I do not own Batman/Bruce Wayne, Superman/Clark Kent/Kal El, Martian Manhunter/J'ohn J'ones or his twin. DC does, please enjoy for free.
Tunnels Under Gotham Eleven Years After Waynes' Deaths
Bruce remained silent staring at nothing. John gave him a sad smile, turned, and opened the door. Then Bruce spoke. "I thank you for showing me what you did, but while the 'how' haunted my scientific mind, the 'why' haunted me the most. When I learned Waller was hunting you, I knew why. That gave me some peace."
John frowned at the human. "It did not." He well recalled Bruce's reaction.
"I 'feared' for you, knowing Waller was hunting you, but it made me think of you as less of a coward and that you protected not abandoned me that day." Bruce stared at John, who refused to look back. Then Bruce pressed him. "You've been on earth a long time John. Have you given that peace to 'everyone' you've abandoned on earth?"
John shut his eyes.
Mining Town Over a Decade Before Waynes' Deaths
This is stupid!
He turned a glare on his twin. After so long living with them as their older brother, you have no compassion now?
I'm saying, as I've been saying, we should either show up alive now with an excuse, or call it a miracle, or just go!
You would rather take the risk of showing up alive?
It's better than running, again, but if we can't take that risk, then, yes, we should just leave!
If you had been able to read the minds of some of the humans escaping, seeing us staying behind ...
I did. And it was foolish for us to even do that.
"They" might have died otherwise.
Well you should have thought of my dear sisters and "your" dear daughters then instead of having us stay where no two humans could have survived. Now they mourn, we're dead, and if this gets around and arouses suspicion, "they'll" come looking.
So you do not want to do this?
Saying goodbye as a ghost?
As a dream ...
Will that make them feel better in the morning? Or will it just further agents suspicion if they come questioning.
He sighed. I see you really don't feel anything for them ...
Maybe not nothing, but I never really had any sisters back home ... where we "actually" belong ...
And?
Come on! You know what this was always "really" about.
In order to keep back even the flood of anger he felt welling up at his brother, whom he'd called "son," he turned and began to move away slipping into invisibility. He had to work even harder at ignoring him as his brother called in his mind. You were never their real father anyway! He died years ago, and this mourning was long overdue! You just delayed it! They're not your daughters!
He stepped through the wall into the house. In habit, he'd almost moved around to the front to go through the door. But, as his twin said, he was a ghost. He paused at that. You were never their real father anyway! He died years ago ...
I suppose I always actually 'have' been a ghost to them. Had it really been so wrong upon seeing murderers dumping bodies of a man and his son, learning of the guilt a few felt over the sisters/daughters the two left behind, (he saw the location of their home in the murderers' minds) he made certain the young human females were cared for and didn't have to grieve? After all the grieving he'd done in his life, was it so amazing he wanted to spare someone that?
Now, though, he couldn't. And perhaps the lie was part of the point. Maybe he wanted to leave them as the ghost he'd always been rather than stay and risk agents coming and asking questions and exposing the truth. He imagined seeing betrayal in their eyes maybe fear. He winced.
He went to the oldest one first. She was lying next to her new husband, one of the men he'd saved, the one who'd stayed longest. He'd nearly forced to go. He peered into the man's sleeping mind and prodded it. The thoughts he sought bubbled up. He froze.
He insisted I go knowing how all our deaths might affect Lizabeth ... She's so hurting right now. I don't blame her. He was a good pa, a great one, but "why" didn't he tell his son to go? He never said a word to him. I know he couldn't even really buy us time as an old man by himself, but ... still it was his son. They seemed so close. It don't make sense.
He barely got himself calm after reading those thoughts. I didn't think! I knew he was human and we were not! I forgot to really behave as if we were "both" human as well. We "do" have to go, but first ...
He turned to the young woman, concentrated on her mind, it took less poking and more concentration to untangle a lucid thought from the swirl of her indeed spinning troubled mind. Lizabeth?
Papa ... You're here?
He hated crushing her joy even in a dream. Just for now, child, a little time to say goodbye.
Oh Papa! I just feel we got ya back!
He started a bit. What do you mean by that?
I mean that night those years back! I thought those men would kill you, but you and Bobby came and got us, and we ran away and came here! Things were better! "you" were better even if Bobby wasn't by that much.
Don't be too hard on your brother ...
Sorry, but ... he's not here is he?
He thought about pretending to be "Bobby" too in her mind, but pretending to be his brother pretending to be someone else, while walking the line of being what would comfort her and not arousing suspicion, seemed like too difficult and risky task at such a time. He was trying to "relieve" and prevent suspicions. Her thoughts interrupted his.
I thought not ...
He was a hero Lizabeth ... He saved your husband.
So did you.
I couldn't do it alone ...
The force of falling stone and water had been too great for him to hold back alone. He'd already heard someone in the crowd of onlookers after questioning survivors, say what he and his twin had done had been a "superhuman" feat. That had made his brother want to leave immediately. After he saw piles of food given to those they saved and the onlookers, and remembered the hunger and weakness they'd often suffered on the run, his brother had wanted a brilliant excuse for them to have survived.
Lizabeth was sighing even in her sleep. I know, I'm sorry. I loved Bobby too, and you're right. He was a hero. They're all saying you're both heroes. But I want you here with us!
I know. I'm sorry.
Are you going to Heaven? Or have you come from there?
Yeah ... to both.
Can you take me with you?
Now, he got a little angry. You have to stay with your husband and little sister!
She did sound contrite as she replied to that. I know. But it hurts. I know you used to say life hurts, but ...
He tried to pour thoughts of comfort and love into her. And he "did" love her. It felt like stolen love, but it was love he felt for her and Maggie. They weren't the daughters he'd had back home, who were dead. Lizabeth and Maggie "had" been his daughters too, though, even if through a lie. He wasn't the man she was remembering though.
Don't think of what I was like back then, I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?
Something stabbed him inside himself saying he should ask forgiveness for lying since he met her not for what her true father did before.
Of course!
Alright then ... Stay here, don't mourn forever, be happy again. Take care of your husband, and sister, and all the grandbabies I know you'll give me. Treat them right. Though, don't let them get away with too much.
I promise. Will you be watching me?
He swallowed. How much time while running could he ... Just tell another comforting lie? Or more a truth? You think I won't want to know every minute of every day how you both are doing?
Alright. Tell Bobby I love him too.
I will.
I love you, Pa.
I love you, Lizabeth.
He actually tucked her in. Her blanket had fallen off most of the upper half of her body. He realized without too much effort her mind and body had relaxed out of its clenched state of pain and fear it had been in, when he'd come in. So, he had done something. Lied ... His angry thoughts told him. He ignored them and went to Maggie's room. Her face was scrunched up and wet in her sleep.
Maggie!
Papa!
Shhhh ... She had actually spun over toward him while asleep. This is a dream.
Like a Daniel from the Bible's or Joseph from the Bible's?
Sort of.
I want more than a dream though ...
I know, but you're glad I at least came in a dream aren't you?
Yes!
She tried to hug him in the dream. He smiled. He very carefully lifted and actually hugged her back. Softly.
You don't hug as hard in a dream.
No, I suppose I don't.
Brother-in-law Jeb says we probably won't even bury you, but we might have a funeral soon.
I see ...
Does it have to be that way? What's even the point of a funeral then? Are you really dead, you and Bobby?
He winced. He hated this part. Yes, but I came to say goodbye.
I don't want a goodbye.
I know, but I have to.
She began to cry again, even in her sleep. He trembled slightly making her stiffen, he rubbed her back and tried to both relax her and remind her of what she still had. You obey and take good care of your sister, brother-in-law Jeb. Any nieces and nephews of yours, they might have you help take care of too. Work hard, marry a good man, and have little ones of your own. And be good to them. You hear me?
She sniffled. Yes pa.
Good girl. As he physically laid her still sleeping body back on the bed, and tried to pull out of her mind, hers called after his. Pa!
He couldn't stay forever, but ... Yes Maggie?
Thanks for being so much nicer a pa after we moved.
He paused. The guilt niggled again, but he replied Thank you for being such a sweet little girl of mine Maggie Rose.
The last thing he did before leaving the house was glance toward his son-in-law and try to speak into his mind as well. If you are grateful for what my son and I gave you and the others, take care of them both.
There was a response, more of a feeling of weight and responsibility, but also a little pride, redemption, and assurance, from the man's sleeping mind. Then his "son-in-law" fell back into a deeper more restful sleep.
After he stepped out of the house and into the woods, he took the one real object he'd managed to keep in the rushing waters from his pocket and look at it. He should leave it behind. If they ever caught him, and found it, they might question them, reveal the secret. But, he'd have to destroy it completely or leave it buried somewhere believable if he 'didn't just carry it with him. He glanced at the four smiling faces in the photo. Even his brother, for once, was looking happy playing the part of his son making Maggie laugh.
He smiled painfully to himself. I can't.
He slipped it into his face pocket and looked up into the skeptical face of his twin. His brother wore a human face different from the one in the picture, but a mask they'd both worn on the run before. Well ... shall we go run and starve, and run and starve some more?
He sighed, reformed into a different looking human himself and nodded. Let's go.
Tunnels Under Gotham Eleven Years After Waynes' Deaths
"No."
How was he to know Lizabeth would talk to the press about their heroism and where they came from? The story spread back there. Thus confusion began when some of their old neighbors admitted to killing them or knowing someone who did. When he was almost caught, he couldn't, or at least "didn't" prevent himself from prying. He had to know if they had bothered his daughters ... his daughters within the lie he'd lived. They had. Bruce's voice pulled him back to the present.
"Don't you want to?"
John turned squinted eyes on the human. "How do you do that? 'I' read minds? How do you find the soft spot in my will to stab or hook and pull me the way you want me to go?"
"Study. Practice. Motivation. Research. Same things I use for everything."
"I imagine then you have a suggestion on how to partially lay this pain of regret I feel aside and be more at peace?"
"There's some nice stationary at the manor going unused."
"At the manor?"
"And ... if a new titanium tunnel happens to get finished before you finish writing, and Superman happens to go through again, this time knowing better where to begin, and sees your niece alive ..."
"And if he doesn't?"
"Then we'll have tried our best, and you may have given some people you once cared about more peace through the letters you will write as you wait."
John paused, arm still outstretched holding the door open. Then he pulled it shut. "Very well." Batman gave a smile of triumph as he started the batmobile."
What do you think now?
Whumptober Prompt for the 26th 2024 "I'm haunted by the lies that I have loved, the actions I have hated" (Poe's Haunted.)
God bless
ScribeofHeroes