Family
Chapter 2: Gotham Blues
Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.
Spoilers: to the end of season 7 of Buffy (I'm not including the season 8+ comics in this continuity), general spoilers for Batman and mild spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1.
Author Note: the version of the Batman that will appear here draws from several versions.
Gotham City
A few hours afterwards
It seemed that Ororo's weather prediction had been right on the money, as black clouds were covering the entire sky now, except for a small sliver of blue sky toward the west. Gotham was a foreboding presence a few miles ahead, as the light from the sunset, filtered as it was through the cloud layer, and combined with the architectural style of the city, gave the entire city a nightmarish appearance.
"God, who designed the city? Dracula?" Buffy said, clutching the wheel as if it was going to fall off.
"Yeah, that Neo-Gothic style is a bit too much." Dawn said, with a frown. "I don't like this place. It's... I don't know, but it gives me the creeps."
"You too?" Buffy said, "Well, the sooner we end this, the sooner we can go back to New York. Where it was that lawyer office?"
"O'Neill Boulevard, 1986." Dawn said, entering the address in the navigator.
After a couple false turns, they arrived to the place. It was a twenty-story tall office building, a small tower of brick and concrete, with the lower floors covered by ugly gray stone. It was built in the same over-the-top style as most of the city, with gargoyles and battlements and buttresses and more gargoyles and more buttresses and more battlements.
At least it had a parking lot, with a guard at the entry. She asked for their IDs before letting them enter, indicating them the best place to park, and also told them how to go to the lawyer office, in the thirteenth floor. They managed to park just in front of the VIP parking,
Just after they got out of the car, a Rolls-Royce came and parked in front of them. The chauffeur was an older man with a thin moustache, who opened the door for the occupant, a tall, broad-shouldered, black-haired young man, wearing an expensive suit, who barely looked at them as they climbed the stairs toward the entry of the building.
Not all that surprising they kept going the same way, including taking the same elevator. Once inside, the sisters had time to look at them. The younger one looked familiar, but...
"You're Bruce Wayne." Buffy said, kicking herself internally. 'Of course he would have to be here, it's his father's will.'
"Indeed I am, miss..." Bruce said with a charming smile
"Summers, Buffy Summers." Buffy said "This is my sister Dawn, and I think we're cousins."
"Ah, yes. You are the daughters of Aunt Joyce." Bruce said. "My condolences for your loss."
"If I may..." said the other man, speaking with a British accent that made her think of Giles.
"Oh, sorry." Bruce said, with a bit of chagrin in his expression "This is Alfred Pennyworth, the beleaguered family butler and chauffeur."
"Miss Summers, if I bit belated, I offer my own condolences for her passing. Your mother was a most extraordinary woman." Alfred said kindly.
"I don't remember her, but I know that it's always a tragedy for anybody to see the death of their parents." Bruce said, an undecipherable expression in his face.
"Oh, yes." Buffy said, her sympathy going to the young man "You were there, weren't you?"
"Yes, I was eight years old at the time." He said, his eyes hardening and his voice lowering one octave. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "It's still a painful memory, Miss Summers."
"Call me Buffy. We're family, after all." She said with a smile, trying to dispel the somber mood, just as they arrived to their floor.
They were quickly ushered into the office of the lawyer, a Mister Cobblepott, who turned out to be a kindly old man, with thinning white hair and a big beak of a nose. He shook Bruce's hand, and talked to him a bit before they sat down.
Once they were sitting, he started by explaining a few things to Buffy and Dawn. He was the executor of the will of Thomas Wayne. Thomas, roughly a year before his death, had added a codicil to his will to be read at the latest when Dawn became 16. Basically, Thomas and Martha had set aside a significant part of both the Wayne and Kane fortunes in a trust fund for both of them, as well as a respectable amount of shares on Wayne Enterprises. The reason came in a letter that Buffy and Dawn recognized as written by her mother.
Buffy, Dawn. I sent this letter to add to the ones written by Thomas and Martha, just before the operation to extirpate the brain tumor. If you're reading this… I'm sorry that I haven't been for you these year, and that I couldn't tell you this in person.
You probably already know part of this, given that Dawn is so much of a snoop...
This made Dawn blush.
...but I'll start from the beginning, anyway. I started to study for my degree in Fine Art in Gotham U, your grandfather's old alma mater. It was there where I met Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane, who were already a couple back then. But what few people know, and probably Bruce doesn't knows, was that how wild they were in their college years.
"Actually, I have heard rumors." Bruce acknowledged, when Buffy looked at him.
One night, after a particularly wild party, I awakened in the same bed with Thomas and Martha. And it was the next day when Thomas' father, Patrick, had a 'talk' with me. I won't repeat what the old bastard threatened me with, but he forced me to leave Gotham without even the opportunity to say goodbye to Thomas and Martha. I got transferred to UCLA, but not a couple months afterward I discovered that I was pregnant. Yes, Buffy, you and Bruce are half-siblings.
"What?" Buffy and Dawn said at the same time. Bruce looked lost in thought.
"There is documentation to support that claim and others made in the document. Blood type work and DNA analysis for both of you." Cobblepott said, and then looked at Bruce "The Waynes and Ms. Summers were quite thorough in that regard."
"Both of us? When..." Buffy said "Oh, now I remember. Dawn was almost two when we came to Gotham to some art thing that mom had been hired to manage."
"The Gotham Fine Arts Exposition?" asked Bruce, suddenly interested.
"It could be. I was, like, eight at the time." Buffy said, with a shrug. "Didn't we meet back then? I vaguely remember a dark manor and a spoiled brat..." she said before she could stop herself. "Sorry."
"Don't be. I was a bit of a holy terror back then." Bruce said with a chuckle, before he said, thoughtfully "I gather that it was then when all those analysis were done?"
"Well, now that I think about it, I remember that we went to a doctor here, a kind woman with gray hair, and we got blood extracted..." Buffy said, trying to remember. "It's the only thing that I can remember from back then that fits. Of course we could repeat the analysis, if you have..."
"I think we should, not because I have any doubt…" Bruce said with a wave of his hand "...but because I have relatives that would dispute it. Mostly in the Kane side." He continued, with a frown and pursed lips. "But before that, we should see the rest of the documents."
Joyce letter continued, detailing how she had met Hank, and how his cheating on her had put them on the brink of divorce when Buffy was around five. A chance meeting with the Waynes, led to Joyce crying on their shoulder, a lot of alcohol and history repeating itself.
"And that's why the analysis were done. Mom probably wasn't sure if my father was Hank or not." Dawn commented, and then he said to Bruce. "You don't seem all that surprised."
"As I said I heard rumors about their reputation in their youth, and although they were very discreet, I have pieced that they shared their bed a few times afterwards with a few old friends." Bruce said, with a bit of a grimace, as if he didn't want to think about it. "And they were notably lightweights with alcohol."
The letter continued with Joyce, Martha and Thomas deciding to wait a bit before telling Hank, but Thomas and Martha deaths screwed those plans. Joyce and Mr. Cobblepott decided to wait until Dawn was sixteen, to reveal everything. She glossed over the intervening years, including the divorce and the move to Sunnydale, and the letter ended with Joyce explaining that when she learned about the tumor, she contacted Mister Cobblepott and arranged to have this letter added to the documents.
The other letters, by Bruce parents, were shorter and full of good wishes, as well as an apology for not being there. Mister Cobblepott excused himself for a moment, as he received a call on his mobile phone.
"I can get somebody of my full confidence to make the analysis tomorrow." Bruce said, "I'll call later to tell you the time. And I think we all need time to digest today's news."
"Yes, I think we need it." Buffy said, as Mister Cobblepott returned to the office. She offered her hand to Bruce and said, "It has been a pleasure to meet you… brother."
"I'd say the same… sisters." He said with a smile.
As they got to the door, they noticed that Mister Cobblepott had taken his coat.
"My nephew got into a mess," said the man, as an explanation, and added under his breath "Oswald is going to be the death of me some day."
While they were walking back to the elevator, the lawyer went to a side corridor, probably to another elevator. They made small talk on the way down, and they got out of the building, Bruce looked up, to the very dark sky.
"Do you have a place to stay tonight?" Bruce asked.
"Well, not really." Buffy said with a shrug "Our funds had been quite low, so a friend of us found us a cheap hotel, but they don't make reservations."
"Really cheap, if they don't make reservations." commented Bruce "Where it is?"
"Park Row, I think." Buffy said, and stopped when she saw Bruce wince. "I presume that it's a bad place?"
"It's better known in Gotham as the Crime Alley." Bruce said, his tone flat.
"Oh, crap." Buffy said, remembering where she had heard that name. "Sorry, I didn't know."
Bruce didn't say anything for a moment, before taking a deep breath.
"You couldn't know." Bruce said "Hell, even most Gothamites, those who live outside the Bowery at least, have never heard that the Crime Alley is really named Park Row." He then thought for a moment "Alfred, the keys to the penthouse?"
"In the usual place, Master Bruce." Alfred said.
"Thank you." he said, rummaging for a moment in the back seat of the Rolls, before appearing with a keycard in his hand. "The Wayne Tower..." he said, pointing to a skyscraper in the center of the city "...has a penthouse that I barely use. This keycard allows you access to my private parking, elevator, and obviously the penthouse itself."
For a moment, Buffy stood there, dumbfounded. Dawn on the other hand, frowned, for once more familiar with gossip magazines than her sister.
"Oh, your infamous bachelor pad." Dawn said, "I hope you don't expect us to clean..."
"Yes, I've used it occasionally in that capacity, but the service personnel clean it afterwards." Bruce said with a chuckle "You'll find it completely clean."
"O...okay." Buff said, still regaining her wits "Very generous."
"The least I can do for family." Bruce said "See you tomorrow."
Buffy nodded, and then they said goodbye to each other. As the Rolls sped through the streets of Gotham, Bruce seemed lost in thought.
"That was awfully generous of you, Master Bruce."
"Not so generous. Buffy Summer may play to be an air-headed Valley Girl, but she's anything but that." Bruce said, his voice dropping to the growling tones of his alter ego.
"She really seemed unusually alert for somebody without military training." Alfred said. "As well as somewhat uncomfortable for some reason."
"Yes, she was. That alertness, coupled with some of the things that I have gotten about her, worries me." Bruce said. "Then there is the data about the city where she lived, Sunnydale."
"What does data says?"
"Do you know what was one the leading cause of death in Sunnydale?" Bruce said.
"I would say the usual causes, but by your tone, I assume that it is something unusual." Alfred said
"Very unusual." Bruce said "Barbecue accident, specifically being stabbed in the neck with a barbecue fork, followed by a lethal blood loss."
"Seriously?" Alfred said, looking at Bruce through the rear view mirror. "You know what that sounds like."
"Vampires." Bruce said, nodding. "I had a couple run with those... creatures in my years in Asia..."
"So did I, back when I was in the SAS." Alfred commented. "I presume that Ms. Summers years in Sunnydale had some effect there."
"Yes, it had some effect." Bruce said "Just after she moved into Sunnydale, the deaths with that cause started to drop, as well of other unusual causes of death."
"A vampire hunter, then?" Alfred said.
"Possibly." Bruce said. "But she is very young for that."
"Master Bruce, she is only two weeks younger than you." Alfred pointed.
"Touche, Alfred." Bruce conceded. "Maybe a tragedy happened, either in Los Angeles or in Sunnydale, and she have been fighting the supernatural since then."
"It's a possibility. After all, it's not like she has something in the family that go out every night to fight the world's evils." Alfred said, before thinking about something "Master Bruce, do some of Ms. Summers associates hails from Britain?"
"A Rupert Giles, the former high school librarian..." Bruce said "Wait a moment, I saw something when I was checking her background."
Bruce used the remote access to the computer in the cave to review the dossier he had on Buffy Summers and her closer associates.
"He apparently was a curator in the British Museum, before he renounced and went to become a high school librarian in an small town in California." Bruce said, reading from the screen. "That's highly suspicious."
"Yes. And it segues into the reason why I asked you that." Alfred said "Back when I was in the SAS, we were called to provide support for a raid on Scotland."
"And who was raiding what?"
"I asked 'who', and the answer was 'need to know'." Alfred explained "About the 'what', vampires, a big nest of them. Afterwards I made some question, and by the answers I got, and the things I observed I gathered that there is an organization in Britain that fight against supernatural threats."
"Could Ms. Summer have been trained by that organization?" Bruce asked.
"Possibly?" Alfred said "We cleared those ruins of vampires with their soldiers, bloody good people at that, and then their bosses did some ceremony to cleanse the place. Bloody tossers."
"They didn't impress you."
"Not at all. The U.S. Army would have called them REMFs, and justifiably so."
"Interesting. But even if Buffy was trained by that organization, Gotham's supernatural element is very thin on the ground." Bruce said, musing aloud "And if it isn't, there are bigger fish to fry at the moment." Bruce said, as they entered the underground parking of one of the office building of Wayne Enterprises, temporarily closed by reforms.
Alfred used a keycard to access a walled area of the parking that didn't appear on the building blueprints, where a sleek black car was waiting. Bruce was already removing his clothes a wearing the black and gray outfit he wore as Gotham's Dark Knight, Batman.
TO BE CONTINUED…