"Well, it still all depends on all of this if we can find this guy.", Thomas sighed. "Because what's the alternative? Hiding away from the world and just praying that we don't get caught? It's easier for Martha and Waylon to keep their other forms hidden because few would suspect but me... plenty of people still remember my face.".
Caroline replied, "Thomas, what do I always say?", with a raised eyebrow, and Thomas replied, "Family sticks together through good and bad times.".
"Yes, but the other one?", Caroline chuckled, and Thomas exhaled, "Focus a day at a time.", and Caroline patted his shoulder as they made it to the first unique house that Thomas spoke about, the one that's ancient.
"That looks like it's gonna fall down...Do you feel anything, Thomas?", Caroline replied, and Thomas shook his head, "No...And something tells me that we would know when we feel it...Let's keep going and trying.", as they then headed for the second unique house that's somewhat old.
"Feels like looking for a needle in a haystack.", Thomas said as Caroline chuckled. "True, but at least in this case, we have a slightly better lead with things.", she told him.
"But time is of the essence; if we don't find him soon... we'll have to do it the normal way and that might be almost impossible...", Thomas bit his lip.
Caroline really prays that this second house or the last one was their salvation to their situation, especially in Thomas' case, and after a few minutes of flight, they made it to the second house, and Thomas held Caroline back cautiously, "Hold on, Carol...Do you feel that?", and Caroline nodded, "Yes, I do...", tenderly yet protectively holding into her sling, glancing to see that Jane is still slumbering.
They can feel some humming magic of a protective circle around the house, covering it like a shield, and it feels neutral, not offensive or defensive..."We better not be rude, Thomas...We knock politely on this shield, and let's hope it's this Doctor Fate who feels it...".
Thomas nodded, and with deep breaths, praying that it's the right person, then knocked politely on the shield, waiting for a few minutes before they saw on the rooftop patio is a man in a peculiar outfit in midnight blue with a golden cape and a golden helmet of some unique design coming up the stairs from inside, and he sat peacefully on a mediation mat, waving his hand forward, looking at them directly.
"Do you think he can actually see or hear us?", Caroline asked. "Or does he just sense that we're here? I mean, he's looking in our direction, but we haven't moved from where we've knocked.".
Thomas replied, "I think he is sensing us outside of his shield, and he's inviting us in, so maybe once through and inside, with his permission, he could actually see or hear us. We won't find out until we do...", taking her free hand with a reassuring smile, "I got you, sis...You got me and her?", fondly glancing at his 'niece'.
Caroline kept her other hand on Jane's sling, her pinky wrapped in Jane's little fist, with a smile, "Yeah, I got you and Jane, bro...Let's do this thing.", and so, they moved forward, feeling the magic tingle through them as they passed through flawlessly, and gently flew to the man's spot, and then hovered slightly above the roof floor, with Thomas asking politely, "Are you the one Dorji spoke about, the one called Doctor Fate?", seeing a flicker of surprise and grief at Dorji's name through the slit of the helmet, seeing dark eyes with years of wisdom and youth behind them.
There was no response from the masked man, but it was very much clear that he heard that. "Maybe we're like whispers on the wind... perhaps he can only hear some words...", Caroline thought. "Like you did before? With Waylon and Alfred?", Thomas asked.
"Granted, that was the chimes. And besides, didn't you do the same thing with Bruce when Poppy was swept away?", Caroline replied, and Thomas nodded, "Touche...", before looking straight at the masked man.
"You're Doctor Fate?", Thomas asked, and the masked man nodded, "I am.", and Caroline replied, "Good, keep to simple, short, Thomas.", advising.
Thomas nodded, and then replied, "League of Assassins. Dorji as prisoner, alive.", figuring that Doctor Fate thought Dorji to be dead in that attack/fire at the monks' temple, along with his monk family when he must have visited again, if he was friends after the first visit and all.
"Dead, resurrected. Same as self; with another soon.", Thomas then added, "Thomas Wayne... Caroline Jones.". Fate turned his head in interest as Thomas was trying to get to the point, "Hopefully see you... alive again, for help.".
Fate replied, "Where?", and Thomas replied, "Bhutan. Planning escape. Off Tsemo Pass somewhere.", and Fate replied, "I have heard of that pass, high pass, rough and mysterious. I'll get a plane to Bhutan. When are you escaping?".
"Tomorrow. Halloween. You help, please?", Thomas asked, and Fate replies, "You know Dorji, and Dorji trusts you?".
Thomas replies, "Yes. Dorji is friend.", and Fate replies, "I'm the type of person who wants the whole picture, but this situation...as Dorji was a friend, and if he trusts you, I shall come and help your family escape on the plane...I have heard of the Wayne family kidnapping. Thomas Wayne, you are the husband of Martha Wayne, yes?".
"Yes.", Thomas said as Fate nodded, "I certainly have some answers to questions I once had then... but I will not say them, not until you're here in person. Thank you for coming to see me for help, Thomas Wayne... I will do all I can.".
Thomas heaved in relief, and replied, "Thank you, Doctor Fate. Words for Dorji?", and Fate replied, "Tell him that I will not blame him if he saves your family during the escape. Tell him that I'm very proud and that his monk family is not mad at him for that day of the attack when I visited again at the remains of the temple and such, that they love him.".
"I will tell. We must go. Stay safe.", Thomas said, and Fate nodded, "Of course. Good luck. I give you and Caroline Jones and her child permission to leave harmlessly.", waving a hand again which glowed now that the duo has a closer look to see, and they kept holding hands, with Caroline keeping ahold of Jane, and so, they left, passing through flawlessly with the tingle of magic again.
Caroline smiled radiantly, "That was brilliant, Thomas. Let's get going and check over our family.", and Thomas smiled, nodding in agreement, heading back to the breeze, flying for 30 minutes before finding the League's temple, and with smiles, Caroline whooshed away with Jane into the portion of Heaven to watch over the family closely, while Thomas headed to Dorji's chamber/cell, feeling the evening getting closer into the starting day of Halloween, knowing that to the mortal world, hours has significantly changed within time zones, around 11 hours ahead in Bhutan, so Halloween is far closer now here in Bhutan than good old America.
Martha took a deep breath as she stared up at the ceiling; not able to fall back asleep after she went to bed and woke up. She wondered if she even got any sleep beforehand. It was so weird almost, she had slept plenty well the night before the procedure, but this time... maybe it was the sheer dread she was feeling about what might happen. If things go wrong, it wouldn't just be her dying but almost the rest of her family too.
Right now, Kel is talking and working with Dorji through astral projection in placing the grenades in the boiler room, and perhaps other potential rooms that would lead to a chain of explosions, hiding with a couple of timer detonations here and there...
Martha heard the news from Talia when she visited earlier, that she didn't need to go into the machine tonight, which was a total relief, and of course, having seen the camera on the family, Ra had thought about the extra leverage of Thomas and Caroline and Jane since it would push Martha into the machine if her family was in close proximity of the League's swords, knives, and what else, and perhaps more motivation to out strong the machine.
And now, she was both anxious to reunite with Thomas, yet dreading the moments in the machine afterwards, for it turns out that Ra had listened to Alfred indirectly, and through Talia, Martha had asked politely, and so, it will be Thomas and Caroline to be resurrected first, and to be used as leverage and in threat, especially with the others, which even Kel agreed that they can't save everybody at the same time with the League around them, but if the detonations and the grenades distract them, there could be opportunity for Waylon to go Croc, for Bruce to do his Batman moves, Poppy to do her gymnastics, and for her, to hulk out...after the machine, to just keep following along for a few moments longer...
Caroline would be the vulnerable one, next to Alfred and Jane, but Thomas, perhaps he would have picked up something while living in Heaven...Honestly, it seemed like so complicated yet so simple, but in the end, it's going to be one of the craziest Halloweens in her life.
She heard the faint sound of the temple gong going off twelve times, and sighed as Halloween has arrived, and thought to try to go back to sleep, but she couldn't while she was especially worried about Kel...especially when they promised each other to have one last session of lovemaking in Martha's mindscape.
At least they would be away from any watching eyes of the camera, and in the mindscape, it would be anything they want, and she knew Kel especially wanted to give her at least an amazing, good memory, in case if the machine was intent to hurt her through removing Kel away, but she knew that Kel wouldn't want her to be in pain from the nefarious actions of the machine, and she would do anything to save her...She can only wonder what Thomas is thinking if he was watching over them and all...
"Martha?", Kel's voice rumbled gently, and Martha blinked, glancing over in relief to see Kel in her astral form, looking both anxious and excited, dimming her glow barely, "I got three kinds of news to tell you. Can we go into your mindscape now?".
Martha nodded, whispering, "Yep.", relaxing her body into dreamland as she closed her eyes, feeling Kel and something else coming in, and then opened her eyes, sitting on the bench, glancing at Kel standing before her, "Okay, what do you got?".
"First, three grenades are secure, hiding under the boilers and the furnace heaters, one really hidden under Ra's office desk, one really deep under Talia's bed, and one really deep in the cave ceiling above the Pit, and we discovered the actual path to the platform elevator.", Kel explained with a mischievous and calculating grin.
Martha widened her eyes, "Oh, gosh, the kids really did their work...You and Dorji found the path to the platform elevator?", and Kel chuckled, "Yeah, we found the controls for it, so we can get out through the path tunnel, the true actual one, and we can escape instead of running through the temple while it's going into fire and crumbling ruins.".
"That's really great news! Okay, I can get through the memories of that, and it should be good, with Dorji helping along...Odds are getting good now...What's the second piece of news?", Martha exhaled in relief and then asked curiously.
Kel replied, "I am still stunned about it, but turns out that Dorji had talked to Thomas during limbo, and they have talked about this guy called Doctor Fate who lives in Gotham, having powers to change things, even the circumstances around the night of Thomas' murder and such, making it possibly looking to be a coma, when he gets resurrected, you know?".
"Is that truly possible?", Martha asked. "I mean, ever since the treatment, my whole world view has shattered quite a lot but even more so recently with that pit... but to pull such a mass... mind trick, I guess you could say; even then there has to be limitations or something.".
Kel nodded, "I know, I thought about that too, but when you think about it, it was mainly Gotham who knew Thomas Wayne, not the entire whole world, and so, tricking Gotham into thinking is perhaps big, but not massively, so that could be the limitation, like transforming the news that comes out of Gotham and such, to say that the owner/main head of Wayne Entreprises went into a coma with still a bullet gone wrong or assumed dead, something like the sort, which is kind of true, as it happened back in 1997 where information wasn't still very reliable, while Gotham knows that Thomas Wayne has been in the manor, trying to use familiar sounds and smells to help Thomas wake up and all for a long time.".
Martha hummed thoughtfully, "When you say it like that, that actually makes sense...And for the Louisiana trips, we probably would have thought maybe the warm weather would have helped Thomas, next to alternative methods to wake him up...The kidnapping of the Wayne Family...using Thomas's vulnerable state is technically not a lie either as that would convince me to go with the kidnappers and all. Gotham probably have presumed Alfred was kidnapped too, along with his rarely known son.".
Kel replied, "Exactly. We would explain away the grooming part and all as routine for Thomas in his coma, and well, we would have to find out how the Pit does, but it shouldn't be too difficult as we ain't really graying out and all.".
Martha nodded, "True. And the third piece of news?", and Kel smiled widely, "It wasn't Dorji who talked to this Doctor Fate through astral projection, but rather Thomas who came recently with everything I just said now, for he went with Caroline to Gotham to find this Doctor Fate in the last couple hours, which he did, and with that plan, Thomas is now 100% in to return back to his body in the morning because he never wanted to put us in danger with Gotham, until now.".
Martha looked at her in surprise, "Wait, you...you heard Thomas through Dorji just now?", with tears in her eyes, and Kel said gently, "Not just that...We don't know if it is now Halloween magic working with the time Thomas spent around Fate's magic for a limited time until dawn, but right now, I don't care as long as it's happening.".
Martha was confused for a moment before she felt a long-missed, familiar caress of hands on her shoulders, and a warm voice whispering into her ear, "You know, it's not fair that I never actually got a chance to show our Kel how much I love her as much as I love you, Martha. That Christmas gift of a toy was never truly the same, through it was glorious to watch you two going at it over the years.".
"Thomas...", Martha whispered as she turned around. "You... you're here, right? Like this isn't part of my imagination or anything?".
"No, I am...", Thomas assured her. "I think being around Fate caused a little otherworldly side effect, at least for a brief time."
Martha reached out and gasped softly as she touched Thomas' cheek, and he sighed gently, leaning into it with a tender loving smile, and she gave a sob, "You're really actually coming back today...".
Thomas covered her hand, "That's right...With a plan now thanks to Fate, I now feel like I finally can go back to you and our family in my body once the morning comes with the Pit, but right now, I just want to be with you and Kel...", kissing her on the lips deeply and longingly.
Martha sighed and moaned into the kiss, holding him closer, and then after a minute, she then blushed as she just remembered what Thomas said earlier, "You heard our plan of lovemaking, huh?".
Thomas smiled wryly, "I don't blame you...I'm also dreading that damn machine...You have no idea how I felt when I heard our Kel's confession to save you, to sacrifice herself...And to have a last time of lovemaking in thinking that this would as well be the last day...well, are you mad if I want to give Kel that?".
Martha replied with a loving smile, "No...And that toy wasn't quite the same either...You saw us, and you thought we were glorious, huh?", blushing, and Thomas grinned, "What can I say? Even if we aren't married to Kel, she's literally our second wife, isn't she? My heart has so much room, you know.".
Blushing more, Martha replied, "I know...Can I join in?", and Thomas smirked, "I wouldn't have it any other way, my beautiful minx...Shall we surprise our gorgeous green amazon?", gesturing to Kel who had walked away a bit, her back facing them, giving them privacy, and Martha nodded with a smile, getting off the bench, with Thomas holding her hand as he went around the bench, with the mindscape changing from the outdoors with the pool and garden and bench into the familiar master bedroom of Wayne Manor, with the bed enlarged and strengthened to fit more than four people as soon as they reached Kel's position, seeing her confused and surprised expression, "What's this?", not wanting to jump to conclusions if she's wrong.