(Notice: In my recent ventures into the Batman Beyond fandom, I've noticed that Dana Tan gets a lot of hate… Understandable, didn't like her much myself when I was a kid and watching the show.

However, it is in-canon that Terry and Dana are a relationship, and they stay that way for 15 years before Terry finally DOES ask her to marry him.

(See Justice League Unlimited, 'Epilogue')
So, with that in mind, I decided to canon-ize my fanfic by keeping the Terry/Dana couple, and at the same time make her a more likable character by going further into her character, rather than the Flat Dana that was in the actual series. Dana haters please keep an open mind, and thanks for Reading and Reviewing!

Part 8

Harvey Dent wasn't sure what he was doing, but he knew it had to be done… He stood on the front doorstep of an old building, located in an area of Gotham that was once known as 'Crime Alley'. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the large fifty cent double-headed coin he carried with him at all times. He balanced it on his thumb and flipped it, it flew into the air spinning several times, then landed in Dent's hand with the bad-heads side up, the side that had a large 'X' carved into it.

Two-Face kicked the door down, drawing two large machine guns from their holsters and pointing them at the people in the dimly-lit room. Four people sat at a table in the room, a man that had scaly skin and razor-sharp teeth he recognized as Killer Croc.

Another had his feet up on the table, he recognized him as Deathstroke, or 'Slade' as he was once known. The third person was a woman, one Harvey recognized as Pamela Isley, an ex-girlfriend of his and the super villain Poison Ivy.

The fourth person stood up and smirked darkly at Dent, he strode around the table and put his hand on it, leaning on one leg. His green bodysuit and distinctive purple question mark on its chest made it no mystery that this was The Riddler.

"Riddle me this, my friends, what has one head and two minds, and uses silver to make its decisions?"

Two-Face frowned.

"I don't have time for riddles, Nigma, I came here on business."

"What's the matter Dent? Has the Joker cast you aside?" Deathstroke said smugly, which earned him a bullet in the arm from Dent's machine gun. Riddler could tell Dent wasn't fooling around, as Killer Croc and Poison Ivy helped Deathstroke out of the room to fix him up, Riddler closed and locked the door behind him.

"Alright Dent, what business do you have with me?" Riddler asked seriously, to which Harvey replied, "I know that you know exactly where every villain in this city is… And I know that you're organizing them to take Joker down.

"You're a clever man Harvey; tell me, why do you choose to work with the madman? Surely you had a choice?" Riddler questioned.

"I flipped a coin." Harvey said smugly.

"Ah, of course you did." Said Riddler.

"The reason I'm here, is to tell you there's someone back in town that you may want to see."

"Who might that be Mr. Dent?"

Harvey handed a small, black object to Riddler; it was a black and red Batarang.
"This… Is Batman alive?"

"Sadly, no. But the person who uses these objects worked with Bruce long ago, before the Joker beat him senseless and he went rogue.

"You mean his second boy blunder?"
"Jason Todd, known better by his new alias…"

Two-Face threw the Batarang hard at a wall; it detonated and blew the entire wall away in a red explosion.

"The Red Hood."

"Red Hood…" Riddler thought for a moment, and then turned back to Harvey.
"Have you any more of those weapons Harvey?"
"Of course."

Harvey handed Riddler another Batarang, he examined it and discovered that there was a strange green film that coated it.

"It would seem young Jason is getting new toys… Riddle me this, Two-Face, what makes many leaves, but never goes anywhere?"

Two-Face scowled, "A Tree."

Riddler grinned, "This weapon is poisoned with the anger-adrenaline inducing chemical produced by the leaves of the black ivy tree."

"And who do we know that has a black ivy tree?"

Dick, Kori, and Victor all walked together through the place that was once Gotham City Park, now it was nothing but a burned patch of land with no life to be found anywhere. They were searching for their other comrades, Raven and Beast Boy, but this task was far easier said than done. Suddenly, Nightwing heard the moaning of a wounded animal nearby, the animal moaning gradually changed to human moaning. Dick led Starfire and Cyborg to the sound; all three were horrified to find Changeling, lying on the ground in pain. They all ran to his side and found several cuts and bruises on his body, and a Batarang inside the man's side, from which blood was spilling out.

"Garfield!" Starfire whimpered as Nightwing ripped the Batarang from Gar's cut. Dick cursed under his breath and examined the weapon while Cyborg and Starfire tended to Beast Boy's wounds.

They found a place that wasn't quite as conspicuous and out in the open; an abandoned diner. Dick sat down and compared the two Batarangs he had taken from his own wound and Changeling's. He scowled and rubbed the surface of both, they both had a film on them, but they had completely different textures.

"Don't worry Gar; we'll pull ya through this, just stay alive…" Said Cyborg, frowning and continuing to tend to Changeling's injuries.

"This Batarang has a poison on it, just a simple plant poison extracted from a rose, Gar'll live, but he won't be able to move until he gets an antidote." Nightwing stated, walking up.

"What of the weapon you were incapacitated with? Surely it had some form of poison as well?"

"It has a substance on it, but it's not the same as what's on Changeling's, I don't know what it is."

There was a silence in the room, a still silence as if there had been a death. Nightwing turned out and away, walking out to the door of the building.

"I'm going to see if I can't find Rachel, you two stay here and radio me if there's any change."

Starfire was going to protest Dick going alone, but Cyborg answered first, "Be careful Dick, don't get in over your head."

Dick nodded and walked out of the old diner, and launched his grappling hook toward a building close by.

Bruce, Barbara, and Dana walked through the dimly lit cave that was hidden behind the old grandfather clock in Bruce's front room. Dana couldn't believe what she was seeing, the massive computer, the Batmobile, and three suits in glass cases. She also noticed a fourth glass case that was empty. It nearly knocked her off her feet as she came to the realization of the most obvious fact that could ever stare someone in the face… And to think he was so close this whole time.

"Mr. Wayne, you… You're Batman?" Dana said, half trying to contain her excitement.
Bruce turned to her, "Was Batman, and Commissioner Gordon was Batgirl at one point, and she then became Oracle before she was made commissioner."

Dana looked at Barbara, whose face was as still as Bruce's, she nodded.

Dana finally accepted it in her mind, though she could barely take the impact of the reality. The constant flaking on dates, disappearing to who knows where… Dana now knew that Batman was her boyfriend.

"Terry is Batman now, isn't he?" Dana choked, beating herself up mentally for not figuring it out sooner and breaking up with him so many times for it. Bruce nodded, sitting down at the seat in front of the largest computer screen Dana had ever seen.

"Terry wanted to tell you himself eventually, but with his disappearance and our lack of leads, it is best you know now."

"I just can't believe I was dumb enough not to figure it out myself…" Dana looked to the screen of the computer, and didn't notice Barbara slowly slipping out of the room.

"Mr. Wayne, what is this?" Dana asked, staring at the screen which was currently nothing but static.

"These are Terry's eyes and ears, I can run the suit from here if it's anywhere on this planet…"
"Then why is it-?" Her eyes widened.

"Is he-?"

Bruce glared, "No, he's not dead, Terry may not seem like it, but he's much smarter than you'd think. If the suit was destroyed completely, I'd know, this screen would be blank, not static like it is now."
"So you've been searching for him too."
"Gotham city needs a Batman, and if we can't find Terry there won't be one street in this Hell of a city that's safe."

Looking on into the screen of the Batsuit's eyes, Dana couldn't push a thought from her mind, she finally said it out loud.

"Why are you telling me this Mr. Wayne?"

Bruce looked up at Dana, face stone cold as always.

"Dana, I need a favor to ask of you, I need you to find two things for me."

Dana nodded, "If it's going to help find Terry, then I'll do anything."
"Good, first, I need a bit of his DNA, a hair, clothes, saliva, blood, anything with his genetic code in it."

Dana nodded, that shouldn't be too hard to get, considering his mother trusts Dana in about everything she does.

"Good, second, I need part of the Batsuit, this may be a bit harder to obtain, but I believe with the amount of times Terry has broken the suit, finding a bit of the cloth from it will be less of a challenge than it sounds. I want it here as soon as you obtain it, in the meantime I'll be trying to get a connection to the suit."

"Alright, thank you…"

"And another thing, do you know Maxine Gibson?"
"Of course I do…"
"It may be a good idea to tell her you know Terry's secret as well."

"Max knows?"

"Of course, why else would she cover for him every time he has 'flaked' on your dates?"

Dana blushed, and she left the room frustrated, "I'm gonna kick her ass..." she thought, while Bruce smirked to himself, thinking about the sparks that were going to fly between Max and Dana…

Tim stirred in his unconsciousness, opening his eyes to see the familiar face of Terry, and one not-so-familiar face.

"Terry…" Tim groaned, putting his hand on his side, it had a bandage wrapped around it.

"Tim, are you alright?" Terry inquired, sitting down next to him, "Yeah… I'm alive at least… Who is she?"

He pointed to Raven, who had also sat down next to him.

"This is Raven; she helped me find you… Now tell me what the slag you were doing!"
Tim sat up, still clutching his side, "I was… Visiting a friend that Joker captured a long time ago…"
"Who is this friend?" Asked Terry.

"Anyone we know?" Raven appealed.

Tim sighed and knew he couldn't keep the secret now that Joker knew.

"Her name is Ace; she was once part of the Royal Flush Gang."
The hair on Terry's neck stood on end when he heard this, he heard about Ace from Bruce, but for some reason, he didn't talk about her as much as he did about the gang as a whole.

"How did you get mixed up with her?"

Tim began to explain…

-FLASHBACK-

The counter beeped on a Joker bomb as Harley Quinn and Black Robin made their escape from a warehouse that the clown trapped them in. Like the acrobats they were, Quinn and Robin attempted to make it out through a window, but the Joker had anticipated this, and had replaced all of the windows with steel frames. There was nearly no escape, when Harley pointed to a crate that had split open. The crate's broken exterior partially hid a hole that led to Gotham's sewer system.

Harley pulled Black Robin into the hole as the warehouse exploded on top of them. The two of them walked along the sewer wall attempting to find a way out and to safety. Tim heard voices coming from a vent above them, he looked up and saw the Joker talking to someone, he couldn't quite make out the words, but he could tell that whoever he was conversing with wasn't there by choice.

"Harley… There's someone up there."
"Ya sure?" Harley turned and asked skeptically.

"Sure I'm sure…C'mon."

Tim broke through the vent and clambered in, Harley right behind him.

Tim's heart sank as he looked around and saw nothing but cement wall, but then he heard a tap on glass behind him, he turned to see Harley speaking with a girl in a large tube.

"Ace, what has the creep done to ya babe?" Harley asked sympathetically, Ace just frowned as usual and pointed to the wires connected to her head.

Black Robin walked up as well, "I know you! You're Ace of Clubs, the Royal Flush Gang's most powerful operative."

Ace nodded. Harley frowned and scowled, "I can't believe that creep would put you in a tube! And he was all braggin' about him takin' down Superman on his own!"
Suddenly, the pieces fit together, all this time, Tim could never figure out how Joker defeated the Justice League on his own… Now he knew that this girl's powers were the key…"

-End Flashback-

"Joker used Ace's mind powers to defeat all of the most powerful heroes on the planet, he found her just after Batman died and used her powers in this weapon of his that completely melts your brain…"

Raven's eyes widened.

"So it's true, we are the only ones left…"

Terry had never felt so much hatred for one man in his life, (Other than Derek Powers), how The Joker had the gall to hide behind an innocent being's powers and then take the credit for what those powers did… Despicable.

"So where is Ace now?"

"I don't know, all I remember is her warning me that Joker was behind me, then he knocked her unconscious with this electric shock from inside her tube and hit me in the pressure point with a crowbar. Then that clown dragged me out into this street and nearly beat me to death… If you two hadn't shown up, I probably wouldn't be here now."

"That monster…"

Raven scowled and stood up, helping Tim to his feet.

"Terry, we need to find Ace and rescue her if we're ever going to take Joker down."

"I know…"

It was at this point that Terry wished most that he could ask Bruce for advice more than ever.

(Let's not forget to REVIEW! Seriously, it'll help me write better and update sooner if you review, so go! Do it! Fast! :D)