Family
Chapter 8: Events in motion
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.
I wish to give thanks to JediKnight for betareading and general creative input.
DuBois Manor
Batman's strategy of approaching the manor by foot had been successful, as well as her idea to go first through the clearly abandoned upper levels. Buffy had been ready to launch a silver throwing knife to the vampire leader when she had felt it, the death of a Slayer and the activation of another. And just afterwards, the girl who had been prepared as the main course by the vamps, snapped the chains holding her as if they were made of tinfoil.
The head vampiress, after looking both at her and the girl with a confused expression, had turned into a bat and fled, something that set a Snake-Mayor sized alarm bell on her head.
'I thought that only Dracula could do that.' she thought, just as she dispatched the last vamps. 'I should check with Giles later.'
She ran toward the newly empowered Slayer, opened the manacles and removed them from her wrists.
"Were those...?" the girl asked.
"Vampires? Yeah, pretty much. And you have been just empowered as a Vampire Slayer." Buffy said, "There used to be only one, but recently we changed the rules." She looked around for a moment, stopping at Batman who was looking at them with an unreadable expression.
"Do you work with him?" the girl said, a bit of fear on her voice.
"I only met him today, but he doesn't seem to be bad people." Buffy said, before reaching a decision and saying, "Look, I can give you the usual song and dance about how the world is older that you know, and all that jazz that sounds way better when it is said by a stuffy and tweedy Englishman, but that bitch could be coming back with friends at any moment."
It was with some difficulty, that they managed to get out of the manor, to the Batmobile that had, upon a signal from Batman, driven in on auto-pilot from its hiding place to the front of the manor. After accommodating the girl behind the seats, she quickly fell asleep.
"Did you do something to her?" Buffy said, frowning.
"A mild anesthetic gas. On a normal person it would keep them asleep for three to five hours." Batman said, "I wouldn't normally have done it, but I needed to ask you some questions, and it might be better not to be overheard."
"She'll stay asleep for an hour tops, then." Buffy commented, as she sat on the passenger seat, "Very well, ask away."
"I was under the impression that when you, as you said, 'changed the rules', you activated every Potential Slayer in the world." Batman said.
"That was our intention, but well, the old Council fucked it up." Buffy said, with a sigh, before adding under her teeth, "Not a great surprise there." She took a deep breath before continuing her explanation, "Will had to use the spellwork they used to locate Potentials as a base for the activation spell, and it turned out that the Council had put the bar just too high in the selection. So, there is a fuckton of Potential Slayers out there, and when one of the Slayers that got activated by the spell, dies…"
"One of those unacknowledged Potentials become newly activated Slayers." Batman completed, "It is normal to have another Slayer present?."
"Not at all. "Buffy said, shaking her head, "I suspect that it's the Powers that Be feeling clever again with this crap."
"Powers that Be?" Batman asked.
"Lazy, manipulative assholes, who claim to be the Big Good, but leave the footwork of saving the world in the hands of yours truly." Buffy said, "I was the typical Cali teenager, only thinking of clothes, boys and my upcoming sweet sixteen. And then, I was thrust with that responsibility. What kind of madman would think that I was world-saving material?"
"But in the end it worked out." Batman pointed.
"Sometimes, it was more luck than anything. Other times, it was the help of my friends." Buffy said, "But at the end it was me, the girl with the power. When I thought that I had everything under control, the world threw me one curve ball after another." She then smiled weakly, "Not to speak of the effect on my love life. My first love? A vampire. My first long relationship? A wannabe Captain America with self-confidence issues. And then I died."
This prompted a raised eyebrow from Batman.
"I got better." She then winced, "That sounded straight from Monty Python, didn't it?"
Batman nodded, acknowledging the obvious.
"But it's true. Willow managed to resurrect me, but it was a one-time deal, and it had consequences." Buffy said, "I was near suicidal and very self-destructive for months afterwards, Wills had to deal with addiction problems, Xander and his fiancée broke up just as they were about to get married... I could go on and on."
"The world is never going to be fair, but we fight on regardless." Batman said, "Because every person we save, every life we protect, every children who can grow with their parents, it counts."
"If nothing we do matters, then all what matters is what we do." Buffy said, "Angel said that to me, after the sinking of Sunnydale. But enough of the heavy stuff, where are you going to leave her?"
"Leslie Thompkins, an old friend of Thomas Wayne, has a clinic on Crime Alley. She has helped me sometimes." Batman said, "She doesn't fully approve of what I do, but she helps... and there is somebody else I have to call."
G.C.P.D. HQ
Captain James Gordon was in the washroom, washing his hands, when the "new message" tone from his cellphone startled him. He quickly dried his hands and looked at it. It only said TWMC Ripper, with no detail of the sender. The Bat has probably found some clue about the Ripper. He really hoped that he was right on this, Loeb was looking for an excuse to get him out of Major Crimes, now that he was proving to be even more of a thorn in the side of the Mob in Major Crimes that he was before, as the second in command in the Robbery-Homicide division.
He quickly erased the message, knowing from past experiences that the Bat wouldn't have left a trail of what he had just done. Now, what it was TWMC? Ah, yes, Thomas Wayne Memorial Clinic, Leslie Thompkins clinic in Crime Alley.
He passed through the offices of Major Crimes to see if Harv was still there, and indeed he was there, glaring at the paperwork in his desk. But before he could say anything to his former partner, his cellphone rang. When he looked the Caller ID, it was Dr Thompkins. He suppressed a smile, the Bat was always one step further than everybody. This way he could say honestly, that he had found a lead, and given her long friendship with Leslie, it wouldn't be unusual for her to call him directly.
"Yes, Leslie?" he said, playing his part on the charade. "What can I do for you?"
"Less than five minutes ago a girl entered the ER claiming to have been a prisoner for the last six weeks, and that her captors had killed at least six other people." The doctor said in a rush.
He frowned. At first sight it didn't seem to have anything to do with the Ripper, but...
"Very well, ma'am. Detective Bullock and I will be there as soon as possible." He said.
They said goodbye, and when he cut the call Bullock was looking at him.
"So, Crime Alley again?" Bullock said, "Sometimes I wonder about you and the good doctor."
Jim rolled his eyes, good natured or not, Harv jibes about his newly found single status after his divorce still stung a little. Besides, the one time they went on a date... it just didn't work, they were better as friends.
"Sorry, Harv, but it's a business call…"
While on the way to the parking lot, Gordon explained what Doctor Thompkins had told him, keeping the call from Batman to himself. Bullock didn't like much the vigilante, although he had grudgingly recognized that he was at least doing more to fight the scum that half of the police department.
Harvey drove them, he knew more shortcuts through the twisting maze of narrow streets than most taxi drivers, helped by the police siren in the dashboard. When they arrived to Crime Alley, Jim looked to the side, where a small plaque could be seen.
"Yeah, the Waynes were good people, I wonder what they think about their son the playboy, wherever they are." Bullock said, shaking his head, "He looked like a good kid back then."
"People change." Jim said, not wanting to reminisce about those times. The Wayne's murders had been his first case in Gotham, and he still couldn't shake the feeling that there had been more to it than a mugging gone wrong.
The clinic was in front of the memorial plaque, and Doctor Leslie Thompkins, a grey-haired woman around Gordon's own age was waiting for them.
Watchers HQ. Scotland
Isabella "Izzy" Ferguson didn't look like the usual Watcher. For one, she wouldn't be caught dead wearing tweed and in fact she rocked a Goth look, she dyed her hair a vibrant red, and for other, she had treated the Potentials she had been charged with as people, not as potential tools. Of course that meant that she had been given the boot as soon as possible under Travers... and hence, that she had been one of the few veteran Watchers who had survived the bombing.
Naturally, that meant that until the kids got some experience, she was stuck manning the fort in the new HQ. And so, she was the one to answer the phone when Buffy Summers called... or at least somebody emulating the erstwhile Slayer phone.
'This girl went through phones quicker than through shoes.' She thought, shaking her head
"Bramsworth Castle School." she said, using the established cover for the Castle facilities, "Our office hours are…"
"Hey, Izzy, it's Buffy." a voice she knew well cut her, "And don't get your panties on a twist, Fergie."
Izzy couldn't avoid sighing in relief. She had used the codewords to mean that everything was well, and that nobody was listening.
"Consider my knickers unbunched, Buff." she answered, using her part of the code. "I presume that this is not a social call."
"Nope, I managed to track the Bowery Ripper, with the help of the Batman, and it turned out to be a nest of vamps playing musical draining chairs with their prisoners." Buffy said, the disgust evident in his voice, "The thing is that the last prisoner, was Called when we were just there, and you know what that means."
"I'll start to check on all our teams abroad, starting with…" she started to say, already calling the list of Slayer teams deployed.
"Please, start with Xander team in Africa, the girl said something about dreaming of the savannah just before she was carried out to be drained." Buffy said, a bit too quickly.
"You're worried?" Izzy asked.
"Yeah, well, he's got Faith and Ayesha with him, but I got a bad feeling about this." Buffy explained.
"Okay, I have been in this business long enough not to dismiss a Slayer's gut feeling." Izzy admitted.
"Thank you." Buffy said, relieved, "Ah, can you get Andrew and the rest of the Geek Squad to check on the Dubois family from Gotham? They should start with Nicholas and Dala, brother and sister, in the 1850s. I think that those two were turned, and now they are pulling an 'I'm my own granpa' for real."
"Okay, I'll call them. Anything else?"
"Not right now, but I'll call you again if I remember something." Buffy said, "If something comes up about what I asked, we can be reached on Wayne Manor."
Thomas Wayne Memorial Clinic. Crime Alley. Gotham City.
Jim Gordon walked onto a balcony that opened over an inner patio of the building. He was craving another cigarette, so he took a candy from his pocket. It did help somewhat, although he knew that when he came back to his apartment he had to apply another nicotine patch.
"Rough day, Captain Gordon?" said a gruff voice from above.
"The same as always, Batman. This city…" He said with a sigh, without looking up. "Now, I have seen enough things to know that there was something weird at work here, that the girl is keeping mum about it."
Batman silence spoke volumes.
"I thought so, and you can't tell me about it." Gordon said.
"No, I'm sorry, but I have a source that tells me that it won't repeat." Batman answered.
"I'm not happy about this, but given that Loeb and his lackey Rojas are breathing on my neck over the Ripper, I'll take what I can get." Gordon said, "Where was she kept?"
"Dubois manor." Batman said, "In the countryside. Get a SWAT team with your people, just in case."
"Okay." Gordon said. Something in the tone of the answer, and its own nature, as Gordon always questioned his suggestions, made Batman give him a closer look. His expression made it clear, to him at least, that his mind was elsewhere.
"Jim, you seem distracted." Batman said. "Something wrong?"
"No, why do you ask?" Jim said
"You haven't even asked why you would need the SWAT team, for example." Batman said
Jim unwrapped another candy before he answered the question.
"Sorry, when I was coming here I got a call from Chicago" Gordon said, "Barbara is coming back to Gotham."
"Barbara, your niece and adopted daughter, not your ex-wife, I presume." Batman said, unsurprisingly well-informed about Gordon family situation, and prompting a nod from Gordon. "I thought she was sixteen."
"She is sixteen." Gordon remarked "I always knew she was smarter than anyone else that I know, except possibly you, but it turns out that she is a certified genius. She has managed to skip a couple courses in High School in Chicago, and is coming back here to study something to do with computers." He then removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes, "Frankly, I don't know what has possessed her to come back here, to the madness of this city."
"Maybe because you're here. She and your ex never really got along, if I remember correctly." Batman said, and added when Jim looked at him inquisitively, "There were a few very public altercations. Add to that the body language when both of them were together, and it's easy to read between lines."
Jim nodded, acknowledging his point. It had been clear since she was a kid that Babs had fully inherited the Gordon temper, and Barbara's own problematic character hadn't helped things along, precisely.
"I don't have much family left, Batman. Barbara's parents, Roger and Thelma died in a car crash, my sister Jess is an alcoholic, and she has a son that I have never met." Jim said, "I would prefer to know that Barbara and James Jr. are safely away, than to have any of them here in danger." he paused for a moment before continuing, "But what can I do?."
TO BE CONTINUED...