Batman: World of the Amazons

by Ethan1245

AU-There are two worlds: One has lost their Wonder Woman and the other has been ruled by the Amazons for over 1000 years. During a battle, Batman finds himself transported to this world. Taken prisoner, he is forced to fight and survive in this new land full of beautiful, yet dangerous women, with a fierce raven-haired queen standing out among the rest. A BMWW Adventure.

9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Whispers in the Dark

*Flashback on Batman's Original World*

The watchtower. The heroes were slumped around their meeting table. Princess Diana was gone.

They could still hear the anguish and pain as the Queen had cursed them and yelled at them to leave. It was all their fault. If her daughter had just stayed home, she never would have met such a fate. Whether that's true or not...who knows?

The air was as still and dead as the mood. The stars in space seemed much more dull than usual.

Flash was the first one to speak, as he leaned over the table, "That didn't just happen right? I mean it didn't? Right?"

John Stewart had his head bowed and his arms crossed, "It did, kid."

"We can fix this, can't we? I mean we saw the Underworld." Shayera spoke up, "Lets just go get her back from Hades."

Superman shook his head, "I don't think that was the place Diana will end up."

Silence took over again.

Once again, Wally was the first to talk up again, his speed not coping well with the stillness, "...I've never seen Bats like that."

"I know. He wouldn't even tell us how it happened. And he saw it all. J'onn, did you read his mind at all about it?" Green Lantern asked.

The Martian slowly shook his head, "The only time I tried to read his mind was when we met, I skimmed the surface of his mindscape…I had terrible dreams after that. I would not want to see that man's brain after what just happened."

Always the concerned one, Clark spoke up, "Speaking of, where did he go? He arrived at the watchtower with us but I don't think he left, we should probably go look for him."

The others agreed, and as one group they started to search the tower, softly calling out for their missing friend and colleague.

"Batman!"

"Batssssss?"

It continued like that for a while until they heard something.

*CRASH*

*WHOOMPH*

The league members looked at each other and started to run to the source of the sounds-the training room.

They all decided it was best to peek in the room rather than barge in, and what they saw shocked them.

Everyone had gotten cleaned up and took some time when they returned back from Themyscira.

Batman had not.

His suit was filthy- covered in dirt, dust, and blood.

Her blood.

His suit was cut all over, he was bleeding freely himself too. He didn't seem to notice though. He was in a frenzy, fighting the training droids one after another. The league saw that he had pumped the level up to 100. The league had started their teamwork training at level 10. Batman was panting and sweating profusely. The ground covered in his blood and the remains of dozens of robots.

His hands shook. He didn't care when he got hit. He didn't seem to care about anything as he kept hitting robots that were already offline. Metal was crumpled in. sparks flying from ripped out power sources. He was a wild animal of deadly technique.

The league watched in awe, in horror? In something they couldn't look away from, as they saw for the first time, the Batman express an extreme of emotion. Several times even hearing him scream in anger as he pounded the robots into scrap metal.

Finally, he seemed to run out of robots to unleash his fury. Silence took over the room, filled only with Batman's gasps of exertion. Wally of course had to stumble then, pushing the door slightly open, resulting in a long, "CREEEEAAK"

Batman looked up with a wild look and noticed the league looking in.

"What the Hell?! What are you all looking at?!"

Superman entered the room with his hands up in a surrender, "Hey. It's ok. We're all here for each other. We were all just worried about you and came looking..."

Bruce glared and his fists remained tight, he spat some blood out in disgust at the floor before striding past the man. "Not now BOY SCOUT."

Without a word, Bruce shouldered his way out of the training room and towards the Javelin Bay.

Flash was about to say something but John Stewart was fast enough to clap a hand over the speedsters mouth. "No, not now."

No one talked more that night. The world was wrong. And it wasn't going to get better.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bruce was laying in bed, his body on top of silk sheets, his mind wandering as he looked up and got lost in the tiny cracks and imperfections of the ceiling. It was late, but his impromptu nap earlier had left him out of it until he'd woken up in this new chamber. Instead of a cage, this room was closed in with a door, and a modest window, barred, and looking over the park adjacent to the coliseum. They had told him this would be his sleeping quarters until after the games were over.

They'd already sent a healer and mended his injuries. He felt good as new physically, but he was mentally drained. It was a long day. His dreams offered no respite now, and he didn't have many options. He was prepared for most things, but he never dreamed he'd be fighting in a female led, gladiatorial world. And if he escaped, what then? He'd probably be hunted no matter where he went. Technology seemed limited, probably no immediate way home. Men wouldn't help him, women would hunt him, and what about Diana…?

As if on cue, the lock on his door clicked open, and Bruce sat up to see the queen of the Amazons had once again come to visit him.

The queen wore a Lavender colored silk chiton, her dark hair flowing down her back with golden thread twined down some of her locks. A golden eagle necklace and her silver bracelets gleamed in the torchlight. She was a royal picture next to Bruce's simple black sleeveless tunic and pants.

Diana stood in the dark room, awkwardly playing with her hands as she didn't know where to start.

After a few moments though Bruce was the first to talk, sitting up more on the bed to turn towards the Queen.

"Hi." Bruce's voice was soft, and held none of the formality she was used to. "Would you like to sit down?"

Diana furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and looked around the chamber, there were obviously no chairs to sit on. Bruce rolled his eyes and scooted up on his bed more, and then motioned to the other end of the bed for Diana.

The queen looked surprised and irritated at his suggestion. She opened her mouth to speak but Bruce decided he didn't want her yelling at him again right now, cutting her off with, "Or not, stand there as long as you want."

Diana paused, opening and closing her mouth a few times before looking away from him and sitting on the bed as far away as she could.

Silence took over and the ancient Amazon found herself looking at the man absent-mindedly. In the torchlight, half his face was obscured in shadow, the other half in flickering light. He had gained a bit of a stubble beard over the weeks, only shaving with a single bladed razor. His hair was even darker than her own, pitch black and a medium length that seemed perfectly messy. His eyes were unsettling in the low light. She could tell they were an icy blue but now they appeared as a dark blue that was deeper than the sea. His jaw was set and defined and she couldn't decipher a single emotion. He looked like he could be furious, apathetic, or any other emotion just as easily. Reminded her of the old greek statues on Themyscira.

Finally, Bruce again initiated the conversation, "Well…?"

"Well what?"

"You tell me, you came to see me."

Diana realized she didn't really have something in mind. She was just curious again, especially after he named her favorite flowers, he obviously knew more about her than she knew about him. She needed to level that field a bit. As she racked her brain to come up with something, her eyes fell on some old scars across his chest, starting just below his neck and going under his shirt, "Ho...How did you get all those scars?"

Bruce looked down and traced some scars on his arms with his fingers, "...Not all of us are blessed by the gods."

Diana pointed at a star shaped scar on his shoulder, "That one?"

He looked down at it and grimaced a bit, "...I discovered a sex trafficking ring in Gotham, these people stole children, and would sell them to others for sick pleasures. When I found them, they tried to kill the children, light the place on fire, and ditch the place. A little girl, her name was Ann, she was going to be shot...my shoulder got in the way, but she was alive afterwards."

Diana paused, the words registering in her head, about people taking children, she swallowed in disgust and pointed to a few cuts on Bruce's wrists. "Those?"

Bruce's eyes were cold, "A man named Zsaz, went crazy, decided he was a savior, and the way he saved people was by killing and cutting them with a knife. Each person he kills, he marks as a tally on his body." Bruce's voice went lower, "...His body's covered in hundreds of scars, even his face, four long tally marks fill his forehead, I'm supposed to be the fifth one there..."

Diana was very unnerved at the mental picture, "And...and how did you get those ones from him?"

"He had gotten loose, It had been weeks. I was sloppy...others had taken my focus and strength, I was tired, and he captured me. I...I woke up in a chair, tied up with his most recent victims-a man, his two children, a prostitute, and an old lady. They were already dead. Their bodies were starting to smell, blood covered the floor, Zsaz had cut them and just let the blood flow until there was nothing left."

Bruce paused and swallowed as those memories flooded his brain again, "Zsaz then said I'm the Devil. He's saving their souls, and I'm the devil trying to save them from their true freedom...There were five victims in the room, he cut me five times, to mock me, to show my failure to save them...then when I got out, I broke every bone in both his arms."

The words were hard to process, and painted a gruesome picture in Diana's mind. She shook her head to clear it out. Bruce had gone silent, ending the story there, and Diana didn't mind, what he said was enough.

"Your world seems cruel...and filled with despair."

Bruce's face sunk a little lower into the shadows, "No Princess, there's good in the world. People like Clark, Superman, they live in the light. I chose to stay in the dark, and fight the horrors that dwell there. And Gotham, where I fought...seemed to have some of the darkest nights possible."

"Superman?"

"Stronger and Faster and more kind than all of your gods combined. An Alien from a dead world. And...a friend."

Diana pondered for a moment, "A ship crashed here many many years ago. Thousands of miles away, on the other land mass straight to the West."

Bruce seemed to perk up, "And the occupant?"

"Dead. It might've been a few years that it lay there without us discovering it. A cold dark capsule without light or food. It was a mystery, but there were no apparent answers."

Bruce leaned back into the shadows. Damn, Clark never even had a shot on this world, not even a chance to feel the sun and grow up. He wonders if this Amazonian empire would still be here if he had.

"Why?"

Bruce looked up at the Queen again, "Why What?"

She gestured to the darkness, "Why stay in the dark to face monsters of men?"

The man seemed almost amused at the question. It was a question he had asked himself almost every night of his life, "Someone has to...You're not the only one who's lost family, Diana."

The queen didn't even notice her name being said this time, "Your…?"

"Family...yeah. Let's leave it there for now."

Diana could tell his emotions were on edge. It seemed his memories were not a place of happiness. Silence fell between them before Diana tentatively asked another question, "Is there any good thing for you there?"

Bruce closed his eyes and gave a small smile, "My family….I found others like me, took them in, trained them. Children and individuals who lost things like I did...i'm kinda like a father."

Diana cocked her head to the side, it was weird to picture this individual as a doting parent, "How many…?"

"More than I ever thought I would, haha- Alfred, Dick, Jason, Barbara, Tim, Damian, all my "friends" in the league, it's more than I ever thought I would have in this life." Bruce seemed to hold a small, sad smile on his face, his eyes closed as he thought about them, "They probably all think I'm dead back on my world….I hope they're doing ok…"

Diana sat for a moment, contemplating his words, thinking of the world and the family he had lost across the void. With no other words easily coming though, and already a silence falling heavy between them, she decided it was time to take her leave. She had accomplished what she set out to do, she learned some stuff. She wasn't sure though whether she was glad she did. She decided to ask one more question.

"How did we meet on your world?"

Bruce thought for a moment, "An Alien invasion from Mars. You had seen the signs of the world ending...You decided it wasn't enough for you to just hide behind the safety of your invisible island. You left, and you found the league. It was the first time any of us had met each other."

Diana pictured it, leaving the island as still a princess, it seemed like one her dreams where everything was fixed in the world.

Bruce continued, "It was me, Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, The Martian Manhunter, and you. We all stumbled into being a team. None of us could defeat them on our own...but together...we saved the world."

"Who were these other heroes?"

"Superman, I told you, was the last son of Krypton, able to fly, shoot lasers from his eyes, had super strength, speed, he was the greatest. The Flash was a kid, talented and funny, an accident gave him super speed and some lightning powers if he used his speed right,"

"So the same speed as Superman?:

"...Similar, I'd say Flash was faster. Green Lantern, a part of the green lantern corps, a kind of space cop, he had a ring that harnesses willpower into real-world constructs. Pretty powerful in the right hands. Hawkgirl was as you could guess, a girl who could fly and had wings like a hawk, a Thanagarian with a bad temper and an even better mace...You'd like her."

Diana chuckled at the assumption.

"And last was J'onn J'ozz, the Martian Manhunter, the last martian who warned us of the attack…"

"I thought you said the invaders came from Mars?"

"They did, but only because they escaped from the prison J'onn had put them in, they had destroyed his planet centuries ago and J'onn was the last surviving martian after they secured a fragile victory."

Diana pondered the information, "They seemed like they were powerful allies."

"Yes, Princess, We all made a good team."

She knit her eyebrows in thought though, "They all had powers, how on Earth were you a meaningful team member when compared to those others?"

Bruce smirked and gave her a raised eyebrow. "I seem to remember on my world that first time, those six including you, stuck and helpless until I reversed a machine and let in the sun, which was deadly to the invaders, and resulted in us winning."

Diana seemed skeptical and offended at the thought of her being helpless, "doubtful…"

Bruce chuckled a bit, "Well, you know all those problems you can't solve with that super strength or speed, that's usually where I came in, and of course paying for everything it seemed."

Bruce got off the bed, resulting in Diana tensing up as she wasn't sure of his intentions, relaxing though as she watched Bruce go to the barred window and look out at the stars. "We had something called the Watchtower, a floating station in space, so we could quickly respond to any crisis quickly, no matter where it happened on Earth and to make sure we were safe from future alien invasions.

As he stood there for a moment, Diana saw Bruce's head slump down a bit, "You should go Diana, I have to fight tomorrow, I don't think there's anything else for us to talk about tonight."

Diana wanted to press him about the watchtower info but his voice had changed, his body language different. This was a completely different man than the one that was just opening up to her about his family on another world. A switch had flipped.

After a few moments, the queen figured there was no use fighting it, it was late, and he was right, he had to fight tomorrow. She turned, and with barely a sound, exited the room.

Bruce seemed to be holding his breath and he only noticed it when he let it out as the soft click indicated he was alone again and locked in his little room. Too many thoughts for right now, he had to focus on the task at hand-surviving a stupid game. With a sigh he blew out the candle in his room and climbed back into his bed, his eyes quickly shutting. Sleep came, but so did the dreams.

XXXX

As Bruce drifted off, he found himself outside of his usual nightmares, instead, he seemed to be moving down the corridors of a building. He almost didn't notice that he was following Queen Diana, she was in the same clothing as before and she didn't seem to notice him. He didn't even know if "he" was really there, he seemed to be along for the ride, unable to speak, unable to look or move or do anything of his own volition.

Then, he heard voices speak. They seemed muffled, distorted, like if clouds and smoke and shadows decided to converse. He couldn't hear everything but certain things seemed to stand out.

"...The time is almost ripe…"

"Patience, a few more days…"

"...Let's….the Queen won't….enjoy the show"

"The man…"

"No use...not a concern...a useful distraction."

As quickly as it all happened though, it was just as fast as Bruce felt his mind racing back to consciousness. As he opened his eyes, it felt like minutes had gone by, but he knew it had beens hours.

The sun was shining into his room.

And he could hear the drums again.

Who were those voices...one almost seemed familiar?

He couldn't think too much though, he heard the *click* as his door was unlocked. It was time for day two.

Sorry for the long pause, writers block. Had most of this chapter done for awhile but couldn't figure out how I wanted to transition to the next part of the story. The final Snydercut Justice League trailer dropping motivated me to finish this chapter though because I know I've gotten reviews asking for this story to continue. This is more of a filler chapter developing the dynamic between Bruce and Diana more but don't worry, next chapter should be much more exciting.

As always thanks for the continued support for this story, hope you like this chapter, remember to review/subscribe to the story. I know updates can be slow and I'm sorry for that, but this story will continue until it's eventually complete, I promise you, as long as there are people who want it.