Shayera leaned away from Bruce, scrunching her face as she did. "Talk about me?" she repeated. Shayera did not want to talk about herself, but Bruce didn't seem to care. It wasn't like she could go anywhere, and he didn't give her much of a choice when he began speaking about pastimes. "I remember the first time we stood together as a group. I was watching you," Bruce began. "I found it odd how closely you seemed to be studying each of us. Then your gaze landed on Green Lantern. At the time, I thought it was a smile that formed on your face. Looking back, it was a smirk. You were looking for a target."
"I needed to solidify my place in the group," Shayera shrugged. "Becoming romantically involved with someone seemed to be the best course of action. Superman was larger than life and seemed to always have his head in the clouds. Of course, being able to see and hear everything within a 5000-mile radius like a god wasn't helpful." Bruce smirked at that. "Flash was too immature. The Martian Manhunter…no. Wonder Woman is gorgeous, but I don't swing that way. Also, she's just as dominating as I am. We barely got along in general. A romantic anything between her and I wouldn't last longer than a week. Green Lantern – or John –wore his heart on his sleeve. I remember thinking about how easy it would be for me to make him fall in love. A flirty, borderline sexual comment here and there - pretend to not understand the way of humans. Let him think he was rescuing me. Act tough; pretend I was setting up emotional walls, guarding myself, afraid to show the real me. The day I took off my mask and showed him my face…I knew I had him. I could see it in his eyes. Showing my face to him and no one else - he thought I finally opened up to him. He thought I had laid all my cards on the table. He thought he had my heart," Shayera whispered, "but he didn't have my heart. He saw what I wanted him to see." Shayera stopped speaking for a second. "Wow!" she gasped. "I really am quite ruthless," she whispered.
"Yeah," Bruce drew the word out, "I don't buy that."
"What?"
"Firstly, ruthless or not, there is no doubting your intelligence, and I fully believe you are capable of everything you just said you did. However, I don't think that everything you did for John was a cover. Did you love him? I don't know. I do, however, strongly believe what started as a con became real. No plan survives first contact with the enemy."
"Uh…excuse me?"
"You may have set out to play and manipulate John; but, somewhere along the way, the lines between real and fake blurred until it was all real."
"My feelings for John weren't real," Shayera's lip twitched as she refuted Bruce's claim.
"I'll pretend that you're not lying to me."
"Okay, Mister…Therapist. It's my turn to psychoanalyze your love life."
"Go ahead," Bruce smirked.
"Two words. Diana. Prince." The smirk immediately fell from Bruce's face. "Go ahead and exit the room," Shayera sighed in satisfaction. "I know that's what you do when emotional conversation becomes too much for you."
"Do you see me moving towards the door?"
"Diana wanted you, and everyone knew it," Shayera continued. "At one point, even I thought the feelings were reciprocated. But…but…you would never allow yourself to love someone like Diana no matter how beautiful and strong she is."
"You sound jealous."
Shayera gave him a look, ignoring his comment. "If you entered into a relationship with Diana, you would have had to give up being Batman."
"I wouldn't have had to give up anything."
"If you'd let Diana in, she would have taken all that darkness and turned it into a big ball of light, and that terrified you because who is Batman without his darkness," Shayera paused, "and who is Bruce Wayne without Batman?"
They held each other's stare. "You're right," Bruce admitted slowly. "I couldn't let Diana in because she'd take what was broken and fix it."
"But…you're not broken," she spoke slowly as if realizing something for the first time. "Traumatized? Definitely. Psychotic? A little. That doesn't make you broken, Bruce. It just makes you, as you earthlings say, human. Diana would have tried to fix you, but you don't need to be fixed," she spoke succinctly. Shayera finally looked back at Bruce to see him giving her a strange look. "What?" Shayera frowned. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Before she could say anything else, before she could even blink, Bruce slammed his lips onto hers.
"You are back," Chey-Ara turned and faced the green man who had just phased up from the floor. J'ohnn sat in a chair and stared at the dark-skinned hawk in front of him. "I did not get a chance to ask you…why are you able to take your wings off?" he motioned to the beautiful white wings on the bed.
"You came here to ask me that?" Chey-Ara frowned. "Fine," she sighed when the Martian only stared at her with his red eyes. "My wings are not organic," Chey-Ara stated simply. "How long are you going to keep me here?"
"Thanagar can make wings that attach to and detach from your spine. How do you control them?"
"With our minds. You cannot keep me here forever," Chey-Ara said.
"Interesting. And we have no intention of keeping you here forever." Chey-Ara rolled her eyes.
"I do not understand why I'm still here," she muttered. J'ohnn said nothing. "Obviously, you are not going to torture me…unless being stuck in here is a form of torture. If that is the case, I was once put in a hole for insubordination. It was standing room only, and I remained in there for three Earth days. This room is way more comfortable and way bigger than that hole."
"This isn't a form of torture."
"Good, because you are really bad at it." She pursed her lips in thought. I do have a question, though. Why did…she…betray us? Thanagar. We only wanted to help Earth," Chey-Ara said.
"Hmm," J'ohnn sat back in his chair thoughtfully. "I believe this is a question only Shayera can answer."
