Thanks for all the reviews & support! I'm still up in the air about who Bruce and Diana will tell during this story about their budding relationship. So tell me what you think now, while I'm still undecided! Girl talk, a little Martian one-on-one, bonding with the blue Boy Scout?

To see a summary of the episode, at least in part, go to Chapter 4.

Thank you to my beta, Lavender Gaia, for putting up with my constant emails, my rants, and for sharing my love of BMWW!

One Spark, Chapter 6, I Go to Extremes, by Billy Joel

Bruce's perspective…

I knew that this was one part of the mission that I had to do on my own. I had left the building where we had been held as swiftly as possible, knowing that no one would dare to follow me, but still taking no chances that one of the team members would decide to tag along. This part of the mission was one of the most critical and I knew they would need strength in numbers to rescue Shayera, but I needed to reveal a little bit of myself and find the Bat-cave. I knew that the portal would be there, in our mutual lair, and the secrets to the Bat-cave were still my own.

Both Superman and Diana had visited the Bat-cave, but neither knew of all the entrances that were available to someone seeking to enter it. Superman usually arrived by the front door as Clark Kent and Diana had only come by teleporter; each of those options was closed to me this time. I would have to find another route to enter and I couldn't count on the other Batman being out for long. He would eventually awake and head here, knowing that this was the first place that I would go seeking the portal. I couldn't be sure that he was locked up tight, that he had installed the same mercury switches on the other's shackles that prevented my escape. And I hadn't taken the time to check, knowing that every second allowed the potential for the Justice Lords to be inflicting their form of justice and brutality on our Earth.

Using one of the secret accesses that only few were privy to, I entered the Bat-cave, almost an exact replica of my own, complete with costumes and computer. But this Bat-cave had a few minor alterations, the main one being the glowing green portal located in the main area of the cave, just to the side of the main computer terminal. I could hear a soft whooshing sound emanating from it and could only imagine the detailed work and time that had gone into its conception and construction. I walked over to it and stood in front of it for just a moment, knowing that directly on the other side lay my Earth, an Earth that was right now in peril, losing its freedom and its choices. I walked to a panel just to the right of the portal, connected to the machinery, trying to get a closer look and wanting to examine the components of this monstrosity.

A batarang sliced through the air, pinning my cape just below the panel and causing me to jerk in surprise. I had known that the other Batman would find me but I had anticipated having more time. I had underestimated myself, at least, this other version of myself. I turned quickly and found myself the recipient of a fist to my jaw. Flying backwards, I landed hard on my back, watching the other Batman launch himself at me. Raising my knees, I planted my feet on his stomach and launched him behind me, but I knew that he would be back in his feet quickly. I began to realize that this was a battle that neither of us could win – we were equally matched in strength and agility, having received the same training by the same masters. The only way for one of us to walk away alive was to use the one tool that I had always relied on to formulate an escape – my brain.

I ran at him, engaging him in hand to hand combat, but again, feeling the painful sensation of a fist ramming my jaw, and I groaned as I was thrown back over a ledge into the blackness of the cave. I landed hard on feet, jarred, but still moving, turning back to peer up at the other Batman, perched on the side of the ledge form which I had plunged.

"I knew you'd come here." His voice echoed through the cave, drowning out the sound of the portal and my labored breathing. "Just like I knew you're going to…"

I let loose a batarang over the shoulder of the other Batman, into the ceiling behind him and flew through the air to gain ground, to force him to be on the side of the ledge, defending his position. But I remained hidden in the shadows, using the darkness to shield myself, trying to think, to force my brain to come up with some way of defeating this foe. But I could still hear his voice.

"What are you hiding for?"

I decided to drop back on a reliable favorite of mine when dealing with a criminal mastermind, even if in this case, the mind was practically mine. I used a version of Alfred's dry wit, one I had perfected over the years.

"I do my best work in the dark."

"I used to think that too," he stated calmly and I could almost feel his eyes boring through the darkness, searching out my location as I tracked his movements through the cave. The stalactites hung from the ceiling, pointed stakes in the darkness, and still he continued speaking. "But what have you ever accomplished from that, besides scaring a few punks half to death and putting a few more in jail."

His point was a valid one, but I refused to dwell on that right now. I needed to keep my mind calm and emotionless and I knew that he was trying to provoke me into anger, to provoke me into losing my cool, to understanding him and joining their side in this fight.

"It all adds up," I said to the darkness.

He continued walking through the cave, moving steadily closer to my location. "Not fast enough. If you really want to make a difference, if you want to change the system instead of just patching it, you can't be subtle, you've got to step into the sunlight, take over, like we did."

He paused for a second, continuing to wander through the cave and I couldn't help but listen to his words, couldn't help but think of the fight with Luthor this afternoon and his words, the futility I had felt knowing that this capture wasn't permanent, that the criminal would elude the system once again. But I forced his words from my head, and instead, placed a batarang in my hand and crept to a standing position, tracking my prey just as he was intent on doing to me.

He again began talking, trying to force the reasoning behind his decisions on me. "Think about it - a world where there's no crime, no victim, no pain…"

"And no choice," I stated, knowing that I was close to my prey and preparing to strike. I turned to see him propelling himself at me and I ducked to the side, slicing his forearm with the batarang and sending him over a ledge this time.

He landed, holding his forearm and gathering his strength again. I decided to try out my own brand of reasoning – this could work both ways.

"Who elected you anyway?"

"Who elected you?" he answered, ire clear in his tone. I continued stalking him throughout the cave, leaving the batarang ready in my hand. "The problem with democracy is it doesn't keep you very safe."

"It has other virtues," I told him calmly, determined to keep my head and my wits about him. He could strike from behind again and I didn't want to be caught unawares. I was perversely pleased that I had come alone – I alone could understand his man, his motives and his reasoning. I was this one with one difference – I still believed in reform, in justice, in choice. "But you seem to have forgotten them."

Again, the voice rose in the darkness, now laced with determination, with conviction in his beliefs, his choices.

"I didn't forget! I just chose peace and security instead."

Now my voice was filled with anger – I provided peace and security to Gotham but I managed to combine these virtues with democracy, with freedoms unavailable in this world.

"You grabbed power!" The one thing that I had stood against, the one thing that I had never sought for myself and it aggravated me to the extreme that this other version of myself thought that he was worthy of that power. I suddenly spied him, lurking on a ledge below me and raced towards him as he began to speak –

"And with that power, we made a world were no eight year old boy will ever lose his parents because of some punk with a gun."

I stopped dead in my tracks, batarang raised above my head in preparation for throwing, but instead, I dropped it, my brain racing with emotions and the understanding of why this Batman had created this world – so that he could save and protect others. Wasn't that what I was trying to do as well, albeit often ineffectually? I swallowed, hearing the batarang clang repeatedly as it hit the cave walls, finally landing on the ledge below, just behind the other Batman.

I stood up and looked him dead in the eyes, speaking brusquely, my throat closed with remembered loss – "You win."

Together, we walked up to the main computer, where a red light signaled an alert of danger in the city. He pressed a button and a screen filled with my teammates, my friends fighting to free Hawkgirl from Arkham and suddenly, I remembered what I was fighting for – for us, for choices, for the belief of the good in people. I was the cynical one of the group and the others were the ones who had the belief in the good, in the positive of people, particularly Superman. And suddenly, Diana came into view – she always believed in people, in their inherent goodness. She even believed in me, one of the only ones to do so in a long time. I kept silent, knowing that my convictions were back and hoping that somehow, I could convince this Batman that what he was doing was wrong – was against everything that the word justice stood for.

"Your friends are tearing up Arkham," he told me as I began to walk away, heading towards the Batmobile.

"Then shouldn't we stop them?" I asked him flatly, hoping that he still believed in my act, in my belief that he was correct, that this world was superior to my own. I wasn't doing this for me, I wasn't fighting in Gotham on my Earth for me – I was fighting to save lives and in some small way, for my teammates. We worked well as a team, each of us with different strengths and weaknesses and we had used them effectively countless times to stop criminals and villains. I couldn't turn my back on my friends, my teammates, or on myself.

Ensconced in the Batmobile, we raced through the streets of Gotham and I could scarcely believe that this was the same Gotham. The city was lit by the sun, the streets packed with people scurrying about their days in contentment and busyness rather than fear.

"I can't believe this is Gotham," I told the man sitting silently next to me in the passenger seat. "Where's the litter?"

"If you want people to respect the big laws," he intoned, "You have to enforce the small ones." I looked sideways at him and pulled up at a red light, stopping to let the rest of the traffic pass.

"What are you doing?" he asked me irritably.

"The small laws, remember?" I answered, looking beyond him at a restaurant situated at the corner. A patron was complaining bitterly about his bill and the poor service when the police pulled up beside us, armed in full armor and chaining the patron in handcuffs as they hauled him away in an armored van, sirens blaring. The van pulled forward into traffic and the patrons, looking at the Batmobile, immediately turned back to their meals, quiet with passiveness.

"They'd love it here, don't you think?" I asked the other Batman, who was still staring at the spot where the restaurant patron had been seized.

"Who?" he questioned, turning back to face me.

I looked him dead in the eye and said in a falsely light tone, "Mom and Dad. They'd be so proud of you." I laced my last words with venom, knowing that if he could use our dead parents against me, I too could use that knowledge to show him that he should not be proud of what he'd accomplished in this world – he should be ashamed. Our parent would have been shocked at the sterility of this world, the passiveness – they had strove to take care of everyone, to believe in the little people, in reform.

He looked forward again and in a deep, emotion-filled voice stated – "Just drive." And so, when the light turned green, I continued on to Arkham, giving my other self some time to gather his thoughts.

Arriving at Arkham Asylum, he unleashed a batarang, noticing the battalion of troops trying to stop the rest of the Justice League from leaving the area. I remained in the car, still overwhelmed, but content knowing that my own decisions had been ones that my parents would have been proud of. I could see the troops relax their guard and the other Batman leading the group, including Hawkgirl, back through the Asylum so that we could rescue our own world from his teammates.

He led us back to the Bat-cave, back to the location of the portal. I surreptitiously checked Diana, making sure that she hadn't suffered any physical harm while rescuing Hawkgirl from Arkham. Unable to find any unaccounted for marks, I looked up to meet her eyes. Although I knew that she was unable to see my eyes through the cowl, I gave her a slight nod, affirming that I was indeed unharmed. I knew that later she would seek me out, once the mission was completed, in order to truly confirm that I was in stable condition, both physically and mentally. I had a feeling that she understood that it had cost me something to go one-on-one with the other Batman, to use our parent's memories against both of us.

Of course, Flash, ego-driven, began questioning the other Batman about the loss of Flash and how it had affected his team, leaning over his shoulder as the cowled figure was typing, seated in the computer chair.

"So, without your Flash, the Justice Lords went rogue?"

"It wasn't quite that simple," he answered, turning to giving Flash a slightly exasperated look.

"Hey," said Flash, "He was the conscience of your group. And that means I must be…"

"C'mon, Jiminy," Green Lantern stated harshly, exasperation also present in the tone of his voice. He took off into the portal, still carrying Shayera in his arms, closely followed by Diana, Superman, and J'onn. Flash, for once, actually walked into the portal at a normal rate of speed for a human being. I trailed the group, stopping just in front of the glowing green light, turning back around to face the other Batman, to acknowledge him one last time. After several seconds, he gave a slight nod, a symbol of respect, and feeling justified, I turned away, striding through the portal.

Next chapter: Right Kind of Wrong – The Justice League crosses a line in order to defeat the Justice Lords.