I did not create any of the characters seen here, and with her permission, I am using BrokenKestral's versions of Susan Pevensie and Huan, and her wonderful OC the Doorkeeper. I also want to give her full credit of rewriting parts to keep her characters in character.

I make no money from this, so please enjoy for free.

Susan stepped back into her kitchen to see the Doorkeeper smiling over his cup of cinnamon tea. Huan's warm eyes welcomed her back and his tail wagged, though she thought he was being careful not to brush the furniture. She gave him a wide smile in return before looking to the Doorkeeper. She had a question she wanted to ask before their conversation got derailed, as it so often did; and he would not mind the bluntness. "Why were you so worried about me going this time?"

He paused. "That is a difficult question." He sighed. "You might think I would have more faith in your abilities by now. But, the boy has rather a reputation in his world for clinging to his pain, never letting a bit of it go, but rather letting it … fuel him. I am not sure the best Walker who ever spoke could change that."

Susan's eyes widened. "Fuel him?"

"Yes, it makes him a rather scary figure at times when he grows up. It may not surprise you after your talk with him that at times he even referred to himself as 'Vengeance.'"

Susan sat down hard at the table, feeling failure wash over her like a wave of fear and loss. Huan came up beside her, silently resting his large head on her shoulder; she petted it absently. The Doorkeeper frowned. "Now, don't look like that. I'd rather say you still did him a world of good."

Susan looked back at him. "Did I?"

"Indeed. It's hard to know when Bruce Wayne is simply behaving in a threatening manner to get results, and when he is letting his pain truly fuel him. But glimmers of his personality show through. He smiles when he solves a difficult problem in a way that satisfies his exacting standard. Especially regarding the safety of those around him. But on the rare occasions he believes those he loves safe, and sees them truly happy, he shows signs of happiness himself."

"So then, why 'did' you send me?" Susan really didn't know if any of the information she was getting from the Doorkeeper about Bruce's future was making her feel better or worse.

"It is unquestionable that he needs help. But there was a question 'when' to send you. His guardians were almost always hovering over or leaving him in rather public places like the waiting area of the clinic his godmother works at. And then, I wondered if I should send you to a time near the beginning of his first grief or to him at a later time soon after others he suffers."

"Will he suffer so many?"

The Doorkeeper sighed. "You said he was like one of your brothers?"

She nodded. "Edmund, yes."

The Doorkeeper nodded. "The four of you were given your crowns by Aslan himself; many responsibilities were placed on your shoulders. But Bruce Wayne's own decisions - the responsibilities he takes on himself - are questioned nearly constantly."

"Isn't that wise? If his pain fuels him-"

"History, in many worlds, proves otherwise. He is needed. But attempting what he did, letting others join him in it, and making friends with those who made similar decisions forced him to feel loss and failure and thus guilt and grief many times over in his brief mortal life."

"He becomes a detective like he said he would then? Is that the mission you mentioned?"

"Partly, and that is another reason I hesitated to send you. He was in fact called 'the World's Greatest Detective' by many who knew him or of him, and I feared sending him a Walker would be too much of a mystery his sharp mind would try to solve."

"But, it wouldn't do him any good trying to or even actually solving it, would it?"

"Probably not, but with a mind like his, all the technology he comes across and uses in his lifetime, and the situations he finds himself in, having even an inkling of the existence of such things might have caused him to attempt to replicate the doors 'I' create, and 'that' could have terrible results."

Susan shuddered remembering her own attempt at making a door. The Doorkeeper noticed. "Ah, yes, it is not good to open up a way between the worlds, when I'm not expecting you to of course." Huan growled at him for further reminding her rather than turning her thoughts away from that incident, and the Doorkeeper scowled at him. "But of course, there are all sorts of other ways a man like Bruce Wayne might fail in an attempt to make a door that can be damaging in other ways."

"Why then did you even dare to send me to him even when he was so young?"

The Doorkeeper sighed. "It is a tragedy when such a boy, and then such a man, becomes so entangled by the darkness inside him, and then attempts to put such things to good use that he makes himself and even those he loves miserable. Of course, not all those he loves and who love him are made miserable by him all the time. But if a little more light were able to get through at the right time to him, I thought, it might not only do him good, but perhaps let him do even more good for all those he attempts to help in his life. And he does make such attempts over and over with varying results. He even attempts to be light to others he realizes need it, but it's easier to do that, when you have had a good example on how to do so. And that I thought you could provide him with."

Susan startled once more looking at the Doorkeeper who nodded. "You do have a very gentle light that I thought might be good for the Dark Knight to see at least once."

"The Dark Knight?"

"I do not remember now if he calls himself that first or has the title given to him. If so, I don't believe it comes from a king or queen, but perhaps from a friend or someone else he tries to help. It might even be given to him by an enemy. But many call him it, perhaps because it suits him."

Susan bowed her head and thought of the boy with his dark hair and dark brows pressed down into hard lines over squinted eyes. "Perhaps, but does that not mean I did fail?"

"I doubt it. I will check in on a few other important events in his life soon to see if anything has changed or even too much. We cannot change him too much with our interference or it could be disastrous for his timeline. But a little Gentle Light in some places, at some times, in it, I think, could also make it much better."

What do you think?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes