16. Trust Issues
"Its time"
Batman looked at the people sitting on the table, a fine mixture of the past and the present, humans and metas, science and magic. He had the perfect group to carry out his plan.
"I am not going to thank you for coming here because none of you have anywhere else to go or anything better to do," he began bluntly. "We are what remains of the League, Lords, Resistance or whatever groups you were associated with or want to associate yourself with. Before I begin, I want to be sure of your complete trust."
"Of course…." Flash began but was silenced a cold look from Batman.
"Let. Me. Finish."
"I want your complete trust," he repeated. "This is not going to be a democratic group like the ones in the past. Here what I say goes. That doesn't mean that your opinions will not be heard or taken into account. You can always put up a point or bring to light any shortcoming you feel we have. However, the last decision will be mine and mine alone. This authority is mainly for wartime situations. The stakes are high and we have too much invested into this to have any of you screw it up, just because you decided to improvise and ddin't follow orders."
Although Batman didn't name any names it was clear that he was mainly talking to Diana and Wally. He also did not mention a very important name, that of his wife, Shayera Hol Wayne.
"So before I go any further, I want to be sure that I can trust you. ALL of you," he ended with those three words.
"Any questions?'
-----
Flash raised his hand. "Yes Flash," Batman turned to him.
"Uhn…you said that you will reveal your plan once you are sure that you have our complete trust. Right?" Batman just gave a single nod.
"Ok," Flash scratched his chin. "So how do you propose to confirm that you can trust us completely and vice versa? I don't think that you will take out word for it."
"No I won't," Batman lips slightly curved in a smirk before regaining their usual tightness. "I propose using a combination of four things, one, my lie detector," he pointed towards a small machine lying on a trolley next to the projector screen. "Two, J'onn's telepathy, three, Zatanna's truth spell and four," he turned to Diana. "If Wonder Woman agrees…..her lasso of truth."
Diana's eyes widened at Batman's request. He was asking to use her lasso to check for the truth of their words. So great was her shock that she didn't hear Batman call her a second time. It wasn't until Zatanna elbowed her tightly that she came out of her shock.
"Huh…what…yes, of course," she babbled, her hands reaching to unclasp the lasso from her belt.
"Thank you," Batman said, their fingers touching for the briefest of time, their simple touch sending a current right to her heart. It was as if a circuit had been completed making her whole once again.
Batman felt the same familiar tug. The last time he had felt like that was when his wife was alive and before her it was with Diana herself. However, his control let him maintain an indifferent visage, unlike Diana who seemed visibly shaken up.
----
Once everything was in place, Batman turned to Zatanna and J'onn asking them to come and sit on the two of three empty chairs next to the lie detector.
"Batgirl," he gestured his daughter to come and be the first to go through the process.
As soon as she was seated, Zatanna cast her truth spell over her, J'onn began to monitor her mind and Batman wrapped the lasso around her wrist, holding its other end in his own hand.
"Your real name?" Batman began with a simple question.
"Cassandra Cain."
"Your age?"
"Thirty years, nine months and seventeen days," she answered confidently.
"Have you ever killed anyone?"
"Yes."
"Have you ever killed a human being?"
"…………"
"Have you ever killed a human being?" Batman repeated himself.
"Yes…" she sighed.
"How many human beings have you killed?"
"One"
"How old were you when you killed that human being?"
"Eight years old," she lowered her head
"What was the sex of the person you killed?"
"Male."
"Very well," Batman took a deep breath and changed his line of questioning. "Are you ready to follow my orders?"
"Yes"
"Will you agree to act as I say; when I say and how I say to do a particular thing….in the time of war?"
"Yes," she nodded her head. "In the time of war."
"Will you betray any of your teammates or those assigned over or under you?"
"No"
"Are you ready to give your life in order to achieve the final goal?"
"Yes"
Then he asked his final two questions, the simplest but most important ones.
"Can I trust you?"
"Yes"
"Do you trust me?"
"Yes"
"J'onn? Zatanna?" he turned to the husband-wife duo.
"Nothing to report," Zatanna gave a good-natured two-finger salute.
"She was speaking what she believes as the truth," J'onn answered in his calm, emotionless voice.
Checking the lie detector for any discrepancies revealed that she had passed Batman's personal test too. At his gesture, Zatanna cast a negating spell to her truth spell, leaving Batgirl free to get up and make way for the next person to be tested – Flash.
Flash was done soon enough with Zatanna and J'onn following him in that specific order. The only difference with them being that while Zatanna was being tested, her magical spell wasn't available and with J'onn there was no telepathic monitoring.
----
The next person in the hot-seat was Batman himself, with Diana holding the lasso and voicing the questions.
"Your real name?" Diana followed Batman's line of questioning.
"Bruce Wayne"
"Your true age?"
"Fifty years, one months and nine days," he answered evenly.
"Have you ever killed anyone?"
"Yes."
"Have you ever killed a human being?"
"No"
"Have you ever taken a human life?" Diana repeated her previous question, wording it differently.
"No" the second time around, the answer was just as confident and just as emotionless.
"How many human beings have you killed?" she tried again.
"None….zero"
"What is your daughter's name?"
"Which one?" Diana seemed surprised by his answer. "I have two daughters," he clarified.
"What is your elder daughter's name?"
"Cassandra Cain," Batgirl gave a small smile at his answer. The way he answered that question, filled her heart with love, her respect for him increasing even further.
"What is your younger daughter's name?"
"Shaye Diana Wayne"
Diana was shocked at the revelation of Shaye's complete name. Bruce and Diana had given her name as the middle name of their daughter. That piece of information brought tears in her eyes.
"Diana," J'onn looked up at her, noting the sudden change in her emotional balance. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," she answered in a slightly choked voice. Clearing her throat, she spoke in a louder tone. "Yes, J'onn"
"Do you want anyone else to take over from you?" he offered.
"No," Diana shook her head. "I will continue."
Nodding his head, J'onn resumed his monitoring of Batman.
"Can we trust you?" Diana started again.
"Yes," his answer was just as flat as ever.
"Do you trust us?"
"Yes"
"Can I trust you?" she worded the question specifically referring to herself.
"Yes"
"Do you trust me?" she involuntarily held her breath waiting for his answer.
"Yes…" Batman sighed at his answer.
"Did you trust me sixteen years ago?" Both Flash and Zatanna raised eyebrows at her question. Batgirl was as detached as her mentor-father.
"Yes," Batman answered evenly.
"Did you trust me before the final vote?"
"Yes"
"Did you trust me after the final vote?" she pushed further.
"Yes," Batman seemed to be unaffected, with only J'onn privy to the emotional storm rising within him.
"Did you know which way I was going to vote?" Diana asked the all-important question.
"Yes," his answer didn't surprise her, only confirmed what Shayera had told her all those years ago.
Diana, please do not push him further J'onn sounded in her head.
I just have two more questions she replied telepathically.
"Do you trust me not to betray you or any of your teammates and-or subordinates?"
"Yes," his answer brought relief to her heart, but at the same time added to the guilt of her 'betrayal' of him all those years ago.
"Why do you trust me?"
"You never lie," his answer brought more confusion than relief.
"You mean I always tell the truth?"
"No…You never lie," he repeated his words. Taking off the lie detector sensor he ended the line of questioning.
----
"Your real name?" Batman began with the same question he had asked of Batgirl and Diana had asked of him.
"Diana."
"Your age?"
"Don't remember….more than two thousand years"
"Your mother's name?"
"Hippolyta"
"Have you ever killed anyone?"
"Yes."
"Have you ever killed a human being?"
"Yes"
"How many human beings have you killed?"
"I don't have a count," Diana lowered her head. She wasn't ashamed of the killing she had done in war or in defending earth or Themiscyra. What ashamed her was the deaths which had been caused due to her vote, for which she blamed herself.
"Are you ready to follow my orders?"
"Yes"
"Will you agree to act as I say; when I say and how I say to do a particular thing….in the time of war?"
"Yes"
"Will you betray any of your teammates or those assigned over or under you?"
"No"
"Are you ready to give your life in order to achieve the final goal?"
"Yes"
"Will you disobey my orders, if following those orders will complete the mission but cause in loss of innocent life or the life of any of your teammates?"
"………."
"Answer the question," Batman stressed. "Will you disobey my orders, if following those orders will complete the mission but cause in loss of innocent life or the life of any of your teammates?"
"Yes," Diana answered in a steeled voice.
Batman had asked that particular question for a special reason. He wanted to be sure that Diana was the same as she had been all those years ago and that the value for life held the same position of importance as it had done in the past.
The final two questions, he asked more as a formality rather than as a deciding factor.
"Can I trust you?"
"Yes"
"Do you trust me?"
"Yes"
"J'onn? Zatanna?"
"Pass," Zatanna negated her spell.
"She was speaking what she believes as the truth," J'onn repeated his ambiguous answer.
----
Once everyone had resettled in his or her chair around the table, Batman handed each one of them a file folder, instructing them not to open it just yet.
"Inside those folders are your duty rosters for the next four weeks. You will follow them to the word. What isn't in them is what I am going to explain to you now."
"What?" asked flash, his fingers dancing on the file folder bearing his insignia.
"The plan to retake our planet"
Note: The next chapter(s) (2 of 'em) of 'Symmetry' will also be posted today. R&R please!