Batman and King Arthur

Paladin of Gotham

by Matthew Snee

Chapter Thirteen

"So you can send me back?" asked the Batman.

"Of course! I always planned to."

"Many want me to stay."

"That is true. But you cannot. You do not belong here."

"What will happen to Britain?"

"Oh, there are dark years ahead, many dark years."

"There's nothing you can do?"

"No, my time of interference is over."

"Why did you bring me here?"

"Why indeed," mused Merlin. "I suppose because I feel an affinity towards you, and I suppose because I thought you might learn something."

"Who are you to teach me?" the Batman asked.

"Why I am the son of the Devil, of course!"

"And?"

"And, that will be explanation enough. I haven't my resume printed out right now!"

Batman grunted in disapproval of the wizard's levity. It had been a miserable adventure here in Britain.

"Tell me this though, Dark Knight," Merlin said. "You have made many compromises here, have you not?"

Batman thought of all who had died while he had been here, some caused by his own actions. "I have," he said. "I'm a little surprised with myself. Surprised, and disappointed." Then another question came to him: "I haven't changed the future or anything with my actions have I?"

"No, no! Time doesn't work like that my friend, trust me. It's like a cheating student, fudging results. Things will all work out, I assure you. Nothing happened that didn't happen, if you get my drift."

"I get your...'drift', I think," said Batman.

"So then - are you ready to go back?"

"I am," the Dark Knight replied.

"Let's get on with it then!"

Merlin went to the time machine and started playing it. But instead of playing a chord, like he had to throw Batman back in time in the first place, he now played a soft, tragic melody, the likes of which Batman had never heard, in a key he had never imagined.

"Just be patient now, until I get to the chorus," joked the wizard.

Once again, Batman grunted. He was in no mood for games.

Merlin continued playing the melody until he changed to a new one, and now all the crystal in the cave vibrated and sang along with the time machine, and Batman began to feel a vertigo.

The wizard joined the melody with an encompassing chord, and then all disappeared around the Batman except the music, and once again he catapulted through time.

The Dark Knight quickly floated back up the spiral. But as he made his way through time, he could feel the spirits of those he had met in the past swirl around him, as though they were saying goodbye. For a moment he felt Arthur's presence, and then Durant's, and even Affelette's.

Then he passed through a kaleidoscope of years, and he saw many wars on the periphery of his vision, and many deaths, and love, and hardships. If time was made up of bubbling, interconnected moments, now he climbed their fragile forms towards the unwitting present.

Many things he saw and felt, and a crushing fatigue filled his heart even as he rushed through an extraordinary dizziness. He heard words that didn't make sense, tasted things he knew were impossible, and felt tingling brushes of something along his skin.

The music that enveloped him and was the engine of all this continued to throb and swell, and he was amazed at the melodic vibration, and the awesome power of sound.

Finally, his ascension slowed, and reality became more crisp. He could feel his own century, and in his sight he found the gothic towers of Gotham rising around him.

At last, there was one more climax of harmony, and then, finally -

He was home, sitting in the Bat Cave, as though he had never left.

It was amazing - both comforting and alien at the same time. Such reality seemed so impossibly far when he was back in the past, but now he was here again.

He looked at the cave around him - the dark walls, the bats high above, his computers and other gadgets and vehicles - they were all here. He found himself dressed in his Bat Suit.

His wounds however were as real as they had been back in the past. "I need medical assistance," he decided.

Then Batman heard a voice:

"Sir?"

It was Alfred. He turned and saw his man-servant and best friend standing some meters away from him, holding a glass of coffee and orange juice on a tray.

"Yes, Alfred," Batman smiled, unbelievably enthused by seeing his butler again.

"Is everything alright sir?"

"Yes, Alfred, everything is fine."

"Good, sir."

"How long have I been gone?" Batman asked.

"Gone, sir?"

"Haven't I been away for some time?"

"To my knowledge you have been down here for the whole night," said Alfred.

Batman laughed. "Boy," he said. "Do I have a story to tell you!"

"Wonderful, sir," said Alfred.

"But first, could you do me a favor, Alfred?"

"Of course, sir."

"Could you put on some music?"

Alfred raised an eyebrow. It was not customary for Batman to listen to music.

"Music, sir?"

Batman smiled.

Yes. Music.