Hi!

First fic in a very long time!

Batman Beyond, characters and other elements don't belong to me. They belong to DC. This fic is for pure fan enjoyment. I also encourage everyone to buy the DVD's because we had such good times watching this series… You can also buy the comics if you want, but I've heard they're not that great (personal opinion, please don't sue!)

Warnings: PG-13 Language and violence

AU: Set after "Out of the Past". Ra's Al Ghul managed to tempt Bruce Wayne with the rejuvenating effects of the Lazarus Pit. Bruce and Terry defeated Ra's in his daughter Talia's body… But instead of going back to his old self, Bruce realizes that the effects are permanent… He is young again.

"It will take several more immersions before the rejuvenation truly sets in…"

A lie.

The regeneration was permanent.

The extra immersions into the Lazarus Pit were simply meant to addict him to it, make him more pliable… Or perhaps Ra's Al Ghul had become so afraid of going without them that he was genuinely convinced it was necessary.

It didn't matter anymore. Didn't matter to Bruce and certainly didn't matter to Talia.

The now officially 42 years old Bruce Wayne had subjected himself to a long series of medical examinations. To his relief, the one-time immersion into the boiling green ooze hadn't affected his neurochemistry. He hadn't fought Ra's for so long only to turn into Ra's himself. It also confirmed the permanence of his condition.

He cursed his reflection in the mirror. He cursed his weakened old mind and cursed the part of him that rejoiced at what he was seeing.

He liked it, he had to admit that much… Even if it made him sick.

Someone cleared her throat behind him. Bruce snapped back to the present to notice Barbara Gordon's reflection next to his.

There was clear disapproval, and maybe even disappointment, in her eyes, but she said nothing.

His eyes slipped to the other end of the room. There was a stage covered in solemn drapes. Just below it laid an open coffin. In it rested the body of an aged and weakened Bruce Wayne… A lifeless flesh-drone to keep up appearances had been grown especially for this. Only a thorough bio-molecular scan would reveal it had never been truly alive. In fact, it was much closer to a plant than a human. Old files on a long-gone Poison Ivy had allowed its creation.

Bruce and Barbara made their way to the stage, where the Commissioner took a seat. Bruce could still feel her eyes on him. He looked at the fake body and back at her.

"It had to be done."

Barbara stared ever harder at him.

"That's not what I'm thinking about…"

And she looked at an empty seat on the right side of Bruce Wayne "Junior".

Terry stared at the computer screen, his mind blank. For a moment, he completely stopped thinking. He stopped being aware of himself. He wasn't aware of his own breathing. He wasn't even aware of his own heart beating.

His fist slammed down on his desk!

Crushed by the weight of the dark feelings overtaking his mind, he crossed his arms on the desk and rested his head on it.

How could have Bruce done this to him?

It had taken only a few days, until the old man had figured he wasn't an old man anymore, before Bruce suddenly informed Terry that his services were no longer required.

Terry had just frozen on the spot. He should've yelled. He should've tried to reason the old geezer…Come up with arguments… Or something!

Instead, he just nodded quietly… and that had been it.

The teenager came home with his brain on automatic pilot. Ever since then, he felt like his body was some kind of android and he was watching it act from somewhere far away.

There was a simple reason why Terry hadn't yelled or screamed or negotiated or tried to reason with Bruce. He had known it was coming. He had known ever since Bruce had told him he would get on that plane and follow Talia.

Even if Talia had been Talia (and not the host body for her sociopathic father), Terry knew Bruce would eventually put on the suit again… He knew because he knew NOT wearing it was unbearable.

What he hadn't expected was to be completely shunned out like this. To be sent back like used material… or had Terry been the one to use Wayne? He didn't know. Maybe... Maybe they had used each other.

But Terry hadn't been into it for the glory, or the rush or even revenge. He had tried revenge and it didn't work… Terry had become the Batman because he NEEDED to… And he had needed to because he COULD do it. He could do something. He could BE the Batman.

…Except Bruce Wayne couldn't see that. All he saw in Terry was another troubled kid in a long line of troubled kids who had followed him and the set of bad memories that came with them.

But what was he supposed to do now? Volunteer in a homeless shelter?

He wasn't Bruce Wayne. He didn't have billions of creds and a secret lair. He couldn't make himself a fancy suit or forget the suit and charge the streets without the gear that would keep him alive… He couldn't go back and steal the suit for himself, what would be the point of that?

Terry hadn't worked so hard only to turn back into some punk teenager without a life.

All he had left now was High School and his stupid homework. No job. No money. A single mom who worked her ass off to feed two children. A little brother blissfully unaware of the ugliness of the world, even though it wouldn't last. And the bloodied corpse of his father laying in the living room, in the dark, with gruesome clown smiles painted on the walls and the crazy laughter of the Jokerz echoing from not too far away as he willed so hard for the cold blood to go back into his dad, because he was just some stupid kid who couldn't even…

A hand on his shoulder made him look up. He used the back of his sleeve to wipe the tears he hadn't been aware of.

A compassionate face offered him a sad smile.

"You know, I could drop you at the ceremony, Terry. There's still time."

Ceremony?... Right, she meant the funeral of "Bruce Wayne Senior". At least that was one thing he could take comfort in: he wouldn't have to lie to his mother anymore.

Terry straightened himself in his chair.

"Thanks mom, but I think I'll just stay here."

She lowered herself and looked at him with such care… It would kill him if anything happened to her.

"Are you sure, honey?"

"Yeah… I don't belong there anymore."

She took him in her arms and lightly rested he head on his shoulder. It felt so good… If only it could make the pain go away.