It's All Relative
Chapter 14: Revelations
By Teala373
Wonder Woman had been the first to initiate a conversation between herself and the original Batman, however, a very long silence hung in the air in which he said nothing.
"Are you just going to stand there?" The Amazon Princess asked impatiently.
"You have much to answer for, Diana," came the steely reply. His neck twitched slightly, almost as if he meant to turn his head, but he stopped himself. He smiled, realizing that the almost silent descending of another in the shadows was in fact Terry. Wonder Woman did not seem to pick up on his presence and he was not in a rush to tip her off.
"And what exactly do you think I have to answer for, Detective," she placed emphasis on the least favorite of his many names.
"Let's start with why you and Ted Kord really faked Barbara's death."
Eyes narrowing dangerously, Wonder Woman slowly took on a more defensive stance. "I was not about to let such a brilliant woman, so full of life, be sucked into your world of darkness and deprecation. You and that spoiled, whiny son of yours would have been the undoing of her and the child. I could not watch it happen."
"And the amnesia?" A new edge crept into his voice.
Diana narrowed her eyes further. "There was nothing for her to remember. I didn't want the romanticism of memories when Dick Grayson actually hadn't been messing up her life to affect her."
"That's funny," Wonder Woman and the original Batman both turned as the current Batman slowly emerged from the shadows and walked toward them. Bruce could tell he was doing his very best to control the anger that seemed to radiate from him with each step he took, "I thought turning Barbara into a perfect wife for Ted was his payment for all the dirty work you had him do to undermine the league."
"What are you talking about," the tone had turned venomous, but both Batman's heard a distinct nervous waver hidden within.
Flicking his wrist, Terry flung a small, palm sized external drive, which Bruce deftly caught. "Wonder Woman was able to make herself look even more wondrous by rigging missions in her favor and setting Leaguers who got in the way to take the fall. All courtesy of the former Blue Beetle."
"Oh, really?" Bruce turned his head towards the princess.
"You can't prove a damn thing!" she screamed as she lunged towards the man she had come to regard as her archenemy.
Bruce tossed the external drive far off into the shadows in the opposite side of the room from Terry before catching the Princess's fist.
Terry, confident that Bruce could handle Wonder Woman, at least for a while, ran off in the direction the external drive was thrown, knowing what important evidence it was. As he dove into the shadow, he was surprised to run into an all too familiar figure that Bruce had not only been aware of, but had purposely thrown the drive to. The figure placed a hand on Terry's shoulder, motioning him to let Bruce and Diana duke it out for themselves.
"Like you told your Mom," the figure whispered, "enjoy the show."
From beneath his cowl, Terry smiled. This was the first time since this roller coaster began that he finally felt like everything was going to be all right.
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"Hey, what's that?" Dick asked, thankful for the distraction of the blinking red light on the consol of the bat-terminal.
Tim leaned in to study it closely. He typed in a few commands and ran a diagnostic. "The batsuit has been activated. Bruce can patch in to Terry's mask and communicate with him, as well as see exactly what it is that Terry sees."
Dick and Tim looked at each other, a thousand words passing between the silence, before flipping the switch that patched them in. They both gasped at the scene that lay before them.
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Wonder Woman had dove at the cape-and-cowled Bruce in her blind anger, but now as their battled waged on, she realized that Bruce wasn't just her equal in this fight, but her superior.
Though she was also skilled in a wide variety of fighting techniques, it was her Amazonian strength that gave her an extra edge in a fight. She felt weaker and slower, barely dodging Bruce's attacks and clearly unable to affect him with her own. At first she was surprised, but now, she was even more angry then when she began.
She fought back with more vigor, but still didn't feel she was up to her usual strength and speed. She noticed most of Bruce's attacks were coming from his hands; he had not thrown any kicks.
"What's the matter?" Wonder Woman sneered, "Having trouble fighting without your cane?"
Bruce flashed a devilish smile from beneath his cowl. "I never needed a cane." He then executed a strong, spinning kick. It sent the surprised Princess flying several feet back.
Leaping to her feet, Wonder Woman tore a ceremonial spear off the wall. It was a struggle for her to do so and once it was in her hands, she immediately sank to the floor under its weight.
"Having problems, Diana?" Bruce asked as he slowly advanced towards her.
She tried to stand again with the spear, but again fell to the floor. She shot a wild-eyed look Bruce's way. She began releasing the spear to rise, but Bruce sent another hard kick her way. She sank back down, knowing she was defeated.
"Maybe you shouldn't take your bracelet's off?" Bruce suggested as he loomed over her.
The Princess paled visibly as she realized the bracelets currently around her wrists were decoys - that somehow, Bruce had managed to switch them without her knowledge.
"It's…It's impossible! How? When?" she sputtered as she continued to look at him in shock.
Bruce merely shook his head. "You didn't tie up all your loose ends, Princess. Now then, let's hear the whole story."
Anger contorted her features once again as she attempted to rise, but Bruce merely kicked her back down. He continued to do this several more times until she finally relented.
"Alright, alright!" she sat back on her haunches and wound her hands again around the spear, but it was out of habit and insecurity. Her head was down and her eyes were lowered as she spoke. "I did it all to get back at you," she then raised her eyes to meet the lenses in his cowl, "is that what you wanted to hear?"
From beneath his mask, Bruce furrowed his eyebrows. "Get back at me? For what?"
Her eyes narrowed. "For us."
"I'm not buying it, Diana. You broke it off with me, remember? You said we were too different."
"I… I lied to you," she lowered her head again and there was a long pause as she choked back tears she was insanely ashamed of. "I never meant to ever involve myself with a man in a relationship way. I was always proud to be an Amazon; to be a strong and independent. I had focus and vision. I didn't want that clouded or tainted by men."
Bruce was keenly aware that Diana's voice had changed in tone and pitch. She was finally telling the truth.
"I fell in love with Kal-El… I fell fast and hard," she began, sorrow edged in her voice. "I found myself embarrassed… ashamed… of these feelings…" she swallowed a large lump in her throat, "but they would not subside, only grow. Even when I came to terms that no other would turn his head save for one, which was not myself, the feelings would not yield."
Though her head was down, Bruce nodded, urging her to continue.
"For years, I wrestled with these feelings as they tortured me. Amazons do not often give into love of men, thus these feelings were foreign to me on many levels. Day and night I was tormented by these feelings. It molded me into a person I couldn't stop from becoming. I thought giving into my long abandoned ambitions… gaining power… would slake my thirst. It did little, but my hunger for power began growing to lust and the pain became a dull throb in my breast."
Bruce felt an odd tug on his own anger and recognized a small token of sympathy as he watched a normally proud and regal woman crumble before his very eyes. With each breath that left her body, she visibly withered further into the cold, marble floor.
"Somewhere in between… I met you," she continued. "There was something about you… I could see the man behind the mask, behind the pain. Though are situations were not entirely parallel, I identified with you… I thought we could erase each other's pain…"
She paused then. Though her head remained down, her eyelids flipped open and she turned her blue orbs all the way upwards to look at him. A silence came then in which both remembered their whirlwind romance.
"It started as a rivalry at first between you and I," she started, "I did respect you, but I was already a rule breaker, though unknown, and the League didn't have room for another. Of course, there was also my fierce allegiance to Kal-El. He had issue with you, so I had issue with you, at least I said I did," her stare did not waver as she continued. "It was a long road for you and me. We argued and fought each other off quite a bit, but the fire burned, none the less."
Bruce remembered his fall for the Princess quite well. He had identified with her and for a long time, he had secretly loved her. They had kept their relationship very quiet, but for that time in which they were together, they both felt a heavy weight lift. It wasn't all of the weight, but it was enough.
"I began to suspect that perhaps your feelings were not as true as mine," a muscle underneath her eye twitched slightly. "I feared that you could not abandoned the grip around your heart as I could. I doubted and I doubted, and slowly that drove me as mad as my feelings for Kal-El once did."
For those who knew the true Bruce, the real Bruce Wayne, deep conversations weren't always the easiest, but he was capable of them. He felt a pang of guilt at Diana's feelings, somehow thinking the blame lie with him for not being so easy to come to with such problems.
"And then, a very strange thing happened," her stare now wavered and she finally blinked. "There was a break in Kal-El's feelings for the mortal," she lowered her eyes once more and closed her lids. "In my foolishness, I left you, fearing there was no more road for us to travel. I pursued Kal-El, but he rejected me, knowing of our relationship. He said to me I was a wrong to have left a man I so obviously belonged with. But you wouldn't have me back, either. I had lost you both." Her eyebrows bunched together and her lips twisted, "I convinced myself that if it hadn't been for you, I would have had a chance with Kal-El. I blamed you for running my already bitter life. I wanted you to pay. I wanted you to pay so dearly…"
"So you destroyed Barbara's life?" he finally asked.
She lifted her eyes again to him. "I did think I was doing her a favor. I saw in her life, life I had long since stopped living. I thought you would squeeze it out of her as it had been squeezed out of me… that she would become bitter and lonely as I had. I could not sit back and watch you destroy another woman, especially when I learned of her child… and it fit so perfectly in my plan. I owed Ted for his services and it would hurt you to lose her."
"You spent your life in the service of saving others, yet you destroyed the friends that surrounded you? How could you let feelings of love and passion twist you, Diana?"
Her body crumpled lower into the floor. She had no answer as she was defeated, her sins lying bare in the darkened hall.
"Princess Diana of Themescyra," came a voice from the shadows.
Diana and Bruce turned to see Terry walk towards them. But, he had not been the one to utter Diana's name. It had been the man walking along side him.
Superman.