Is it Better Left Unsaid
Chapter 4 'Timing'
Cause I got the real love
The kind that you need
Youll come running back (said you would, baby)
Youll come running back (I always said you would)
Youll come running back, to me
Yes time, time, time is on my side, yes it is
Time, time, time is on my side, yes it is
Oh, time, time, time is on my side, yes it is
I said, time, time, time is on my side, yes it is
Oh, time, time, time is on my side
Yeah, time, time, time is on my side - Time is on my side by the Rolling Stones
(Batcave - fifteen minutes later)
Aello looked around herself uncertain of the place she was standing in. The fact that Princess Diana and Queen Hippolyta told her that she would still safely be present on Themyscira didn't honestly help to alleviate the apprehension she felt. She instead could see, smell, and hear everything in the massive cave she was now standing in. She turned to see a shadowy figure standing behind her, and she forced herself to not show the worry she felt building inside.
"Aello, it is good to see you again sister," Diana said.
The Amazon scout turned toward Princess Diana and bowed. She smiled and then turned back toward the figure which looked at home in this place.
"Princess, how am I here and on Themyscira?" she asked.
"It's called virtual reality. Your body is still on Themyscira, but your mind has been shown the interior of this place. You can interact, to a degree, with the environment," Diana stated.
"Aello, we have some questions about the scouting you did when you found the army bound for mother and all of you dead. What do you remember?" Diana asked.
"I remember everything. I remember traveling until I came upon their camp. There lay well over a thousand soldiers. They each looked as though they had been witness to the very depths of Tartarus. Each and every head of hair had turned completely white, and their eyes was pale. There was no color to them at all. I searched over them to see if any escaped this fate, but none had. In truth everything for nearly a days journey had died. All of it, the animals, the army, even the insects seemed to be the same," Aello said.
"What about the light?" Bruce asked.
She looked toward Diana who nodded.
"We all saw it. It stretched from the ground to the very heavens. At first we wondered if it was one of the gods, but it faded after a few moments," she said.
"Is there anything else that happened?" Bruce asked.
"The ground shook around us. We felt the tremors of the Earth for several hours afterward," she said.
Bruce took note of what she had seen. Every detail told him the potential of what could happen here. The entire city could be engulfed within this explosion and when it was everything would die. It wasn't a villain he could stop, it wasn't an organization that could be dealt with, but instead it was a natural, or rather supernatural, occurrence he had no control over.
"Was there any smell that happened before the light?" he asked.
"Yes, there was the smell of burning sulfur. It was thicker the closer to place where the army had been," she said.
"Did it come suddenly or gradually?" he asked.
"It built over time. We began noticing it a few hours before the light shot up," she said.
He nodded and then looked at Diana. She smiled at the sister and walked toward her.
"Thank you Aello," she said.
"It is my place to serve," she said as she bowed.
A moment later the hard light construct that made up Aello's secondary body disappeared indicating that the virtual reality matrix had been disconnected. Bruce walked toward the computer and began inputting everything Aello had told him into the fragmented pieces of what he already knew.
"You fear it will happen here don't you?" Diana asked.
"Why wouldn't I fear it, Princess?" he asked.
"Bruce, if it is to occur here there is every chance in the world you could evacuate the city," she said.
"It would take more than a few hours to evacuate everyone from the city, and there is every chance people would be missed," he replied.
"The League could help ensure everyone is removed safely," she said.
"No," he replied.
"Hera, Bruce we are your friends. It wouldn't be for any reason other than to ensure the safety of every life here," she said.
"Having the entire league here would only stir confusion. People would panic, and it is even more likely someone would be left behind," he replied.
"What about having Kal..." she began before he turned toward her.
"Having him scan the city? If this spectral explosion is going to happen here it means magic is building up. Superman is weak against magic. If he was caught in the blast it would kill him. There is every chance the magic could affect him in any number of ways. It would too dangerous to have him here. West is too immature to handle an evacuation, John and Shayera have patched things up between them. That means they would be more focused on each other's safety than the mission. It would make them sloppy," he said.
"What about me?" she asked.
"You couldn't evacuate everyone by yourself," he answered.
"And you could?" she asked as she quirked her eyebrow.
"If there's enough time I may not have to," he replied.