Sword of Justice
Wings of an Elfin Warrior, beta
Chapter 12
The Sword of Justice
 
From where Barbara sat, it was as if the world had slowed down to such a pace that even the hands on the large clock tower stopped moving. She 
Could hear the fights as they continued. S`lea and Dick were in separate parts of the tunnels. Each were getting as good as they gave. And Robin, poor Robin, was feeling useless. Oracle's attempts to locate Azrael or Batgirl had not been successful. The Huntress and Black Canary were on assignment, together. That in it self could be disastrous. Still this was one oracle that believed in miracles and often found herself praying for them. She needed a vacation, maybe when things slow down her and Dick could go on a cruise or something... (See there she goes praying for miracles again.)
 
Robin knew he couldn't leave Bruce alone and unattended. He decided to 
Try and drag him to the Red Bird. Bruce would be safe there and he could return to help Dick. "Come on Batman I need your help. I have to get back to Nightwing," he mumbled. "Lets get you topside."
Batman struggled to stand, quickly going down to his knees. " No!" He snapped, "Go to Nightwing. Get him out of there. I'll be right behind you."
 
The thought of Nightwing fighting blind in the shambles that was once part of the sewage systems was finally occurring to Bruce. The wrong move and Dick could be seriously hurt or killed. The walls of the tunnels were crumbling. Even if he survived the fight, what were the chances he would be able to safely find his way out of there without help?
"You can't even stand." Tim rebutted, "I can't leave you here. What 
if you get sick again?""
 
Bruce looked up. It was a look that Tim, and every Robin before him knew well, it usually saved for the bad guys. "Now!" he growled. It was all that was needed. Robin grabbed his staff and returned to the tunnels.
 
S`lea was experienced at the freeing of souls of the damned. It was a ritual that took place in the wake of Golnac wherever his black heart would stray, but it never truly made it a simple thing to do. To relieve a man or woman of their head was never meant to be easy for anyone who respected life, but she knew the Noctra. She knew what it did to a soul, and this made her work easier.
 
 
She made good use of the blade that Alfred had given her to substitute for her own. It was a fine blade indeed but not like hers. She wanted to remember the feel of her blade. She would bring an end to the terror forever. She was tired of playing this game. It was time to bring the fight to Golnac, since he was obviously not coming back to the fight. She swore her sword to his lordship Nightwing. Despite his skills he was still in danger as long as he was alone; and the voice from the device in her ear told her he was still alone. She would never be able to look Mistress Barbara in the face again should anything happen to her friends because of people from her world. 
If Dick had lasted this long he was truly a warrior of great strength of heart and mind, but she knew that eventually even his strength must wane. She reached the other section of the tunnel just in time to see Nightwing, struck by one of his opponents so hard that the man was knocked into the wall. He fought valiantly to stand but was hit again and slipped helplessly to the ground. At that point he might as well have been a ball because the creatures began to kick at his motionless body.
 
Robin reached the cavern where they had found Bruce, to find an enraged
Dragonwing beheading three of the hapless creatures at one time. He watched as they turned into a puddle of slime at his feet. "gross" He muttered as he blocked his first attacker and quickly retreated to check his surrogate brother. Dick was out for the count. He had a gash on his head that was nearly in the same place the last injury was. "Man I don't wanna be you when Doc Leslie finds out about this." He whistled still ignoring the battle going on beside him. He finally turned and joined the fight but could not bring him self to make the "killing" blow.
 
S`lea understood the reluctance that the child was feeling. His mentor had trained him well. The life of others was not to be taken lightly. Still he could not remain here without being willing to cross that line, without becoming a hindrance to the cause.
 
" Take his lordship back to the vehicle. Get the Shadow Walker and his son far from here I will handle this."
 
The words had no sooner left her mouth than she was struck by a blow to the head that buckled her knees. Tim struck out at the creature that landed the lucky blow. Still his anger was not enough to make the kill but it did give the elfin warrior time to regain her footing and rejoin the fight.
 
Tim managed to keep them away from Dick, but their strength seemed to be multiplying. No sooner was one down when two others replaced it. An illusion? Maybe, but things were getting more difficult with every blow they dealt. The first blow that connected with his chest nearly took him off his feet. He couldn't find his breath but he was afraid to stop fighting, for fear that they would be able to further hurt the currently defenseless Nightwing. He blocked the next blow with his staff. Then planting it firmly on the ground he gave the next two goons a good look at the bottom of his feet, leaving his slime covered footprint across their newly broken noses. The warriors that they fought continued to come no matter what he threw at them. He hurt in places he didn't realize could hurt and his staff felt as though it weighed a ton. Finally, his energy sapped, he dropped to his knees. He was barely able to look up, only to see what was to be the killing blow. He would never be able to block the strike. But before it came to be the creature seemed to stop in motion.
 
Tim fell backwards as a sword appeared where the creatures' neck was, and then the body evaporated, joining his brethren in the large puddle that was growing on the ground. Above Tim stood Batman. He was looking about as good as Tim felt at this point but it was the best thing this bat-brat had seen in a long time.
 
Tim never thought Bruce could be more intimidating as the Batman than he had been for as long as he knew of him. Bad guys would normally run at the thought of him. That was yesterday this is today. The old Batman was a wuss compared to the Batman he watched now. The man he was seeing was tired scared and injured. He was the proverbial bat in the corner. 
Bruce was fighting like a man possessed. ** Bad choice of words** he 
thought, but truly the best description.
 
The heat of the determination in the man's face made him look somehow different, or maybe it was sword. He was fighting with S`lea's sword. 
Its silver blade seemed to glow in the man's hand. It moved almost as if it had a life of it's own. Robin was lost in the moment, the good guys were winning the dead not as many as they seemed before. The useless kicks and punches where now used as delaying tactics until the sword made it's move.
 
Batman moves were hypnotic: he seemed to dance with the blade. His every move was so smooth and seamless. It was as if he had been doing it all his life, instead of the opposite.
 
Batman was brandishing a lethal weapon and using it. Still stunned by the sight of it Tim didn't really realize he was gawking till S`lea knocked him back down intercepting a blow that should have claimed his head.
 
" Robin, Take Nightwing, and flee." She growled.
He turned to find Nightwing wobbling behind him. "Dragonwing, Batman has your sword." Tim announced as he supported his friend heavily against his shoulder.
 
"I know. I sensed them awhile ago." She paused only a moment to watch as the man whom she had come to know as a reluctantly caring man wielded her weapon with the zeal of all of her home world's greatest warriors. "He does neither it, nor me, any dishonor in its use. Now find your way to safety. God speed. 
 
Dick leaned heavily on his young friend; the pain exploding inside the area his head used to be was making it impossible to stand erect. He heard the clash of weapons as the impacted around them. He heard S`lea issue her orders to get him out of the war zone. He wanted to object but had neither the strength ability left to fight. He knew things were about to get uglier, if it was possible, but he was no use to anyone. Apparently the only thing holding him up sounded, by the grunts and groans, like an injured Robin.
 
They were slowly making their way away from the sounds, when unexpectedly the pressure in the room changed. Dick stifled a scream as his head felt like it might implode. The pressure was as if someone opened an airtight door in a pressure chamber. He began to feel a tingling sensation throughout his body. The same sensation he felt when he got blown into the wall at the museum, only bigger. Someone was opening a portal.
 
 "EVERYONE GET DOWN!" He shouted, tossing Robin down like a broken crutch. Covering the kid with his own body, he absorbed the impact of the darkness as it exploded open. He could feel Tim go limp under his weight. Then he began to hear the unstable area creek and grumble as the grounds around them began to shake. It must have been what it felt like when Gotham was experiencing the Quake. The world felt as if it was being pushed and pulled in every direction possible. To be honest he wasn't really sure the quake wasn't happening allover again. Dick could hear the walls in other tunnels collapsing in. The thunder of their destruction was echoing around them.
Then suddenly he felt a change. As the darkness faded, curiosity took its place. Instinctively he looked up and felt strange. He knew he should have not been able to see anything, but he did. There was a great light opening above them. He could see it. Blurry, but he saw it. He could also make out the walls crumbling around them. He looked over to glimpse the shadow of Batman pulling an unconscious silhouette of Dragonwing over to where they were.
 
"The walls are coming down Batman." Nightwing hollered, again covering the boy he thought of as his brother. "Look out."
 
Batman saw the ceiling collapsing with the last bit of strength in him he threw himself and his cape over S`lea and the others as the ceiling began to fall on top of them. The world exploded around them or at least that's the way it sounded. The world shook and shook hard. He was too late. 
They would all be trapped and die amongst the ruins of the City he loved. The pressure in his head was horrific, and he felt as if he were caught within the walls of a hurricane as the world came down around them. He was certain his skull would implode. Many years he had defeated Death, many years he struggled and trained himself not to give in to its ever embracing tentacles. Now there was nowhere else to go; it had finally caught him. Then suddenly the world went black.