"No... it... it can't be...", Waylon whispered. "I mean, if that was the case... it would've happened long ago...", with a frown. "I know.", Caroline said. "You're right, if it was the case, it would've happened long ago, but... I can't think of anything else...".
Poppy frowned, trying to think before she gasped softly, "Wait. Ra was centuries old, doing terrible things we would never know, but it was clear he did, and the League of Assassins were like a couple hundred people, raised to do evil and all...That was hardcore counting of the scales where the heavenly gates judged, and of course, considering the Pit's energy and the gamma genes in all of us, from high levels to low levels, we might be living longer than normal humans, and since we are doing good things from helping get kitties out of trees to saving people from burning buildings and all in between, anybody never really needed to refuel on the Pit or gamma rays, while Ra had to do so because he was extending his life repeatedly for centuries which was more than necessary, like he was afraid of death, and doing bad things from robbing good people to murdering innocents.".
Bruce followed along, "And we were impacted ourselves by people that Mama tangled with, like decreasing drug trades in Rex's underground drug cartel, and patrolling their areas, and decimating the pyramid levels of Tony Zucco's mob organization, and saving the stores of good people from them, and then of course, Jervis Tetch aka the Mad Hatter where-", before Martha interrupted with a gasp.
"Where Kel stopped his kidnapping spree of 42 girls including Poppy, destroyed his mind control devices, and took him to jail, and after many years, broke out to seek revenge on Poppy, and to continue his madness on raping blonde women to remind him of his Alice and of course, hijacked a school bus full of 24 kids including our grandchildren!", Martha concluded.
"So...", Poppy paused. "You think because I killed Tetch...?", Poppy's voice trailed off a bit as everyone came to the same conclusion.
"GAHHH!". A loud breath rang out from the bubbling waters of the Lazarus Pit in Bhutan; still somehow clear and completely unobstructed even if most of the rest of the room surrounding it had collapsed in on itself, thanks to the explosions that destroyed the place many years ago.
Panting was then heard as the figure that arose from the water sat up. Then all was silent again for a few moments. "I... I'm... alive?", Kel's voice echoed.
Kel slowly gathered her thoughts together and faintly remembered that as soon as the soul of Tetch in the judgement hall had received his final charge of attempted murder on her grandson, she had last goodbyes with Dorji and some other friends she made in the heavens, including Thomas and Martha's folks who accepted their son and daughter in a poly relationship with Kel, being in love still, the last thing she knew was the swirling whoosh of her soul with a literal heartbeat.
Kel then looked down, realizing that she's naked, and tears came as she saw that she's a breathing, fleshy, newly born human woman, seeing the loose wet strands of her jet-black hair, in long waves, almost covering her breasts as she saw deep pink nipples, with her skin tone of fair tan, feeling her heartbeat against her hand, with admirable abs, decent yet fit, with her muscles in less tone, but still there, and she blushed with a little moan as she felt her bundle of nerves under a bush of the same jet black hair, and her legs are toned as well, ending with a moderate set of feet, perhaps a 7 and a half foot size, compared to her former Hulk feet which was shamelessly 9 feet wide.
She took a deep breath, swimming to the edge as she shuffled, and got out, carefully took steps, and laughed as she found her balance, echoing in the room, and then shivered, rubbing her arms as she realized that there's drafts of cold air when she got close to the edges of the room, and walked closer to the Pit, wanting to check her reflection for her eyes and age.
She saw that her eyes remained about the same, but less intense and more human, as they are now a bright jade green, and she looks like she's in her late 40s, though she feels like she's in her 30s, and from the look of her body, she figured that she's a kickboxer type, which made sense due to her past life in a way, and she must be a mix between Martha and Thomas in human height, which could be a six and half feet tall, and smiled happily as she touched and kissed her beloved wedding ring that was given from her wife and husband, fusing as one ring from two rings, yet to her growing blush, she knew that they never got a chance to have their wedding night, and now since she's born again in this new human body, she is a virgin physically, even if that mental, amazing dream had broken her mental virginity technically, next to the first time with Martha and Thomas' toy gift technically as spiritually physical.
She took a deep breath, and knew she needed to find a way out, find salvageable clothes to get herself warm as she was so overjoyed to truly feel everything including weather conditions and temperature changes, but she knew she has to save herself from the cold of the mountains if she can make her way down to the abandoned airport.
She knew from her strong memories of watching over her family, with Fate's help, the Wayne plane was recovered, but there's a phone or two in the airport hanger's office and also that payphone by the lone barracks building.
She then started to tear up and her mind wandered. How on Earth was she truly going to let the others know, especially Thomas and Martha, that she was breathing life again, hell, was a totally different woman in some ways? She tried to close her eyes and feel herself transform back to her emerald amazonian form... but nothing would come. Now that power was all Martha's, which in many ways, she did deserve it, it was her last gift before she 'died', thanks to Ra's machine.
She then shook her head. No, it would be easy to let them know, all she needed to do was call and say who she was... they'd know it was her because she was a closely guarded family secret.
"Test... test... Hi, Thomas, Martha... it's me...I'm... back...", Kel said to herself as she put a hand to her throat. "Voice is a bit off... guess I lost quite a bit of that bass...".
Kel spoke with determination as she practiced, "Thomas, Martha, it's me. Proof? Well, we never got that chance to spend our Christmas wedding night together, my loves, my alphas... Yeah, yeah, that'll work.", as she knew the portion of herself getting married to Martha and Thomas was a closely guarded secret, as it was only witnessed by her family, with Jane then as a baby, and the other kids not even born yet, with Fate and Leslie, and of course, Dorji, as the priest was in blackout during it all.
She then nodded, "Right.", exhaling as she went to search for the biggest hole she could fit in through, a bit disgusted at the thought of getting muddy and dirty, but knew that scrambling and crawling would keep her warm when she's getting further away from the somewhat surviving Pit, hopefully finding decent if somewhat wrecked clothes on the way, praying that she wouldn't have to pry them off any corpse of the League of Assassins, or even Ra, or Talia, while praying that at least it came from closets or something in the ruins.
It was almost a miracle there was some light around the place with just how buried things had become but there still seemed to be a decent path around. She had to be careful, avoiding the corpses that littered around in certain places; still somewhat preserved in ways due to the cold climate. Kel knew she had to find something at least in a hurry or she was really going to start off her new life in a bad way if she caught frostbite or something even before trying to brace the elements outside the ruins.
She grimaced at the rats and such that must have been digging through during the warmer months, and she slowly yet relievedly found half-destroyed closets and dressers with somewhat intact clothes, getting dressed in the small space she had, with gratefully, a few winter accessories further on.
Light became more visible the further she got on upwards and such, shivering at the deep snow recesses into the caved in areas, and she knew she needed to cause a bit more damage at a rafter or something to cause a domino effect to bury the decent path once she gets out. Sure, the Pit is somewhat surviving, but she can't afford to let any straying lost tourist or something to discover the Pit, even if they presume that it's the fountain of youth by some other reason.
It's a miracle that nobody had discovered it in the past 13 years upon her and Dorji's checks, considering that it was out of the way, deep in the mountains, and of course, buried under debris, earth, mud, snow, and moss, and several animals to feed on the corpses or gather stuff for their dens, but better safe than nothing, with her being alive and all.
"Now... how to do this...?", Kel whispered to herself. The easiest solution probably would be a few more of the old grenades but those all were used up and she wouldn't have the time or energy to rig up a few new ones; she was operating without any food and little water; especially if she didn't want to get sick, meaning she'd have to grab, at her most desperate, snow somewhere in the mountain away from the temple.
Kel also knew that she can't lift up and carry boulders anymore, so that's out too, as she scrambled carefully the last few yards to the exit/entrance of the decent path, feeling the chill of the wind, but not freezing chilly, gratefully.
Kel carefully peered above the hole, checking the coast for a few seconds, and then got out, exhaling in awe of the morning sun's warmth upon herself, relieved to see no storm clouds or even cloudy skies, and then she heard a rumbling, rolling sound as she felt a familiar presence's scent of garden herbs, hearing Dorji's voice, "Look behind you.".
She looked behind herself to see a giant snowball of boulders, earth, and branches rolling and rumbling down the mountainside, and she widened her eyes, swiftly running out of the way far enough, turning around to see the snowball crash spectacularly into the hole and beyond, as a few animals scrambled out of the smaller holes, escaping, as she heard an incredibly effective domino effect of rafters and all collapsing even worse, collapsing even more into the Pit deep down.
She must have at least spent an hour climbing and such in those ruins as she heard the conclusion of the quick devastation, and she heard Dorji's voice in a chuckle, "You're very much welcome.".
Kel laughed warmly, "I'll take it, Dorji. Just brilliant. Thank you, my friend...I'm going home...I'm finally going home!", tears falling as she realized her last words, and then went to set a pace of steady sprinting, careful to watch any loose patches of snow and slippery frost, recalling the landmarks and the path her family used in their escape down the pass.
She knew that Bhutan was ahead of New Jersey by several hours, since it's early morning here, but night back at the manor, which means she could be home during the evening, on her baby's birthday night, and she can truly eat Alfred and Caroline's outstanding food for a late dinner as her first time as human!
When she saw the old radio tower in the distance, she increased her sprint into a full run, having made it under a hour of careful sprinting, and smiled with joy and relief to see that the abandoned airport is still intact up close as she made it to the airstrip 10 minutes later, taking deep breaths to be used to the new elevation slowly, heading to the hanger first, hoping that the phone in the office there works better than the payphone over by the lone barracks.
She took off her hat as she was relieved for the mild protection of warmth from the chill outside, coming into the office, and looked at the phone, taking a deep breath as she familiarly punched in the manor's number, praying to hear the ring sound as proof that it's working, holding up the handheld to her ear.
"Please let it connect directly...", Kel whispered since it was quite the international call. She heard it keep ringing for a few moments before finally, there was a click and Kel's heart almost stopped for a moment with just the rush of emotions when she heard what was on the other end. "Hello? Wayne Residence...", Alfred's voice responded.
Kel's tears ran as she spoke, "Hello, Alfred...It's me, Kel...And before you ask for proof, you were there immediately right after Poppy was born in the nest down in the Batcave. You absolutely were wonderful with her when I and Martha was out on patrol.", knowing that Poppy's birthplace was another closely guarded secret.
She could hear the phone suddenly drop from the other end as she was sure that Alfred probably just let it fall in shock upon hearing her voice and saying that. She could fully understand; after all, not the first time where folks in this family having surprise visitations by those that had passed on, even if she had flesh and blood once more, albeit in her own body now as opposed to sharing a body with Martha.
She gave it a couple of seconds before she spoke, "Alfred? Are you still there?", and she heard it being picked up, with Alfred's choked up voice, "W-where are you, Kel?", as she faintly heard Caroline's sobbing gasp in the background.
Kel replied, "In the office of the hanger on the small airport where our family went with Fate back to Gotham, after the escape. Alfred...I'm human, actually human...It's barely warm in here, and I'm hungry for your and Caroline's fabulous cooking even if it's a late dinner.", with a sobbing chuckle.
Alfred gave a laugh, "Oh, how much I missed your humor, Kel Emerald Wayne! Okay, I'll get Thomas and Martha for you, while I or Caroline calls for Fate. Hold on a second.", before she heard the intercom button on the wall, figuring that Alfred and Caroline has been making late-night snacks for the Halloween movie tradition, "Thomas, Martha, there's a person asking for you on the phone, I'm transferring the call to you, on Button 3.", before replying on the phone, "We can't wait to see you, Kel. They missed you so much.", before she heard the click of transferring the call.
"I know...", Kel blushed as she started to tear up. It might be only, at the earliest, a few minutes before she could be home... in Thomas and Martha's arms... to hug her children in Bruce and especially Poppy, considering she was the one who technically gave birth to her.
Kel listened as the click of the transferred call successfully changed, with the sound of it being picked up again, and she heard Thomas' voice, "This is Thomas Wayne, who is speaking, please?", as she faintly heard the sound of cushions and footsteps in the background, realizing that her family is in the family wing's living room, knowing that with the grandkids, it's practically a pillow and couch fort as they watch someone's choice of Halloween movies.
Kel smiled so widely as she spoke warmly with a bit of a sob, "Thomas, it's me, Kel...I'm coming home to our family, to you and Martha, my love...I felt so upset that we three never got a chance to spend our Christmas wedding night together.".
She heard a choked-up gasp as she heard the slight crackle of the phone being grasped tighter in Thomas' hand, and she cried even more as she heard Martha's concerned voice behind Thomas, "Thomas?", faintly hearing the sounds from the others stop.
Kel took a deep breath; mentally cursing a bit at Alfred, not exactly telling them that it was her ahead of time to allow them to better prepare themselves. Hell, she was getting slightly worried that the shock of it all might have just caused Thomas to have a medical episode!
Thomas managed to speak with a sob, "K-Kel?", as she heard Martha's gasp behind him, and Kel replied, "Yes, Thomas...I'm alive again, and I'm actually human...Alfred or Caroline is calling Fate to pick me up...".
"Oh, my god! You're coming home, Kel?", Martha's voice asked in a sob, as Kel realized that Thomas pushed the speaker part of the phone, and she smiled tearfully with a sob, "Martha...Yes, I'm coming home...I promise it's me...I would never forget that wonderful night when Thomas joined us in the mental plane.", knowing that Martha and Thomas never actually truly told the truth of their reunion mentally in Kel's brain space within Martha.