19. Captured

"Brucie…."

Batman stared in horror at the face on the screen. It was…….The Joker.

"Joker" he whispered.

The rest of the league stood behind Batman watching the video. They didn't know what had happened, but seeing the Joker they instinctively knew that it wad bad.

The Joker continued, "Brucie, baby! You don't call, you don't write, one would think you don't like me. Well I thought I'll give you a visit and guess what……you have a wonderful little boy. Chip of the ol' block that one!" With that the camera moved back revealing Thomas Wayne sitting in the corner. The boy was being guarded by one of Harley Quinn's hyenas and had a terrified look on his face with tears streaming down his cheek. "I want daddy," he would cry out every few moments, receiving a growl from the hyena.

------

Everyone in the watchtower let out a loud gasp at the vision. They had just seen the young child happy and free that morning.

"Thomas" cried out Diana and Shayera.

The Joker continued with his tirade. "Well Brucie boy, seeing that we are friends, I will be lenient with junior here."

"What I want you to do is – one twenty million dollars in a offshore account, you know a gift for taking care of the heir to the fortune and two, I want our favorite bat to give himself up to me, and no Justice Losers specially not that over grown boy scout and that bimbo in the swimsuit. Although I wouldn't mind some private 'wresting' with Wonder-bra Woman."

Then the Joker smiled a sinister smile"And just incase you get any ideas…..just remember that I want to start my own family. Harl and me, we were talking about it just the other day. And young Tommy here will make a great Joker-junior."

"No hard feelings, eh Brucie…..ha ha ha ha," the manical laughter filled the roomas the screen went blank again.

-----

Everyone stood silent for a moment. Then Batman moved into action, first deleting the video from the league records, he setup an offshore account and moved twenty million dollars into it. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to use it, but he didn't want to take any chance.

"What are we waiting for?" cried Diana. "Lets go and rescue that child."

"No," was the curt reply.

"What do you mean no?" yelled Diana. "You can't expect us to just sit here idly and do nothing?"

"That's exactly what you are going to do" replied Batman, walking to wards the door. "This is my personal business and doesn't involve the league."

"Listen you insensitive jerk…" started Diana only to be stopped by Superman.

"Diana let him go," said Superman calmly, holding Diana as Batman entered into the hanger.

"Kal how can you say that? It's the matter of a child's life and Batman…" she fumed. "Batman doesn't care about it"

Just then the landing bay doors opened and the Batwing left the watchtower.

"He cares more than any of us" stated Superman, loosening his grip on Diana. "He is the father after all."

Diana stopped squirming and stared at Superman. "Father….that means…."

"Yes, Batman is Thomas's father….Batman is Bruce Wayne." With that Superman slowly pulled Diana to a chair and sat her down.

----

After a silence of few moments,Diana looked up at her teammates. "Does everyone in the league know his secret identity?" she inquired.

"No. Just the founding members and Nightwing," replied Superman.

"Nightwing? That means Nightwing is……"

"Nightwing is Dick Grayson," completed Superman.

"And Tim Drake is Robin and Cassandra Cain is Batgirl," spoke up Flash.

Diana took in everything she had heard. She couldn't get through the fact that Batman and Bruce Wayne were the same person. And his family….they were all crime fighters. Suddenly something hit her.

"And Barbara Gordan…."

"Barbara was the first Batgirl, until the joker shot her and disabled her," sighed Superman. "But through her own strength of will and help from Bruce, she was able to reinvent herself as the 'Oracle'."

"Why wasn't I told about this?" Diana demanded, her eyes livedwith barely contained anger. Her teammates had been keeping secrets from her. What else hadn't they told her?

----

Superman looked towards J'onn who then started to speak.

"Diana, we didn't want to burden you with all this information."

"Burden me…how was it going to burden me?"

"Diana, you and Batman were close when you left. But when you returned you had forgotten him….in fact the first time you saw him, I sensed fear and pain in you. So we decided to let you discover it for yourself," the Martian replied.

"That's why we forced ourselves on Bruce yesterday," added Superman. "He didn't invite the league; I made the announcement publicly so that he couldn't refuse it."

"How close were we?" asked Diana. She still couldn't believe she would ever be close to someone like Batman. But, knowing that he was Bruce Wayne, she sensed that he wore a mask to hide his true self, just as he wore one to hide his face.

"Very," stated Shayera silently.

"Very…" repeated Diana, more to herself than anyone else. Suddenly another thought hit her. She faced Shayera.

"It was him wasn't it? The one I couldn't remember? The father of my child?" she demanded.

Shayera merely nodded her head.

"And those dreams, they weren't dreams at all, but they were memories. His memories of me," she asked again and received another nod from Shayera.

"Hey wait a minute. Bats and Wondy had a kid?" exclaimed Flash. "And we don't know about it"

"We do," answered Superman.

"WE DO! What do you mean we do? I don't know. No one told me? How did you guys know?" demanded Flash.

"Diana told Shayera and Batman told J'onn and me."

"How could he know?" inquired Diana. Turning to Superman she demanded. "What else did he tell you? What else are you hiding from me?"

"Sorry Diana but we cannot tell you anything."

"Why J'onn…Why can't you tell me?" Diana demanded, her voice bordering on a plea. Now that she knew the truth she wanted to know everything about her and Batman.

"Believe me Diana; it is for your own good."

"For my own good….FOR MY OWN GOOD. How dare any of youtalk to me about my good? I want to know everything you have been keeping from my and I want to know it now." Wonder Woman bellowed at her teammates. "Don't force me to use my lasso."

----

Suddenly a voice rang out, "I can tell you Wonder-bra Woman."

Everyone turned towards the voice and found the Joker standing there, 'In the Watchtower'.

"JOKER," yelled Superman jumping towards him. "How dare you come…" trying to grab the clown, Supermanpassed right through him.

"Stupid alien, I am not here."

The Joker then turned to face Diana. "You want to know the truth princess. Well I can help you with that."

Right then the Joker's face started to change form, so did the rest of his body. Seeing the emerging form Diana let out a gasp at the familiar face.

"You"