A/N: I've been struggling with the last few chapters and haven't been happy with them (and still am not). So, many thanks again to DaisyJane for the beta/rewrite without much to work with and for the encouragement to finish the story at all.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
CHECKMATE
With the uneasiness inside her building, Diana strode directly over to J'onn and Kal. They watched her approach with a growing look of apprehension. Whatever was wrong, they believed it would upset her. Donna sensed it as well and grabbed her sister's hand as they reached the spot where their teammates were standing.
Diana faced them with a hard, serious look. So only Clark could hear her voice and J'onn could hear her thoughts, she uttered under her breath, "What is it?"
Both glanced around at the dozen or so League members still gathered in the room. J'onn didn't hesitate to create a psychic link among the four of them. Clark responded, "Diana, maybe we should go to the conference room. I think you will handle this better in private."
Diana turned away from Clark and faced J'onn. The telepath's eyes glowed orange as he listened to her thoughts and answered her question.
"J'onn, tell me now."
J'onn glanced at Superman briefly before mentally explaining as quickly and efficiently as possible. "Prisoners escaped from Belle Reve while being evacuated due to the storm. Bane was among them. Batman went after him. We lost contact with the Javelin over the Blue Ridge Mountains. He hasn't answered any communications. We have no idea where he is or what happened to him".
Diana's eyes grew wide and her heart began to pound as J'onn explained the situation. She directed her gaze to Superman, then to J'onn, and back again. She beckoned them to follow her out into the hallway and into a small sound-proofed conference room. Donna hadn't let go of her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "How long?" Diana asked out loud when they had complete privacy.
"Two hours," replied Superman.
Two hours. He'd been missing two hours and she had only just been told. So much could have happened to Bruce in two hours. Instead of looking for him, she had been hauling sandbags. She tried to remain calm while she turned blue eyes burning with anger at the two of them.
"I should have been told about this two hours ago. Why isn't there a team down there looking for him right now?" she yelled before pausing and taking a deep breath. "He's ok," she said, looking much calmer than she felt. "He can handle this. He's as strong as –"
"- As he was four days ago when Bane took him down," came a voice from behind her.
Diana whipped around to face the newcomer. None of them had heard or noticed him entering the room.
"I contacted the cave just after we lost communication with the Javelin and I couldn't reach him telepathically," explained J'onn. "I had hoped that they might have better luck."
"We didn't," Dick replied. He crossed his arms in front of him, purposefully, putting on a strong appearance, but his tone didn't match his posture. He sounded worried. Donna, her left hand in Diana's right, rested her right hand on Dick's forearm and squeezed gently. He smiled gratefully at her before looking to Diana, saying softly, "I spoke with Alfred. Bruce tested…himself before he left the cave to go after Bane. It didn't look like any of your strength or healing ability was left. I'm sorry."
"You mean he's lost…." Diana's voice failed her momentarily then anger set in. "That idiot."
Dick started to nod in agreement when Diana suddenly jerked away from Donna's grasp and out of the room. She flew down the hallway and dove over the side of the half-wall that led to an open area in the middle of the Watchtower. It overlooked a number of other floors in the satellite and at that moment offered an alternative and faster route than the elevators did. After taking a second to register Diana's abrupt departure, Superman, J'onn, and Donna were close behind; leaving Nightwing looking over the side to determine on which floor the group could be found.
They found Diana in the infirmary, frantically opening and closing cabinets, looking through the various clear vials of medications used to treat injured League members. Superman grabbed her arm to stop her and gave her a questioning look.
Diana glared back at him and roughly pushed him away. "J'onn," she said, "Pressure points may only last a few minutes. I need you to sedate me. Now."
J'onn looked at her with surprise. "Diana, any sedative will only work for 15 or 20 minutes before your metabolism processes it."
"Fine." Diana responded. "Hopefully, that's all I'll need."
The three stared at her in silent confusion for several seconds. Dick came bounding into the room and took a quick survey of the scene, noting the vials and syringe now in Diana's hand. Even with J'onn's power of telepathy and Donna's special connection to her sister, they were still a second behind Dick in concluding Diana's intentions.
"Hopefully that is either Zolpidem or Zaleplon," Dick said. "It would be useless to put her to sleep if she couldn't enter REM."
Bruce woke up with a start. The pain that accompanied his sharp intake of breath immediately alerted him to the likelihood of cracked or broken ribs. He was sitting on the floor against a wall, with his arms tethered above his head. He kept his breathing shallow to minimize the pain and slowly lifted his head to survey his surroundings.
He was alone in a small room with walls of what appeared to be solid rock. A single light bulb hanging from the ceiling lit the room and a single chair sat about ten feet from him. On the chair lay his cowl and a pair of heavy rubber gloves, the kind worn by technicians when working on live electricity lines. His captor had been prepared to get through the electrified defenses on his suit. His utility belt was nowhere to be seen. There was nothing else in the room.
Bruce tried to focus on the details of his capture, hoping to recall something that might aid in his escape. Seconds after his seat ejected from the Javelin, the jet exploded in front of him. Ejecting above the large, dense forest fairly guaranteed that he'd end up in one of the tall trees that dominated the landscape. Disoriented from the force of the explosion, Bane's thugs had quickly found him and fished him out of the tree before he could disentangle himself from his parachute.
Taking advantage of his vulnerable state, he was set upon by a dozen henchmen who took the opportunity to beat him from disoriented to unconscious. The sore and broken ribs that resulted sent sharp pains through his sides each time he breathed.
When he first regained consciousness, he had been lying in the back of a Hummer truck with his hands and ankles bound. The tailgate was open, allowing him to view the quick work Bane's crew made of tearing down their encampment. It had apparently been established for the sole purpose of taking down Batman's plane when he inevitably came after them. He lay there cursing himself. This had been a much more elaborate and well-planned trap than the one on the docks had been. Nevertheless, it was still a trap and he had fallen for it – hook, line, and sinker.
"No mueves," growled a voice from behind him. A second later he heard the metal on metal sound of a round of ammunition sliding into place. Around the edge of the truck appeared the masked gunman, with his semi-automatic pistol pointed at Bruce's head. Another voice that came from out of his line of sight warned in Spanish that 'el jefe' would not be pleased if he killed 'el murcielago'.
Their dialogue revealed that the gun pointed at him was apparently being held by the first unfortunate individual who had removed his belt and attempted to remove his cowl, receiving a strong jolt of electricity from both. The man seemed quite angry about it, as well. His more rational friend reminded him that 'el jefe' had told them the mask of 'murcielago' was not to be removed by anyone but 'el jefe' himself and he was lucky that he hadn't been disposed of for his disobedience already.
Suddenly, the tailgate and several doors slammed shut and several of his captors jumped in the back of the truck, weapons aimed at him. The truck started to move. Bruce estimated that they had driven approximately one hour through rough terrain before entering a tunnel and coming to a stop. He heard more doors opening and closing, then the tailgate to the truck opened just before a pain exploded in his head and everything went black again.
Now he found himself restrained in this small, dark and dank room. The air felt damp, as if he were near water or underground. Much like his cave. He lifted his head and looked at the wall above him. He was handcuffed to two thick iron rings that were imbedded into a solid slab of granite. His gloves and gauntlets had been also been removed. He pulled hard on his bonds. In this position, it was impossible to reach anything in his suit that might facilitate his escape.
He straightened his left hand and curled his thumb and pinky inward toward his palm. If he could just dislocate his thumb he might be able to get his hand free and pick the lock for his right. Pain shot through his ribs and hand as he pulled down on the cuff putting pressure on his thumb joint. Soon he saw spots and his vision fogged as he fought for the strength to make it happen. Instead he passed out for a few moments from the pain and small supply of oxygen due to his shallow breathing.
He was going to need some help getting out of this one. The fact that he'd gotten himself into a position that required outside assistance irritated him, to say the least. Losing half of his soul had made him sloppy and careless. Two things he just couldn't afford to be. Using something like telepathy was definitely not the kind of assistance that he ever wanted to need. Nevertheless, it seemed like his best option at the moment. Bruce closed his eyes, tried to focus, and attempted to reach J'onn.
After a few minutes with no success, the heavy wooden door built into the rock had swung open. Stooping to allow his head to clear the doorway, Bane entered the room. He stood for a moment looking at his trapped prey and chuckled.
"Good evening Mr. Wayne," he said in a heavy Spanish accent. "I believe I should inform you that it is unlikely that you will be receiving any outside assistance."
He walked over to the chair in the room and roughly tossed the cowl and gloves off of the seat and onto the floor. Picking up the chair, he turned and straddled it, sitting with his arms resting on the back. The chair creaked and groaned in protest as he faced his hostage
"You see, the area that we're in is rich in mineral deposits, including many metals. Minerals such as copper, zinc, iron, and most importantly, lead. Not a lot, but enough to make it quite difficult for any of your more talented associates to locate you."
"What do you want?" He knew Bane wanted him dead. Bruce just didn't know why he wasn't.
"Ah, I am a man with many needs, Mr. Wayne. However, initially, my only desire was for simple retribution. Years ago, Mr. Wayne, I was brought to Gotham to complete a task – to kill Batman. Not only did I not fulfill this responsibility, Batman humiliated me in the process of my failure. Something that was to be repeated several more times."
"Why haven't you already killed me?"
"My needs seem to have multiplied since I very recently discovered the vast resources at your disposal, Mr. Wayne." He gestured to the floor where the cowl had been discarded. "With the knowledge that I now have, several new opportunities present themselves. Besides your death, now my retribution can include your humiliation as I reveal what and who you are while I use your vast wealth to facilitate my manipulation of the corrupt criminal justice system in Gotham. I've not allowed any of these lesser men working for me to possess the knowledge of your identity – so there is no risk of it being disclosed by anyone else before I am ready to share it with the world. Then I'll kill you. No Bruce Wayne will mean no Batman or any of his protégés to interfere with my ambitions, should I choose to remain in Gotham."
"They'll never let you get away with it."
"They? Oh, you mean your far more talented associates? I believe that you overvalue your importance to them beyond Bruce Wayne's checkbook. It finally makes sense why they allowed you to participate in their endeavors. When you are gone, they'll be too busy trying to find new revenue streams to keep themselves functioning while their enemies take advantage of the chaos caused by your death – or by your checkbook's."
Bruce said nothing. He just glared at his captor, taking the deepest breaths his battered and broken ribs would allow. Bane was far more delusional than he had realized. Bruce took a small amount of comfort in the fact that no matter what happened to him, Diana would eventually beat this degenerate into a bloody pulp. His death would not be in vain if she survived to avenge him and stop the monster.
"What's the matter, puta? Nothing to say?" His silence apparently pissed off Bane. The larger man began to hit Bruce with his fists – hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to kill him. That he was waiting to do after they returned to Gotham, in order to earn the respect of the city's entire criminal element. The blows kept coming until Bruce lost consciousness again.
The fog was dense. Diana looked around; the thick mist impaired her normally crystal clear vision. She began to walk. She wasn't sure where she was going, but went with absolute certainty that she was headed the correct way.
The air around her began to clear as she entered the alley. She was back, in this alley, once again. As the fog lifted, she saw a silhouette of someone on his knees. The person was rocking back and forth. She could pick up the faint sound of choking sobs.
She drew closer and the details in the scene before her began to become clearer. She now recognized the figure. Bruce. As expected since she had come here for him, after all. However, on the ground before her was not Bruce, the man or Bruce, the child. It was Batman. It was the first time she'd come to him when he was in the alley. He was overcome with grief and holding what appeared to be someone's lifeless body.
Diana drew closer – close enough to view the entire scene. The sight of what she had come upon sent a fresh flash of anger through her. She was tired of this – so very tired. She would not tolerate any more of it. She reached her hand down to firmly grasp the broad shoulder covered in grey Kevlar and black cape. She slipped her hand further around to Batman's chest and fisted his suit in one hand, using it as leverage to lift him first to his feet and then off of the ground.
She pulled him to her and watched the visage of her own lifeless body fade, as if washed away by water. Diana pulled Batman still closer, until they were nose to nose. In a deadly serious and entirely unfamiliar tone of voice, she whispered, "Enough."
It took Bruce just a few seconds to get his bearings after Diana set him back on his feet. She watched the look of confusion on his face be overtaken by comprehension as it had so many times before when she had entered one of his dreams. Taking a few more seconds to process the significance of the situation, he pushed away from her and looked around. They were now in the training room of the cave. It made sense. It was the last place they had been together.
"Diana, you shouldn't be here. I don't want to risk you –"
His words were cut off as he felt himself lifted and tossed against the stone wall before he dropped into a heap on the floor. Diana grabbed him again and pulled him to his feet. This time she pushed and pinned him against the wall a split second before she crashed her lips into his. Her kiss was angry and passionate. It took his breath away.
She ended the kiss as violently as it began, pulling her head away even as she continued to pin him against the wall. "Don't argue with me. We don't have much time. Does Bane have you? Do you know where you are?"
Bruce nodded, his breathing still heavy from the effect of her kiss. "He said it was a tunnel. Inside a mountain, I think. It's probably a long-abandoned mine. It's probably twenty-five or thirty miles from where the Javelin went down."
"In which direction?" Diana asked.
"I don't know. The mine probably produced lead ore at one time. That might narrow it down. After his last attempt on my life he would want to try and use whatever means available to prevent the League from finding him. Especially Superman. The remaining lead deposits could shield him from Clark's x-ray vision. And Diana, he knows who I am."
She nodded and stepped back from him. "Are you hurt?" she asked, speaking more softly than before.
He leaned his head back against the wall and gazed into her blue eyes. At some point in their discussion, the cowl had disappeared. "I'm okay. I've had worse."
Diana frowned and responded, "That doesn't make me feel better, Bruce." She stepped toward him again and brought her hand up to his perfectly handsome face.
At her touch he closed his eyes and inhaled and exhaled slowly. He felt how deeply concerned she was for him; despite the pain he had caused her. When he opened his eyes, they reflected his regret. "I'm sorry."
She dropped her hand to her side, her earlier anger returning when she again heard the words he had last spoken to her in this very room. Her expression hardened. "Sorry for what Bruce? For loving me and then refusing me? Allowing me the briefest moments of happiness and then ripping it away? Or damning me to an eternity of never feeling whole again?"
"All of it. I wish you didn't have to be tied to me like this. It isn't fair to you."
"Hera you may have a genius level of intelligence but you are still an idiot," she fumed. "You didn't create this, Bruce. It just is, we were born soul mates and that can never change. You aren't saving me by pushing me away or trying to end something that can't ever end. If you die now, all you will have accomplished is forcing me into a fate worse than death by leaving me behind as an empty, desperately unhappy shell with only a vague hope for your possible rebirth." She paused, her eyes moist with angry tears. "I know that the person I was will have died with you. It's a life that I don't want for myself."
Diana turned away for a moment, inhaling and exhaling several times to calm herself. She turned back to him and said nothing for a moment before suddenly pushing him back against the wall again, a hand on each of his shoulders. She leaned her face towards his and the intensity of her gaze suddenly made him extremely uncomfortable. He swallowed. Diana now wore a look of unrestrained determination.
"So, don't be sorry, Bruce. I've decided that I've had enough of you making all of the decisions - having all of the control. I'm letting you know right now that I refuse to accept your position on this. On us. I'm not giving up or giving in and I'm not leaving. I will not accept a lifetime of being less than who I am."
Her eyes lit with a single-minded passion that burned right through him. He averted his eyes as he replied, "Diana, you are nothing if not resilient. You could overcome anything – including this. I can't be free to be who I am and do what I need to do if I know I'm risking you in the process. It has to be this way. I am not going to accept us if your death is tied to mine."
"It is like I am talking to a child sometimes when I talk to you. Whether you accept it or not we are tied together. You just can't see that the benefits of us together far out way the risks. It is very likely, most probable even, that you will live far longer and do far more good being mated to me."
She brought her hand up to his chin, forcing him to make eye contact with her. "Bruce, I fully intend on making things as difficult as possible for you. Between my own strength of will and whatever cosmic power is at play, I'm certain that even Batman can't fight it forever. If I have to haunt your dreams every night, I will do so."
Then she was gone.
He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall. "You'll haunt me in my dreams for the rest of my life, Princess," he whispered. "Whether you invite yourself into them or not. You've been haunting them for years."
Diana's eyes opened. She quickly processed that she was 'back' in the Watchtower infirmary. She hoped that she had given Bruce what he needed to survive this but she couldn't be certain, considering he was being a stubborn ass. She needed to find him. Now. She sat up and looked at the occupants in her room who were watching her expectantly.
"We don't have much time," she stated as she flew off the table. "Let's go."