2. Past Divisions
"Bruce" she whispered into the dark night.
'Bruce' how he loved hearing her call him out. She was one of the few people who were able to find his identity. The man behind the masks, one that he wore during the day of the shallow billionaire playboy and the other he donned at night, the one of the Bat. Not Bruce Wayne, not Batman...just Bruce.
All that changed in a single instant. A single instant, his life was full of such single instants. He lost his parents in such a single instant, lost his innocence in the same one, he lost his heart to her in another instant and then finally he lost her. 'LOSS' that was one constant in his life.
She called out again, pleading him to acknowledge her. She who never needed a man in over two thousand years, needed him, even after all this time, she craved him.
"Bruce"
He stilled and without turning to face her, spoke in a cold dead voice. "What do you want…?"
'Princess' that is what he used to call her. It was his endearment, his special name for her. Even after she was banished from her island home and lost the title, he called her that, and she liked, no loved to hear it spoken from his mouth. Even when he was angry he called her - 'Princess'. She would give anything to have him call her that, even if it was just once.
"I have come back," she whispered, knowing he would hear her. He with all his gadgets and innovations would hear her. He was a 'mortal' man who by the strength of his will and mind had managed to stand tall and walk among the gods, and gain their respect and fear.
"Why?" came the curt reply.
'Why?' A single word with so many meanings. Why did she come back now? Why not earlier? Why did she leave him? Why come back at all? Why?
She said the only thing that came out from the depth of her heart.
"For us" she answered, gaining an immediate reaction from him.
"US" he spat the words out, as if they were poison. "There isn't any 'us'….not anymore."
"Bruce…" is all she could say.
"Us ended the day you chose him over me."