Bruce and Lucifer had been walking in the desert for almost five hours. Bruce had offered Lucifer some of the water rations he carried in his utility belt but Lucifer brushed him off, giving him some hokum about being immortal.

It was frightening being back in the wasteland he had dreamt of. When the Monitor had told him that's where Darkseid ruled and that Darkseid was family to Stepphenwolf, Bruce did consider asking Clark and Diana to come along, but the Monitor insisted that they would only provoke a fight and that they couldn't afford to battle Darkseid, they needed to reason with him.

Bruce's legs finally buckled in the intolerable heat, he fell to his knees and onto the sand. Lucifer helped him up and held out his arms.

"What?" Bruce wheezed, trying to get his breath back

"Oh don't be coy, hop in, you're not the first chap I've carried on a long trip through a desert"

Bruce gratefully rejected the offer and continued onward. Lucifer occasionally bitched about not being able to use his wings to shorten the trip. The Monitor had warned that some forces on this Earth would react badly to seeing a man fly. Bruce unfortunately understood what he meant by that.

Eventually as time passed, Bruce and Lucifer shared their stories with each other. Lucifer spun a crazy tale about being the Devil, vacationing in LA, owning a nightclub and falling in love with an LAPD detective. With the dedication Lucifer put into it, Bruce didn't know if he was screwing with him or if he actually believed what he was saying.

Lucifer wasn't sympathetic at all to Bruce's story, labeling him a maniacal trust fund child. Lucifer asked Bruce why beating up clowns would make his parents happy, if they were looking down on him surely they would want him to move on. Bruce told him that he didn't believe in dead people looking down on the living, he "beat up clowns" because they held his city hostage twice a week. He kept being the Bat because he didn't want another child in Gotham to lose their parents to crime and become something like him.

"What do you truly desire?" Lucifer asked

Bruce tried to make a joke but the truth struggled its way up his throat and out of his mouth.

"To be in Jim Gordon's bed, no major crime, no Bat Signals, just the sun coming up and us falling asleep" Bruce blurted out

Bruce paused, he knew that an external force had made him reveal that, most likely Lucifer, but he didn't do embarrassment well while wearing the cowl, so he just kept walking.

"Aww, there's a soft squishy centre behind that fursuit"

"Mark 1:25"

Lucifer giggled "That's actually quite funny, I didn't take you to be the bible reading type"

"My dad was, I gave up believing a long time ago, the quotes still stick though"

"Wayne..." Lucifer called from behind him, probably having thought up a clever reply

"I may be hallucinating" he continued "but does that tank look like a giant Bat?"

Bruce didn't get the joke but turned to face him regardless. He followed the obnoxious faux fallen Angel's gaze to see a very familiar vehicle on the horizon.

The last time Bruce saw the aptly named Apocalypse Knight, it was a 3D printed model, sitting on Luke Fox's desk. After Bruce's nightmare, he had asked Luke to develop a tank, armed to the teeth and perfect for desert warfare. After Clark's death at the hands of Luthor's creature though, Bruce told the young engineer to scrap the vehicle. The Bruce of this universe must not have felt as shameful as he did.

During the twenty minute walk to the tank, Lucifer surprised Bruce with a tantrum, quoting the Monitor's speech about not interfering, word for word, it seemed he had been paying attention after all. Bruce reminded Lucifer that they were currently walking aimlessly in a desert, waiting for some kind of space king to pick them up. Bruce may have also implied that the Apocalypse Knight had a supply of food and water.

When they arrived at the tank, Bruce knocked three times, sharp and loud on a spot his lenses told him was a secret door. A young Latino man unbolted the door and slid it back, he guarded the entrance,nervously, scrutinising them both.

"¿quién eres tú?"

Before Bruce could answer who he was, Lucifer chimed in and stepped forward.

"Hold on, I've got this, I speak the lingo"

Bruce had a terrible feeling about letting Lucifer speak to the stranger but he wasn't quick enough to stop him.

"Hola soy El Diablo" Lucifer introduced, adding glowing eyes to no doubt scare the kid

"Parademon!" the kid yelled

Purple energy flowed from the young man's hands, creating a wall of bricks that slammed hard into Lucifer, throwing him backward onto the sand.

As the kid laid into Lucifer, someone somersaulted over Bruce and struck him in the back. Bruce gritted his teeth as he turned but as he did, a red and green blur flipped again, kicking him in the head. The cowl protected Bruce but he still felt disoriented by the blow. Whoever this was they were incredibly skilled.

Bruce grabbed an arm and caught his first glimpse at his attacker, a teenager wearing a domino mask and a hauntingly familiar bird themed costume.

"Why are you dressed up like the Bat!?" the teen bird yelled

Bruce tried to explain that he was the Bat but the teen didn't wait for an answer, activating a shock protocol on his wrist guard. Fortunately all of Bruce's costumes for the past twenty years have been insulated. Frustrated, the bird man lashed out with a barrage of attacks, each one Bruce countered.

The Bird was about to stab Bruce's leg with a shuriken when someone called out.

"Red Robin, Bunker, stop!"

The teen bird, Red Robin ceased his attack, though he kept his shuriken out and at the ready.

"Red Robin?" Lucifer cackled under a purple brick "Yum! can I get a gourmet cheese burger and a side of GET THIS SODDING BRICK OFF ME!"

Bruce turned to see a blonde haired young woman around the same age as the other two and dressed in an indigo costume. She ran to Bruce with tears in her eyes, giving him a full on hug. Bruce had no idea what to do, this must've been someone who knew the Bruce of this Earth and given her age she was likely one of his last wards.

"It's really you, isn't it?" the woman laughed "We thought that Superman killed you"

"I'm not the person you think I am" Bruce told her

Bruce's story was insane but he felt that she should know it. He also let her know about the vision he had years ago, about what happened to her Bruce.

Red Robin, Bunker and the blonde woman called Stephanie soon grieved, strangely they believed the story. Bruce supposed that the world they lived in gave them little choice but to accept such a bizarre truth.