S/N: Ever closer, and of course it begins with song lyrics from a song familiar to anyone who has seen Casino Royale.
If you come inside, things will not be the same
When you return to the night
If you think you've won
You never saw me change
The game that we have been playing
I've seen diamonds cut through harder men
Than you yourself
but if you must pretend
You may meet your end
The blinding lights subside for a time until the gun recharges before it is ready to fire again and of course Eiling's bogus broadcast of 'Supergirl' in the Cadmus occupied Lunar Watchtower is shown to the President so he authorizes the use of the Ultimen even though Eiling already put them into the field on standby. However what Eiling does not know is that the gun has fallen out of his hands at least not yet. As he prepares to beam up, Galatea beams down, Ra's and Ubu join the Society operatives after they have have silently killed the Cadmus personnel on station, but the last one they get to is the one operating the transporter that swap beams Galatea and Eiling. As Eiling reappears on the platform, he is knocked out before he can even say a word about the dead soldier slumped over the controls. He told his subordinates to dispatch the Ultimen world wide before he left in the claim that he would lead a team to 'stop' the Outsiders from using the gun except they were 'too late' as the President is told after. It is too appease the other nations against the threat of binary gun attacks except the Outsiders did not fire it nor as Eiling just found out does Cadmus control it anymore.
"Welcome to nearing zero General," says a voice.
"Who are you?" he growls.
"I go by many names though of course if you heard of Batman, you best know me as Ra's Al-Ghul."
"Ra's Al-Ghul died years ago."
"Think what you will, but I have lived a long time, as different men, though I usually answer to Ra's."
"You are an impostor."
"You should have listened to Waller or anyone else that warned you about me, but I knew you would not, your obsession with 'protecting through power' against the 'costumed' menace as in essence made you one of my most predictable assets without having to manipulate your mind, your contempt, your distrust, even your hatred has served my cause and my plan."
"What are you talking about?"
"I let you take pot shots at Smallville because that way I can frame you in the eyes of the Outsiders just as you framed them using Galatea to impersonate Supergirl on camera, but do enough editing and people will find you lied though of course there will probably be nobody left to condemn you when the plan is complete."
"The Outsiders won't believe I would go that far."
"Wouldn't they? Your Ultimen army is storming purported locations for Outsiders' cells hiding places. Perhaps you understand now why people kept warning you off and telling you not to do certain things, but of course your fears will be your undoing. Dispose of him or rather perhaps I'll shall use this opportunity to see if this new method really works."
Eiling looks on in horror for the remaining few seconds of these wasted years in pursuit of destroying the secret costumes movement. He does not scream or shout, just crumples after Ra's releases his aged corpse. The new measure is instead of jumping bodies, is to drain the life force of whoever the method is used on, but Ra's is very particular abut who to drain even in this look. He takes the life force only because it seems necessary except he is not content to just live off life energy scraps. He wants back a full vitality not dependent on body snatching and energy draining though it would have to do for the time being. The artifacts that made such things possible were of course well protected because without them he would be dead already though of course only he knows this, which makes him all the more jumpy at times about anyone going near them. The operative sent by Faraday's organization to the Lunar Watchtower is dead, which is another pinch of news as of late. Reports from the surface indicate fighting breaking out in multiple major cities between Ultimen and Outsiders. However there is a dead zone for fighting in Gotham no less, of course Detective he thinks, but you are too late all the same.
Elsewhere in Gotham, Bruce as Batman continues the fight against the Ultimen even after taking down Deadshot by knocking the man out, but this particular generation of Ultimen function more as a collective than as pawns to be driven on by a single individual. This a skip avoidance of what happen with Galatea at the moon base and as the fighting advances through the city it somehow leads him back to that place. He had not been back here in years so to be this close to that spot he remembers for the first time in a long while what happen there. His father trying to assuage the mugger, the stranger does not believe him, the gun barrel rotates before he fires, father tries to protect mother, mother cries out between the bangs, both fall so slowly in his memory, and so he their son, so little Bruce is alone with them as they die with him still halfway stuck in what just happen, what is still happening, and what appears over yet not over.
If you take a life, do you know what you'll give
He looks back almost towards his mother's chest...
Odds are, you won't like what it is
Father's body falls to pavement yet she is next...
When the storm arrives, would you be seen with me
Her gasp of a scream cut short as she slides down...
By the merciless eyes I've deceived
Their killer is gone before he can react...
I've seen angels fall from blinding heights
As they lie at his feet, blood is not the only thing to flow...
But you yourself are nothing so divine
His father grips his hand, tells him need not fear...
Just next in line
As mother's pearls slip from the string, all he can do is cry...
Arm yourself because no-one else here will save you
Down through the years it'll be a promise then a costume...
The odds will betray you
The city will be as dangerous as ever, but he'll go into the night.
Diana comes up behind him, noticing something streaming down from under the mask, not blood, but tears, something so rare for him. She does not bother to ask once she sees in the distance can see the worn out signage for the Monarch. This is near the spot where they perhaps unknowingly died for the son that would become Batman, but of course she remembers reading through archives of the papers from that date and known like others had known for the longest time about the orphaned Bruce Wayne except until she met Batman nothing had quite added up about that playboy masquerade. He was reluctant to say anything aside from the fact that his parents were dead for the longest time, so she had to go digging on her own, that was when she found the next day papers from about that night, the night that would be in mind for the promise of a kind made by an older Bruce to become Batman. One wonders how can anyone remain so determined, so angry, so many other emotions that would make him hold onto the cowl for all these years, but that is the thing about Batman, about Bruce, the compassionate driven man that often risks body, mind, and dare say it soul to do and go places where not even supernatural often dare to tread if they could not send a mortal in their stead. However no one did ask him to do this, he took it up himself years after those dotting parents of his were struck down.
She remembers the first time she met Alfred.
However one image she surfaces in her mind as she recalls from pictures that one photographer took yet never put in the papers, she only saw them because Alfred showed them to her, they were mailed to the manor with a note saying, these belong to you, not me, not the city, not the world. The envelope was addressed to Bruce, but he would not open it so Alfred did so, at times he regrets doing so yet at others he finds some solace in them. It forces him to remember just as much as the portrait of them over that fireplace.
Alfred had shown them to her the first time she had been to the Manor after her whirl-twirl adventure in Paris and Kasnia back before the 'family' broke up over what happen with the Lords. She had gone to the butler after learning of where Bruce lived from an independent search. The butler at the time did not look surprised to see her, but told her to come in anyway. The photographs were taken of a heartbroken little Bruce Wayne being shielded from the press by a Sergeant James Gordon and a Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Gordon as she learns is now Police Commissioner of Gotham City and as for Leslie she runs a mission in Crime Alley. Gordon and Thompkins were eager to get him away from the media frenzy because he was now perhaps the last Wayne. Alfred also recounts how he had been brought down to the mission by Gordon to get Bruce who had finally managed to fall asleep after babbling for hours about I should have done something, should have saved them, I will not fail again, I cannot let anyone die, and Leslie stayed with him until he fell asleep in her arms. They were very gentle about moving him into the car and so Leslie stayed at the Manor as often as she could manage because Alfred could not simply handle it on his own. He swears to be eternally indebted to her as well as the Waynes, he had come to redefine his purpose in that house as the one that had to look after Bruce even after he had taken to becoming Batman.
After Alfred finishes the tale, even he was crying a little and she hugs the older man
The memory flashback ends with her seeing Batman looking back towards her and then he spins around launching himself at an Ultimen attempting to sneak up on them, but of course silly people forget there is no sneaking up on Batman no matter long he has been out of cowl until recently. He held to remain faithful to the city because while many of its inhabitants form the criminality, many also consist of the police or law that try to hold the line, but even they knew long ago that Batman serves a purpose that remains forever unclear. Some say he puts fear into criminals which is true, some say he is an inspiration for many to reclaim their city from decades of apathy and indifference, but others don't forget his Rogues or many of their fates in Arkham. It will be something to live with forever, but so it goes as Batman and Wonder Woman battle through the Ultimen on the way out of the area that encompasses Crime Alley.
The deepest question many ask even Bruce himself is how do to keep doing this, to what end, for when is the purpose done, but of course the answer almost seems rhetorical, the task is never done, it is ongoing, so where does this compulsion to keep going get driven in from. It had become more than just him, more than his original motives, more than the words of any promise, or some would tell him this is not all you are, whether anyone admits it or not, you change things in ways you can't foresee. Dick and others would often say things like that as he would linger and doubt when people like Jim Gordon were injured in the line of duty.
They catch up with the other ladies on the way towards the central police station where the cops are holed up against an attack by the Ultimen as for why they are attacking there is confusing, but something is skewered about their directives or maybe they were told to do this. As they near, someone fires off a shot towards Batman, which Diana flies in front of except when it appears to ricochet off her bracer, it hits her into her body instead. She unused to being shot so she drops to the ground in shock and Batman rushes to catch her on the fall.
"What the hell are you people shooting at each other for?" he roars.
Both sides at the sound of his shout halt then look towards an injured Wonder Woman in Batman's arms. Donna runs over towards them and so Bruce must do the usual to stop the bleeding by first prying the bullet out. She groans in pain, he shifts two fingers into part of her body where the bullet went in, she gasps for air, it barely missed her lungs as well as her heart when it ricocheted, and Zatanna rushes over with the staff. It starts glowing before Zatanna can even think of a spell to heal Diana, but of course Bruce had pulled the bullet out, his gloved finger tips covered for the first time with her blood instead of it had been that night years ago in the sewer chasing a street criminal who had been doused with Crane's fear toxin. The bleeding stops thanks to the staff, but her internal injuries are a little more tenuous despite the bullet missing vital areas. Montoya orders an ambulance out here on the double and so she must be rushed to Gotham General quickly. Donna goes with Bruce and Diana in the ambulance as the other women just stand there watching the Ultimen who for the first time in their mindless assault of Gotham suddenly have no idea what to do between Deadshot being knocked out and Batman's aggravated questioning of their orders.
Montoya starts questioning everyone in the station with a weapon that matches the bullet that injured Wonder Woman. However her search stops at Bullock as his carelessly left in the weapon out and it was recently reloaded. She had given orders that nobody fire unless fired upon and he broke the order by firing simply because he saw Batman perhaps.
"You mind explaining why your gun shows signs of being fired recently and having the cartridge changed?"
"IAB gave the word for Wayne to be arrested or to be shot if he resisted, sure its late, but better late than never."
"I doubt that because I just spoke to IAB, your sheet still keeps quite a few barking for your dismissal, I kept you because you were stable enough to stay with Gordon in charge despite your repeated attempts to 'nail' Batman aside from the two, and I count two times that the 'Bat' stuck his neck out for you. First with Croc and then with that landlord of yours that resorted to trying to kill you because you were revolting to him."
"You were suppose to arrest him if he ever went back into costume, terms of the parole remember."
"I'll say it again, we owed him for containing the Graystone breakout."
"Wouldn't been necessary if he had not gone back to costume forcing Crane to go off and do that."
"Firstly, Crane already doused them using the ventilators before Batman even so much as showed his signature cowl, and secondly Vic Sage confirms this with help from our CSU people. Now the badge, the gun, and empty your desk now!"
"You'll see I was right before this is over and so will the rest of Gotham, why else would those armed metahumans be attacking?"
"It is certainly a perplexing question..."
"... one that does have an explanation... Cadmus claims costumes are not on the side of angels, maybe we are not, but neither are we playing games with peoples' minds in the guise of defenders against alien led menace," continues Question.
"You're part of the problem Sage..."
Montoya repeats her order, but Bullock pulls the gun on Question except it blows up in his hand due to one of Arrow's jammer arrows that destroys weapons without harming the users. He grumbles gripping his sore hand and Montoya takes the badge then orders two uniforms to escort Bullock off the premises. The contents of his office will be sent to his current address, and so Montoya turns her attention to Vic and Oliver.
"I take it things are getting seriously out of control if we have Ultimen storming cities among other places."
"Cadmus is utilizing our former Lunar Watchtower, which they took from us in an attack awhile back."
"I had come to try talk to you before I was arrested and tossed in Graystone."
"It was not my intention to have you put away in there."
"I know, but a higher authority is pushing everyone's buttons."
"This new conflict was orchestrated by Ra's Al-Ghul who this time is really close to succeeding at turning us on each other while also utilizing a new binary fusion weapon to trigger his bombs scattered across the globe."
"The weapon originally was installed at the Cadmus occupied Lunar Watchtower, now its fallen out of their hands into the Society of Assassins' grip."
"How do you explain this thing in the news about the 'Outsiders' firing a binary gun at Smallville?"
"Its a trick."
He inserts a copy of the same recording then activates an algorithm to clear out all distortions and false add ons to reveal a very different woman appearing to give the order. Oliver points out that this is the same woman that attacked Kara in Metropolis months ago, and the woman is the Cadmus clone of Kara.
"So what are you going to do now?"
"We have to go global with this soon and we have to regain control if not destroy that weapon."
"Leave the first part to me, I know Summer Gleason."
"Queen stay with her, I'm needed back in Metropolis."
Before Oliver can object, Vic teleports out, and soon enough there is news of multiple man made disasters occurring world wide that the media is falsely attributing to the Outsiders using stolen government weaponry to fire at Earth.
***
Someone that looks like Eiling beams down to D.C. to inform the real Eiling's superiors that they are still embattled trying to retake the control room. He turns about straining to hold shape and then returns to the beam out spot except the transponder slips through him. He curses before getting shot at with a cold gun as he is caught by field agents of Faraday's organization.
"It seems he will even work with people like you Clayface," says Agent Harper.
After the unofficial costumed heroics ban, Roy Harper was approached by Faraday's organization and given an opportunity to serve out of costume, he took it even though he was later approached by the Outsiders, by his former 'partner' Green Arrow or rather Oliver Queen. Queen took the decline well because Harper indirectly explains I'm contributing in a different way now. At times he did miss the old days, but right now this job was just as good if not better in some ways. A frozen Clayface is carted off while he phones Faraday about the recent discovery that someone had been standing in for Eiling at the recent Cadmus meet up in D.C. Faraday asks that Harper bring the device to him at a predesignated location.
"I'm on my way already, see you there."
"Be careful of Cadmus just the same."
***
At Gotham General, they had taken her in for some surgery to check on the wound even the hole was healed, there was still some internal bleeding to be dealt with and he stays at her bedside even Waller turns up with Faraday.
"I take you know Ra's has control of the moonbase."
"Vic told me while I was waiting in here, comlink call of course."
"How is she?" asks Waller.
"She'll pull through, she is tougher than she looks even if she is mortal now."
"Mortal now? I thought someone said her powers were back."
"Goddesses gave them back with the condition that she remains mortal."
"Heck of a catch."
"She does not mind... I don't need tell you why anyway."
"No you don't but now we have to get to Ra's before these global binary fusion created disasters spread any further than the damage spreading across the other side of the planet."
"You still have those Javelins?"
"Yes..."
"Assemble them and get all the Outsiders onboard, if you want to drag anyone else in I suggest you hurry because he will start firing and triggering once he figures out to speed the recharge process."
"What about Talia and her baby?"
"Hidden somewhere he can't go."
Waller and Faraday leave him alone with Diana who starts stir with some moans and a little bit of a groan.
"Sleep well?"
"Not exactly, but this is better than any sleep or dream, kiss me."
"Can't say I disagree with that..."
He kisses her as she sits up and she kisses back biting his lip just a little.
"So what are you planning now?"
"Everyone is on active duty now, we are all going up, have to stop him."
"And we will my love."
She is still a little soar as she slips back into her armor, but acquiesces to letting him help her with some things. She remembers her mother's story about Penthesilea, but she did not die like her, she would not die, she would protect him though they would both survive, they had to for each other, otherwise why else save the world, saving the world is nice, but there is a point where just saving comes up a little short at times. A cascade series of beamings brings them ever closer to the yet unused Antarctic base. The numbers were already gathering from all over the world, but it would be some time before the Javelins would be ready for launch.
"How many more surprises do you have left?"
"Now, now, that's spoiling it, sorry I'm just being silly today or something."
"No, no, never silly, just prepared, in ways nobody ever expected."
"This one cost me the most plus having to use technology to hide it beneath artifically created tundra was tricky."
"I guess you must have gone bankrupt."
"Oliver was a great help financially in maintaining these places."
"Naturally, so care to show me around or shall we skip the tour for something else?"
"Something else sounds good to me..."
Diana had a mischievous look on her face, one he had not seen too often, and the first time had been when he had seen her in that red dress yet this look was far more showing than that one was at least to him. They would make the time for this experience despite how cold it felt even with heaters maintaining a certain level of heat.
Soul Sister won't you take a ride in his car
Late to call
When you wanted to be all
Baby, baby, don't be so shy
Rock children hold your heads up high
In the night while I try
And tell the ballad of Valentine
You got it bad, but you know it's true
She notices a distinctively different Bat inspired craft, that's neither a Batmobile or a Batwing.
With your new suit, and your black tie
Hold on, you're just a gambling man, all proper like
I broke to the right and I caught your eye
"Time to shed the costumes again my love."
A/N 1: Space based weapons, bad idea, wrong hands, how to define, of course its the worst with Ra's. Clayface, ah, well he wasn't in Arkham plus he's kind of a shape shifter too obviously. If you couldn't guess, Eiling is toast too, Ra's is stealing life energy directly now.
A/N 2: Roy Harper, formerly Speedy, another character I remember from JLU episode Patriot Act, who had to face the mutated Eiling when his ex-partner Green Arrow called in for backup. Its not plot typical, but I thought maybe Faraday's group recruited some former costumes too, its plausible I think.
A/N 3: Bruce Wayne still surprises. The whole revision of the Crime Alley scene came out of nowhere as I was writing it, I merged a lot of versions I know about of that bit of Batman lore. Also referenced some BtAS episodes such as I Am The Night, Bullet for Bullock, and Vendetta.
A/N 4: Gordon's part in this version of the Crime Alley flashback is similar to his part in Batman Begins as he tries to look after, to comfort a devastated young Bruce and as for Leslie, in BtAS she was a medical school friend of Dr. Thomas Wayne, and she is also one of few to know that Bruce is Batman. The idea while wholly original started with how she might have worked out that Bruce and Batman are the same man, a man she is falling in love, and at the time she can't reconcile why she has such similar feelings for apparently different men, until she figures it out and of course those photos shed some light on what drives Batman or at least part of what drives him in her mind.