Batman had been trapped in many varieties of hell before, but as he sat in the cockpit and stared blankly at a monitor he thought that this one might be the worst yet.

Eight hours had passed since he had watched his sons be taken prisoner and led out of sight. The feeling of total uselessness that had assaulted him as he'd waited to see if their captor would shoot them in front of him hadn't waned in the least, and he couldn't stand it. If he could just know that they were still alive, then maybe his stress would become slightly more manageable...

But he had nothing; no information, no plan, and no solace. They had managed to dig up more facts about Tracy Collins, but that wasn't his primary topic of interest. As good as it was to finally know who their villain was – and there could be little doubt that it was her, not after what they'd discovered about her husband – it couldn't begin to make up for all of the knowledge that he was still lacking. I need to know that you're safe, boys, he swallowed hard. I need to know that you're alive.

The door opened behind him, and a moment later Robin appeared at his elbow. "No change," he said before he could be asked.

"...I hope I get to punch that bitch right in the face."

Normally he would have counseled the boy to redirect his anger into some useful activity, but there was no task to give him towards that end. Besides, he was rather looking forward to getting a few licks in himself if she resisted arrest. That being the case, he let his lips twitch upwards for an instant rather than launching into a lecture. "We'll get our chance. We just have to..." His teeth ground against each other. "...Be patient."

A short silence spun out between them. "...Father?"

"Mm?"

"If...if she's...if they're...dead," Robin spat out, "will you...couldn't we...?"

He turned to face his youngest straight on. "Couldn't we what?" he asked, one eyebrow lifting beneath the cowl.

"...Kill her?"

"No. You know the answer is always no."

"But-!"

"Damian," he cut the child off, "listen to me. I understand that urge. I understand it very well. But we cannot, we do not, and we will not kill. Not her, not anyone else. Not on purpose. Not even..." He had to pause and clear his head of the awful visions of death that suddenly assaulted him. "...Not even if she's killed them."

"Do you really think you'll be able to stop yourself in that situation?"

The query was made in a tone of mingled disbelief and awe that Batman wasn't sure he'd ever heard from the youth before. "I don't have a choice," he explained slowly, speaking as much to himself as to Robin. "Even if the moral question of killing wasn't a factor, there would still be her value as a prisoner to take into consideration. She possesses scientific and technical knowledge that could change the world. Beyond that, she may well be the only person who knows where all of the quakes are planned for. If that's the case, and if there's hardware involved, we need to know. It would be foolish to leave her system in place for the next person who comes along with a seismology fetish. For those reasons," he sighed, "I will have to control myself, even if...even if they are beyond our help."

"...You really do want to kill her, though, don't you?"

"Robin..." Yes, yes, the beastly part of his mind cried out for blood. Her death will throw at least a faint glow of justice over the stacks of bodies she has amassed! "...Suffice it to say that it would be in her best interest to give up without a fight."

Flash's head poked around the door. "Superman's here."

"Does he have news?" Batman inquired.

"I don't think so. I think he just came by to check in."

"No news," the Kryptonian called from further back in the plane.

"...Tell him to get in here."

It took a fair bit of shuffling and squeezing, but eventually all four of them were more or less inside the cockpit. "How are things?" Superman asked as he tried not to bump into anything important.

"Having found us in the same position where you left us, how do you think things are?" Batman said flatly.

"Well, I figured you would have called if anything changed, but...you never know." He hesitated. "Would it cheer you up any to hear that the evacuation is going well?"

It didn't cheer him up in the least, not when the only people he truly cared about evacuating were unreachable despite being right under his feet, but he gave a vague nod of his head anyway. "Good."

"We're expecting it any time within the next few hours," the visitor went on. "The quake, I mean. We're trying to evacuate the next few locations in the pattern, too, but it's tricky. Europe's been a hassle; I buried everything, but we're still having to monitor potential escape routes for fallout. We've had to divert a couple of times already, and believe me, that's a nightmare...Batman?" A frown entered his voice. "Batman, are you-"

"Shut up," he hissed, riveted to the screen that had spent the last third of a day making his brain numb. "Something's happening."

The others made a rush to see, but it was pointless in their cramped quarters. "Damn it," Robin, who was closest to him, muttered. "...Don't move," the boy ordered, and a second later Batman was bearing his youngest's weight on one knee.

"Aw-" Flash began to tease.

"Shut up!" both of the seated figures snapped.

No one spoke. "...Could you at least tell us what's going on, since we can't see the monitor?" Superman requested eventually.

"Dr. Collins is at the mouth of the cave. She looks like she's limping." While it was possible that she'd been hurt in any number of ways, he chose to take her injury as a sign that his sons were alive and fighting. That's my boys, he crowed to himself. Take her down...take her down hard...

The woman minced her way back down the same path she'd pushed Dick and Tim up earlier. Fall, you bitch, an unbidden thought rose in the watching man's mind. Just fall and end this. Tim could get the force field down without her, he was sure, and if she fell now no one could blame themselves for her demise. His children would be safe, as would the rest of the world, and the uncertainty he felt about his answer to Damian's question – do you really think you'll be able to stop yourself? – would quit haunting him.

She reached the base of the cliff just as Robin gasped and pointed at something higher on the screen. "It's Dick!" he exclaimed.

Batman had to bite back a shaking, tearful smile. Dicky...chum...careful! He winced as the man at the top of the stairs nearly took a tumble. Just a little while longer, kiddo. Just stay alive a little while longer, and I'll be able to get to you...everything will be okay…

If Dick was out and chasing the scientist, he could only imagine that Tim was inside and working on the force field. "Be prepared for the field to give out at any time," he warned as he flipped several switches on the dash. "I'm redirecting the engines so that we'll begin to descend the moment it goes."

They waited eagerly, ready for something to happen, but nothing did. Minutes passed as Dick navigated the ragged staircase and then set off after Collins, who had zeroed in on the bag Tim had been forced to abandon. What the hell is she looking for? Batman puzzled as she flung items left and right.

A hard bump drew his attention momentarily away from the action below. "What was that?" Flash asked, grabbing the back of the pilot's chair in order to keep his balance.

A glance at the altimeter made his heart soar. "We're descending. The force field is down."

The cockpit filled with more cheering than it seemed could possibly come from a mere three throats. Listening to them, Batman felt a smirk cross his face. On my way, boys. Almost there now...

On the ground, though, the situation was worsening. "She's got a knife," he shared grimly when Collins straightened with a blade in her hand.

"Don't go closer, Grayson, you idiot!" Robin shouted in his lap as the other two quieted. "That's just dumb!"

As if he'd heard his little brother's imperative, Dick stopped. He appeared to be speaking to the woman who was now stumbling back towards him, but there was no sign that his words were doing any good. On and on she came until, without warning, they both collapsed.

"What...?" Damian frowned up at him. "What happened?"

"I don't know," he shook his head. Collins rose, then dropped once more. "An aftershock, maybe," he hypothesized, "or..." His eyes went wide behind their lenses. No. Oh, Dicky-bird, no. There was no way he could reach him in time, he realized. They were descending as fast as they could, but they were still seven hundred feet above him...but it couldn't end, it couldn't, not like this, not when they were so goddamn close...

"Batman, what is it?!" Robin pestered.

"It's the river," he choked out, his throat almost too tight for speech. "The log jam, and the force field...all of the water that was dammed up is coming back into the channel." There was only one thing in the world that might be fast enough to keep Dick from being smashed into pieces and drowned now. "...Clark," he turned desperately to Superman. "Please, Clark...save my son."

The Kryptonian's jaw dropped. Before his expression of shock could fully form, though, he'd vanished. There was a loud bang as the exterior door in the passenger section was thrown open and just as quickly shut. Please, Bruce begged silently. Please...

Damian turned and buried his face against his shoulder suddenly, unable to watch. With a mild shock, he realized that the boy was crying again. You shouldn't be here for this, he lamented as he squeezed him. Dick wouldn't want you to see this, and neither do I. I'm sorry, son...I'm so sorry.

A blue streak appeared below, but it wasn't Superman. In the space of a blink Asperity Falls transformed from a dry drop-off to a spurting torrent. The basin below was scrubbed clean by the monstrous flow, which added everything in its path to its already impressive collection of debris. The entire valley shuddered, chunks of mountain sloughed off under the force of impact, and Batman closed his eyes as he felt something snap inside of himself.

No...