It had been a long while since he had heard from his charges and he was getting worried. Bruce managed to sneak out of bed, leaving Diana naked and asleep, and headed for his cave. After changing skins into the cape and cowl, he descended the stairs into his lair. Immediately, he knew something was wrong. Most of the lights were off and the few that were on were clustered only in the medical enclave.
As he approached the Med-Lab, he noticed a body lying on the operating table. His stomach twisted as he got closer. His foot brushed something. Looking down, he saw it was a helmet. Batgirl's helmet. It was cracked. Everywhere. Dust and soot coated the remains of the visor and water dripped from the inside and pooled on the cave floor.
What the hell did they get into? Batman mused.
As he walked, he saw more of Batgirl's armor strewn about in no particular order, as if it were being torn off in a hurry as she was moving for the medical table. His gut dropped and his jaw clenched. Finally at the table, Batman looked upon the girl.
An oxygen mask clung to her face as she lay unconscious, her breathing shallow but stable. She was clothed from the waist down in a loose-fitting pair of sweatpants. Her utility belt hung on a rack next to her. Crumpled on the floor was the bottom half of the Batgirl uniform. Those tactical pants had definitely seen better days. She wore a tank top, but it had been raised raised to just below her breasts. With her naked from her waist to her chest, Batman saw the cause of the rush: her taut, light skin was broken by a bullet wound just under her ribs on the left side.
"No…" Batman's eyes scanned the rest of her belly. It was a rare moment for him to see one of his protégés uncovered. He never really gave thought that they were hurting themselves, but now the abuse was apparent. Bruises different colors and at different stages of healing dotted her stomach and chest. There were multiple slashing wounds near her shoulders and neck. With a surprisingly gentle and loving touch, Batman's gloved hand traced an acid-puckered wound. Her body was starting to look like his.
A voice from behind snapped him back to Earth. "The bullet was fired from close range between the main plates of her suit. Supremely lucky shot. But the armor still did its job: it saved her life."
Batman whirled around to face Robin. Robin was unmasked and rapidly approaching from the dark, his hands now covered in surgical gloves and a surgical mask hung from his neck. His face was also battered and bruised and he smelled like a burning building.
"The batsuit did what it is supposed to… glad something here does."
"What are you trying to say?" Batman watched the college student pass by and start to dress Batgirl's wound.
"You're supposed to be our leader. Not some behind-the-scenes puppeteer."
"You both said you would have everything under control," Batman retorted quickly.
"We would have if you'd have given us the information you had. All the information!" Robin shot back and stood up fast. Too fast, he wavered.
It was then Batman noticed the large piece of gauze on Robin's abdomen. "You been impaled."
"Ladies and gentlemen; the World's Greatest Detective." Curtis' voice was shaky but spiteful.
Batman's eyes narrowed. "I told you everything you needed to know."
"Even that this mob boss was Bruno Mannhiem? Even that this was a base of operations for Intergang? Even that they would have equipment not of this world – hell! Not of this dimension? Even that they are the ones supplying Ra's? Even that they are all in the service of that… that horrible thing?"
Batman gritted his teeth but said nothing to the accusations.
"Are you trying to get us killed?" Curtis asked. "What about Karkull? I even asked you who he – no – it was! And you gave me a lie about some former two-bit villain. I think the fact that this entire case is on a paranormal level would be useful for all fighting against Ra's to know, don't you?"
There was a moment of silence as the two squared off. Then Batman, surprisingly, relented and Curtis returned to dressing Kimber's wound.
Icthultu… I never thought I'd need to warn them about the entity… At least not this soon. I was hoping we would have stopped Ra's before it got this far. Are they ready for this? Inside Batman's mind, a war was being waged. He knew that Robin was right. In his mind, it was necessary to tell them that "Ugly" Bruno was the boss he sent them to spy on. But on the other side, he was frustrated that Robin had just taken his word for it and not looked into the gang himself. And he was upset that they had gotten caught.
No, that's your pride, Batman. You know full well that if Karkull appeared, no amount of hiding could save them once they were in the building, Batman's conscience spoke up. No matter how his mind spun the situation to shift the blame, it all reverted back to him. Stick your pride aside, Batman. It was a struggle, but Batman finally formed the words he needed to say. "I'm… sorry."
If Curtis heard, he sure was good at masking it.
"I said, 'I'm sorry.'" Batman reiterated a bit louder.
"Okay, great. What do you want?" Curtis asked without looking up. "A medal?"
Batman glared and in an instant had Curtis pinned against the cave wall. "Who do you think you are, Robin, to speak that way to me?" Batman snarled.
Curtis lifted his face to Batman's and nearly voided his bowels. The Bat-Glare was on and in overdrive.
"Consider yourself lucky, Curtis. I do not often apologize. Just because you are enamored with your partner does not give you the right to cop an attitude with me! These things happen. This is the mission! Don't let your personal life blind you to the reality of it! You both know the risks! If you can't deal with it, then please, hang up the cape and cowl. I will gladly find someone else willing to sacrifice to keep people safe."
"Funny…" Curtis managed not only to stand but to shoot back the same look at his mentor. "But I was about to tell you the same thing… I checked the logs as I hooked her up. While we were dying down in your city's sewers and the S.O.S. beacons were blaring, you were out for dinner with that woman upstairs! So tell me now, who is putting pleasure before business?"
Curtis pushed passed Batman, shoulder-checking the Dark Knight as he went. "You need to decide right now what role she will play in your life. Either you focus on the task you've set for yourself, even if it means telling her your secret, or you relinquish the Mantle of the Bat and stay with her." Curtis' words stung but they needed to be said. "It's high time you got your priorities under control. Figure out just what she means to you, Batman."
A sudden timid voice shattered the icy atmosphere in the BatCave. "Bruce?"
Damn it.
Diana, draped only in a thin, expensive, silk sheet, floated into the light of the Med-Bay. "The clock was open and I heard yelling down here… What's going on?" Then she gasped, dropping her covering sheet in stunned silence. "Batman!" she breathed in half-reverence, half-surprise. "What are you doing here?"
Curtis looked from the naked Amazon to Batman with his steeled expression. "The choice is now, Batman." Then he continued to work on cleaning Kimber's wound.
Batman lowered his eyes and removed his cowl.
"Bruce…" Diana's eyes were a mix of wonder and disappointment. "You're…Batman?"
"You need to leave, Diana."
"Why? I—"
Her protest was cut short by a blaring alarm.
Robin stiffly walked to the Batcomputer to check it out. "We've got a big problem at Robinson Bridge. Croc big." He winced back to Kimber's side and activated the table's cryo feature, a replica of Victor Fries' own device, to stabilize her.
Bruce pulled his face back on and pointed to Diana. "Stay here. Cover yourself." Then he pointed to Robin. "Car. Now."
Robin didn't protest, he just rushed to the Armory. After a few minutes to change into a new Robin uniform, he ran to the Batmobile and jumped into the passenger side with a slight wince. Batman was waiting in the driver's seat and the canopy slid back, covering them.
Diana rushed for the car but before she could reach it, the turbines were to speed, the atomic batteries were to power and the car was out of the cave in a thunderous flash.
Alone, she turned and looked to the unconscious form of Batgirl lying on the operating table as the cold reality of the situation sank in: Bruce Wayne, the man she had fallen in love with, and Batman, the stand-offish dark knight detective she held in such high regard, were one and the same. "Things just got a whole lot simpler and more complex…" She didn't feel angry that he kept it secret. She felt foolish for not realizing it. Looking back, it was so obvious: the odd hours, the lack of actual craziness in the manor, the random desire to spar. It all made sense in retrospect. She also felt a bit sad that he never trusted her with his secret.
"But that's the past now and this is the present." She looked at the medical equipment and at the patient on the operating table. "I know he told me to leave, but…" She approached the bench and looked at Kimber's still and stable form through the cryotube's glass.
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The car ride was silent for a time.
Batman kept his focus on the road ahead as Robin leaned back, redressing his wound with the medical kit in the Batmobile, and using a small cauterizer to seal it closed. Thankfully, it hadn't been as deep as he'd feared. But it still hurt like hell.
After a long silence, Robin spoke. "Apology accepted."
Instantly the tension in the cabin between the two cracked just slightly, and Batman actually smiled. "Remember when Jean-Paul was no big deal?"
"Not really?" Robin looked away from the sizzling wound on his side to his mentor. "If you're talking about when he was going by Mr. Death, then no. He almost killed me."
"He was easy for me to take down." Batman gripped the Batmobile's steering wheel tighter. "Good way to get that rush again. That edge."
Robin shot a sideways at Batman, wincing as his skin cooled. Batman making small talk? This is... new. "What aren't you telling us?"
Batman didn't answer at first. Batman he sighed a heavy and deliberate sigh. "A lot. And I thought it was for your own good." Another sigh. "Thought if you and the girl knew what was really at stake, you would both walk away."
"That's not your decision to make for us, Boss."
"Cat's out of the bag now," Batman acquiesced, "so I may as well share." He adjusted the steering wheel minutely before continuing. "A few months into my training under the Society of Shadows, I overheard Ra's al Ghul mention an entity – something inter-dimensional. One so vast and incomprehensible that merely seeing it would drive a man insane. Others in the Society of Shadows spoke of it, too, but only in hushed whispers, and never mentioned its name – as if it would hear them."
"They actually believed that sort of thing?" Robin shifted, uneasy.
Batman gave a grim, affirmative nod.
"And you?"
Batman didn't answer. "After I left, I dismissed it as local superstition. An added way for Ra's to stay in power over the Society. A fear tactic and nothing more. I thought that I'd never hear about it again."
"I'm guessing you were wrong." Robin stared out the window as blurs of Gotham's nightlife whizzed by.
"I rarely am, but yes. I was wrong. One night, I was on monitor duty in the Watchtower with Hawkgirl. We were the only ones on shift that night. I always felt that she was... odd. Different even. Her motivations were too nebulous. I do not believe she joined the Justice League out of just pure altruism."
"Which is why you suggested her be put in that isolated underground facility?"
Batman nodded. "She's a schemer, like me, with the loyalty and drive of the military, like John. But her loyalty was never to us, but to her people."
"I thought she was an exile from her planet?"
"That's her story, but her actions were too... loyal to the people she said scorned her." Batman felt himself getting distracted in the minutia of his suspicions of Shayera. He growled, "But that isn't the point. That night on monitor duty, she opened up a little and related to me about her people, the Thanagarians. She shared some stories from Thanagar's history books. In their distant past, they'd worshiped a deity of great malevolence and power, a god of terror and ruin."
Robin raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess. Ra's' inter-dimensional entity?"
Batman nodded. "It's rumored that this entity taught Ra's about the Lazarus pits in exchange for his soul." Batman tilted his head to Robin as the Batmobile roared toward the Robinson Bridge. "Eyes front. See anything?"
Robin peered out the windshield. "Yeah," he muttered. "Looks like the party moved further into the city."
Batman pulled the car to a hard stop. "Then let's not keep them waiting."