, Lian's eyes widened in fear which Doctor Light noticed. "Ah, so you know what comes next?" he asked the teenager across from him.
"If you so much as hurt her I will put an arrow where you will feel the worst pain imaginable," Lian grimaced. Rose's head tilted away from the burning finger as the heat grew unbearable to be near, "Don't surrender Red!" she called out, "get yourselves out of here!"
"Not without you!" Red Hood replied as she focused her aim but within a second both her bow and Alfred's rifle flashed from their hands in a small explosion each. "I manipulate Light, it's all around us, I could do the same to you if I wished it," the villain laughed, "Now surrender, I won't ask again."
Lian raised her hands and so did Alfred as Sophie piloted the Batwing remotely in the background.
"Good," Doctor Light smiled, "But it's a shame one of you needs a reminder of who's in charge."
The villain turned to his goons behind him, "Grab the one dressed as a bat. The old man and the cripple… they're of no use. Kill them both."
Rose froze.
Not this again.
"No…" Rose muttered as the presence of Doctor Light made her feel claustrophobic.
"No?" the man laughed. "You don't want to watch this?" he laughed again. Two men, one with clown face paint and one with a ragged mask took hold of Lian. As one man tried to take hold of Alfred the butler struck the wannabe captor's nose with a loud crack and then pushing the man off the platform, "you dare?!" Alfred shouted to these crooks and criminals, "you let go of them or I shall kill you all!"
The men that surrounded them all laughed at the pathetic sight that they saw as this frail looking man dressed in his costume raised his fists as they would in the olden days.
One man walked towards Alfred and as Alfred threw a punch the man hit the ground before Alfred had connected it. Then one more thug fell to the ground, and then another. And within a second Lian was free from the clutches of the gross goons who had hold of her. A blonde-haired man dressed in a purple suit held his hand out to the girl with a wide smile, "long time no see, right?"
The sound of a roaring fire crackled from underneath the platform and Mar'i rose from below with Zachary in her arms. She dropped the magician beside Alfred and then fired a series of blasts from above to the crooks behind Doctor Light. Zachary checked to see if Alfred was okay and then ran towards Sophie, "We tried to get here sooner but we were on the other side of the world, and our transport couldn't get land in a safe zone" the magician informed, "but it's good to see you!"
"You too Zach," she said offhandedly as she continued to fly the Batwing, "now go help the others, I'll get us out of here soon enough."
Doctor Light remained holding tight onto Rose and his entire hand began to glow with his fury. Before him stood a sight and a problem that he was promised that he wouldn't encounter. Before him stood a team of heroes.
Lian had taken Don's hand and had stood up from the ground, she moved forward and behind her stood three of her friends that she thought were dead. A metal door opened up from the ceiling of the cave and the Batwing hovered down beside the platform.
"You're not going to win this," Lian spoke, "just surrender and we won't harm you."
Doctor Light grimaced in disgust, "as if you would show the compassion that he showed me."
"A being like that doesn't have compassion," Don spat.
"That's what makes us different from him," Zachary spoke.
"He's using you like you're trying to use her," Mar'i pleaded, "Let her go and we can all leave this place alive."
Alfred backed away from the group in the background and began to help Sophie into the cockpit of the Batwing. Doctor Light noticed this and grew even angrier before. "You take me to be that weak that you're already trying to escape?" Doctor Light screamed as his entire right arm was now glowing.
"Don, can you do anything?" Zachary whispered to his friend. The purple speedster lightly tilted his head, "I'm not faster than the light he shoots," he replied.
"let me go," Rose calmly spoke to her captor. Doctor Light ignored her. Rose took a deep breath and then jolted one of her fists shut which caused the blades from the gauntlet on that arm to fire into the face of Doctor Light due to the way that he was holding her. The villain recoiled in pain and screamed. "Fucking teenagers!" he roared as his body began to glow, "you don't understand anything!"
"Shit," said rose as she stumbled to her team, "I heard about this" she said to the team.
"Heard about what?" Mar'i questioned.
"He's a ticking time bomb. He was out of retirement for so long that now he's back he can't control his powers" Rose informed, "we have to go."
"Everyone we need to go!" Don called out. Doctor Light grimaced and began to fire multiple bolts of light, his injuries messed with his line of sight but he managed to tag Zachary as he helped Rose into the Batwing causing the both of them to fall into the transport instead. "If I don't take you back he'll kill her!" the villain screamed, the overuse of his powers now causing him to glow as if he was The Man of Light himself. Don's eye's grew wider at the resemblance and cogs began to turn in his brain.
Alfred grabbed the arm of the purple speedster and his gaze pierced him, "Get them out of here, now," the old man instructed. Don took a brief moment and nodded to the man, understanding what he was being told the speedster quickly rounded up the others. "Sophie, get us out of here!" Don ordered from the back of the flying transport. "Not without Alfred!" she replied with desperation. The old man looked to the girl in the cockpit and smiled, then doing the same to the child of his first grandson. A bolt of pure light energy shot through the gut of the old man.
Mar'i, who was looking through one of the windows of the transport turned away and was quickly held in the arms of Don. Sophie released a painful scream, closed her eyes, gritted her teeth and then pulled the Batwing away from the platform. Doctor Light fired more shots with each one causing him more and more pain until he was on his knees just as Alfred was. "What is happening to me?!" he begged an answer from the old man. "Your powers… are out… of control…" Alfred replied through heavy, bloody breathes. "He… used you…"
Doctor Light slowly forced himself to his feet and despite writhing with pain, "I'll still kill each and every one of those children" he seethed as his body began to pulse light. Alfred slowly stood as blood drained from the wound in his lower torso and stumbled towards Doctor Light. The old Butler grabbed hold of his enemy and his palms began to burn, the villain stumbled backwards and then pushed against Alfred, "Do you want to be the first to die?!" he screamed into the man's face.
Alfred gave a content look and then smiled, "I can see my children again now," he answered before pushing all of his weight against his opponent which caused the two of them to fall from the platform and into the now illuminated darkness below.
The Batwing flew through the hole that it had entered from and stormed into the sky as an explosion of light trailed just meters behind them. It took some work but Sophie managed to force the engines into overdrive to help them outrun the explosion behind them and within moments the light energy dissipated and was no more. The Batcave and Wayne Manor was no more.
Mar'i held on to Donald as tightly he could, her tears now soaking through the material of his costume, "I'm sorry Mar'i," he consoled as he rubbed her back and hushed to her. Sophie hit the autopilot button and put her head into her hands, she had lost so much of her family, both her and Mar'i but Sophie knew that she would have to be strong for her. If she wilted and gave up, then so would Mar'i. Sophie didn't want to let such a star not be so bright.
A/N: You'll get your reunion chapter don't worry :)
