The Once and Future Thing
Disclaimer: I don't own Batman Beyond nor do I own Justice League.
Chapter 2: Much Ado
"You must misplace this thing a lot," Terry commented from his vantage inside the invisible jet's cockpit. Clouds rushed past his vision, seemingly opening before them as though through divine intervention as the suburbs of Gotham's sprawling empire began to emerge far below through the blanketed darkness that preceded dawn.
"Dome is an old friend. She is not so easily misplaced," was Wonder Woman's cryptic answer from the pilot's seat in front of Terry.
The thought that the he was flying at several thousand miles an hour in a plane he couldn't see that apparently had its own sentience was too much to contemplate so he changed tact. "So when was the last time you saw him?"
She flipped a few switches and he felt rather than saw the thrusters change position to allow for a more vertical descent as they approached Wayne's stately mansion from the cliffside. As they leveled out with the waterfall under the house, she reversed the thrusters once more. The water was thundering down on the roof of the invisible cockpit, cascading around them like a cocoon when she finally replied, "The last time I saw Batman was shortly after the Joker had died…"
Terry winced. The whole affair with Tim Drake and the return of the mad clown had been an ordeal he was not eager to relive any time soon. Particularly with regards to the history he'd uncovered surrounding Bruce and his charges. From what he gathered, it had been the catalyst to his severance not only with Tim, Dick, and eventually Barbara, but also from the Justice League.
After deftly landing the jet on the large rotating pad in the center of the cave, she pulled a release. The sudden hiss of cold cavern air signaled that the cockpit's window had been retracted. Terry and Wonder Woman jumped down together, the perfection of their synchronous landing somewhat marred by the intense scowl Bruce wore as he stood poised before them, cane in hand.
He inclined his head ever so slightly toward Wonder Woman. "Princess," he gave by way of greeting.
She frowned before stepping before him, the hurt in her eyes as starkly evident as the glowing gold of the lasso tied at her hip. "Bruce…" she murmured, her hand hesitantly outstretched toward the old man as she took in the silvery-gray hair, the lined face… the cane.
He looked down to where her eyes were focused and Terry watched his jaw clench before his gaze rose to her concerned face. "What are you doing here, Diana?"
Ignoring his question, her outstretched hand seemed to finally make a decision as she pulled him into her arms. The clatter as the cane hit the ground reverberated around the cavern as though an explosive had gone off and Terry heard several bats off in the distant recesses take flight.
It was a few moments before the old man slowly returned the embrace, his arms snaking around her waist and his face burying itself in her neck as he gave in.
Terry felt vaguely uncomfortable, as though he should give them their privacy, yet his curiosity refused to let him look anywhere else.
Bruce was the first to pull away, but Wonder Woman's hands still gripped his biceps as she held the old man at arms length. "You stubborn, foolish man," she whispered, her blue eyes piercing, "Was this what you wanted?"
Bruce seemed to have the decency to look ashamed of whatever she was referring to, because instead of answering, he dropped his gaze down to where the cane had fallen. "It was for the best," he assured the cave's floor.
Her grip tightened and anger flooded her voice as she leaned in, "Yes, I remember…you're a rich kid with issues and I'm an immortal from a race of all-women warriors, however could we have spent any time together?"
When he refused to answer, she shook him slightly. "I wanted to be with you, Bruce! I wanted to spend whatever time we could, together. But you've robbed me of that, just as you've robbed yourself of any lasting chance at happiness. I hope it was worth it."
Bruce slowly pried off her death grip, one hand and then the other, took a step back and a deep breath before he finally said, "It was, Princess. We didn't belong together and it wasn't for me to steal your time, any of it."
She sighed heavily, turning her face away from him for a moment and muttered, "Hera, is this what love is in man's world? It's good that my sisters cling to the island, if despair is all that awaits a lifetime of longing."
Pained, Bruce opened his mouth to speak but she put her hand up. "I don't want to hear anymore of your reasoning. I love you Bruce, I probably always will, but when I think of how you pushed me away, of how you have always pushed everyone who cares for you away, it breaks my heart. I thought the time away would have given you some perspective, but you only took it to ensure my hope had withered on the vine like some sour grape, like your bleak and shattered soul."
Bruce slowly gathered up his cane and leaned on it, heavily, before replying, "Life's not a fairy tale, Princess, and I'm no shining knight."
Wonder Woman squared her shoulders, standing strait and tall and eternally, brightly beautiful against the solemn darkness of the cave. "No," she agreed, "You're not."
Terry stepped up behind the old man and together, they watched her depart, the distant waterfall curtaining behind her as though she and her invisible jet had never been there at all.
"Now I know you're crazy," Terry told the old man.
He grunted. "You're late for patrol."
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"Hey Dee Dee, Batman isn't giving us any attention," one of the psychotic clown girls said to her doppelganger.
"You're right Dee Dee, he should be punished," the other intoned a bit too gleefully for Terry's tastes as she lit up her whip and cracked it strait at his neck.
He pivoted to the right and then used the stabilizers in his hands as blasters to knock the first Dee Dee off her feet. "Come on ladies, can't we just get along?"
The second Dee Dee, aghast at her sister's fall, turned a wicked glare on Terry before she lit up a second whip. Without enough time to launch himself skyward, he found himself pinioned against a wall, one whip around a thigh and the other around his opposite wrist. He was about to use the stabilizer of his free hand at her, when the first Dee Dee popped up and secured his other two appendages.
Now actually becoming worried, Terry struggled for a moment until they looked to one another and then both released an electric charge through the four whips, strong enough to bypass the suits' dampeners.
A scream of pain escaped Terry's lips but was quickly cut off as the electricity abruptly ended, the whips falling limply to the ground as their power went out. Blearily, he looked up to find Wonder Woman holding the Dee Dees by the scruff of their costumes off the ground, one in each of her fists and both unconscious.
"Care for some company, Tomorrow Knight?" she asked Terry, a smirk on her lips as she unceremoniously tossed the Dee Dees before him.