2/4

Terry looked at the woman like she had grown a second head, "What?"

Diana looked down at her hands, not sure what to do at first, but then she felt as if Bruce was there, young again, and urging her on as she felt a slight surge go through her, "Terry, as you know, I am not exactly … normal. I was made from clay, granted life and power by the Gods, and my entire life has been carefully sculpted by the fates for my sisters to learn about Man's world." He nodded slowly and she continued, "My people now know about Man's world, the dangers there, and … my time has passed."

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Terry agreed, not liking where this was going. "Princess-"

"Diana, or if you must, Wonder Woman," she pressed him slightly, doing her best to not let her emotions control her.

Terry nodded, "Diana, your initial purpose has been served and your people know of our world, but what's this about you needing to die?"

She shook her head, "Not 'die' as to be offered to Hades in the Netherworld, Terry, but I need to be reborn, to let my old self go the way Bruce has … to become someone else."

Terry nodded at her, as if in understanding, but he didn't look convinced, "A new identity? Diana, no disrespect intended, but I think it's going to be a little hard to take such a famous face, kill the name and then try to be someone else."

"Bruce did it with Batman," she pointed out to him.

Terry shook his head, "No, Batman did that with Batman – you're a known figure, and the only way to change who you are …"

She nodded, "Is to change who I am, physically." She reached into the bag she had brought with her and brought out a vial filled with a thick red liquid that sparkled slightly, "I will have a successor in Cassandra, who had agreed to take my place after my 'death', but this will ensure that Diana Prince … dies."

Terry narrowed his eyes at the vial, "What is that?"

"A gift from Zeus, Terry – it will change me, physically, but it will take time." She reached back into the bag and pulled out another item, but this time it was a file case that held old CD's, "Bruce and I once talked about what I could do, if I ever needed to 'disappear' and he came up with these – they are identities that can be set up if placed into the proper computer systems and … and I want you to use them."

Terry accepted the disks, his mind whirling – if he went along with this, he was going to be effectively killing Wonder Woman, and he wasn't sure he liked how that would weigh on his conscience, "Diana … have you talked to anyone else about this?"

She nodded, "Kal knows, Bruce knew, and several select others know, but nobody else."

"How long would this … change … take?"

She looked down at the vial, her beautiful face marred by a frown, "From what Zeus had told me, no more than a moon's time, but he also said that with this change, there would be consequences."

Terry stood up sharply, his voice dropping slightly, "Consequences? Is it dangerous?"

Diana stood, her shoulders squared, "All things in life are dangerous, Terry. If I do this, not only will I need to have someone input my new identity, but I shall also need a place to stay while my body changes, a place that will not be disturbed in case someone should get suspicious."

"Why not go back to your Sisters?"

She shook her head vehemently, her long dark tresses sailing back and forth, "No, that is not an option – when Diana Prince dies … if she were to return to the Amazon nation, it would not be well-received." She looked down at the vial again, "Kal has offered me his Fortress of Solitude, but … I ask that I be allowed to stay here." Terry arched an eyebrow slightly, as if to ask 'and why here', and Diana humored him with a response, "This mansion holds better memories for me, Terry, than the Fortress – as you were told yesterday, the mansion is yours to do with …"

Terry nodded, remembering when that had been posted all over the fracking Net and several of the high school jocks had immediately called him, asking to use his place as a love nest. His mother had not been far behind, asking what was going on, and he had promised to tell her … after the funeral, which was not going to be fun whatsoever. He looked over at Diana and nodded, "Okay, you can use the mansion, but I'm going to be here too … and depending on how a particular conversation goes after Bruce's funeral, it may not be just the both of us. I miss that mutt – he might have been able to keep Matt in check," he said somewhat whimsically before he looked over then at the urn above the mantle that was in the private office he had been set up in as a place to 'study' – Ace had not lived to see his master's death, having died in his sleep some six months before Bruce had, and Terry was sure now that the mutt was with Bruce even now.

Diana nodded, a slight smile on her lips, "Your mother?"

"Yeah."

She looked at him but sounded totally unsympathetic, "I know well how much you do not look forwards to this, Terry – if you think your mother is bad, try having a Queen for a mother."

(Several Days Later – Gotham Cemetery)

She looked at the assembled group of people, a group that probably did not number more than twenty, and noticed while many of them were in various shades of black, several others were most notably not – Mary wasn't sure why, but several members of the JLU were there, in full costume, and while she recognized Big Barda, Superman and Hawkman, even the Green Lantern, she wasn't sure who the young woman in the bathing suit was. What caught her attention, though, were some of the other people there.

Dick Greyson, of Greyson Enterprises, an subsidiary of Wayne-Powers Corporation, was dressed in a sable hue and had a pin on his tie that looked suspiciously like a stylized 'R', while Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon was in her brown trench coat and uniform, and another woman, tall and strong, stood next to an older man, grey, balding and slightly overweight, both in black. All of them, however, stood just beside her son, Terry, who was dressed in black as well, but wore it more like a mantle, a cloak, rather than mere clothing – she had been forced to make sure that Matt was in school that day, not wanting to run the risk of him trying to provoke Terry more than was necessary, given how short-tempered her oldest son had been since Mr. Wayne's passing.

The priest left the graveside service and Mary took that chance to look at the memorial – it was simple, sitting next to a pair that read 'Thomas Wayne' and 'Martha Wayne', made of solid mild gray granite but the lettering was inlaid with a dark black obsidian that made the lettering stand out all that much more; it was quite striking, in a subdued kind of way, and Mary McGinnis found it oddly similar to the man she had met a little more than three years ago as the younger members of the JLU left, allowing her to walk up to her son, "Terry?"

He looked at her, his eyes a mystery, "Yes?"

She hesitated at the powerful look he had in his eye, as if all of the child had been stripped away, leaving only a man there … a man who was her son, "Son … I don't mean to sound rude, but why are all of these people here? Who are they?"

Superman stepped forwards, his black suit and lighter emblem slightly dull as the clouds began to thicken, "You know who we are, ma'am, but as to why we are here … Bruce helped us all out at one point or another. He long-since earned my respect … generally since he stopped chasing after my wife," he mused, getting a chuckle out of several of the older JLU members. He waved off her look of concern, "Don't worry, Lois knew him back when he was the notorious playboy, the one who refused to settle down until later."

Mary nodded, her confusion growing as to just who Bruce Wayne had once been, but she put that particular question off to one side as Terry pulled on his darkened glasses, "Are you going to come back to the house later, Terry?"

He nodded, "After the Will reading, mom." He walked over, bussed her on the cheek and then, like a wraith, turned on his heel and ghosted through the tombstones of the old cemetery, vanishing even as the sun vanished from sight for the last time that day and the skies rumbled ominously.

"An ill sign, this storm," she heard a rich, yet sad, female voice say as she turned around to see Diana Prince, the former Wonder Woman, standing next to the casket, her face a mystery, "yet oddly fitting for him."

"For who? Terry?"

Diana nodded slightly, "Terry as well, but mostly for Bruce – both of them are and were creatures of the night, Ms. McGinnis, both of them thriving in it."

That statement set off warning bells, whistles, cannons and banshees in Mary's mind even as her mind drew back to something that Terry had once told her and Matt long ago, "Just how well did you know Mr. Wayne?"

Diana smiled slightly, "Bruce and I were old friends, Ms. McGinnis, and it was with him that I learned not only how fun verbally sparring with a man could be, but also just how different two men could be. He and Batman, well, the old one, were very similar, yet very different – I met them both, on several occasions, actually, and until I saw them in the same room together, I had in my mind they were the same person." Mary gasped but Diana went on, quieting the woman's fears, "Bruce and that Batman both got a good chuckle out of it but never really let it drop." Of course, it had been in the Batcave where she had seen them both together, Bruce next to his costume, and for the next few months she kicked herself for not having seen it earlier – he had certainly given her enough clues as to whom he really was, him and Kal both, but she had just never put it together.

Mary nodded at this, having had something like that happen with her first husband, "I understand completely." She then sighed, "Poor Terry, to lose his mentor like this …"

"He will survive, Ms. McGinnis," Diana assured the woman. "Neither he nor Bruce were ever under the impression that Bruce was immortal – neither liked to talk about it, but neither were afraid of it."

She watched the woman nod, "I just hope he does the right thing – I'm honestly not looking forward into moving into that mansion, so I do hope he doesn't ask us to."

Diana crooked a grin at her, "I would think that you would love to move into a mansion, Ms. McGinnis – is that untrue?"

"No, I'd love to," Mary said quickly, "but somehow I doubt that Terry would let Matt, his little brother, anywhere near that place – sometimes, I think he works late all of the time to just get away from his brother, and other times … other times I wonder if what he once told us was true."

Diana arched an eyebrow at her, "And what is that?"

Mary took a breath and let it out slowly, speaking softly, "That he is Batman."

Diana did her best to keep the shocked look off her face – Terry had told someone? WHY? "Ms. McGinnis … are you sure your son wasn't just playing with you? As I understand, boys his age generally do things like that."

Mary smiled at the woman, the icon herself, and shook her head, "If you ever have children, particularly sons, Miss Prince, you'll understand a mother's intuition." Mary then turned and walked away, "I need to go home now – Matt will be home soon and he will probably be upset about being left out of this."

Diana watched the mother walk away before turning away herself – she had a will reading to go to, and she was fairly sure things were going to turn out exactly as people thought they would.

AN: Alright, here's part two of four – a few answers given, a few more left undone; hope everyone likes some of the reasoning I gave for Diana's 'death'. Read and Review, please, AR.