A/N - This may have ended up slightly crackier than intended. Bruce became very... Bruce.
Livin' On A Prayer
"Don't do that," Batman growled in her ear.
"Do what?" Hal said, half turning towards him.
"Start regretting this before you've even left my bed," he sighed.
"Geez, Spooky," Hal said, pushing herself up to a sitting position. "I don't regret this," she said, meeting his eyes. "I just never wanted to be another notch on your bedpost," she muttered, looking down at her hands.
"Hal," Batman said in shock, pushing himself upright to face her. "Is that what you think this was?"
"I don't know, Spooky," Hal said quietly, flicking sad eyes up to him "You tell me."
"Hal, I'm in love with you," Spooky said. Warm hands cupped her face. "And I think you love me, too." Hal stared at him as gentle thumbs traced her cheekbones.
"I do," she stuttered out.
"Good," Spooky said, looking damn satisfied. "So no more notches. Only Hal."
"Only Hal," she repeated numbly, into his kiss.
Bruce thought about that night every time he lifted his eyes up to the empty sky.
"Where are you, baby?" he whispered helplessly to the smog-covered Gotham stars. "Come home," he pleaded.
There was no answer. No green glow floating towards him. No blinding demonstrations of power by Parallax. No Hal.
She'd killed almost all of her fellow Green Lanterns in her explosive grief after Coastal City was destroyed by the villain Mongul, attempting to use the combined power of their rings to reconstruct her home. Only Ganthet had escaped alive, telling a horrific story of the entity the Guardians had imprisoned in the Central Power Battery on Oa, which Sinestro had manipulated to attach itself to Hal.
Diana and J'onn had led a team to Oa to try to stop Hal before she destroyed the battery and succumbed entirely to Parallax - but they were helpless against her might and frankly lucky to escape alive.
Bruce should have been there, he whispered to himself. Hal wouldn't have hurt him, his mind insisted. He could have gotten through to her. But Superman had conspired with Alfred and together they had kept Batman firmly on Earth.
"We can't lose you, too, Bruce," Clark had sighed in the face of Bruce's kryptoniteless rage. "You're too in love with her to act rationally and I refuse to let you get yourself killed."
"So you'll sacrifice Hal, instead?" Bruce had snarled at him. "I can bring her back." Clark and Alfred had exchanged knowing looks that only pissed Bruce off more.
He hadn't talked to Clark since. One more loss, but one that didn't cut him nearly as deeply as losing Hal.
Who wasn't completely lost! his very rational brain insisted. The rest of the Justice League was mourning Hal as if she was dead. The new Lantern, Kyle Rayner, had taken her place on the team. Everyone was moving on, while his baby was out there, alone in the universe and abandoned to a malevolent parasite.
Abandoned by everyone except Bruce. He would get her back. He swore it. He'd been hounding Rayner non-stop, interrogating his ring's database for hours on end while the Lantern painted or napped or watched him with pitying eyes. Parallax had to have a weakness, and Bruce would find it. The Guardians hadn't kept any files on their most feared enemy - Ganthet had explained that they had believed absolute secrecy their best protection - but Bruce refused to give up.
"Come home, baby," Bruce begged the starless sky. "Whatever you've done, I still love you. Just come back to me. Please."
He heard the hum first, a slight vibration that could have been a freeze ray charging. But when he whirled around, batarang in hand, it was a tiny violet sphere of light that confronted him.
"For Hearts Long Lost And Full of Fright," a richly elegant female voice intoned, "For Those Alone In Blackest Night, Accept Our Ring and Join Our Fight - Love Conquers All - With Violet Light!"
Bruce gasped and stretched his hand out, fingers spread wide.
"I accept," he rasped in disbelief. The violet ring slid onto his finger, washing him in a wave of vibrations. His entire body shimmered and power rippled through him, a violet light engulfing him while his ring glowed.
"Love and rage are required to power your ring," the disembodied female voice spoke in his ear. "Follow your heart, Star Sapphire. It will guide you."
"Hal," Bruce said immediately, holding his hand up towards the night sky - and it was as if a slack rubber band suddenly snapped to life, a tight tether pulling him, connecting him to - "Hal," Bruce breathed out.
Across the universe, a powerful pair of green eyes had suddenly swiveled and was looking straight at him. Maybe another man would have been terrified. Batman was overjoyed.
"I'm coming, baby," he swore, barely noticing that he'd constructed a purple sphere around his body and was already flying up, up, so much higher than he'd ever grappled, until he was breaking the Earth's atmosphere and surging through star-filled space.
And Hal was rushing to meet him. Well, Parallax was, but Hal was in there, Bruce knew she was - so there was no cause for alarm. He was Batman. He could kick anybody's ass. Parallax was the one who should be alarmed.
"Tell me what my violet powers are," Batman ordered his ring as he flew through outer space, fast, faster than any spacecraft could move, galaxies rushing by in blurry relief as he ran to his love.
Parallax tipped her head slightly to observe the glowing violet Bat when he approached. She even raised her ring aggressively towards him, stretching her arm straight out - but she simply held it there, not attacking.
"Hal," Bruce rasped, tears streaming down his face when he finally, finally stood before the woman who'd been missing for over a year. "Baby. I came for you," he croaked out. "As soon as I had a way."
"Perhaps I shouldn't have killed that Star Sapphire," Hal said thoughtfully, staring at the orphaned ring's new wielder who was floating before her. Her face was impassive and cold with power and her eyes were nearly flat - but not quite.
"Come home with me," Bruce begged her.
"You're the only reason I haven't come home," Hal said, reverberations and echoes of absolute might resonating from her voice like ocean waves. "We would have destroyed Earth long ago if I wasn't so attached to you, Spooky," she said, her strident tone softening the barest bit on his two favorite syllables in the universe.
"I can help you now," Bruce said firmly.
"Spooky," Hal repeated, her voice faltering. "Don't try. Please. I don't want to kill you." She sounded almost human at the end, almost like Hal. A smile creased Batman's face, the smile that only Hal ever got to see.
"You could never kill me," Bruce said affectionately.
"I can and I will," Hal said, closing her eyes as if in pain, "unless you turn around and go back to Earth. Leave me be, Bruce," she said shortly. Her extended arm didn't shake. Her ring was pointed directly at Batman's chest.
"I love you," Bruce growled, raising his own arm inside the safety of his violet bubble, "and I'll be damned if I leave you in the clutches of a monster."
There was no warning when Parallax struck. Blinding force struck Batman's energy shield. He felt the blow, felt it jar his teeth together, rattle his bones.
"How -?" Hal's voice was angrier, harsher now. Parallax had taken back full control, if Bruce was guessing. Didn't matter. The unimaginable power that had wiped out the entire Green Lantern Corps would never, could never harm Batman - not when that power was wielded by Hal - and not when Batman was a Star Sapphire.
"Love Conquers All," Bruce roared, "with Violet Light!"
Parallax's scream was cut off as quickly as it began. Hal stared at Bruce, her mouth frozen open, her body completely encased in a violet crystal.
"Don't worry, baby," Bruce said reassuringly. "This will work. We're going home." Hal couldn't answer, couldn't move - and maybe Bruce was imagining it, but he thought he saw a flicker of hope in her eyes.
"Bruce!" Clark cried, jumping to his feet as soon as Bruce flew back into the BatCave. "Bruce…?" Clark gaped at the once-Dark Knight, who was now glowing violet. "… Hal?" Clark whispered, taking in the violet crystal that BatStar was towing behind him.
"Get the fuck out of my cave," Bruce spat. "How the fuck did you even get in here? I locked you out."
"You have me to thank, Master Bruce," Alfred said dryly. "When your trackers went offline and you were nowhere to be found in Gotham, I called for assistance."
"And disabled the Cave security?" Bruce glared. "Completely irresponsible, Alfred."
"Irresponsible!" Clark barked in disbelief. "You disappeared without a word to anyone!"
"I was hardly even gone that long," Bruce scoffed.
"Not have been blessed a psychic, that fact is hardly reassuring, Master Bruce," Alfred said severely.
"I had to go get Hal," Bruce said, turning his back in annoyance on Alfred and Clark both as he flew her through the cave to his high-security metaproof cell. He didn't know if it would hold a non-crystallized Hal, let alone Parallax, but according to his ring, Hal shouldn't emerge from the crystal until her transformation was complete anyway, so it was really just a precaution.
"How did you become a Star Sapphire?" Clark asked him softly, flying up next to him.
"I told you to leave," Bruce said rudely, fussing around the cell to making sure the audio speakers were adjusted to a loud enough volume so that Hal could hear the music he'd pipe in for her, the godawful 80s hair bands that she used to belt out every chance she got at Karaoke.
She always picked Karaoke when it was her turn to choose date night and Bruce always brought earplugs - although he popped them out when it was Hal's turn to sing, every single time. Not because she could sing, but because she was so damn adorable screeching the lyrics at the top of her lungs.
"Bruce," Clark pleaded.
"Kal-el," Bruce snapped. "We're not friends. Get out. Alfred?" he yelled across the cave. "If you've surrendered my kryptonite to this asshole, consider yourself fired."
"Not surrendered, Master Bruce," Alfred sighed wearily, making his way over to him. "Merely put away in lead storage."
"Unput it," Bruce rudely ordered. He pulled his gauntlet off and pressed his bare hand to the glowing crystal containing his Hal. "I got you, baby," he promised her. "Everything's going to be fine, now. You'll see."
He heard the rustle of Clark's cape behind him and grunted in satisfaction when he turned and saw his former best friend flying out of his cave.
"I won't let anybody keep me from you ever again," Bruce swore to Hal. "I promise."
"He's what and he did what?" Kyle gaped at Superman.
"Batman has become a Star Sapphire, and he's got Hal - Parallax - encased in some type of violet crystal prison."
"Oh, my God," Kyle breathed out. "It's not a prison, Superman," he said. "It's a cocoon. It'll turn Hal's ring violet. Ganthet said Parallax is the yellow impurity," Kyle said, gathering steam, "Yellow draws its power from fear. Only the Green Lanterns are susceptible to yellow power. Violet rings aren't. Ganthet said that's why the Guardians only chose those with the strongest willpower to be Green Lanterns, because they had to be able to resist fear."
Superman stared at him.
"So, hypothetically, if Hal's ring turns violet, she'll be able to resist Parallax? Even expel it from her body?" he asked Kyle.
"Yeah!" Kyle said. "Of course, we'll have to figure out how to contain Parallax again when she does. I'll call Ganthet. I think we're gonna need to rebuild the Central Power Battery. It was a good enough prison for the parasite until the Guardians put Sinestro in there, too. So if it's just for Parallax, it should hold."
"The Guardians are dead, though," Clark frowned. "Does your ring have blueprints for the battery?" Kyle grinned as he projected the plans onto the wall.
"Batman," J'onn said when the now Violet Knight floated into the conference room for the first time since receiving his ring. Batman barely spared a glance for the Martian Manhunter, however, and flew straight to Shayera. Hawkgirl had been especially subdued over the last year, since they'd lost John. Even more withdrawn than she'd been after the Thanagarian invasion.
No matter.
Batman was a Star Sapphire now.
"Look at you," Shayera said, actually sounding a little amused when BatStar stopped right in front of her. "Heard you got Hal back," she smiled.
"Not just Hal," BatStar said, turning to face the conference room door. Shayera gasped.
"John -" she whispered, flapping her wings and rising up into the air when a beaming Green Lantern appeared. Hawkgirl was about to fly to her grinning lover, when she froze and gripped Batman's arm with a menacing scowl. "Is he a construct?" she demanded. "Like Hal's Coast City?"
"Shayera!" John protested, pouting in offense.
"No," BatStar smirked. "Violet rings can bring back the recently deceased by drawing power from the hearts of those who love them."
"A year ago is hardly recent," Diana commented as Shayera flew straight into John's arms like a rocket, bowling him backwards through the air.
"I'm Batman," Bruce said calmly, as if no other explanation was needed.
Diana supposed that one wasn't.
Kyle stared at the group of Green Lanterns crowding into the doorway of his Watchtower quarters.
"We heard you had a battery to build," Kilowag grinned. "Thought you could use a little help."
"Holy crap," Kyle said in awe.
"I know Shayera loved John," Clark said, seating himself rudely at Batman's otherwise empty table in the commissary and starting a conversation like he wasn't a filthy backstabbing traitor. "But who on earth - or off - did you find who loved the other Corps members? The non-human Green Lanterns prided themselves on divesting their emotions and letting go of social connections."
Well. It wasn't any of Clark's business, but it would drive his point home a little more, Batman thought to himself smugly.
"Hal," he said calmly, before taking a sip of his coffee.
"Hal," Clark said in confusion. "Isn't she still in the crystal?"
"Yes," said Batman. Clark stared at him.
"Parallax is still bonded to her," he said slowly. "And we don't even know if she's conscious inside the crystal. How …?"
"I'm Batman," Bruce snapped, standing and whirling away from the treacherous scumbag in disdain. Clark was left with mouth open like a goldfish.
"It's your turn for date night," Bruce said amiably to his crystal-encased Hal, "so karaoke it is."
He gave his frozen girl a dashing smile as he took the microphone in hand from the portable karaoke machine he'd bought, looking damn fine if he did say so himself, in his violet button down shirt, unbuttoned just enough to be sinfully delicious, which he'd paired with Hal's favorite pair of his tight black slacks that showed off his ass - and his package - to maximum effect.
"Once upon a time," Bruce began, "not so long ago."
"Don't do that," Batman growled in her ear, six months later.
"Do what?" Hal said, half turning towards him in bed.
"Keep beating yourself up for what you did as Parallax," he said softly, tightening his arms around her waist. "It wasn't your fault." Hal sighed.
"I killed all of them, Spooky," she said.
"Well, the Guardians should have known better than to imprison Sinestro in the same battery as Parallax," Bruce said matter-of-factly. "Damned idiotic of them. And if no one in the entire universe loved them, well, that's their fault, too. I could've brought them back if they weren't so unlikeable."
"I love you," Hal said, giving him a half-smile. A half-smile that Bruce managed to turn into a full one after kissing her breathless for several minutes.
"I love you, too," Bruce said into his girl's finally smiling face.
"Love conquers all," Hal murmured contentedly, rolling all the way over so she could snuggle against his chest.
"With violet light," Spooky said with deep satisfaction, admiring how his ring shone against Hal's dark hair.
"You ever going to talk to Clark again?" Hal asked him.
"No," said Bruce.
The End
A/N - Thanks for reading! Comments are always much appreciated.
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