It's nearing the end of the Christmas and New Years season for the Justice League and an archaeologist makes and astounding discovery.

Chapter 2: The Triangle of Light

Tim had gotten back to the Batmobile, and was sulking slightly as he'd not agreed with being sent away. He felt that he could've helped Batman against Bane in some fashion and wasn't comfortable with the thought of his mentor taking Bane on alone again after how badly things had ended the last time. At first when he'd climbed into the Batmobile he just sat there slumping in the passenger seat with his arms folded across his chest. He knew that Dick and Barbara were both patrolling in Bludhaven, and even if he were to reach out to them, the fight would be over well before they could reach Bruce. Calling the Justice League was not an option either, but that was because of Tim being well aware of Bruce's policy on Meta's inside his city. It was then that he noticed a red light flashing on the dashboard. He leaned forward, curious as to what the light was indicating, and pressed the button under the flashing light. A screen powered on to reveal the biometrics readouts from the sensors laced into the Batsuit. He glanced over the numbers, but not being a medical expert yet, Tim didn't know if anything was at a critical level. He could only assume that the indicator light flashing was a bad thing.

Breathe. That thought was stringing its way through Bruce's mind as he'd let Bane get too close and now had the beast of a man's hand wrapped around his throat, slowly choking the life from him. When Bane had first latched onto Batman's neck, the natural reaction was to bring his own hands up to try and pry Bane's hand away. "Umm, Batman." Bruce heard the slightly nervous tone of Tim from his communicator. "There are alarms going off in the Batmobile. I know how you feel about asking for help but…."

"No." Batman ground out to the surprise of Bane. The large man was also surprised to see Batman stand more firmly on his own two feet before he forcefully struck with a kick to Bane's forward leg. The kick directly hit in Bane's knee, almost buckling it. Batman then pulled out a razor edged batarang and stabbed Bane in the arm just before he engaged the Batsuit's electro charged security system, sending all of the voltage into Bane's body. The current surged for almost ten seconds, and when it stopped, Bane had lost control of his motor functions long enough for Batman to get free of the chokehold. Just as Bane regained control of his body, he saw a batarang being thrown by the Dark Knight. It seemed to fly in slow motion as it flew passed him before curving around and coming back where it struck him in his back. He began to chuckle as he didn't feel a thing from the little toy. That was up until the moment where Batman flipped over his next attempt at connecting with a punch aimed at Batman's head, and upon landing he grabbed the batarang. Bane then knew that the throw was just a step in Batman's planned attack as he pulled violently, ripping the venom tube in half. The effects were almost immediate as the masked man felt his strength dwindling rapidly. Unfortunately for him, he wouldn't feel much more though as he was punched directly in the face with a powerful overhand left that caused the world to go black around him.

"Bane's down." Batman stated. "Bring the cuffs from behind the backseat that are designed for Meta's. We've got a New Year's gift for Commissioner Gordon."

~~ Watchtower ~~

Diana was trying her best not to be distracted by what had actually not taken place earlier on this day. In the two months since she'd convinced him to train together with her, Bruce had only missed their training/sparring sessions on one occasion, and at that time, he'd called in to inform her that something had come up. She knew that there would be times where he simply wouldn't be able to make it up to train, but she'd hoped that he would at least make contact at some point to let her know that he was alright at the very least. With the Justice League running on a skeleton crew during the holiday season, training with Bruce served as a great distraction for her that helped make the days go by faster. Each session had become easier for her to handle dealing with the effects of the dream as well, and she didn't want that progress to be lost. It'd been so very awkward at times around Bruce, and she truly hoped that he hadn't picked up on it, but since he was Batman, that wasn't going to be very likely. Still though even if he did notice, he never once brought it up and never shied away from training with her. Diana had also made quite a bit of progress in picking up some moves that she could implement into her own fighting style. She'd also discovered that her appetite for expanding that knowledge base was voracious to say the least and seemingly never sated.

With Shayera currently offering assistance in an off-world conflict and Batman a no show for his scheduled monitor duty, J'onn and Diana had chosen to swap back and forth between the two of them on Monitor Duty shifts. J'onn had willingly set up the schedule so that Diana could have her training session with Batman while he covered what otherwise would've been Shayera's shift before Batman took over. That left her in her current situation. She had noticed how Gotham City was making the rounds on the news reports for criminal activity, but nothing reached a level where League involvement would be deemed necessary. Not quite half way into the first hour though, an alarm sounded to inform the Watchtower personnel that a guest was arriving. She moved over to the internal security feed to see who had come aboard only to find that it was the man that'd been on her mind. She watched the video feed for a moment or so longer than necessary, but as she started to look away she happened to notice how Batman was ever so slightly holding his arm protectively as though he'd been injured.

It hadn't been but a few minutes later and the door to the Monitor Womb slid open, granting Batman access. He marched over to the monitoring area where Diana had been standing. She was watching him intently as she focused on validating if her initial assumption was accurate about his health. He certainly was doing well in hiding any sign of injury by this point, so Diana decided that another tactic may be more successful. "You're late." She commented.

"It couldn't be helped." Batman responded. "I'd have called, but with the holiday, Gotham was more active than normal."

"I hope it wasn't very difficult." She replied. "I saw some of the reports as they came in."

"Nothing I couldn't handle." He answered. "I'll take over my shift from this point on. J'onn and you have covered enough already. You can head back to your quarters to get some rest."

Diana was about to accept that she had just been seeing things until she placed a hand on his arm as she moved passed him to make her exit. His grimace was minimal, but she still caught it. She came to an abrupt stop placing her hands on her hips and gave him a disapproving glare. "It looks like the night was slightly more difficult than you're letting on Batman." She suggested as she reached up and gave a small squeeze to that same arm. "Want to tell me what happened or should I use my lasso to get the truth?"

"Just a hairline fracture." Batman answered quickly, but when Diana frowned and began to reach for the lasso, he knew he should just get it out of the way and be done with it. He sighed as he knew of the argument to come. "Bane decided to show himself and I stopped him. He pushed me into a wall once during the scuffle. End of story."

"Tell me you didn't take on Bane by yourself." Diana half pleaded, but one look at Batman told her that he'd be lying if he did. "Br… Batman…what were you thinking? After the last time Bane confronted you, he left you nearly paralyzed."

"I was ready for him this time." Batman fired back. "He's taken care of, and my arm's fine. It'll be back to 100% in a week or two."

"You are just infuriating sometimes!" Diana yelled. "Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness. It's a sign of trust. You took an unnecessary risk."

"That risk was MY decision Diana." Batman yelled back. "Gotham is my city and I'm not going to change it regardless of whom I'm up against. So unless you have something else to inform me about with Monitor Duty, this conversation is over."

Diana huffed at Batman's dismissal of her concerns. She stormed out of the Monitor Womb in the direction of nowhere in particular. She needed some time to cool down before she'd be able to settle in and get some sleep for the night now. His lack of trust to allow even her to help him against someone that had come so very close to taking his life angered her to no end, but why? As she paced through the various corridors of the Watchtower she thought back to how things had been just two short years ago. Back then she hadn't thought very much of Batman or what he even brought to the table aside from his arrogance. Then she'd met another part of him in Bruce Wayne, even though at the time she didn't realize Bruce and Batman were one in the same. He'd done well in hiding the two at first, but that was until Bane had left him critically injured. By then he'd also shown her that Batman was much more than just an arrogant mortal man, but still came off as a combination of pompous and pretentious in her opinion. It wasn't until she'd come to terms with the secret that he'd kept from her where her respect and appreciation for Batman grew. She'd already liked Bruce as he seemed so very different towards her than the tabloids had portrayed him as being.

It was when that a thought came to her, and she'd realized she hadn't been with Bruce as anything other than Batman at all in the last year. Before his injury, they had been planning on spending some time together on horseback around the Manor grounds before ending the day with a picnic. After her dream, she'd been almost frightened to allow herself to get in that type of situation where it was just the two of them in a non training setting. She hadn't been sure of herself until after her multiple trips back to Themyscira for her self imposed training of her mental strength. Until now, the thought of getting together for what Bruce and she'd been planning simply had not crossed her mind.

Now Diana wondered if that was something that had been on Bruce's mind all this time. They hadn't really discussed much about her discovery over him hiding his secret identity from her while she had built relationships with both sides of the coin that is Bruce Wayne and Batman. She recalled how when she'd demanded an explanation that Bruce said how he didn't know why he'd continued seeing her as Bruce Wayne when he did admit that anything after the Charity gala was not his initial intention. When he told her then that he didn't know why he'd continued seeing her as Bruce, she saw from the look in his eyes that he was being honest with her. He really didn't know why, but he kept calling her, finding ways to see her in that setting of Bruce and Diana instead of just Batman and Wonder Woman like it'd been the first year they'd known each other. She came to a stop from wandering throughout the corridors and found that she was standing in front of a door. Glancing at the code on the wall told her that she'd returned to the very place where she began to wander around aimlessly to begin with. With a deep steadying breath, she readied herself for what she believed would be a conversation more along the lines of a battle of wits. Especially with all the time that had passed, giving Bruce ample opportunity to prepare himself should he have thought it possible that she'd approach him about this topic in any way.

Diana placed her hand on the entry access panel, and the doors slid open admitting her access, but also informing Batman of her presence. She walked into the Monitor Womb and saw Batman typing in various commands on the console as he scanned the numerous screens. Batman always seemed to be the busiest individual when on Monitor Duty. Most everyone else spent their time casually watching and waiting while others like the Flash always had something such as a deck of playing cards to keep his mind occupied. Sometimes she wanted to sneak up on him just to see if he was actually busy working or if perhaps he'd been playing a video game instead, but always shut it down before any witnesses could steal a peek. This wasn't one of those times though as she was certain he heard the swoosh of the doors, and while she wasn't stomping, there was still a soft click of her heels as she approached. "Forget something princess?" Batman asked before she even got up close to him.

"Actually yes, I believe I have forgotten something." She replied. "In fact it's something that seemed to have slipped my mind for quite some time now."

Batman didn't move in any direction to indicate that he was actually listening to what she had to say, but then again she knew who she was dealing with and thusly knew better than to believe that for one second he wasn't listening intently. Instead she continued walking up to him until she reached the console of the monitors and took over the controls for a few moments as she typed in a few commands. When she was finished, she turned and leaned against the console so that she was now facing him. He stared seemingly blankly at her with the lenses of the cowl revealing nothing. "Need to discuss something in private?" He asked.

"Yes." She answered simply with a small smile on her face.

"You've already shut down the audio recording in the Monitor Womb." Batman commented. "What's so important?"

"It's about you." She answered, and saw the tell tale signs of him readying the Bat inside for any conflict that would require his attention. "No, no, it's not about Batman. It's about you, Bruce." She said quietly as she placed a hand on his chest to emphasize her point. "After that night, when I discovered that Batman and Bruce Wayne were one in the same, and when you healed, I realized that we never did get back to the plans that we'd agreed upon. I know that I was angry with you at first, but enough time's gone by now that I've long since forgiven any betrayal that I felt, and still yet neither of us has attempted to finish what we started."

"It's alright princess." Batman responded. "There's no need to feel obligated to such a thing. We both know how busy our lives have been, and stepping back after what Ra's tried to do seems to have given us both an opportunity to reassess our missions."

"So it wasn't that you weren't attempting contact to me as Bruce to continue with our friendship outside of the League?" Diana questioned.

"Bruce Wayne is the type of person that doesn't typically take no for an answer, at least not the first time." Batman explained. "Even dealing with an angry Amazon wouldn't have stopped him from trying to reach out again."

"Oh." Diana replied in a more somber tone. Batman knew that he'd hurt her with his words. It was easily detected from the look on her face. He instantly felt bad about that even though he knew it was for the best. He was well aware of her leaving for Themyscira on numerous occasions for some type of training, and he'd trained his mind during that time as well. He had to build himself up so that he wouldn't try reaching out to Diana again. He didn't want to hurt her anymore than he already had. Even though his words stung just now, it would be like a small prick of a needle compared to what would happen if he allowed her to get any closer.

Still though, as Diana turned to walk out of the Monitor Womb, Bruce didn't want to see her hurt at all from him, even slightly. Before he knew it, he was on his feet and chasing after her. "Diana wait…please." He blurted out, causing her to turn and face him once again. "That doesn't mean that I don't still want for us to remain friends Princess."

Diana didn't know how to respond to that. First he'd basically said that Bruce wasn't interested enough to put forth the effort of calling her, and then he says that he still wants to remain friends. And she was taken by surprise from what he was doing at that very moment as Bruce leaned in closer and closer to her. All her thoughts about her dream came rushing to her at that moment, and she instantly became afraid of what was about to happen. She found though that she couldn't seem to move as his lips came ever closer. She then felt a gloved hand gently grab her by the chin as he turned her head ever so slightly and placed a kiss on her cheek. "Happy New Year." He said before standing up straight once again, and turning to return to the Monitors he'd left unattended.

Diana stood there in shock. The Batman had kissed her. Albeit on the cheek, but still he'd kissed her. It took a few moments to find her voice, but when she did she needed to know. "What was that for?"

"Typically it's done at the stroke of midnight on New Years, and not on the cheek." Batman explained. "I thought I'd show you that I was serious about wanting to remain friends. I've grown to trust you Princess, and that's not something that's easily accomplished with me. I'd hate to lose that with you."

"Oh." Diana responded, but this time it wasn't of disappointment. Rather it was a tone of understanding and acceptance. Friendship built on trust was perfect. There'd be no need to worry herself about the dream, and she'd already found that there were some men on this planet worthy of friendship to an Amazon. She was still slightly shocked by the gesture though, and turned to leave without saying another word.

~~ North Africa ~~

The expedition had been going on for days now with very little in the way of progress to keep everyone with a positive attitude. Arnold's interns had been somewhat helpful, but one had stood out among the three. John Samuelson remained eager and energetic no matter the progress or lack thereof that had been made. John seemed relentless in this pursuit as he was always the first one up to begin the day, and the last one to return. Usually he was begging to continue on in the search so it wasn't surprising when John was the one to discover a faded symbol of the All Seeing Eye stamped onto a pillar underneath one of the buildings they'd been searching through. All around the pillar, there was nothing else to indicate a map or a clue as to where to look next. So instead they focused their efforts on the pillar itself. It took a few hours, but eventually they located a band that was strapped around near the top. It took some effort, but they were able to remove the band, and underneath it was the payoff they'd been looking for. They soon came to find that the massive pillar was hollowed out on the inside and filled with bags. As John had been the one to locate the symbol, Arnold chose to reward the young man by permitting him to look inside first. The opening was just large enough that a grown man could crawl through, and there were grooves cut into the inside wall of the pillar that John figured was designed as a makeshift ladder. Still though he chose to tether himself in the event that he were to slip and fall. He came to a stop about half way down as the bags had been filled to that point. Using a flashlight to see, John opened up the first sack to find that it was filled with gold bullion. Also in that first bag was a rectangular piece of gold that contained what appeared to be inscriptions on it that included the All Seeing Eye. He tied the bag back up and untied the tether from himself before tying the top three bags to it and instructing his co-workers to heave the bags out.

Arnold was the first to open the bags outside of the pillar as the rest went back to work on retrieving the rest of what had been stashed away. In total there were twenty-three bags that were hoisted out before they pulled John back out to join the group. Arnold and the second intern, Chrissie Levenson were both working diligently as they inventoried every single piece that was removed from the bags. They'd gotten through the first four when John rejoined them and helped speed the process. With all the pieces of bullion, it took them a few more hours, and by the time they'd finished, they had counted 690 pieces of the rectangular shapes chunks of gold the size of a dollar bill that had been cut in half. The bullion may have taken the longest to inventory, but it certainly wasn't what had piqued all of their interests. That happened to be what appeared to be a large eye shaped medallion made of gold and silver. The craftsmanship of this circled piece seemed to be unparalleled for someone of that time to have forged. If not for the manner in which they'd found the medallion, one could've easily made the case that it was something created by machinery in recent times rather than back before the Roman Empire controlled the lands.

A celebration was had in honor of the impressive find. Just the bullion itself was enough to make the entire team rich beyond their wildest dreams, and that was enough for the guides and workers that had done much of the hard labor to be happy. After hours of celebrating mixed with the dehydration of working in the desert conditions, the workers all passed out, anticipation palpable as they awaited the new day and possibility of even more riches to be discovered. Arnold, Chrissie and John were still working, but also had become somewhat lost in the celebration as they felt that they'd become so close to succeeding in locating the Triangle of Light. The research they'd performed gave them every indication that this was the All Seeing Eye. The only question was the next clue to follow. Arnold had been working diligently on translating the symbols when John returned to them, carrying three bottles of wine with him. He passed Chrissie and Arnold each a bottle of their own before taking a generous gulp from his own bottle. "Any luck Dr. Perkins?" John asked.

Arnold remained quiet for a few moments, seemingly too engrossed in his research to have heard the question asked of him. John opened his mouth to ask again, but stopped when Arnold's head snapped up. "I've just completed the translation." He said as John and Cassie scooted closer in a manner that looked like children scooting closer to a campfire in anticipation of a ghost story about to be told. "If I've translated accurately the inscription says the wearer of the Triangle of Light will possess great power, the power of time spent."

"Is there anything about where to find the Triangle of Light?" Cassie asked.

Arnold flipped the rectangular piece over looking for more inscriptions to be read from it, but found none. "None as of yet." He answered. "But we'll return to the dig site in the morning and have a better look at the inside of that pillar. There could be more inscriptions to be found in there that will tell us what we need to know." Arnold then stretched to ease the soreness from his back before holding his bottle out. "Cheers!"

They all clanked their bottles together before each took a large swig of wine and began discussing the future of their find. Before long each of them was well under the effects of the large amount of alcohol they'd consumed, and decided to call it a night; going to their separate tents. Within a couple hours the whole campsite had fallen asleep or passed out from celebrating, but John woke up in the middle of the night so that he could relieve some pressure that'd built up in his bladder. When he was walking back to his tent, he couldn't help but to stop and look at the two pieces that Cassie, Arnold, and he had been researching. He sat down and picked up each piece individually in his hands, looking over them both with the help of the still burning fire for anything that could possibly help them. He ran his finger along a groove that had apparently been cut in the rectangular piece above the inscriptions when he decided to hold the All Seeing Eye in front of it. The light from the fire seemed to shine off the back of the medallion, hitting the rectangular piece. Suddenly, where the groove was slid open more widely. John noticed it was the same rounded shape as the bottom of the Eye, so he pressed the two pieces together. They fit perfectly together, and it was then that two sides of the rectangle seemed to break away and open before falling into a straight line. Then a small golden chain shot out of the top of the rectangle. John grabbed the chain and gave a gentle tug to see that it not only raised up above the All Seeing Eye, but also it was attached to more inside that slid outward as he continued to pull up until they locked into place, forming a perfect triangle.

John then thought back to what he'd listened to as Dr. Perkins had translated the inscription. "The wearer of the Triangle of Light will possess great power, the power of time spent." He wondered if the chain was how a person was supposed to wear the Triangle of Light, and to test this out, he slowly placed it over his head and around his neck.

"What are you doing?" Arnold yelled as he witnessed John just after releasing the chain from around his neck. Upon hearing Dr. Perkins yelling, he jumped to his feet, stumbling backwards a few steps. Recognizing who it was that had yelled at him brought a few thoughts to him. He was only curious, but clearly based on the tone of voice Dr. Perkins had used, it was very likely that he was going to be fired and removed from the camp. If only there were some way to prevent this from happening. If only he could've known about this and kept the rectangle piece that had turned out to be the triangle. He felt so stupid for letting his curiosity get the better of him. It was then that a flash of light came out from the triangle around his neck, and the next thing he knew, he was standing behind where he'd been sitting before Arnold had caught him. It was then that he saw himself walk up to that spot and sit down.

What was happening? Was this some sort of outer body experience? He looked down to see that the artifact was still around his neck even though the sitting version of himself was messing with the two pieces as they were still separated. He had to think about what he'd just experienced. It appeared that he was seeing the past happen right before his very eyes, but how was that possible? How could he have moved back in time? Then it donned on him. The inscription. The wearer of the Triangle of Light will possess great power, the power of time spent. It appeared that the Triangle of Light had the capacity to allow its wearer to travel back in time, or time that had already been spent. How did he control it though? Why had it taken him back to this specific time? He thought back to the point when he first traveled and what happened up until that point. He'd become the wearer by slipping it over his head and then Dr. Perkins spotted him. His excitement over this discovery made him realize that only a couple minutes of time wasn't enough to truly understand what was possible with this power. If only he would've pulled both items from the bags while he was inside the pillar. They were small enough that he could've gotten them out unnoticed. The rectangle was in the first bag, and he only needed to locate the eye. If he did that then he'd have all the time in the world to research the power this Triangle of Light possessed. It was then that the medallion lit up around his neck once again, and he was back at the campsite just before dawn when they'd first discovered the passage to the pillar. He had enough time to change everything and grant himself the time necessary to keep the artifacts and test its capabilities on a more detailed scale.

John went directly over to where he'd been that morning. He had five minutes before the rest of the crew would join him. Fortunately the past version of himself was far enough away that he didn't need to worry about the startling jolt he'd be applying to himself. He didn't waste time mincing words either, and instead simply walked up in front of the past version of himself. As expected the past version was startled but for some reason hadn't screamed. "John, I need you to listen because we don't have much time. You're going to find this." He said as he held up the Triangle of Light. "But in the end you'll never be a part of this discovery if you don't listen to me now. There's a large pillar inside, I need you to locate it and bring it to Dr. Perkins' attention. He'll volunteer you to enter. Inside you'll find bags of gold and two separate pieces. In the first bag will be the rectangle. I need you to keep it from being seen and then find the All Seeing Eye in one of the other bags. Make sure you secure both pieces."

"What if this is a trick?" The past John asked.

"Here's how you tell." The future John responded. "Do as I ask and get those pieces. Keep them with you until all the bullion is counted. There will be 690 pieces. If you get that number, then I need you to stay sober, slip out of the camp and build a fire for light. Hold the Eye above the groove on the rectangle in front of the fire and join the two pieces together. Remember that the wearer of the Triangle of Light will possess great power, the power of time spent. In the meantime I'll figure out how to return to the present time and we'll be able to have all the time needed to research this power of traveling through time."

With that all said, he'd done everything he could. Now it was up to him to find his way back to the present. As that had also been time spent, he figured there had to be a way to get back to the present time, and he had to find a way back otherwise this power would be limited to waiting and it would do him no good in being able to change anything. Even something simple like getting caught with the artifact around his neck.