Mates: The Sequel
Chapter 15
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Bruce kept telling himself to ignore the god that was standing behind him, poking through his things. It shouldn't have been that hard; he had no problem ignoring the other gods when they decided to pop around (which wasn't often).
However, for some reason, he found it impossible to ignore the God of War. There was this dark energy that radiated from him, dangerous yet...enriching at the same time. It had him turning away from the computer screen and focusing on Ares, when really he wanted to do nothing but the exact opposite.
"Do you mind?" He hissed, wanting the strange god out of his cave.
Ares shrugged, waving a hand dismissively. "No, go on ahead. I'm just looking."
"Looking doesn't involve touching."
The god turned to stare at him and suddenly Bruce found it just a little harder to breathe as a strange tingle started to travel up his spine. "I'm the God of War."
Was that supposed to mean something? God or not, he didn't appreciate having his privacy violated. Especially by him. Someone he just couldn't ignore no matter how hard he tried...
Bruce shifted slightly in his chair, the tingling starting to grow uncomfortable. He knew who was responsible; he didn't know how but he knew that it was Ares' doing.
"Stop that."
The tingling lessened and he turned back to the computer, determined now more than ever to ignore the god.
Who unfortunately didn't get the hint and was now leaning against the back of his chair, reading over his shoulder. "Oh, hey. The little birdies are out..." Ares rested his chin on Bruce's shoulder, paying no attention as to how the human was stiffening at the contact.
He really wanted to move but he didn't want to give the god the satisfaction so he stayed put, his jaw firmly clenched shut.
"You know...I really don't like them. Nightshade and Raven." Ares paused, wanting to see if the he would be corrected, but it seemed that Bruce still believed the whole 'ignore it and it'll go away' thing. Ah well. "I like it when you're out there, protecting Gotham. In that tight suit of yo--"
"Is there a point to this conversation?" He interrupted peevishly, not wanting to hear where the god was going with this. He'd been wary of Ares ever since he'd grabbed his ass. It had been entirely unnecessary and if he hadn't been so nauseous due to the teleporting he would have probably punched the shit out of him. Sure it wouldn't have hurt the man, seeing how he was immortal but...it would have made him feel a hell of a lot better.
The smirk he got told him that his thoughts had been heard. "It wasn't necessary but it was very satisfying. I don't know why you choose to hide that ass of yours behind a cape."
Silence.
He frowned when he was being ignored again. He couldn't stand that. But no need to let the human know... "You know, we have a connection, you and I."
"I gathered." Ares was the only one whose energy really had any effect on him. However, it wasn't really something that he cared about. What he did care about were the six thugs Nightwing and Robin were taking on right now.
Turning his attention fully towards the small battle, his eyes taking in every detail, tense and ready to--
"Robin, DOWN." The order came just in time for him to avoid a swing to the head with a lead pipe, and the teen gave the thug a sharp kick to the knee, followed by a blow that knocked the man out. He didn't get a thank you, but then again, Bruce hadn't been expecting one. That wasn't how they worked.
Things went smoothly after that and he allowed himself to relax when the two were back to patrolling the city. He still kept his eyes on the screen though; just in case they missed something. Satisfied that all was quiet for the moment, he leaned back into his chair and turned his attention to what the God of War was doing.
Which was...
Pouting.
He was pouting. Rolling his eyes, he brought up some files, one of the cases Nightwing had asked him to take a look at. He could see why it was bothering him; someone was--
"How can you not care?!"
Bruce snorted, "Very easily."
He checked back on the cameras and frowned.
Nightwing was running along a rooftop. That wasn't abnormal by any means but there was something tickling in the back of his mind. It took him a few seconds to realize what, but the vigilante had yet to reach the end so he still had time. "Nightwing, you're going to need to fire the grapling hook at a different angle, to the ledge above instead of the one to the right."
There was a sigh of exasperation. "That angle is going to make my shoulder--"
"It'll hurt, yes, but it won't dislocate it. There was a fire a week ago. Gotham has yet to begin repairs. It won't hold your weight."
Nightwing gave a growl of annoyance as he snapped, "I know what I'm doing!"
Bruce felt his temper boil but said nothing in reply, knowing that Nightwing was going to go against his advice just for spite. Sure enough, he fired the grappling hook at the same ledge and swung off. The metal held his weight for all of five seconds before giving away and he started to plummet fifty stories. Acting on instinct, he quickly managed to fire another line, this one managing to hold and he landed on the ground safely.
"Not a word, Batman. Not a word."
Robin's voice was heard over the frequency as he chortled, "Well he did warn you—"
"That goes for you too Robin!"
"Yeah yeah..."
He smirked before peering at the case file again, silently wondering if he should give it to Oracle to look at or not. A few weeks ago she said that she was investigating something. Wouldn't say what only that she needed more information. It was irksome but he realized she had a point; if there was trouble brewing it would be best that she be as informed of the facts as possible. But for now they were on their own. Not a problem, really. Made things a bit slower, perhaps, but challenging. And he loved a challenge...
"I just told you we have a connection. I'm the God of War! Aren't you curious?"
Bruce read the list of people suspected to be in on the stunt, his eyes narrowing in concentration. None of them sounded familiar. Which meant they had no clue what they were going up against. No idea who to interrogate, which ones would snitch if given the right...motivation...
"Well? Aren't you?!"
"No."
Wait... the last one. Darrel Mathews... That name rang a tiny bell in the back of his mind and he quickly tapped a few keys on the computer, opening up a few files. If he was right then that would mean they finally had a way in and they could shut down their little operation before it was able to take off. His body coursing with adrenaline, he began taking notes, all the while making slight dictations in his head.
His eyes suddenly started to blur and he forced his hands to still, focusing on getting his breathing under control. Calm down...focus...
Ares sighed dramatically, bored with how quiet Bruce was being. "No fun at all..."
"Don't you have a Kryptonian to watch?", He grounded out, instantly regretting it when it caused his vision to swim further.
There was a spike of energy and then everything was right again, the world coming in perfect. Ares had teleported out. The god's aggravation must have been what caused his senses to react. After checking on Gotham once more, he went back to the case, his mind turning over possible ways to get to Darrel. Darrel knew Matches and almost trusted him but he couldn't go out in disguise in his current condition...but maybe...
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Something in him was changing. It was like this...part of him was being shoved out of place, making him feel off balance. For a split second he couldn't move, as a strange pulse of energy rushed over him. It made Flash feel uneasy, as there was something about the energy that just screamed 'oh shit'. It was an unusual and suddenly he felt like he was being smothered with unbelievable rage...until it died down and he was able to breathe again.
"What..." Wonder Woman choked out beside him, her face pale and hands shaking, "..was that?"
So he wasn't the only one that had felt that then? That was...good. A bit frightening, but kind of nice. It meant he wasn't going crazy if she felt it too. Or it could mean that Wonder Woman was just as crazy as he was...
But he didn't feel crazy...well there was definitely something loose in his mind, but it didn't feel bad. In fact...he felt slightly more...free...less restrained...for some reason...
Still, that didn't really mean that was a good thing...
"How's Superman?"
Her snappish tone that normally bounced off him had him bristling irritably, which again, was weird...but he bit his tongue and chose to look at the monitor, the one that was watching over Supes. It had been an extra precaution that they refused to budge on, no matter how much Clark pouted. Yes, the gods were supposedly watching but they needed to watch also.
But none of that mattered. Because Superman wasn't there.
He was gone.
Flash's jaw dropped. Where in the hell did he go?! "He...he's gone..."
Wonder Woman blinked. "What?"
"Oh this is sooo not cool..."
Quickly, she contacted Hawk Girl and Green Lantern. "We have a problem..."
Their voices sounded...odd...but she didn't really have a lot of time to ponder on that because Clark was missing and there was a very good chance he was being possessed by Rao right now...which was not good...
The speedster let her explain to them the situation, raising his head to stare up at the ceiling. Were the gods watching now? Did they know what had just happened? Should he tell them just in case?
He cleared his throat. "Uh...guys...if you're up there...um...Supes...escaped...and that's kind of bad...sooo you might want to..."
Athena and C'eridyall appeared, both looked quite pissed. "He what?"
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Aphrodite absolutely hated teleporting to Batman's little cave.
It was drafty, dark and depressing.
Not to mention it was probably littered with spiders and other crawly things that had numerous legs...the mere thought of it was enough to make her skin crawl. And the bats. With their beady eyes, high pitch screams and filthy wings...
Reaaaally hate it here...
So why was she here? Why was she standing in this dark place, trying to think of a way to approach the human who was sitting in front of the computer? She could be up in Mount Olympus, feasting on ambrosia. Or even helping Ares keep watch over Superman...
But no.
Instead she was here.
In the cave.
Which was utterly gross.
But she couldn't stay away. Not when she could feel how unhappy Bruce was. He and J'onn may not have been in love, no, but that didn't make the Martian's accusations hurt any less. His moodiness was nagging at her and she felt the need to do something, to fix it...
Only she really had no clue how.
Bruce was gazing at the screen with an intense look of concentration on his face, utterly absorbed in whatever he was doing, lips moving silently. Every once and a while he'd click a button and the screen would shift from letters to Nightwing and Robin patrolling Gotham. He'd observe their actions for a few minutes, occasionally making a comment or asking a question but for the most part he left them alone.
He was obviously very busy and she really didn't want to be here...
Perhaps it would be for the best if she left...
"What do you want?"
His cold tone alerted her to the fact that he was now facing her way, and Aphrodite frowned. How was it that he was able to see them even when they were invisible? It had to be a newly acquired talent; he'd never noticed before. He couldn't have with all the times Hephaestus popped down to oogle at his gadgets. If the Bat really knew how often the lame god actually showed up in the cave...he'd probably put up some sort of ward to keep gods out.
And knowing him it would probably work too.
How would he do it? What material would he use? Would it be all the time or would he have a button to control it? Maybe he'd...
After waiting for the goddess to speak for a few seconds, Bruce decided that there couldn't be any emergency and turned back to his project. Most likely she was there to check up on him to see how he was doing. The other gods stopped keeping watch over him a few weeks ago, something he wasn't quite sure how to feel about. A part of him was relieved to have his privacy back...yet another part wondered why. Logic said that Rao wasn't interested in a mere human but...something told him he was wrong...
And he hated being wrong...
"J'onn..."
It speaks.
"If that's all you came to talk to me about, you can leave." He snapped, refusing to turn around this time. J'onn wasn't someone he wanted to talk about right now. Or ever.
Rolling her eyes, she walked over and plopped on top of the keyboard, her form too light to press down on any of the keys, but heavy enough to grab his attention. He growled, annoyed that she was interfering with his work. First Ares and now her. He wondered if there was some type of ward he could make to keep the annoying gods out of his cave.
"J'onn...he...you..." Aphrodite groaned. This would be so much easier if Bruce was just a regular human with regular human problems. But he was Batman. And to add on top of all the things wrong with that...he was also mated to a Martian.
Love wasn't supposed to be that hard.
Boy/Girl meets other Boy/Girl.
They fall in love.
Have a few spats, grow stronger along the way, pop out a couple kiddies...
Happily ever after.
The END.
That was generally how it went down. But of course Bruce couldn't follow that pattern. Oh no he had to go and be all... Batmany...with his impossible willpower, stubbornness and just plain weirdness...
"Can you...really blame J'onn?" She finally asked, unable to come up with anything else.
"Can I blame J'onn for jumping to conclusions and assaulting me?" He mocked, pretending to think about it for a few seconds before saying, "Why...yes...I think I can."
"You had lipstick on you. What was he supposed to think?" Aphrodite pointed out, huffing when she got no reply.
Figures that he'd ignore her when he just knew how right she was... "Bruce just...talk to him. He feels really bad about what happened."
He sighed, running a hand through his hair in an effort to sooth his nerves. It wouldn't do any good if he got any more worked up. He had to calm down.
You betrayed me! You've tainted our sacred bond! How could you do this?!
When J'onn had attacked him like that, he'd been ready to snap, his temper so dangerously at it's breaking point...he'd been doing the polite thing by kicking the Martian out, no matter what Alfred said. Because if J'onn had stayed any longer he would have said some really cruel things and that would have only made things worse.
Now that some time had passed, he was still angry but...he was able to concede that the Goddess did have a point. He supposed the lipstick did look rather incriminating...but just the idea...that J'onn thought so little of him, to think that he would cheat...
His pride was bristling with indignation, causing his anger to flare up all over again.
So much so that he was beginning to wonder...
Whether or not it was worth it.
They didn't love each other. They weren't even friends. Friendship implied a level of trust and if J'onn thought that he'd cheat then evidently he didn't trust him at all. He didn't know a thing about J'onn's past and there were many things the Martian didn't know about him.
Such as how he always honored his commitments...
Was it worth it? Honestly it seemed too soon to tell. His anger was still flaring up over J'onn's words so right now his answer would have to be no...he needed more time to cool down, so he could think without rushing to any conclusions like a certain Martian had...
But Aphrodite was sitting right in front of him and she was not going to leave until he gave her some sort of answer..and he really wanted her gone...
"I'll think about it." It was the truth. Hell he was thinking about it right now.
Knowing that was the best she was going to be able to get out of him, she nodded and teleported away. Which was really kind of ironic; if she'd only stayed for a few seconds longer, she would have seen Superman flying into the cave...
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The Gods were frantically talking amongst themselves, trying hard to come up with some sort of plan because Ares was missing and they weren't sure what to make of that. In order for Rao to get to Clark he had to have defeated the God of War. But how did he do it? How had this managed to get by them?! They had only looked away for a second. Almost two months had passed since Rao first started his stake out and he'd seemed to have fallen into a pattern. They couldn't watch over the leaguers all the time, there were other things in the world that occasionally called for their attention.
So they'd taken to watching over them when they could. It would only take a second to teleport if they were needed...
But apparently, that had been their mistake; letting their guard down.
Now Superman was missing and they had no clue where the Kryptonian went. Though most likely it was Rao in control of Superman's body...
Hawk Girl leaned back against the wall, trying hard to understand just what was going on. The bomb had gone off, the shit had hit the fan and everything was a mess.
Getting worked up wasn't going to help matters any. The others were all giving their two cents, trying to think of where Superman could possibly be. Would he go to the Fortress? No, Hera had checked. To the Planet? Dionysus and Hermes reported a negative on that. To Lois, perhaps? The reporter hadn't seen hide nor hair of the man. Maybe Luthor? He'd seemed rather focused on the villain last time Rao had possessed him. But no. Not there either.
Where else could he be? They just didn't know. Hawk Girl let out an annoyed sigh, wishing that Batman was there. He probably had a whole list of places where Clark might be. Hell knowing the Bat he probably...had some sort of...tracking...thing...
Wait, speaking of the Batman, why wasn't he here?
Why hadn't the gods gone to get the man? Surely they realized how much he could tribute to their search, right? No one knew Superman better than he did. They were The World's Finest. No one could quite rile up Supes like Bats could...
"Naked, BRUCE! NAKED. YOU WERE NAKED! WITH A MARTIAN! A MARTIAN! NAKED! NAKED."
"I don't know what I find more disturbing. The fact that you only seem to remember my naked body..."
Clark started sputtering in denial.
"...or the fact that my being with the Martian seems to disgust you."
The sputtering increased ten fold. And was accompanied by the changing of colors in his face.
"I never pegged you for a racist, Superman."
"N...you...you...naked Bruce. Naked. With J'onn. Naked with J'onn."
The Bat nodded. "Which brings me to my point. You, are a perverted racist."
... he was the only one who Kal really talked to. The only one Superman allowed himself to depend on.
Watched with blurry eyes as Batman appeared at the scene, looking ready to drop dead. Superman's hand was still wrapped around Lantern's throat, and she wanted to help but every time she tried to move the pain would start up and she'd have to focus on not losing consciousness.
"Superman."
Lantern's body was tossed aside like a doll and she winced when rough hands grabbed onto Batman. Everything was calm; until Superman suddenly snarled and slammed him into the ground, backhanding him. Fought to rise to her feet, to do something to help, when Kal slumped over. Felt her body sag with relief and she finally succumbed to the darkness, knowing that everything was going to be okay.
They knew each other.
So why isn't... Her eyes widened as realization sunk in. Stupid! Of course!
"BATMAN!" She blurted out, making everyone around her jump.
H'ronmeer stared at her for a few seconds, his eyes dazed, then shook his head. "What?"
"Batman. I think...that's who Superman's with." Hawk Girl explained slowly, pleased that her teammates understood why. It was the Gods that didn't have a clue.
Flash nodded, vibrating anxiously. "That makes sense. Supes totally has a thing for Bats..." A pacifying grin towards J'onn. "But don't worry! Bats isn't the type to stray."
The grin was meant to ease his nerves but it only made the Martian feel more depressed. Even Flash knew about his mate's loyalty. It was enough to make him depressed. Well, more so than he already was...
Zeus groaned, rubbing his temples. He was immortal, there was no way he should be feeling a migraine coming on..but the pressure was steadily building. "So of course that's the person Rao shows the least interest in..."
At hearing his tone, Green Lantern closed his eyes in disbelief. "Please tell me you didn't stop watching over him." This wasn't happening. Surely, being gods they'd be aware of such a simple trick, right?
The ashamed looks on their faces answered that question... "You stopped?!"
Athena cleared her throat, uncomfortable with the disbelieving looks the mortals were giving them. "We...Rao didn't seem to show much interest. Any interest, actually. And we just thought...well...he's human...so..."
But before they could start shouting at how stupid that thought was, Wonder Woman snapped, "We're wasting time. We need to get there, now."
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"Your first mistake, was thinking you could possibly hope to take me on and win." Rao sneered in a mocking tone that normally would have had him bristling with anger, had he been able to feel anything besides shock and pain.
Except he couldn't concentrate on anything other than the fact that there was a freaking sword in his stomach.
Normally that wouldn't have mattered. It was supposed to pass through him without damaging anything, because that was how things worked. The blade would pass through and maybe slow him down if he let it, and either it'd be pulled out or he'd just continue on, ignoring it.
Except a searing pain started, the second the steel pierced his skin, making him freeze in his tracks as a strange sticky fluid began leaking out. Raised his hands to feel around the wound that was there, his eyes widening.
Blood?
He fell to his knees, his body already beginning to shut down.
This...isn't right...isn't possible...
Rao towered over him, his eyes cold and gleaming with madness. "Your second mistake, was thinking that Gods can't die."
Watched him walk past, too weak to even blink. Die? He was going to die?
What...?
That wasn't...right...
When humans died...their souls went to the underworld, and from there to either Tartarus or Elysium. He was a god. Did he even have a soul? For the first time since his creation, he truly felt fear. There were no rumors or tales about an afterlife for gods because...
Gods weren't supposed to be able to die.
Where do I go? His world started to grow dim. Who judges me? How do you judge a god? Am I just going to cease to exist?And as he took his final breath...
Who does a god pray to when they need help?
And then Ares died, his body fading to nothingness. A pulse surged out through the entire universe; its energy causing every creature, animal, plant-life and god out there to freeze as something in them shifted. Whether it fell in the right hole, or got knocked out of the hole it was in, everyone felt it. For an instant Rao wondered about what he had just done, but then he shook it off. What did he care? Soon Kal would have what he wanted and he'd be able to leave.
Everything else was irrelevant.
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