Authors note: oooh it's about to get juicy! Review for suggestions and as the joker said; why so serious? (No idea where that came from :P)
Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with the DC franchise.
Reunion
Chapter 7: Plan
Bruce shook his head lightly to dissipate the memory. He looked up and could spot Jason with Petail carrying firewood and Mayua bringing a basket of assorted fruits. Great, he had company.
"Hey kid." Jason winked, trying to diffuse the tension. Bruce shot him a glare which didn't have much effect seeing as his cowl was too large. He gave up trying to intimidate Jason and linked his arms around his legs, head on his knees.
Mayua started chopping up the fruit into small pieces whilst Petail worked on building a fire. It was quite comical watching her trying to ignite the flames, seeing as every time she got a spark, dust blew from her fingertips smothering the pathetic fire.
"So, you gonna join the land of the living or you just going to sit there like a spoilt brat?" Jason asked evenly whilst munching on a piece of fruit that was far too sweet for his liking.
"The latter." Bruce's voice was muffled by his legs.
"By God, he lives!" Jason laughed, throwing his nasty fruit away.
"You know it's not all that bad, beeing young again. If I had a second chance, I'd probably remove all crowbars from the Joker's vasinity and just bask in my handsome youth."
"Always the voice of reason." Bruce still couldn't get over how young he sounded. Sure his voice had broken, but it wasn't the raspy growl he used to scare crooks.
"How old are you anyway?" Jason tried his luck at a different piece of fruit.
"Seventeen."
"How can you tell?" Jason managed, mouth full.
Bruce gave in and removed his cowl, revealing a very handsome young man. His cheek bones were high, his eyes were sea blue and not wrinkle could be seen. There was only one blemish...
"I got this cut when I was seventeen." Bruce admitted, rubbing his cheek. "The wound feels sore so it has to be recent. When I returned to Gotham, at about twenty, the press had a field day speculating where I'd got the scar. Before then, the scar really didn't matter to me. But if I was going to be the new face of Wayne industries, there weren't going to be any imperfections. Plastic surgeons grafted some new skin to cover it and boom. Perfect heir to the Wayne inheritance." Bruce sighed. Jason was actually quite shocked at how much Bruce had revealed.
"How did you get it?"
"A game of strip poker got a little out of hand." Bruce said, very seriously. At the sight of Jason's jaw dropping, revealing the crushed food contents of his mouth Bruce couldn't help but smile a little.
"Thug." He said, clearing the topic up for Jason.
"Damn I thought my title of "reckless teen extraordinaire" was about to be stolen." Jason laughed.
Bruce gave a little laugh himself, surprising Jason once again.
"You didn't even manage to get the title in the first place, Todd.
I spent most of my teenage years training to be a top member of the FBI. However when I realised how... strict their policies were, I decided to take the law into my own hands."
"Batman?" Jason guessed.
"At about twenty two. But before then... let's just say I worked very hard."
"And played very hard?" Jason smirked, completely engrossed in his history lesson.
"They didn't call me a billionaire play boy for nothing. I was a nightmare for Alfred."
They were interrupted when Petail came over, announcing proudly that Mayua and herself had not only lit the fire, but had prepared a meal. When she caught sight of Jason eating a piece of fruit she gasped with horror.
"Jason you can't eat that raw!" She started giggling and soon was doubled over in a fit of laughter. Mayua also came over to see what was causing the commotion and started to laugh lightly, pale blue hand covering her mouth.
"What?! Whats wrong?! It's not poisonous is it?!"
"...no..." Petail managed through gasps of air. "When eaten raw, it's... it's... a natural laxative." Her bout of laughter started afresh.
"Well, shit." Bruce muttered smirking at Jason, yet again making him wonder if it really was the Caped Crusader sat before him. The day Batman cracked a joke was one Jason never thought would happen.
The four ate their meal in content silence. They were only disturbed when Bruce's communicator started to flash, indicating someone was tracking him.
"You gonna let them find you?" Jason asked.
"They wouldn't pinpoint my location in here. Besides only the guardians can enter this part of the cave."
"You gonna tell them?"
Bruce hesitated, staring into the flames of Petail's fire.
"No. I don't want word getting out that I'm in this state. I'm not as physically fit as before and I don't want to risk my enemies taking advantage of this situation." With that, Bruce quickly disabled his comm so no one could track or contact him.
"Pefect. Because I need your help with something, and I'd rather your friends not know." Jason locked eyes with Petail and nodded slightly.
"We've entrusted Jason with the Sacred One." Bruce suddenly coughed on his mouthful of stew with surprise.
"What?!"
"Hey, what wrong with that?!" Jason growled.
"Jason, you're a part of my family and you always will be, but you're a thief. The tech on your communicator proves that much. It looks very similar to the teleporters to Mount Justice and Headquarters." Jason hung his head in shame, not looking at Bruce.
"How can you be so sure your motives won't change once you've left this cave?"
"I trust him." Petail snapped. "Haven't you heard of second chances? He's not a bad man."
"He's not bad but he's certainly not good." Bruce glared at Petail in response.
"Are any of us good?" Mayua pitched in, attempting to stop the argument. "You and Jason will seek a place to keep the Sacred One. It will only be your burden for a short while. Besides, I know you will use it for research Bruce and I assure you a wealth of knowledge will come from it. It may even provide help to your current situation."
Bruce's eyes widened.
"It can change me back?"
"We don't know," Petail admitted "but it's worth a shot. You'll have to research into it."
Bruce weighed his options in his mind and finally;
"Fine. I'll help you secure a location for the gem. If it gives me a chance of returning to normal then fine. But in the meantime, we won't want the League breathing down our necks. And who knows what the thought of owning the ruby's powers may do to some of them." Bruce gave a sideways glance at Jason, fearing the worst. "They would also want to keep the ruby at the Watch Tower, where Le Fey will be held. I don't want those two on the same planet let alone building."
"Won't they be suspicious that you're gone? Besides they still think you're dead." Jason locked eyes with Bruce, as if daring him to offend him once more.
"...you're right. Mayua, please tell the League that I have been resurrected without any mishaps. Tell them you transported me away from the cave to my jet and that I'm on my way to Hong Kong to conduct urgent research on the energy from the sun you used to revive me. They are to enclose Le Fey in a Watch Tower cell and give her a dose of the power draining curse daily. Comm has been disabled due to energy interference that's why they can't locate or contact me. I'm working on getting it up and running soon." Mayua nodded, memorizing the plan perfectly.
"What an impressive lie, Bats. Now I know where my talent came from." Jason smirked.
"We'll head to Gotham. I need the tech in my second Bat Cave to conduct research on the ruby."
"Wait hold up... You have a second Bat Cave?!"
"Only Alfred and Fox know. That way, Tim and Dick won't intrude. "
"Dick would be jealous." Jason chuckled, finally having one up on his brother.
"We won't be able to stay there though. Fox checks up on the place twice a week and reports back to Alfred and I if there's any changes. No doubt with me missing, he'll contact Dick."
"Who will report to the League." Jason finished. "We can bring the tech to my house. I've already got some equipment." Jason held up his modified comm. "That's how I made this baby."
"There's just one other thing..." Bruce's head was brimming with ideas. "I'll need to eventually get back into contact with the League, to stop any suspicion. With this voice, it won't take an idiot to work out I'm not Batman. I'll need to modify a Comm with a voice adapter so they won't tell the difference."
"Can't you modify your own?"
"No. There's an option on the comm to show pictures of incoming sound waves. If the voice has been modified, there will be distortion on the waves that's undetectable to the ear. I've trained all League members to check this option on the comm after a member has been absent to make sure they're not an imposter. I would be caught straight away."
"But," Jason started suddenly grasping Bruce's idea, "if you modify the actual comm receiving the transmission, there would be no difference to the wave on the screen! It will read just the same as a normal voice!"
"Exactly. I only need to modify one comm. I'll encrypt an undetectable virus into the software, so the next member the infected comm talks to will also be modified to tell no difference in my voice. We'll just need to make sure that comm sends a transmission to every League member."
"Brilliant Bruce! So whose comm are we going to hijack? " Jason asked, clapping and rubbing his hands together.
"I'll have to get close enough to them to take their comm without rousing any suspicion that I'm Batman. Obviously you can't do it, everyone will run from you screaming." Jason pouted at that part.
Suddenly Todd's eyes grew wide and a large smile plastered his face. If he were in a cartoon, a lightbulb would be lit above his head.
"Bruce, you're seventeen right?" A nod. "And we're going back to Gotham." Bruce caught on immediately.
"Tim. But that would mean..."
Jason laughed gleefully. "Dropped out at fourteen, came back at seventeen. Pack your books Bruce, you're going to high school."