CHAPTER 11. VISIT TO GOTHAM CITY.

18:30

As he continued up the mountain on Barry's bike, his mind kept going over what Donna had told him. She had told him that her sister had gone to Gotham the day before, she didn't say why, but every time he thought about it, he was close to coming to the conclusion why she had done it. To this was added that he remembered the voice that called him in his dreams.

For the first time, he remembered what that dream was that had woken him up so many mornings without being able to remember it all those times.

"Bruce, Bruce, Bruce. You do not remember me?" The voice told him. It felt so good to remember it, or at least part of what had happened that day.

XXX

RETROSPECTIVE SCENE.

8:30

The day before the Petropoulos comet fell on the town, she was leaving her house, accompanied by little Donna. She was dressed in her school uniform, only this time, she was wearing an additional yellow vest. She would have dressed in casual or sportswear, but she didn't want to arouse suspicion in Aunt Antiope about what she was going to do today. But, she knew that everyone would notice her absence in an instant, so when they were already on the way to school, she spoke to her younger sister.

"I'm going to Gotham City for a few hours," she said, not looking at her face, knowing that her sister wouldn't go tell Aunt Antiope right away, since they were already close to the school. But, Donna quickly turned around with a surprised face.

"What? Why?" Asked. It was not uncommon for her to tell her that she was going to a city she had never heard of before for a few hours. In addition, she did not know the great desire of her older sister to leave Little Volos as soon as she graduated and got a scholarship or some kind of help to go to any other place to never return to that town. "And where is that city?" She added, wanting to know the answer.

"Don't worry, Donna. I did research and it's close. I just need a few trips to get there" She said, without giving further details. Although that was true. The day before this one, she investigated where that city was, and, fortunately, it was possible to visit it when she saw that it was not on the other side of the country.

"But you didn't tell me why you're going" Donna said, moving in front of her.

The older sister didn't want to be too explicit with her younger sister, so she said something very short to her.

"I have a date" She answered and continued walking, passing Donna. But she didn't know that this had made her sister's interest grow.

"Do you have a boyfriend there?" Donna asked now. This got weirder, but because she had never seen her interested in someone for a date.

"I didn't say it was my date" Her sister replied somewhat nervously. "I'll be back at night" She told her before turning off the road and heading towards the train stop.

When she got to the stop, she waited for the train to arrive for a few minutes and got on it. Thanks to her cell phone, she knew which directions and stops to make to get to Gotham City, so her trip went normally.

XXX

7:00 p.m.

As he got closer to the top of the mountain to reach the altar of the god Chronos, the path had become more difficult to going up, especially considering that he was on a bicycle and had no motor. But this didn't matter to him. He wanted and needed to keep going up if he could get to see the girl he wanted to see so badly, so he kept going up.

XXX

12:00

Being close to reaching Gotham City, she got quite nervous. Not for going to that city, because she had already been there many times before, in his body, but she had been there. What was making her nervous was the reaction she might provoke from the boy she had come to see. She wondered if he would be surprised to see her, or if the opposite was the case and it would bother him. It was probable that he didn't like to see her, since their relationship had only been one of understanding and mutual help so as not to get hurt in a totally strange situation.

She had to stop thinking about it because the train had already arrived at its destination, and well, she also checked her cell phone to see if she wasn't going to get off at the wrong place. Seeing that she was in the right place, she got out of the train and saw many people pass through that same station, but, for obvious reasons, the boy he had come to see was not there.

Determined not to waste time unnecessarily, she decided to dial his cell phone. She had memorized it last time and managed to write it down in time, before she forgot, on her cell phone so she could call him at any time.

However, the call never came. She was received by voice mail, which told her "The number you dialed is not available" so she decided to hang up. She called twice more, but had the same result.

"It seems like it's impossible for us to see each other" She thought to herself. It looked like she wasn't going to be able to see him easily, but, she knew she couldn't give up that easily. "But what if it isn't?" She asked to herself as she looked at a map on her cell phone to get to the University where he surely should be at this time.

Seeing that this might be the next stop, she took the monorail to get there faster. As she sat there, she didn't see the great view that she had liked to see of the city, which was better for her than the view of the town of Little Volos, she was thinking about him and how he might react once he saw it.

"What should I do? Would he mind?" She asked herself again. "It would be uncomfortable? Or maybe… would he like to see me? Even a little?" She didn't stop thinking about him and that situation, not even when she got on a bus to get to the university after getting off the monorail.

Before arriving at the university where he was supposed to be, she called him once more on his cell phone, but again it was sent to the mailbox. Seeing this, she stopped using her cell phone and went to the University, more specifically to the entrance, waiting for him to come out or go in that way.

She was waiting two hours for him to show up, but she never saw him. There were a lot of guys, and she actually thought he was among them, but they weren't the one she was looking for. She even thought that Dick or Tim might be there, but they weren't there either.

"It seems that they did not come today" She said as she lowered her head and left the University.

After that, she went to the apartment building where she was sure he was going to be, but, again, she waited for an hour standing on the stairs, hoping that he would stop by at some point. Unfortunately, he never appeared at that location. Fed up with waiting, she went up to where she was sure his apartment was and knocked on the door three times.

There was no answer. To make matters worse, she couldn't see inside the apartment. The curtains were closed on all sides, and there was no peephole through which she could see inside.

"It seems that it is impossible for us to see each other" She said to herself before leaving the building. Fortunately, no one saw her leave, and there was no reception, so perhaps it would have made it very awkward for her, and for him.

Seeing that the person she was looking for didn't show up, she decided to go to the cafe she always frequented with Dick and Tim, it was the last place she could think of that he would be finished for the school day. So she went, and waited, but this time for half an hour. And, to her surprise, no one showed up. There was neither Dick, nor Tim, nor the person he had gone looking for.

With this, she thought that at least she could take the opportunity to wander around the city, perhaps, she would run into him at some point. Also, this served to be in the city with her real body, and not in his body. And well, it still felt good to be in a place where she wasn't associated with Mayor Princeton.

As she kept walking, going up and down the stairs, seeing the huge skyscrapers in the city, the restaurants and the parks in the city, resting a little from this long walk, crossing the streets and seeing the many people passing by the places where she was; she couldn't stop thinking about him. She kept thinking about how he would react to seeing her, about whether he would be good or bad when he saw her.

But, of one thing she was sure. Once they saw each other, they would know immediately: that it was he who was inside her and that it was she who was inside him.

He wandered around the city until six in the evening, and, seeing that she had to go back to the town of Little Volos, because it was not at all safe to stay, she had to go to the monorail to get to the train station faster. Therefore, when she bought her ticket and crossed the barrier to get to it, she sat on the bench and waited for about ten minutes for the monorail to arrive, very patiently, with the hopes of seeing the boy with whom she swapped bodies totally dashed. She'd made a completely pointless visit to Gotham City, and she'd resigned herself to not seeing him.

When the monorail arrived, she got up quickly and entered it, struggling because some people were leaving, moving around because their stop was the next one on the monorail, or just didn't want to move.

When she reached the center of the car, she saw him. He was in front of her, the boy she'd swapped bodies with, and the one she'd come to see, was in front of her, but he wasn't paying attention to her. He was more focused on his high school scorecards, which she paid no attention to. She also didn't pay attention that he wasn't dressed in his usual outfit from Zatara's Entertainment Agency, and he wasn't wearing his college uniform, he was just wearing a short-sleeved black shirt with blue pants.

But, she didn't pay attention to that either because she was only focused on him. He was finally in front of her, and she just wanted to talk to him. She was so happy to have found him, but at the same time nervous about what she had to tell him, that she pushed a hair behind her ear as a nervous gesture.

XXX

19:30

The climb had become so hard that every time he pedaled he was out of breath. He was close to dusk, but he was not giving up. He needed to see that girl, or see if she was there, in his body to tell her about his plan to save the town from the comet. But, he was already so tired from pedaling that he didn't notice that he had left the road and was about to fall a few meters. He realized it just in time to grab onto a tree branch, but it was the bike that ended up falling about ten feet, destroying its seat, but both wheels were still in place.

He thought that he could go down and try to climb it, but he didn't want to waste any more time, so he climbed holding on to the branch he had used to avoid falling and returned to the path. Only this time, he started running. It was better and faster now that the climb was still too steep for the bike to go faster.

Already going a few meters, he began to think about her and the voice from that dream again, finally coming to the conclusion of what had happened. He came to the conclusion that it had not been a dream either, as was the case with the altar to the god Cronos.

"That time…three years ago…before I met you" He thought to himself.

XXX

Thinking for a whole minute about what she was going to say to him, she finally plucked up her courage and spoke. He was in front of her now, and she might not be able to see him until much later, so she wasn't going to let him slip away.

"Bruce, Bruce, Bruce" She called him three times, but because he wasn't paying attention to her. It wasn't until the third time that he finally looked up from his notes and fixed his gaze on her. "It's me" She said with a shy smile and pointing to herself. However, there was no response from him, just a stare. Therefore, she decided to ask him a question. "You do not remember me?" She asked slowly and nervously.

"Do I know you?" It was what he asked her. He didn't give any sign that he was happy to see her, he was just surprised, and upset because this stranger approached him thinking that he was going to meet her, or wanted to play a joke on him like the girl who ended up leaving him for another guy.

She gasped in surprise. She thought that she could insist that he knew her and that they had been swapping bodies over and over again in the last few days, and that was why she knew him. However, with that question and that facial expression, he had made everything clear. He wasn't happy to see her, and he didn't want to see her, so she resigned himself and looked away.

"Excuse me" She said, placing her hand on her chest. Tears threatened to appear.

Right after, the monorail lurched slightly, accidentally pushing her closer to him, her shoulder touching his chest.

Despite this, he did nothing but keep his gaze fixed on something else, not her.

She kept thinking that this couldn't be happening. He must have recognized her, or told her that he did know her, or asked her why she was there, but that wasn't happening. "But it's Bruce" She thought to herself, moving her head a little to try to find an answer to his behavior.

"This girl is really weird" He said in his mind, looking at her for a second and then away.

That awkward moment was finally interrupted when she took out her phone and saw that she was about to get to the train station. So, when the monorail reached its destination and the doors opened, she, along with other people, began to get out of the monorail.

As for him, he didn't know why, but within him, a great interest to talk to that girl seized him. So, even though she was already leaving, he spoke to her.

"Wait!" Told her. Fortunately, she heard him, so she turned around, but she couldn't stay because two other people getting out of the monorail prevented her from getting close to him. "What's your name?" He asked, taking a step forward.

She immediately grabbed both ends of her red ribbon when she answered him.

"Diana!" She told him, and a second later she untied her red ribbon, losing her classic braid, and threw it at him, who caught it by grabbing it by one end. "My name is Diana!"

END OF THE FLASHBACK

XXX

19:45

He kept running, even picking up speed. He did a little jump forward, because there was a little dip on the way up. He landed on both feet and supported himself with his hand to keep running without losing speed. Coming to the conclusion of what that dream was had motivated him to go faster.

"That time, three years ago, you came to see me" He said in his mind. Feeling happy that she went to see him, but angry not knowing who she was that time.

He shouldn't blame himself. Neither of them came to the realization that every time they swapped bodies, time was pretty messed up. Therefore, his response was a very normal one before an unknown girl who claims to know about you.

However, this did not alleviate him, so he increased his speed. He didn't want to leave without seeing her at least once, to make amends for what happened three years ago, but he hoped she would be there when he reached the top of the mountain.