Welcome to chapter 2!
Who would have believed it? Another chapter poster a week after the first! here's hoping I can keep this momentum going.
Thank your for all the support and feedback on this new fic. Hope you like where I choose to take things this time around. I'll definitely be trying out new avenues in terms of stories and ways to tell those stories, but there'll still be the iconic BM/WW goodness.
Anyway, hope you enjoy this one, and please favorite, follow and review. It's always appreciated.
Diana was in a very good mood as she approached Wayne Manor from the skies. Her checkup with Lesley had gone well, and tonight was a Saturday, the day that she and Bruce enjoyed quality time together as husband and wife. The rest of the time they were either Batman and Wonder Woman, or Bruce Wayne, billionaire philanthropist, and Diana Prince, expert on Ancient Greek antiquities. Their marriage was only known by a select few. She and Bruce had decided it was best to keep their union a secret from the rest of the Justice League, and more importantly from the general public.
Their marriage was like Pandora's Box, and they were determined to keep it closed for as long as possible. Their marriage also felt like a sword of Damocles, and they also determined to keep that sword from falling at all costs.
What is with all these Ancient Greek-themed analogies, Diana wondered to herself. I need to spend less time at the museum…
Diana touched down in front of the house but did not go in right away. She was struck by a vague wave of nostalgia as she admired the intricate gothic architecture of the manor's exterior. Diana could remember clearly the first time she'd been inside the house: after crawling through Tartarus with Bruce.
That entire chapter of her life, the fight with Ares and Ouranos, leaving Themyscira, first meeting Bruce, all felt so far away, yet it had only been two months. And in that time she'd traveled all over the world with the Justice League, appraised countless pieces of Greek history, and created so many precious memories with Bruce. That last one was what she cherished and remembered most fondly. Her work within the Justice League and at the Gotham Museum was important to her, but those were her duties; her marriage with Bruce was part of who she was.
Alright, enough with the rose-tinted glasses, Diana chided herself.
Funnily, just as she thought that, Diana felt a small kick in her belly as if their future child was also telling her to stop reminiscing in the middle of the driveway.
"I can't wait to finally meet you, treasure," Diana whispered to her unborn child, which garnered another slight kick.
This brought an even bigger smile to Diana's lips as she quickly flew up the steps to the front door, excited to tell Bruce about this little moment.
All it took was a single sentence for Diana's mood to do a complete one-eighty:
"Oh, thank goodness you're here, ma'am. Master Bruce has gotten himself into a bit of a predicament I'm afraid."
Diana resisted the urge to sigh or look up to the heavens and simply followed Alfred through the foyer and into Bruce's study, which was more Diana's study since Bruce hardly ever used it.
There she saw Tim Drake and Jason Todd, each with different expressions of concern. Tim seemed unnerved by whatever was going on, while Jason kept his feelings close to the chest, as was his style.
The two young men had formed quite the pair ever since Jason began living at Wayne Manor. After Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson returned to Gotham and Bloodhaven after the events on Themyscira, Bruce and Diana were glad to have Jason around to make the house feel more alive. He had made it clear it wasn't permanent, just long enough for him to finish healing his injuries and make plans for the future, but until then he and Tim had formed a solid friendship.
Jason gave Tim instructions on how to perfect his crime-fighting abilities and pushed his combat style to its limit as his sparring partner. Unlike the robots Tim usually practiced again, Jason did not hesitate to use underhanded tactics and cheap tricks.
Diana knew that Bruce was the one who had asked Jason to pressure Tim in such a way, and at the time she had questioned him about it. But just as he had predicted back then, rather than getting discouraged and appealing to Bruce for support, Tim had embraced the challenge and he and Jason had only gotten closer.
"He won't give up when things get tough or unfair," Bruce had told Diana. "I know Robin… I know my son."
That memory brought a smile to Diana's face as she greeted Jason and Tim. They were both in front of a screen that seemed to display a camera feed from inside the cave. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
"Let me roll it back," Tim said.
He pushed a few buttons on a keyboard which wound back the video feed until it showed Bruce, just sitting alone in his cave, looking lost in thought…
Damn it. What's taking her so long?
Bruce was getting impatient as he waited for Diana to return from her consultation with Leslie. He was about 95% certain of his hypothesis about what was happening to him. All he needed now was to go see the people who were likely responsible for it.
Any other man would not have been worried about magically receiving super strength or night vision, but not Bruce. Nothing ever came free. In order to become immortal, he had had to nearly die; and he was willing to bet that these new powers he was acquiring came with their own price to pay.
After some experimenting, Bruce had been unable to determine the limits of his strength. He had stacked as many plates as he could on the vertical bar and was able to lift it without much effort.
His upper limit was impossible to gauge with the equipment he had in the Batcave. Only the technology on the Watchtower, adapted for metahuman strength levels, would allow him to conduct the proper tests.
Then again, there are also 'in person' ways to test my strength…
"Our… Lord…"
Bruce sprang out of his chair as soon as he heard those words, Batarang in hand.
"Who said that?" Bruce scanned his surroundings but could not pick up any movement. The voice didn't sound like it came from inside the cave; there wasn't even a remaining echo.
Instead, a low rustling sound was building inside the cave, seeming to come from far up where the bats nested. When Bruce looked up towards the dark ceiling, his eyes immediately picked up the hundreds of bats all staring at him with unblinking eyes, flapping their wings restlessly.
"θεός νυχτερίδα... θεός νυχτερίδα... θεός νυχτερίδα..."
The voice had turned into voices, and they repeated these words like a chant. Hundreds of voices inside Bruce's mind repeating: theós nychterída.
It was Greek: Bat God.
The voices just kept getting louder, the rumbling up top just kept increasing. Bruce tried to block them out, to focus his mind on shutting out the sounds, but it was no use. The bats were flying down from the ceiling and setting down in front of Bruce, still observing him with their wide red eyes.
"θεός νυχτερίδα... θεός νυχτερίδα... θεός νυχτερίδα..."
Bruce focused his mind, concentrating on rationality, and recalled the many facts he had learned about bats over the years. One of which was that they communicated via ultrasound which was inaudible to ordinary humans.
I need a soundproof…
The answer was obvious. Bruce wasted no time running towards the back of the cave where his containment cells were. The bats kept flying down, still chanting those words, but Bruce kept moving forward until he reached one of the bare, transparent cells.
"Authorization: Batman. Open cell and close it behind me. Prevent any voiceprint, including my own, from reopening it.
"This action is highly inadvisable," the computerized voice replied as the cell doors opened. "This procedure requires Omega level clearance."
"Omega clearance granted! Codeword: Elysium."
"Affirmative."
The cell doors closed behind Bruce, as the bats crowded around it, their voices also disappeared.
"Ability to reopen cells must be granted to someone," the digitized voice said as Bruce sat down on the hard metal floor. "Who do you wish to assign clearance to do this?"
Bruce relaxed his muscled as he crossed his legs and focused on his breathing, allowing himself to think clearly and methodically.
Bruce replied without hesitation:
"Diana."
She was not entirely sure what she had just seen. The whole thing felt too surreal and implausible, like something that would happen in a Twilight Zone episode.
Diana thought back to what happened this morning when she tried to wake Bruce up. Could it be related to this?
"Anybody have a clue what this is all about?" Jason's gruff voice finally broke the tension.
"It's not like the bats are starving or anything?" Tim said, still looking over the surveillance video.
"I feed them regularly to be on the safe side," Alfred noted. "But we found they are plenty capable of feeding themselves. At night they generally leave the cave and feed off of insects or vegetation around the manor."
"Could it be Man-Bat?" Diana suddenly spoke up, recalling a villain file she had seen on Bruce's computer. "He's essentially a cross between a human and a bat, right? He could communicate with the bats inside the cave and have them behave like this."
"Unlikely," Time muttered without looking away from the screens. "If that was even remotely possible, Bruce would have already planned a countermeasure for it. He wouldn't allow a 'bat-exploit' to exist when his base of operations is swarming with bats. Also, the bats didn't appear hostile. And it doesn't explain Bruce's reaction."
"Maybe he's always been scared of bats, and the whole bat persona was just to trick us all into thinking otherwise?" Jason's sarcastic remark did not generate much of a reaction from any of the other three people present.
Diana felt they were running in circles. Her instincts told her that something bigger was at play here. When she recalled the incident in the bedroom this morning and during the founder's meeting on the Watchtower, one theory started making more and more sense to her.
Gods, I really hope I'm wrong…
"In any case, we have to go see if Bruce is alright," Diana made her way towards the grandfather clock in Bruce's study. "There doesn't seem to be any immediate threat, but just to be on the safe side, lock down the cave after I enter."
Alfred, Jason and Tim all shared a questioning look, as if to try to say "are none of you going to gallantly propose to go instead?".
"Sure," Tim finally replied. He walked over to Diana and adjusted the arms on the grandfather clock to the correct time. The entire box shifted outwards to reveal an elevator. "We'll keep an eye on things from up here. Bats are nocturnal so I'll be ready to blast on all the lights in the cave if things get out of hand."
Diana smiled gratefully at Tim. She understood why Bruce had so much faith in him, and why he believed that he would someday surpass him. But that thought was immediately made tragic when she realized: Bruce is immortal; Tim Drake is not. Bruce would always be in his physical prime, and would just continue to grow more knowledgeable and wise, whereas Tim would eventually be struck by the inevitably of old age, and eventually… death.
Diana really did not want to think about this, but her mind was adept at playing out the most dramatic scenarios possible. She had picked it up from Bruce, no doubt, so Diana knew that he had likely thought about it too; how his adopted son, who was born before him, would also die before him, while he never aged a day.
"Diana? You alright?"
Tim's voice brought her back to the present. The young man was staring with a confused and concerned expression. She had one foot in the elevator and was looking at Tim with a pained expression.
"Oh nothing, sorry. Just lost in thought."
Diana quickly brushed away her dark thoughts and smiled easily as she stepped into the elevator and pushed to the button that would take her to the cave.
When the elevator doors closed and it began moving downwards, Diana allowed herself to relax slightly. Seeing the glass half-empty like this would not do her any good. Tim's mortality and Bruce's immortality should not be seen as bad things. In all likelihood, Tim had already made the realization himself.
Enjoy every day as if it were your last. That's something even an immortal should live by… especially an immortal.
The elevator came to a sudden halt. Diana had to wait a second to allow her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the cave. It was quiet as a tomb. Not the most reassuring analogy, but the silence made Diana uneasy.
She made her way towards the center of the cave where she saw several dozen bats all waiting around, trying to balance on their feet with their wings extended wide. As Diana got closer, they all shrieked and hissed at her before flying back up towards the upper darkness of the cave. The whole thing was quite chaotic as the bats all tried to flap their wings at the same time and ended up knocking each other over.
At least they're acting like normal bats now…
Keeping that in mind, Diana moved towards the back of the cave where the holding cells were. She came across yet more bats, but all of them flew away as soon as she came near. There were a few more persistent ones directly in front of Bruce's cell that refused to leave immediately, but Diana just shooed and waved at them and they eventually relented.
Looking through the clear acrylic door of the holding cell, she made out Bruce's form, sitting cross-legged on the floor, no doubt meditating. He always did that to relax, which Diana found adorable (though she would never say that to him). As Gotham's protector, he couldn't unwind the way normal people do by going on vacation or watching a movie. So each time Diana saw Bruce sitting like this with his eyes closed, she was happy to know that he was calm and at peace.
Without a word, Diana opened the cell door and closed it behind her, just in case the bats were waiting to return. Bruce did not move, but Diana knew he was aware of her presence. She circled around and sat right behind him, extending both her legs on either side of him, slowly wrapping her arms around his torso. Her cheek rested against his back.
These moments of intimacy were so important to both of them. Their entire lives revolved around keeping up appearances and putting up a front so other people did not know who they really were and what their relationship was, but none of that mattered right now. It was just the two of them. Two people who loved each other more than life itself.
Diana felt Bruce's hands cover hers as he slid down and rested his head in her lap. For the first time today, she realized, their eyes met. And just like that, time seemed to stop. Diana realized this must be how Barry sees the world as The Flash, being able to process everything much faster than the pace of the world.
"What are you thinking about?"
Bruce's question startled Diana. He reached up towards her face and massaged the bridge of her nose with his thumb.
"You have this very specific expression whenever you get lost in thought," Bruce noted with a smile, as he traced invisible lines across Diana's face. "Sometimes I just can't bring myself to try to get your attention. I just get lost in my own thoughts, looking at you."
Not that long ago, Diana would have felt awkward about blushing in front of Bruce because of something he said. She thought it made her seem overly emotional. But Diana had come to realize that it was a sign of the strength of their love, not of her weakness. And she knew exactly how to get a similar reaction out of Bruce.
"For a man who is feared by all the criminals in Gotham, you manage to say the sweetest things sometimes," Diana whispered, caressing Bruce's cheeks, before bending down and enjoying a loving kiss.
As they reveled in each other's embrace, Bruce could feel a soft kick against the back of his head from Diana's stomach. That action brought a slight redness to his cheeks. He stroked Diana's belly tenderly, and she followed his hand motions with her own.
"What did Leslie have to say?"
"Only positive things. All is going well, nothing to report. She also wanted me to tell you to not be such a worrywart."
"Did she now? She mustn't know me very well."
They both settled into a comfortable silence, looking into each other's eyes, caressing each other's bodies. In the back of their minds, they both knew this all building towards an obvious crescendo. The goal now, as it always was when the matter of sex was involved, was who would act first.
It had almost become a game at this point, like a staring contest or the game of silence, where the first person to crack loses. Today was the tiebreaker, again.
"I'd like to see your mother as soon as possible," Bruce said casually. His caresses were getting more and more suggestive. "I think the issue with my eyes, and the bats, and the strength are all linked. Hopefully, Hippolyta can shed some light on the whole thing."
"I understand, but could you please not mention my mother right now," Diana said with a disbelieving smirk. Her gaze was gaining an intoxicatingly seductive edge.
"Whatever do you mean, princess?" Bruce retorted, flashing his devilish 'you've activated my trap card' grin. "What activity are you suggesting that would make your mother object to?"
Dammit, Diana cursed her faux-pas. Always forget the "Greatest Detective" part of his name.
"Alright, smart-ass," Diana finally relented, coiling herself around Bruce and connecting her lips with his. "You win this round."
"I plan to win far more than that," Bruce whispered enticingly.
"Don't hold your breath. Let's see if that super-strength will finally allow you to keep up."
Bruce wanted to have the last word, but he quickly gave up that luxury.
The next hour was a whole other level of bliss and pleasure for both of them. There were sensations they had never experienced before, and reactions they did not know they were capable of.
And by the end, their love shined brighter than ever in the darkness of that once solitary cave. As they surrendered to sleep, held firmly in each other's embrace, they both instinctually linked their hands together over Diana's belly.
"I love you."
Thoughts? Too much? Not enough? Leave me your thoughts and comments in a review. I'm always looking to improve.