A/N Thanks for all the great reviews, I'll try not to make the fic too dark.

Chapter 3

Knight Becomes Woman pt2

Gotham Opera House

Kendra and her parent's sat silently in a gilded house packed to the rafters for Boito's Mefistofle. She was wearing a nice pink summer dress, that she squirmed in as she saw witch- like creatures cavorting like dark birds on stage.

Their violent motions seemed to trigger horrifying images of bats exploding out of a dark cave, in her mind, making her breathe heavier. In her minds eye she could see and hear the screeching and the flapping of the bats as they swarmed all around her.

"Honey are you okay?" Thomas asked as he noticed her ragged breathing.

"Can...can we go?" she asked as she calmed down a bit and met his gaze.He stared at her for a second and then over at his wife, who was looking over at them to see what was going on, before he stood to his feet.

They then made their way along the row, Thomas nodding apologies, even as they emerged from a side exit. Letting the cool night air hit her body, Martha crouched before Kendra, trying to meet her eyes, but she stared down, ashamed.

"Kendra, what's wrong?"

"She's fine." Thomas answered for her, making Martha look up at him curiously. Seeing the look he was giving her, she knew what it was all about. "I just needed a bit of air. Bit of opera goes a long way, right, babe?" he asked as he looked down at Kendra and winked. She just smiled back at him gratefully, wondering why this all seemed so familiar.

"Oh no." she said aloud as she remembered why.

"Come on." Thomas said as he saw that she had stopped walking behind them. Coat over his arm, he ushered his family down the dark alley, heading for the welcoming glow of the main boulevard. Suddenly a figure emerged from the shadows in front of them.

Kendra could already see the gun, but what was wierd was that the man's face seemed to be obscured by the darkness of the night.

"Wallet, jewelry! Fast!" the mugger shouted out in a voice that sounded familiar to Kendra.

"That's fine, just take it easy." Thomas said as calmly as he could as he handed Kendra his coat and reached for his wallet.

Nervously the mugger jerked the gun at Thomas, eyes darting wildly. Kendra then stared up at the gun trembling in the man's hand, before looking up at her father who seemed to be as calm and as in control as possible.

"Here you go." Thomas said handing him the wallet. The man grabbed at the wallet but fumbled it with sweaty hands making it fall. The mugger then glanced down at the wallet then back to Thomas, scared.

"It's fine, it's fine..." as Thomas was saying that the man crouched for the wallet, never taking his eyes off of him. "...just take it and go." Picking up the wallet, the mugger looked at Martha, or more importantly her pearls.

"I said jewelry!" he barked out, making her immediately start to pull off her rings. Seeing her fast movement, scared him making him jerk his gun up at her neck. Angered Thomas stepped protectively in front of his wife.

"Hey, just..." BOOM.

The loud retort from the muggers handgun made Kendra flinch involuntarily. Thomas looked down at his bleeding chest, then back to the man, saddened. As he crumbled to the ground his last thoughts, before darkness claimed him, was of his beautiful little girl Kendra and of his loving wife.

Martha screamed desperately for her fallen husband, ignoring the mugger even as he started to yank at her pearls.

"Gimme the damn..." but Martha flailed even more instead, trying to grab her fallen husband. With shaky hands the man shot her, then yanked at her necklace, which broke spilling pearls all over the asphalt.

Taking a step back at what he had done, he looked down at Kendra, who was staring up at him, her little jaw inadvertently twitching with rage. A loud clap of thunder rolled across the sky and her eyes started to become like steel, visible fury shooting forth from them in an almost demonic fashion. The man's gun hand suddenly started to tremble, and incredibly, the savage face of hers started to unnerve him.

"Stop...lookin' at me like that, kid..." he screamed out as he pointed his gun at her. "Stop looking at me like that!" Suddenly another flash of lightning tore through the sky and Kendra was finally able to see his face.

"Bruce?" she said lowly as she struggled to see his face through the rain that began to fall in sheets. Hearing his name Bruce ran up to the street, disappearing into the rain-swept darkness.

Saddened little Kendra looked down at the bodies of her parents and dropped to her knees, with her head down. Finally she understood what Bruce was feeling inside for all those years.

"Bruce it wasn't your fault." she whispered into the wind as she started to shiver. Opening her tear streaked eyes she saw a few dots of bloody pearls beneath her that littered the ground.

"What's the matter with her?" Alfred urgently asked as Kendra and then Bruce started to violently shake on the little cots in the Batcave.

"They are experiencing a violent memory from Batman's past." J'onn told him, from the head of the bed as he put his hands on both of their foreheads.

"Well can't you wake them up?"

"Not without killing them both." the martian informed him. "The magic that's on them is very powerful. If Kendra doesn't awaken soon, I fear that both of them will perish."

Kendra sat up off of the cold ground in a Batwoman suit, groaning from some injuries she had recieved. Now she knew first hand all the trials and pain her father went through during his life. After watching his parents get killed, she woke up exhausted, hungry, and freezing at the foothills of the himalayan mountains.

She remembered a blue flower clutched in her hands and something in the back of her mind telling her that she had to climb the mountain. When she arrived on the top of it, she recieved the most grilling training she had ever had in her life. Even as a little girl she was always fascinated with ninjas, but to actually become one and to go through what Bruce had to, to get there...

After she was trained she witnessed a gangster type falling in a vat of chemicals before she flash forwarded to another part of Bruce's life when he was at the circus. She was enjoying the act, the flying Grayson's until the highwire snapped and all of the Grayson's plummeted to their death. All of them but one. Dick Grayson. When she took him in as her own, everytime she looked into his eyes she would see a little twinkling of Bruce in him. And that's what made her train him.

Before she was able to see him don his Robin suit for the first time, she woke up here. And looking around, she saw that she was in a dissolate place with a huge roaring fire in the distance. And as she walked closer to the fire she was able to determine that the fire was caused by a huge explosion. Walking through some of the burning wreckage, she heard a man softly sobbing to himself. Turning down a corner, she saw a man dressed all in black cradling a dead body in his arms.

"You shouldn't be here." a voice said behind Kendra, startling her.

"Bruce?" she asked as she turned around and saw him looking past her.

"I want you to go home Kendra. You don't need to be here."

"Bruce I came for you. J'onn said if I don't get you out of here soon dat you could die."

"Then finally it's my time." he replied with a sad smile. "My trials are finally over and I can rest."

Kendra was a bit taken aback by his response and she looked at him hard. He did look tired. The Bruce from her dimension was always warm and in control, but this one seemed to barely be able to hold on to his sanity. Even though she didn't see everything he went through in life, from her journey in his mind, she could only guess at some of the things that happened to him that made him this way. She hated to admit it, but under all the body armour and anger that drived him, she could see it in his eyes now that he was still that same scared little boy that witnessed his parents being murdered.

"Bruce, I know how you feel." before he could respond she continued. "But all dose tings you went through were to make you stronger. If you weren't the way you are den de world would have been destroyed a hundred times over."

"Nonsense, there are hundreds of superheroes out there..."

"And only one of dem is called Batman." Kendra replied as she reached up and made him look at her. "I don't know how long I've been in your mind but, I finally understand you and Bruce none of dose tings were your fault. Your parents, Dick's parents, were both killed by the bad guys not you. And if it wasn't for de Batman helping and saving people den tink of all of de other little boys who couldn't get to have a normal life because of you."

"But what about him?" Bruce asked as he looked over her shoulder. Following his line of vision Kendra saw Batman lifting up a boy with a charred and shredded Robin suit. Just looking at Batman's posture she already knew that the boy was quite dead.

"You tell me who killed him Bruce." Kendra dared him to answer. "Because de way I see it, Jason would have died long before this if it wasn't for you."

As she said that a swirling blue vortex formed behind them.

"Now are you coming home with me or do I have to drag you back?"

"You know you're very stubborn?" Bruce asked with a wirey smile.

"I get dat alot." she replied as she held out her hand. Taking it hesitantly and not looking back they walked into the vortex together.

Batcave

Sametime

Both Kendra and Bruce took in a large amount of air as they came back into conciousness. Still holding onto each others hands they let go of each other and sat up in their cot's.

"Master Bruce are you alright?" Alfred asked as he handed him a glass of water.

"I'll live, I just need rest."

"It looks like my work here is done." J'onn said as he started to phase out of the cave. "You know how to reach me if you need..."

"Actually, I do need you to do something for me." Bruce interrupted J'onn before he could leave. "I still have a mission to complete and my guess is that my daughter would kick my ass if I try to go on it."

"We still haven't figured out who killed dat man and why." Kendra pointed out as she excepted some water from Alfred.

"Actually, I already have. Before we arrived at the hotel, I did a search on the batmobile's computer to see who owned it and how the guy who was killed was connected to it."

"And?" Kendra asked.

"And, I found out that the hotel was recently bought out by the crime boss Rupert Thorne. And the man that was killed, Timothy Johnson, was on the police witness protection program because he witnessed some of Thorne's men killing someone."

"So Thorne sent a hit team to take him out." Kendra figured. "But what about de woman?"

"She was someone Timothy trusted and that was his mistake because she worked for Thorne. It was a setup the whole time. After she found out where Timothy was hiding out, she informed Thorne and his goons took it from there."

"Now de only problem is finding where Thorne is so we can bring him down."

"He's at the docks." Bruce said as he dug into his utility belt and handed her a book of matches. "I took that from the crime scene and analyzed it in the car. It had traces of salt water and over two different kinds of drugs on it. If my guess is right then he's shipping drugs in and out of the city."

"So where do I come into play in this?" J'onn finally spoke up. Bruce just looked at him slyly, leaving the martian to believe that he never should have asked that question.

Gotham Docks

Thorne's Warehouse

"How is the new shipment of drugs coming along?" a fat bulbous man with thinning hair wearing a pin-striped suit, said as he stared out of the window of the two story factory.

"The boy's just have a few more crates to load on the boat boss." one of his flunkies commented. "All they have to do now is..."

"Mr. Thorne...Mr. Thorne!" a goon yelled out as he burst through the double doors.

"What is it? Is it the police?" Rupert Thorne asked. He already had alot of them on the payroll, so it wouldn't be such a big deal.

"No boss it's worse. It's the..." he was cut off as the skylight above them exploded sending a torrent of glass showering down on them. Looking up through the newly made hole, Thorne saw the Batman as he landed effortlessly on his desk.

"You!" Thorne growled as he attempted to grab his machine gun. Before he picked it up, Batman pimp slapped him across the face, before vaulting over the desk. Already hearing guns being pulled out behind him, he threw two batarangs that plunged through the hands of his would be attackers.

Before they had time to even scream, Batman was on them in a flurry of punches and kicks that sent them to the ground unconcious. Part of his work done, he slowly stalked back towards one of Gothams worst crime bosses.

"You're, you're too late." Thorne said from his position on the floor as he wiped some blood from the corner of his mouth. "By the time you make it down to the docks the shipment of drugs will already be on the boat and headed for international waters."

"It's being taken care of." Batman replied as he took out some handcuffs and twirled them around his finger.

Meanwhile Outside

A thug handed a box to a second goon, who walked away along a corridor of containers heading towards a ship. Taking the last box, the first thug turned back to the darkness of the open container, reached in and was yanked into the darkness with and echoing cry.

Hearing the noise, the second thug turned and stared uneasily down the deserted corridor to the black mouth of the open container...

"West?" not getting a reply he put his box down and drew his gun, just as another thug came around the corner.

"Come on man, we gotta..." seeing that the second man had drawn his gun, he immediately took out his own. Not even knowing what they were looking for, both of them moved cautiously towards the open container.

As they peered into the blackness of the open container, behind them, a lamp hanging above the corridor suddenly shattered. Thorne's thugs turned, startled, to see another lamp shatter and go dark- then another and another, darkness itself was advancing towards them. As the closest lamp shattered, a glint of metal dropped to the ground. Nervously one of them bent down picked it up, and saw a bat shaped boomerang. Looking up confused, he saw that his friend was staring nervously up at something.

"What?" he asked as he looked up himself and saw a dark shape squatting down on top of a truck. "What the hell.."

The shadow flipped off of the truck and engulfed the thug that spoke in darkness. Not staying to see what was going on the other man bolted, racing between containers. Arms pumping he sprinted headlong down the narrow corridor, skidded around a corner, and was sideswiped and sent spinning off his feet into the darkness with a piercing scream.

Outside of the stacks some more of Thorne's men reacted to the scream, drew their guns and advanced towards the containers. As the lead man made it to the mouth of the virtual maze, he whipped around a corner to see one of his men scared out of his wits covering the other end of the corridor. Giving him a nod, he stepped backwards, and didn't sense the movement in the shadow behind him. The beautiful figure of Slayer X in her tight two toned form fitting outfit, dropped down behind him and wrapped her arm around the thug's neck, yanking him backwards into the shadows.

The man who was supposed to be covering him, saw him dissappear and opened fire, strobing the stacks, revealing indistinct glimpses of movement. Hearing the gunshots, a gang of them came running and saw him firing blindly at strobing shadows. Trying to see what he was shooting at they saw glimpses of a figure jumping from dark spot to dark spot. Emptying his clip, he looked up at the others as he fumbled around for another

"It's the Batman!"

"No, I'm the Slayer." a whispered voice said in his ear. Turning he saw Slayer X's face, upside down at his shoulder. Before he could let out a scream, she dropped down upon him.

After knocking him out, she looked up to find five thugs, various weapons in hand,

in a loose defensive ring, surrounding her.

"Will you look at that boys." an almost giant of a man said as he slapped his bat in the palm of his hand, while advancing on her. "Don't she look pretty."

"Yeah, let's show her what we do to pretty girls down in the narrows." another one of them said as he looked at the Slayer's sexy form and gave her a smile. To his surprise she smiled back.

"Alright babe, why don't you..." the leader was cut off as she flipped over his head and kicked him in the small of the back. Before he went down, she already had her hand out and chopped him on the back of his neck.

Seeing his boss go down, the other goon who spoke ran forward with his knife only for her to kick it out of his hand and snap kick him in the stomach. Using her Slayer speed, she flipped out of the way as another man brought his revolver up and opened fire hitting the man standing behind her.

As the blood exploded out of the man's chest, it hit the man that shot him in the face, at the same time the Slayer did. Unhooking a small cylinder from the side of her utility belt, Slayer X hit the asp on the side of it making it extend into a six foot long fighting staff.

Seeing her spin the staff expertly in her hands, the three thugs left standing gave each other a look and then ran off into the night. With a shake of her head and a grin the Slayer hit the asp again, making the staff retract back into a small cylinder. Putting it back on her utility belt she bent down to pick up a batarang when she suddenly felt the barrel of a shotgun on the back of her head.

"Who the fuck are you supposed to be?"

"My partner." a dark voice answered behind him. Turning, the last thing he saw before he was knocked unconcious was Batman, cape billowing around him. "I thought I told you to watch your surroundings?"

"I was." the Slayer informed him innocently as she opened her hands revealing two shotgun cartridges.

"Batman has trained you well." J'onn said as he morphed from being Batman into his regular form. "Maybe you should reconsider leaving our dimension and joining the Justice League."

"I'll tink about it." she said as the heavens opened up and it started to lightly sprinkle.

"Come on." J'onn said as he heard police sirens in the distance. "I'll take you home."

"One ting keep's bothering me." Slayer said as they started to walk towards the batmobile.

"What is it?" the martian asked.

"Five bodybuilders were accounted for, so who was de sixth?"

If the two had of stayed any longer they would have seen a heavily bandaged man, with a brown trench coat, standing on a roof watching them. And at his side was the hulking figure of Bane, the sixth member of Thorne's hush mob.

"So there's a new bird of prey." Bane commented as he eyed Kendra's retreating form. He had to admit from what he witnessed of her fight she was pretty good.

"As I told you she would be." Cloak said reading his thoughts as she materialized behind them. "Now come on we have much to do." having seen enough they faded back into the shadows.

Wayne Manor

As Bruce and Kendra walked out of the room that led to the Batcave and out into the main hall, Alfred walked over to them.

"Sir, It was finalized today that Miss Kendra is now legally your daughter." he stated as he presented him with some paperwork. Even though Kendra was seventeen and only going to be in his universe for a few months, Bruce still thought it appropriate to get a few things forged and adopt her to avoid suspision.

But he had to admit to himself that it was kind of nice having a daughter. He had never had a daughter before, but Kendra seemed to keep his mind off of the darkness and gloom and helped him to see that even in Gotham, he could see the beauty in life. Which was something that he seemed to have forgotten about, in his long struggle to rid Gotham of crime. As Bruce Wayne he would always go through the motions and smile at people he generally didn't like, just to keep up a show for people. But just by having her around, looking up at him as if he was her real blood father, expecting love and a need to be helped made him feel good inside. So when he did see those same people again, the smile he gave them would be genuine.

And that was something that he never felt with Dick. With him they seemed to only have one thing that kept them together and that was how their family died. They would always love each other, but that father and son connection was seldomly there. And that was part of the reason he felt that he kept pushing Dick Grayson further and further away from him.

He promised himself that he would return the favor, because he knew that Kendra still felt that by being the Slayer was the only thing that made her important. But by just spending some time with her, he saw why his double took Kendra in and made her his daughter.

As he looked up at her and gave her an encouraging smile, he suddenly frowned as he saw something over her shoulder.

"No..." Bruce groaned out as he took a step back.

"Master Bruce, what's wrong?" Alfred asked as he and Kendra shared a look.

"Jason." he whispered out. With a smile the ghostly form of Jason Todd nodded at Kendra with approval and finally dissappeared, never to return again.

"Bruce are you alright?" Kendra asked as she touched her father's forehead. He didn't have a fever, but for some reason he looked sickly.

"I'm...I'm fine." Bruce replied as he shook her hand off of him. "Now come on, I think we still have a movie marathon to watch." as soon as those words came out of his mouth a beep sounded from his pocket.

"What's dat?" Kendra asked as he produced a black beeper looking device out of his pocket.

"It's a device that let's me know when the batsignal is activated." Bruce explained as she jerked it out of his hands.

"Den get de popcorn ready. I'll be back in a few." she said as she ran out of the room and back into the batcave.

"She reminds me a lot of you when you were that age, sir." Alfred whispered into Bruce's ear, causing him to smile.

"Yeah...yeah she does." Bruce replied not knowing that soon all of their lives were gonna change for the worse.

A/N In the next chapter Batman is gonna do something he swore he'd never do. And finally Kendra will leave to go to Sunnydale because of it.

TBC...

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