The Ghost,
10:34
Coruscant Airspace

"You believe him?" Bruce asked, making Sabine jump slightly. She kept forgetting he was even there, sitting in a dark corner of the common room. It was still beyond her why Princess Leia had him given the rank of General. Not that he was happy about it, mind you. Now everyone was going around calling him; "General Batman".

The Ghost, on the other hand, hadn't changed much since the Battle of Lothal all those years ago, the same paintings still littered the walls, the table was still colored a checkerboard pattern- all of the signature traits that the ship had possessed for the past eight years.

Yet there was still something missing. Or rather- someone, "I don't know," Sabine replied, just barely managing to tear her mind away from Ezra Bridger, "He's spouting nonsense. I've never even been to your Earth, so I think I'd take your opinion over mine." The Mandalorian and the detective had gotten to know each other much better over the past few months, she even learned his true name after they'd stopped the Joker... or almost stopped him.

Bruce stayed silent, looking at the floor intently. Sabine didn't know much about the problems that he dealt with on Earth, but a giant squid killing millions of people and lying to billions of others sounded bad enough to her, "He's not talking about a conspiracy of genocide- he's talking about a conspiracy of silence," The detective said, rising from his position and walking over to the holochess table, "A great lie..." He placed a small device on the table, which promptly projected a blue hologram before the two of them, "Something not too different from what we're dealing with right now."

"You... think there's something more to all this?" Sabine asked, echoing her own sentiments. Turning her attention to the device, she realized the hologram depicted an Imperial Test Facility on a backwater planet called Taris. The Batman nodded, placing his hands on the table.

"Definitely. But I'm slightly worried about what we're allowing ourselves to stumble into," He said, pointing at the projection, "This is an Imperial Lab on the planet Taris- I assume you've heard it's name before."

"I have," Sabine replied, rolling her chair over to the other side of the table, "It had been ruled by Darth Revan's Empire for decades- and I heard the Emperor had a particular interest in something that is on planet..."

"He did. But not in something that's there now," Bruce stated, looking up at the young Mando, "In something that was there at one point in the past. A knight of the Old Republic." Sabine's fascination grew instantly, as The Dark Knight zoomed in on the facility's entrance- but it looked strange- almost blurry, "There's a theoretical particle in quantum physics called the tachyon, an incredibly small object that can travel backwards in time. For some reason, the tachyon readings on this base are off the charts," He said, the room seemingly becoming darker as he spoke, "There's a time rift there. That base is in a different time. A different era."

Sabine did a double take, "And... how long have you known about this?"

"About a month."

"And you kept it from us?"

"It wasn't important at the time."

"Well, I'd think the New Republic would want to know something about it!" Sabine scoffed, throwing her arms up in the air. Bruce said nothing, which pissed Sabine off, as usual. "Anyway, what time is it in?"

"That's the million-dollar-question," He replied, "When is it?"

Sabine grinned, snatching the device from the table, "Well, then I guess we'd better go find out," She said, "General." Turning around, she noticed him narrowing his eyes at her in frustration, "I'll tell Hera, but what're we gonna do with the nut job and... and..."

"Take them both with us," He said, suddenly appearing beside her and taking the device back, "We're going back to my world. And I've got some friends who are going to want to hear what they have to say."


Arizona, Maricopa County
October 14th, 1985
1:22 AM

"Keep him quiet!" Adrian whisper-yelled as Dan squeezed his arm tightly around some guy's throat, his face ridden with guilt as he waited patiently for the innocent scientist to fall unconscious. Both Steve and Adrian were already outfitted with white lab coats, leaving Dan as the odd-one out. For the past fifteen minutes they'd been going around stealing the uniforms of the workers and researchers that were employed at the Gila Flats installation- each attempt resulting in the subsequent muggings.

Could this bastard go to sleep any slower? The man's legs were straining and helplessly kicking in some effort to reach oxygen, but eventually his breathing slowed, and his body went limp, "Alright, he's out." Dan said, unwrapping his arms and retrieving the lab coat from the black-haired man. They stashed the knocked out scientist inside a dumpster behind two massive water towers that stood directly beside the parking lot, with Steve cursing nervously.

"Holy sweet mother of Jesus," The boy breathed as Dan carefully crept onto a window sill on the side of the brick building, cautiously avoiding the gaze of the guards, "Do we really have to do this?" Come to think of it, the former Nite Owl wasn't entirely sure why Adrian had insisted on bringing him along. He could've just left him with the shi- "This is stupider than when me and Dustin tried to drink the green Soviet-juice." Ah. That's why.

"As much as I would absolutely love to hear that story, Mister Harrington," Ozymandias said, following Dan into the men's room window, "We have work to do." Dan reached down to pull the younger boy up, straining as felt his aging muscles ache at the effort. Pulling the teen into the window, he took a look around at his surroundings. The room was dark and had a strange green tint to it, a large mirror stretched across moldy and unfurnished plaster- strange, for a state-of-the-art laboratory.

"So this is the place..." Dan mumbled, earning a strange look from Adrian, "This is where they saw the circulatory system... after Jon's incident."

Adrian smiled softly, "Correction- where they would've seen it." He said, reminding Dan that this was an entirely different world- a different history. A history that they were complete strangers to. The blonde man walked to the end of the room, opening the door and gesturing for the two of them to follow, as yellow light flooded into the room. As Dan exited the dark restroom, he was met with the familiar yellow light of the lobby- he and Laurie had visited the facility for Manhattan Day, the national holiday dedicated to Jon- and the pentagon-shaped reception desk. Dan looked at Adrian nervously, but the self-proclaimed 'savior of humanity' only grinned and approached a brunette woman tending the desk, "Hello, Miss... Strode," The billionare spoke, "My name is Doctor Veidt, and these are my partners Mr. Dreiberg and Mr. Harrington. We're new here and would very much appreciate directions to the Intrinsic Field generator."

The woman barely looked up from her desk, "Down the hall on the right, next to the bio-engineering room." That should not have worked, Dan thought, but what did he know? It wasn't like he was the world's smartest man or anything.

"Thank you, ma'am. We'll be on our way." Adrian turned and proceeded down the route she had pointed them towards, with Dan and Steve promptly following him. They passed dozens of scientists, each one carrying a clipboard and speaking words to each other that Dan hadn't ever heard in his life, and Steve looked like his head was about to blow into a million pieces. Adrian, on the other hand, looked completely at home as they came upon a large window into a very recognizable room.

From floor to ceiling, the room was probably about fifty feet high, and about a quarter the size of a football field, "Is this the..." Steve started.

"Yup," Dan replied, looking at a small steel box the size of a closet- but contained the power to level the entire city of Moscow or New York, "And that's what gave Jon Osterman the power of a god. The powers of Doctor Manhattan." The box was actually an intrinsic field generator- an experimental machine that charge particles and imbued them with radioactive properties- it would've been the key to winning the cold war, yet the thing looked like it hadn't been used in years.

"Need help, son?" The voice of an older man came, drawing closer to them.

"No, thank you, sir," Adrian spoke turning to look at the man, "We're just looking... at..." His voice trailed off, instantly making Dan's heart rate jump as he too turned in the direction of the voice. The man had graying brown hair with hazel eyes- but his face... oh god it was...

"Well, if you need anything," An older, much happier Jon Osterman said, "I will gladly be of service."


I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play

-Don McLean


A MUCH shorter chapter than the last, but it's Christmas. I wrote this thing over the course of two days: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so I was a little rushed. However, I knew exactly how I wanted to end this, and I'm don't quite have the time to fit in any of the other archs other than the two right here. I'm running out of time right now actually, but the next chapters are going to be longer, I promise. I also have noticed a jump in the views this story is getting- people are starting to pay attention. Thank you for reading this, it really means a lot.

Leave a review on your way out, as always, and I'll see you next chapter!

-MB