Act IV

Scene 4

No Escape

The angular shape of the Batwing rumbled through the sky, the sound being the only evidence of its otherwise untraceable path across the pitch black sky back to the glittering spires of Gotham in the distance. Inside the craft, a weary Bruce Wayne left the controls on autopilot as he retired to the narrow confines of the fuselage. He placed a gloved hand against the wall and his suit was removed via the ship's automation systems. He opened a panel next to the suit's storage pod which dispensed a civilian change of clothes consisting on black pants and a tight fitting white t-shirt.

Moments later and the craft's cloaking device activated. The ship glided sightlessly around the gothic structures and over the quiet streets of Gotham. Finally the craft hovered to a stand-still a few feet away from a ninth story window of a nondescript brick building on Bleake Island. Bruce slapped a hand against a button on the wall and the ramp at the back of the craft opened.

There to greet Bruce at the window was an expectant looking Diana Prince, her hair blowing gently from the slight air motion caused by the Batwing's gently thrumming engines. Otherwise, aside from a slight distortion of the air around the craft when viewed close up, the plane was almost entirely invisible to the naked eye. It was something that had always left Diana in a genuine state of awe. She simply had to have one of her own, even though she knew she probably couldn't begin to fathom just how much Wayne Tech R&D had been sunk into this invisible wonder. So it was without too much effort that she held out a hand and guided Bruce off the craft and through the window of her apartment.

Bruce ran his fingers through his hair as he took a quick scan around Diana's apartment. Though he had long known her address, he had never actually taken the time to visit, and he was beginning to regret that he hadn't. There were times he regretted being so attached to his crumbling castle back on the mainland, since Diana's place was the very picture of urban style, with furniture selected and arranged like something out of a magazine, a brick accent wall, and various antiques littered about the place, probably items that had been gifted to Diana by their creators. It was with all this in mind that Bruce was forced to let out an impressed whistle as Diana shut the window and turned to face him. "Nice place you've got here," he commented.

Diana crossed her arms and leaned against the window. "The results of your CitiVision project," she thanked.

Bruce smirked as he ventured a few steps further into the residence and briefly toyed with a very old looking bronze scale set on a pedestal. "I only give to CitiVision as part of my philanthropic responsibilities. It's my friends who shoulder most of that burden."

"It was your concept," Diana pointed out as she uncrossed her arms, stood up and walked nearer to Bruce. "You don't give yourself enough credit," she purred as she touched his arm with one hand and balanced the swaying scale with the other.

"Okay, you may not have that magic rope of yours, but I think I'll tell you the truth anyway," Bruce announced with a smug look as he turned to face Diana. His expression vaporized when he noticed that aside from an overlarge sweater and underwear, Diana wasn't wearing anything else. Her brown hair fell down in wispy tangles around her shoulders and she had actually taken the time to do her nails; a concession, Bruce suspected, for her visit to the White House. Still, Diana's state of attire was informal to say the least and he was caught utterly off guard causing him to verbally stumble before continuing with his otherwise confident statement. "I, uh, my philanthropic work is all a delightful game I play with the authorities so I can duck a few taxes. When you get to be as wealthy as I am, you end up having to give away millions one way or another and I prefer to have more say in how it gets dispersed. CitiVision is only one of many such efforts. It's a family tradition, in fact. And if my money ends up turning run down sections of crime ridden city into bars and lofts crawling with hipster socialites, all the better."

"Hmm, I would have never figured you to be such a consummate scofflaw," Diana said as she leaned herself against Bruce's arm and traced circles on his chest with her fingertips.

Bruce gently grabbed her hand and returned it to her side. "In order to become… what I become at night, it takes a certain amount of disregard for the law."

"Ah, is that why Bruce Wayne was at the White House tonight?" Diana asked with a grin.

Bruce shook his head as he brushed Diana off his arm and paced back to the window. "Bruce Wayne was not at the White House tonight. The Dark Knight was, and he found out a few things about the fate of the friend we just lost."

The look on Diana's features grew grim. She gripped the bevel of the scales as she wondered aloud, "I hope you made that man pay for what he did to Clark. No amount of blood and broken bones is too harsh for him."

Bruce spun and fixed Diana with a hard stare. "That's not how I operate!" he declared forcefully. Diana looked taken aback but he continued on as he turned back to the window and placed a raised hand on the top of the frame. He looked down at the streets below and explained, "Besides, I couldn't have brought myself to do it even if I had wanted to. Perhaps… perhaps I saw what Clark saw in him after all these years… a frail old man with a fading memory whose only desire is to retire back to his ranch in peace. I've seen the look of fear in the eyes of I don't know how many criminals, but the look in his eyes was different. He capitulated so easily. No, he's not the one we should be worried about."

Diana threw up her hands and said, "Then who is it? I cried for a day and a night after you sent me that footage, and I want to know who's responsible!"

Bruce took a deep breath and let out, "It was the very person I sent you to see: Miss Wells. After all those years working for me, I figured she would be more loyal. Clark made a lot of enemies after his battle with Zod that killed so many in Metropolis and I guess she was one of them. When Wayne Enterprises stopped creating anti-Kryptonian technology in the wake of the creation of the League, she must have figured she would achieve the destruction of Superman by other means. It means she lied to me when she resigned Wayne Enterprises for the President's cabinet purely for professional reasons. I knew she was taking a pay cut but I figured it was the allure of working for a President. Just another in a long line of bad assumptions I've made about people over the years," he finished bitterly.

Diana approached Bruce and wrapped her arms around him as she leaned her head against his back. "This is dire news indeed," she acknowledged in that slightly dated speech of hers. "What are we going to do?"

Bruce shook his head. "I don't know. The listening device I left in the residence picked up that they were moving the President and his staff to the bunker at Mount Weather. I couldn't discern their reasons why or if it had to do with me, but I imagine Miss Wells will be with him after what I just learned tonight. That place is a fortress Diana. Not even all the fire power of my car could see me in there and there's no sneaking in, trust me."

"I always do," Diana returned. "That's why I followed the instructions you left with the Afghanistan footage to the letter while I was at the White House."

"Something I'm very grateful for," Bruce thanked. "Without the aid, I wouldn't have been able to get past the security. Still, something tells me that wasn't all that happened while you were there," Bruce gathered.

"My mother was there," stated Diana.

Bruce turned and gently held Diana by the arms while looking concerned. "Hippolyta? What was she doing outside Themyscira?"

Diana smiled wanly. "That was my first question as well." Then her expression grew serious. "She knows about Darkseid's fleet. She came to warn the President, except…"

"Except Miss Wells told you he was unavailable," Bruce finished for her.

"Yes, how did you know?" Diana asked.

"Lucky guess," Bruce mumbled as he raised a hand from Diana's arm to rub the stubble on his chin pensively.

Diana let out a small harrumph before jabbing a finger into Bruce's chest. "You know what; you've been ignoring my directive. I told you no more nocturnal outings until I gave you permission. You've been bad."

Bruce shrugged. "I figured given all that's happened recently, you might give me a pass to do some reconnoitering, and judging by your lack of interference, in fact, dare I say you're cooperation, I was correct in that assumption."

A smile returned to Diana's face as she took a few steps backward and leaned against a nearby table. "So what now Bat boy? We know we're being hunted. We know who's responsible, and there's a terrible iron faced menace with a heavily armed space fleet bent on Armageddon headed our way, all the while our friends up in the tower are resolved to do nothing… less than nothing. They're going to roll back our ability to respond."

"Once again, I honestly don't know what we should do. That's why I came to visit you. To plan and… to think," Bruce reiterated.

"I don't know how much longer we have to do that, but you're welcome to stick around for as long as you'd like," Diana offered as she gestured around her apartment. "Although" she demurred as a sudden thought clearly came across her mind. "I think it's only fair. If you're going to be using my place as a base of operations, then I think it's only fair that I get a peek inside your fancy jet."

Bruce looked befuddled as he replied, "The Batwing? Why would you want to see in there?"

A mischievous look curled its way around Diana's lips. "Come on," she urged. "I've shown you mine. Now show me yours."

There was a tense silence for a beat before Bruce shrugged again and conceded with a wave, "Sure, why not. Be warned, though, there's not a lot of head space."

"We'll see about that," Diana purred as she followed Bruce out the window and onto the ramp that appeared out of the air. The inside of the Batwing was indeed a little small. There was a seat in the back which doubled as a passenger seat and an ejector seat, while the other side of the hull held an array of gadgets and armor, including pods housing a few variations on the Bat suit. An overhead display showed a heat map of the surrounding area, and a list of other smaller icons on the screen could be tapped to full screen which would show items like ship vitals, human vitals, tactical readouts and even the latest police data.

Once they reached the pilot seat, Bruce proceeded to explain the various functions of all the switches and lights on the control board. Diana nodded along in polite bliss as her eyes darted between the objects Bruce was pointing to and his sizable bicep. At one point she was sure he noticed her doing this, but whether he did or not, he made no mention of it as he plowed ahead with his proud descriptions of the Batwing's technology. Finally Diana grew bored enough that she reached out a hand and asked, "And what does this switch do?" She flipped a red switch and the interior of the Batwing glowed orange for a second as a gout of flames shot out the front of the craft.

The flames were quickly dowsed when Bruce slammed the switch back into place. Looking a little flustered he said, "That, is the flamethrower."

"Oh Hera, I'm so sorry!" Diana exclaimed through giggles as she slumped against the console to Bruce's right side. Her giggles soon evolved into a fit of laughter and after a time, even Bruce felt himself infected by the contagiousness of Diana's laughter, a sound of delight so innocent and genuine that its effect on him had always been difficult to deny.

At length, their laughter died down, and the look on Bruce's face burned down to a serious scowl, forcing Diana to ask, "What's wrong Bruce?"

Bruce sighed, collapsed into the pilot seat and rubbed his eye with the palm of his hand. "Nothing," he breathed. "It's just… a few weeks ago, I was at rock bottom. Jason was dead, Barbara was fighting for her life, and all I wanted was to be alone." Bruce looked up at Diana with sudden tears in his eyes. "But of all the people I know, you were the one person who would not honor that wish. And now I find out that Jason is alive and Barbara is going to recover, and all this shit with Clark… Through all of it, you never lost hope in me. You saw me as necessary when no one else, not even myself, thought so."

Diana sat up and reached out a hand to Bruce's face. "That's because you are, Bruce. You're the best of us. You saw all this coming when no one else could. We're lost without you. I was wrong to tell you to hold back who you are during the night. You are the night, and I had no right to deprive you of that."

Bruce gently rested his hand on Diana's outstretched arm and rubbed it as he responded, "No, you had every right. I was needlessly endangering myself because I thought there was nothing left to fight for." He turned his head and looked deep into Diana's eyes. "You showed me how wrong I was."

Diana could feel the tears starting to well up in her own eyes as she beheld the look of pure sincerity in Bruce's face. "You know," she said. "You can be a stubborn bastard sometimes, but I'm never going to give up on you, not even in the face of the end of the world. I'll always keep fighting for you Bruce… because I love you, and I'm never going to let you forget that."

For a time, the pair just sat there in a stunned silence. Then, almost without warning, Diana leaned in and gave Bruce a short kiss. She tried backing away but Bruce grabbed her by the back of the head and brought her in for a longer, deeper kiss. It was all Diana could do to resist the over powering desire to let herself just fall into this man, and after a time she surrendered to the feeling when the tension in her knees gave out.

Bruce shot his arms out and grabbed the woman by the torso. He held her close as she laid her hands gently on his shoulders while they continued to kiss. Then he hoisted her with some effort into his lap. There they broke apart for a moment and looked at each other. Diana looked mystic and ethereal with her hair in wild tangles about her shoulders and with the starry night sky behind her, shown through the pilot's viewport. The lighting inside the craft gave her features a neon overlay which combined with her bewitching stare to make for an enrapturing sight.

As Bruce sat underneath her, Diana could see that characteristic look of calm come back over the man she had desired for so long. No longer was there a man broken by the horrors of loss, but a man with renewed conviction. His gaze was hawkish as it pierced through to her very soul. It was almost enough to make her feel a sense of fear at what this man was capable of, but she didn't care. She trusted him completely.

Before too long, they continued their kissing. Diana reached down and forcefully ripped Bruce's shirt open in a small show of her otherworldly strength. She wanted him. She wanted every part and nothing was going to stand in her way. The blind furry of passion had seized her completely and there was now no escape.

As she reached down to unbuckle his pants, Bruce stood up and brought the Amazon into the air with his arms secured around her thighs. Her legs locked around his back as he threw off her sweater and moved the strap of her underwear aside.

Diana felt the ice cold of the viewport window as Bruce backed her into it. The cold of the glass stung against her skin of her body which had grown white hot. She could feel even more heat starting to gather in each cheek as she started to blush. There they continued, their breathing growing more and more ragged until finally Bruce threw her onto the control console and their breathing started to syncopate.

Bruce was shocked at the intensity to which his feelings for this woman had grown in the years since he'd first met Diana. At first he had dismissed her feelings as nothing but a schoolyard crush, and it had taken him years until finally, now he understood. In all the tragedy, in all the pain, she had been and would always be there for him. He hadn't known true love until this very moment and it filled him with a sense of wonder. How could he have been so blind? The world had seemed so dark, so unforgiving, and now he held the answer to it in his arms. He could feel her breath against his face, the slight sensation of moisture on his fingers as he brushed sweat from her face, and he could feel the intense heat of her body against his as they moved together faster and faster until they could go no more. At that point, Diana's hand darted out and raked the controls, flipping the flamethrower switch once again and sending a great white gout of flame blazing into the night.