The Twist

Gotham

Helena had been thoroughly enjoying her time in Gotham. Even though it wasn't her Gotham, it still felt like home. The cat and mouse game she'd been playing now included Bruce, Selina and Damian. At one time or another she was sure each of them had her under surveillance. If they had been coordinated they could have probably kept her under 24-hour watch, but as it was there were small gaps when no one was watching her. She'd done nothing with this information the first few days, as there was always a chance it was a ploy to get her to make a mistake. She never let herself forget whom she was dealing with.

Everything was working perfectly until the fiction she had spun for Bruce Wayne suddenly became real. Her story had been based on facts. There was a group reportedly planning on trying to smuggle a mutation bomb into Gotham. She had only heard it was in the planning stage when she broke up the arms dealers/white slavery syndicate in Europe. The group had approached the head of the syndicate to use one of their couriers. Helena had assumed once she brought them down the deal was dead. There is an old saying about when you assume and Helena unhappily realized it was true.

She didn't know the man's name, but she recognized him. He'd been the top courier for the syndicate. He hadn't been caught in the roll up of that organization, though he was wanted all across the continent, so it seemed he'd gone freelance. The reported five million dollars for transporting the device to Gotham would have been the only thing that would get him to take this risk.

It was time to put the games aside, she knew. Helena called Bruce Wayne at the mansion, but was told he was out of town until further notice. That could mean so many things. If he was in town and just in the Batman mode, she had to get his attention. That meant the Huntress had to make her presence known in Gotham.

Metropolis

Clark was good at pretending. Sitting in his apartment playing video games with Jimmy he could almost believe he was just like everyone else. Almost. He'd grown up on this world just like everyone around him, yet there were always reminders that he was different. With each passing year they seemed to come into more focus. For a while he'd tried pretending he was what he might have been, that is until he met Kara, or Supergirl as the world had dubbed her. She was family, but he only knew this by watching holograms. She still wasn't sure it was true. Confused and angry, she was still holding Clark at arms length. When he'd offered to help her, she resisted, even threatened to fight him if she had to. So he let her go, knowing he would never understand what she was going through.

Always pretending to fit in, to be like everyone else, yet knowing he wasn't seemed to be Clark's curse. Yet he did share so much with all of them. Kryptonian or not, he knew what sadness was, knew what joy felt like the same as everyone else and most especially he knew all about loneliness.

He hadn't wanted to, he'd tried resisting it, but he couldn't stop himself from wondering what it might be like to have Karen Starr in his life. The brief times they spent together he wasn't Clark Kent or Superman, just himself. For once he didn't have to pretend. Having never felt it before, he hadn't even realized how desperately he'd always wanted that. Now it seemed his chance was gone. She had said good-bye.

Paris

Karen's tour of the CERN project had been delayed for a week. Some anomalies had cropped up she was told and they wanted to check them out before letting anyone visit. She said she understood, but inwardly sighed at the delay. Five years she'd been waiting to get home. She felt so close this time, as if it were right at her fingertips, yet still she couldn't touch it. Another week in this world shouldn't have mattered, but with each delay the urge to remain was growing within her. As badly as she'd messed everything up, Karen still believed there was a chance for her and Clark. That chance only happened if she stayed.

She'd been playing phone tag with Helena all week. Karen left messages about the project in CERN and Helena replied they sounded promising, but something in her voice made Karen think she wasn't as interested as Karen was. She knew Helena was in Gotham, which was a mistake. That was probably why she wasn't answering Karen's calls directly; she didn't want to hear how she was playing with fire.

Karen knew she was hardly one to talk. All this time she'd been preaching about not getting too involved in this world and what does she do? Fall for Clark Kent. She'd been fighting it so hard that now that it seemed she was finally going home it felt hollow. The days seemed to tick by intolerably slow. This meant she had even more time to think. She felt a sense of responsibility to her Earth. She had lost her Krypton when she was a teenager and her cousin and Earth had taken her in, sheltered her even as a war raged all around her. Her cousin and Helena's parents sacrificed their lives in that war. Didn't Karen owe it to them to carry on their legacy? Wasn't it selfish to put her personal desires and wants above getting back?

The problem was she was seventeen when all of that happened. What seemed so clear-cut at that age looked different at twenty-two. So as the days dragged on and she got closer to the actual tour, Karen couldn't help wondering what did she owe to everyone else and did that mean there was nothing left for her? Where was the line as to how much of a sacrifice each of us must make?

She hadn't found any answers and the tour was tomorrow. A sense of unstoppable destiny seemed to hang over her, as if the choice wasn't in her hands any more. Her name and whom she was related to seemed to make it all inevitable.

Gotham

It felt good to be back in uniform, especially in Gotham. Maybe it was something about whose child she was, but Helena always felt more comfortable at night. There was just something in the air that put an extra spring in your step and all your senses on full alert. Danger and excitement mingled in the shadows.

As she moved across the city tracking the courier, Helena still hadn't seen any sign of Batman. Her presence as the Huntress should have elicited some response by now. The thought that maybe she had picked the one night Batman wasn't in Gotham crossed her mind. Just my luck, she thought, he decides not to be here when I actually want him to be. Well, I was trained by the best, so I'll just have to handle this threat myself. Batman can thank me later.

Moving towards the waterfront, she kept the courier in sight. He seemed to be heading towards the Iceberg Lounge, the Penguin's floating den of vice. Why is it on either world everything eventually leads here, Helena wondered? She'd heard rumors a similar plot had almost happened here a few years back, but a group of female heroes broke it up. Well, since it seemed Batman was out of town that meant another female hero was going to have to stop it this time, namely the Huntress.

Helena was just working herself into the best vantage point when she felt the stinging slap against her leg. Another in quick order followed it and as she turned she saw Damian, dressed as the Robin welding a long pole.

"You're not welcome here,' he hissed at her. The pole stabbed at her, but Helena managed to dodge it, rolling out of his reach momentarily. Damian was still attacking and she had to scramble just to stay out of his reach. Damn it, the little punk is really good with that pole, she thought. Well, his mother is the head of the League of Assassins, so that kind of figures.

"I didn't come here to fight you,' Helena said, dodging his thrusts again.

"Then you shouldn't have come here at all,' Damian replied.

Brat, she thought, flipping out of the way and then counter attacking. He vaulted easily over her and caught her flush across the back with the pole. Helena stumbled, but quickly regained her balance. He kept in close, so her crossbow was useless. She was on the defensive, constantly trying to stay out of his range. She realized he was herding her towards the edge, keeping her busy with the pole while he set her up in position to finish her. Clever, but she wasn't going down that easily. She could almost hear her parents, her father preaching tactics while her mother just said to kick the little bastard's ass. Helena feinted a move to the left and Damian lunged at her, wanting to push her over the edge. Sliding sideways and using his momentum, she let the pole slash by and elbowed him in the face, knocking him down. He was up immediately, the pole still in his hands.

"Look, we can continue, but a courier is delivering a bomb down there,' Helena said, pointing towards the floating nightclub.

Damian looked at her for a moment.

"Why should I believe anything you say?"

Punk, Helena thought in frustration.

"You know what sort of place that is, Robin,' she said. "I can show you who the courier is if you'll let me. The bomb is a mutation device and it will kill thousands. Just take a look, he's right there."

She turned to point to the man and Damian used this opportunity to strike. The pole lashed across her face, cutting her. He followed this with a whirling hit to the back of her legs that sent her to her knees.

"You shouldn't have taken your focus off me, that was a mistake,' he said, as he raised the pole for another devastating hit. He was just starting to bring it down, when a whip came out of nowhere and snagged it.

"What the hell?" He shouted.

Catwoman stepped out of the shadows. She gave the whip a snap and the pole was jerked from his hands.

"Little boys should listen more and they might learn something,' she said.

"Great, wisdom from another tramp,' he grumbled.

Helena was back on her feet, bruised and a little bloody, but ready if the fight continued. She looked at Selina and wasn't sure what to say.

"Um, ah, well, thanks,' she finally managed to get out.

"Don't thank me yet,' Selina replied. "You better be telling the truth about this courier, or I might just help the little snot kick your ass."

"I don't need your help,' Damian spat back at her.

"Oh, shut up."

"Bitch."

"I'm telling the truth about the courier,' Helena interjected. "He's smuggling the bomb into Gotham for an extremist group out of Europe. I tracked them here."

Selina looked at Helena. Something about her she just seemed to trust. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it was there. It was almost instinct the way she liked the other young woman. Weird, Selina thought and then pushed those thoughts away.

"All right, this is my city too, after all, I guess we better check it out,' she said. Helena just nodded. Selina glanced at Damian. "Are you coming?"

"Can I have my pole back?" He asked.

"Not yet. Be a good boy and maybe I'll let you play with it later,' Selina said with a smile. Damian just grumbled at this but didn't reply. Helena had to will herself not to smile, as that sounded so much like her mom. Selina turned to her again.

"Well, lead the way. Huntress, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is." Mom, Helena added in her head.

The Watchtower

Diana felt a sense of foreboding as she transported into the station. The others had already arrived and she could feel the tension between Aquaman and Batman. While Arthur and she might be the faces of the League, Batman still exerted considerable power as a leader behind the scenes. She knew it would come to a head one of these days and they would be forced to choice sides. Glancing at the other members, she nodded hello to Victor and Barry and tried not to react to Hal winking at her.

She didn't see him at first, but somehow she knew he was there. Superman. As always he was hovering in the background, yet once she found him Diana found herself continuing to glance over at him. He always kept himself apart from everyone, almost deliberately. He was so different from all of them, yet so similar in many ways to her.

Now that they were all present, Batman began to outline a new threat. The sense of foreboding came rushing back as Diana listened to him detail how the villain had tortured and interrogated some of their enemies to learn more about them. Barry and Hal didn't see what the problem was, but Victor summed it up perfectly.

"He knows more about us then we do, including our weaknesses."

"What weaknesses?' Hal instantly said.

Victor went on to relate how much this Graves knew about all of them, even the friend Diana visited on the Apache reservation.

It was Arthur that asked, "I thought your mother lived on Paradise Island?"

"She does,' Diana uncomfortably replied. "It's someone else, a friend, like-like Steve."

"Steve is just a friend?' Arthur questioned.

Diana let that pass as Victor continued saying that Graves even knew Batman trusted no one.

"I'm sure we're all in shock." Hal sarcastically offered. There was a pause as Batman just glared at Hal.

"Graves doesn't know everything. Batman trusts me."

It was Superman who spoke. Diana was more than a bit surprised by this, as he rarely said anything at these meetings. Hal turned and questioned him. He didn't answer, but Victor did. A reporter, always observing, it suddenly made some sort of sense to Diana that would be Superman's other job. She found herself wanting to know more about him and that other life.

"So, some of us know each other's secrets and some of us are still in the dark." She said this looking straight at Superman. He looked at her and for a moment she thought he was going to say something, but then Barry mentioned it was suddenly getting cold in the room. Victor said Steve Trevor's access codes had just been used and the foreboding came back even stronger.

Graves appeared. When he spoke about Steve it was like a knife through her heart. This is what she'd feared all this time. He almost mocked her when she asked what he'd done to Steve. Instincts kicked in and she lunged at him to strike him down. What happened next, Diana had no experience with to describe. Suddenly all her sorrow, all the tragedy that had occurred in her young life bombarded her. It was overwhelming and she started to collapse. Dimly she was aware of Superman catching her and speaking her name, but the horror was just too great. She could do nothing as one by one they succumb to the same fate.

Switzerland

Half a world away, Karen's tour was finally here. Her emotions were all over the map, but she tamped them down and put on a smile for the people. She played the rich dabbler and they all seemed to buy it. The fact that she had created a billion dollar company seemed to slip their minds for some reason and they just took her as a gorgeous, spoiled young rich girl. That worked out fine for her. A mildly attractive younger doctor named Fritz something volunteered to show her around. The fewer people the better she thought so she accepted.

Once they were alone, he tried putting the moves on her. She played nice for a while, but he was the least interesting thing in the entire place. Using her X-ray vision she scanned the whole workings, memorizing every detail. It seemed like just what she'd been looking for all this time.

Unbeknownst to Karen someone else was with her on the tour, Michael Holt. He knew she wouldn't be able to resist this, so he'd planned ahead. Having seen some of what the people on the other Earth could do, he made sure he was completely invisible to all the senses. He watched her flirt with the younger doctor, an act he'd seen personally before. There was something about the way she looked at the machine that raised the hairs on the back of his hand. It was the same look she gave the plans for his quantum device. Was she studying this machine with the same idea in mind, he wondered?

Suddenly the whole wing shook, as a loud boom rumbled through it. Michael had a bad feeling about this. He watched as Karen knocked out the doctor and pushed him away from the source. She was moving towards it and he was right behind her. A portal was opening, just like the ones he'd seen on the other side. He wasn't about to let her bring over anything from there to here.

Karen moved towards the developing portal. It reminded her so much of the one that had brought her here. She couldn't see clearly into it, but the desperate thought that this was her ticket home came to mind. She slowly moved forward feeling the pull of it as it expanded. She could almost reach out and touch it, then something dropped between her and the portal. An explosion knocked her off her feet and the portal fluctuated.

"NO!" She screamed as she scrambled back to her feet.

"I'm not going to allow any visitors coming through that boom tube, Karen."

She turned and saw Michael Holt materialize.

"Michael? What are you doing here?"

It took her a moment, but she realized he had called it a boom tube. How did he know that was what it was?

"I've seen what you New Gods did to the other Earth, Karen, I'm not going to allow you to bring that to this one,' he replied.

"You've seen?"

"Yes, and I'm closing that damn thing before you can bring your friends over."

"Michael, no, I'm not one of them!" Karen cried. "I'm stuck here. I just want to get back home, please, you have to believe me!"

"Why?"

"Cause you said you've seen what it's like there,' she offered. "I want to help stop it. Please, Michael, I'm begging you, I just want to go home!"

He could hear the desperation in her voice. The look in her eyes made him want to believe her. He took a step towards her but then the portal flashed open again and something came flying through.

"NO! Karen screamed. It was a parademon and it lunged at Michael. They tumbled to the ground and two more came through the boom tube. Karen moved into action, taking them on. She wasn't going to let them do to this world what they did to hers. Moving at incredible speed, she took the two down and tossed them back through the portal and then went over and pulled the third off Michael. Once it was dispatched back to where it came from she turned to see if he was all right.

"Michael?"

"I'm okay. Thank you." He replied. She gave him a smile of relief, but then something reached through the portal and latched on to her. Michael lunged forward and grasped her hand, but she was pulled away from him into the boom tube.

"NO!" Karen screamed, as the force was more than she could break. She felt the boom tube all around her. She looked at Michael and shouted, "Tell Helena! Tell Clark! I'm sorry!"

And then she was gone and the boom tube collapsed back in on itself.

"Oh God,' Michael gasped, as the realization of his mistake hit him. It seemed even the third smartest man in the world could be wrong.

Washington

Graves had disappeared and they had all followed. He went to Steve's sister's house and then disappeared again as soon as they arrived. Diana immediately went over to see if Tracy Trevor was all right. Through her tears, Tracy said the words Diana had been dreading all this time.

"Why couldn't you have stayed away from Steve? You already broke his heart. You ruined his self worth, but he still dedicated his life to you. He could already be dead because of you. My brother could be dead!"

There it was, exactly what Diana had feared all this time. It seemed his sister knew the truth, even if Steve wouldn't admit it. He was still doing all of this for her. The guilt was overwhelming to Diana and she vowed she would make Grave's pay for all of this. She vaguely heard Graves had a cabin in Vermont and that was all she needed to hear. Batman asked where she was going.

"To find Graves, cut off his head and bring Steve back home."

"We don't cut people's heads off,' Batman replied.

"I do."

Lantern jumped in and tried to stop her. Words, he just kept talking, but continued to stop her from saving Steve. Finally Diana had enough and lashed out. One punch apparently wasn't enough to stop Hal from interfering and he came back at her. Diana didn't have time for this and took the fight to him. She was so angry, she would have cut him in two if something hadn't stop her sword. She kicked without even looking to see what or who it was. Too late she realized it was Superman. Before she could say anything Lantern was back at her. They started to fight again and then Victor transported them all away.

They were in Grave's cabin. The tension between her and Lantern was still there, but Arthur stepped between them.

"We all want to bring Trevor home, but we're going to do that faster as a team."

Diana relented, trying to calm down.

"Agreed," she finally said.

"Sure,' Hal replied.

She was just about to react to his sarcastic tone, when Superman stepped in front of her.

"I'm going to feel that for a while."

Regret filled her; she had not meant to lash out at him.

"Superman, I was …." She started to offer.

"Worried, I get it, but we only want to help, Diana."

He used her name again, and some of the anger seemed to slip away. He just held her gaze, almost as if he were trying to reassure her without words. From the side she heard Hal talking to Barry.

"How come when I said that, she wouldn't listen?" Hal asked.

"Superman's better with words than you and he's more charismatic, smarter, taller, and better looking too,' Barry replied.

"Sorry I asked." Hal snidely said.

Absently Diana thought she agreed with Barry's assessment.

Batman got all their attention as he found the clue to where Graves was. In the next moment they were in the Valley of the Souls. They moved inside the temple and what happened on the Watchtower happened again. The torment, the guilt the sadness all came rushing back. Then Diana saw him, Steve or the ghost of him and he said she was too late.

Gotham

They stopped the courier. Catwoman, Robin and Huntress had managed to work together for a short time. Helena secretly loved fight along side Selina. Even if it wasn't her mother, it was close enough. Once they had stopped the courier and the person he was meeting, Damian tried to attack her again, but she managed to fight him off. The little brat, she thought as she got back to her hotel. Slipping down the side of the building, she eased the window open and climbed silently inside. She was just shutting it when the lights came on. Helena whirled around to find Michael Holt standing by the door.

"Your friend Karen's in trouble and she needs our help,' he said.

Helena forgot everything else in that moment.

Washington

Graves had been defeated and Steve was alive. Diana tried one more time to get though to Steve in the hospital, but he still wouldn't listen. She told him it was her fault. When she said he was tortured, beaten and almost killed because of their relationship he had lashed out at her, accusing her of ending it and throwing what they had away. It all came pouring out, how he only saw her over a computer screen for the last year and how the League still needed him to protect them just like he'd been protecting her since she arrived. Diana tried to tell him she didn't need protecting, but it was already too late for that. He finally just told her to go, leave and reluctantly she did.

Sitting on top of the monument, she felt the loneliness overwhelm her. It had almost been a disaster for Steve, yet he couldn't let it go. She tried so many different ways to tell him she was sorry she didn't feel the same way he did, but he wouldn't hear her. Looking out over the people walking around the mall, Diana couldn't help feeling so different, so alien compared to them. Maybe they knew how to handle this sort of thing better than she did. It seemed there was one more reason she felt so different then everyone else. They were so fragile compared to her. Her mother and sisters were gone and Diana had never felt quiet so alone in all her young life.

And then he was there.

"Diana?'

She didn't look at him at first.

"How's Steve?'

"Angry."

He silently hovered for a moment and then landed next to her. It was as if all that had been building up inside her suddenly came out and she found herself talking to him.

"When I first came here from Paradise Island, I thought relationships between a man and a woman was simple. If they liked one another they were together. I couldn't have been more wrong."

"Relationships are complicated. For us, even more so,' he replied. As he said it the last few weeks came rushing back. For some reason he felt she was a kindred spirit in that moment and understood the loneliness better than anyone else would.

"I have another identity,' he quietly said.

"The reporter?" She asked.

"My name is Clark Kent."

"Why do you have an identity like that?" She couldn't help asking.

"I grew up with it and kept it once Superman came into being. It was to protect the people I'm close to."

"And it's worked?"

"I…I don't know,' he admitted."I guess it's debatable whether I'm really close with anyone actually."

"We're not like Zeus, but we're not like them either,' she whispered, as she glanced down at the people below.

"We're not like anyone."

She turned and looked into his eyes. There was so much unsaid in her gaze he found he couldn't look away.

"Do you ever feel alone?" She said, barely above a whisper.

"Yes."

And then she was in his arms and he felt her lips against his.

Gotham

Alfred came out of the kitchen wiping his hands on a towel as the front doorbell continued to ring.

"Just a moment, don't wear it out,' he muttered to himself as he finally reached the door and opened it. A young woman was standing there.

"Yes, miss, can I help you?"

"Um, well, yes, Alfred, I need to see Bruce Wayne, now."

"Is he expecting you?"

"No, but he'll want to see me. Please this is very important."

"What name should I say, miss?"

"Helena … Helena Wayne."